It's a Shutterfly Mother's Day

Where do I start? I LOVE Shutterfly! And I love how Shutterfly loves their customers! Besides having the best products in the business, they have the BEST customer service in the business!

And mom's.......arent they the BEST! My mom is no exception! Besides always being there to "help out" with the girls, she also has a multitude of fantastic other qualities that make her spectacular. For example, I went to 8 different stores to try and find coordinating dresses for Easter and the Spring photo shoot we have coming up. When I was SOOOO distraught after spending all that time searching for the perfect outfits my mom jumped in and offered to alter a dress we already own for Ainslee and Kaylee can wear a dress that she already has as well. So not only am I getting PERFECTLY matching coordinating dresses, I dont have to spend ANY money! How awesome is that?

Last year I made the moms in my life (my mom, my MIL, and my grandmother) each a photo card from Shutterfly. They were a HUGE hit, because they were the cutest cards ever!
Go here and make yours NOW! You still have time before Mother's Day!

Shutterfly Photo Books are super cool too! I think this might be the gift I give the mother's this year! I sure hope they forget to read my blog before the big day! I made one of these for Marcus's godparents after our trip to Germany. My only regret is I didnt make it bigger! The Shutterfly photo books are SO awesome, and a perfect way to share multiple photos. You can make them as simple or complex as you like. You can have Shutterfly do the work and organize your photos, or you can put them where you want. It really is an awesome way to organize and show off your babys' (or vacation) pictures. Go here and create yours today!

I really think I am going to get some Thank You cards made up for all the wonderful gifts all the moms (and other people) give our family. It would be the perfect way to say a special "Thank You" for all the wonderful goodies we receive. That will be my next project.....after the photo books! Go here and check out all the thank you card designs to choose from!

***Bloggers- you want 50 free cards or a free photo book? Write about mom and Shutterfly on your blog and get either for FREE! Go here - password is Mom2011

Ainslee's Ramblings (more added)

Ainslee's vocabulary has really picked up over the past couple of weeks. She has had a lot of words, but it just seems like she is putting more together and saying more things hard to explain

Some of my favorites are:

"mm-on" which means, come on, as in follow me i have something to show you

"mere", which means, come here

"jout" which means, watch out, this is personally one of my favorite things she says, I LOVE it when she says it

Or here is a little scenario that happened in the car the other day. Kaylee was playing the iPad when Ainslee looked over and saw something in her mouth. Ainslee said "mommy K mouth chew." i said Kaylee what is in your mouth? She answered by opening her mouth and revealing a piece of paper she was chewing on (BTW this is a problem with her, she chews on random stuff......pica???) So I immediately asked her to take the paper out of her mouth, keep in mind I am driving, she refuses to take the paper out so I pull an Inspector gadget "go-go gadget arm" move and reach back and pull the iPad off her lap, she still refuses to take the paper out of her mouth, and as Im about to pull over she finally takes it out and throws it on the floor (and Marcus wonders why my car looks the way it does!). She gets upset when I give the iPad to Ainslee and continues to throw a huge fit. A few minutes after she was finished with her pity party she asks if she can have the iPad back, before I could get anything out of my mouth Ainslee says "No iPad K gum mouth BOLD!" Ainslee continued playing and Kaylee didnt ask for the iPad again.

She calls her bottom a "boooDEE", and we mess with it just to get her to say the word

Both my children love to be scared. You can jump out and scare them and they laugh and laugh and ask for you to do it again. Yesterday I scared Ainslee with a LOUD roar! and when you ask Ainslee how I scared her she says "rrraaaooorrrr" in the quietest whisper.

Today when we were playing outside she heard an ambulance she said "momma ambula." I said YES Ainslee do you hear the ambulance? She said, with a sad look on her face, "sick momma." As in someone is sick in the ambulance. She is so sweet, thoughtful, caring, and compassionate. If she even thinks someone has gotten hurt she will immediately try and kiss the booboo. But if she cant reach you (like if she is in her car seat) she will just make the kissing sound and say "Okay okay momma?"

I know there are other cute sayings/phrases she has, but I cant think of them at the moment.

Soccer Girl

I can NOT believe that I have a child old enough for soccer. But here is our budding star moments before she rocked the field at her first practice.

Ainslee wanted to get in the pictures, but quickly changed her mind

here she is doing her thing

Ainslee would run a few steps onto the field and scream at Kaylee when she was "doing something wrong"

And after she worked so hard "coaching" she needed some water

did you see that move?

check out her form

I cant wait until this little spectator gets her piece of the action

Goooooaaaaallllllllllllllllllllllllllll

There was a lot of playing in the dirt/sand, a lot of ignored instructions from the coach, a lot of wandering (even onto adjacent fields), a lot of playing/talking with the teammates, a lot of people watching, and a lot of "hand balling"

Needless to say we have a LOT of learning to do. And a bit of practice too. But it was funny, oooohhhh SO funny to watch! And today is her 1st game, maybe there will be some more good laughs in store.

oh and after her game we have 2 birthday parties, all while skipping nap time......ooohhhh it is going to be a FUN day!

Glimpse of our Garden

Our first glimpse of the veggies (and herbs) that are in our future. These 7 containers are a hydroponics project Kaylee and I started about 2 weeks ago. I decided to try this because you dont have to worry about watering too much or not enough, it is yet another a perfect idea for idiot gardeners like myself. Oh and completely free! I felt like a scavenger the day I scoped out my parents neighbors' recycle bins looking for 2 liter bottles.

our little baby zucchini plants, have I mentioned how excited I am to harvest our crops

and the tomatoes

more tomato plants

after i showed the girls the new sprouts Ainslee went, by herself without prompting, to sit right next to them while she drank her milk. it was as if she was watching them grow.

She even wanted to point some out for you to see

I dont think the girls know that we are actually going to grow food from these plants yet, let alone EAT it. But I am about to start a few serious lessons with Kaylee about plants, plant parts, fruits/veggies, and the works. So I hope that it will be a learning experience for all of us! Hopefully in another 60-70 days we will be eating some fresh, homegrown, organic tomatoes and zucs............cant wait!

Composting

About a month ago I was strolling around Costco when I found a few things for my birthday list, which BTW isnt until the summertime. In my defense, Marcus needs a LOT of notice and a LOT of reminders for gift ideas. So I dropped a few hints about the want for a compost bin. I have wanted to compost for about 2 years now, but never really learned much about it, so when marcus pretty much shot down my idea of trying it I just gave up asking. But when i saw this bin I new that i was going to persist and I was going to try my hand at composting. To my surprise Marcus let me get the compost bin immediately, and about a week later my dad told me that he was going to get me that for my birthday........ooops! *more on that in another post When we got the bin home, it was too late to put it together, so it had to wait in the garage until the next day. Thankfully this all happened during one of those unseasonably warm days in early March. The girls were excited to get to go outside and I was excited to put something together. I LOVE PUTTING STUFF TOGETHER!

Here are the girls by the unpacked box

Kaylee was most excited about composting. She has watched MANY episodes of Curious George being "green" and composting is one of them. She has been the best compost helper. Like when we are out she will ask "Can I take this home to put in the compost bin?" She reminds me ALL the time about things that go in and things that dont.

Here she is helping carry all the parts to the back yard

all of the parts laid out

This is the location Marcus chose for the composter, it is nice/convenient but hidden location.......perfect! (and a bit weedy, we should really do something about those weeds)

Kaylee told Ainslee that we needed leaves (or browns as she calls them) for the compost bin, so Ainslee collected some leaves to help......thanks AZ

Kaylee forgot to tell her that the leaves were supposed to be collected from the ground. Ainslee was pulling them from the plants in the flower bed. Looks like Kaylee joined in on the fun as well. While I put the composter together I sent them to the backyard with the wagon to collect all the leaves they could that had fallen from our lonely oak tree. They did a pretty good job until they found a mud hole by the stump, then Kaylee was busy making mud pies while Ainslee watched in disgust.

My little helper picking up the leaves

Kaylee grabbed the camera to catch me in my "put something together mode," the funny thing is, I didnt even know she took this picture until I loaded these pics on the computer. HA!

Now it has been about a month, we started out with some leaves and pine needles I collected from Marcus' moms house, as well as some kitchen scraps I saved. My dad quickly jumped in to help and went to Starbucks to get some coffee grounds for me, about 10 lbs worth of coffee ground to be more precise. Then he offered to save the scraps from the Fish Frys at the church each Friday, so before I knew it my 80 gallon compost bin was well on its way to success! We have thrown SO much stuff in there, I am really seeing a difference in our garbage as well. Did you know your dryer lint and hair can be composted? Ainslee has even learn about what goes in a compost bin, how many 2 year olds do you know that scream "compost BIN" after you peel an orange for them?

I am so excited about this endeavor, I know that this compost is going to help out so much with my garden next year as well as other areas around the yard, it is amazing what you can use this "gardeners gold" for. AMAZING!

Our Day

My day is only 1/2 over at this point and I am about to pass out already. This morning I awoke at 3:30AM and luckily was able to get myself back to sleep after being up for 2 hours. I was woken up, for the 2nd time, by a certain 4 year old who thought it would be cool to give me a little tap tap tap on my forehead. Sweet! Thus my day had officially begun. Since then I have successfully gotten out of the house ON TIME, stopped on the way in to town to pick up eggs from our local "egg lady" (as Kaylee and Ainslee call her), then stop at my parents to drop off the eggs and other items to be put in the frig, then on to the bank, and finally to drop Kaylee off at school. After drop-off some of the moms went for another walk, this time 2 laps instead of 1, so it was probably about 3.5 miles. I feel so good after I get my heart rate up a bit, I dont know why I dont do it more often. After the nice brisk walk Ainslee and I headed to the chiropractor, then back to my parents for lunch and nap. Immediately after I put her down, I had to leave and pick up Kaylee from school, brought her back to moms to take her nap (since she doesnt nap at school). Today she HAS to take a nap because she has her first soccer practice tonight. And when I say toNIGHT I dont mean this afternoon! Her practice is from 6:30-7:30! Who in their right mind thinks that it is appropriate for 4 YEAR OLDS to have practice that late??? Can you tell how happy I am about this situation? But I feel like "how will she ever follow in her mother's footsteps, in the soccer playing department, if she doesnt go to practice?" HAHAHAHA! who am I kidding? But it sure does make me laugh to think about her playing tonight, I am quite eager to see her skinny little self out there attempting to play the sport i LOVE! I will remember my camera I will remember my camera I will remember my camera I WILL remember my camera, maybe if I type that enough I will actually bring the camera with me! Ok back to my day, so after she naps I have to take her to the chiropractor for her adjustment, then to the dry cleaners to pick up daddy's pants for work, he would be REALLY mad if we forgot that tiny detail of the day. Then home to eat dinner. After dinner we will head on over to the fields, get some exercise and have a little laugh at Kaylee's expense, before heading home for baths and bed. It is so nice to be busy, I love having activities to do, it makes me feel like I have an interesting and fun life. And you know whats funny, on days like today I always feel "normal", on regular old blah days I feel like I have lost my head, I forget everything EVERYTHING, I cant get myself together on those days, but it seems like the more stuff I have to do and think about the more focused I am. Crazy I know! Hope y'all had an interesting, fun, and productive day too!

Updates (a big long list)

Once again I have been neglecting this blog, I get on every now and then and get ready to post but I say to myself "let me just read everyone else's posts and then I will write mine". I have my ideas in my head then I finish reading and I dont feel like writing anymore. So today I am NOT reading everyone else's blog I am going to write on mine! Here are some updates:

• Our oven is FIXED!!! Finally! We practically have a new oven (on the inside) because of all the parts they ended up replacing, but hey Im not complaining. I WAS complaining......but now that it is working I am a happy camper cooker.


• We signed Kaylee up for soccer, if nothing else this experience will be entertaining. She has her first game this weekend, along with 2 more birthday partys. We have had 1 each weekend for the past 3 weekends. busy busy busy party party party


• Marcus got our computer fixed, I dont think I have even written about it but our iTunes wasnt working properly, which meant i couldnt sync my iPad and had trouble downloading apps. But in order to fix it, the ENTIRE hard drive had to be wiped clean. Apparently the last backup was done in August (before our Germany trip) so we have lost all pictures from that date. Marcus thinks that there still might be a chance that we have them, but I have yet to see them. I was really really upset at first, but I am sort of over it now.


• I have been hanging out more with the moms from Kaylee's class (which is so unlike me). I mean I am friendly and all, but I have never been quite the social butterfly, and tend to stay i my comfort zone when it comes to friends. But recently we have gone for coffee (I drank hot chocolate) and even on a walk after we drop the kiddos off at school. We decided we are going to walk everyday after drop off, whoever wants to join us can, its nice. It was quite fun actually. Today there were 4 of us, and it made me feel really good afterwards.


• We are gearing up for spring, we are experiencing an uncommon cold front right now, but besides that we have been outside A LOT, which leads me to my next update


• Ainslee has been experiencing some allergy symptoms. I figured I would wait until later to have her tested, but when she would not stop coughing for 12 hours I decided to make an appointment. She had the dreaded testing and found out she is allergic to trees and grass. PERFECT!!! After a long consult with the doc we both just decided to try and manage it with saline nose spray and Benedryl (I wont be using the Benedryl but he said I could try it if i was desperate). So far so good, she seems to be doing better with just rinsing out her little nose with some saline spray when we come in from outside.


• I am starting a GARDEN!!! I am so thrilled I finally decided to do this, just wish I wouldve made this choice a few years ago. I cant tell you how excited I am to start this new adventure. I hope it will be not only a learning experience for the girls but also a way to save money and eat healthier home-grown fresh veggies. One of the reasons why I had reservations in the past is because of our location. I would need to put up a fence to protect from all the wild animals roaming around, and then I would have lots of dirt work to do. I dont know what made me think about doing my garden upside down, OH yes I remember, I was checking out at WalMart the lady in front of me was buying 3 upside down garden planters. It was the last 3 they had and the manager said she could have them for 3 bucks. They were regularly 44 bucks so I asked where I could find them. She told me there were no more but I could have one of hers. I was very eager and thankful and thats what began all of this! I decided that if I was going to do this garden thing, I was to do it right. I am totally committed to this, and have so many ideas I am bursting at the seams. Right now the plan is to sink 3 4x4 posts in the ground and run another 1 (maybe 2) 4x4 posts across the top to make sort of a soccer goal, with 3 posts. then I am going to hang hooks from the crossbar and hang my baskets from the hooks. Right now the plan is to try and grow bell peppers, a few different varieties of tomatoes, green beans, cucumbers, zucchini, jalapenos, strawberries, and some cold weather crops I might try are broccoli and sugar snap peas. I figured the upside down gardening thing solved all of my reasons why I havent gardened in the past. I figured I would install a drip irrigation system to the frame of my garden as well, that way I dont have to worry about watering everyday (which is a huge CON to gardening that way, the watering can be brutal). The cost of my irrigation system was only like $35 and I used a GC we received last year for Christmas, so really it was free. I have so much more I would write about this, but will spare you........for now. I will just say that I am not starting the "BIG" garden this year, I am going to grow a few things in the upside down planter I purchased this year and see how it goes. And in the meantime, I am busy reading and researching more about how to grow a garden (I have the blackest thumb known to man, everything I touch dies), I am slowly going to purchase all the supples needed, so that I dont have one huge start up cost, build my contraption, and installing the drip system. I figure by the time next spring rolls around I will be more than ready to start my garden, so stay tuned.


• Marcus and I had a date night the other night, it was AMAZING! I dont know if I even told him how much I enjoyed it! We had an awesome talk over dinner, we both splurged majorly on dinner (me probably more than him), and then we enjoyed a movie. It was quite nice! We pledged to have a date night at least once a month, considering this was the first in like 4 months, we have some work to do. THANK YOU to my mom who drove so far to come pick them up and who kept them overnight for us, I really dont know how moms survive without the help of grandparents. I am SO THANKFUL!!! I am sure there is more that I wanted to write about but I cant think of it now, plus this post has rambled on long enough