July Flies By...

Happy mid- July! Wow, how did that happen? Seems like the ice just went off the lake.

Here's Ashley playing next to her little pool. This little girl loves the water. She loves to take her little bucket, fill it up with water and then drink from it and pour it all over her belly. Most the time she then gasps because she just poured cold water down her belly. Ashley now plays peek a boo. If I ask her, "where's Ashley", she covers up her eyes and then uncovers them and says peeeee (peek). This is such a fun age. She is full of smiles, snuggles and goofiness.

Here's Ashley with her Grandma and Grandpa J at Uncle Brent and now Auntie Lydia's wedding. It was a beautiful weekend full of wedding events. Ashley sat on my lap through the entire outdoor ceremony. I was very impressed.

Cutie pie!

Ashley sportin' ma mas sunglasses.

Here Ashley plays on our beach. Our beach is pretty gooey and rocky but she still has fun.

Ashley enjoys eating the sand and rocks just as much as she loves playing in them.

My she's serious for a 15 1/2 month old.

Here Ashley is wearing the robe she received from her cousin Jessi at Christmas time. She loves to wear her robe and slippers. In fact, Ashley has a drawer full of shoes in her closet and one pair of slippers. The other night after we put her jammies on, I said, Ashley go get your slippers and she went into her closet, pulled open the drawer and pulled out her slippers. Both of them, from the whole pile of shoes. I was amazed. Again, another awesome moment as a parent, watching my baby show off how smart she is.

Here she is just about to go out to the lake. The girl has about 5 swimsuits, thanks to all of the hand me downs.

Ashley taking in the sunset.

Here's Ashley on the 4th of July.



She makes this face fairly often. I think she's thinking... what cha talking about Mama?

Yes, this is the back of Ashley's head, but see all of her curls?

On the 4th, we went to the annual BBQ hosted by Dale & April at the cabin on Green Lake. Their beach beats ours by a land slide, all sand!! Ashley had a blast.

I thought ok, I will let her eat one handful of sand. My thought was that she wouldn't do it again. Well, I was wrong. She ate handful after handful. Weird!

Yummmmmmmmmmmy!

Ashley and I went to daddy's softball game a couple of weeks ago. We enjoy going because both Ashley and I get to see our girlfriends. Here Ashley tastes her first sucker. She knew just what to do with it.

Lastly a picture of Ashley on 7/11, her 16 month birthday.

What else has happened lately? Ashley says pa pa (Grandpa) and bu bu (bubbles), ha(hat), ing (swing), teee (teeth...and she also does the brushing motion with her hands), outside, and ni ni (night night). She knows where her eyes, ears, nose and mouth are. If you ask here where her nose is, she snorts. If you ask her where her mouth is she sticks out her tongue. If you ask her what noise a cow makes, she says ooooooo oooooooooo. On Monday 7/14 Ashley moved from the infant room to the toddler room at daycare. This was a big event. The kids go from sleeping in cribs to sleeping on cots. They drink from cups without sippy lids. They do art projects every couple of hours. So far, the drop offs in the morning are rough, she gets very sad, but Molly (her teacher and our friend) tells us that she snuggles with her blankey for a little bit and then the rest of the day goes good. She's started doing this thing with her hands and I'm pretty sure it is the motions to the itsy bitsy spider... i will have to ask daycare if they sing that song. Oh, she's also started to dance. Check out the video...sorry it's sideways!