White Trash Bash

Yep, you read that title right.  Jeremy and Kathleen had a "White Trash Bash" on Saturday where they had a 100 foot slip n slide and you were to wear your "White Trash" finest to the event.  Joel and Thomas dressed the part and went over that afternoon to have a good time.  I had a bridal shower in Bethalto, so Ainsley and I only made it to the bash for an hour or so.  Everyone that went down the slip n slide had scratches all over their stomachs, and I'm sure most were pretty sore the next day.  It's too bad I didn't get a picture of Thom's tattoos that he did himself on his arm, in a Sharpie I might add.  Darlean was the first name and it was crossed out (notice the spelling), Shanequa was the second name and it was crossed out, and then Willy was in a heart with an arrow going through it. 

Brianna and her White Trash Daddy-Brian

Yep, his butt said "JUICY"



My lovely White Trash husband



White Trash baby Ainsley with Uncle Thom's fake mustache as eyebrows



Let's just say that the party ended white trash style!

Ainsley and I went to Bethalto for Micah's fiance's bridal shower Saturday afternoon.  She did really good considering it was a long day in the car for her.  She only cried a few times, and I think that was when Aunt Royce was pinching her.  (kidding!) 

Ready for the shower



Kisses for my baby!  She opens her mouth everytime you try too kiss her now.



Aunt Di, Ainsley, Delaney, and Aunt Roycelyn at the shower



BEAUTIFUL cupcakes, and they were yummy too!

Sunday morning Ainsley looked through the newspaper ads with Mommy.  She loves the paper, but she likes shopping in the ads more!

Jack turned 9 on Sunday went over to celebrate!  It's hard to believe he'll be in the double digits next year.

All of our nieces and nephews plus Ainsley!

Ainsley is getting stronger every day.  If she's sitting on our lap, she will usually try to pull her body away from ours instead of leaning on it.   I tell Joel that she's working her tummy muscles already.   She is still in love with her feet and tongue.  Her tongue is constantly out and if it is possible with the way she's sitting/laying, she'll grab her feet. 



She's giving me the bird!  I guess she didn't like her headband!

I know it's a terrible habit, but she's been really hard to put down for bed at night or for her naps.  She fights sleep, so we've been laying her in our bed until she falls asleep and then moving her to her crib.  I'm sure we're going to regret it, but it works for now. 

 

Playing with her sing-a-ma-jig

Drake came over last night to spend a few hours with us.  He usually ignores Ainsley, but he took a special interest in her bath time.  He wanted to watch, so I pulled a chair over so he could see her in the bathtub.  He wanted me to pull the chair over to the island after her bath so he could watch me lotion her and put her pajamas on.  Of course, he had a million questions....what's the white thing in the bottom of her tub (the drain), how did the water get in her tub, where does the water go, could he watch the water go down the drain, etc. etc. etc.   

Bath time!

Ainsley enjoyed having an audience at bath time!



Such a little cheeser!



Ainsley will be 6 months on Monday, which unfortunately means more shots.   

Abby's Bridal Shower

Sunday, Ainsley and I headed down to Lone Oak for Abby's bridal shower.  The shower lastest about an hour and Abby got lots of nice gifts.  Of course, she didn't like being in front of everyone opening gifts.  Can you believe that one????  Abby, shy?  Were those two words really in the same sentence? (Is that even considered a sentence?  Aunt Peg?)  

Ainsley's ready for the shower

Ainsley was needing her afternoon nap as the shower was starting, and I'm glad Jamie and Aunt Sudi was there to take care of her.  Aunt Sudi got her to sleep right as the shower was ending, and of course, the little stinker woke up a few minutes after falling asleep.


Aunt Jamie and Ainsley

I still can't believe Abby's going to be getting married in less than two months.  I know for a fact that I'm more stressed over her wedding than she is.  I'm too much of a planner, and she's too go-with-the flow.


Abby with bridesmaids

Abby, me, and Ainsley

Ainsley is now able to grab both of her feet.  For the last few weeks, she could only grab her right foot, but now she can get both of them.  Last night she also was able to get one of her rattles up to her mouth and chew on it for awhile.  Her tongue is constantly out now.  Here's a video of her laughing and of course, she's playing with her feet and tongue!

Her appetite is finally coming back.  She took 4 ounces for me in less than 5 minutes last night and screamed until I made her more.  I made another 4 ounces and she took it in less than 10 minutes and probably would have taken more if I would have fixed it.  She's only been taking 3-5 ounces at a time for a couple weeks and it usually takes her 20-30 minutes to get that down.  She also ate a lot of oatmeal cereal, half a container of pears, and half a container of carrots last night.  Maybe she's just growing again, but it makes Mommy feel better when she eats!


Her usual "deer in headlights look"



She loves sticking her tongue out!

Ainsley's new toy

Ainsley found her feet last week and she thinks they're the greatest toy around.   It makes bath time hard when she won't let go of her foot and thinks she needs to kick her legs constantly.  But, I don't care.  It's so cute to watch her grab a hold of her big toe and hang onto it for dear life while she kicks her leg. 

Last Wednesday was Ainsley/Daddy day.  That morning, Joel dressed her and then brought her into my office to make sure he did okay picking out her outfit.  He had her in a pink onesie and a pink skirt that did not match.  I just laughed and told him he could dress her in whatever he wanted.  He sighed and took her back to the changing table and came back out with her dressed in a onesie and her "skinny" jeans.  Then, he took her into the living room and I could hear him talking to her (which is hilarious half the time).  I hear him say to her:  "Here, watch some tv on the Declaration of Independence among some other things."  He had put her in her bouncer in front of the tv (which was on the history channel) while he finished getting ready.  Joel took her down to Dad's while he got his hair cut, and it was Dad's first real babysitting experience.  She stayed at his house with him for a hour or so.   He said she was fine, and just took a bottle.  We were hoping she'd poop for him so he'd have to deal with that, but it didn't happen!

Mom, Tanner, and Emilee came over Wednesday afternoon and this is what Mom thought of her outfit!

Thursday night started a rough next few days.  Hettick had a pretty bad rain that night around 7 and got anywhere from 3-4 inches of rain.  Dad said he was sitting on the couch when he heard something that sounded like thunder, so he went over to the window by the wood stove to look out and he could only see about half of the trash cans that sit outside that window.  He went down to the basement and the entire south wall of the basement caved in.  All the blocks and tons of dirt had fallen in.  There were two huge holes where there was no longer a wall.  My old bedroom was off that end of the house, so it actually helped that it was there and the entire south wall wasn't completely open to the basement.  We were all sick.  Where do you even begin when something like this happens?  Joel and I headed down to Dad's Friday morning after stopping in Jacksonville to grab some basement joists and dropping Ainsley off at Kathleen's.  Thank goodness Kathleen was able to watch Ainsley for us on such short notice, because there was no way we were taking her with us to Dad's.

Here's a picture Kathleen sent me of Ainsley and Lani.  I think Ainsley was pretty entertained all day between the attention from Lani, Jack, and Kathleen. 


Lani reading to Ainsley

When we got down to Dad's, it looked just as bad as I expected.    Dad, Joel, and Tanner started getting some of the blocks out of the basement while I got on the phone trying to get in touch with someone that could come and look at it to tell us what we needed to do.  Dad had called the insurance company the night before and they said that they didn't think it would be covered.  We still wanted someone to come out to look at it, to make sure it wasn't covered.  The lady from State Farm finally came out on Monday afternoon and confirmed that it wasn't covered because it was caused from hydrostatic water pressure.  It's terrible that it isn't covered, and I'll leave it at that. 


Southwest basement



Southeast basement



Joel and Tanner working to get some mud out so they could get more joists up.

 

I'm sure they were saying:  Now what???

I was able to get in touch with John Hammond Friday morning and he was nice enough to come out and look at it that afternoon, even though he was still off work from surgery.  He was able to find a company from Springfield, and that owner was able to come down about 7 Friday night to look at it and give us an estimate.  He was able to give us an estimate over the phone that afternoon and we didn't know what the best option was after hearing that estimate.  I had started to call to check on manufactured homes because at that point, we were thinking it would be more cost effective to just doze the house and bring something new in.  Thankfully, we went ahead and had the guy from Springfield come down to give us a better estimate and he told us that he would pull his guys off of the other jobs and he could start on Monday morning.  He told us it would only take about a week and he could rebuild the south wall and repair the other walls of the basement.  I know I felt like a ton of weight had been lifted off my shoulders when we found out Jack-A-Slab (the company from Springfield) would be able to do the job.  We're still going to have to tear off my old bedroom from the house after they get the wall rebuilt.  I went down Monday afternoon and they had about half of the dirt/blocks out of the basement and were working hard.  I felt terrible for the guys.  It was so hot with a heat index around 110.

Dad unwinding Friday night around midnight after dealing with the basement all day

They finished the job Friday night, so Dad's house is half way back to normal.  They built the entire south wall and had they shored the other three walls of the basement.  I'm so glad they were able to get to it so quickly.

Last Saturday night we went to the Charlie Daniels Band concert at the Morgan County Fair.  Thomas and Jamie kept Ainsley for us that night, and I think she did pretty good.  They kept Avery the night before, so by Sunday morning I think they were pretty tired. 


Jake and Ainsley

The concert was good, and it was nice to get out and away from Dad's house and forget about things for a night.  I think I was just as excited to get a corndog and funnel cake as I was for the actual concert.  It's been years since I've had fair food.  Of course, Joel was mad because I just wanted a bite or two of each and then he had to eat the rest.  Needless to say, by the time we pulled in the garage, my passenger seat and floor board of my car was covered in powdered sugar (and still is) from Joel eating the funnel cake. 


The guys at the concert

 

Sara, Jennifer, Me, and Brianna at the Charlie Daniels concert



Charlie getting down with the fiddle

I was able to get some work caught up last Sunday, and got play time in with Ainsley.  It seemed like she'd been tossed around with everything going on and it was nice to spend the day with her. 


Ainsley and Daddy napping on Sunday

Ainsley started to get a runny nose Tuesday afternoon and I took her into the doctor Thursday morning so we could rule out an ear infection.  The doctor said she just had a little cold and sent us on our way.  I'm glad that's all it was, and she's feeling much better.  She was 18 pounds 7 ounces on Thursday.  It seems like she's slowing down on gaining weight, but I'm wondering if it's because she's getting longer.  She just doesn't seem as chubby as she did a month ago!  We have her 6 month wellness check on the 1st, so we'll get all her measurements then.

For Father's Day, I got Ainsley a Packer's Fan onesie (since Joel is a huge fan), but I ordered it in a 12 month.  I'm sure she's going to be in a bigger size by football season (if there is one this year), so I needed to get her in it at least once.  I put her in it the other day and took some pictures so I could send to Joel.  We tried our first photo shoot around 1 in the afternoon and the sun was way too bright for the little miss.  She wouldn't open her eyes and by the time I got her back in the house, her eyes were watering.  We had only been outside for a total of 2 minutes at the most, but my baby needed her sunglasses on!  Here's a picture from our try at 1.

C'mon Mom-it's too bright for me!

I took her back out around 5:30 and got a few more pictures.



Sticking out her tongue

Ainsley has been sitting in her bumbo seat while I fix supper.  I was reading the paper while waiting on supper to get done and she was fascinated by the newspaper.  I don't know if it's because it's so big, or the noise it makes, but she loves it.  I gave it to her to play with and she sat there for 10-15 minutes and played with it while I got the rest of supper done.

The one thing Mommy didn't think of was the mess it would leave.  There was black ink all over her and the seat.  I don't think she'll be getting the newspaper any time soon.  She'll have to be happy with a catalog from here on out.

It's kind of hard to see in the picture, but her seat, toes, fingers, etc. were covered in ink!

I had to run some errands yesterday afternoon, so Joel took Ainsley over to Jeremy and Kathleen's.  I was just about to their house when Joel called me and said that Ainsley had pooped all over.  He said they had just put her in the bumbo seat to feed her, and she grunted and then pooped.  They didn't think it was that bad and Kathleen picked her up from the seat and was patting her back and looked at her hand and had poop all over it!  They said it was everywhere...all over the bumbo seat, her back, Kathleen, etc.  I don't get how Joel always gets lucky and never has to deal with it himself.  One of these days he'll get a good one, and I can't wait!  Of course, Jack and Lani thought it was the most disgusting thing ever (which it was pretty gross) and as soon as I pulled in the driveway Lani came running out into the garage yelling:  "Yuck, yuck, yuck, yuck, yuck!" 

It seems like Ainsley isn't eating as much as she was a few weeks ago.  She's changing every day and has started to look up to see who is holding her.  It makes my heart melt every time she looks up at me with her big blue eyes to make sure it's still me holding her.  She's so nosey and loves to watch people.  Laughing is becoming a regular occurance, and it's usually when you scare her.  Ignore the camera jumping around and me, but here's a video of her from last week.  She's started playing with her rattles and little toys.  See a video here of her playing with her toy.  I can't get shoes on her, because her feet are too fat.  She fights sleep and will "talk" herself to sleep.  She has figured out how to jump in the jumperoo and can sit in there for an hour or so at a time and play.  Check out how high she can jump here.  She loves to play with her bug toy that hangs on her carseat in the car.  All of those things make me love her more every day!


Ainsley says "Have a good week and stay cool!"