18 Months Old...A YEAR and a HALF!!!

Ashley Jane- 17 Months Old

Here Ashley and Grandma stare into the lake...my guess is that they were talking about the big bass I was about to catch. Yep, I won the contest and caught the first and the biggest fish of the night. See the big raft in the background? Grandpa Randy bought that for the weekend...it has a mesh bottom, sits 4 and comes equipped with a floating cooler. Ashley enjoyed every moment in the raft and bounced from Grandma to Grandpa to Momma to Daddy.

Here Ashley enjoys her very first DQ cone in a cup. She of course LOVED it.

We took Ashley to the Ki Chi Saga celebration a few weekends ago. The festivities included an old farmer who packs all kinds of farm animals and household pets into the smallest trailer you've ever seen. Ashley enjoyed following the animals around and playing with the bunnies.

Here's Ashley scootin' around the house in her ducky slippers.

See all of her beautiful teeth? She's got 12 teeth now!

Ashley had to bring a family photo into daycare to put into the daycare photo album. I searched high and low for a recent picture of the three of us and couldn't find one. We have tons of pictures of Ashley, a few of her with either Matt or I but none of the three of us. Anyhooooo, that prompted us to take a quick family photo while we enjoyed a beautiful day at Ashley's friend Elsa's, 2nd birthday party.

Here's Ashley on her 18 month birthday.

What else has happened this month? Ashley continues to learn a handful of words a day. When she gets fussy, I try to distract her by asking her if she can say, red, purple, daddy, school, Molly, Elsa, Grandpa, Grandma etc. We play this game till Momma can't think of another word to test her on. On our refrigerator we have a picture of Ashley with her Mommy, Grandpa and cousin Jessica. I point to the people in the picture and say their names and Ashley will repeat their names. She thinks this is really fun and made sure to point out that I forgot to mention the most important thing in the picture...her beloved KEE (her blankey)! It made me laugh so hard. Tonight while she paged through one of her books, she pointed to the bunnies on the page and said, "bunny". I didn't prompt her or anything. Bunny isn't even one of the animals that we regularly practice. So COOL! Her favorite indoor activity is to run and fall into a pile of blankets. She rolls around and just loves all blankets. She's picked up a few new dance moves...in addition to the Frankenstein dance, she now spins around slowly and she has started to try to jump. It's adorable.

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.

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!