Mom and Cami Come to Visit

Over Utah's UEA weekend, my mom and sister were able to come visit. We were so excited to have them here. We had a fun time showing them around Michigan. The weather was perfect for their visit. The first day, I showed them around our area. We drove to the small lake near our house. We let Ainsley play in the sand for a few minutes and watched the swans. Then we headed to the mall and JoAnns Fabrics. Then we drove to Ann Arbor to have dinner with one of Cami's college friends who recently started grad school at University of Michigan. We ate at the Pizza House in Ann Arbor, it was delicious.
The next day we dropped Tom off for work and then headed up to Frankenmuth, a small Bavarian tourist town. It had lots of quaint tourist shops including the Cheese Haus where we sampled a variety of different cheeses including their famous chocolate cheese. We bought a small Chocolate Mint Cheese to share with my dad and brother. We also went to Bronner's Christmas Shop which is the largest Christmas store in the country. It was the size of one and half football fields. They had so much stuff! But suprisingly we walked out of there without buying anything! Then we had lunch and headed to the outlets to do a little shopping.

Bronner's Christmas Shop

On Saturday we headed to Dearborn to the Ford Complex. We didn't hit the huge Henry Ford Museum, but we did go to Greenfield Village. This is a historical village started by Henry Ford. He had hundreds of historical homes, shops, and buildings transported from all over the world here to be a living museum. We saw Henry Ford's childhood home, a courthouse where Lincoln practiced law, Thomas Edison's Menlow Park lab where he invented many things, the Webster home (as in Webster's Dictionary), Orville and Wilbur Wright's childhood home and bicycle shop, Robert Frost's home, as well as many other historical homes from as early as 1600. It was really interesting. They had an old carousel with handpainted horses. Tom took Ainsley on a ride. We then stopped for lunch. Afterward, we headed to the It living crafts demonstration area where we learned about glass blowing, tin making, weaving, and print making. At the end of the day, Tom and I took Ainsley on a ride on the steam engine train. She loved it. We had a wonderful time. On the way home, we stopped for dinner and then us girls watched a chick flick.

Wright Brother's Bicycle Shop

Cami in front of a quaint English Cottage, this was my favorite house, the entire thing was made of limestone. I cant believe they transported it all the way from England.

Thomas Edison's Lab, transported from Menlow Park, New Jersey

The last day was Sunday. We took Mom and Cami to church with us. Then we had a big dinner and spent the last few hours chatting, doing crafts, and spending time together. It was so fun to have my mom and sis here. I have missed them so much. Thanks so much for coming! We love you!!!

Dress Ups and Enjoying the last Warm Weather

Princess Snow White has finally come to our house. I loved playing dress-ups when I was a kid. My sisters and I would wear my grandmother's fancy hats, high heels, purses, and gloves all the time. I was so excited for Ainsley to be the same way. She got a Cinderella dress for her first birthday but would never wear it. I figured she was too young. I also got her a tutu and fairy wings over the years. But again, she never seemed very interested. I figured, it would happen in time. Then one night we were at Costco, and we saw this Snow White dress-up for Ainsley and decided to get it because we knew how much she loved Snow White. But after forcing her into it the night we bought it, she has absolutely refused to wear it. I would ask her almost everyday if she wanted to try it on. I was ready to take it back because I figured she would outgrow it by the time she was willing to wear it. We even hung in on the outside of her closet door so she could look at it everyday....but for about two months, no amount of coaxing could get her in it. I knew it would take another little girl trying it on to finally convince her to wear it. I figured if she saw someone else wear it, then she would realize it was fun. You know, peer pressure for a two year old. Well, I was exactly right. We were babysitting some friend's kids one night and their little girl wanted to try on the Cinderella dress and within seconds, Ainsley was begging to wear the Snow White dress. That's all it took. Now she loves it and has worn it almost everyday since. I love it:) Remind me of that in a few months when I can't get her out of it.

Playing dress up with her friends Jacob and Katelynn from Indiana

Playing dress ups with her second cousins Sydney and Owen

As much as it pains me to write this, I have to admit Ainsley looks pretty cute in these Utah sweats. Thanks Grandpa and Grandma Reese. She loves them. Don't worry to my BYU family, we have a BYU sweatshirt for her too. She is going to grow up to be a "loyalty-confused" fan.

I had to post this picture to show you that Ainsley has started to dress herself. She is beginning to make clothing requests and on this day she asked to wear a dress. When I brought it to her, she looked confused and asked, "Where do the arms go?" I told her it was just a skirt and so she didn't want to wear it. But after coaxing, I convinced her to try it on. Later she put on her own jacket and shoes to go outside. Notice the coat is upside down and the shoes are on the wrong feet. Yet if I try to fix them, she just growls at me. Oh well, she looks cute this way.

This past weekend was really warm, we decided to take advantage of it and went on a little picnic together. We bought Jimmy John sandwiches and went to a lake close to our house. It has a cute little beach with picnic tables and a play pirate ship. Ainsley had a blast digging in the sand and playing in the ship. There were two beautiful swans near the beach and Ainsley and I went down to stick out toes in the water and watch the swans. It was a really fun afternoon. I am not looking forward to the cold winter ahead.

That evening we went to a drive in movie. Tom and I hadn't been to a drive-in since we were kids. We saw the new Wall Street movie. It started at 8:00 so we dressed Ainsley in her pjs and brought her blankie and puppy hoping she would go to sleep. She didn't, but she was an angel. She watched Thumbalina on her mini dvd player and loved munching on popcorn. It was a lot of fun and a great way to see a movie without having to get a babysitter.

The only thing this girl ate during our picnic was half of daddy's giant pickle. She is the pickiest eater, yet she loves pickles!