Where did January go??

Daddy and Ashley pushing around Ashley's babies in the new strollers she received for Christmas.

Ashley eating her yogurt with a sucker!

My little messy face.


Daddy & Ashley. Aren't they cute?!

We celebrated Matt's new job and Sue's last cancer treatment with a Fondue party. We had cheese fondue with bread and veggies. Then we cooked yummy steak, mushrooms, pea pods, carrots, potatoes in a fancy broth and had lots of different dipping sauces. Then for dessert, chocolate fondue with brownies, pretzels, angel food cake, pound cake, bananas, strawberries and more. It was a wonderful evening!

Ashley with her buddies Violet and Gracie. Where did our babies go? They're little girls now!!

One night in efforts to get Ashley to stop fussing, I dug out a bin of stuffed animals that have been tucked away for at least a year. In the bin, she found a kitty! Now, they are inseparable. She loves kitties!

One of Ashley's new tricks is to hide. She'll hide behind the couch or curtains or run down the hall to hide.

Here's a video of Ashley showing off her jumping skills.

What else is new? Well, it's now been a little over a month since Ashley started on the asthma meds. I've been keeping a daily journal on her health and I am happy to report that she's doing pretty good. She's happy, active, and quite simply a riot! I'm amazed at the things she learns every day. I just love her daycare! We are at the stage now that she is saying new words every day and I know or can understand about 80% of them and when I say the word I think she is saying, if I get it right, she gets a big smile and says yeah and then finishes her conversation. Yes, we have conversations now! Weird. Oh, a few nights ago she woke up in the middle of the night and so we went to sit on the couch and have some juice. She started telling me about her friends Zane and Hayden and how they were wearing hats and then she started talking about Elmo and Elmo get wet. Elmo towel. She now has thoughts and a memory or can vocalize things she remembers from day to day. She wakes up thinking about things! I knew exactly what she was talking about too...when I picked her up from school, Zane and Hayden were playing with some crazy hats. Once we were home, we watched her Elmo movie and Elmo gets splashed and we always say "oh no, Elmo got wet!" She is able to correlate wet with needing a towel. Earlier this week she grabbed my hand and started swaying and singing something and I was tempted to call her daycare teacher to ask what Ashley was doing so that I could cooperate when it occurred to me that what she was saying was rosie, rosie...YEP, she wanted me to do ring around the rosie with her! Tonight, I went out to the garage looking for Matt and I opened the door and said "Maaaaaatt?" In the are you out here voice and Ashley is right next to me and repeats it just as I had said it. Maaaaatt! So then I explained to her that Daddy's name was Matt and mommy's name was Sheri. I asked her if she could say our names and they just rolled right off her tongue. Then about 1/2 hour later, Ashley's Grandpa stopped by and I said, hey Ashley what is mommy's name and she said Sheri. Then I said, what is daddy's name and she said Matt. Grandpa was very impressed! Then she looked at me and said something. I gave her my I have no idea what you said look and she repeated it. Ahhh, I got it. She said, "Grandpa's name?" She wanted to know Grandpa's name. So cool! I wish I could stop time because so far, this is by far the best stage!

Matt's new job is going great. Lucky guy already got to travel for work and spend a week in Florida. He's also scheduled to go to Las Vegas in April and Indiana in May.

My new job is insanely busy but it is going good. I'm overly tired from the long hours I am putting in but I am thankful every day that I still have a job.