Hanging out in mom's hat

Ainsleigh thinks she's really cool when she wears my hats from work - so one morning she just decided she needed to wear it while she was eating breakfast. Who knows, but I thought she looked pretty cute.

haircuts and stuff

When I got my hair trimmed a few months ago (yes, i'm sure i'm at least that far behind), Ainsleigh got hers done too. She did awesome sitting in the chair and stuff. The only kinda problem was she kept trying to look up and look at herself in the mirror while Brandi was trying to cut the back. It turned out to be a pretty good cut and is growing out really nicely. Also notice she's wearing a dress and her "dancing shoes" - i'll have to get a close up of those. I had pulled them out and set them in the garage in preparation for the winter church shoes. She saw them one day and that is all she would wear for nearly a week. They gave her blisters because they're way too big, so now she can only wear them with socks or tights and we usually try for every other day or less. She loves to wear dresses and will usually tell you she's beautiful, a princess or both when dressed up.

my little photographer

Ainsleigh loves her play camera, and a few days I just couldn't resist taking pictures of her taking pictures of me. I would love to get her a "real" digital camera and see what she gets - so if anyone hears of a super deal, let me know.

Tagged

So, trying to get back to blogging... I was tagged a while ago...

Eight favorite TV shows:
1. Prison Break
2. the Office
3. My name is Earl
4. What not to Wear
5. college football
the rest must be Ainsleigh's shows, I don't watch much
6. Berenstain Bears
7. Dora the Explorere
8. Caillou

Eight favorite restaurants:
1. Red Lobster
2. Olive Garden
3. the Cheesecake Factory
4. Applebee's
5. Chevy's
6. mexican - Mi Ranchito
7. anywhere I don't have to cook
8. anywhere just Brody & I go

Eight things I did yesterday:
1. played on the computer
2. played with Ainsleigh
3. took a nap
4. got a massage
5. ran an errand
6. helped pick up the living room
7. made dinner
8. sat on the couch

Eight things I love about Fall:
1. leaves changing color
2. crisp sunny days
3. wearing sweaters
4. crunching leaves
5. pumpkin patches
6. the fun & friendliness of Halloween
7. that it's okay to decorate with purple, orange, and black
8. that lawns don't have to be mowed anymore

Eight things I look forward to:
1. no more morning sickness
2. every day with Ainsleigh - seeing waht more she does/learns
3. selling our house in Florida
4. watching how Ainsleigh reacts to a new brother or sister
5. getting my car back
6. visiting family for the holidays
7. time off work for the holidays
8. spring time

Eight things on my wish list:
1. a happy healthy baby
2. to not have to work someday
3. to out right own a home
4. a clean and organized house
5. for #4 to be maintained by someone else
6. time to do all my projects (mostly by 4 &5 above)
7. to support my children in all they do
8. to get away with my husband at least a few times a year

Eight people I tag:
1. Lila
2. Erica
3. Emily
4. Meredith
5. Aleeta
6. Kimber
7. Anjuli
8. Chelsi

Cool free digital downloading sites..

upadted 10/01/08
Okay, first of all know that I can't post "hot links", where you can go and immediately download stuff, thats just the rules. I will post the sites, and a few instructions on where to find stuff, what it's good for, etc. I will be updating this periodically, so you can look back at it. Also, I plan to put a link bar on the side to all of them. For some you can open and then save as a regular file, or you can downlaod as zip files and "unzip" later - I found that to be a lot faster. Some will only let you download as a zip file. Note - I found all of these by surfing the net, putting "free digital scrapbooking" or something similar into a search engine and see what it comes up with. Also, if you guys find good places, please leave a comment or e-mail me and i'll post it. I also hope to post some of my work, but my laptop is currently down so it will have to wait until that's fixed - hopefully by this weekend. Happy digi scrapping to all!

FONTS:
Having lots of fonts makes a big difference in your finished product. There are lots of sites to download from, but these two seem to have nearly everything covered:
http://www.dafonts.com/ has a lot of pay for fonts, so click on the free fonts first, then see what they have to offer
http://www.searchfreefonts.com/ lots of fonts, have to open the font to download it.
http://www.freedigitalscrapbooking.com/tutorial_font_installation.html this is a link to a tutorial on how to load your downloaded fonts into your computer for use, it is hot link which is okay because it's to a tutorial, not a download (yes, I actually read the terms of use - or at least skim it).

DIGITAL STUFF (KITS, EMBELLISHMENTS, PAPERS, ALPHAS):
http://www.shabbyprincess.com/ my absolute favorite, I love everything they have. Go to downloads from their home page. They also have super cute kits that you can buy, but i'm waiting until i've exhausted the bajillion free stuff online before I buy.
http://www.about.com/ nothing to download here, but a very comprehensive list under "free digital scrapbooking" of lots of sites, and specifies which ones you have to a member of their forum (free) before you can download - really helpful to know.
http://www.freedigitalscrapbooking.com/ lots of different stuff, not a lot of anything. Some cool papers, some good fonts. click on "featured freebies", then join and go to club members only - they have a cute download every month, and you can also download all the old ones that are still available.
http://www.digitalscrapbooking-free.com/ go to free downloads on side, and go from there, a lot of expired stuff (no longer downloadable), but some super cute current stuff, and you can often link to a link and find a treasure trove.
http://www.peppermintcreative.com/ only has one download at a time, but they are super cute. Have to join to download.
http://digifree.blogspot.com/ pages of links to free downloads - I found some amazing stuff linking from this page, but I doubt you'll like all of it, and some links to things you have to pay for, they're only giving you like one sheet of paper.
http://vicki20.blogspot.com/ My current second favorite site, tons of awesome stuff, and nothing expires. List on bottom of right sidebar is allmost all downloadable themes, and she does more at least weekly I think. Everything is coordinated kits with papers, embellishments and alphas to match.
http://sweetblossomdesigns.blogspot.com/ part of the creative team (ct) that works with Vicki 20 above, but has a bunch of her own cool stuff as well as add ons to vicki's.
http://www.rakscraps.com/ Have to join, have a huge download every month from the 15th - end of the month, kind of confusing to navigate, but worth it.
http://blogpartycentral.blogspot.com/ just found this today - HOLY COW!! There's 70 different designers collaborating together. So far only one theme (fall), but enought fall stuff to last a lifetime, and papers and ribbons and stuff that can be used for lots of other things.

One thing of note, most of the blogspot pages download from 4shared, it requires a wait time of 9-40 seconds, and you can't really go anywhere else on the web while waiting, but I work on "unziping" files while i'm waiting usually.

As I have more info and more time I will update this, but i'll also put links to the cool places on the bottom of the sidebar. Enjoy.

Where i've been....

Yeah, i'm finally posting. I actually started a post almost two months ago called, "why I haven't been blogging". As you've gathered, things haven't changed much. Some is my never ending quest to actually have a clean and organized house, but I always need a break from that battle. It used to be blogging only, but there's a new hobby in town. I've started digital scrapbooking, and I LOVE IT. I spend almost all of my free (not working on forementioned request, playing with Ains, cooking, working, sleeping or dealing with other responsibilities) working on it. It's become such a big part of my life, i've started talking to others about it and excitedly sharing when I find a cool new place to download stuff from. Because of that, i'm going to post a list of the cool places to download from along the right sidebar, but i'll also have a post explaining a little about each one. I will periodically update it, but it should always live in October to look at. Anyways, an update on us. We are busy as usual. I have been picking up a few extra days a month at work to offset our mortgage since we lost our renters last month. We are signing a contract today with a new realtor and really hope it sells soon. Brody has been traveling a lot lately for work, and as much as he enjoys it I think he'd like to be home more. My dad & Sandy were here last weekend to play and help with Ains while Brody was out of town, and my mom will be here this afternoon to visit and watch Ains while Brody and I go out of town for the weekend for a couples get away. We are trying to decide between the seafood festival in Tillamook and Astoria - Brody heard the festival was a rather redneck affair - anyone know anything? Ainsleigh is growing up so fast. She LOVES TO TALK AND SING, can't imagine where she got that from. Her vocabulary is huge now, and I can't believe the comprehension she has - especially in what she can say. She's not getting much bigger, but a little taller. We're well on our way to being daytime potty trained. She is pretending a lot more with her toys and is just a joy to be around. She seems to be losing her baby look and starting to look like a little girl. It's such a wierd thing having them grow up - such a mix of emotions of wanting them to experience new things and not wanting them to change. Well, I could actually get on blogger at work the other night, so maybe i'll try to stay updated there. I don't have any pictures to post now, but should soon. I need to see what new ones we have, and do some other stuff. I also need to just video her when she works out with me, seeing her do a jumping jack is hilarious. Hope this finds all doing well. Oh, and I have been keeping up with everyone else's blogs, i'm just too lazy to sign in and leave comments, something I really need to improve. Loves to all! :)

Oh Ikea

Yesterday my mom, Emily, Brock, Tate, Ainsleigh and I went to Ikea. We had a lot of fun, although I still want to go someday all by myself to just look at whatever I want to for as long as I want to. We looked around, ate lunch (always plan to eat at Ikea when you go it's yummy), then let the kids play in the kids area for a while before finishing up and heading home. I didn't think about taking any pictures until they were almost done in the kids area, so I only got pictures of them with the snakes, and Brock and Ainsleigh trying out beds (in one bed with her new potty) while Emily was changing Tate. It was pretty funny to watch people as they saw lumps in the bed, then realized they were moving and started laughing and saying how cute htey were as they were trying out the beds, Ains even pretended to be asleep a lot of the time. Although the kids may have had more fun at a park or something, I think they still had a good time being together and running around some, and we moms had a great time. I just love truly kid friendly stores. Ainsleigh and Tate wore themselves out so much they crashed out on the way home. What a fun day.

Playgroup Group

On the Hirtles last playgroup day we took a group picture - it turned out pretty cute, but we are missing some, I don't know if there's ever a day where everyone is there. I will also send this out in an e-mail today to the moms addresses I have, if you don't recieve it from me or someone else through a forward and would like it, leave you address in a comment and I will gladly email it to you.

Funny Faces on a DIRTY girl

The day of the pig roast we spent a lot of time at Aleeta's parent's house (where we had it), and Ainsleigh just knows how to find dirt. She also ate watermelon and got all sticky to give the dirt something to stick to. Anyways she was SUPER DIRTY. We heard numerous comments of how no one had ever seen a child that dirty and such. We didn't get home until almost 10 that night, well beyond her 8-8:30 bedtime, so when I asked if she wanted a bath before bed and she said, "no mommy, night nights". I didn't force her to take one, just let her go to bed dirty and washed her sheets the next day (they were full of dirt). So, Sunday morning before church I took these pictures. They crack me up extra hard because of her funny face posing - she often poses by smiling, but she has never made funny faces with it before. By the way, these pictures actually wash out some of the dirt, so figure she was at least 1/3 dirtier than she looks in these :)

Tongan pig roast

The Hirtles, a family in our ward moved to Spokane a week ago, so the weekend before they left we had a going away party. We had been talking about having a pig roast at least since we moved in almost a year and a half ago. Stephanie had always been very excited about having one, so we thought it would be perfect to do for their going away party. It took more time than initially expected, but I think now that we've done it we feel like we could do it again. We thought we would be able to call a butcher and order a pig, no such luck. So, a few weeks before it Aleeta and I went to a livestock auction to buy a pig (can't you just picture this - we were actually laughing at ourselves we thought it was so funny we were there doing it - we had no idea what we were doing). The boys got the pig ready and cooked it Saturday afternoon, then we had a great potluck dinner with lots of families all together to visit. We really had a good time. Brody did a great job of documenting the readying and cooking of the pig, but I don't know if anyone thought to take pictures of the actual party. Here are a few of the pictures, if you'd like to see all (beware some are kinda gruesome), you can go to the following site, note - you can also upload your own photos to this and download any that are there - maybe someone took some of the party!

http://gallery.me.com/chepack#100105

Matheson family reunion

Aunt Erin doing Ainsleigh's hair - it was really cute (see pictures below), but only lasted about 1 1/2 hours - not worth the time it takes to do elaborate things like this in my opinion. But thanks for doing it Erin, it looked adorable while it lasted.

Ains & Papa Pack

Ainsleigh with "new papa", Elder Madsen. He was a missionary working at the camp, assigned to keep up with our area of the camp (it's enormous!!), check up on us and stuff. From the first time he stepped foot in our camp Ainsleigh was stuck to him like glue. At first she thoght it was my dad (he did look a little like him with his glasses and hat). I'm still not sure if she believed when I told her it wasn't Papa Jim, or just humored me thinking I was the crazy one. Either way, she absolutely loved Elder Madsen and I think she would'be stayed there with him instead of leaving with us.

Ainsleigh, Tayson, and Camden

We went to the "ropes course", where we got to do some different activities about team work, trust, etc., including a giant swing. It was a lot of fun, and even Ainsleigh and Camden got to do it, they just didn't get pulled up like Brody in the picture below.

Brody

Ainsleigh, Erin & Peyton watching as others swing

Ainsleigh swinging with Uncle Tyler cheering her on

Ainsleigh playing on a different part of the ropes course - the island teamwork one, but she just loved swinging.

Almost a month ago (yeah, i'm way behind on blogging - i'll explain in a few blogs) we went to Utah for a long weekend to attend Brody's mom's family reunion. We went to Heber Valley Camp, the churches girl's camp. It was great. We hadn't had a family reunion in 7 years. We got to see everyone in one place, and loved have the time to just visit with family. There were lots of activities, the cabins are really nice, and the scenery was gorgeous. Ainsleigh loved playing with all the kids and getting really dirty!

All tired out at after all the activities on the ropes course

Playing with Tayson & Camden at Papa & Nana Pack's house

Papa Pack got out the big bike and took them for a ride - they loved it!

Random Fun

When we took Greg back to his truck, we wanted to show it to Ainsleigh. She had been very excited earlier in the day to see it, but was a little overwhelmed. We had to wake her up from her nap, and it was at a large truck stop with lots of truck and lots of noise - she didn't want me to put her down. It wasn't a big deal, except I know otherwise she would've loved it, she always want to see them and touch them whenever we see them. So, these are the only pictures we got of it becuase she was not so sure about the whole thing.



Playing in the water with Tate & Eliana at a friends BBQ.



The hospital I work at has a big blowout family party every summer with food, bouncy houses, horse rides, and other fun things. We didn't even make it to the face painting!! We went with the Hansens, Michael works at the hospital as well, and it was really nice to have other kids for Ainsleigh to be with the whole time. It was warm, so we rested in the shade fairly often. Brody had to work most of the day, but met us at the end, and we were literally the last ones there. The kids had a blast!!




Ainsleigh in the bouncy house:









climbing up one side of a different toy, she made it up no problem the first time, but all of the 5 or so times after that throughout the day she required help - she kept trying toonly climb on the red & yellow squares and she couldn't reach!!

Friend from Florida / Silver Creek Falls

Our dear friend Greg Grantham from Florida got stuck in the Portland area without a load out over the 4th weekend. He is a long haul trucker. So, we got a great visit, lots of visiting, and catching up on nearly everyone from our ward in Florida. It was great. We loved having him here, Ainsleigh adored him, and we hope he'll come back and stay with us again soon, maybe even with some additional members of his family.

On Saturday we all went to Silver Creek Falls with the Hansen family - we had a great time. The hike in was steep, so instead of all of us backtracking Brody & Michael backtracked while Greg, Emily, Brock, Tate, Ainsleigh and I continued on. We thought it would be flatter, easier, and shorter. Overall it was not as steep, but more of a continuous climb, probably a little longer, but tons of fun none the less. We were tired after it, but I think we'd all go back again next weekend.


Ains & I

Brody & Ains - she was always trying to talk the Hansen boys, so it was hard to get a good picture

Greg, Brody & Ains

Greg

Some beautiful falls.

My only regret - we didn't get a big group picture - I've just got to remember those kinds of things.