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.

best christmas ever

christmas for us this year was in hot-lanta with katie and tyler.

it was so much fun.

it was great being with them again - we miss you guys!

but even more fun was having mom & dad, jamie, ammon, and emmy, and topher! (we missed you m&m)

of course there was lots and lots and lots of yummy food and silliness.

it was so fun having ainsley see her cousins again. she loved being around them and especially loved when emmy would read to her. (emmy's going to be such a good big sister)

we did lots of shopping...ugh...and of course went to the coke world! and stuffed ourselves and maggiano's (thanks mom).

its so hard not having family close. i miss being around them and all the fun we have together. i'm so blessed to be part of such an amazing family.

sadly, christmas was on a saturday and duben had to be at work on monday. since our drive was long and ainsley doesn't like being tied down for long periods of time, we had to leave for home christmas day.

and this is where we spent christmas dinner....

waffle house in jasper, alabama

i dont know if you've ever been to a waffle house....its an experience. and this was definitely was. i wasn't brave enough to take any pictures of the people around us, but it was quite a show. they had the juke box going, and people would sing along....aloud...very loud. at one point the whole restaurant was singing 'picture' along with kid rock and sheryl crow.

it was actually a really good time.

new christmas tradition???

for you people with cute taste

recently we bought new bedroom furniture. yay! we really like it.

but now we need to change a few things...and i need help.

i've taken a picture of our bed and comforter....now i need help with the rest.

walls...

carpet...

and anything else that you can think of.

the pillow on the bed is an idea for colors. i want to paint the wall a dark blue/grey without it looking like a boys nursery.

so....help.

chugga chugga chugga chugga shoe shoe

one of our friends down the street was kind enough to give me a big bag of shoes for ainsley, since her girls have grown out of them.

ainsley is in heaven.

she.loves.shoes.

she sat there in her pile of new shoes looking at each one saying over and over again, "shoes. shoes. shoes." which is really more like choo...but i get it.

she loves them.

especially her new pink boots.

almost everyday i'll find her sitting down trying to put them on herself. she loves her pink boots.

thanks great neighbor, ainsley is in choo choo heaven.

brrr...cold

i love this time of year.

i get to drink hot chocolate and caramel apple spice.

eat peppermint bark ice cream.

put up christmas lights

i get to wear cute coats...and dress up ainsley in cute coats.

i love it!

i love getting to pull out all my winter clothes. whats even better this year is i get to pull out ainlsey's too. i knew having a girl would be fun - i just love all the cute little clothes we get to buy. we got our first pair of mittens and a matching hat...and she actually loves to wear them. we bought her a cute sweater dress too, and she's adorable!

yay for winter!

(i know, its only november, by february i wont feel the same...but for now...i love it!)

celebrate good times....come on

one of the many things i love about my family is how much we love to celebrate things.

birthdays don't last a day - we have birthday weeks...sometimes we celebrate all month long!

we even celebrate half birthdays.

we celebrate pi day, ice cream day, and have other great festivities.

now some of this may be because we can't always get presents together on time, but that's besides the point.

we love a good party.

ainsley recently had her super first birthday, and is still enjoying the benefits of her birthday month. thanks grandma for extending the celebration.

i just look that way

i saw this picture on jamie's blog and i felt like i need to explain something about myself....

once one of my college teachers asked me to stay after class so he could talk to me about something. never a good sign. then he asked me if he had offended me during our class discussion.

no.

i couldn't think of anything that would have.

he said that during the discussion i had this sort of angry look on my face.

i laughed and said, no i just look like that.

its true.

ever since i can remember i've had strange people i don't know coming up to me and saying things like, "just smile" or "you're too pretty to look so sad" or "hey lady what's wrong."

so here it is.

i look angry, perturbed, annoyed, and/or mad when i'm thinking.

i'm sure people who don't know me probably think i'm grumpy all the time, but it's not the case. i just look that way when i'm thinking deep carrie thoughts of chocolate and kitty cats.

so don't be offended if you see me with a scowl on my face.

i'm not angry - i just look that way.

its the most wonderful time of the year

i love this time of year. the leaves are changing and slowly falling. the humidity has finally left us. i get to wear my warm pajamas and drink hot chocolate.

it's perfect.

i think living in california has helped me appreciate the seasons a little more. i still love california weather and would go back in a heartbeat, but i love the fall and all the seasonal changes.

i know in april i'll be whining about the weather, but for now, i love it.

another great thing about the fall is the holidays! canadian thanksgiving, halloween, american thanksgiving, and christmas! it is all so much fun! especially the baking!

to get in the fall/halloween spirit a bunch of us moms went out to a local pumpkin patch. we dressed the little ones up in their halloween costumes and watched them walk/crawl/scoot around all the pumpkins. it was a lot of fun and they all looked so so cute.

(poor ainsley needed her nap by this point)

i love how big her booty is

ainsley's first birthday!!!

after many long hours of planning and several attempts to be crafty i was finally ready for ainsley's big party. your first birthday party is very serious business. okay, really, its not but i couldn't help myself. i remember calling my mom and telling her i needed an intervention.

i may have gone a little crazy, but i loved it. i think ainsley did too.

i know she didn't have a clue that it was her birthday, but every time the doorbell rang and someone else came in she ran to the door to greet them. it was so cute! she was so excited to have so many friends over. i was so sad not to have our family there, but we were so blessed to have so many good friends from church and work be with us.

it was so much fun. a lot of work, but definitely worth it. it was nice to celebrate her and look back at the past year and all the great memories we have. we are so blessed to have such a wonderful daughter.

happy first birthday miss a.

so the party....i went craft crazy. duben was kind enough to let me just go for it.

i made ainsley a 'happy birthday' banner out of fabric. yes, i sewed.

i made some tissue paper pom poms for the mantle

i also made some fabric pom poms to hang by the food table.

i printed out a variety of pictures of ainsley throughout the past year and cut out cute little borders for them.

i made a ribbon topiary w/ her party colors for the table. then for food, we had some glass jars to put some of ainsley's favorite snacks in.

i made some sugar cookies - A's and the number 1.

i made strawberry cupcakes w/ lemon frosting and dark chocolate with cream cheese frosting

her cake was strawberry w/ cream cheese frosting

she had to have a party outfit, so i put a #1 on a t-shirt for her