Trying on mommy's clothes

One morning earlier this week Ainsleigh thought it would be really fun to put some of my clothes on. She's staring to put her own clothes on sometimes, mine are so much easier to get on, but the darn things just won't stay up.

Apparently these pajama pants resemble a blanket to her, she could curl up in them just right.

Cheese!!

Okay now, stay right here.

Look mom, no hands - uh oh!!

She thought this was so funny, she pulled them back up and let go about 10 times after this laughing hysterically each time. She get such a kick out of herself.

Tulip Festival 2008 with Papa & Grandma Sandy

My dad and stepmom Sandy came to visit last weekend. We did some projects around the house, hung out, on Sunday Sandy and I tried out some new recipes, and the best part - Saturday we went to the Tulip Festival. There's so much for the kids to do, Ainsleigh hardly cared about the flowers, although I have to say they didn't impress me near as much this year as they did last year. The weather was not very cooperative for them, so the fields didn't look as good - but it's still really cool to see all the different varieties. Here are some of the super fun things we did out there...
Played with the duck races


Played in the straw area jungle gym thing. Ainsleigh kept stepping into the cracks between the hay and would get very concerned when her foot would sink in.


The famous horse swings - she went on them 4-5 different times, but we could never get her to actually look at the camera for a picture with her favorite thing.

Visited with the birds - she thought they were cool - like the mommy macaw on Diego. She also would say she wanted to hold one, but then would get too scared to.


Went on the jumpy toy in helicopter land - she like the car a lot.

And even for a horsey ride - this one gave the swing a run for it's money on being the favorite, she kept wanting to go back and do it again, so we tried to just stay out of the immediate area. Like any other time she's in or on something moving - she held on really tight. She wouldn't even think about letting go to wave at daddy for the camera. The whole time she just kept saying, "riding horsey."


We rode the cow train - she thought it was really exciting when we drove through mud puddles.

Posed for pictures with the fun things they had their.

This is my favorite picture - it's a keeper.

And took pictures with the family out in the flower fields.

with Papa & Grandma Sandy

our family

It was a really fun day, pretty tiring. We ate lunch before we left and she fell asleep in the car on the way home. No better way to tire yourself out than playing with family!

Tillamook Cheese Factory

While we were at the coast my mom came and stayed with us, and we all went to the Tillamook Cheese Factory. I hadn't been there since I was probably elementary school age. Ainsleigh liked it, and the people working down in the factory saw her and started waving - she thought that was pretty cool. She really liked trying the cheese at the end and just kept asking for more. But, her favorite part by far was...

The ICE CREAM!!! Although she's had ice cream before, this was her first ice cream cone. She did pretty well. At first I got it in a dish, then she wanted a cone like everyone else. It was nice because I could just put a little bit in it at a time, making it much less messy. She thought she was pretty cool with a cone, I can't believe how big she's getting!! She really liked her green ice

cream.

Fun at the coast

Although it was rather cold while we were there, we spent some time everyday at the beach. The first ones are at the beach we could walk to from our back door -awesome :), the last one is at Cannon Beach, we drove up there on Wednesday - it was a pretty nice day. Still chilly, but the sun was out and not too windy. Ainsleigh just loved playing in the sand. she would scoop it up and try to cover all the rocks up with it - that part was pretty funny. She didn't want to leave until she had put some sand from the beach on every rock.

Some pictures Brody took at Cannon Beach. Although you can't swim very much (because it's too cold), there's nothing like the Oregon Coast - I love all the rocks and just how different it is from other ocean scenery.

We were (obviously) trying to get her to say the whale thing, but she was concentrating really hard on playing in the sand. She did that same thing for about 30 minutes - don't you wish life was that simple for you? I know I do. I love to see how it's the simple things that bring such joy to children. Makes you look a little harder at what you have, and realize how blessed we truly are.

Ainsleigh stuff

No, not any pictures, just some update stuff. I have some photos i'll post later this week, but Brody took our camera with him to Reno. We went to the coast for a few days last week and got some pictures there. When we got there Brody showed Ains the ocean and the waves. We thought she way saying "waves spash, waves spash". So Brody would repeat, "yeah, the waves go splash." She would say "no, waves spash." I started paying closer attention to what she was saying and realized she was signing whale. She was really saying "whales splash". I asked, are the whales making the waves, she said yes. I had to explain that on Dora the whales splash their tales to make waves to free baby humpback whale from being stuck on the rocks. Everyone (including me, of course), thought it was so cute, and so smart that she couls relate the two!! She loved being at the coast. Most days it was too cold to spend very long on the beach, but we would go for short times. The place we stayed at had an inside pool and spa, so we went swimming everyday - I think she would have lived in the pool if we let her. We also went to the Tillamook Creamery - they had big cow statues that she kept asking if she could ride, and she got her first ice cream cone (she's had ice cream before, just not on a cone) - and only a few drippies on the shirt. I thought it was funny she picked her ice cream by color - the green one. Chocolate chip mint, which I knew she would like, but I think she just liked the color, oh well, I was grateful - light green is a lot easier to get out than brown chocolate. Ains is growing taller all the time and beginning to look and act more like a little girl. She can say her abc's all the way through and count to ten no problem. She also started doing somersaults last week. She is still just a crack up and loves to be the center of attention and play with friends. Today as soon as we sang the closing song at stake conference she said, "yeah nerfwy." We ended up staying 30 mins after to play with and visit with anyone and everyone to avoid a huge meltdown over the fact that there was no nursery. I kept telling her and she would just say "no, nerfwy." Hope this find all doing well.

Spring PLEASE come!!

This morning, April 20th, a month after the "official" start of Spring - it SNOWED!! I was in such shock I called Brody (he's working in Reno area for a few days), my mom and my dad, and took pictures. It snowed for around an hour. It took about 20-30 mins before it started sticking. We ended up with about 1/2" on the ground - these are taken a good 15-20 mins before it stopped snowing. It warmed back up enough to melt the snow mostly over the next 1-2 hours, and by the time we got out of stake conference at noon the sun was shining and it was like a nice February day. I'm getting pretty sick of waiting for Spring, and this did not go over well for me. The thing I hated the most about the weather in Florida was the lack of seasons (yes I could even handle the humidity better), so this cold weather going on forever is driving me insane. Hopefully it gets better soon, and I'll do a happy dance when it finally does. Happy winterish spring day to all.

Fun times with Zane

This mornine while we were at the park, our friends from across the street came down and Ainsleigh and Zane played at the park, then rode around on his "bike" together for a while, then back to his house to play in the rocks. They had a great time, but we had to come home so all could have lunch and because Ainsleigh was just worn out exhausted. I think these pictures are just adorable, and i'm so glad to finally have a good one of the two of them, none of my others of them have turned out.

sun at last!!

We had beautiful weather yesterday (even better today), so we HAD TO GO PLAY OUTSIDE). I was so excited to see blue skies, I took a picture of it. Also, everyone here has daffodils and tulips in their yards - it's a different flower choice than i'm used to, but it's gorgeous and adds tos of color. The yellow all around the house on the right is daffodils, i'll get more as we go on walks, etc. And my dad and Sandy are coming in a few weeks and we're going to the tulip festival - so i'll get some really cool shots there.

Here's some of Ainsleigh at the park, I just love the way the sun was making her hair glow - it's gotten VERY light. People are amazed when I tell them her hair was brown when she was born, or that mine was lighter than hers at that age - but not much - it just keep getting lighter and lighter.