Ashley's 6 Months Old Today!

Here is a picture of us from Sunday. We celebrated Grandpa J's birthday at our house with great food and yummy dessert. We had a very nice time, we took a sunset boat cruise around the lake and then we had a campfire and cooked s'mores.

Gina's last day was Friday 9/7, so yesterday 9/10 Ashley went to her new daycare for the first time. Her new primary care providers name is Kat. Kat and Ashley had a great day. Kat said Ashley enjoyed watching her new friends and smiled and talked a lot. She only took one nap but this is to be expected with all of the changes. Our little princess is used to sleeping with minimal noise in her own crib at home etc, now she is in a room with up to 9 other infants and it's not as quiet as she is used to. When I was taking this picture of her, all ready to go to her new daycare, I felt like it was her first day of school. Matt and I dropped her off together. Going forward, Matt is in charge of both drop off and pick up. Yep, this means he has to wake up much earlier than he is used to and get her ready, feed her and pack her stuff for the day. No more avoiding the poopy diapers for him...unless he can convince Ruby (our dog) to do it. Haha!!

Here is a picture of Ashley before she went to daycare this morning. She's 6 months old today!! Holy moly!

Did you miss us??

Hello! Did you miss us? Life has been very busy for us lately. I haven't had anytime to look at blogs or update Ashley's, but today I am home from work because Gina wasn't feeling well, so here we go. I can't believe the last update was 8-19! Lot's has changed since then. Let's see- here's an overview. Ashley is now drinking the Good Start formula and all of us have survived the transition...except for the checkbook- woowsers that stuff is spendy! I know I've told you that Ashley started eating baby food but I think one of the more exciting moments in this new journey is when daddy called me on my way home from work to tell me that now we get to enjoy colored baby puke! He was thrilled to have carrot puke all over his shirt- in fact, the first day of carrots resulted in the whole family changing clothes. On 8-23, we had to retire the bouncy chair as Ashley is getting so big she could just about bounce herself right off the side. My girlfriend witnessed this and told me retire the chair before you "hear" the big boom and find your child tipped over, still strapped in her chair. Good tip! So, now Ashley enjoys her time in her exersaucer. 8/24 was the kick off to girls weekend and I left town...for the whole weekend...without Ashley...and...I survived! So did Matt and G & G J! This was Matt's first night alone with Ashley. While I was away enjoying fun in the sun with the girls, Matt was able to start building us a screen porch! Super awesome- can't wait for it to be finished! No more mosquito bites for me or Ashley. Matt doesn't get bit...he says it's something to do with my sweet blood. 8-28 Ashley started to laugh consistently when I get her tummy- a simply wonderful laughing time for all of us! This was also her first day of eating green beans and she LOVES them. So far, green beans take 1st place! 8-29...I decided after 10 years and 5 days that it was time to take out my tongue piercing. Probably overdue, but a milestone for me. I think Matt's comment was something to the effect of "You are 30 now...and have a kid...perhaps it was time". 8-31, Matt and I went to the Minnesota State Fair. Ashley was home with Gina. We had a great time. Ate a ton of food, spent a ton of money and then...headed home. It had been a long time since we had been there. We also checked out the local child care center and Ashley will be starting there next week. Ahhhh yes, forgot to mention that. Our wonderful nanny Gina has taken a new opportunity where she will be making the big bucks. We knew the day would come but we will surely miss her. And I guess that brings us to the current. Over the weekend, Matt continued to work on the screen porch and I continued to work on the rock wall during nap times.

Here's a few pictures for your viewing pleasure:


Ashley is now sitting pretty good with the support of the boppy.

A picture I have to share of the lake...check out the reflection of the clouds.

The in progress photo of the screen porch.

Now I know I have shown you pictures of our rock wall before, but so that you can see what I have been working on...here is a picture of the rocks before and...

Here is a picture of what it looks like afterwards. Notice all of the small rocks? By the time I am done, we should have a rock free beach and I will have a very sore back!

I think Ashley feels the same way about peas as her momma. Yucko!!

See who can hold her bottle on her own...at least for a minute or so.

A picture from today - daddy placed her on the table and she reached and reached to get her hands on...

the newspaper. She's going to be a shopper- already looking for goods in the Sunday ads.

PEARS!

This weekend I decided to try some other foods besides cereal with Ashley. The first food we tried was pears. She seemed to like her cereal much better than the pears. She liked to spit to pears out as can be seen from the picture. Mommy is still working to master the art of keeping baby with a clean face while eating all of these soupy foods.


Here's another picture from the first attempt with pears. The faces they make are so funny!

Here's a picture of our family today. We received exciting news from Brent and Lydia- they're engaged!!

Grandma J and Ashley playing with the beach ball.


Ashley loves to chomp on her toes and she finds her changing table the best place to do it.

And this could be my new favorite picture. One of my favorite parts of the day is when I get home in the evening and get to see my family and I get to see what cute little outfit Gina dressed Ashley in. Now this one just about brought me to tears, yes, it could be the I love Mommy onesie or perhaps the little jean shorts, or the little barrette in her hair but, I just think she looked so cute!