Weekend Fun!

Mommy and Ashlyn had a nice mother/daughter day yesterday while daddy went to the Cities to work on his snowmobile. So we went shopping and played out in the snow. We weren't outside too long...Ashlyn didn't really know what to think of the snow!

Enjoying some peaches and egg salad sandwich. Yummy!! Too bad the food can't stay on the plate and the plate can't stay sitting on the tray :)

Visit with Santa

We had a kids Christmas Party at mom's work last week, but Ashlyn was a bit hesitant about the guy in the red and white suit! She walked up with mom to get her present but no way was she going to actually sit on Santa's lap for a picture.

December 2009 - 16 Months Old - Already???

Our baby is 16 months old already! She has officially realized walking gets her places faster than crawling and is having fun walking from room to room in the house showing us everything she wants to explore. She has figured out how to communicate in her own little way these days and will grab our hand and lead us to her highchair when she wants to eat and will lead us to her bedroom at night when she is gets tired and wants to go to bed. We put her in bed and generally that's the last we hear of her....hopefully that continues!!! Ashlyn was moved up to the Toddler room at Daycare this last month and is enjoying the new activities they do. She is learning to wash her hands and follow simple directions...it's amazing how much she really knows and understands!

Sunday Fun Day!

Ashlyn enjoyed making a "home" in Shotzy's kennel today with her 3 blankets and juice! Then the fun continued when she wanted to help mommy vacuum the steps. She was having a great time until she got curious and her finger got sucked up....ha ha!

Thanksgiving...

Well this is the best picture I got of Ashlyn and my 2 sisters little one's over Thanksgiving weekend. We did a little shopping Friday until Ashlyn had a meltdown and we had to leave the store and call it a day (only made it to 2 stores...oh well we tried!). Then we baked a few Christmas cookies together and had a nice supper.

Thanksgiving day we were lucky enough to be taken in and enjoy supper with Damien's brother and sister-in-law and her family! There was so much good food and I could have eaten it all...Ashlyn's favorite was definately the mashed potatoes. She was eating them by handfuls!!! It was funny :)

Riviera Maya, Mexico Vacation

Damien and I enjoyed our trip to Mexico and had a very relaxing time doing not much but lay on the beach! It was a beautiful resort with an awesome beach. Damien enjoyed snorkeling out in front of our resort and playing sand volleyball. We also did a few water activities that they offered and got awesome massages!

Spiderman shots....yum they were good :)

15 Months!

3 sweet little girls! Mya, Isabella, & Ashlyn. I don't think Mya and Ashlyn know what to think about their new baby cousin! Ashlyn turned 15 months old last week and that mean time to go back to the Dr. Amazingly the shots and whatnot didn't go too bad. She keeps getting better and better with those as she gets older. She weighed in at 24 lbs 12 oz (75th percentile) and was 32 inches long (90th percentile). So still on track where we've been for months. The pediatrician said she looked perfect. We are so lucky for that!!!! Ashlyn has been taking off walking more and more over the last couple weeks, but "walking" on her knees and crawling is still her preferred method of transportation (or in mommy's arms)! She is been a little babbler the last week too and 2 nights ago we could have sworn that she said "shotzy" as she pointed at her...it sure sounded darn close!! Mom and Dad are heading to Mexico for a little vacation this Saturday and we miss our little girl already, but we know she will have an awesome time at Uncle Darrin & Aunt Stacy's and with Grandma Debbie!

Getting closer to walking...

We're getting a little more confident now and have starting taking steps! Yeah!!!

(sorry it's sideways but thats how the file came in and I can't figure out how to rotate it)

Hiding??

So we were all in the living room one night this week and Damien and I were watching TV and Ashlyn was actually playing contently by herself. After a bit Damien asked "where is Ashlyn?" I thought she was playing with her books before so I looked and there she was...in the corner just sitting against the wall at the end of the couch "reading" her books quietly. She had a nice little area in the corner all to herself! It looked cute...

Halloween at Daycare

Ashlyn is having a Halloween party at Daycare today so this morning we dressed her all up in her monkey suit! We call her monkey quite a bit so we thought the costume was fitting.

Fall...

The first time I showed Ashlyn the pumpkins I got she was scared of them for some reason. At least she realized they weren't so scary the 2nd time around. We're getting the hang of using a fork! She does pretty good getting it to her mouth when we get the food on the fork...just need some practice "stabbing" the food!

October 2009

Boy, has it sure been cold outside!!! Gotta bundle up! Petting her favorite friend Shotzy...

Being crazy!

The girls...

Daddy and his sweetie...

Our Little 14 Month Old

Well I haven't posted in quite a while...I know....but part of the reason is that our camera has been out of commission for at least 2 weeks. Had a little incident and it drowned in Diet Dew. Oops...don't ask!! Anyway, new camera is ordered and hopefully we'll get it soon so we can start taking more pictures of our growing little girl! Speaking of her...Ashlyn has been somewhat of a little spit fire lately. She is happy one minute and the next not so much. She had gotten a cold about a week ago so she may not have been feeling well and then we noticed that she was getting 4 of her molars in at once! This girl likes cutting teeth in multiples of 4, which is not fun! She seems to be doing better now and is basically over the cold so hopefully we'll continue on a more happy road :) We're still making progress in the walking department but haven't took off running yet. Occassionally she will try to stand up on her own in the middle of the floor but then falls to her bum. She cruises along furniture and walks between the couches and I even caught her taking her hands off the couch the other day and she actually took a step without hanging on. So maybe she'll walk eventually!! I think she thinks crawling is working just out just fine and is content with that. Last weekend we went to Colby's H.S. football game in Altoona and got to try out our winter gear. Ashlyn stayed nice and toasty all bundled up and even fell asleep and took a little snooze during the game. Everyone said she was so good just sitting on our laps and then falling asleep! She did do very well. Then on Saturday mom, Ashlyn, and Auntie Stacy and Kayla headed up to the Cities to meet cousin Kim and the twins! We went to the MOA and visited...it was great to see them...Ashlyn and the twins had fun looking and pointing at each other and babbling whatever it was that they were saying :) So it was a very nice weekend!

13 Months Old!

Ashlyn turned 13 months old last week. She is starting to "talk" a little more now. I think that she is asking "what's that?" and then points to everything lately. It's really cute. So we spend a lot of our time telling her what everything is around the house and every where we go. She is also fascinated with lights. She is always pointing to them in the car and in the house and then she says "ights". She has a total of 6 teeth now; with more on the way I'm afraid. She has been up on and off the last few nights whining/crying, which is a tell tale sign of teething for her! Otherwise, we are still working on walking. She zooms all over crawling, walks along furniture, and most recently learned how to climb up onto the couch all by herself! I was so amazed and proud of her for doing this until I realized that this meant that then she would crawl up onto the end table where the lamp and picture frames sat, as well as get up on the love seat which is against the railing that overlooks the steps heading down to our entry way. This lead to us rearranging our furniture yesterday so that she wouldn't accidentally fall over the railing!

Little miss trouble maker on the door of the dishwasher...grandma wasn't too happy when she saw this picture. She thought Ashlyn might break the door! Oops! She found a pen and piece of paper in mommy's purse...new toys, yeah! A little grumpy! She didn't want her picture taken but mommy wanted a picture of the cutie with her pigtails :)

Snuggles & A Fun Toy!

Snuggle time with Daddy!!

Ashlyn loves kissing now - oh boy! She will kiss anything (pictures in her books, stuffed animals, any toy really). We got this video of her with her jack-in-the box that she got from her auntie Kayla for her birthday. She gets so excited, it's cute!!!

The Weekend of Many Firsts!

We went up to Phillips this weekend to enjoy the nice weekend (well Saturday anyway). Ashlyn got to.....

Go on her 1st lawnmower ride.... Go on her 1st 4 wheeler ride....

Swing on the new swing daddy and grandpa put up....and after a few minutes of swinging mommy looked away for a second and heard something snap. She looked back to see Ashlyn in the swing hanging from only one rope in the tree! No harm done...she was fine! Just needed to secure the ropes a bit tighter....

A tired little girl on the car ride home after a long weekend of fun :)

Over the weekend, 3 of Ashlyn's 4 top teeth that are coming in popped through. The 4th one is real close. She has been a little on edge lately and some things set her off real easily, but what do you expect when she's getting 4 teeth in at once!! We think she's been doing really well, all things considered...what a little trooper :)

One Year Pictures

We got Ashlyn's 1 year pictures taken this week. We had a friend from high school, who is a photographer (she also took her 6 mth pics), come over to our house to do the pictures this time. Ashlyn was quite serious, and needed a cracker and milk break during the session, but otherwise didn't do too bad. We got a sneak preview of a couple of the proofs on Kathy's blog at: http://foreverphotographyonline.blogspot.com/. Ashlyn's photos are the August 14th post.

Hot weather!

Over the weekend we went swimming in our pool on the deck. Ashlyn had more fun crawling out of the pool and around it than anything. What a goof...it kept her entertained though!

Poor thing had little bruised up knees after this though! She needs to learn how to walk (wait maybe not, then she probably wouldn't have stayed ON the deck)....what are ya gonna do :)

1 Year Check-Up for our little Troublemaker!

One of our favorite things to do now is go through mama's cupboards and take things out multiple times a day! And look at how she just sits there like "look what I did." How fun!!

We had Ashlyn in to the doctor last week for her 12 month checkup. Everything looks good and she is now 22 lbs 7 oz (75th percentile) and 30.5 inches long (90th percentile). Big Girl!!! The pediatrician said that normally babies don't follow a growth curve all of the time, but Ashlyn has basically been following the same growth curve since she was just a couple months old! She also had to get 4 shots (not fun), but actually worse than that was when they pricked her finger to get blood (horrible - I felt soooo bad for her!!!). We survived though and once she finally calmed down after that she seemed fine the rest of the night.

Happy 1st Birthday Ashlyn! How the year flew by...

I must be a little post happy today but I wanted to post a few pictures from the last year. So much has changed and Ashlyn has grown and developed so much it's just amazing. She has become a one year old who is somewhat shy and timid, but silly, and can have a little attitude when she wants! We wouldn't change her for the world!

These pictures were taken this morning of the Big Birthday Girl!!

She has started to "pose" for pictures when you tell her to smile for the camara - what a cheesy smile!