cookies cookies pie cookies

we love living in arkansas. it finally feels like home to us.

we only wish family was closer.

so we sure love it when we get visitors.

grandma came and stayed for 6 days.

we ate well for those 6 days.

cake, cookies, creme brulee, cinnamon rolls and more

we did eat real food in there too. promise.

ainsley was in heaven being spoiled by grandma. all day long she kept saying cookie cookie cookie.

thanks grandma.

she loved having grandma around to play with and be silly with.

grandma is very silly.

we had the best 6 days of eating and playing and eating. i especially loved going on walks together before all the storms came. it was so fun having her here.

hopefully next time grandpa can come too.

what a big little girl

ainsley is officially 18 months old now!

i'm so proud of my little girl.

she's got such a big personality and is such a sweetheart.

she's accomplished so much these past few months.

she has a HUGE vocabulary. its amazing.

she's very independent. she loves going to the park and going down the slides by herself.

she's starting using her potty this week too.

(i haven't been trying to potty train her....she just started saying she wanted to use her potty)

my favorite is she's starting nursery now.

i'm actually looking forward to going to relief society.

yup. i said it.

what a great 18 months it has been.

yes, ainsley is a mover and has lots of energy, but i dont think i'd want it any other way.

love you baby girl.

enjoying our long awaited vacation

after all of duben's work madness we were in desperate need of a vacation.

as soon as we found out he got his new job we started planning a trip.

when we asked people about vacations around here people usually said either disneyworld or gulf shores. we're not quite ready for disneyworld and i miss the ocean terribly, so i was all about checking out the gulf...or the redneck riviera as some people say.

i'd never been to the gulf, and it was actually really nice.

it was just what we needed.

we rented a great condo which had the COOLEST pools ever.

we all LOVED the pool. there was a wave pool, a huge lazy river, and a great kid area with water slides. i lovedwatching ainsley go down the slides. the first day she was hesitant of them. every time she went down she cringed as she waited for the water to hit her. before long she was climbing up the stairs and going down them by herself. i was so proud!

she loved being in the water, so that made me happy.

we easily could have stayed at our condo for the whole time and been fine. we were by the beach though, so we had to check that out too.

i'm always curious of water temperature and wave size at other beaches.

once we arrived and set foot on the sand i was so happy.

i miss the beach so much. i love it.

ainsley....not so much.

dirty. it was all dirty to her.

logan wasn't a fan either.

we didn't stay long since the kids weren't quite cooperating. oh well.

it was an amazing trip. we were so glad katie and tyler could come with their cute kids. we made lots of yummy food and had fun just relaxing and catching up.

one of my favorite activities was having a rootbeer tasting to see who could do a blind tasting of all the different rootbeers and guess the brand. i didn't do so well. i actually preferred the walmart generic. who knew?

thanks katie and tyler for joining us on this last minute vacation. we had tons of fun. i know ainsley just loved being around you guys.

3 more months till the FFFFFFFFFFF!!!

so glad its over

today was duben's last day at walmart.

im not sure i could say enough how happy i am.

so happy.

now, don't get me wrong, i do like walmart. it is a great company and duben and i both enjoyed our time there. he was just caught in the perfect storm of awfulness.

i didn't like the 60 hour work weeks and all the stress he had.

now its over!

he now is a consultant, which he's always wanted. the office is a 3 minute drive from home.

and the hours will be wonderful.

we are so excited.

even more exciting is we get a nice 10 day break before he starts his new job.

we are on our way to gulf shores, alabama and katie and tyler are meeting us there.

bring on the fun.

bust a move

ainsley loves cars lately.

she especially loves sitting in the front seat of our car. she sits there and says, 'car car beep beep.'

then she discovered the radio, and the car became much cooler.

is she always like this?

i've mentioned before ainsley has a lot of energy.

i love it.

i really do.

she's so much fun and is always energetic and laughing and being silly.

we have so much fun together.

i adore her personality.

its funny seeing other people around ainsley. without fail someone will always make some sort of comment.

is she always like this?

she sure has a lot of energy!

does she always have this much energy?

she just goes and goes doesn't she?

looks like you've got your hands full with that one.

yes, i know, she has a lot of energy. i'm her mom. I KNOW.

i recently took this picture of her sitting still...with her hands in her lap even.

its so cute to see, it actually makes me laugh seeing her like that.

i had to add the second shot which shows the 'real' ainsley.

i love my crazy little girl.

naps are for babies

ainsley moved from 2 naps to 1 nap a day rather early. i wasn't such a fan of that transition, but as long as she gave me a few hours to myself i was good.

except her one nap continues to get shorter and shorter.

some days she doesn't nap at all.

what is the deal?!?!

she just goes and goes.

i can't complain too much because she's usually always happy and fun.

there's just too much fun stuff to do i guess.

sometimes she'll give in and she just stops. she'll just grab her blanket and go to sleep on the floor.

sometimes she'll wait till we're in the car to sleep.

and then my favorite when she's so tired and i can move her from the car to the cart.

go. go. gooooo.

i love ainsley and all her energy.

i do.

promise.

i love each phase and how she's growing and developing

but...

just this once i want ainsley to be older...now.

i am counting down the sundays until they will let her go into nursery.

most moms are taking screaming children out of nursery.

mine is screaming to get in.

i helped substitute a few times and took ainsley with me. now every sunday she runs straight to the door and cries at the gates, toys toys toys.

so for now i chase her through the halls for two hours after sacrament. we tried going to relief society...that was just embarrassing. she just has too much energy to sit still or even stay in one area.

6 more weeks.

drink it up

ainsley is definitely becoming more and more independent. its so cute watching her do things on her own.

she really wanted to drink by herself this morning and was just so proud of herself for doing it.

if only potty training was this easy....

it doesn't snow in arkansas

when we moved to arkansas i was told it didn't really snow. maybe one storm might actually leave snow on the ground, but just for a day.

we have a few ice storms a year, but not snow.

i can deal with that....especially after living in rexburg.

this year was something totally different. we had back-to-back storms that left, not inches, but feet of snow! it was crazy. the whole city shut down.

it was fun for a bit. duben stayed home from work and we watched movies and ate lots of yummy food. ainsley got dressed up to go out....and then ended up hating the snow.

maybe next year she'll like it.

hopefully there isn't this much snow next year.

such a good helper

i hate smelly things. hate them. i gag really easily.

as a mom, i'm always on diaper duty.

fun - no

smelly - yes

changing diapers is not my favorite thing, and i hate having them in the house.

one day after changing ainsley's diaper she picked it up and did this.

(put it through the cat door into the garage)

so proud.

smarty pants

duben and i are proud parents. we are so amazed at how incredible ainsley is and how proud we are at the littlest things.

we were a little scared at first...i dont like the unknown. but i can honestly say that ainsley has exceeded all expectations.

i know i've said this all before, but she's just amazing.

i'm really enjoying this stage - minus the horrible tantrums.

she can actually communicate with us now. we'll say things and she understands and actually obeys! she's quite the talker too, and at 15 months she has a pretty good vocabulary. she's got down the basics...mommy-daddy-kitty-poop...the important ones. she also says football and cookies, which makes mommy proud.

we had her 15 month check-up today and the doctor told us she's advanced for her age.

i dont think i can take any credit for that, its all her. she's amazing.

i think as parents you just want a happy healthy baby, i'm just so grateful that she is.

the rest is just a bonus.