Ashley Jane is TWO years old today!!!

Here is Ashley at the Celebration of the Lakes festival on 1/31/09. Ashley and I drove the truck over to the festival and we met Daddy over there on the 4-wheeler. It was a beautiful weekend with temps in the 40's. The three of us cruised around on the 4-wheeler and watched the different events. We also stopped to visit Uncle Dennis, Auntie Marianne and lil' cousin Jacob at their ice house. In the picture above, Ashley is holding "Flat Dougie". Flat Dougie was a replica of Ashley's cousin Dougie. Dougie's school class is reading the book Flat Stanley who gets flattened and goes on wild adventures. Dougie sent us a letter that said he was flattened by 100 watermelons (that weren't ripe) and that we were to take "Flat Dougie" on adventures with us. Anyhoo, Ashley and Flat Dougie became the best of friends.

Another beautiful winter day. We played outside and we drilled a few icefishing holes right in front of our house. We didn't catch any fish though. During early February Ashley continued to battle colds which turned into viral pneumonia. I had her to the doctor 3 times in one week because her condition keep worsening. She's become a pro at the doctors office. She knows the routine of getting weighed then walking back to the room. She even marched right behind the technician on the way to get x-rays like she owned the place. She knows where all of the stickers and cans with trinkets are at the doctors office too. Anyway, we were then referred to St. Paul Asthma & Allergy and had our appt with them on 2/9. They did the "scratch test" on Ashley which consisted of my mom and I pinning Ashley's arms and legs down while the nurse pricked her back with around 20 different allergens. We then had to wait for 20 minutes for the results. Turned out that she was not allergic to any of the items they tested for, like dogs, cats, ragweed, dust mites etc.


Here we are right after the procedure.


Here is a closer view. They marked her back with pen and then pricked her. Then they checked back in 20 minutes to see if she reacted like I mentioned above. So the doctor came to the conclusion that Ashley has non-allergic rhinitis. He said he didn't think she had Asthma or she should have gotten better with the multiple meds she was taking. So, he took her off all of the asthma meds and put her on Nasonex, which is a nasal spray. Yes, you read correctly, a nasal spray...with a two year old. So, now I was done doing nebulizer meds with her but now I have to figure out how to get a nasal spray into her nose. Needless to say, the first week was rough...a lot of meds in the eye and on the cheek and a lot of restraining and pinning down. Now she simply sits on the couch and lets me spray it into her nose. I do her first nostril and then she says all done and I say, nope, one more and then I do the second and she says all done and I say yep!! Good job honey, high five and we high five. She's such a trooper. Poor kid has been on more meds than most adults. So we go back to see two specialists for follow up appointments next week. Her nose has been dry for about 2 weeks until a few days ago when it started to run again. She hasn't had the cough but she remains rattly and sounds like a purring kitty as Allie pointed out.

Here's my happy little bather on her 23 month birthday.

Daycare has started braiding Ashley's hair so this is what it looked like when we took the braids out before bath time. One day when I picked Ashley up from school she ran to me and told me she had "rockstar hair". The ladies at school had done all of the kids hair and told them all they looked like rock stars.

Daycare also has the kids trained to stand against the wall to have their picture taken. Usually Ashley wants to see the camera and wont let me take her picture but she cooperated with me on this day. Doesn't she look a little like Snoop Dog with those braids?

Ashley was invited to her cousin Dallas's b-day party at the Eagles Nest in Shoreview. Ashley had a blast playing in the balls and going down the slides etc. It's a fun place to go!

Here is Ashley in one of the fire trucks at Daddy's work. This is another one of the adventures that we took Flat Dougie on with us. As you can see, Ashley has Flat Dougie sitting on her lap.

Along with turning two, Ashley has started to display what I now know as the "terrible two tantrums" as can been seen in the above video. For no reason at all she will get mad and flail to the floor. She's a drama mama. As you can see from the video...she looks up to see if I am watching and then continues the drama. I try to remember my mom's advice of when she or kids act like that and you just want to scream its time to slow down and just love them up. Give them hugs and attention even if you feel like you'd rather lock them in the crib in their room.

What else is new? On February 14th we bought Ashley a toddler bed from the child consignment shop in town. She was SO excited about her "new bed". We let her sleep in it that night and I cranked the baby monitors so that I would hear if she fell out or got up and it was quiet as could be. I checked on her before I went to bed and I found her sleeping on the middle of her floor. So either she slid out or she got up and didn't know what to do so she just laid in the middle of her floor. I then put the mattress back into her crib and that's where she is still sleeping. I'm in no rush for her to get out of her crib. We are officially potty training. Daycare has been working with her for a few months but now she is telling us she wants to go on the potty. She goes about 50% of the time. It's pretty exciting. She gets a big smile on her face when she goes and then she says "sticker". Daycare rewards the kids with stickers when they go potty, so we do the same. Ashely's vocabulary has expanded a ton. She's a talking fool now! I've had several people comment on how well she speaks so I guess more than just Matt and I can understand her. Some of her new words or phrases she says are: "ta da" and she will tell you her name is "Ashley Johnson" she will tell you I am mommy Johnson or Sheri Johnson and Matt is daddy Johnson or Matt Johnson. She knows all of the sesame street characters and my favorite is the way she says Bert, which sounds more like Burp. She also has learned to tease me. I'll ask her to say, "I love you Mommy" and she will say, I love you Daddy! I love you Daddy! She thinks it is so funny. Also, if I kiss her she will wipe it off and I say, Ashley you better not wipe off mommy's kisses and I will kiss her again and she will wipe them off again and get the biggest smirk or she will laugh. It's a riot. It's just crazy that she has gone from one word items to talking in phrases. What's even crazier is that today, March 11th, my baby girl turned two.

Matt's a travelin' man now for work. He spent a few days in Las Vegas and has taken a few day trips to Greenbay and other places. His boss owns a few planes so they can just jet off on a moments notice if they want.

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.

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!!