Almost June...

Is it just me or do the days just seem to be flying by. I can't believe my last post was April 5th. It seems like I just posted it two weeks ago. Here we are and it is almost June!

Grandma Sue, Ashley and cousin Jessica

As the weather started to get warmer, we wanted to spend every minute we could outside enjoying the warmth. Ashley and I have taken a liking to eating picnics in our yard.


These days, Ashley's crib barely has room for her to sleep. She has about 10 stuffed animals in there with her. As you can see from this picture, she falls asleep snuggling with them or sleeping on top of them etc.

Ashley looking like she is ready for her first day of kindergarten. I just think she looks so big in this picture!

Ashley with her cousin Dougie. Believe it or not, Dougie let Ashley play with his beloved Nintendo DS and was trying to show her how to play.

Family photo in the Conservatory at the Como Zoo.

Sunday May 3rd we went to the Como Zoo with the Brooks family. All 7 of us piled into Sheli's mini van. We arrived at the zoo around 10:45 and were amazed at how many people were already there. It was a beautiful sunny Sunday. We ate picnic food for lunch and left for home around 2:30. Ashley zonked out on the ride home.

The Brooks Family

(Maddy, Allie, Sheli and John)

Ashley and Maddy checking out the Koi fish. I just think this picture is so cute! No one told them to lay down on the ground next to each other to get a better look, they just did it. Too cute!

This is a picture of Ashley once we were home from the zoo and she woke up from her nap. She just looked so cute wearing her sunglasses (upside down of course) with her messy hair from all of the sunscreen.

We've now switched into size 3T. It's fun to have all kinds of new hand me downs to put her in.

Ashley got gardening gloves from Grandma Terry. She's such a little helper and was thrilled to help me pick up rocks on the beach and put them into her own bucket.

I traveled to Chicago May 14-15th for a work conference and did a little window shopping during our free time. I went into the Disney store for fun and just had to buy Ashley another pair of sunglasses...they were only $3 and they had mini mouse on them. Ashley LOVES them and now when we get into the car she asks me for her sunglasses... both pairs...and she wears them both at the same time. This picture she actually had them on the right way (not upside down).

Over Memorial weekend, we borrowed Sue & Larry's RV and we went camping with a group of friends up in Gilbert, MN. Gilbert has state park land that is for off road use for dirt bikes, ATV's and Jeeps etc. The pictures never quit do the obstacles justice but this is a sample of what the terrain looked like. Seems this picture could be in a jeep calendar or advertisement somewhere. The weekend was a lot of fun- great weather and great friends.

Unfortunately, our jeep had break failure which resulted in us rolling over. We were not hurt and we were very lucky we didn't roll completely over as we stopped just shy of the edge of a small cliff. Upon arriving back at camp, the guys spent the rest of the afternoon attempting to fix the jeep to get it back on the trails. They were successful and Sunday we were back on the trails (minus a windshield and with some other temporary fixes). I spent a lot of time walking the trails on Sunday and tending to my anxiety. :o)

What else is new? Ashley's vocab expands by the day and now includes phrases etc. She says whoopsie daisey when she drops things which just cracks me up. I am also amazed by her memory and find it fascinating to watch these changes in her. She remembers people and can associate people with their kids etc. She remembers things we did last week. She knows if things have been moved or are missing from the place the used to be. It's awesome.

No new updates on the house selling. It's still for sale. Urgh!

Happy Spring!

Happy Spring!

Here's Ashley preparing for Easter wearing a hand-me down Halloween costume from her second cousin Riley!

Ashley Jane on her 2nd birthday- 3.11.09

Static head!

Ashley at McDonalds in North Branch. The best thing about this day besides her favorite cheeseburgers was the playland!

The warm spring weather has brought puddles to our driveway...and Ashley loves puddles! Especially since she got to wear her beloved purple boots! See ducky swimming in the puddle with her?

We celebrated Ashley's 2nd birthday on March 21st. Her cupcakes had kitty rings on them. She continues to LOVE everything with kitty's!

Here's Ashley with her buddies:

Maddie, Violet, Elsa, Allie (and Ashley). Missing from the picture of the little girls is Gracie who was home sick.

Yummy cupcakes and ice-cream!

Sheli and I took the day off to take the girls to see Circa Luna at the Children's Theater on 4.2.09. Then we went to lunch at Chili's! It was a great day.

Momma & Ashley at the Children's Theater

Ashley & Maddy at the Children's Theater

Ashley enjoying a strawberry sundae from Grandma & Grandpa J.

The cobra motor has arrived and...Ashley was ready to help!

Ashley is very interested in helping Daddy work on the Cobra. She tells me "Ashley workin' momma".

Today Ashley and I went to the Osman Shrine Circus with Sheli & Maddy and Jessie & Elsa! We put all of the car seats in Sheli's van and off we went. It is so fun now that the girls are at an age were they interact together, hold hands, talk, sing etc! We had a blast!

During the intermission, Maddy had her face painted like a tiger!

Jessie & Elsa

The tigers were a hit...although the trainer was a bit out numbered and those tigers were growling and showing their fangs nearly the entire performance!

Maddy & Ashley at the end of the show.

The car ride home...with 3 very tired little girls.

What else is new? Monday 3.16.09 I took Ashley to see the Ear specialist as she was up all night on Sunday complaining about her ears. Monday we woke up to a very goopy ear...turns out she had an ear infection. The tubes placed in her ears at 14 months have since fallen out. The ENT doc recommended that Ashley have a Esophagram and Airway Fluora to determine the cause of her pretty much constant sinus troubles and rattly breathing. Her procedures were on 3/30 at Children's and it was an AWFUL experience. I was not given an accurate picture of what to expect at the procedure and to watch my poor, poor baby girl strapped down by 10+ straps, while 4 people manipulated her body and put her under the xray machine that covered her whole body while they watched her breathing...then they placed a tube in her nose down to her tummy to fill it with barium so they could watch for reflux and what ever else. It was simply awful. She was screaming, gagging, choking, yelling mama! I had to sit down... Then they finally finished and brought her back to me, she was soaked with sweat and tears and very upset. All I remember them telling me was the full results would go to our doctors, that her airway was not restricted and that on a scale of 1 to 4, 4 being the worse, Ashley is a 3 for reflux. Anyhow, we go this Friday to review the results with the ENT doctor and determine the course of treatment. I have yet to research how reflux and sinus issues have anything to do with one another but we will soon find out...or we will find out she has reflux on top of what ever else is going on. The ENT doctor didn't think the Nasonex meds prescribed by the allergist were going to do any good...so we have since stopped those meds. We continue to work on potty training. She's doing very good and has told me a handful of times now that she has to go potty without me asking her or putting her on the potty to go.

The house is still for sale. We had a showing today. Hopefully spring will bring more action.

Matt's job is keeping him very busy but he's enjoying it.

April 15th is almost here and then my job should start to slow down a bit. It's been a very, very busy 6 months.

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.