Ashley Jane - 15 months old already!

Ashley celebrated being 15 months old on June 11th. Holy moly!!

Here's Ashley getting a bath. This was just one of the many baths she received the last few weekends as we tried to rid her of her yeast infection. Poor baby! Good thing she loves to take a bath!

Now that we FINALLY have some warm weather, we have been enjoying boat rides after dinner. Doesn't Ashley look so big sitting all by herself on the boat chair?!

Here's Ashley cruising around the kitchen. She can say a few more words and tries to copy things I say. She can say baby and she can say snack (nak). She LOVES her shoes and her coat and says go, go, go, GO, until she gets to go outside. She calls her shoes "ba" and everybody else's shoes are "ba" too. She enjoys trying to put on mommy and daddy's shoes.

Here is a video of Ashley swinging in the back yard. She loves to swing. In fact, tonight as we headed back from our boat ride, she spotted her swing from the boat and pointed and got very serious about getting home right then to swing. By the time we got up to the house, she was over it and we headed for bed.

Last weekend, Ashley discovered that she could put this hat on her head. It's big enough that if she gets it on the top of her head, it falls into place. She was prancing around so proud that she put her hat on. Then, she took it off, put it back on again but it slipped and covered her eyes. I said, "where's Ashley" and it was as though she went to look for Ashley...she started walking, with the hat still covering her eyes and she walked right into the wall. It was SO funny...but she didn't think so. She fell backwards and had a big red bump on her forehead.

This is how Ashley looks in nearly every picture lately. As soon as she sees the camera, she smiles big and closes her eyes.

Silly girl!

All I can say about this video is... like mother, like daughter. We now have the whole family addicted to Redi Whip whipping cream- even the dog and the cat come running when they hear the bottle shake and squirt.

Summer Fun!

Here's a picture of Ashley on her 14 month birthday. She LOVES to be outside and explore. She's discovered that dandelions don't taste very good, but tree branches do. :)

Here is Ashley with Elsa and Gracie. They were enjoying cake and ice-cream at Violet's 1st birthday party! The little picnic table they are sitting at is a bargain I found at a garage sale for $10. Ashley knew how to sit and get back up without assistance before I had even sat her down. She must have picked up that skill at daycare. It's amazing how fast she is changing and how much she is learning every day.

This picture is how Ashley spent most of the month of May. Since she had her tubes put in, she has been on a cocktail of different antibiotics. She just couldn't kick the sinus/ear infections until just this week! At one point she was on 4 different meds. Because of all of the antibiotics, she also enjoyed many of the side effects from the meds, including yeast infections and thrush! To help the yeast infections clear, we were to bathe her after every diaper change...yes, BATHE her after every diaper change and then let her run around naked as much as possible. Needless to say, for those of you who don't know or remember how many diapers a baby goes through a day...it's roughly 8-10, more if their little tummy is upset from all of the meds. That's 20 plus baths every weekend. It was rather exhausting. I can't tell you how happy we are that she is FINALLY feeling better.

Here is a picture of some of the daddy's and their girls. This picture was taken at Maddy's 2nd birthday party. Pictured left to right is Tim with Elsa, Matt with Ashley and Jere with Violet.


Another birthday party means another opportunity for the girls to sit together at the picnic table and eat cake and ice-cream. It was a beautiful Saturday afternoon. The ice-cream was melting faster than they could get it in their mouths. Above is Ashley and Violet discussing the day.

AND...a picture of all of the girls. Ashley was not happy that daddy set her down. I think the rest of the girls were looking at her and wondering..."Ashley, what's your problem?" For those of you who don't know, 4 of my best friends and I all had girls within one year of each other. Pictured from left to right: Ashley- 14 mo, Elsa- 21 mo, Maddy- 24 mo, Violet- 12 mo and Gracie- 22 mo.

Almost had them all looking and smiling at the camera...except Ashley. :) Pictured from left to right: Ashley- 14 mo, Elsa- 21 mo, Maddy- 24 mo, Violet- 12 mo and Gracie- 22 mo.

Here is a picture of us big girls. Missing from the photo is Sheli. :( Pictured from left to right is Julie- 30 yrs, Jessie- 30 yrs, Sheri- 31 yrs and Crystal- 30yrs. Haha :o)

Here's Ashley enjoying some cheez-its. She was ignoring me, I kept calling her name trying to get her to look at the camera. Her hair continues to grow and get curlier.

Finally the silly girl looks at me. She's so much fun.

For your viewing pleasure, a video of Ashley rocking on her rocking octopus. She received this from her Grandma & Grandpa J for her birthday. It took almost 2 months for her to like it. Now, it's hard to get her off. You'll notice in the video that when the music stops, she signs all done and says all done.

Other events this month: Ashley now gives kisses with her mouth wide open. She has learned a few more sign language signs and can now sign, eat, please, more, all done and thank you. She's says hi, ball, ba (bottle), key (blankey), ru ru (Ruby), key key (kitty), da da, ma ma, all done, uh oh, and hi. She has also started to blow kisses. She can get up from the floor and into walking position without any help. She's getting so good at walking that she's now picking up speed. She is ticklish on her sides, tummy, neck and toes and Matt and I get the biggest kick out of how she giggles when we tickle her.

Another post so soon....

Yes, another post so soon. Why you ask? Because we have exciting news....Ashley's WALKING! I've included video at the end of this post but before we get to the grand finale, here is a couple of recent pictures.

Here's Ashley investigating the special balloon & teddy bear delivery that she received from her mommy's work. How thoughtful!

Here's a cute picture of AJ after her bath.

See how long and curly her hair is getting!

And...she WALKS! Oh what an exciting evening. Both Matt and I were here and playing with her when I set her down and off she went. Then we had her walk between us over and over again. She'd come at us with a big smile on her face.

To celebrate Ashley's accomplishment, Daddy decides to share the dip n dots the Schwan's man had just delivered.