New adventure!

I recently decided to take on a new adventure.  I have always enjoyed attempting to be crafty and find that the time that I can find to craft is very relaxing to me.  I love making hair accessories for Ainsley, but there are only so many that she can wear.  I decided to start making them for others! 

I started up my own little business called Ainsley Daniel Designs (named after my favorite little ones, Brayden Daniel and Ainsley Mae of course).  Right now I am focusing on hair accessories and custom burp cloths, but who knows what else will come my way.  I'm always willing to give anything a try.  I've always enjoyed making hair bows for Ainsley and I made some sets of burp cloths before she was born and loved using them!  Hopefully I will get the chance to make a lot more things for everyone else now! 
If you have a chance go check out my Etsy page at
https://www.etsy.com/people/ainsleydanieldesigns and "like" my Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/ainsleydanieldesigns

Thanks so much for checking it out and you can always e-mail me at ainsleydanieldesigns@gmail.com if you have something specific in mind.

There's no place like home....

Since my last post, our life (and home...) has changed again! After a wonderful visit in Ohio with family over the holidays, we managed to win our fight with a giant snowstorm and made it to Fort Leavenworth. Seriously, it was the biggest snowstorm that I have ever seen and the scariest driving conditions that I've ever experienced. Thankfully we made it to St. Louis and spent an extra night there to take a break and ride out the storm. So far we are really enjoying Fort Leavenworth. It's so nice to have some of the conveniences and luxuries that we have missed after being overseas. Ok, really it's just nice to have Target again. ;)
We have adjusted well to life here and look forward to the next year here!

Lots of things have been going on in the past couple of months so here are some highlights to catch up...

- Jeff is attending Command and General Staff College here at Ft. Leavenworth which is basically the school for Army Majors. He came out on the promotion list "below the zone" last year but the actual promotion won't likely happen until this summer. He is keeping very busy with "Army school" and online grad school. He's only a few classes away from finishing up his MBA through Murray State University. Although he spends a lot of time reading and studying, he is home every night for dinner and to put the kids to bed which was not quite a common occurrence while we were in Germany. We are definitely enjoying our extra family time and look forward to some warm weather so that we can venture out some more!

- Speaking of warm weather...the wind chill is due to be -20 tomorrow morning...yes that's 20 BELOW zero. I wasn't aware that we moved to Alaska.

- Since we are only here for about a year, there was really no point in finding a job so I'm going to take advantage of the opportunity to stay at home with the kids. It has great highlights and some struggles but it really is the best job in the world. I've been keeping the kids (and myself) busy with playgroups and other activities in the area we've been having a blast. I've been doing my best to get to the gym 3-4 times a week and even signed up for a local 5K. We'll see how that goes..;)

- Brayden started a 3 day a week preschool here and so far seems to love it! He is happy every day when I pick him up and that's all that matters to me. Some of his favorite things now are board games, his puzzle of the United States, pancakes, Doc McStuffins, Little Einsteins, rhyming words, Madagascar, playing tag and hide and seek, ham and cheese sandwiches, apples, and being my backseat driver. :) Hard to believe he's 4 1/2!

- Speaking of "hard to believe"....Ainsley is 18 months old! Her personality is so sweet, yet feisty. :) Some of her favorite things are bananas, yogurt, having dance parties, Elmo, Minnie Mouse, brushing her teeth (and going into the bathroom to swipe toothbrushes all day), happily screaming at the top of her lungs, sneaking into Brayden's room while he's at school so that she can play with his toys, snuggling, and giving the greatest hugs and kisses. Her vocabulary is growing more and more everyday and it's so much fun to watch her learn! Some of my favorite words that she says are "Melmo", "nose", "please", "dance" and "uuuucy". :)

Hopefully I will do a better job at keeping up with the blog since we are settled now!  Stay warm everyone!

14 months and gearing up for craziness!

I told myself that I wouldn't get behind with blogs/scrapbooking with the second child. I told myself that I would take just as many videos and pictures of Ainsley as I did with Brayden. Yep, Mom fail. :) I tell myself that I will do better but the next few months isn't going to help. In the next month, my car and all of our household goods will be off to Kansas. Jeff will be passing on his job to his replacement and we will be saying goodbye to this chapter of our life in Germany. As much as I am ready to be back with everything familiar to me, there is so much that I will miss about this part of our lives where I learn something new every day. Whether it is a new German word, a new food to try, a new place to visit, or a new store to shop. I feel like every day is an adventure here and I know that we are going to view things a lot differently when we get back to the States. I'm sure that we aren't going to sit on the couch on weekends. This experience has forced us to embrace the things around us and see as much as possible. There are so many more trips that we would have loved to take, but we definitely feel like we have taken full advantage of this opportunity to live overseas. I know that we will make the most of living in Kansas and see everything there is to see around the area. I'm looking forward to living somewhere that is brand new to us! So the real reason I started this blog post, Ainsley is 14 months! She just started walking last week...finally! She's still pretty unsteady on her feet but at least she's making an effort now. She says "Dada", "Mama", "Hi", "nana"-banana, "ni-ni"-night night, "eeeeee" for "cheese" and "please" and says her version of "all done". She also signs "please", "thank you", "more" and "all done". She loves to eat and probably would live off to bananas if she had her choice. She eats just about anything that we put in front of her though. Ainsley is such a happy girl. She gives kisses on command and she gives the best hugs (she'll even pat your back). She loves to climb the stairs and crawl around everywhere. She is very curious and loves to get into things. Ainsley continues to brighten every day for us!

1 year old!

It's true that time goes by a little faster after you have a child. It goes by even faster after the second one! I'm not sure where the past year has gone, but it has been a fun-filled year with a happy little girl! Ainsley is incredibly easy-going, happy and loving and it barely felt like we'd had a newborn. She loves to give kisses and hugs. Her favorite words are "dada", "mama" and "hi". She makes monkey sounds and pants when she sees a dog. She gives high-fives, waves "hi" and "bye" and blows kisses. She signs "more", "all done" and "eat". Her favorite foods include bananas, chicken, pasta, peaches, broccoli, peas and potatoes. She continues to sleep 11-13 hours through the night and takes 2 naps a day. In the past year she has been to Germany, United States, Austria, Luxembourg, France, Belgium, Ireland, and Scotland. Although she won't remember a thing about her adventures here, I'm thankful that we have the wonderful memories and pictures to share when she gets older. Brayden continues to adore his sister and he loves that she is interacting with him more and more. It has been such an amazing year and we are looking forward to creating wonderful memories in the U.S. starting in November!

10 months!

Very hard to believe, but our baby girl is getting so big! I've been bad about updating since we've been so busy and we took a trip back to the States last month. A couple of weeks ago, Ainsley was 19.2 lbs and 29 1/2 inches long at her 9 month appointment. Her favorite word is "dada", but she does say "mama" when she feels like it. :) Last month in Ohio, she started to finally crawl on all fours, pulled up to stand on furniture and started cruising around everything. She also crawls up the stairs. I'm sure that it won't be long before she starts walking. She waves "hi" and "bye-bye" and claps her hands and says her version of "yay!". She is still such a happy little girl and very easy going. Ainsley eats just about anything we put in front of her, but some of her favorites recently have been pasta, peaches and green beans. She is already becoming a world traveler and has been to Germany, Ireland, Scotland, Belgium, France, Austria and the US! She continues to adore her big brother, Brayden and he is always able to make her smile!

7 months!

The past month has been very busy and Ainsley continues to happily go with the flow! We took a trip to Garmisch, Germany a couple of weeks ago for a marriage retreat through Jeff's Company. Poor Ainsley was sick for most of our trip, but it ended up being nothing that some antibiotics and Tylenol couldn't handle. She had her 6 month checkup the day after we got back from our trip (even though she was almost 7 months old). She was 27 1/2 inches long and 17 lbs 10 oz. She continues to be such a happy baby and is now babbling like crazy. She imitates our sounds and facial expressions. She loves to scrunch up her nose and make a sniffing sound. Ainsley loves to watch her brother and he sure does love her too. Brayden goes into her room first thing in the morning to talk to her and she smiles from ear to ear. He says "Good morning baby girl!! Mommy, Ainsley is awake!". She is rolling all over the place and I wouldn't be surprised if she's crawling by next month. She loves to eat! She eats solid foods 2-3 times a day now and loves green beans, peas and carrots (just like her brother). She drinks about 25 ounces of milk a day as well.

Munich!

One place that Jeff's parents wanted to visit while they were here was Munich. We loved it there and would always take a trip back! We arrived at the train station looking like the Beverly Hillbillies with the amount of stuff we had to take (gotta love traveling with 2 kids). After a 4 hour train ride, we arrived in Munich! We rented a car, got settled in the hotel and headed out to explore. We took the subway into Marienplatz and saw the Glockenspiel then had an AMAZING dinner at a place called Haxnbauer. We had slices of pork, sauerkraut and mashed potatoes. Best meal in Germany so far!! We walked around the corner and enjoyed a couple of drinks at the Hofbrauhaus! The next day we woke up and drove around to explore! Jeff's dad lived in Munich when we was younger and we were able to drive around the area that was the old Army post where they lived. We spent the rest of the afternoon at the BMW Factory and Museum. Once we took a break at the hotel, we headed out for dinner at a place across from the Hofbrauhaus. I don't remember what exactly it was called, but I remember it had the sign for "Augustiner Brau" on the outside. The meal there was delicious as well. Then, we spent the rest of the night at the Hofbrauhaus. We even got to have snowball fights out in the biergarten. Such a great trip!!