Florida 2009

Look at that Snapper

Patrick, Brayden and the Barracuda

Patrick working on reelin' in a shark

Brayden on the fishing boat

Daddy and Ainsley on the cruise boat

The Fam

Brayden and Ainsley before we went on a sight seeing cruise

The view from our living room window

Ainsley and Brayden enjoying the view

Daddy and Ainsley at the airport


We had so much fun in Florida. Well...except for the part when I got sick. Saturday morning I wasn't feeling very well. I felt like I couldn't breathe and of course I didn't have an inhaler with me. My mom called the Dr. and had and inhaler called in for me so that I could breathe. I stayed at the hotel most of Saturday, the inhaler made it easier for me to breathe but I finally realized that the reason I felt so bad was because I had a fever of 101.9. I took some Motrin and after that I finally started to feel better and we all decided to go down to the pool. I started feeling lousy again later that evening. By Sunday morning I felt just awful and I couldn't get rid of my fever. I didn't leave the room on Sunday, but at least I had a nice view to look at. My dad called the Dr. again and had him call me in some antibiotics, which is what finally got me feeling better. Tuesday, my dad, Brayden, Patrick and me all went out fishing. We had a great time. My dad hooked a fish which quickly turned into a shark, when a shark came up and ate the fish that was on his line. The boat captain, the deckhand and Patrick all took turns trying to reel in the shark. But, after about 45 minutes and 1 mile later, the line broke and we were all a little disappointed because we just wanted to get a picture of it at least. We also had a interesting run in with a barracuda that kept eating the fish we were catching, but a gaff, took care of him. We caught quite a few snapper and my dad caught a bunch of weird fish, but all in all we had a good time. Brayden spent most of the fishing trip sleeping, but he did catch a couple fish and he got to see the barracuda. The rest of the time there was pretty low key, but it was nice just to relax and take in the beautiful scenery. Ainsley wasn't a huge fan of the sand but she still had fun at the beach. Overall we had a great time in Florida we can't wait to go back next year. If you want to see the rest of our Florida pictures, leave me a comment and I will email you a link so you can check them out. Oh, and btw, the above pictures upload in the reverse order from what the actually happened. The last picture is of Patrick and Ainsley on the way to Florida. One day I will figure out how to get them in the right order, but today is not that day.

We Made It!!

We are in Florida. Traveling with a 1 year old was definitely a new experience but it was actually really good. Patrick walked Ainsley around the airport terminal for about an hour before we got on the plane to make sure that she was good and tired. When we got on the plane (quite possibly the smallest plane ever) she had a bottle and little snack and then it was nap time in daddy's lap. This was the smallest plane that I have ever been on and I will definitely say that I much prefer the huge jumbo jets to the little puddle jumpers. It only had 3 seat in each row, one on one side of the aisle and 2 on the other. I just glad that Ainsley slept most of the way because they took her diaper bag from me and put it somewhere several rows behind us in the over head bin. So I didn't exactly have easy access to it. We decided not to wait at the airport for mom and dad, instead we just took a shuttle bus to our hotel. When we got here all 3 of us were exhausted so we put Ainsley down for a nap and me and Patrick relaxed for a little. we have an amazing view from our room. We are right on the corner of the beach and the intercoastal water way. I will post some pics as soon as I take some. I can't wait to see all the things there is to do. Check back soon for pics.

Ainsley Loves her New Blanket!

So of course Ainsley loved all of her birthday presents, but there seems to be one in particular that has been a big hit. Her new blanket that Mimaw made for her. She absolutely loves it. I set it down on the floor for her to see and she immediately laid her head down on it and put her thumb in her mouth. So Cute! She has never done that with any other blanket so it was very cute. She knew that this was a special blanket made with love just for her. Here are a few pictures of her with her new blanket. Thanks Mimaw for the beautiful blanket.

Just testing it out

Oh, it's just perfect!


Let me get a closer look...

Nap time anyone?

BTW...my mom did the embroidery on the blanket. Her new business is called Simply Stitched and her website will be coming soon.

Birthday Party Pictures!!

I promised some Party pictures, and here they are...

She decided to really get a hold of it

Sharing with daddy

Ainsley just wanting to share her cake

Just getting started...

The birthday girl and daddy

Water slide Fun! Brayden loves this thing.

The Birthday Girl in her Birthday Outfit

I am still trying to master the art of uploading pictures, I can never seem to get them in the right order, but oh well. A big thanks to my parents for helping with the Party, and also to Jenn who designed Ainsley's birthday attire. All in all I think the birthday party was a big success despite the 103 degree temperature. We had lots of fun and we enjoyed getting to spend a special day with family and friends. There will probably be more birthday pics to come. My sister took some with her camera and I haven't gotten them from her yet. Stay tuned...

I'm still alive

I know that it has been forever since I last posted anything, so here is a run down of what is going on with us.

Well, we moved to Fort Worth, that is definitely the biggest change. Moving is always stressful, but I think that both of us underestimated how stressful it was going to be. We ended up having to make multiple trips and we still couldn't get everything. We started new jobs working for Paladin Prepared, which hasn't gone exactly as planned. I was working part time because I was also staying at home with Ainsley, but now I am not working at all and I am just staying home. I do enjoy getting to spend so much time with my baby girl, but I also wasn't expecting to only have one income, which is definitely a source of stress. So now I am actively searching for another job and hopefully something comes along. Please pray for us.

June is a busy month for us. Me, Ainsley and my grandma, all have June birthdays, and there is also Father's Day. I had a good birthday with family and friends. I'm a whole quarter of a century old (I guess I can't tell Patrick that he is old now, being that we are both 25 now). We had dinner at my parents for my Grandma's birthday and that was nice. Ainsley's birthday was on the 22nd. I can't believe that my big girl is One! We haven't had her party yet, it's going to be Sunday the 28th, and I will post some pictures after that.


Patrick's 1st Father's Day
I wasn't sure if I wanted to tell the whole story that goes along with Patrick's Father's Day present, but I think that its only fitting that I do. So, I wanted to get him something special since it was his 1st Father's Day. I wanted it to be personal in some way, but I also didn't want to get him something cheesy, like a "World's Greatest Dad" shirt. He had been telling me about things that he wanted for weeks, I mean months. But none of those things seemed like good 1st Father's Day presents. So a few weeks ago I was checking my email and I had an advertisement from Big Lots. I looked at the ad and they had this really cute Wagon Wheel Bench. I liked it and I thought that Patrick would too. I decided that me and Ainsley would go and take a look at it before we had lunch with Patrick. We went over to Big Lots and we combed the entire store and I couldn't find it. I was a little disappointed but we didn't have a lot of time so I picked up a few other things and headed for the check out. We got in the car and about that time I saw the bench in the window. I didn't see it originally because it was on the other side of the checkout which is not usually where you find things for sale since by the time you get to that part of the store you should have already paid. I was annoyed because I already had Ainsley in the car and I was backing out. I decided that I would just come back later.

So later that evening I decided to go to a Big Lots which I thought was a little closer and see if they had the bench. I get all the way over there to find that Big Lots is no longer there anymore. I got back to the house and I told my sister where I had been and she informed me that Big Lots didn't close they just moved farther down the street. I decided not to worry about it and I would decide later if I really wanted to get it for him. A couple of days later I decided that I wanted it so I went over to the relocated store and picked it up. Patrick is incredibly nosey and he makes it very difficult to surprise him. So after I bought the bench I decided to take it to our storage unit and hide it in there. This way he wouldn't be asking any questions and I knew that he wouldn't be snooping if he thought that I didn't buy anything. I thought it would be really cool to somehow brand "Happy Father's Day, Love Ainsley" on the back rest of the bench. I remembered that I had a wood burning tool when I was younger and I thought that that would probably work. I went and picked one up at Hobby Lobby and a couple of small pieces of wood to practice on. When I got home I practiced a few times on the wood pieces and it proved to be harder than I thought. It was really hard to get it to look evenly burned and being the perfectionist that I am, I wasn't sure if it was going to work. I left the wood burner sitting out on a shelf so that it could cool down.

Later that evening my mom sees the wood burner and was like "oh, you went and bought one of those burners". Patrick was sitting right there and she knew that all of this was a surprise. I gave her this look, you know the look I'm talking about (the shut up look). She then tried to cover up her flub because Patrick of course starting asking questions. Her response was terrible, but luckily he let it go and didn't ask anymore questions.

Several days later, Patrick and I went to Michael's to get some things to make Ainsley's birthday invitations. We looked around the whole store and I saw some alphabet stamps that attach to the wood burning tool. I knew that if I used the stamps, it would look way better than it I did it free hand. So, I made a mental note that when I was alone I would come back and get the stamps. This story is getting way to long, so I will just say that I did go back and get the stamps and I burned into the bench "Happy Father's Day, Love Ainsley". I completed it the night before Father's Day and I went ahead and gave it to him because I didn't have a way to hide it. Needless to say, He loved it. I was very excited and I was glad that he appreciated all the effort that went into it. Oh, btw, when I was putting it together I had to take it back apart 3 times because I messed up. I can't imagine why I messed up, could have been the tiny pictures and the fact that the instructions where very obviously written in English by a Chinese person.

Father's Day was great! We had a nice lunch here at my parents and that evening we went over to Plano and had dinner with Patrick's parents. It was fun.

Ainsley
Ainsley is now talking so much. Most of it is jibber jabber, but she does say quite a few words (Mama, Dada, Daddy, Thank you, tree, sit, uh oh, bed, baby). She loves her daddy. She is constantly talking about daddy, its very cute.

I am going to try to stay caught up and keep you informed of whats going on with us, since I am staying at home now. But I'm not making any promises. Also, pictures will be coming soon, I have to upload them from my camera. Love to all.

-Steph

Updates

Our big girl pushing her giraffe in her stroller

Pretty girl in the Bluebonnets





Boston and Ainsley at the Borg Egg Hunt

Happy Easter everyone, I hope everyone had a great Easter. We had a really good one. We went to see Patrick's parents and then we went and saw my family. It was a great 4-day weekend. Everyone enjoyed getting to see Ainsley. She is getting so big, she's almost 10 months now. It did make me sad that she doesn't know our families and was scared at first of all the unfamiliar faces. When we went to my parents and everyone came over on Easter Sunday, Ainsley was a little overwhelmed and she cried a lot more than she normally does. I'm not used to her acting like that, but then I realized that she is only ever around me and Patrick and her babysitter's and we are all familiar to her.

The weekend before Easter Ainsley and I went up to Fort Worth for the 1st Annual Borg family Easter Egg Hunt and Lauren's baby shower. We had a great time riding the train and getting to see everyone, including baby Lyla and baby Beckham, who were only 10 days old and 3 weeks old at the time. Me, Ainsley and my mom went to Super Target saturday night and we ran into my sister and Boston. It was so cute as we were walking around the store Jenn and I were pushing our carts right next to each other and Boston and Ainsley were just talking to each other. It was super cute. The next day we went to Lauren's baby shower. She got lots of wonderful things for baby Lily, who we expect to arrive later this week.

I know that I am jumping around with the order that all these things happened, but I am just typing them as I think. When we saw our families at Easter it was the first time that we had seen them in a while, and it got me thinking about how I really don't want Ainsley to grow up with out knowing her family. When I was growing up my grandparents were a constant in my life, and I want that for Ainsley. I want her to know her grandparents and great grandparents and her cousins. Boston and Ainsley are only 4 and half months aparts, what an awesome thing it would be for them to grow up together. On that note we have made a big decision to think about moving to Fort Worth. My family is there and Patrick's family is only an hour away in Plano. We have some plans in the works and we are trying to get all the details worked out so that we can move forward. I feel like this is an awesome opportunity for our family and I am nervous but very excited about it. We will be very sad to leave Conroe, because it is where our life is and where we had our baby girl. We will also miss all of our wonderful friends. I'll keep you updated on when all of this is going to take place. Please pray for our family as we prepare for this big change in our lives. By the way, our Ainsley bug, is getting so big she is now standing up by herself without pulling up onto something. She'll probably be walking before we know it.

Sick...

Our big girl

Ainsley and the little piggy
At Boston's party

Boston and Ainsley looking at the chicks

First haircut

she's already driving




It's been a rough week in the Houlihan house, each of us have been feeling bad. Its as if as soon as one starts feeling better the other one starts feeling bad. We are very excited because we are supposed to take Ainsley to the Houston livestock show and rodeo tomorrow. We are still not sure if we are going to be able to go because I started feeling really bad yesterday afternoon and I've been in bed all day today. I really hope that I am feeling better tomorrow. I am anxious to see how she reacts to all the animals. She has really started to gibber jabber lately, she is now saying "Da Da" all the time and occasionally she will say "Ma Ma". She is such a happy baby she's always talking and smiling, we are very blessed. She has begun to pull herself up. I think she is still very surprised when she does it. Sometimes she tries to use "non stationary" objects to try and pull up on and it doesn't turn out good. We've had a few bumps on the head lately. That's all for now, I think I'm going to go back to sleep and hopefully get to feeling better.

I wanted to share some recent pictures, so the ones above are from her first haircut, Boston's birthday party, and a picture of her looking like a big girl with daddy.