Thank you

I realized that one year ago today our lives changed. It was something unexpected and out of the blue. At the time it seemed impossible to think about the future without sadness and uncertainty, but I've learned to have a new perspective on life. My mother told me a quote from President Monson that has helped me a lot this year, "Your future is as bright as your faith." I have repeated that to myself many times over the year whenever I start to get discouraged or overwhelmed. I don't think I could go on without the amazing love and support of all my family and friends. Special thanks to Tom, who is the most loving and supportive spouse. He is my rock and I appreciate all that he does for me. I hope he knows how much I love and appreciate him. Thank you everyone for all that you do for us and our family, even though we are so far away from all of you. It means so much to us. I love you all. So here's to one year down....a lifetime to go.

Life with a 2 Year Old Keeps Things Interesting!

Ainsley is 2 1/2 now. She is at such a fun age. Everyday is a new adventure full of imagination, songs, and silly actions. She makes us laugh so much by her funny sayings, questions, and observations. She has a very vivid imagination and she loves to play pretend. She is constantly making up stories and songs. She holds all sorts of conversations with herself. She loves to act out scenes from her favorite Disney movies. We will often overhear her quoting exact lines from the movies and see her acting it out. It is hilarious. Here are some of the funny things she is up to these days:

She loves to dress up. She dresses up almost everyday. Here she is dressed as Mulan.

She insists that her princesses be with her all the time. I often have to line them up to watch her eat breakfast, listen to a story, or watch her take a bath.

The big news is that Ainsley was potty trained shortly after Christmas. She did really well, and it only took a few days. But for some reason, she has quit wanting to wear pants. I think it is easier for her to go potty without having to worry about pants. So it is typical to see her walking around our house pantless these days. We have to negotiate with her to wear pants some days. Here she is watching Mickey Mouse clubhouse wearing only a t-shirt and her "glass slippers" on the wrong feet.

She is very energetic. Here she is doing laps around the kitchen table wearing only her Mulan dress and backpack. She was running around singing some made up song forever. It was really funny.

She insists on having all her friends with her during nap time or bedtime. Somedays she will have several princesses, dolls, and stuffed animals in her crib with her.

At Christmas, her favorite thing to play with was the Mary, Joseph, and Baby Jesus from our nativity. She carried them around everywhere...and unfortunately by the time Christmas came around, Mary's arm was broken off.

Just a typical day of what you would see Ainsley dressed as: Princess Snow White Fairy, wearing her McDonalds watch, and playing with Baby Jesus

She has a very strict routine for bedtime...she has established it and if we miss any parts, she gets upset. We change into pjs, brush teeth, read 2-3 stories, call Daddy to come in for Family Prayer then she hides under her blanket until he comes. Everynight he has to pretend to be confused at where Ainsley is and search for her. Then we say a prayer and I rock her for three songs. Occasionally though, she wants to be the mommy and read me a story and rock herself. This night she fell asleep in her chair while she rocked herself.

She loves to have friends over. She begs to play with her friends Lydia, Sydney, or Camrie all the time. Here she is playing with our neighbors Izzy and Lydia. They gave us a fashion show on this night.

On this particular night, she insisted that her stroller, puppy, and baby rock in her chair with her as we got ready for bed. It made no room for mama.

She loves to go to sporting events and she cheers and claps for both teams.

I walked into her room and she was having a meeting with all of her stuffed animals. She had put them in a circle and was talking to all of them.

She is so stubborn. We don't know where she gets it from, but when she puts her mind to something, she won't give in. This makes meal times really difficult because she is a picky eater. We have established a 3 bite rule to try to get her to eat more things. But she is so stubborn that somedays dinner takes 3-4x as long as it should. On this night she fell asleep in her highchair rather than give in and try new foods.

She loves to act out scenes from her favorite Disney movies. One day, she got an apple out of the fridge by herself and told us she was Snow White eating the poisoned apple from the witch.

Whenever her little friend Lydia comes over they love to dress up as Princesses. If Ainsley goes over to Lydia's house, she insists on taking one of her princess dresses and wearing her "glass slippers." Lydia does the same when she comes to our house.

She is such a little mommy. She loves to pretend to feed her babies and stuffed animals in her old high chair.
Just typical dress up day at our house:)

She loves to dance with her Prince Charming....Daddy

Just this past week she has insisted on wearing a skirt or dress everyday. This particular night, she wouldn't put her pjs on unless she could wear a skirt over the pjs.

She has taken to dressing herself. As you can tell this she completely dressed herself this day. Doesn't she have a great sense of style?

She is very girly and loves to have her fingernails painted. One particular time, she insisted on painting my fingernails. So I let her try...afterwards I realized I didn't have any fingernail polish removal. Yikes.

She loves to help me bake bread. She sits on the counter and helps pour the ingredients in. She also loves to roll it out, so I usually give her a tiny bit of dough to work with while I do the rest.

Here are some funny things she will say or do:

When she wants us to ask her something, she will prompt us to ask it by asking herself what she wants us to say. For example when she is pretending to talk on the phone, she will say...."Who were you talking to Ains? or What is in your purse Ains?" and she will continue saying it until we are prompted to ask her the same question and then she will answer.

She loves music. She will often sing lines to herself in the car, around the house, or in public. One of her favorite cds and movies is Mary Poppins. The other day, we were coming out of Costco as a family when Ainsley yelled out, "Votes for Women" which comes from a Mary Poppins song. Tom and I immediately started laughing as we wondered what the other people thought of a two year old demanding Women's sufferage.

She has started calling me, "Mother." She used to call me "Mama." She'll say, "What are you doing Mother?, Can I have this Mother?, Mother, can I have a cookie?" It sounds so formal, I'm not sure I like it.

She is a screamer. When she doesn't get what she wants, she screams. This usually results in a time-out. When she is playing by herself, she will often come tell me that her babydolls are in time out. When I ask her why, she'll say "Baby was screaming, so she had to go to timeout until she can stop screaming."

She has a good imagination. Here is an example of her imagination that is going on right now while I type this blogpost. She loves Mickey Mouse clubhouse, and a few minutes ago I just walked out of the bathroom. She pointed to the space in front of her and informed me that she was playing with her friends Mickey and Minnie, then she told me that Donald was outside making tracks in the snow so he couldn't come inside. Then she turned, put her hands on the window and said, "Stop Donald, you're getting all cold. Come play." When I asked if Donald came in later, she said, "Um, I think he slipped in the snow. I'll get him out of the snow later." Then a few minutes later, she went to the window. Pretended to open it , carry something, and then she said. "Oh my, you're so dirty. Let's go get dressed." She got out a towel, then said "Donald, are you clean now? You got to get dressed and put on your hat. Yes, yes, good. I'm so proud of you. Let's have a pick-quick (picnic) There is so many food I have."

She is really excited to be a big sister. She talks about it all the time. She constantly tells us that she is going to give her diapers to the new baby, let the baby sleep in her crib, and help change the babies diaper.

When she wants something, she will give us a hint by trying to make the most innocent sounding suggestion. She shrugs her shoulders up and down, cocks her head to one side, and she says something like, "If you want, you can make cookies, if you want..." Like it's really my idea and she's just approving it.

Anytime, she puts on a new outfit or plays with a certain toy, she asks, "Who made this for me?" Then the next time she plays with it or wears it, she will inform us, "Grandma made this for me."

She loves to sing at church. She helps me hold the hymnal and she will sing the same note or two during the whole song. I'm sure the people around us are wondering who is singing the wrong notes, but she doesn't mind. She just likes to sing along with everyone else.

She gets a treat each time she goes potty, but her favorite treat is actually her gummi vitamins. Throughout the day, she will ask, "Can I have a bite-a-biteamin?"

She loves to play games. She pulls out all of our games and makes up rules to play them. Her favorite seems to be Boggle (she is her father's daughter) and she asks me to spell out words for her. First we always spell Ainsley-she can spell that herself, then Dad, Mom, Tom, and Beth. She knows what letter each one starts with. Its good practice though, she already knows all her letters and now she is learning their sounds.

She is so computer savy. The other day she told me, "Grandma sent me an email." When I asked what did it say, she told me it was about "True Love." As I'm typing this right now, she just said to me...."What are you doing Ains?" (hinting that's what she wants me to ask her.) So I asked, "What are you doing Ainsley," she picks up Tom's handheld GPS and answered, "I'm sending Daddy an email at work." She will also ask to use our phones so she can text Grandma or Uncle Jon, etc. It's funny.

When Tom leaves for work, she runs to the door before he leaves and says, "Wait, I need hugs and kisses." But when he kisses her, she likes to pretend to wipe them off.

Her favorite store is Costco. She loves to eat the snacks and free samples they offer. She knows the way and will give us directions as we get closer. At home, she will get out her play shopping cart and announce to us that she was going to Costco.

We love our crazy little girl! We want to be able to remember all the funny things she does!