More Zilker Park fun!

Family Fun at Zilker

We spent a fun-filled day at Zilker park on Sunday. The kids got to play like crazy at the park and then we took them on a train ride, which happened to be Ainsley's first! She enjoyed the wind blowing in her face and seeing the river. We took a walk down by the creek and afterwards packed up the Monkey Bunch and headed over to Teo's for gelato, Ian had strawberry, Ainsley and I shared chocolate and Brady had a peanut butter/ Nutella gelato, that had to be good! Anyway, here are few photos of the fun!

Closer everyday!

Yesterday after a visit to the pumpkin farm, which I will update and post photos later today after the Halloween party, Ainsley was in the bedroom with Brady and I while we were getting ready for our date. Out of the blue, she crouched over, got on her feet and pushed herself up into a standing position all on her own. We were standing there shocked and amazed! I would assume if she is getting strong enough to stand herself up, she is well on the way to getting this walking thing down. She's doing a great job and we're proud!

Ainsley updates

I may have this as a running theme as there are so many things that change so quickly when you have a baby. All those little tidbits of life that you never want to forget! Tooth number 6 is well on its way in, so that grin is getting sweeter by the day. What's great though is the fact that when she smiles, she smiles with her whole body! Eyes squint, shoulders shrug, cheeks get rosy and then that beautiful toothy grin, you can't help but smile too! She is picking up new words everyday. She picked up "star" yesterday when we were out checking out the space station flying over (very cool by the way!). She calls pancakes "pat cakes" and she learned to say her name a couple of days ago!!! Isn't that great?!? Well, she says "Ains-eee" but as far as I'm concerned it works!!

Her walking is progressing. I have noticed on occasion that she will pull herself up on things and venture away from them a couple of steps. And of course, Daddy sits in the floor with her every night and encourages her to walk. Sometimes she walks and other times she just flails herself forward so Daddy will catch her! Either way, it's super cute! I'll be willing to bet that walking will be great by Thanksgiving!

Kissing is something that she is finding fun these days as well. She likes the eskimo kisses and she is getting very sweet and wanting to lean in and give you a smooch. I have to admit though, it's been hard for me because I have a tendency to cringe when she comes in like that as I have been slapped and headbutted so many times that I'm skittish!! But she does give very sweet little kisses and it's nice to see her more tender side!

She is like her brother in the way that she LOVES to be scared. She likes for you to sneak up on her and shout "RAAAAAH!" Ian still loves that! That is how we play hide and seek in this house, you never let the kid actually find you, you wait until he or she is just about to find you, then you jump out and RAAAAAH at them! Great fun!

Miss Ainsley is a big fan of shoes, sunglasses, hats and jewelry. She is going to be all about the accessories! She also seems to be quite taken with my wallet and any change she can find in it! She wants shoes, hats, glasses and money... what a girl!

Getting ready for Halloween!

Yea! It's almost time for one of my favorite holidays, Halloween! I used to love getting all decked out and partying, now I love getting my kids decked out and trick-or-treating! Ian has decided to be a robot this year and I think I will have Ainsley be a piggy since she is still all about those piggy ears! I have to get a move on though as next week is our homeschool Halloween party. He has to be all costumed up for that! Ian is very excited and REALLY wanted to decorate the outside of the house. So I dug out a bag of the spider web stuff and we went to town! We'll be making some ghosties to hang from the tree tonight. Fun, fun, fun!!!

Yee-haw, Ian the Cowboy Wizard!

Ian has been absolutely infatuated with the Harry Potter movies lately, he LOVES them. So his toy broom that he's had for years now has a new function... flying broomstick! Well I just had to get a pic of him the other day as he was zooming around the house on his broomstick with his boots on! Too funny!

Walking with dinosaurs.

Recently Ian and I have embarked on the study of dinosaurs. I figured this was a good way to start out with history, after all dinosaurs existed a long, long time ago, they made their marks on the earth and to be honest, they are REALLY cool! I thought I would be able to get him a little more hyped about studying dinosaurs than ancient civilizations (we'll start that next year when we start Story of the World). But for now, dinos are fun! Now obviously when you talk about dinosaurs, you can't ignore the fact that most of them were HUGE, but I began to wonder if Ian really was able to grasp this concept, after all, to a 5 y.o. anything bigger than an adult is big. So I decided to show him just how big some of these dinos were. We got out the sidewalk chalk and the tape measure and with his help, we drew out the lengths of several of the biggies. We did Argentinosaurus (100ft), Brachiosaurus (84 ft), Tyrannosaurus Rex (43 ft), Stegosaurus (30 ft) and Microraptor (a teeny guy at 2.5 ft), then we measured Ian and drew his length next to the rest. Needless to say, he was floored to know that a dinosaur could have been long enough to stretch across our yard, our neighbor's yard and then some! Here is a picture of him with his project. Dinos RULE! And yes, a great perk of homeschooling is learning about history in your pajamas!

Piggle's new shoes!

I figured if the baby girl is going to be walking soon, she deserved to have a new pair of shoes! I still have her in the little, soft Robeez for the time being, but these were just too cute to pass up! Besides, she is ALL about the shoes. In fact, all this girl wants is my shoes, my jewelry and my money! She is constantly trying to put my shoes on, she begs for my watch all the time and plays with my earrings and everytime I'm holding her and I have my wallet out, she is doing everything she can to pull out the cash and change!

I guess I have to eat my words!

I just posted yesterday that Ainsley isn't walking yet, well... Last night Brady had her standing up and trying to get her to do "happy feet" (this is when she gets excited and stomps her little feet fast) and she was about an arm's length from him. She was just standing there and out of nowhere she took two deliberate steps forward! Luckily I happened to be looking in that direction and witnessed it as well. So he stood her up again and she took another 4 or 5 steps! We were so excited! Now she is by no means running through the house yet, but there is definite progress. And after she takes her steps and she plops down on her bum we all clap and yell, "YEA"! She claps and yells "YEA" too. It's awesome. I have to admit though, it made me cry! As much as I want her to gain mobility (mostly since I think it will help with her crabbiness), watching her take steps really hit home the fact that she will soon cease to be a baby. And since she is my last baby, it's gonna be a little hard to let it go! Yet again, that terrible curse of motherhood, wanting to watch them progress and flourish, but all the while not wanting them to grow up! So I guess it's bye-bye baby, hello toddler! Bittersweet.

More teeth, more words, no walking!

Ainsley is finally cutting tooth number 6, so that beautiful smile is just getting better by the day. We are still waiting for some more of the lowers to come in. The doctor stated that if she wasn't showing signs of cutting more lowers by her 18 mo. check-up, they would have to send us to get her mouth x-ray'd. Needless to say we hope those little buggers come in soon!

She is definitely chatting up the world! She has over 60 words that she uses regularly. Now if she would just learn to put them together to get a point across! She has a tendency to point and growl instead of using a word. We are working on that though. I am hoping once she is able to really ask for things and understand a little better, her crabbiness may mellow some. She is a bit of a tantrum-throwing drama queen at this point. If something doesn't go EXACTLY the way she wants it, she screams, clenches her fists and turns red! So we are entering the terrible two's about 7 months early! Maybe she'll grow out of it quicker?!? Her brother is working diligently trying to teach her words and letters and numbers. I have decided that I won't have to do much as far as schooling her, I think her brother may teach her everything she needs to know!

She still isn't walking. She will stand up on her own for periods of time, but has yet to take that first true step. I'm not worried, I figure this girl will do things in her own time and if I try to push her, there will be hell to pay. So I am just kicking back and letting her do her thing. She'll walk when she's ready! Ian is SO ready for her to walk though. He has the biggest fun with my friend Gwen's little daughter chasing her around the house. He can't wait until he can chase Ainsley all around!

Three Generations of McGuffins!

Here we are at the Boot and Saddlemaker's Convention in Wichita Falls. We are all showing off our cowboy boots, custom made by my Mama!

Messin' around in Wichita Falls

Here some photos of the kids messin' around while we were in Wichita Falls. Aren't they cute?

Ian's new class

I took Ian down to one of the local community centers this week to check out their new "Homeschool Activity Class". This community center is striving to find better uses for the gymnasium during the off hours. I personally think this was a wonderful idea! Anyway, we showed up along with 5 other families, so there were 8 children in all. They had two instructors and those instructors spent the full hour teaching the children games and playing with them. Granted we were just going to check out the class, I didn't want to make a financial commitment until I was sure it was what we wanted, but after the class, Ian came running up to me, panting, saying, "Mommy! That was SOOOO MUUUCH FUUUUN!!!" Now how could I say no after that? So he will be attending this class every Tues. for the next 11 weeks and he is thrilled. He made new friends, he learned new games, AND this was the bonus for me, between each activity the children had to come into a circle and listen to the directions for the next activity. So we have fun, we have exercise and we are working on listening skills... win, win, win! I am thrilled to have him back in an activity. Unfortunately, he just wasn't ready for hockey, but maybe a little class like this, for him to learn in a non-competitive, non-threatening environment, he might be ready for team sports soon. All I care about is that he is having fun!

Number 5...FINALLY!

Ainsley is finally cutting tooth number 5! YEA! I swear that tooth has been swollen and awful for at least 3 months! I never thought I'd be so happy to see a tooth coming through. I thought Ian had a hard time with teething, but except for that Gemini tooth, his were a breeze compared to the poor little Piggle! Hopefully a couple of others will follow suit and she'll have a big toothy smile soon.