Catching Up

It's been way too long since I've posted. It's been busy and not so busy all at the same time. April was packed full of fun stuff. Rob and I celebrated our birthdays with great friends. Dinner and bowling at Lucky Strike, downtown, was a lot of fun. We spent the following week on vacation in California, where we played at Disneyland for 3 whole days and one windy day at the beach. Ainsley was a super traveler and really enjoyed the characters at Disneyland. We are all looking forward to our next visit.

Unfortunately, most of you know that we lost our sweet dog, Sadie, while we were on vacation. She had a terrible medical emergency and we had to let her go. We miss her terribly. She is irreplaceable. She was the best and sweetest dog anyone could have asked for. She will not be forgotten.

May has been a big month for little Ainsley. She has learned lots of new things. She started army crawling weeks ago.. and has been comfortable doing just that, for a while. Now she is starting to get around on her knees and its awfully cute to watch, as is everything she does. She learned to clap, and it's definitely one of my favorite things. Its just so cute watching her bring her two little hands together and get so excited. She is very pleased with herself for achieving this new skill. She and Addy have started to play a lot more. Addy really enjoys playing with Ainsley and she is a very sweet big sister. She gives her hugs often and tells her she loves her. It's such a great thing to see. I'm really glad Addy has taken to her so well and rarely shows any jealousy. I look forward to them playing together as they get older and all the other wonderful things they will share as sisters. I'm so grateful that they have each other. I just hope they will always need me as much as they need each other.

Addy spends two full days a week at school now. She is going to start a program in the fall run by Scottsdale Unified School District. They have a Preschool program for 3 year olds and a Pre-K program for 4 year olds. It was a difficult decision to make, since the program is 5 days a week for a regular school day. It's a lot of time to be away, but it's also a really great program, and a nice campus. We went and visited to check it all out and Addy did not want to leave. I feel good about it and I plan to still keep her out some days to have our own little field trips. We will see how it goes, but I think she is going to enjoy it and learn a lot from it. She is so eager to learn and loves being around her peers. I just don't feel like she is being challenged where she is now and I'm unhappy with various things at her current "preschool". It will be an adjustment for her, but I expect that it will be a good one.

The up side to Addy spending (more) time at school is the time Ainsley and I get together. It's really special. The one thing I always feared was that I would have to sacrifice a lot of special moments and the quality time I always spent with Addy as a baby, since I would have to split my time between them. But Addy going to school gives her something fun to do and it gives Ainsley and I quality time to enjoy each other too. I cherish every moment of her babyhood, as I did Addy's, but more so, because I now know how quickly it passes and I'll never get it back. I'm so glad I have been able to spend so much time with her this year, but I'm so sad that she is going to be ONE in two short months.

Here are some photos from one of our days together this week, playing in the office while I messed around with some new "toys". Ainsley loves to play peek-a-boo and found a good opportunity to indulge in a game. I'll miss these moments..but I've got pictures and memories to last a lifetime!








(She looks so grown up, here.)

My happy baby makes me so happy, honored and delighted to be her mother.

Because Addy spends time away at school and less quality time with me these days, I was able to have a special day with her this week also. I usually go to get my nails done on the weekend and the salon tends to be its busiest.. So I can't usually take Addy with me to get her nails done too. Since last weekend was a busy weekend with birthday parties I wasn't able to go in and really needed to. So my friend Patti came to my rescue and came over to watch Ainsley while Addy and I went in and got our nails done. She did so good and was happy to have pretty pink sparkly nails and toes. They didn't last long, since she apparently has her dad's nail biting gene. Grrr. But it was fun and I'm glad we got to do something together, alone. I plan to do more things with her as she gets older and more cooperative. :) Not that she is any kind of neglected. Between trips to Disneyland, the beach, build-a-bear ventures, water parks and splash pads, the zoo and all the other things we do for her benefit, I think she is pretty well taken care of. Spoiled, even!

So that's the gist of what we've been up to the past several weeks. Since it's getting warmer we will likely be spending a lot of time finding water activities to participate in to stay cool and enjoy the summer before Addy goes off to big girl school. And I'll try to be better about updating!

Lots and Lots of Photos!

Well.. if you've been on Facebook lately, than you know I've been taking WAY too many photos! Especially since I upgraded cameras, I have been doing a lot of learning and practicing in the way of photography. It's something I have always had a lot of interest and passion in. I started learning the basics in High School in a photography class, on both an SLR (film) camera and a Digital SLR. It's also where I started learning Photoshop. These things have come a long way since then. I've been off and on playing with our Canon SLR since before the girls were born.. but things get busy and then it takes a back seat. Though, I'm finally getting to a point where I have more time and I have little built in models to practice on. Of course, Addy has an agenda of her own that does not often entail sitting still and smiling pretty. Ainsley however, doesn't mind so much.

I was recently asked to take a few Maternity photos for a friend. Jessica is pregnant with her second child and wanted to capture the occasion and the sweet baby bump. I was thrilled to have some new subjects and a semi-official photo session. It was great practice and I really enjoyed doing it! It definitely makes me want to work toward a professional status even more! Here are some of my favorite images from the shoot.












They are such a cute family, it wasn't too difficult to get some nice images of them. Jessica likes black & white, as do I. And most of the edits ended up looking very nice in black and white, with their black attire. Though the color ones look nice too!

If anyone needs some updated family photos, let me know! I'd love to practice on you too! No charge. I just reserve the right to use the photos to showcase my work in the future. Just sayin'..... :)

Keeping Busy

We've been keeping busy with little things. I can't believe how quickly the time is passing with two little ones. I don't feel like we are doing a whole lot, but the days are flying by. This last weekend we attended the annual Czech Picnic. There aren't any other kids Addy's age, but she always seems to do well. Plenty of people to give her attention and feed her fruit and goodies. She enjoyed playing at the park and snacking throughout the day. Of course, I snapped some photos.






Today we got the cutest little tee-ball stuff from Target and Addy was very exited to come home and play catch with me. I am in love with the miniature pink Easton gear. I dug out my old beat up glove and she couldn't get me outside fast enough. She is actually very good at catch. She has a great arm for a little tyke and great aim too. I'll definitely be signing her up for tee-ball soon.

Springtime Stuff

The girls are both finally back to good health and Addy went back to school yesterday. I have my fingers crossed that we can avoid sickness until it warms up and these pesky colds and viruses stop spreading.

Ainsley is working hard to accomplish some big milestones. Her two bottom teeth have slowly been working there way to the surface and she spends much time gnawing on anything she can in hopes that they'll just pop through already. I myself like the gummy baby smile and wouldn't mind some more time without the teeth. However, I do not wish for her to endure any more discomfort any longer than necessary. She is also working on sitting and crawling, simultaneously. She is much more interested in the ability to get moving. It wont be long until she figures it out, she's getting awfully close. Some recent pictures of her scooting around the house:




Tasting the floor..

Addy has recovered from her ear infection and the nasty virus she caught and has been doing her best to keep me on my toes. She refuses to let me get any nice pictures of her, which is why I have none to post. She is extremely sassy lately and I figure I will wait it out, rather than try to force her to cooperate in regard to photos.

I've also been working on a big project myself. Amongst spring cleaning the entire house and simplifying everywhere possible.. I finally got to work on my messy office! We need it to double as a guest room and have been working on ideas to maximize the space.. Although some final touches are lacking, the room is near complete. I am so excited and relieved that it is finally clean and organized. When it's complete I can take pictures of the whole room. For now, here is a peek at my new happy place:







On a more sad note..my grandmother passed away yesterday. Ainsley and I were able to go to Tucson a few weeks ago to celebrate her 85th birthday! It's quite sad but I am really glad we got to see her and I'm glad her pain and suffering is over.

Update: Addy

I'm almost in disbelief.. Addy has an ear infection...amongst other things. Somehow, both my girls are lucky enough to be among the very few who's (sinus/ear) infections are resistant against the antibiotic they were put on. After spending $80 for each of their antibiotics, they both end up being switched to something else to treat the infections. Poor kids.. Addy has had a rough week for sure but we hope she will be feeling better very soon. This is Addy's first ear infection. I also hope Ainsley will not be prone to having them, seeing as she has had two already, one of which was a double.

Just a little update for those of you who were wondering.. lucky bunch, here. Let's hope March brings us better days!

Again...and again..

I cannot believe we are fighting yet another battle of SICKNESS in this house. Addy has had the worst of it (so far) and it is by far the worst illness the poor child has suffered. She spent the ENTIRE day on the couch and at least half that time was spend sleeping.. (This kind of thing is completely unheard of for her.. she can't sit still for 10 minutes, on a good day.) She has been running a fever of 103-something all day, despite the constant doses of Tylenol. She is coughing terribly and looks completely and utterly awful! I just hope it passes-- and soon.



I am doing everything I can not to catch this terrible thing or spread it to the baby who may or may not have already had it.. As some of you know, Ainsley came down with something pretty bad, in addition to her second ear infection not clearing up from the antibiotics that were prescribed. UGH.. I'm exhausted from caring for sick people.. I feel like we may never all be healthy again. I hope I am wrong.

I am really not looking forward to the heat..but for the sake of all our health, I welcome the summer months and wish the virus bearing winter season farewell! And boo to these rainy weekends.. I want to enjoy the "nice" weather outdoors while it lasts.. Soon enough it will be too scolding hot outside to enjoy the park or zoo. Though, I have plenty of projects to keep me busy indoors too. Maybe one day I'll have something more interesting to share! :)

My Valentine's

We had a pretty nice Valentine's Day. Addy got some Valentine's treats this morning from Mommy and Daddy and we all exchanged cards before Rob left for work. Ainsley slept in, trying to recover from her ear infection and we ate a little breakfast. We had plans to attend a Valentine's Day party with friends.

As we were getting ready and I was changing Ainsley I noticed that her little ear was full of goo! After a call to the pediatrician I was told that she had ruptured her ear drum, and needed to be checked out. I'm not sure at what point it happened. Apparently it was during the night and just didn't ooze out until later in the morning, which would explain the sleep we were able to get the second half of the night. Poor girl was miserable all day Sunday and part of the night too. This morning, she woke up smiling! It was good to see her enjoying life again. We went ahead and went to the party and scheduled the appointment for the afternoon, so we could get a prescription for ear drops.

The party was nice. Addy entertained us ladies momentarily, mimicking me and repeating words I repeat often at home. She complained of the mess all the children were making and proceeded to tell them how it made her mad. :) I often tell her that it makes me mad or angry that she makes messes and doesn't clean them up.. Then, as we laughed.. she said in a very stern tone "it's not funny!". I still hear the scene replaying in my head. It really was quite funny. I have never seen Addy take any kind of authoritative role in a group. It makes me wonder how she acts at school. Even more so, how she makes ME look at school! I can only hope she is honest!

Ainsley's appointment went quickly and smoothly. We headed off to get her prescription filled and get home to relax. Ainsley was a trooper all day and smiled plenty. She is exhausted and will hopefully rest well tonight. We will enjoy having some quiet time tomorrow while Addy is at school!

While we waited for Rob to get home from work and the usual evening events, we went out back to play and I snapped some V-Day photos of my two favorite little Valentine's.










Rob came home and cooked a very nice surf & turf meal for the two of us. We actually got through the meal uninterrupted by the sleeping baby or Addy! It's quite a miracle!



It was a nice day.. A little like every other day, but with a cherry on top! :)

Happy Valentine's Day!!