Scooting into Fall

We celebrated my birthday with a cake that consisted of delicious pieces of pineapple. Delicious cake for breakfast. (Okay, this may sound strange but I was posing for the picture. I just think that it's funny when people get their picture taken when blowing out candles on a birthday cake. Your face is always distorted in funny shapes. You're not exactly concentrating on how your face looks, more on how to make sure you don't miss the cake.)

Ainsley was jealous and wanted a piece of pineapple cake too for breakfast. It was a great birthday.

Ainsley loves to help Aubrey get ready in the morning, a real fashion/beauty consultant. She thinks it's funny to sit in the sink in front of mommy, until she slides down and then demands to be sat back up again. She's developing some great skills of organizing.

One day when daddy didn't have school we took a morning trip to the local park and played on the playground. Ainsley was a little too scared of the slide; funny because she's never too scared to avoid crawling over the edge of the bed, head-first. (It's lucky that mom and dad have such fast reflexes.)

It was a fun morning at the park, a little cool but it's a nice change from the heat of a long summer. Fall is fun. (Falling is not.)

Ainsley loves the soccer ball that Grandpa Winter bought her at IKEA a while ago. She loves playing catch with someone; she's pretty good at it too.

Ainsley has officially started crawling, well at least we're going to count it as crawling. She army scoots around the house now. She's best at it when there's something she wants: daddy's cell phone, things to pull off the couch, toys, or chasing mommy around the house. Everything of a semi-questionable nature is inching up higher and higher.

Our funny little girl loves music and is quite interested in learning more about it. We borrowed a piano from our neighbors, the Robinson's so Aubrey could practice. Ainsley loves practicing too.

Funny girl. I just had to post this funny picture of our little primadonna, drama queen. She's walking around all the furniture as long as she has something firm to hold onto. She stoped one night to pose for a picture, angry that daddy was interupting her from making it to the other side of the couch.

Aunt Chelsea helped her play a piano at grandpa/grandma's barn. She was happy she discovered toys to play with...everyone else maybe not as glad she figured out it was a piano.

Last free Monday, when daddy didn't have school, we all piled into the car to visit the aquarium in Sandy. We met up with the Winters there and it was fun to see all the different fish. Ainsley loved looking at some, until she was tired or decided they were scary. Oh well, it was a fun trip and she loves animals.

We tried to get some good October pictures for Ainsley's first Halloween/fall. Here's what we got.

It was hard to get her to look at anything besides all the amazing dirt clods she wanted to play with and eventually taste. She likes the pumpkins so far, at least she likes to bop them with her hands. (Not as cool as a dog though.)

Cute girl. Scratched her face in the car, darn, on our way to take pictues. Oh well.

Now she's learned she doesn't need a couch or shelf to get around the house. Ainsley has started to use even the walls to help her get where she wants to go. Unfortunately it doesn't support her so well so she'll let us know when she needs to be rescued from the wall in the hallway.

August 2010 - Our little comedian

August was a fun month. Ainsley keeps getting funnier and it keeps going more to her head. Frankly, she thinks she is hilarious sometimes. Here's some of our zany highlights from August.

Ainsley loves to help mom with the laundry. She loves to pretend to be a sock monster. Very scary but very funny.

Being funny puts the fun into diner time. She loves to play around with the spoon, holding it tightly in her mouth.

Ainsley loves to play dress up. We pulled some fun hats out of mom and dad's closet and Ainsley loved wearing them; okay, we loved putting them on her and laughing but she seemed to understand she looked funny and loved the attention.

With daddy's newsies hat on she was ready to Seize the Day...or the purple teething toy.

For a fun FHE, Aubrey taught about Noah and the Ark and Ainsley got to fill an ark (kitchen pot) with animals (her favorite stuffed animals). It was a difficult lesson to figure out which animals to leave behind when she decided to put her favorite stuffed bear in the ark. (He filled the ark completely.)

One of Ainsley's favorite toys was a disco ball that I got when I was in high school. I was about to take it to the DI the other day to clean up a closet but we put it in Ainsley's room instead...instant hit. There's something magical about hundreds of little lights all around your room when you're a diva.

Ainsley loves books. She loves her Hop on Pop book and the nighttime tradition of reading time before bedtime.

She loves reading her animal picture book when mommy is reading her magazines. Very fun.

On my last day of freedom, before school started we celebrated by going on a day trip to downtown Salt Lake. We visited the temple, had some German food (to surprise mommy with her favorite food to celebrate her birthday), and got a treat before going home.

Her favorite way to ride in her stroller is with the feet on the dashboard. She is such a cute girl and so active. She loves moving and her stroller is usually a good place to be when it's in motion.

The Stout family had a fun get together in August where we played games in the backyard. There's so much to see outside and Ainsley loves exploring the great outdoors, as long as mommy is right within an arm's reach.

August was fun. Lots of adventure, laughter and smiles.

July 2010 - FHE Can Be So Much Fun

We had a great Family Home Evening lesson the other night as we learned about Adam and Eve. The highlight of the evening was when mommy put out some applesauce so Ainsley could feel apples and play with them. Kind of promoting the decision but Ainsley loved the object lesson.


"There might be something with this fun stuff, maybe a lotion or something for my legs."

She watched this little glob so closely and played with it on her fingertips, trying to figure out more precisely what it was.

Oh well, it was so much fun to play with apples. "Thanks mommy for not being affraid to let me get super messy." She loves bathtime afterwords though.

July 2010 - Cabin Escape

We took a Sunday to meet as a family up at my grandparent's cabin in Big Cottonwood Canyon. It's in an incredibly relaxing place, beautiful cottonwood trees and mountains everywhere. It was good to take a break to recharge for more school and such.


The cabin is very comfortable and Ainsley was unusually cranky that day but we managed to still have fun.

We found the trick was to go outside and explore the forest all around us which includes pretty flowers that Ainsley loves to pick and carry (and eventually eat).

One of her favorite ways to travel is on daddy's shoulders. She pulls pretty hard on my hair but she loves it so much that its hard to say no.

Here's Ainsley, me and my mom. We enjoyed our quick hike around the beautiful forest.

July 2010 - Ch Ch Ch Ch Changes

Our landlord is so nice, it helps when she's your aunt, and she let us paint a little bit of the house. We took one of my few days off to go through the house and paint.


Here's the office room were I spend many hours studying so I gave it a more friendly color for my studying habits.

We painted the bedroom and bathroom a pale blue color that looks great on the walls. Very calming and we have noticed our color choices have matured now that we're parents.

Ainsley loves music and after a hard day's work Ainsley loves watching dance to her favorite music; cute girl.

July 2010 - BYC Game Night

Two weeks ago we had the Stout Family's yearly competition, the BackYard Championship. This is the epic competition in which we all compete as a family for the prized trophy that signifies sporting excellence. We golf around my parents backyard, setting up new targets as we go. We had a fun time and celebrated Jared's birthday that night too.


We found a golf club that was Jackson's size and he had a fun time golfing around the yard.

Ainsley didn't want to golf at first but she definitely enjoyed sticking her tongue out at the lawn.

Ryan was taking an early edge, pushing the defending champion (Steve) into a defensive position.

Ainsley ended up getting into the competition when everyone offered her the golf balls. She thought they were fun toys.

The second part of the evening was a home-spun version of the game show, Minute to Win It. We played the games from the show in the backyard and inside. Jackson was having fun with the games, using some special strategies of his own to succeed.

Ryan ended up wining the competition, forcing my dad to give up the coveted trophy for this year. I think I'll have a good shot at next year; maybe I'll ask Jackson for some tips on my short game.

We had so much fun with the games from the TV show. We send out a big thank you to Ryan for setting them up.

July 2010 - Our New Place

We moved the first part of July after getting back from Disney World. What a quick transition! Nate's already gone through his first class and is almost done with his second. Ainsley and Aubrey wanted to show off the new place.


Ainsley loves the new place and also has picked up a fun new activity; brushing her teeth. She has six now and thinks its funny to brush them.

Here is the kitchen. Aubrey is enjoying the appliances we have here and so much counter space and shelving/storage.

Here's the slow, moving process underway. This room will eventually become the family room for sitting in.

Ainsley decided mommy was having too much fun showing off the rooms so she volunteered to take the next room. Here's the bathroom with the funny girl that she sees in the mirror. She has cute red hair just like Ainsley and is so funny. She can just laugh and laugh with her reflection.

She also wanted to show off her bedroom that's still a work in progress. Wheel of Fortune might be down her road, she's a natural.

Ainsley loves helping daddy with his homework. Although her typing skills and random button pushing makes the process even longer. She's such a cute helper though that it's hard to say no to her help.