Our favorite eateries...

Driving home tonight, we went our normal way and passed the normal fast food restaurants. Layton was pointing them out to Ainslee. He pointed to McDonald's and told her, "There's McDonald's." Then we passed Dairy Queen, and he said, "There's Ice Cream McDonald's."

Our Sweet Ainslee

This post is dedicated to our sweet little, almost 2 year old! I feel like she doesn't get as much blog-tention as her big brother or baby sister so this one's for you, sweet girl!

**Ainslee is obsessed with cute! Some examples: When we buy a new package of Pull-Ups (White Cloud brand...love those!) she is so excited because there are two patterns: one with one fairy and one with two fairies. Ainslee will go through and pick out the one with two fairies until they're all gone because they're the "cute ones." She picks out her bows in the morning (No bow, no go, right Carrie?) she'll point to the one that she wants, and says, "Cute one!" Then when I fix her hair, she'll look in the mirror, and again say, "Cute!" If I ever want her to do something, I just put the word cute in front of it; like want to go sleep in your cute bed? Want to wear this cute shirt? Want to take a bath and use your cute towel? Works like a charm!

**Ainslee loves to help me with the laundry. Here is a picture of her helping me; she's wearing Daddy's sock and Ava's onesie. She's really good at putting laundry away too! She's going to be a big helper!

**She loves pretending to give haircuts. If you're sitting, she'll come and say, "Want care-cut?" and she'll get her dishes (why dishes, I don't know) and she'll pretend to wash your hair (which actually feels pretty good), and then she'll cut it with a spoon.

**The first thing she does every morning is go into the living room and say, "Build sassle?" And then she'll stack up all the books, and it's her castle.

**If you're talking about her when she's in the room or if you suddenly say, "Where's Ainslee?" she'll come up to you, pointing to herself, and say, "I dite dere."

It's hard to believe that she'll be two in just a little over a week. Where has the time gone? And lastly, I'll leave you with a video of her singing the Barney song.

Something I want to remember...

I know I'm going to forget this when Layton grows up, and I don't keep a baby book so I'm putting this conversation in print here....

Layton (to me): Do you love me?
Me: Of course
Layton: I love when you tell me of course.

Pick Up Toys

We have a problem in our house getting Layton and Ainslee to pick up their toys. Usually I have to repeat myself 100 times, and they would rather play or watch TV than pick up. I'm trying something new. Today when I told them to pick up, I let them pick up as much as they could (or would, I guess) and then let them go about their business. Then I went through with what we're calling "Mom's Toy Box" and picked up what was left. Now those toys are off-limits and can't be played with until...well, that part I haven't figured out. I don't know what's appropriate. This is only applying to the toys left out in shared areas like the living room, kitchen, and even the play rooom because of its location; the toys left out in their rooms I'm not going to get, yet. Here's my stash for today; it includes most of their favorite toys so hopefully when playtime rolls around again, they'll get the full effect.

Swimming

We went swimming at my Aunt's house yesterday. It was my first time to swim since 2004, no kidding and Ava's first time to swim!

Ava LOVED the water.

Layton....not so much!

Ainslee was a little fish...she didn't want to hold on to me!

Sweet sibling moments

Layton holding Ainslee holding Ava

(Yes Layton is still wearing Santa PJs) Ainslee helping Ava eat her peas.

Help me out with this one...

I was sitting here catching up on everybody's blogs, and Layton came running in saying, "The rooster is caught in the waterfall...in the carpet...under there..." I have no idea what he's talking about...We don't have a rooster, not even a play one, and the only waterfall I think they've ever been exposed to is the one on Dora Meets Diego...I'll have to think on that one a little bit more.

And a brief update on us:

Layton is 3 and all that that implies; he has gotten so un-shy lately! He talks to everybody that comes over, and even says Hi to the people we pass at Wal-Mart...Everyday he wakes up and says, "Where are we going?" He knows in two weeks we are going to Richard and Joanna's house and is excited about playing with "Jennel" He is totally obsessed with turning 4...still.

Ainslee will be 2 in 3 weeks and her days are filled with taking care of her babies and reading books, along with aggravating her big brother...She's still very apprehensive around people she doesn't know, but she's getting much better about warming up to people...She even let Joe, my cousin's husband, pick her up to put her on his tail-gate and sat right beside him!

Ava is 8 1/2 months...She's not crawling yet, but she's wanting to go so bad...She's eating almost everything now, but something is bothering her tummy...We can't quite figure it out; She's a night-owl and usually doesn't want to go down for the night until about 10:30...We're struggling on getting a night-time routine set for her...It's harder to teach her to go to sleep on her own than the other two were; I don't know if it's because we know she's our last so we're more willing to rock her or if we're just not was willing to let her cry as we were the other two. I don't mind rocking her, but I haven't mastered laying her down without waking her up; any tips on that are welcome.

Trey and I are doing good. Trey's still working at the same place but is always looking for another job. I go back to work in August. I'm looking forward to it, but I'm really going to miss these three kiddos the drive me so crazy! Oh and I'm NOT pregnant! woohoo...This is the longest I've gone without getting pregnant again, and I think it's worth celebrating!!

Mixed emotions

I have mixed emotions of my time at home this summer. Part of my screams, "But I don't want to be a stay-at-home mom; I like getting up and getting dress and having a place to go and having adult conversations and not having to sneak to the bathroom so that I can take care of business without an audience." Part of me feels like I'm a better mom when I have had that time away. A big part of me likes that the kids get to be around other kids and other adults.

But then there's the part of me that loves having the chance to get to witness those sweet little moments, like when Layton leaned over to Ainslee at the table and said, "I love you so much," and she, in turn, put her arm around him and patted his back or when Ainslee was trying to teach Ava how to eat her peas and she helped her get them to her mouth. Sometimes I even love when they are fussing or throwing fits and then I get to comfort them and hug and kiss and hold them.

I think I'm lucky that I don't have to decide what I like best. I get to go to work 10 months out of the year (which I really do love) and then I get to spend two solid months with my kids during summer break. I guess all I can do is enjoy whichever part of the year I happen to be in.

Bible Class

Trey and I have had a very difficult time getting our kids to go to class and stay without us. We have tried different things. We've stayed with them, let them cry, left them home with my parents, taken them to class with us, taught the class; you get the picture. Today at about 3:30, during snacks, we started talking about class and how they needed to stay. Layton immediately started crying. We went through the agenda of class: snack, lesson, play, get picked up. Then he asked if we would come get him when class was over, and we assured him that we would always come back to get him, that we would not go home without him, that we enjoy his company and want him around, yada yada yada. So time to go to class rolls around, and he started crying, which made Ainslee start crying, but we left them anyway. Our class is right down the hall so we could hear them cry. Finally Trey decided to get up and go check on them, and all of a sudden, the crying stopped. He came back and sat down, and they didn't cry anymore! They made it! They made it all the way to the end of class! We hugged and kissed them and told them how proud we were of them. This could be the beginning of something wondeful!