Happy 2nd Birthday Ainsley!!

Weighing in at 20 pounds Ainsley turns 2!!! To celebrate we had to tone it down because she had been sick all week and we didn't want her to get any other children sick. So it was just us, Andy's parents, and Elmo decor!! Present time and Ainsley opened the waited for gift! A hop bumble bee thing that we had been looking on-line everywhere for!!! Aubrey got it for Christmas a couple of years back from my Grandma Ras and it got left out in the rain 7 months later. I highly recommend this gift!!If the kids aren't jumping over it, they are running from it, or in Ainsley case...chasing it!! It helps release all their energy and they never get tired of it!!! Perfect for mom and kids!Pretty much the best toy ever made! For $24.99 it rocks!!! The batteries last FOREVER and its not too loud!Cake time!!! Ainsley blew on the candles through the entire song (with no progress). I finally blew them out for her.Yummo!!!

Andy's parents got Ainsley 2 books and a shape toy. Ainsley loves to read and it is a great shape toy because you cant just take the lid off and put the shapes in if it gets too hard!!
Happy Birthday Ainsley!!! We love you!!!
At age 2:
*At age 2 you are sleeping in a "Big Girl" bed, obsessed with Elmo, and you speak your mind!
*You are very clingy, very cranky, and absolutely adorable.
*You hate riding in the car, love "DD", and you will NOT go to sleep without your pink/white blanket.
*You sleep through the night, love to help clean up, and you know all the actions to the nursery songs!!
*Your answer to every question is "No", you say "s-" for drink, and keeping you dressed is impossible.
*You are the perfect little sister and follow Caleb's directions willingly (that tends to be both negative and positive:).
*At age 2 you still suck on your thumb when you think I am not looking, you love hot dogs, and you wont leave Tate alone. You are a wonderful big sister and enjoy helping Tate often!
*You are scared of little dogs, you point and beg every time we pass a McDonald's, and you love playing in the dirt but hate being dirty!
*You are impossible to keep clean (clothes, face, and hair), you always want your hair done but you take it out after 2 minutes, and you love having your nails painted.
*At age 2 I am amazed at how tricky but smart you are...how quiet but funny you are...and most of all how much I love you. Happy Birthday Ainsley!

On Thursday before we picked up Caleb/Aubrey from school we went to Andy's work for the annual OT talent show. Andy was performing and Ainsley ended up shaking a noise maker while standing next to him!

"FAT MAN IN A LITTLE COAT"...well, SHIRT!

Tate is HUGE! I am nervous to weigh him for fear that he weighs more than 13 pounds. He is a chunk! I squeezed a 0-3 month shirt on him for an example.

His routine is starting to come along nicely!!! He only wakes up one time at night and takes 2 good naps during the day (one of them is in his car seat...probably not the best but I tried taking him out the other day to put him in his crib and he woke up and gave me the look of "DON'T DO IT MOM!"). He laughs in the middle of the night and at weird times during the day. He is extremely tolerable to Ainsley and Caleb's touchy/feely/I love you so much ways!!He never really cries (only when I cant get a bottle to him quick enough). He still has hair and his eyes are still blue! He goes through 1 can of formula a week, loves the sound of other babies, and he really like listening to Andy play the guitar!

Friday...
I woke up Friday very excited because that night we were having a bunch of young couples over for a BBQ and to watch "The Office" reruns. We have NEVER ever hung out with other couples without the kids around so I was curious and excited to see how it was going to go. I was praying for an "ABNORMAL DAY" and in all honestly I barely survived. It couldn't have been a more normal predictable day!
Story:
*Caleb dumped (what seemed like at least 4 big cups) of hot water on the family room carpet. I came in the room to see a water line from the kitchen sink, across my wood floors, and onto the carpet. When I asked him about it, he said "It wasn't me mom!"...he looked down at his shirt (which was soaking wet) and said "But MOM, I just acidentally on purpose did it."

*30 minutes later, after I cleaned up the big water mess, while I was marinating the chicken Caleb ran upstairs (I thought he was in his room feeling sorry for himself because I was upset over all the hot water everywhere) but then he runs downstairs saying "The water just keeps coming and coming and coming out of the toilet Mom!"
I ran into my room to find then entire bathroom FLOODED, Ainsley soaking wet, and an empty brand new roll of toilet paper. Caleb said "It was Ainsley mom...I watched."

*I came down stairs with a heavy hamper of wet towels (I had to use every clean towel in sight to mop up the water after I spent 5 minuts scooping the water up with a cup and dumping it in the shower) to find the unpainted wood in the kitchen colored on with a Dark Cherry Wood Staining marker and desitin all in Ainsley mouth!

IS THERE NO END TO THIS MADNESS!! I was honestly laughing because...well...of course this was really happening and if I didn't reset my mind quickly I was going to shove Caleb into a box and ship him off to the zoo!!! After settling down I was grateful that I hadn't dressed him in his nice clothes for school yet. When I finally dropped him off for school, I told Ms. Susan good luck! She had NO idea how much she was really going to need it!

*The last thing to happen actually involved Aubrey. The day seemed to be winding down and all the kids were in the back yard playing. The neighbor kids came over and all seemed to be happy until Aubrey fell off the rock wall. 3o minutes later she was still crying over her arm, holding it close to her body, and she would scream whenever I tried to touch her arm. I felt awful for her, gave her some Tylenol, and she fell asleep. It ended up just being badly bruised but for a while I thought it might be broke.
*When all was said and done Andy ended up coming home over an hour late. I figured the rest of the night was doomed to fail but it ended up being really laid back and fun! The kids fell asleep by 6:30, couples came over and 7 and stayed until after midnight. It was nice to have a kid free night and spend time with couples closer to my age. I might add that we were the oldest couple in attendance and the only couple with kids which was different and fun! We played POP 5 (probably the funnest game known to man) and relaxed. Hopefully, we can do it again soon. Its nice to have friends, it gets lonely over here in Kansas:)

Starting the week off rightAubrey has been really easy to wake up lately! She loves Mondays because she gets to go back to school. Mondays are P.E. days so she HAS to have her hair off of her neck. She rotates between oatmeal and toast. Luckily I had left over oatmeal in the fridge...made for a quick and easy send off!
*note that I also LOVE Mondays!!!

We seem to have the routine down....make sure all the papers in her backpack are signed, her library book is in, and her towel for resting time is washed and repacked. Check the weather to make sure her outfit is weather appropriate and make sure she has her running shoes for P.E. Go over how important it is for her to follow directions, tell her to have a good day, and send her out the door with Andy by 7:50am. I have also come to realize that if I put her hair in braided piggy tails on Monday on Tuesday morning I can take them out and she can wear her hair crimped. She has such long pretty hair and it looks really cute crimped!!

Ainsley...what can I say. She is obsessed with Elmo and recently wont stop saying SpongeBob (no thanks to Andy and his recent obsession). She is barely 20 pounds, never holds still, and is still running a small fever from having the flu over the weekend but the transition to a BIG GIRL bed is complete and successful!!

The kitchen seems to be coming along. To my surprise I walked downstairs this afternoon to find the construction guys in the kitchen clearing stuff out. They told me they weren't coming until Tuesday (which usually means Friday or 2 weeks from Tuesday:) but when I asked about it they looked at me like "I" was the crazy one and that they had planned to come Monday all along. Ya right, I think I would know if they had said Monday....especially after the project has taken them 4 months longer then they said. But hey, I am not complaining just stating. The tile is up and tomorrow they will grout and put the trim up. Then it is up to me to paint!!! Eventually we will get hardware for the cabinets but it will have to wait until after our trip to Utah and after Christmas spending.

We do have to sand the cabinets down but we will not be staining them. I like the light contrast with the super dark floors. Attention to my handy work on the stainless steal door handle on the small pantry door!!! I fell asleep on the couch holding Tate the other morning and woke up (not even 10 minutes later because I dozed off watching Clifford and Clifford was still on when I woke up)to find an entire large box of gold fishes and a large brand new container of oatmeal dumped and spread all over the floor in front of me. That was it!!! Caleb knew right away he had done something very wrong, while Ainsley continued to kick and spread around the little oats. Have you ever tried to vacuum up oatmeal?? So, to ensure that no one ever got into the pantry again I put the door handle on backwards so that it has to have a special key to open!!! Ainsley is very frustrated by the fact that she absolutely can not open the door, while Caleb understands and is constantly asking for food.
*note to readers...I do not often fall sleep while watching my children but clearly I had not slept the nights before (due to chunky Tate). I mean who could, in their right mind, sleep through such craziness happening right in front of them. Lessoned learned:)Caleb has taken his role as "Big Brother" very seriously. Always helping, always protecting, always watching, and always kissing/hugging. He said this morning "Tate smiles and laughs at me because I am his older brother!" He is extremely proud of every little achievement that Tate makes like moving his head, holding up his head, laughing, etc....

Things that are funny:
*Tate is weighing in at 12.2 pounds:)
*Andy grabbed Tate and Tate threw up in Andy mouth:)
*Every commercial Caleb see's he says "I want that for my birthday!"
Since his birthday isn't for an entire year I say "Uh, hu. Okay."
In which he loudly and frustratedly says "Write it down Mom!"

Question:
Do you think that if we hang a BYU flag outside of our house (you know, ya gotta support The Lords team:)our neighbors will measure our grass daily to make sure it doesn't get about 8 inches???:) We would hate to have a sudden increase in complaints:)

CRAZY!!

With the start of cooler weather came warmer clothes, yummy smells, and the flu. On Monday morning I went and had 3 inches cut off my hair. Why I did that, I do not know?! I always regret it every time, this time being no different. After my hair cut we drove down to Windsor to spend the Labor Day Holiday with Paul/Marlene. It was a nice afternoon, with good food! On the way home we stopped by Aunt Judy's so she could meet Tate! Of course she said, "What a beautiful angel baby!" and she gave all the kids gummy worms for the drive home.

With the kids in school I started to transition Ainsley to her "big girl bed" during nap time. Aubrey followed directions 4 times this week, excitedly did her homework, and filled up her "gum ball" reading chart 2 times! Caleb got in trouble at school for kissing and was kindly asked to keep his mouth to himself. Mrs. Susan took me aside one day after class and said how kind and compassionate Caleb was to a friend who got hurt and a friend who lost her shoe. Now, if we could find a middle ground to the kissing/compassion life would be great!!
As for my Tate...he weighs 11.5 pounds and I am unable to snap up his 0-3 month onesies so he has officially graduated to 3-6 month clothes. What a chunk! I got out Caleb's 3-6 month clothes (only one outfit and no onesies survived Caleb's babiehood). This is the outfit that I had Caleb's valentines day pictures take in. VALENTINES DAY!!! Meaning Caleb was almost 7 months old when he wore it. CRAZY!!

And NO Sydney...we are not going to dress Caleb up as a Tater Tot for Halloween. Rude! He is holding his head up a little better this week and he is sleeping better but loudly. He is a very very loud breather.

On Friday morning Ainsley's crankiness escalated to "code red" (which means driving me crazy and picking on poor Tate). I didn't know what to do and ignoring her was only causing poor Tate pain so as I went to go and take her to her room she threw up....and threw up...and threw up. I put her in the shower and she threw up....threw up....threw up. I finally got her to lay down in time for Caleb to go to school (Andy had to take him because I didn't want Ainsley to throw up in the car). I had just fed Tate and was laying down when Andy walked through the door announcing school had been canceled because the power was out. So hyper Caleb = Ainsley waking up. I have bad luck.

Since she had thrown up in her crib I figured it was the perfect opportunity to put a FINAL end to crib life! She wasn't to happy about her lady bug bedding being replaced with jungle bedding but life is tough for an "almost" two year old.

Tate seems to enjoy his new bed. I enjoy it...
A special thanks to my mom for the cute bedding and to Steff/Syd for humoring me through my sleepless nights and drawn out days. I can always count on them for a good laugh!

Carnival, Birthday Party, Camping, TD, and New Roof
**To say the last 7 days has been crazy is an understatement!!!


CARNIVAL Andy had a fundraiser/carnival at his work! The Sack race that Caleb begged to do but Ainsley won!Face painting! Ainsley was a little shy but it didn't last long. She ate a hot dog super quick and loved all the balloons and attention!!!Caleb waited in line patiently with his 4 tickets for a yummy hot dog! Aubrey used her tickets to buy a pink doggy balloon and walk in the cake walk..she won a cake of her choice after just the first song!!!

Caleb waited for over an hour to do the water balloon toss! He couldn't get anyone to be his partner because he wanted to get wet so Andy had to step in. They ended up winning!!! Caleb was so good at catching that they lasted the longest and tossed the farthest!!

At the very end was the event we were all waiting for!!! The pie throwing contest that Andy was volenteered to participate in earlier in the week! Aubrey was very upset at the thought of throwing something at "dad" but Caleb was excited! They let him move close so he could have a closer target!!


BIRTHDAY PARTY!!

Caleb's big Transformer/SpongeBob birthday party. We were so excited to have Grandpa/Grandma Griner come up and The Rudd Family/Nealson Family/The Hubble Family come over for the party. You cant go wrong with 13 kids (11 under the age of 6), Watermelon, Pizza, and Cheese Crackers!!Caleb loved his gifts. Especially the super hero cape that "Grandma Griner" made for him!

Yummy Transformer cake! Happy 4th Birthday Caleb!


CAMPING

Also, the same weekend....after the carnival Andy took Aubrey/Caleb camping. They found a great camping site out by KU and a big lake!! The kids had a blast! Hot dogs, marshmellows, sleeping bags, a fire, and the great outdoors!!!


TATE (TD, TATER TOT, TATE MAN)

As for Tate! He has become a bed hog!A picture of Tate smiling!! He smiles and laughs all the time. It makes the sleepless nights all worth it just with one smile!!
Tate is 1 MONTH old!!! His doctors appointment went really well! He has gained a pound a week, weighing in at 10 pounds 5 ounces!! What a handsome perfect chub now if only he would sleep at night!!


THE NEW ROOF!!

Before...

With all the construction we have had going on this past year I thought we had seen it all! NOPE!! Having the roof of the house torn apart it pure craziness!!!

I hope we will have an after picture soon!

In the mist of all the craziness the construction guys put up the backer board in the kitchen but put a final end to my main electrical outlet (uhg!), the side of the house was hit by lightning and the phone company had to come out and hook up a new box, I cleaned out the garage and found my Rascal Flats CD, landscaped half of the backyard, Andy took Aubrey/Caleb to family night at Caleb's school, and I talked with Aubrey's new speech therapist.
**I do REALLY THINK that the kitchen will be done by Ainsley's birthday. I am holding a big roll of carpet hostage in our garage until the construction guys actually come back. I know they really want it so I am keeping my fingers crossed that they come this next week to finish the trim. PLEASE!