Ainsley is 5!!

Ainsley you are 5 years old today!! You have been waiting for this day for a long time. I remember many conversations with you talking about how you will be able to do this or that when you are five. And now you are!!
Ainsley you came into this world as a very sick little baby. And you often ask mommy and daddy to tell you about when you were sick and you like to look at pictures of yourself when you were in the hospital. You feel very special that so many people helped to take care of you. And you were special indeed. Mommy and Daddy are so thankful that God was watching over you and we were able to bring you home!

This was the first time I saw you.

Getting your footprints!

Mommy holding you for the first time-I had to wait 11 days before I could hold you!

Daddy holding you for the first time.

This was the day you finally came home from the hospital after 5 long weeks. I'll never forget that day Ainsley.

Your first birthday party-1 year old!

2 years old!

3 years old!

4 years old!

5 years old!!


At 5 years old:

• You love to color and you are so good at staying in the lines
• You love to paint
• You love kicking the soccer ball outside and I think you are going to be a good little soccer player some day.
• You love to do your "homework" as soon as you get home from school and you're very good at it!
• You love to pick out your outfit and everything has to match just perfectly (wonder where you got that from;))
• You love to help mommy and daddy around the house and you are a great cleaner
• You love playing with your sister Harper (barbies, dress up, store, doll house)
• You love helping mommy take care of your brother Bennett and you love singing "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star" to him when he's upset
• You are the captain of the "bad word" police

You make mommy smile just by being you, Ainsley, you are truly just a wonderful daughter and mommy thanks God for you every single night!

Mommy and Daddy love you so very much Ainsley and we are so proud of you!

Happy Birthday sweet girl!

A Princess Painting Party With Snow!!

Today we had a birthday party for Ainsley! She will be turning 5 on the 20th of this month {I have a special post for that day} but we've got a ton going on this month so we decided to have it a little early this year. Ainsley loves princesses and painting so why not combine the two?!

Snow started falling early in the afternoon and for the first time ever, I wanted it to stop! I was beginning to worry that her party wouldn't happen but we went ahead with it and all was fine.

The season's first snow!

In her special birthday outfit-my Ainsley is getting so big!


I decided to make her cake this year, tad stressful but I think she liked it!

Getting her face painted by "Cinderella" {Ainsley and her friends were pretty suspicious of Cinderella-she didn't look quite like the one they were used to so they grilled her about why she wasn't wearing her glass slippers among other things but Cinderella had good excuses and played right along!}

Harper getting her face painted.


Granddaddy and Bennett

Posing with Cinderella-Harper was convinced!

Some of the girls in their aprons getting ready to paint their pottery!

Both girls seemed to really enjoy painting their own bowl and plate.


Blowing out her 5 candles!

Yay Ains!

One last pose with Cinderella!

Ainsley opened her presents once we got home and her and Harper had a hay day! They were busy playing for over an hour while Bennett enjoyed the tissue paper!

So on day 5 of the 12 Days of Giving, we gave our daughter Ainsley a birthday party and we hope she has fond memories of it one day! We love you Ainsley, hope you had a wonderful Princess Painting Party!!

First "Real" Haircut and My Roller!

Ha! I bet you thought it was Bennett's first haircut-nope, already taken care of that myself-just a little snip,snip here and there {don't worry, I saved it}. It's the girls that needed their hair cut and this time it was done by a professional, not mommy! I've been cutting Ainsley's hair into this little wedge cut for the last 2 years that was really cute but I'm kinda over it for her so I just needed someone to add layers.

First up was Harper:

She did really good, she sat somewhat still and watched Pinocchio.

Not much change here, she's still got that baby fine hair, hard to tell what her hair is going to be like.

Ainsley did good too, she was used to me cutting it all the time!

So while I'm trying to grow it out, it is a little shorter but it needed to be trimmed and layered so now we can start fresh and really let it grow.


This was her idea of "fixing it" after we got home-lol.

This girl has got some curls!

So Bennett decided he was feeling a little better and thought it was time to roll from his back to his belly today! He's been working on this for a while now but would always get stuck on the bottom arm...until today-take a look! (Excuse the shriek and the raspy voice-still recovering from this flu thing)

So proud of him!

Rain Drops Keep Fallin' On My Head...

Raindrops keep fallin' on my head

But that doesn't mean my eyes will soon be turnin' red

Cryin's not for me

'Cause I'm never gonna stop the rain by complainin'

Because I'm free

Nothin's worryin' me

Remember this song? My mom always used to sing this to me when I was sad or down about something. Ainsley has been complaining of the rain lately or any time it rains actually and she's been asking to go outside and "jump in the puddles" next time it rained. So finally we did...

Monkey see, monkey do.

This is so much fun!

Ainsley found out that chalk worked even better in the rain!

I thought this was fitting since it was our anniversary. That says Adrienne and Mike by the way;)

I think I'll start singing this song to Ainsley when she gets sad or starts complaining about something. It always seemed to cheer me up!