Trip to see Spencer

Pretty cute, huh!

Well, so much for getting caught up last week....

On April 23rd, Ainsley and I boarded a plane and headed to Everett to visit the new baby! I am so thankful for the children I have…..traveling was a breeze. Ainsley took care of her luggage and even entertained herself for a good part of the plane ride. Grandma Peggy met us at the Bellingham airport and took us to Liha’s. It was a nice treat to see her again :o). We got there pretty close to bed time (Allegiant only has one flight a day and for $18 one way and $38 the other, I couldn’t complain) and I knew it was going to be a late night. Ainsley and Maggie were very excited to see each other and went off to play right away. I held the baby for awhile and then Ainsley wanted to hold the baby. We video-conferenced Reggie and Ryan, so they could be part of it too. The girls were going to do a sleepover, but that didn’t work out, so Ainsley slept with me. She woke up bright and early the next morning and looked at me and said with a smile, “Thanks for sleeping with me mommy.” She thought that was pretty cool...what a cutie!!! I had no idea what time it was, so I laid there for a little while and then decided to get up and take a shower. I looked at my phone and it was only 6:45, OUCH!!! The girls were already busy playing. Spencer is a great baby….sleeps a lot and doesn’t mind having anyone and everyone hold him. Newborn are so small and so warm and they smell sooo good :o). When he was awake, he was already holding up his head and looking all around. We went to the Mukilteo garage sale for a bit and he just slept…I hope the honeymoon period is long!
We ate out at my favorite places, the Mongolian Grill and Taco Del Mar. I was a happy camper :o). My mom and dad stayed at Liha’s while we were there and Aunt Pam, Aunt Jeanne and Kirsten came for a visit, so it was one big party. I’m sure Liha and Wade were quite lonely after we all left (or quite relieved!). Ainsley and Maggie had a weekend of fun, dressing up as princesses, putting washable nail polish on (what a great invention!), dancing, playing babies, venturing out in the rain, braiding hair and holding the baby!!! I'm not sure Ainsley wore any of the clothes we brought :o).

Fun with Uncle Wade:

Spencer time:Fun with fingernail polish:Girls dancing to the Doodlebops:

We headed up to the lake Sunday night because it is a little closer to the airport and we had to arrive at 7:30. Too many early morning for me, but I survived. Ainsley was very excited to be at the lake and headed straight to the loft to say hello to all her babies :o). She had some good play time in the loft with grandma. I headed straight for the new kitchen. It is going to be soooo cool when it is finished. I don't see us spending much time in any other room!
It was a quick weekend, but was still nice to come home and Ainsley and Reggie were very happy to see each other. Reggie had a few more toys than when we left and I think he gained a couple pounds too! Ryan kept him busy, going to the movies, ice cream, Chuck E Cheese, tadpole hunting, a birthday party, McDonald’s, Taco Del Mar, Red Robin, etc. Let’s just say, they had a good time as well!

Catch-up

Well, I've been a bit behind on my blogging, but Ryan is in Chicago all week, so hopefully, I'll get caught up (or close!).

Trip to Monterey and Spring Break (April 2nd):
Our trip to Monterey was on Easter weekend. Ryan got good Friday off, so we decided to do something fun. We had heard great things about the aquarium there, so we had to check it out. We were going to stop in Santa Cruz on the way, but the weather didn’t cooperate, so we stopped at Chuck E. Cheese instead. We found the mother ship of all the Chuck E. Cheese’s and the kids had a blast. Chuck E. even came for a visit and tossed tickets from the second floor to the first and our table happened to be right underneath, so we got at least a hundred tickets! After lunch, we made the drive to Monterey and we were all excited to go in the pool at the hotel. I think the last time the kids stayed in a hotel was in 2008 in Maui! So, Ryan and Reggie checked out the pool while I stayed in the car with napping Ainsley. Wasn’t quite what we were expecting….turns out they don’t heat the pool :o(. That is a question I will know to ask for next time. We only paid $60/night, so I guess you get what you pay for sometimes. However, the condition of the room was great!

Since the pool was a no go, we decided to go to the aquarium Friday night for a couple hours and then go back Sat. morning, since it is so big. The kids loved it! They have a lot of interactive stations and we got to learn a lot about sea life (and how humans have ruined it-I could have done with a little less of that, but oh well). Ainsley was very excited to head back to her “new home”. Took us a minute to figure out what she was talking about!
After going to the Aquarium the next morning, we headed to Dennis the Menace park and that was amazing. The bottom was all sand and the kids ran all over, exploring play structures, climbing walls and a retired train! It took Reggie a couple minutes to decide to climb up top, but he did it. Most parents try to discourage climbing, but Reggie is so cautious, so whenever he does something beyond his comfort zone, we're cheering him on.

Crazy slide video:

Tired from the long day (don't worry, I leaned Reggie the other way): We headed home that afternoon and went to Easter service. Easter morning, Ryan woke up early and made me some chocolate chip cookies :o). They were delicious, but made me feel really sick. Probably should’ve eaten before starting in with the sugar, but they were soooooo good. I can’t even remember the last time we made cookies…. It is nice to be eating sweets again and I learned that only through God was I successful in not eating sweets for 40 days. Since then, I've tried to go a day or two and have not had luck! Later that morning, we headed over to Libby and Scott’s for an Easter brunch. The kids did a craft and had an egg hunt and we enjoying visiting and eating with great friends :o). Easter was the kick-off to spring break and I got a wild hair and bought Reggie a new bed from Craigslist. He and Ainsley are so into making forts and I thought they would enjoy having a fort under a loft bed. We set that up on Monday night and they were both super excited. It has a slide and I didn’t realize how fun that would be, but it has been quite the entertainment. It was a bonus to get 90% of his toys out of sight :o). They’ve been having sleepovers every weekend because Ainsley can just sleep underneath. She asks most nights if it is a school night, so I know she’d sleep in his room every night if we let her. We had a nice mix of being at home and doing a few activities during the week. We went to Pump It Up, the Zoo and tried out Geo-caching. For those of you that don’t know what Geo-caching is, it is an online group that hides treasure in various places and gives you latitude and longitude, so you can go hunt for it. When you find the treasure, you can take something and then put one of your treasures in. Reggie died and went to heaven. It was so up his alley. It is nice because they say if it is for kids or if a child originally hid the treasure. We had to head home for Ainsley’s nap and Reggie decided to stay with Caleb and his grandparents to search for more :o). He’s asked to go again, but it seems to be a bit of work, joining the group and having a hand held GPS (not sure if a car one would work?), so I don’t know that we’ll be going anytime soon.

Finding the treasure:Picking the treasure:Train ride at the zoo:

Slide video:

We finished the week by doing the Trader Joe’s food pick-up for our church. It is sad to know that all the grocery stores here just throw old food in the dumpsters, except for Trader Joe’s and Costco. Think of all the people that could be fed….. These other stores have been contacted many times, but for whatever reason, won’t jump on board. Maybe if we stop shopping there???? Anyway, we weren’t quite sure how the kids would do, but they did great and had a wonderful time. Once the van was loaded, we took the food to the City Center, where they have a Sunday evening service and hand out the food. We arranged the food on several tables and Ainsley was in heaven!!!! She is such a good helper and organizer. It felt really good to get the kids involved and have a discussion about volunteering and helping those less fortunate :o).

Welcome Spencer Thomas Rinehardt!!!!

You are beautiful and we're so glad you are here! Ainsley and I can't wait to meet you in a little over a week!!!

Mom and baby are doing great :o).

Grandma and Grandpa visit

Gosh, where did the time go??? It has already been 2 weeks since they visited. The kids were so good, getting ready in the morning and loading up the car to get grandma and grandpa. If only everyday could be that easy! Their flight was a little delayed, so Reggie was a bit late to school, but at least mom had her cell phone this time and we could communicate (although she had it last time and it was buried and turned off in her purse, so the whole time they were here, they worried about what happened to her phone!). I’m sure we’ll be there someday too…oh wait, some days I feel like I’m already there :o). The weather turned out to be just perfect, sunny and warm, but not too hot. That afternoon we soaked up a few rays in the backyard and enjoyed some oranges from the tree. For dinner we went to the favorite, Sweet Tomatoes. Later that night, Ryan and Dad went to a comedy club in Pleasanton to see Tom Arnold and they had all kinds of funnies to tell us about. Saturday was a nice, relaxing day. We went to Reggie’s t-ball game in the morning, did a little yard work and Ryan and I went on a bike ride together. That night, we enjoyed a wonderful birthday dinner for me of stew and French bread. It was delicious!!! We went to church Sat. night since we decided to go to Happy Hollow Zoo and Park on Sunday. I had heard about this place when we moved here, but it was under renovation for a year and a half and it opened one week prior to when we went. They had some great play structures and small zoo exhibits. The kids loved it! It was over 80 and nice to be soaking up the sun.
Mom did a lot of playing babies with Ainsley and dad played a lot of soccer, basketball and some sort of keep away game with Reggie. Grandma’s hair has never been so smooth and brushed! It was great to see them and spend some time hanging out. It always goes so quick!

More hair styling:

Reggie and grandpa playing soccer:

GO DAWGS!!!!

I hope you all are going to be rooting on the Huskies today at 4:30!!!! Ryan and I were lucky enough to go to their last game and it was sooooo fun. We were hoarse after just the first quarter :o). They are playing great right now and I'm crossing my fingers that they will win and make it to the elite 8!

Last weekend-Ryan update

Fairyland:
This weekend we were very busy with many different activities, one of them being a trip to a place called Fairy Land. First off, Fairyland is in Oakland and everyone knows or at least assumes that Oakland is where the crime is. But surprisingly enough when we got there it was in a really nice area, or so we thought (I’ll come back to that later). We parked and were happy to use our free tickets from a raffle through Reggie’s school last year. Once we were in, we started to look around at what there was and the first thing that popped into my mind was ghetto amusement park! There were all of these random attractions/scenes from really old childhood books and stories that we really didn’t recognize like Willy the Whale? As Trina and I we’re walking around scratching our heads, the kids were running around jumping and playing on everything.. They absolutely loved it! That had tunnels, slides, a ferris wheel, merry-go-round, and a trolley train you could ride on. Not to mention they had a couple of different pirate ships that you could climb on. You would think that with all of these things and with a puppet theatre, we would spend all day there. Wrong, we blazed through the entire park in roughly an hour and a half, so it was good the tickets were free. One of the highlights was when Ainsley hopped on the ferris-wheel all by herself because Reggie didn’t want to have anything to do with it… She’s a brave little girl sometimes. After playing at the park we went down to a lake that was really close and had a picnic. There were people jogging, kayaking, and enjoying the sunshine. As we were eating our sandwiches, we watched a lady get pooped on by one of the 100 seagulls that we’re swarming us for our food. The kids couldn’t get enough of that entertainment as they were looking for all of the poop spots on her. Then, we were being stalked by one seagull in particular as he was scaring off any other bird within a 10 feet radius from us. If we we’re going to drop any food, he was going to be the one to grab it. And you could tell as he was twice as fat as any of the other birds. Trina was starting to get irritated with the bird so she started feeding the other birds when the mean bird wasn’t watching. But this created a different problem and now we had all of the seagulls in the park at our feet. They finally went away and we headed back to the car so that we could get back home for Ainsley’s nap. Remember how I was telling you that this seemed to be in a nice area. Well I asked one of my employees about the niceness of it because he lives in Oakland and he began to tell me that he really doesn’t hang out down there as there we’re 14 muggings/robberies just not too long ago by a guy that was carrying a knife. Glad we got out of there alive!
Same day (bounce house adventure)
After recovering from the Fairyland adventure, we headed northeast to Brentwood (20 miles from us) to pick up a new Thomas the Train bounce house. You see when Riley starting getting really sick he decided to use our bounce house as his litter box! No poopies but he urinated all over that thing. We even thought at first that we had a leak in the roof as it was everywhere. But the smell was not adding up to that theory and finally Trina caught him with his pants down as she saw him relieving himself. Needless to say that bounce house is in the landfill somewhere and that is the reason for the new one. Anyhow, one big bonus for going out to Brentwood to pick up the bounce house was that there was a Taco del Mar there. We have withdrawals for Taco del Mar because there aren’t any located near us. So any chance we get to hit one we’re all over it. And this was no exception because Trina has been craving it for weeks…. Bless her heart, she has cut out all sweets for lent this season so any chance she has to treat herself with something other than sugar is a blessing. So we picked up the bounce house (it was like brand new & the kids tested it out in their front lawn just to make sure). We then headed to Taco Del Mar and as we were pulling up Trina says “it looks pretty dark in there, do you think it’s closed?” Of course I’m Mr. Optimistic, stating that no it can’t be closed. And whamo bamo, CLOSED ON SUNDAYS!! She was crushed!! She had been saving herself all day, only to be let down… We did however see a Red Robin just down the street so we ate dinner there and everyone was happy.. We got home late (7PM) and the kids had to test it out again so we set it up in the house.. Check out these two crazy kids enjoying the jumper. Oh how I love to hear them laugh.

They go in this several times a day!

Dentist

The kids had dentist appointments on Friday and we learned a lot. Reggie got a little brushing lesson, although his teeth are in great shape…hardly any plaque for them to scrape. He was not very relaxed, but did o.k. The dentist also told me that he has a crossbite (I think) on both sides? Anyway, what it means is his lower teeth are outside of his upper teeth on the sides and his front teeth hit each other. This could be from his large tonsils, but they aren’t sure. So, next year, he’ll go see the orthodontist and they are probably going to recommend widening his upper bite with some kind of retainer.
Ainsley didn’t fare so well. She did awesome, but we think she has Ryan’s teeth. She has some plaque build up and even had a small cavity. Thankfully, we took her in and they could easily fill it (she thought she was just getting polished). She also has a tendon in between her 2 front teeth that extends too far and has created a large gap. She’s likely to have that when her permanent teeth come in and there are a couple uncomfortable ways they can fix that. But, the biggy for her was that her teeth have moved due to her binky, so we got rid of that cold turkey. Ainsley was far more attached to her binkey than Reggie ever was, wanting it every time she got upset, went down for a nap or went for a drive/bike ride. We knew this day would come, but we were somehow dreaming she’d be ready. The first attempt at a nap was tragic. She cried and cried for her binky, saying things like she didn’t care if her teeth were messed up or she wanted to have her teeth stick out. She also said she never wanted to go to the dentist again :o(. After at least a ½ hour, I asked her if she wanted to get up and have quiet time and that is what she did. So, we’ve had 1 nap in 4 days. The good thing is she goes to bed quickly (before it was taking about an hour) and sleeps pretty well. She seems a little out of sorts and I don’t blame her. We took away her one comfort and there’s nothing that we can really replace it with :o(.

Life comes in flurries

I had nothing much to blog about for 2-3 weeks and all of the sudden, there’s lots to write about this last week.
First off, we have been having terrible weather here, cold, really rainy and some days I feel like I’m back in Washington! Anyway, we had to take a couple pictures of the bike trail, which is completely underwater and blocked by debris. The kids have fun throwing rocks in the water and playing Pooh sticks (dropping sticks and having them race to the other side to see which comes out first). We have been riding bikes a lot lately since Ainsley got her new bike, a bike built for two (she asked if she could go in the mud!):

Reggie is continuing to do really well in t-ball and I feel like I am watching someone else’s kid. He actually wants to learn to catch and the first thing he said tonight was, “I only dropped one fly ball!” It is fun to see his hand/eye coordination starting to click. He is definitely the coaches pet (although he has no idea). He got to be the first one to pick his jersey number, play pitcher in the first game and be the home run hitter twice. The coach gave him the gameball, which has been a prized possession that he has taken everywhere. Here he is in his Yankee uniform (which we couldn’t get him out of for 3 straight days!).

Ainsley has been hanging out with me during all this baseball time and we do all kinds of fun things like make spaghetti at the playground out of bark and various other things, play tag and grocery shop (I forgot the camera again!). She gets a free cookie and is very excited about that. We stopped by the deli to get some turkey and they gave her a slice of cheese, so snack time was taken care of :o). It is like a switch has gone on and she wants to help me do everything…I caught her and Reggie folding clothes and it was too funny not to share:

They have been playing really good together lately and it gives Ryan and me a little time to talk about the day or just hang out. This parenting thing is starting to get a bit easier!
Pump It Up:
The kids didn’t have school on Monday, so we headed to Pump It Up and had a blast. It had only been open for about 2 months, so all the jumpers were new and you could really tell. The slide was lightning fast and thank goodness for the bumper at the bottom or we would have been in real trouble. They also had a new jousting area that was super bouncy like a trampoline. My back was feeling great and I was bouncing all over the place with the kids :o). It was a really fun day and reminded me of the freedom of having no school. I took lots of pictures, but most of them are blurry. I did get one of Ainsley eating a fruit roll on the way. Libby brought them in the car and she had never eaten one and didn’t quite get the concept of taking it off the plastic. She was a mess when we got there and had managed to eat some plastic, yum, yum!!!
Curly hair from a French braid:

Tuesdays:
We are taking a little break from one of our playgroup on Tues., so that Reggie and I can have a little one on one time and we’ve done some fun things so far. We partially built a robot puzzle one week, last week we went bowling and rescued his stray baseball that he hit across the street by the bike trail and this week we rode his bike to Pleasanton and did a little of the dirt track that had thankfully dried out. I was surprised he went over so many of the hills because I did and was getting a little nervous, although it didn’t help that my pedals kept getting caught on dirt peaks. Anyway, it should be a fun, adventure filled spring :o).

Ainsley at gymnastics:
Orange tree (we finally have oranges and they are soooo good!!):

Adventures with Dad

Last weekend was supposed to be a relaxing non-eventful weekend until I decided to take a bike ride with the kids from Livermore to Pleasanton (Trina went shopping)! That ride is right around 6 miles (3 each way). At first Reggie was hesitant as we made it very clear that it was a long way, but the word adventure was brought up along having a happy meal at McDonald’s and he was in. Ainsley didn’t know what was going on and before she knew it she was on the back seat of my bike we were peddling West. We decided to hit the BMX bike track in Pleasanton prior to going to McDonald’s, since it was on the way. When they got there the track looked dry, even though it had rained all week, so we took off into the wooptie doo’s. Before we knew it we were stuck in sinking clay mud that was swallowing us by the minute. There was a lot of laughing as both Reggie and I were trying to get out of the track by pushing the bikes out on foot. Problem was that the tires of the bikes were picking up large clumps of the mud/clay along with our feet which was making it almost impossible for the bikes to move and for us to get our footing. Finally, we escaped and then it was time to clean off our shoes and tires. But there wasn’t a hose or any water, only mud puddles… We hit McDonalds, tracking mud all over.. While at McDonalds a little girl decided to start eating the cheese off of Ainsley’s cheese burger and then proceeded to stick her finger right through the middle of the burger while we went back to exchange our toys at the counter. Needless to say, I returned the cheeseburger for a new one. As we were eating we noticed a thick rain cloud heading our way, so we hopped on the bikes and made the long 3 mile journey home. We got about 1 mile into the ride and the rain started to fall and then it fell harder and then harder until Reggie was riding his bike with one eye closed hitting every mud puddle in sight. All he could say is, “Daddy I love getting soaked and driving through mud puddles.” His sweatshirt and pants we’re drenched and he could care less… Ainsley on the other hand wanted nothing to do with it and said she never wanted to do that again. Once we arrived home there wasn’t a dry piece of clothing on their body. Then it was time to wash the bikes, along with our shoes and change into some dry clothes. When asked if it was adventure, Reggie replied, “Oh yeah mommy it was awesome.”

Sorry, for all of you that like pictures...Ryan didn't bring the camera or take a picture when they got back.

This and that...

We seem to be through the worst of Reggie’s night terrors. He was having them 3-4 times a week and it was a little worrisome at first. He is completely unresponsive and can’t communicate, but we can clearly tell something is wrong. We usually take him to the bathroom and he snaps out of it, but a few times, it has lasted for several minutes. The other night, he was able to wake himself up to get to what he thought was the bathroom and we found him peeing in Ryan’s gym bag in the closet! We’ll get there one of these days :o). I think he may have been going through a growth spurt because he’s gotten noticeably taller and was eating like crazy (he is still eating like crazy…what will the teen years be like?).
Every night after dinner, we have some take-out time or keep away football. The kids love it and it is fun for us to. The other night, I felt like I was watching the circus:

Ainsley has been quite the helper these days. She wants to help me do everything, clean toilets, put away dishes, fold clothes, shop…I think I might have died and gone to heaven. She is quite the helper at the grocery store. She has her own cart (I’ll try to take a picture soon), fills it with groceries, organizing them a couple of times and then she unloads them at the checkout. But, it doesn’t stop there. When we get home, she carries in the bags and unloads and tries to put things away. It is very sweet and she’s is getting a lot of gold stars, but doesn’t seem to be interested in the gold star prize. Reggie is completely the opposite and will do almost nothing unless he gets a gold star! This weekend they had fun weeding!!! I think I have to take advantage of this period in time :o).
Here’s a picture of Ainsley wanting to be a baby. We were supposed to have fun putting these clothes on her dolls, but ended up being frustration that quickly turned into hysteria :o(. We’ve had a couple teacher conferences these past couple weeks. I was really curious to see what they had to say about Ainsley. Because I still have Reggie in the morning, I don’t get to volunteer in her class much. Her teachers were all smiles when talking about her and how sweet she is and how well she follows directions, plays with peers, etc. And, she has started raising her hand and participating in circle time. She really wants to be a big kid like Reggie, so I think that helps. She actually wants to work on her letters and write her name. So far, all her free hand letters are upside down, but I’m sure one of these days, they flip! This morning, Ryan and I had Reggie’s 2nd kindergarten conference. It was great. He is right where he should be in academics and social skills :o). Things are started to really click for him and it is really fun to watch. We had baseball practice tonight and I watched him do his warm up run and he was sprinting the entire way and finished far ahead of the other kids (most are younger). It is absolutely amazing to me how children can change in one short year. Last year he walked in a less than enthusiastic way and was by far the last kid to finish.
One last thing…Reggie wakes up earlier than everyone in our house and he can’t wait until Ainsley gets up, so he has someone to play with. A few days ago, I heard him say to her that he made her a scavenger hunt. He hid messages around the house and gave her clues to find them. He made 4, one said, “I liv you Ainsley”, one was a picture of them playing ball, another one said “I like you Ainsley” and the last one was a picture of the bounce house that they love to play in. Are they the greatest kids or what???!!!

By the way....we've been having terrible weather and this was our street a couple weeks ago: