Florida 2010

We had yet another wonderful trip to the Sunshine State! This is Kaylee's 4th trip and Ainsley's 3rd! Kaylee is really able to pull out memories from past years and she was very excited to go. We had to come up with a countdown calendar to try to yield some of the "When are we going" questions. In fact for Christmas my mom got the girls monogrammed luggage sets. They included 1 extra large duffel bag (I could probably fit both girls in), 1 medium bag ( I could put Ainsley in) and a large back pack. About 2 days after Christmas Kaylee started randomly placing some items in the back pack. Thankfully I remembered this because I only used each of their medium bags and she had placed her new Scooby beach towel in the back pack. What a travesty that would have been to get to Florida with no Scooby beach towel.

In years past we have always flown. We are fortunate that my mom and Tim would drive and take all our stuff down so we would only have to take a carry on. However this year we opted to drive. It's a 19 hour drive and I was very hesitant to say the least. I kept checking on plane tickets just in case there was a great deal for 4 tickets; yes we would have to get 4 this year because Ainsley is 2. While we could have bought the tickets I just couldn't find any deals that I would be willing to pay for, so in the car we went. I also felt like it took much more organization on my part, there was the clothes and toys for the condo where we stay, but then there was snacks to pack, car activities, movies, and even the mini-potty chair for any desperate bathroom situations that may occur. The plus side was we really had A LOT of flexibility for what we wanted to do as far as when to leave, stop, etc. We knew if it got really bad on the drive down we could get a hotel. We decided to pick up the girls around 2 from school and the sitter on a Friday and head south. We stopped in Marion for dinner at a McDonalds with an indoor play area and let the girls play for a bit. We then drove another 2 hours and stopped for gas, PJ's and final potty break. Around 10:00 p.m. the girls were still contently watching DVD's, I finally turned them off so they would go to sleep. Overall, both coming and going the girls did AMAZING!! I was a little nervous when we got to Downs and Kaylee told me she was bored but we started to explore some of the activities I had packed and that seem to solve that issue.

Here we are on our way!!!

Kaylee was very excited to bring her camera. Every time we passed some place new she wanted to take photos. She is looking forward to getting photos printed so that she can make a book.

Of course Ainsley needed to take photos too, hers are mostly of herself.


Finally, Saturday afternoon we were down by Naples. We had to stop at the Bass Pro Shop first, and then checked in at the condo. My parents weren't there yet and of course the girls were ready to jump right in the pool. So we unloaded and changed and headed for a swim!


They also LOVE the beach. The ocean water is very cool this time of year, but they didn't care, they would run in it, sit in it, splash each other, etc. They loved it. I could sit on the beach for hours and just watch them.

Of course while at the beach one should always build a sand castle, this was a daily activity. Usually it was wake-up, eat breakfast, go to the beach, come back, swim, eat lunch, take a rest, and then swim again or go back to the beach. Such a hard life! Ainsley, as usual, tries to sit in anything that has a hole in it. Below is her "taking a bath" in the buckets. Notice the guy walking behind her and his questioning look.

This was one of our morning trips over to the beach. It is still a little chilly in the morning, it's usually pretty warm by 10, however the girls want to just live in their suits the entire day!

A couple cute photos of the girls. I usually get them some new clothes, especially Kaylee as Ainsley has all of Kaylee's clothes from earlier, the below outfit Ainsley is wearing is a shirt with leggings, it's a 3T, since she will be 3 in May it will last her through the summer. It was so big that it was an almost ankle length dress. So maybe it will last her 2 summers, HAHA!

One morning Brad found a puffer fish that was on the beach. He made sure it was dead and wouldn't spontaneously "puff" up before letting Kaylee hold it. I can't believe how much she likes stuff like that! I hope that never changes about her.

I love taking these beach photos. I would just sit and take photo after photo. I will admit this one was staged. I had taken one like this from the year before and wanted to do another one because 1. I like how it looks and 2. Just for posterity sake.

I love going to Florida. Next year Kaylee will have school and I'm not 100% sure what we will do. It's a great time and nice reprieve from the winter. I still can't believe how great the girls did on the drive. On the way back we hit some bad weather and stayed in TN, but they still did great.

I'm so thankful to my mom and Tim for sharing this with us. I know they enjoy the girls and it makes my heart happy that they love making these memories with their grandchildren. I know it's something that we will all remember and I love that they, my mom and Tim and the girls, really get to know one another and experience these different things together.

Kaylee the Scientist

Meet Kaylee. She is 4 1/2 years old. She is a very inquisitive girl, always wanting to know what things are or how they work. She shows much determination, when she sets her mind to something she will work on it until she can do it. Her most recent accomplishments, and examples of her determination, include: snapping, reading, addition and whistling. Kaylee is also creative and enjoys doing arts and crafts, she also enjoys using adjectives and being very expressive, both verbally and non-verbally. She certainly is one to march to the beat of her own drum. While she is a girly girl in her fashion, always wanting to wear dresses, and can be a little on the weeny side at times in her overly dramatic reactions to some of life's smallest inconveniences, she is also very brave. Brave like a scientist. She likes bugs, digging in the dirt or looking under rocks for them. If she sees something she thinks might be interesting to look at she will pick it up. I admire this because many of these things gross me out. I can put my own worm on a hook, but wouldn't pick up a snake. When weather permits outside time at home she's always exploring for new things. So you can imagine how much she enjoys exploring in Florida and the things she finds!

Here's the little scientist in her "hula" pose, as she has named it.

Kaylee has enjoyed her time at the ocean. She likes to run down and catch water and sand as the tide comes in and bring it back on the sand, dump it and sift through it to see if she has gotten any treasures.
She likes to walk up and down the beach searching for hidden treasures, as well as trying to catch the birds because she feels she need to pet them and get a closer look.

This is one of the many treasures she has found at the beach. She carried it the whole way. This is something she saw and didn't hesitate to run over and pick it up, something I would have looked at and kept on walking.
Here are all the treasures she found today. There's a couple sponges, one that we think may have a clam inside it, a large shell, some sea wood, and even a bone. Yes, a bone. What kind, I don't know. Probably from something jaws got a hold of. These are all things she is looking forward to taking home and to school to show her friends.

I have to say that thanks to Kaylee I have broadened my horizon and noticed things I would have walked away from before. When she wants me to touch something I will, even though I'm squirming on the inside. I want to encourage her curiosity, who knows what that will inspire her to be when she grows-up!

Ainsley the Destroyer

Once upon a time, in a southern, sunny land, was a vacationing little girl named Ainsley. A peanut in size, but mighty in her activities and energy! She had a sweet little voice that gave her the ability to draw anyone in. Seen below with her Daddy who would look at that darling little girl and think she could be a destroyer.






While on vacation she went to the beach with her family. They all decided to build a sandcastle and Ainsley was very helpful. She carried large buckets of water to help make the sand wet and easier to pack.





She pushed the sand together and helped pack it to make the large base for the castle.





She poured water on the sand and helped put shells on for windows.





What a beautiful castle everyone worked so hard together to make. What a great example of teamwork by the family.





Even after Daddy and Kaylee walked back down to the water Ainsley stayed behind to continue decorating the castle. We spent much time and effort on our castle and we were all so proud.





But little Miss Ainsley has an ornery side to her, a destructive side to her. You can see it in her eyes. She's up to something....








Ainsley's Mommy had turned to take a photo of the water and when she turned back around this is what she found. Sweet little Ainsley laying on the castle.

She also decided to sit on the castle. She was like a dragon in medieval times taking over the kingdom. Watch out Russel Crowe your Gladiator has nothing on this little destroyer.

When all was said in done where once stood a beautiful castle now was a large hole. Ainsley the destroyer sat sweetly in the hole and continued to dig. Maybe she thought there was treasure to be found, maybe she was trying to dig her way to China. What her motives were no one can be certain, but what her family does know for certain is that she keeps things interesting and unpredictable. They love their little destroyer, even when she is using her powers for evil.

Snow Day!

Not so long ago, as all you Central Illinoians are aware, we had a SNOW DAY!!! My girls were thrilled to say the least. They have been waiting to play in the snow, up to this point it had been much to cold to brave the outdoors. Brad had to go into work VERY early in the morning for a conference call to determine State Farms plan of action (one thing I'm not going to miss when he starts is LDA in Auto in March). I was up at 5 a.m. waiting for a call from Brad to see what was going to happen. The phone rang, however it wasn't Brad, it was the State Farm line they have set up to call in weather situations, telling me that State Farm would be opening at 10. Now, I was just waiting to see what Kaylee's school would be doing. Once I heard District 87 and U-High were closed I was almost positive Kaylee would be having a snow day too, sure enough I was right. Snow Day for all the Busing girls! Poor Daddy was still stuck at work.


I talked to Brad after his 7:30 conference call, this was to determine if the 10 start time would stay or if they would be closed all together (the 10 start time stuck), and told me it was going to get much colder so if I wanted to get the girls out in the snow to do it within the next 2 hours. I got off the phone and the preparations began!


Ainsley in all her gear ready for some snow fun!


The girls were "snow" excited!!!



I took this photo from the front corner of the house. It was a pretty backyard scene.



Ainsley making a snow angel.


Kaylee making a snow angel.



Abby loves the snow too! She especially loves catching snowballs, as you can see from all the white powder on her face. She was patiently waiting for me to throw another snowball!


Kaylee thought it would be super fun to slide down through all the snow. Not sure what was going on with her hat. It's her hat from last year, her new one was in Brad's truck, she didn't really seem to mind it though.

As with everything else if Kaylee did something Ainsley needs to do it too!

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year, everyone! It is now the year 2010....still seems hard to believe! I can still remember "partying like it was 1999" when it was 1999. As usual the big party animals we are we really got crazy on New Year's Eve. Not so much :) I have to say I have never been much of a New Years person, I think I just get paranoid thinking of all of the "celebrators" out and about. This year we went up to my Dad's house. The girls had a lot of fun playing with their cousins and it was a relaxing and low key evening.

Grandma helping the kids make their own pizzas.

My Dad and Brad playing Tiger Woods on the Wii.

Of course if we are at Grandpa and Grandmas we must do some hot-tubbing! My Dad will keep it turned down low so the kids can play in it, they think it's a pool.

Getting ready for our 8:30 countdown!!!
Our festive bartender.

Kaylee and Koen playing computer games.

Me and Ainsley

Me and my twin, Kaylee!

We hope you all had a safe New Years and we wish you all a healthy and blessed 2010!

Happy Holidays!

I am sure like ours, your holidays came and went in a hurry! There is always so much excitement in the air and always so much to get done! For me it is because there are so many great traditions I want to maintain and therefore must schedule in. I don't want to start too early resulting in Thanksgiving unnoticed so I'm left with only a few short weeks to get everything in. We are also blessed with a lot of family and thankfully we all still try to get together around the holidays. So with our traditions and family gatherings here are some of the things we fit in post-Thanksgiving to Christmas:

1. My Father-n-law's birthday; November 27th
2. Schelle Christmas (my step-mom's extended side); Saturday after Thanksgiving
3. Putting up Christmas decorations
4. Shopping
5. Toys For Tots
6. State Farm Santa Visit
7. Preschool Holiday Program
8. Duffy Family Christmas (Dad's extended side)
9. Festival of Lights
10. Gingerbread Houses
11. Baking
12. Various getting together with immediate family for Christmas

The magic of the season keeps me jolly through all of it. As the girls have gotten older watching the magic of Christmas is very inspiring and refreshing. I love that they are so good about donating things for others. Kaylee has really started understanding the concept of giving to others. When beginning our advent calendars this year and talking about all of the wonderful things December would hold she mentioned Toys for Tots. This is something I always did and continued with the girls. We go to the store and they each pick out something and we take it to a Toys for Tots box. I have to say they have never once complained that we weren't buying them something. I anticipate it every year, as that would be a natural reaction for a child to have, "why can't I have something too?", but on these Toys for Tots days that hasn't happened. That makes me one proud Mama!

As the years continue I have a feeling my list will get longer. Some things may change out for others, i.e. preschool program for elementary school program, but I don't think I could ever just take away one of our traditions. Do they keep us busy? Yes. Do they leave us with memories to last a lifetime? Absolutely!

We hope that you and yours had a blessed and safe holiday season! Here are some of the photos from the memories we made this year:

Opening a gift at the Schelle Christmas

My Great-Grandma Schelle, she will be 95 next month and is such a doll!

Ainsley writing on her new dry erase board with Grandpa.

Gingerbread house complete!

Ainsley and Santa (and me:)) Kaylee still not a big fan of him in person.

At the State Farm visit they have various "scenes" set up for photo taking. Kaylee opted to participate in this, Ainsley not so much.

Getting ready to leave for Kaylee's Holiday Program.

Doing some arts and crafts at the Duffy Family Christmas. This one was creating your own manger scene with some stickers.

Presents

Collecting candy after the pinata broke.

Baking cookies with Mee-Maw

I saw this in a magazine and thought I would try it out.

Hanging out with Uncle Weezie and Sarah. Like Ainsley's new robe?

She looks like she's ready to box!

Ainsley lovin on her new pillow pet.

Kaylee having a bit of a breakdown at the end of Christmas Eve,

the other grandkids were still in good spirits.

Kaylee and Skyeler playing with some of their new toys.

It's always good to get socks and golf balls for Christmas! Look how happy they are!!

Christmas morning! The girls checking out what Santa left for them.

Christmas is never complete until there is a dance party with Aunt Kristin!