Professional Pictures

It must be done eventually but I was not looking forward to this....On our way to get our pictures taken. Hunter was siked and ready! Mostly because I promised him ice cream afterwards if he could smile big for me. He did great! Heck, I needed ice cream afterwards! We enjoyed a fudge sunday at McDonalds afterwards and they even had the toy he has been dreaming for a week about getting in his happy meal. He was in heaven!

He did really well for the first few....However, when I got there, they did not have a white background like I was hoping (it was broken or something). Lame. And it was difficult to make sissy want to do it. Finally I got her laughing. So I got good individual shots of the two of them. But, everytime we put Hunter next to her, she would scream and cry for me. Finally I got them both situated and happy, and the lady said, "Oh this session is over, and I have to start a new one. I can't have them both on there. You have to take one off as your freebie, and then put the other back after I take a picture of one." AAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRGH! So, after that, they never were OK together again, and I never did get a picture of the two of them. The only way I could do it was to hold Ainsley on my lap, so I am in the pictures of them together. Cute, because I made sure I matched just in case (I had a feeling), but annoyed because it would have worked out, but no, the lady couldn't start a new session with the two of them on there. She was pretty good at getting good shots and working with the kids though. At home, I tried again with my white background, and I couldn't get it either. These are my home shots, and the best I got of the two of them, was of them shoving flowers in each other's faces. Awesome. This why Ainsley is one year old and I have yet to get professional pictures of her. I hate picture taking, but I pretended I LOVED it with the kids. Hunter did so great, and I got two adorable pictures of Ainsley. Oh well, at least I got some good shots, which is more than I can say for other times when I have walked out of there with nothing. This why I go to Walmart. It's cheap, you can just walk in whenever the kids decide to be happy that day, and if it doesn't work out, who cares. It's cheap. Plus, I can scan them at home, photoshop them the way I want them and send them to Costco for different prints. Totally illegal, but I am cheap, and pictures are a huge rip-off!
These still have to be photoshopped but you get the idea of what they were wearing and how cute they were.

Yep, this is it. The best shot of the two of them. If Hunter didn't torment her so much, she could at least stand to be near him.....

"Dang it" days and yucky peas

Check out this video of Ainsley refusing to eat peas. I think that it's pretty funny. The faces are great.

Hunter and Ainsley are not having the best day today. He has been disciplined a lot. For that matter, he has not had the best week. We have had a good last two months, but he sorta fell apart recently and has decided not obeying and arguing are a lot better. Today he did not want to nap. He got up every 10 minutes to grin at me around the corner and say "hi Mommy" very hopefully. He got disciplined and sent back to bed amidst much tears. Only to have him sneak back ten minutes later. This went on for about an hour until he decided discipline was no fun so he would just scream "Mommy!" from his room. I just let him scream and when the time came for him to get up, I went in and told him he still had five more minutes just for screaming at me. This sent him over the edge and he cried for a while. Five minutes later, I went to get him and he was almost asleep (figures). He told me he would just lay in there for "about two more hours, Mommy and then I will feel better...but I'm still awefully not sleepy." So about two minutes later, he was fine and got up. I guess minutes and hours are interchangeable. When he got up, he joined me outside and told me, "This is a dang-it day, Mommy." After telling him dang-it was a not a word he could use, I asked him why. "Because I just am having a hard time and keep getting flipped and popped Mommy." These two words are used for a pop on the hand when he needs more than a time-out. I asked him why he wasn't obeying today. "It's just a dang-it day Mommy." I just about laughed out loud when he said "dang-it day", but I had to keep a straight face to let him know that the word was not appropriate. Here is a picture of him pouting on his "dang-it day." He didn't want to show his face. But then of course, Daddy started playing with Ainsley and so jealousy got the better of him and he had to join in.

Yesterday was my "dang-it" day. I was trying to clean the whole house, and they were both crabby and wouldn't sleep at the same time, so there was always one up. I got the kitchen cleaned, the bathrooms scrubbed, and the house dusted and vacuumed. And I worked on it the whole day. You would think I would have gotten more done. The one time I was able to work uninterrupted was because Hunter was hiding evidence. I thought it was great that he was finally playing in his room by himself, until I went back to check on him. He had had an accident and was hiding the evidence and hoping I wouldn't notice. He had chucked the soiled clothes in the corner of the laundry room, "mopped" up his mess on the bathroom floor with one of my bath towels, and was in the process of putting on new ones when he was discovered. I don't know how he thought I wouldn't notice that his shorts were now sweatpants. He told me that he was trying to hide it and get new ones on before I noticed. Ewww! Now because of his "help", there was way more mess to clean up.

Hi, I'm ready for the water park.

Ready for the water park and eating lunch at the water park. We spend about two days a week there.

Outside on our front walk. Ainsley was having fun until I told her "No! Don't pull the petals off all of my flowers," and then she had to suck her thumb and hold on to her ear. Classic Ainsley. Thumb and ear whenever something the tiniest bit traumatic my happen to her.

Helping Daddy wash the car and getting soaked which was the main joy of the whole thing.

At the water park again. Ainsley is covered from head to toe in sunscreen and sunclothes. So is Hunter but I don't think the boy has ever had a sunburn in his life. He just tans really really well. He is really dark this summer, and he's had 50 spf on every day outside.

While I worked on the computer, Ainsley jumped around in this despite an older brother who couldn't leave her alone the whole time. Look at those chicken legs. Hunter tried to get in this "swing" when I told him not to, got stuck and was dangling by his feet upside down when I found him. I guess he learned the hard way.

One year checkup

Ainsley got her one year checkup today and three shots. Ainsley at one year weighs 15 lbs 9 oz, and is 26 and a half inches long. That's officially less than the fifth percentile. Like the lines on the chart don't even go down that low. She is still wearing 3 to 6 month clothes that she wore last summer. What baby wears at one what they wore at 3 months? Ours. She looks so funny bebopping around because she doesn't look big enough to do that yet. However, she is proportionate, right on track developmentally, and eats like a champ. I am not sure where all that food is going, because it's apparently not going on her body. She is still wearing her newborn bracelet because her little arms are just sticks.

Fun at the Water Park

Isn't she so cool? She loved these sunglasses. She kept taking them on and off and grinning. I would have taken a better picture but Hunter kept ruining the shot. Anytime I would get ready to take it, Hunter would stick his big head in the way because he wanted to be in the picture. By the time I got done yelling at him to get out of the way every time, the shot was over.

We went to the water park today. Hunter had a blast. Well, at the end he did. It took him a little while to warm up. Once he started having fun, then he took about a half hour screaming/crying break because sunscreen got in his eyes. This was the carefully chosen sunscreen I bought that was for babies because it was supposedly "strong, yet gentle and tear-free." Whatever! You would have thought he was dying and going blind for a half hour. Isn't Banana Boat supposed to be a good brand? We finally distracted him with some M and M's and the tour of a new slide he hadn't seen yet but it was a pirate ship! Then after that he had fun for the rest of the day. There was a quite a bit that he could do so he had a great time on the kiddie slides and wave pool. We will be going there about once a week this summer. Ainsley loved the water too, and kicked and giggled in it. But in typical Ainsley fashion, she also just wanted to be held the whole day or sit on a towel within a one foot vicinity of her mommy. So Daddy mostly did the slides with Hunter. I feel that I am officially acclimated to the Fresno heat this summer, because it's been in the 90's this week and it's felt perfect. I love the warm weather unless it gets over 100. But Fresno doesn't get that hot most days. That's just a myth generated from people who try to convince me (or themselves) that Salinas has great weather. Hahahaha. I like being able to get a tan more than two days out of the year.

I finally went to church this last Sunday after not being there for about a month with vacations and the kids being sick and all. I felt so out of the loop. I saw a couple of friends from my Mom's group and we are planning on getting together soon. I really enjoyed my group and met some lovely fun people. This picture is of some of the moms and our kids (there are a couple missing). The mom on the end is holding Hunter's little friend, Anne, and he really enjoys her a lot. Since moving here, it seems that most of Hunter's little friends have been girls, but he doesn't seem to mind.

Here is a picture of Ainsley doing the "elephant" and going "aaaaroooo" as she raises her arm. She is learning animal sounds and can do the bunny, snake, monkey and elephant now. She recognizes them too and when she sees them in a book, she'll make the sound before I prompt her (usually). Another cute thing she does is she copies Hunter and picks up his play airplanes and waves them back and forth and goes "ssss" "ssss" for the airplane noise. She let go with both hands and stood for several seconds today...more than once! She is getting braver at the whole walking thing. She looks so proud after she stands by herself too and looks at me like, "did you see me, did you see me?" And then she claps. Anytime she thinks that she may have done a trick, she claps and waits for someone to say "Yaaay!"

Pointing to it.

Here she is on her favorite perch again. She points to go out and says "this, this." She points and says, "this" at whatever she wants or is curious about. The minute I open the door, she crawls as fast as she can to the slide and stays perched on it. She also really likes to be pushed around on the bikes, and will try to climb on and says, "this, this" at me until I push her.

Look at those baby blues. This is after he just woke up on Sunday afternoon.

Hope

My Hope necklace.

This is Hope's rose bush.

In my mind, the one we lost is named Hope. I don't really know why. When I was pregnant with her (in my mind it's also a girl for some reason), I acquired a necklace that said Hope on it with a yellow diamond on it. When I was miscarrying, I had hope that she might make it, and now I have the hope of seeing her again and discovering who she is in heaven someday. So Hope seems to fit. Today I bought a white rose and planted it for her under my kitchen window. Something to prove that she was here, important, and not forgotten. The color white seemed appropriate for someone so innocent and pure. I didn't want the only tangible things of her presence to be a stick with two pink lines on it. A name, necklace and rose seemed more honoring somehow.

Hebrews 11:1 "Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the presence of things unseen."

I have faith and assurance that I will see her again, though for now, Hope is unseen.

My garden is beautiful right now. I was so proud of those tiny little plants I put in last summer, and our babying them has paid off. I bought the $5 plants instead of the $20 bigger plants and just prayed that they wouldn't die. We had a couple of close calls with the day lillies, but they came back big. The first two pictures are what are garden looks like today,

and the bottom of two are of nine months ago.

It's absolutely overflowing with color with even more things growing in all the time. I LOVE my flowers. You can never have too many, and I love a garden where things overlap and go slightly wild and there is a riot of color. I rememebr growing up hating working in the garden and weeding was the worst of chores. But I used to love sitting at my Mom's house just looking at the flowers. Hunter (for now) LOVES working in the garden with me. He looks at all the new flowers, finds the ones that the bees most like, helps pick weeds, loves to help me plant. Maybe it's because we do just a little at a time, and it's somewhat fun because we discover new things everytime. I work in it several times a week, so there is never a ton to do each time.

I was checking the water fountain today and Hunter wanted to take this picture.

This is our first tomato. Hunter was very proud and ate it. He hates tomatos, but the fact that they are growing on OUR bushes makes them tastey I guess, because he eats these. Half of what he doesn't like is in his head I think anyways. Hunter goes out every morning and looks for a "new juicy tomato." He adds his own adjectives to everything, so the tomato are always called "juicy tomatos." We got our first big tomato today (we had just been so far getting them off of our cherry tomato bush). We ate it for dinner. Yummy.

Funny thing Hunter said: We were driving down the road and he said, "Oh look, Mommy, at those commissioners!" I could not for the life of me figure out what he was talking about or where he even heard the word "commissioners." He was really mad that he could make me understand what a "commissioner" was. Finally I figured it out. The big transformer towers that carry cable...those were his "commissioners."

My favorite part of the day, is when I put Hunter to bed and he wants me to "snuggle him." I lay down next to him and we chat about whatever he wants to chat about for about ten minutes. It's so sweet, and we do some good talking then. Sometimes serious. Sometimes silly. And I love it.

I had a good dream last night about Tone. He was teaching me how to fly for some reason, and I was loving watching him do what he does. You know the girly crushes you get when you're younger and when "that person" just looks at you, your heart beats really fast, and everything about "that person" is perfect? Well, he was "that person" in my dream, and I felt so secure that he knew what he was doing, so impressed, a little intimidated, and on cloud nine to be with him with his full attention. Anyways, I think it was because lately, I have felt that way when I'm not in a dream. Tone has been so giving, thoughtful, and serving so selflessly at home, that I really feel that at times I am undeserving, and when his full attention is on me, I'm on cloud nine. Sometimes I think that I am more in-love than the day we married. The day you marry, you have hope for the future. When the future with that person is full of selflessness, then you know what that love really is.

Family trip to Washington DC

Yep, that's the capitol building.
the whole family in front of the Smithsonian

This picture just makes me laugh when I look at Josh. Oh siblings.


We had a wonderful trip to Washington DC to spend with family. We saw a ton (we were soooo tired of walking by the end) and really enjoyed family. It was good to get away and be distracted right now. I still think about the one we lost everyday, but mostly at night when things get quiet. I loved being with all the siblings because there is such a fun dynamic when we all get together. With four, there is always someone to have fun with. And we are all good friends and really enjoy each other.

Hunter had a great time and he did very well. He thought that the Washington Monument was really cool. He called it "the tower" all week. When Aunt Christin explained who George Washington was, Hunter wanted to know, "how his body turned into that tower." He didn't quite get the idea of a memorial. He wanted to know how Abraham Lincoln died. Daddy just told him that "he got old." He got kinda tired "just looking at buildings all the time." So the next day we went to the Natural History and Air and Space Museum. I told him there were cool rocks there. He told me "I am so excited to go and climb on the rocks." I told him that we weren't going to climb them. Very disappointed he said, "Oh, so...we're just going to LOOK at rocks?" Like what's the point of that?! He did enjoy all the all the animals in there though (we skipped the rocks for his sake). The day we went to the National Zoo, he said he wasn't that interested. He told me, "we can just look at one giraffe and then go home, right?" He ended up loving it. But on the whole, he did a good job walking and riding in the stroller for five days in a row sightseeing. Ainsley did well too, and was content when she got to ride in the baby pack all day.

We celebrated Ainsley's first birthday there too. She wasn't so sure about the whole thing, but Hunter was excited about it. He really wanted to help make her cake, and I really didn't let him do much. So the next morning, when everyone was still sleeping, he ate the frosting off, and then told on himself. "I snnnnneaked out. When everyone was still sleeping. And I ate all the pink frosting. And it was deeeelicious!" In his mind, the cost of the punishment was worth the price of eating the cake.

The White House behind us.

Feeding the ducks in the reflecting pool

Hunter's favorite way to ride.

the National Zoo. This iguana is so big!

Playing with the gorilla through the glass

Air and Space Museum

Her butterfly cake
Happy Birthday to you!
What a mess!