Summer Fun!!

We've had lots going on around here this summer so I'll try to sum it all up in one long post.

4th of July
We celebrated the 4th the only way we know how - with good friends, barbecue, watermelon and fireworks.




Just Playing Around
Summer days are made for playing around at home and with friends.





Rite of Passage
Our "baby" girl had her first sleepover this past weekend. I am in total denial that I have a child old enough to have sleepovers! Anneliese's 2 neighbor friends came over on Friday and they had a blast playing, eating hotdogs and ice cream cones and watching Barbie movies. I have to say the first one was a success. ;)




Tupperware
Of course, I can't leave Ainsley out. She had a little bit of her own rite of passage this morning - she discovered the tupperware cabinet for the first time. Oh, Lord, our house is about to get messier!



We have had a fabulous summer and I can't believe it's almost over.

Love,
Brandon, Jennifer, Anneliese & Ainsley

The Beach!

Last week we had our annual beach vacation with my family. As always, it was tons of fun and once again I was reminded of how blessed we are to have such a close knit family who enjoys spending time together.

By now, Anneliese is a total beach bum. She loves everything about the vacation -

swimming:


playing in the sand:


looking for seashells:


flying the kite:


and her favorite, feeding the birds.


Ainsley passed her first beach test with flying colors. She just had her own ideas of what this vacation was all about -

napping:



chewing on the furniture:


pole dancing:


and, of course, getting spoiled by granny and grandpa.


Luckily, they both took time out of their busy beach schedules to indulge mommy and smile for the cameras:






We hope everyone is enjoying their summer!

Love,
Brandon, Jennifer, Anneliese & Ainsley

We're back!

Hi, blog readers! We're back! Sorry for the long delay in blogging. Life got busy and then our computer died so I just gave up on it for a while. However, it's summer and I've got a new computer so hopefully we'll be back to blogging regularly (okay, probably semi-regularly)!

The spring was super busy and I'm not going to even try to catch up on all that I missed. Easter was great! Anneliese ended a great school year and is enjoying her summer off before starting Pre-K4. Ainsley is growing and learning something new all the time. She's mobile and is pulling up on everything that doesn't come down on her.

Here's a few pics of the girls:





Ainsley is 9 months old already! Here's a couple of pics we took last week:




Our family beach trip is coming up so we'll be back soon with fun pics! Take care everyone!

Sleeping Beauties

Check out the Noska sleeping beauties:

Ainsley sat and played and played for a long time. I guess when you're just learning how to do it, balancing yourself is a lot of work. So much work that eventually all you can do is fall back and close your eyes.



I've said for a long time that there's not much on this planet that's cuter than a baby sleeping with her butt up in the air. I've learned that that statement rings true even when the "baby" is 4! This is how I found Anneliese a couple of days ago when I went to wake her up.


Hope everyone has a blessed and safe Easter!
Love,
Brandon, Jennifer, Anneliese and Ainsley

Busy, busy, busy!

Hey, everyone! The Noska family is still alive and kickin' - we're just super busy. I swear there are not enough hours in my day to do everything that I want to do. The girls are both fantastic and growing like weeds.

Anneliese is having a great time at school and has started taking ballet. She loves all of it! She's still being a great big sister and loves to help out with Ainsley. And of course, Ainsley just loves her to death.








Ainsley is learning and doing all sorts of new things. She's a great eater and loves her cereal mixed with just about any kind of fruit or veggie. We've been trying to get her to eat straight baby food and so far that's not going so well but I'm sure she'll get used to the different taste soon. She can roll over - though that's not necessarily a good thing because she doesn't really care to be on her tummy. Basically what happens is we lay her down on her back, she plays for a few minutes, rolls over, cries, we roll her back over, and the whole process repeats. ;) She loves to hang out in her walker and chew on anything she can get her hands on. And she's almost sitting. She can sit pretty good but once she starts leaning it's all over and she ends up nose-diving into the carpet.






As you can tell from the pics, Ainsley is one of the "smiley-est" babies I've ever seen. She's always happy and will smile at just about anything or anyone.

And this pic was just too cute to not include. She was playing and of course got upset that she was on her tummy. She finally just gave up and closed her eyes for a little nap. I'm thinking she figured if she went to sleep, she'd wake up in a different position. She probably didn't figure that mommy would think it was cute and let her stay there. ;)


We're all enjoying the warmer weather and being on spring break this week and are looking forward to all the fun things that spring and summer bring.


Love to all,
Brandon, Jennifer, Anneliese and Ainsley

Our growing baby!

Ainsley is getting so big! She turned 4 months old on January 11 and weighed 13lbs. 14oz. at her 4 month check-up. She's discovered her hands and feet and is constantly trying to chew on them or trying to figure out how to get a toy to her mouth. She wants to sit up so badly that laying on her back just irritates her. And she's starting to eat baby cereal and baby food.

Here she is in her bumbo chair:


And here's some shots of the first night of cereal. She fooled me that night because she didn't cry at all. Every night after that, I was not as lucky. ;) The cereal by itself did not go over so well. Once I added pears to it, it started going a little better. We'll try some veggies this week and see what happens.



We just cannot believe that she's so big already! Before we know it, she'll be crawling around our house. Oh Lord, just typing that sets me into a panic! Let's hope time slows down a little.

p.s. Keep reading to see Anneliese's b-day party pics.