17 Months Old TODAY!

Another month flies by and...she's now 17 months old. Wow.

Here's our little peanut wearing her new sunglasses. She's hot stuff.

Another cruise in the boat. She's a pro at this now.
This picture cracks me up. Matt put Ashley's sunglasses on Ruby and at the same time I was taking the picture, she licked her nose.


I took over a week off from work. I started my week off by leaving for an annual girls weekend on the evening of Thursday 7/24. We had a fantastic time. This was our 7th year..or was it the 6th....any way, we laid in the sun, laughed a ton and drank a drink or two. We eeked out every minute of it arriving home at 9:30pm on Sunday night. Then on Monday, Sheli and I took our girls to Fawn Doe Rosa in St Croix, WI. What a fun place! We had a blast.
Ashley and a deer. She wasn't scared at all. (I was!)
Ashley visiting with a goat. Ashley loved all of the noises the animals made and walked around saying baaaaaaaaaaa!
We were very lucky to be able to bring along Ashley's cousin Jessica. Jessica was visiting from North Dakota for 2 weeks and staying with Grandpa Larry and Grandma Sue. Jessi was such a big help and really fun to have along.

Jessi's favorite part of Fawn Doe Rosa was all of the different rabbits. They would hop right up to her (most of the time). The little girls loved the bunnies too. Ashley kept calling the bunny key key (kitty kitty)... I believe this is because our kitty is white just like the bunny? Notice how well Ashley and Maddy match? They called each other that morning to say...what are you going to wear to Fawn Doe Rosa? :)
Then on Wednesday, Ashley and I met all of our friends at the beach! All 5 little girls, plus Henry (3 years) and Lila (4 weeks old) were there too!
We started by having a picnic. I was so impressed with how well all of the kids did. They all sat and ate lunch- much different that what I had envisioned. Jessi came along to the beach too. Again, she was such a helper. I wished that I had an 11 year old to help all of the time!
All 5 girls playing in the lake. From left to right- Gracie, Elsa, Violet, Ashley and Maddy. We were at the beach from 11:30- 2:30 with out a single melt down from any of the kids. They loved playing in the water and looking at rocks and eating the sand.
Ashley and I also hit a few garage sales during my week off. Here she is showing off her new water shoes. This girl is obsessed with shoes.

Yep, she can now open every single door in our house. When we moved in 3 years ago, we remodeled and put in all of these awesome door handles that could be opened even if your hands were full. For example, you can use your elbow to push the handle down. Well, these door handles are not so awesome now... we are constantly saying, "Ashley, shut the door." She's getting so big- just look at the picture. So big!

Here's Ashley on her new outdoor climber. This was another score at one of the garage sales. She loves playing on it and going down the slide and saying eeeeeeeee!
Here's a picture of Ashley from this morning...her 17 month b-day...just before daycare. She is such a peanut!
At lunch time, I received a call from my little brother that he and his wife Marianne had welcomed their new little son, Jacob Robert into the world. I rushed over to the hospital to see my new little nephew.
Jacob Robert, just a little over 4 hours old. I think he looks just like Dennis. AND wow, 7lbs 10 oz sure is small. Ashley weighed 7 lbs 8.9 oz when she was born. I can't believe she was that small just 17 months ago.

Then we hit another milestone tonight...Ashley had her first bath in the tub. She has officially outgrown the sink. Actually, she still fits in the sink but she makes a huge splashing mess so I decided it was time for the tub.
Here she is making fish lips at me.

Other events this month: On 7/21 while reading Ashley her favorite book about Thumper the rabbit and his friend the hedgehog, we turned to her favorite page which has Thumper and hedgehog playing in a berry patch. The page has bubble bees on it. I always point to the bees, make a buzzing noise and then bring my finger to her arm or tummy and tickle her. Well on this particular night, she pointed to the bee, I made the noise and then she brought her finger to my armpit to tickle me! Oh boy did we laugh, then we rehearsed the above about 25 more times. Another amazing moment...what a sponge these kids are. On 7/23 I noticed that both of Ashley's first molars had popped through- this makes 10 teeth now. On 7/28 Ashley had her 15 month check up (at 16 1/2 months)... she weighed in at 24 lbs 6 oz (63%), and was 2 feet 9 inches tall (94%). Ashley's doctor asked if Ashley was still getting bottles to which I relied yes, at nap time and bedtime. She then said, ok but the longer you wait the harder it is going to get to take them away. For some reason, that really hit me. My baby is getting so big! That night- she went to bed without a bottle. Yep, she no longer gets any bottles. She'd asked for it randomly that week and would go to the cupboard to look for them but taking them away didn't affect her naps or bedtime. She survived the transition...and I guess, so did I. Yesterday on 8-10 Ashley began chanting no, no, no, no over and over. She also chatters with herself and seems to be answering her own questions with no. It's very funny.