BEST FRIENDS!

Today Aleigh got to see her best friend Abby for Abby's 5th Birthday Party! The party was at Abby's house and they rented one of those HUGE waterslides. Aleigh had a great time and tomorrow she will get to see Abby again at Alden's Birthday party. Alden is Abby and Aleigh's little friend that's a boy. They were all in the 3 yr old class at Cornerstone Preschool and have remained friends. I think Aleigh was able to bond w/ Alden so well because he is so much like AJ. He's a cute kid! His party is a swimming party tomorrow and AJ was invited as well, so it will be a lot of fun!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY Tia Zulma!!! Today is Joe's little sister's birthday too! Since it's a Saturday night, I am sure she is out partying w/ her friends and having a great time! We wish we could celebrate w/ her, but hopefully she will be coming out to visit and we can have a late birthday celebration!

"NO" is not funny!

Ansley was in the BEST mood today and I think she is starting to find her voice. She has been so content, no matter what she is doing, and babbling all day long! She will get louder and louder! Well, the whole time I was giving her a bath tonight she was babbling, sucking her fingers, grabbing her toes, just full of energy! Even when I took her out of her bath and wrapped her up in her towel she was still sucking her fingers and babbling...with her fingers in her mouth! She continued to babble as I put her lotion on and got her dressed. The minute I picked her back up, she got MAD! She got red faced and stiff and acted like she was yelling at me! I looked at her and said "no ma'am! You're fine, don't you start getting fussy with me." She stopped, gave me a look of complete shock and busted out laughing!!! She is 4 months old and already laughing at me when I tell her no! That's exactly what she was laughing at too. After she started laughing, I once again, told her "No." and she laughed again!
Ya know, you work so hard to get those adorable belly laughs out, and when you discover something that makes them laugh you try and do it over and over again but it eventually stops making them laugh so you have to find something else to get them to laugh. Well, I can't keep trying to get her to laugh by telling her NO or I will really be regretting that all too soon! I can tell I already have my work cut out for me! She is so much fun though!

Summer Days are changin!

So, I recently posted about how nice it was that the kids enjoyed Karate Camp because it allowed me some time to get some things done w/out the kids complaining about having to go to another store or wanting to go home! It's also nice that they get to have that time w/ Joe, I know he enjoys being with the kids more! Well, today I realized that those Summer days have taken a turn, and not necessarily in my favor! Don't get me wrong, I enjoy spending time w/ the kids, but I was really enjoying grocery shopping w/ just the baby and not having to listen to the kids argue or throw random things in the cart! I even had the opportunity to get some work done from home while Ansley napped w/out any interruptions. Well, Chelsea is here for the summer and she made it very clear to me today that she didn't appreciate being at camp for longer than an hour! If Chelsea doesn't want to stay, my kids won't want to either! Chelsea prefers to spend all day at our house. That's all great and well and I'm glad she enjoys our home, but it's good for her and the kids to get out and be active! I guess I just need to be more creative and find things to do w/ them to keep them active and Ansley happy...and still not have to spend a fortune on gas! Any suggestions?

Here is a photo of Chelsea holding Ansley for the first time! She loves babies and is actually a natural when it come to holding them and making them smile!

A Low-Key Day

Today was the first day in a long time that I was able to relax and hang out at home w/ the kids. I finally had an opportunity to attend to things that needed to be done, and do some things that I wanted to do, like return phone calls, color w/ the kids and enjoy holding and playing with Ansley! There is just nothing sweeter than when your baby falls asleep on you when your not even trying to get her to sleep! It's hard to put her down when she is practically hugging me as she sleeps on my shoulder. She was wide awake and smiling like crazy just moments before this picture was taken!

Last Weekend

Aleigh's Recital was Saturday night and went very well! Aleigh was very excited to have mommy, daddy, AJ, Ansley, Nana, Papa, and Madrina there to see her dance on stage! Unfortunatly she spotted us from the stage and it threw her off a little! She even blew us a kiss as she walked off the stage! It was cute! I just feel so bad for all of the little 3 year old dancers because the Recital didn't start until 7:30 and then didn't end until almost 10 p.m. Aleigh was pretty exhausted afterwards so I am surprised that there weren't any little ones crashed out in the back room when us parents went to claim our kids.

Yesterday we spent the day/evening at my mom and dad's for Fathers day. We had a cookout and ate lots of yummy food! The kids gave Joe a new George Forman Grill for Fathers day since our previouse grill's (2) have broke! Hopefully this one will last a little longer. Joe uses the Grill at least 3 times a week, so he has missed having one and was really excited to get a new one!

All about the girls today!

Ok, so the video quality is terrible! I was holding Ansley as she wiggled like crazy and I forgot my video camera and had to use my regular camera to video Aleigh's Recital number at her dress rehearsal this evening. You can't even make out the girls faces, but Aleigh is the last one on the right (your right-looking at the screen). I was really nervous about her doing this number because when they let us see them practice this number in class yesterday, Aleigh was out to lunch or something! She was just following her teacher and looking up at the ceiling! There is just something about being on the stage that makes her really focus and shine!

Ansley and I went shopping at the mall today w/ Emma and Lindsay. We had fun, but were disappointed in the Disney Store, since that was our reason for going. They just didn't have much of what we were looking for, and what they did have was more money than we wanted to spend!We did find some great things on sale at Gymboree and earned some Gymbucks ($25 for every $50 you spend to use at redemption time). That store is SO DANGEROUS! I could seriously blow some major money on my girls in that store! They have the cutest clothes at not so great prices!

We picked Aleigh up from Karate Camp and headed to the house to get Aleigh ready for her Dress Rehearsal. Right when we were getting ready to leave, Ansley had a MAJOR blowout! It's amazing to me that even after 3 kids, and several blowouts, I still feel like I am clueless about what to do when there is poop all over my baby and I have to find a creative way to get her outfit off w/out getting poop all over both of us! This was the worst one yet! We had to stick her in the sink and give her a quick "Cowboy bath" as Lindsay called it! We finally made it to the Rehearsal, a little late. Then, when we finally got home tonight, Aleigh took over and wanted to bathe Ansley for me! She is such a sweet big sister! THEN, after the baby was in bed and Joe was entertaining the kids, I left to get some grocery shopping done! Sometimes it is just so nice to be able to go the store by myself!

Ok, so this weekend is all about Aleigh and my dad! Saturday is both my dad's birthday and Aleigh's dance recital, Sunday it's Fathers Day and we are going to be having a cookout at mom and dad's. But, tomorrow is Aleigh's Dress Rehearsal, so today was her last day of dance class for this year. When I asked her if she was sure she wanted to stay in dance and not try something else, her reply was "NOPE! Nothing else except dance and karate!" See, I thought that because she enjoys the 20 minutes of gymnastics they do, that maybe she would like to try gymnastics. "No mommy! I am staying in Dance!" I am great with her decision, I just needed to make sure! Well, today when I asked Mr. Steve (the owner of her dance studio) what day and time her class would be in the fall, he told me it would be on Thursdays from 4-5:30! Well, I was confused. In talking to the other mom's most of the girls from Aleigh's class were going to be taking class on Monday's from 4-5 pm. So I looked at Steve w/ a puzzled look and said "she is going to get an additional 30 minutes?" He looked at me w/ this proud smirk and said "Well girls on my competition teams get more time for one on one to focus on technique!" Now I was concerned so I immediately asked "What type of time and financial commitment is this going to be?" He then said that we would only need to buy the usual 1 costume for the year, and her class was only an additional $11 per month. I was totally ok with this but had to ask "So you think Aleigh is ready for this?" and his comment back to me was "Aleigh, Maviry, and Savannah (Aleigh's friends since she started dance last year) have blown us away w/ their progress last year and this year and they love the stage. They will do very well, I have no doubt! They were the only ones out of the 12 in their class that we thought were good enough to compete!" Well, now I can say I am officially proud and not just worried that he is trying to get us to commit to more time and money. Mr. Steve is right though, Aleigh LOVES the stage. We, as parents, don't get to watch them take class, so seeing them perform is always a treat! I will be sure and post pictures of Aleigh rehearsing tomorrow and of her recital on Saturday!