Goodbye 2008...Hello 2009!

Goodbye 2008....Hello 2009!

Here's Ashley in her fancy Christmas dress. She has several Christmas outfits that were passed down to her and she was able to wear all of them because we celebrated Christmas on 12/14, 12/21, 12/24, 12/25, and 12/27. I was off from work from 12/18-12/29. It's been years since I have been off from work over Christmas. It was so nice to not have to think about going back to work right after all of the celebrations. Ashley loved to open her presents and she would help everyone else too. She didn't spend too much time with what she found inside, she just wanted to open the next present. She received plenty of new toys!

Here is Ashley and Daddy doing a little relaxing before we headed for our Christmas celebration. She is obsessed with her purple boots and insisted on wearing them instead of her dress shoes. She loves to look at her books and to be read to.

Here is Ashley in the Gavidea Commons downtown Minneapolis enjoying a PB & J before the Holidazzle. This was one of the fun things we did while I was on vacation from work. My girlfriend Jessie and her daughter Elsa joined Ashley and I on the adventure. We even rode down together which sounds easy, but included transferring car seats, finding room for two strollers, two bags with food and drinks and all of our winter boots, snow pants, hats etc. We started off by taking the girls to the Macy's Elf exhibit. It was a Friday before the holiday week so it was busy and we waited in line for at least 30 minutes but the girls did surprisingly well.

Elsa and Ashley before entering the Elves Exhibit. It was very hard to get these two to both look at the camera at the same time but this turned out pretty good. These days as soon as I take my camera out to take a picture of Ashley, she always wants to see the picture and won't cooperate to first let me take her picture. I look at this picture and just think it's crazy how big my baby is getting...soon she will be two!

Here is one of the scenes from the exhibit. It's hard to tell but right above the date on the picture is a kitty inside the basket. Ashley was doing all she could to climb up onto the exhibit to get to that kitty. I found myself feeling bad for her...here she is in the exhibit with all of these amazing things surrounding her, like the kitty or the fake snow or the cookies and candy or the presents and it's all at her eye level and she can't have it or touch it. I'm trying to explain to her (a 1 1/2 yr old) the she can look but she can't touch...which caused her to have a few small melt downs as I tried to get her to keep moving. I'm pretty sure she was telling me, humph- not fair!

Elsa and Ashley on the way to the parade. We found a great spot to stand and put the girls on our shoulders to watch the parade. It was so much fun- all of the lights and music kept the girls entertained the entire time and when the parade ended, both of them wanted to see more! It was so much fun.

Ashley loves to do art. She gets to do art several times a day at daycare and her latest obsession is to trace her hand or have someone else trace her hand. As you can see from her hand in this picture...she hasn't quite mastered tracing her own hand.

Here we are at my Grandma's on Christmas Eve. Santa showed up again this year and just like last year, Ashley didn't want anything to do with it! Maybe next year we will get a picture of a happy girl on Santa's lap.

Here is Ashley with her cousin Jessica at the Johnson family Christmas. Ashley really likes her cousin Jessi! In this picture, Jessi was showing Ashley her Nintendo DS game with puppies in it.

Here's Ashley rocking Elmo like a baby. That's one of her latest tricks, she likes to pick up any of her babies or stuffed toys and rock them, while she sings Rock a Bye Baby to them, which in her words is just rock over and over again with varying tones.

Here is Ashley with her girlfriend Maddy. Maddy and Sheli and John came over to go sliding down our awesome hill. The sliding hill remains awesome but evidently not risky enough for Matt because he has since taken the sliding hill to a new level by starting off on top of the garage roof where he then slides down the roof to get airborne onto the sliding hill.

After we were done sliding we ordered pizza and chicken wings. Ashley ate a ton of pizza and ranch dressing. The dressing was for the chicken wings but she had to have some "dip" even though she wasn't eating any chicken. She loves "dip". Ketchup, barbeque sauce, salad dressing...any kind of dip... in fact she will eat it by the spoonful if you let her.

And for you car junkies, her is a picture of the progress on the Cobra.

What else is new this last month? I've had Ashley to the doctor at least 3 times. She had pneumonia, then croup, then an ear infection...and what else? She has been sick with something or another since she was 6 months old. I guess the doctor finally heard my pleas because the last time I was there she said, you know, she just doesn't seem to get better. Does anyone in your family have Asthma? Ummm...yes. So long story short, Ashley is now on a daily medicine for Asthma. She hasn't been officially diagnosed with it because of her age but the doctor has placed her on these meds for the next month to see if this makes any difference on all of her respiratory issues. KEEP YOUR FINGERS CROSSED! We just hope this is it, because then we at least know and can treat it! So far after about 10 days on these meds her coughing has subsided and her nose hasn't ran in 3 days! Three whole days without any boogs! This is AMAZING to me. I carry around a burp rag for her nose because it runs so much and now for three days, I haven't even used one kleenex on her. In other news, we have great news, Matt starts a new job tomorrow! He will be working for Custom Fire in Osceola, WI as a Project Manager. A full time job with paid vacation, benefits, traveling opportunities etc! Awesome!

2008 was a challenging year...we look forward to 2009 which has already started with Ashley being healthy and Matt's new job...now if we can just get our house to sell we'll be livin' the dream!

Happy New Year!!