Ainsley and Bunny

I wasn't sure if I would take as many pictures of Ainsley as I did of Ellie, but I think I've done a pretty good job as of now. It definitely helps having a really, really nice camera (thanks Gigi and Allen & Andrea). We didn't get the camera until Ellie was 8 months old, so the earlier pictures of Ellie definitely aren't as good. Here are some recent shots of Ainsley:

9 weeks with Bunny

She's as big as bunny!

Staring at mommy before she opens her presents

10 weeks-Loves her hands

Look at that smile!

Sleepy Ellie

Last week when we were staying with my parents, Ellie did something very unusual. She had trouble taking naps while we were there, so every time she woke up from her nap she was still very sleepy. Well one time she woke up and was extremely sleepy. I was trying to take a nap too, so I tried to get her to lay on the bed with me. She refused and just sat on the footsteps to my bed, sucking her thumb and holding teddy. Soon after she just laid on the floor. I was half way asleep and also waiting the arrival of Zach who was soon to be home. He called, so I looked to see what Ellie was doing and this is what I found:
She was knocked out! Zach even came home to find her still like this. It was really cute, because he came in and just looked at her. She woke up as he was standing over her and was very confused. She had this expression on her face like "is this a dream?". I can't believe Ellie fell asleep on the floor! This is definitely not like her, she is such a non-stop girl who just keeps going and going until you put her to sleep.

Ellie's Nappy Hair

Here is Ellie's hair after a nap, just beautiful:

Ainsley Giggles

Ainsley is such a happy baby. Every time I talk to her, she usually smiles and giggles. Precious. Hope she makes you smile :)

Ellie Jumps

Ellie has been able to jump for awhile, but I don't think I've gotten it on video. She's such a good jumper :)



We have been missing daddy this week, he'll be home today though!

Abigail Seymour

LOVE, LOVE, LOVE Abigail Seymour! I just got the webfiles from our photo shoot. She is an amazing photographer and did a wonderful job! I must post a few of my favorites:



If you haven't checked them out yet, you can go to the gallery here.

Spinning Ellie

Ellie loves to spin (and dance). We catch her all the time just spinning in circles (or doing the hokey pokey). The funniest part about her spinning is that she looks the opposite way she is turning. I had to make sure we documented this, so here it is to share:

Congrats Natalie and Bryan!

We had a shower for a couple in our small group Superbowl weekend. They are moving this week to Georgia and are having a baby girl in May! Our group decided to buy and refinish an old changing table, which turned out beautifully! We (the girls) also made a diaper cake that was quite cute. Here are some pictures to share:

The group (we are missing a few couples)

The table and awesome cake

The gift
Diaper changing race (Zach won for the boys, Natalie won for the girls)
Teamwork game

We had a lot of fun, but are sad to see our friends go. We will miss you Bryan and Natalie! Hope baby Claire is a healthy little girl, can't wait to meet her when you visit!

Portraits

We got our pictures from the photo shoot we did with Abigail Seymour on February 4. It definitely was a lot more difficult having a toddler and 1 month old... she didn't have much to work with, but she got some awesome pictures! Thanks Nana, Papa, Aunt Coco, and Uncle Chucko for our awesome Christmas present! Enjoy :)

Click here to view pictures

Museum of Life and Sciences

A week ago, the girls and I went to the Museum of Life and Sciences with my friend Nikii and her son Declan. We had so much fun and barely got to see half of it! I didn't take many pictures, but here is a few:

Declan, Nikii, and Ellie

Ellie measuring

Ellie sorting

Beautiful butterfly at the butterfly house

Thanks for letting us join you Herendeen's! We had a lot of fun.

Family of Thumb-suckers

Looks like Ainsley is going to be a thumb-sucker:


That makes 3 out of 4. It took me awhile to make me stop sucking my thumb, my parents finally broke the habit by drawing a frowning face on my thumb (weird huh?). We'll just wait and see if or how we'll have to encourage them to stop.

2 months and sickness...

Ainsley went in for her 2 month check up yesterday. She weighed in at 13 lbs. 7 oz (97%), measured in the 50% for height, and 75% for head circumference. The height is questionable, I think she is taller, just hard to measure her as she squirms and kicks. She looked very healthy and is doing just wonderfully! I just absolutely love my chubby cheeks baby girl.

Ainsley is just a perfect little baby. She barely ever cries, loves to be held, loves to watch her big sister, has the most precious smile ever, tracks objects with her eyes and head, loves to stare at objects (especially the ceiling fan) and faces, and best of all sleeps 8 hours most nights (this started at 7 weeks!!). She is on a schedule (started around 6 weeks) where she feeds every 3 hours: 8:30a, 11:30a, 2:30p, 5:30p, 8:30p, and then one early morning/late night feeding. She does great on this schedule and it really helps so that we can plan our day with it. I thought a baby couldn't get any better than Ellie, but I was wrong... Ainsley is so easy.

So on to the sickness... I got sick this past Friday. I had a sore throat, body aches, runny nose, and now have no voice. However, not only am I sick, but yesterday as I went to get Ellie after she had woken up from her nap, I found that she had thrown up on the floor. I initially thought it was just from all the pizza explosion goldfish she had eaten at the doctor (those things are disgusting), but she continued to throw up everything she ate or drank the rest of the day. It was so pitiful watching her throw up and not being able to do anything about it. I felt so bad for her and had no clue what I was supposed to do! Yet again, this is not the only thing that happened...

Ainsley got her immunizations yesterday and had a small reaction. She developed a fever (100.8) yesterday afternoon, and continued to have one overnight. This is stressful for me since at any moment if she shows any other symptom or her temperature rises above 102, then we would need to go straight to the ER. Not an easy task with a toddler and husband who is out of town. I took her back in this morning since she still had a small fever, and she checked out okay. We think it's just from the shots, but I'm keeping a close eye on her. The doctor also checked Ellie out and said she has some virus going around (vomiting followed by diarrhea). I asked her to look at me as well, and she diagnosed me with a different virus going around (cold plus laryngitis symptoms).

It seems all the girls are not feeling so great in our household... this seems to happen when our man leaves. However, we are so thankful and blessed to have friends and family praying for us and also very willing to help out! THANK YOU, we love you!! Keep praying for us...

Training Her Right

We are trying to read the Bible with Ellie and not just her Storybook Bible. We give her a Bible and let her "read" it with us. She surprised us by actually flipping through Bible the whole time and not ripping it up! One day as we were getting ready for church, Zach was reading the Bible on the bed. She joined in and I ran to get the camera to video:



She also likes to just carry her Bible around, which is just too cute. She seems to have learned that this book is extra special, it also seems to be her favorite book (we hope it'll stay that way, that would be awesome). Although she is doing this things, we still know and can daily see her sinful heart. We're on our knees praying that one day she'll have a personal relationship with God and find true joy.

Family Photos

We finally took some pictures of all four of us! Of course this is a self shoot and not with our nice camera. Surprisingly we got some decent pictures:

It started with me trying to get Ellie to pose with me, didn't work:

Then we got daddy, which helped:

And we couldn't forget Ainsley:

Happy Valentine's Day

Ainsley wanted to wish you a happy Valentine's Day:

Two Sisters

It is just too much fun to see how much Ellie loves Ainsley and being with her. Ellie got this chair for Christmas (thanks Nana) and always wants Ainsley to sit with her. One day I let them sit together, didn't last very long, Ellie doesn't sit still but for 2 seconds:
I leave Ainsley propped up on her bobby a lot after I feed her and I have to get up to do something. Ellie on multiple occasions has gotten up and laid beside Ainsley. I used to get very worried about Ellie getting on the couch with Ainsley, but she has been so good with Ainsley, I now let her do it (under much supervision). Here are some shots:

And then the other day while I was getting ready and Zach was watching the girls on our bed, Ellie climbed up in the bed next to Ainsley. It was just too cute:

Beautiful Ainsley

Ainsley is growing so fast! I realized the other day that I hadn't taken many pictures and needed to do so asap since she is growing so quickly. Here are some of my favorite shots:



You gotta love her big cheeks. She definitely has a lot of chub, and I think that it's just too cute! Here is a chair picture, it amazes me how fast she has changed since 2 weeks:
Here she is in the chair at 2 weeks:

Tummy Time

It is just so cute to watch the two girls together. Ellie is a really good sister and loves to love on her. She only gets jealous of daddy holding Ainsley, and maybe a few of our friends. It really just melts my heart seeing them "play" together and Ellie loving on Ainsley. Every time Ainsley does tummy time, Ellie has to join in. Here's a little video of them:



I love how Ellie has to see Ainsley's face, too cute. I try to remember to put Ainsley on tummy time everyday, but I'm terrible at it. I think it happens about every other day. She usually is pretty good about it unlike Ellie who would scream every minute of it. We'll see if she crawls before Ellie did...

Grunting Baby Syndrome

Ainsley is a grunter. I think it started around 1 week and has slowly gotten better. It's mostly when she is pooping and sleeping. I get worried sometimes because I feel like grunting can't be a good thing, so I googled it. I found that she has Grunting Baby Syndrome. I tried to get a video of her grunting at her best, but she never will do it on video (I got a little grunt):


Here is a youtube video of a baby that sounds exactly like her:

Snow Day

We finally got some snow here in Holly Springs! Ellie had already seen snow at Nana and Papa's house, and she did somewhat fine. Of course they had a sled to entertain her for the few minutes every lasted outside, no one had snow gear on so it only lasted about 10 minutes. We thought she would like the snow if we got all geared up and mommy and daddy were playing with her, well that wasn't the case. Here is how it went:

Geared up, without a fuss, somewhat excited to get out in the snow:
Went outside with daddy and Kayla, fell down as soon as she stepped foot on the snow, and hated it:
Came inside, I warmed up her hands, then back out to get a shot of Ainsley with the snow:
Ellie would not step off the porch, so we decided to go inside and eat lunch, watch a movie, then take a nap. After Ellie woke up from her nap, she kept asking to go outside in the snow. We decided to try it again. Geared everyone up (except Ainsley), then out we went. Once again, she refused to go off the porch, so we decided to carry her and get a few shots of her happy:

I forced her to walk in the snow, she would only holding on to both my hands. Then I forced her to do it walking holding on to only one hand, she did it with lots of fussing:
After this she had a melt down, we decided we were done for the day. Poor daddy, he loves the snow. However, the snow definitely wasn't very "playable". We couldn't make snowballs or build a snowman. It was good to sled on, just need a sled...

Hope you had fun in the snow :)