the much anticipated ultrasound was today and it's official. we are having another girl!! colton, chase and aiden are quite excited that another sister is on the way. aiden was sure it was a girl from the beginning. when i told her...she smiled and whispered, "i was right."
so...here is where you come in. we know what her name is and each have our favorite spelling...but thought it would be fun to take a vote. what is your favorite spelling of this little girl's name?
1. Ansley
2. Anslee
3. Anslie
4. Ansleigh
5. Anslye
6. Annsley
7. Annslee
8. Annslie
Friday, May 29, 2009
Tuesday, May 26, 2009
barrettes are for girls
we had a nice, little memorial day weekend. complete with a home improvement project (BOO!)
and swimming (YEAH!).
chad started things off on saturday with a little painting. i'm happy to say that i helped him by dusting the woodwork so that the tape would stick when he went to tape the room off. i used to think that i was good at such projects...the detail of the taping, the edging, the color picking outing...however i find myself getting edged right out of the situation. which is really fine by me because i H-A-T-E painting. being pregnant, i find, is a great excuse to not have to feel guilty about not being around to help. my job was to...like i said...dust the molding and clear everything out of the bathroom before chad got to it. (he had already prepared aiden's new, big girl room.) and i did just that. then...i took the kids to my parents to hang out there for the day in order to leave chad to his masterful work in peace. the smell is not good for me or the kids and the windows needed to be open upstairs. my rules...no windows open upstairs with kids in the house. and...no kids around paint.
he finished it in 1 day and i loved coming home to the finished product. well...almost finished. my jobs also include getting the rooms put back together.
today, we (i) made a picnic lunch and then we took the kids to the pool. they were loving this little outing. we (they) swam a while and then we ate lunch. after getting in the pool to cool off a little, chad and i were able to lounge and watch the kids play. during adult swim, all the kids get in the baby pool. this is where we could have potentially had a problem. chase, true to form was making friends with everyone there and we overheard him chatting with an older boy. i'd say he was about 10 or 11. i heard chase ask him what his name was. i did not hear the boy answer, but did hear chase respond with, "that's a girl name." now, i knew he was not meaning this to be rude...he was legitimately confused. the boy must have said, "what?" because chase repeated himself and i immediately called chad's attention to the potential issue. luckily, the kid just sorta shrugged and went on and luckily they called all swim...so he left the baby pool. i called chase over to us and he was very confused as to why he was being called down. we asked him what he said to the boy. he said..."i said that he had a girl name." chad said, "what was his name?" chase said, "bret." chad said, "that's a boy's name." chase said, "no it's not. it's what aiden wears in her hair. you know. barrette."
i was rolling. seriously stifling the laughter. chad said, "no chase...it's bret. and it's a boy's name." i said, "even if his name was kristen, don't tell an older and bigger kid that he has a girl's name." chase shrugged and said ok and trotted back to the pool. chad and i just looked at each other with big eyes and laughed some more. you really can't argue with his logic.
and swimming (YEAH!).
chad started things off on saturday with a little painting. i'm happy to say that i helped him by dusting the woodwork so that the tape would stick when he went to tape the room off. i used to think that i was good at such projects...the detail of the taping, the edging, the color picking outing...however i find myself getting edged right out of the situation. which is really fine by me because i H-A-T-E painting. being pregnant, i find, is a great excuse to not have to feel guilty about not being around to help. my job was to...like i said...dust the molding and clear everything out of the bathroom before chad got to it. (he had already prepared aiden's new, big girl room.) and i did just that. then...i took the kids to my parents to hang out there for the day in order to leave chad to his masterful work in peace. the smell is not good for me or the kids and the windows needed to be open upstairs. my rules...no windows open upstairs with kids in the house. and...no kids around paint.
he finished it in 1 day and i loved coming home to the finished product. well...almost finished. my jobs also include getting the rooms put back together.
today, we (i) made a picnic lunch and then we took the kids to the pool. they were loving this little outing. we (they) swam a while and then we ate lunch. after getting in the pool to cool off a little, chad and i were able to lounge and watch the kids play. during adult swim, all the kids get in the baby pool. this is where we could have potentially had a problem. chase, true to form was making friends with everyone there and we overheard him chatting with an older boy. i'd say he was about 10 or 11. i heard chase ask him what his name was. i did not hear the boy answer, but did hear chase respond with, "that's a girl name." now, i knew he was not meaning this to be rude...he was legitimately confused. the boy must have said, "what?" because chase repeated himself and i immediately called chad's attention to the potential issue. luckily, the kid just sorta shrugged and went on and luckily they called all swim...so he left the baby pool. i called chase over to us and he was very confused as to why he was being called down. we asked him what he said to the boy. he said..."i said that he had a girl name." chad said, "what was his name?" chase said, "bret." chad said, "that's a boy's name." chase said, "no it's not. it's what aiden wears in her hair. you know. barrette."
i was rolling. seriously stifling the laughter. chad said, "no chase...it's bret. and it's a boy's name." i said, "even if his name was kristen, don't tell an older and bigger kid that he has a girl's name." chase shrugged and said ok and trotted back to the pool. chad and i just looked at each other with big eyes and laughed some more. you really can't argue with his logic.
Monday, May 18, 2009
you spin me right round...
well...the minute i started thinking that i had not had a blog-worthy story in a while, chase comes to my rescue.
we have small group at our house every sunday night, starting at 5:30. my brother, kevin has been having 2-a-days ever since he was put on the fight card for a june fight and decided to take colton to train with him last night. colton had been wanting to go and last night was perfect for him to go watch because it was just kevin, one of his training partners and his coach. colton got to punch around on the bags, learn some techniques and watch kevin in action. however, that left chase and aiden to take care of themselves upstairs during group. normally, we set them up in the movie room and let colton "watch" them and it works out fine. why spend $25 every sunday night on a babysitter when colton can do it? well...chad and i wondered how it would go without colton (the responsible one) to keep an eye on the decision making of the younger ones, but figured we would give it a go. how much trouble could they really get into? this, i have now learned is never really the question...but only a matter of options. they could not be in the movie room because we had been cleaning out the guest bedroom, turning it into aiden's big girl room all day and it was full of holiday bins and gift wrap stuff. so, we put them in pj's, tucked them into the boy's beds and put a special movie on. i told them that they would get to get up after group was over, but to stay there for the movie. "okay," they said. at least i thought they said okay.
about 1/2 the way into group, i started having that mommy instinct that i should go check on them. i hadn't really heard anything...but just had that feeling. i made a mental note to do that at the next lull in the conversation only i heard both of them on the stairs before i had the chance. i met them half way up the stairs and aiden was holding a part of the ceiling fan chain in her hand. she informed me that chase had "broken the fan in his room". chase began explaining the "accident". he said, "i just wanted to hold onto the fan and spin around, but it broke and it was an accident." all the while, he was doing the full body motion of hanging from a ceiling fan while letting it spin him around in the air. i was somewhat in shock that he would actually try this, while also thinking, "why have i not addressed this as a no go before?" i should have known one of them would try it. luckily, when he jumped from his bed, he only grabbed the chains, and not the fan blades...which were spinning at the time. only the chains broke and not the entire fan. i guess the group had heard some of the commotion because when i walked back into the living room, they were just kind of looking at me. i calmly said, "yeah...we need colton to watch them. chase just tried to hang from his fan and spin around." most of the other moms looked at me with their mouths hanging open while the dad's said, "that's awesome!!"
i tossed the fan part to chad and said, "could you please go explain to your son why he can't spin from fans."
we have small group at our house every sunday night, starting at 5:30. my brother, kevin has been having 2-a-days ever since he was put on the fight card for a june fight and decided to take colton to train with him last night. colton had been wanting to go and last night was perfect for him to go watch because it was just kevin, one of his training partners and his coach. colton got to punch around on the bags, learn some techniques and watch kevin in action. however, that left chase and aiden to take care of themselves upstairs during group. normally, we set them up in the movie room and let colton "watch" them and it works out fine. why spend $25 every sunday night on a babysitter when colton can do it? well...chad and i wondered how it would go without colton (the responsible one) to keep an eye on the decision making of the younger ones, but figured we would give it a go. how much trouble could they really get into? this, i have now learned is never really the question...but only a matter of options. they could not be in the movie room because we had been cleaning out the guest bedroom, turning it into aiden's big girl room all day and it was full of holiday bins and gift wrap stuff. so, we put them in pj's, tucked them into the boy's beds and put a special movie on. i told them that they would get to get up after group was over, but to stay there for the movie. "okay," they said. at least i thought they said okay.
about 1/2 the way into group, i started having that mommy instinct that i should go check on them. i hadn't really heard anything...but just had that feeling. i made a mental note to do that at the next lull in the conversation only i heard both of them on the stairs before i had the chance. i met them half way up the stairs and aiden was holding a part of the ceiling fan chain in her hand. she informed me that chase had "broken the fan in his room". chase began explaining the "accident". he said, "i just wanted to hold onto the fan and spin around, but it broke and it was an accident." all the while, he was doing the full body motion of hanging from a ceiling fan while letting it spin him around in the air. i was somewhat in shock that he would actually try this, while also thinking, "why have i not addressed this as a no go before?" i should have known one of them would try it. luckily, when he jumped from his bed, he only grabbed the chains, and not the fan blades...which were spinning at the time. only the chains broke and not the entire fan. i guess the group had heard some of the commotion because when i walked back into the living room, they were just kind of looking at me. i calmly said, "yeah...we need colton to watch them. chase just tried to hang from his fan and spin around." most of the other moms looked at me with their mouths hanging open while the dad's said, "that's awesome!!"
i tossed the fan part to chad and said, "could you please go explain to your son why he can't spin from fans."
Thursday, May 07, 2009
not my best afternoon
so, everything was fine until about 2:00. i had left this morning with an agenda. i had to get the boy's to school, get aiden to school, find a nail salon near the south shore area to purchase chase's teacher's b-day gift, get to my (much needed) hair appointment, swing through a drive-through to get lunch, and get back to aiden's school to pick her up in time to get to the boy's school to deliver the b-day gift. no problem.
everything went great until the getting to aiden's school to pick her up part. the freeway was closed and it was stand still along the feeder. glancing at the clock, i figured i would only be about 5 minutes late. no big deal. 5 minutes ended up being 10 and when i got to the school, she was 1 of 2 kids left. i already felt like a criminal at that point. however, it was about to get worse. i rounded the doorway and saw her teacher...ready to go home (if it weren't for the delinquent mom's who don't pick up their kids on time) and she said, "is everything okay?" i said, "yeah...it's just that getting here from the north is impossible with the freeway shut down." she just looked at me and said, "you do realize you missed the mother's day party today." this was more of a statement than a question. i, in complete horror and shock said, "WHAT????" she proceeded to tell me that it had been written in the news letter AND that she had sent an e-mail on tuesday. how could i have possibly missed it? i felt terrible. aiden was playing on the other side of the room and had missed the whole exchange and all i wanted to do was run to her and profusely apologize and tell her that i would buy her a pony to make up for my thoughtless mistake. that's when the teacher said, "yeah...she was 1 of only 3 kids whose mom's didn't come. she was pretty upset." ok. not only was i buying her a pony...but we were now taking a trip to disney world. i called for her and she skipped over to me and said, "mooooommmmmmyyyyyy" in her most loving and happy tone. had she forgiven me? she was talking to me. that was a good sign. i apologized and told her how sorry i was. i started crying like a baby and she said that it was okay. she gave me my presents that she had made which turned the knife in my heart a little more. in the car, on the way to the boy's school, we went over all the details of the party so that we can re-create it at home tomorrow. we are going to the grocery store in the morning to get all the same snacks and paper plates, etc.
fast forward to the boy's school. i delivered the pedicure gift card without a hitch, and checked both the boys out of their classes with only 5 minutes left in the school day. it was at this point that i realized i didn't have my keys. i combed chase's teacher's class...listened to the kids come up with all kinds of stories about who "took" them...and retraced my steps to the office where i thought i may have layed them down. keep in mind that all this traipsing about was happening with 3 kids following me around, just wanting to go home. we got out to the car and i saw them in my purse. through the windows. of the locked car. now...i didn't really feel bad about this because it was my first time to lock the keys in the car and i have driven all over creation rescuing chad from the very same dilemma on multiple occasion. i went and used chase's teacher's phone to call my knight in shining armour to come to our rescue. the conversation went like this:
mindy: "chad...i'm at the school and i locked the keys in the car."
chad: "how did you do that?"
mindy: "oh, i don't know. similar to the way you've done it a bazillion times."
chad: "silence."
we decided that i would start walking home with the kids instead of standing on the curb waiting. he would meet us at home to unlock the house. about 1/8th of the way into the trip, i said, "come on kids! this is like an adventure!!" that's when aiden started screaming that her foot hurt. her new flips had rubbed a blister and it was then that i had to go barefoot in order to convince her that it was ok to go barefoot. about 1/2 way into the trip, we ran into an unfortunate dead rat in the middle of the sidewalk. it was all furry and looked like it was sleeping. only with bugs on it. the kids...just seeing the tale of desperoux, didn't like that. and neither did i for that matter. i told them to walk in the grass to get around it and aiden freaked out about walking in the grass without her shoes. i ended up having to carry her. i couldn't look at that rat another minute. it was then that i decided that this had not been one of my finer afternoons.
everything went great until the getting to aiden's school to pick her up part. the freeway was closed and it was stand still along the feeder. glancing at the clock, i figured i would only be about 5 minutes late. no big deal. 5 minutes ended up being 10 and when i got to the school, she was 1 of 2 kids left. i already felt like a criminal at that point. however, it was about to get worse. i rounded the doorway and saw her teacher...ready to go home (if it weren't for the delinquent mom's who don't pick up their kids on time) and she said, "is everything okay?" i said, "yeah...it's just that getting here from the north is impossible with the freeway shut down." she just looked at me and said, "you do realize you missed the mother's day party today." this was more of a statement than a question. i, in complete horror and shock said, "WHAT????" she proceeded to tell me that it had been written in the news letter AND that she had sent an e-mail on tuesday. how could i have possibly missed it? i felt terrible. aiden was playing on the other side of the room and had missed the whole exchange and all i wanted to do was run to her and profusely apologize and tell her that i would buy her a pony to make up for my thoughtless mistake. that's when the teacher said, "yeah...she was 1 of only 3 kids whose mom's didn't come. she was pretty upset." ok. not only was i buying her a pony...but we were now taking a trip to disney world. i called for her and she skipped over to me and said, "mooooommmmmmyyyyyy" in her most loving and happy tone. had she forgiven me? she was talking to me. that was a good sign. i apologized and told her how sorry i was. i started crying like a baby and she said that it was okay. she gave me my presents that she had made which turned the knife in my heart a little more. in the car, on the way to the boy's school, we went over all the details of the party so that we can re-create it at home tomorrow. we are going to the grocery store in the morning to get all the same snacks and paper plates, etc.
fast forward to the boy's school. i delivered the pedicure gift card without a hitch, and checked both the boys out of their classes with only 5 minutes left in the school day. it was at this point that i realized i didn't have my keys. i combed chase's teacher's class...listened to the kids come up with all kinds of stories about who "took" them...and retraced my steps to the office where i thought i may have layed them down. keep in mind that all this traipsing about was happening with 3 kids following me around, just wanting to go home. we got out to the car and i saw them in my purse. through the windows. of the locked car. now...i didn't really feel bad about this because it was my first time to lock the keys in the car and i have driven all over creation rescuing chad from the very same dilemma on multiple occasion. i went and used chase's teacher's phone to call my knight in shining armour to come to our rescue. the conversation went like this:
mindy: "chad...i'm at the school and i locked the keys in the car."
chad: "how did you do that?"
mindy: "oh, i don't know. similar to the way you've done it a bazillion times."
chad: "silence."
we decided that i would start walking home with the kids instead of standing on the curb waiting. he would meet us at home to unlock the house. about 1/8th of the way into the trip, i said, "come on kids! this is like an adventure!!" that's when aiden started screaming that her foot hurt. her new flips had rubbed a blister and it was then that i had to go barefoot in order to convince her that it was ok to go barefoot. about 1/2 way into the trip, we ran into an unfortunate dead rat in the middle of the sidewalk. it was all furry and looked like it was sleeping. only with bugs on it. the kids...just seeing the tale of desperoux, didn't like that. and neither did i for that matter. i told them to walk in the grass to get around it and aiden freaked out about walking in the grass without her shoes. i ended up having to carry her. i couldn't look at that rat another minute. it was then that i decided that this had not been one of my finer afternoons.
Sunday, May 03, 2009
confusion at its best
after colton's ballgame the other night, we decided to take advantage of baskin robbin's 31 cent scoop night. never mind that the line was about 30 people deep and wrapped around the store outside...daiquiri ice was back and i was getting some.
the real entertainment came on the drive home from the ice cream parlor...and i do love calling it that. it makes me feel like i live in the early 60's or on the brady bunch or something. we have 2 family shows that we all watch together weekly. the first is dancing with the stars and the second is american idol. in the car...on this particular night, the conversation turned to dwts. aiden was informing us that melissa was out of the competition this week due to "dropping her ribbons." in actuality, she had overheard the announcer speaking of a rib injury and mistaked it for dropping her hair ribbons. when i asked her to clarify, she said, "you know...she lost her bows!" bruised ribs...hair ribbons...same difference. she can't compete.
chase, who is totally and completely fascinated with gilles (all due to the superman dance that he did at the beginning of the season) informed us all for the bazillionth time that he was, in fact going to be like gilles when he grew up and do a dance on dwts and rip open his shirt to reveal a big super S on his chest.
when one is listening intently and is somewhat befuddled by the actual conversation happening between her 3 very unique and entertaining kids in the backseat, you can understand how one may or may not completely tune out what is playing on the radio. it would not be unheard of to not realize that a "questionable" song was playing, rather loudly, throughout the vehicle. it was when it got quiet and i heard...and i quote..."she moves her body like a cyclone. she makes me want to do it all night long," that i turned it off with haste. i then said, "wow...that was a song about the iowa state cyclones," attempting to do damage control. there was a short silence followed by colton saying, "that didn't sound like no fight song to me."
the real entertainment came on the drive home from the ice cream parlor...and i do love calling it that. it makes me feel like i live in the early 60's or on the brady bunch or something. we have 2 family shows that we all watch together weekly. the first is dancing with the stars and the second is american idol. in the car...on this particular night, the conversation turned to dwts. aiden was informing us that melissa was out of the competition this week due to "dropping her ribbons." in actuality, she had overheard the announcer speaking of a rib injury and mistaked it for dropping her hair ribbons. when i asked her to clarify, she said, "you know...she lost her bows!" bruised ribs...hair ribbons...same difference. she can't compete.
chase, who is totally and completely fascinated with gilles (all due to the superman dance that he did at the beginning of the season) informed us all for the bazillionth time that he was, in fact going to be like gilles when he grew up and do a dance on dwts and rip open his shirt to reveal a big super S on his chest.
when one is listening intently and is somewhat befuddled by the actual conversation happening between her 3 very unique and entertaining kids in the backseat, you can understand how one may or may not completely tune out what is playing on the radio. it would not be unheard of to not realize that a "questionable" song was playing, rather loudly, throughout the vehicle. it was when it got quiet and i heard...and i quote..."she moves her body like a cyclone. she makes me want to do it all night long," that i turned it off with haste. i then said, "wow...that was a song about the iowa state cyclones," attempting to do damage control. there was a short silence followed by colton saying, "that didn't sound like no fight song to me."
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