Getting Ready for Christmas!

This is our eighth Christmas together, and yet it is the first that that Tom and I will be having our own Christmas. We've always been lucky to either live close to or travel home to our parents for Christmas. Since we are in Michigan now, working full time, paying off student loans, buying a car, and having a baby...it was probably not a good idea to go home this year. We were both a little sad not to be surrounded by our extended family but excited to begin our own family traditions. We've are figuring out how to combine many traditions, which foods to make, and how to organize Christmas. It has been a lot of fun. We also had to decorate our home for the first time. We've never had our own tree (unless you count a tiny one we used in Utah) or had stockings. We decided to buy a real tree this year and so one night we went as a family to a local tree lot to pick it out. Ainsley loved running up and down the aisles looking at all the Christmas trees. We picked out the perfect one and came home to decorate it together listening to Christmas music. Yesterday we did all of our food shopping and it made me appreciate my mother so much more. There is so much planning involved with Christmas baking, but it is one of my favorite memories growing up. The whole family got involved on Christmas Eve and we would blast the music as we cooked. I will really miss listening to Amy Grant and Michael Bolton with my sisters as they make Apples and Sausage, meatballs, cheeseballs, slush, fudge, and cookies tomorrow. I will be doing it here with Tom and thinking of you:)

Mom and Tot Class

Ainsley finished her first semester of her mom and tot class. I think it is the highlight of her week. She talks about Miss Stephanie and her friends from class all the time. It is every Friday for about two hours. I go with her, but she has gotten to be pretty independent and will sit by herself during lesson time and story time. There are only seven kids in her class and she has gotten to know each of them really well. I signed her up because she was having a really hard time playing and sharing with kids when we moved here. When I took her to library time, she would scream if anyone got too close to her or took her toy. She is doing much better with sharing, especially at school. Home is still another story:) Anyway, she loves going to school and is excited that we get to participate in another semester since we won't be moving! Here are some of her pictures from last week's class.

Ainsley and Ben listening to the story on their own-all of the other kids are sitting on their mom's laps.

The first thing Ainsley does after the lesson is to jump up and run to the doll area and pick up this doll. We usually spend all of play time having a tea party and playing with the babies.
Each week there is an Hands On Center with sand, water, rice, etc. for the kids to play in.
(*Cami-I took this picture of Ainsley filling this pitcher one spoonful at a time for you...I think she was channeling"Bonnie" It made me laugh.)

Before Singing Time, Miss Stephanie uses this dog puppet named "Digger" to get their attention, the kids get so excited when she pulls it out and she walks around and each kid gives it a hug and gets a pretend lick or kiss on the face. Ainsley loves it, she giggles everytime!

Getting a kiss from Digger

After snack time, they play music and have maracas for the kids to march around with. Ainsley loves these two tiny green maracas and makes sure she is the first one done with snack each week so she can be the first to pick them out of the basket. Silly girl.

Ainsley loved the candy cane she got her last week of class (along with a book). I foolishly let her eat it in the car...big mistake. She was so sticky and we still had lots of errands to run!!!

Chuck E Cheese

We went to Chuck E. Cheese for the first time last week with our friends Nikki and Brady. We went for lunch. Ainsley loved the mechanical robot Chucky that danced and sang Christmas songs. Ainsley was excited to play the games. The first one she wanted to try was a mechanical moving bus. We strapped both kids in and put a token in. They lasted about 2 seconds and then both were screaming to get out. Ainsley because she is terrified of any ride that moves and Brady because he is only 7 months. Well, that scared her for the rest of the trip. She wouldn't get on any ride or play any game with a seat. After we were there about an hour, the dads Tom and Andy who both work at Bosch came over on their lunch break. I think the guys liked having a little break from their workday to play some kids games. Ainsley's favorite game was playing Air hockey and skeeball with Daddy. At the end, we turned in all of our tickets and Ainsley got a bracelet that she proudly wore all week. It was a fun outing and we will miss our friends the Trapazzanos who are being transferred to South Carolina next month.

Visiting Santa

On December 8, Ainsley and I went with our friends Nikki and Brady to see Santa Claus at the Summerset Collection Mall in Troy. It was the biggest Santa display I have ever seen. There was a three floor castle he was in. Instead of waiting in a huge line, you signed up for a time to visit with Santa and you got ten minutes by yourself with him to take pictures, sit on his lap, and talk to him. We had to wait about an hour until the first available time and Ainsley was so excited the entire time. She kept looking through the windows of the castle to peek at Santa.

I know Ainsley is really shy and so she probably wasn't going to like seeing Santa, so we had talked about it all week to try to prepare her. She had rehearsed what she was going to ask him for Christmas. It always consisted of some version of the Mary Poppins movie, Belle movie, Tinkerbell movie, baby, and crib for her baby. We had also talked about how she was going to be so brave, and not cry when she sat on Santa's lap. We had looked at her picture with Santa last year and she saw that she was screaming in it. She kept telling us all week, "And I'm not going to cry." When it was our turn though, she started to get nervous. You could tell she was trying to be so brave. She sat on his lap just fine, but she wouldn't crack a smile the entire time. She just looked petrified. So we tried to coax her to get a few pictures, but to no avail. As soon as she got off his lap though, she was so excited again and proudly exclaimed "I did it. I sat on Santa's lap." She was as happy as can be as she picked out some magic coins from Santa's toychest that we could redeem for prizes at some of the stores in the mall. So although the pictures don't show it, I think it was a very successful trip for Ainsley. She can't wait for him to come bring presents on Christmas Eve!

Bringer-man House

Last Monday for Family Home Evening, we decided to decorate a gingerbread house or "Bringer-man House" as Ainsley calls it. We had bought the package a few days earlier and Ainsley kept asking to "Play with my house." Finally we did it. She was so impatient as we glued the sides of the walls together. Once we started decorating though, all she wanted was candy. I think she consumed more than half of the candy instead of putting it on the house. She loved it!

Thanksgiving In New York

For Thanksgiving weekend, we decided to take a little trip to Niagra Falls and then down to Palmyra, New York. We left Wednesday and drove through Canada to the falls. It was a little cold, but they were beautiful. Tom had never been there, and I had only seen the falls from the US side. Ainsley was fascinated by the waterfall, but kept telling us that she "didn't want to go swimming."
After viewing the falls, we drove to Buffalo, New York to eat at the Anchor Bar, the birth place of Buffalo Wings. Tom loved them, they were a little spicy for me, but they were delicious. After dinner, we drove to our hotel in Rochester where we spent the next few days.
Thursday morning, we woke up and drove down to Geneva, New York right along the Finger Lakes. We ate Thanksgiving Dinner at Belhurst Castle on Seneca Lake. We had a beautiful view of the lake while we ate Thanksgiving dinner. On the way down, Tom and I counted that this was our fourth Thanksgiving at a restaurant of the eight we spent together. And we've only had three with family, and the last one with all our friends in Indiana. We just like to travel on Thanksgiving week:)
After dinner, we drove back through Palmyra and quickly saw where everything was located that we would be visiting the next day. Then we went back to our hotel to skype with both families and relax.
Friday morning, we drove to Palmyra and visited each of the Church's historical sites. We started at the Hill Cumorah. It was really cold and windy as we walked around the monument. Then we drove down to the Smith Family farm and saw where Joseph Smith and his family lived. The missionaries there gave us a tour of the log cabin home and the Frame home. Then we walked through the Sacred Grove together as a family. It was so peaceful. We wish we could have seen it when it was green, but it was still beautiful. Afterward, we headed into the town of Palmyra to see the Grandin building where the Book of Mormon was published. Then we had some lunch and headed south to the Peter Whitmer Farm where the the Book of Mormon was translated and the Church was organized in 1830. It was special to see all these historical sites and see where our church began. After leaving the farm, Tom dropped me off at the Palmyra Temple to do a session. Then he went to a session the next morning before we left to go home.
We missed spending Thanksgiving with our family, but we had a fun trip just the three of us!

Old News

Two weeks ago we got some last minute tickets to go see the Utah/Notre Dame game. You all know how it ended....Utah played horribly, the weather was awful-it rained the whole time, and we were squished on really tiny, hard wooden benches. But despite the bad conditions and bad game, we still managed to have fun. Notre Dame is a beautiful campus. We had always wanted to visit it when we lived in Indiana and finally we got the chance. So anyway, here are some pics:




As you know, our family is divided when it comes to loyalty for BYU vs. Utah...so we'll just say good luck to both teams this weekend. Unfortunately we won't get to see the game at all...not just because we live in Michigan...but because we are traveling to Palmyra for Thanksgiving and will probably be on the road coming home right during the game. So good luck, hope everyone has fun. We can't wait to hear on Sunday who won! Have a great Thanksgiving everyone!

Baby #2

We had our twenty week ultrasound last night. It was so fun. Tom left work a little early and we drove to the hospital where I will be delivering. Ainsley was so excited. All day I told her we were going to go see pictures of the baby on a computer screen. When we got into the room they had a tv mounted on the wall in front of the bed so I could see the baby better. Tom held Ainsley up to the screen the whole time and she kept pointing out everytime she saw the baby. Everything looked good. We kept to our promise...we didn't find out the sex. Although it was really tempting when she asked not to just say yes. There were times when we thought we saw something, and other times when we don't think anything was there....so I guess it will really be a surprise come April!!! But we are excited, it looked adorable and we can't wait to meet it.

We also found out this week the baby will be a Michigander....Tom's next rotation is a really neat opportunity working on bringing a German Electrical Bike to the US. He'll be stationed at the Plymouth office which is only a half hour away, so that means we're not moving!!! Which is great for me since I don't have to worry about packing or finding a new doctor!

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