Ainsley started crawling!

It's happened! Ainsley crawled for the first time tonight! We were playing on the floor and she kept going from her hands and knees to her hands and tip toes with her little booty in the air. I moved one of her toys far away from her and she all of a sudden dropped back down to her knees and took four steady moves towards the toy! We screamed and cheered and then we got out the video camera. We got her crawling but she never took as many "steps" as she did that first time. It is so funny that she crawled today because when I picked her up from daycare today they made comments about how she really gets around when she's on the floor. I asked if she had crawled yet and they said no, that she gets on her hands and knees and rocks and then she rolls, which is what she's always done at home. I had been sadly preparing myself to miss the first time she crawled because of work, so I am SO HAPPY that she waited until she was at home with us to crawl for the first time!

Here is the video. This is all happenening way too fast! One thing is for sure, our lives are about to get a lot busier chasing her around the house! Time to baby proof!

Ainsley is 7 months old!

Ainsley turned 7 months on Monday, February 9th. It is so hard to believe that she is 7 months old already! It has gone by so fast. I look back at pictures of her from those first few weeks after we brought her home and can't believe how much she's changed. And I know in another few months I'll look back at her 7 month pictures and say the same thing! Being parents is by far the most amazing thing either of us has ever experienced. Words just can't describe how much we love our little girl and what we would do to keep her healthy, happy and safe. She is truly a gift from God and we feel so blessed to have Ainsley in our lives. She is the sweetest, happiest little baby. She even smiles when she's sick! Just seeing her smile or hearing her laugh makes my heart leap. And seeing Moss with her makes my heart completely melt. She is definitely a daddy's girl and Moss is amazing with her. On one hand I am sad that she is growing up so fast but on the other, I am excited to experience all of her firsts as she continues to grow.

Here are a few pics from the last month...

Ainsley and Daddy...




















Ainsley and her Valentine gorilla















Ainsley and Mommy with Mommy's Valentine gift - the DVD of this year's Cotton Bowl (whoopee...)















Ainsley with Mommy and her surprise Valentine's tulips -thanks Daddy and Ainsley!




















Daddy and Ainsley with her Valentine bear















Ainsley playing with toys















Ainsley in her exersaucer















Sweet Ainsley....gotta love that face!

Ainsley's Valentine

I just couldn't resist putting a little collage together of Ainsley and her boyfriend, Miller. He is her first Valentine (besides her daddy, of course)! Happy Valentine's Day everyone!

Super Bowl fun....

We watched the Super Bowl at Taylor and Allison Calhoun's house on Sunday. As you can see, Ainsley and Miller were intently watching the game, hoping to curse the Steelers with Ainsley Bear in her Cleveland Browns uniform. Sadly, Ainsley Bear wasn't enough to stop Pittsburgh from winning. But we had lots of fun watching the kids play. Here are a few more pics...

Go Cardinals!!

Well tomorrow is the Super Bowl. Ainsley will be watching it with her boyfriend Miller and I am sure we will get some great pics. Thinking about the Steelers in another Super Bowl is depressing. Cleveland Browns fans HATE the Pittsburgh Steelers! They are the number one rival of our poor Browns who will one day go on to win the Super Bowl. So GO CARDINALS!!!!

I had to post pictures from the Cleveland Browns game Moss went to the Sunday before Christmas. For those of you who have never been to northeast Ohio in the dead of winter, you can see it is mighty cold! The temperature with wind chill was below zero at the game. So cold that the beer turned to slush a few minutes after it was poured. Moss said that when that wind would whip off the lake and blow the foam off the beer, the foam would turn to ice particles. Before we went to the Browns/Steelers game back in 2005 I had told Moss it would be cold unlike anything he had ever felt before - that game ended up being 65 degrees! He has never let me or my family forget that so we were all thrilled he finally got to experience one of the coldest games in recent Browns history.

Here are some pics of the "beer margaritas."

My brother Todd, Moss, brother-in-law Ben and my brother Alex freezing at the game - they left at halftime to watch from the warmth of a local bar. They didn't miss much since the Browns didn't even score that whole game!

Ainsley's laugh

Ainsley has a great laugh! She used to just giggle but now she has that fun laugh where she cackles and shrieks. It is the sweetest sound in the world! I just wish I could capture it on video. She becomes so enthralled with the camera that she won't laugh! Here is a cute picture of her on the changing table which is her favorite place to laugh and talk to us.

Family far away...

I just wanted to share a few family pics we took while in Ohio at Christmas. It was the first time since March that my whole family was together - and we had two very special new additions! Ainsley and her new little cousin Maddox! Maddox Bradley Reed was born on my birthday, November 22nd. He and Ainsley are 4 months apart. My sister Tara and I are so excited that they are so close in age. Now if only we lived closer so they could see each other more often! Tara, Ben and Maddox are in Missouri where Ben is in the Army. They will be moving sometime next year but they don't know where yet. It all depends on where Ben is stationed, which could be anywhere from Alaska to Europe to somewhere else in the continental US. My brother Todd lives in Chicago and my brother Alex lives in Ohio and works for my dad. I miss them all every day. I feel so blessed that I have such a close relationship with my family. It's a comfort when I get homesick and start to think about how far away we all live. Hopefully we'll figure out a way to see each other more than once or twice a year.