All in August!

Today is September 11th...my baby girl is officially 2 1/2 today. Wow!

Ashley and I joined our girlfriends for our annual day at the beach earlier in August. The day started out chilly but by mid afternoon it was warm enough for swimming.

Violet, Ashley and Maddy. Here the girls are getting their dry clothes on to go up to play at the park.

Ashley loved playing at the park. Our friends had all gone home but she made new friends with the kids playing at the park. Ashley loves slides and loves to play chase.

Our summer weekends have been filled with camping, cabins, fairs etc. Here Ashley and Matt soak up some sun at Rose's cabin. Although Matt and I were suffering from sore throats (which turned into strep for both of us) we really enjoyed our stay. The cabin is on an island so you have to boat out to it! The cabin was amazing! Kevin built it himself, bringing the materials over by boat or over the lake in the winter. It's really an amazing place. We got to stay in the guest cabin. Ashley had a wonderful time with the rest of our friends kiddo's and loved spending time with Rose. (Rose is also one of Ashley's teachers at daycare)

Here is a picture of Ashley's first canoe ride. We loaded all of our camping gear, the three of us and our dog Ruby and we went camping on the St. Croix with the Brooks family. We had wonderful weather during the day but we had to cut our campfire short due to the down pour of rain. It rained so hard and so much I thought we were going to be stuck in the tent with a wide awake little girl, but she slept right through it!

Ashley had a great time swimming in the river. She learned how to float on her tummy and kick her legs. She loved running in and out of the water and playing with the sand toys.

Here's Ashley sound asleep on her little cot in the tent.

Another fun thing to do...go in and out of the tent.

Ah yes... our biggest news of the month is that Ashley is out of diapers (except for at night)!!! As I've mentioned before, we've been working on potty training at home and at daycare. Daycare told me I could send pull ups or undies and they would start allowing her to be a little more independent with the potty training. So on 8/12 I had sent undies to daycare and they put them on her right after breakfast and she's been in undies ever since without any accidents! For the next two weeks, we'd put her in diapers during her naps but she'd stay dry through nap time as well so now she just wears a diaper at night.

Family photo snapped quickly at Elsa's 3rd birthday party. It's not often we get pictures of all three of us together.

Me and AJ

Ashley Jane swinging at my cousin Megan's 30th birthday party.

I know I've mentioned how much I love this age but let me tell you just another reason why. Well, on the very rare occasion that I get to go shopping and by new clothes, I like to get home and show Matt what I've bought. As you can probably imagine, he usually manages to sit through the display but I get the feeling he'd rather chew his arm off than look at my purchases. Anyhow, now I finally have someone with a true interest in checking out my new gear - Ashley! I showed her my stuff and she acted very interested. Then I gave her the new underwear that I had bought for her. I bought two kinds of underwear for her - some with mickey mouse characters and others with fairies. The video above is of her showing me her new underwear. She sure caught on quick!

What else is new? Ashley LOVES Mickey Mouse. We have a Mickey Mouse Club House DVD and she watches it every night now before she goes to bed. She loves to crawl into mommy & daddy's bed and sit and watch her movie while relaxing. She just loves MM! It's amazing how quickly things change. A month ago, she wouldn't sit still to watch a movie for more than 6 minutes. Now, she'd watch it over and over again if we'd let her. She also likes to sing. Her current favorites to sing are Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes and Picking Up My Baby Bumble Bee.

Daycare has sent home a few notes during the month that I must share. Her communication skills continue to blow me away. I just love being able to talk to her. On 8/11 the notes are AJ's funny sayings of the day. "My soda (water) is sour. Drink it to cool down!" and "My tummy hurts, when I eat food my tummy feels better." On 8/28 the notes are Ashley's quote of the day: "My daddy lazy bum!" The daycare teachers gasped and laughed hysterically at that one. I have NO idea where she picked up that quote. :o)

Where the heck did July go...and August is 1/2 gone.

Wow, any further delay and I could have missed July and August blog updates!

For several weeks before the sandal season started, I began asking Ashley if I could paint her toes. She wasn't interested. Then Daddy's softball games started and we started seeing our friends at the games each week and Maddy and Violet always had pretty toes. Then to my surprise on June 28th, Ashley told me she wanted her toenails painted and with a flower like Mommy's pretty toes. So I set up her little Elmo chair on the kitchen floor and we began painting her toes. I told her she had to sit very still and she waited so patiently. We then painted her fingernails and again she sat so patiently while they were drying. Not even a smudge! When I told her she could get up she said she wanted to go look in the mirror and she ran back to my bedroom to look in the mirror. Then she ran into her bedroom and stuck her hands between her crib rails getting her fingernails right in front of her little kitty (named Chloe) eyes and she said, "look Chloe, pretty nails!" Then she grabbed teddy bear out of her crib and went running to our family room. She sat teddy bear on our couch and laid him down and said "put to bed teddy bear" then "want juicy?" then "Come with?" Just like her mommy does. (Occasionally when Ashley wakes up in the middle of the night she wants some juice and then she tells me she wants to come with to get it. Then we sit on the couch and snuggle for a few minutes then back to bed. It's funny... because I am writing memories from the end of June, I sit here amazed at how much has changed...we no longer get juice before bed or have any juice in the middle of the night now that we are actively potty training. She still asks though, as if she's teasing me or testing me.

Here is Ashley on the 4th of July wearing a pretty new sundress from Grandma Sue.


Matt and I took Ashley to her first parade on July 4th. We were joined by Grandma & Grandpa Johnson and Auntie Angie, Uncle Erik and cousin Jessica. We went to the annual Forest Lake parade. This was very nostalgic for me as my mom brought us kids up to the Forest Lake parade every year for many, many years. We would be joined by many cousins and our grandparents and then we would go to great grandmas house for a picnic afterwards. Great grandma's house used to be right on Broadway...now it is White Castle.

Ashley LOVED all of the candy and mini donuts and fun trinkets she got from all of the floats. The Forest Lake parade had over 100 floats...or I guess they weren't all floats but over 100 participating cars with politicians, firetrucks etc.

The afternoon of the 4th we joined our friends at the annual 4th of July BBQ at the Carlson cabin. It was there that Ashley enjoyed her first time down a big inflatable water slide. She also enjoyed swimming in the nice shallow clean waters of Green Lake. Evening quickly approached and we prepared her with a glow in the dark necklace compliments of the Carlson's and then we cooked S'mores over the campfire and watched the fireworks all around the lake - all of these things her first time experiencing them. We didn't get home until after 11pm and she did so good. She talked for days and days about April's party, fireworks and S'mores. It was a great day.

Snuggling by the campfire, wearing our glow in the dark necklaces.

To kick off the Karl Oscar day festivities, we participated in the Karl Oscar Days Kiddie Parade with a group of our friends...all with the last name Johnson. Pictured is a few of the Johnson kids. Ashley as a princess, Henry as Captain Hook, Jada as a cheerleader and Violet as Tinkerbel with a mustache like the Captain. For those of you who have never been to a kiddie parade, the kids are the ones who walk and pass out the candy to the on looking parents and grandparents. They had a blast.

At the end of the 2 block parade the kids replenished with juice boxes and cookies.

July 17th we took Grandpa and Grandma's RV to the Interstate Park for a night of camping with our friends the Brooks'. We had planned for both of our families to sleep in separate RV's, but the park only had 1 spot available so we all packed in to our RV - 4 adults, 2 toddlers and 2 dogs. Other than the late bedtime for the girls and the clickity clicking of dog feet on the linolium all night, it was very fun. Ashley now understands that rule of campfires. If there is a campfire, there is also marshmallows and chocolate. She loves chocolate.

Daddy & Ashley at the campsite.

Ashley & Maddy enjoying S'mores! Just look at these big girls in their camping chairs eating S'mores.

We didn't have to check out until 4pm from our campsite and we were right on the river so we spent some time lounging as Ashley & Maddy threw rocks into the river.

Ashley discovers the raspberry bushes at Grandpa & Grandma Johnson's. I had a bucket and showed her the ropes of raspberry picking but she didn't get a single raspberry into the bucket. She ate every one she picked...plus most of the raspberries I picked too.

On July 24th we went to support Grandma Sue in the Relay for Life walk. We made it for the opening ceremony and then stayed until the lighting of the luminary bags. It was an amazing event filled with lots of emotions. This was another event Ashley talked about for days. We referred to the event as Grandma's Party Relay for Life. On Monday the note from daycare stated Ashley loved telling stories about jumping in a castle (inflatable castle) at Grandma's party. She also told her teacher that Grandma came over to go swimming. By this she was referring to her Grandma Terry who had come over to go water skiing. Ashley watched in amazement from the boat as Grandma Terry skied on one ski and sprayed up all that water. I was so impressed when I got the note from daycare as everything she had talked about was a real event from her weekend. She now talks about her weekends. WILD! My baby is no longer a baby.

July 29th, I left for my annual girls weekend. Before I left we went to daddy's last softball game. Before we went to daddy's softball game I snapped this adorable shot of Ashley. Yes, those are hot pink cowboy boots..also known as cowboats if you ask Ashley.

My big girl.

What else is new? Well be sure to check back soon for some very exciting milestones that we have made in August but first we must catch up on July... Ashley loves to play peek a boo. She puts her hands over her eyes (and peeks through the gaps in her fingers) and then pulls her hands down from her face and says "peek a boo" which is then always followed by her saying, "want to play again"? Ashley also likes to play hide and seek, although she just likes the suspense of it. She doesn't understand who is hiding or who is seeking but she loves to hide in what ever spot I just used as my hiding spot. As I mentioned, we have been actively potty training which has made for some very funny moments in the bathroom with her. I discovered that when she goes number 2, she puts her arms out in a tight flexed position and then makes the funniest pushing face I have ever seen. She now can recreate this funny face even if she isn't going #2. On July 30th, the note from her teacher Molly at daycare stated the following: Ashley is starting to become quite the actor. She is now trying to fool me when it's nap time. She is trying to squint her eyes shut and breathe heavy to make me think she's asleep. Then she peeks her eyes open to see if I'm still next to her. Funny!

She is so much fun. We laugh and play and snuggle and this is just a wonderful age.

And June is almost gone...

I know I said this in my last post too, but I just can't get over how fast time goes by. Where the heck did June go?

Here Ashley is looking over the kids menu at the Dinnerbel. I just thought she looked so cute, "reading" it over and deciding what to have... it was like she was a pro at eating at restaurants. For me, it was a nice treat to get to eat out and we enjoyed eating out on the patio. Best part about it was I didn't have to do any dishes or clean up any thrown food mess!

Back at the end of May, Ashley's cousin Jacob and Uncle Dennis stopped by for a quick visit. Jacob and Ashley are 17 months apart to the date.

We went over to help Grandpa and Grandma put their pontoon into the lake. The pontoon was completely beached because the water levels have gone down so much but our boat and Matt's determination were able to get it back into the water. We then took our boat to My Burger to get dinner. It's so fun to be able to boat over to a restaurant to eat. Ashley is usually good about taking pictures but this day she was being a stinker and wouldn't look on purpose.

Here Ashley is all dressed up on her way to Maddy's 3rd birthday party. It was princess themed and the kids could come in costume if they had them. We scored her princess dress at a garage sale for $2!

Ashley loved playing dress up and to this date still asks if she can wear her princess dress to Maddy's house.

Ashley enjoying a few of Maddy's toys.

Left to right: Maddy, Ashley, Henry and Gracie posing in front of Maddy's princess cake. YES, that is a real cake, created by Maddy's mom Sheli. It was an amazing cake and a real fairy tale kind of birthday... which was topped off by Maddy receiving a real horse from her Grandpa and Grandma. I've since informed Sheli that their family can continue to come to Ashley's birthday partys but that we could no longer come to Maddys because we can not compete! :o)

Ashley and Daddy at Urgent Care. Ashley had been complaining for a day and a half about her ears hurting so we took her to urgent care. The doc said, "well, she has a low grade fever (99.2) and her ears are blocked with wax so I can't see very well so lets just treat her." I thought about kicking him in the shins and asking if he had children but instead left and decided to wait it out for two days until our scheduled visit with our ENT doc unless her conditions worsened. I was happy we did because the ENT doc said - no ear infection. I asked about her constant runny nose and he said he'd just chalk it up to calling it chronic rhinitis....meaning she has a chronic runny nose but is other wise healthy, growing and happy.

I've taken a few days off from work here and there since the weather has turned nice and we joined our friends at the Big Marine park in Washington County. It cost $5 to get in and it was a blast. The kids loved playing at the beach and in the water and having a picnic lunch and then playing at the play ground. It was a fun day!

Ashley loved this bee at the big park.

Last weekend we were invited out on our friends house boat. Here Ashley and Daddy sit at the table as we were moving down river towards the sandy beach we planned to spend the day at.

Ashley applying her sunscreen.

Violet, Jada and Ashley resting and watching Tinkerbel on the houseboat.

Ashley swinging in the hammock swing at the end of a sun filled day on the beach with a great group of friends.

As you know, Ashley has survived her first two years on hand-me downs. Above is a video of a different kind of hand-me down. A bike! We have had this bike since Ashley was just a little baby and we pulled it out of the rafters this spring as the weather warmed. The first few times we had to help Ashely onto the seat and we would show her how to peddle but her feet could just barely make it around with the peddles. Within a few weeks and only a handful of attempts... this happens. She kicks her leg over, gets situated on her seat and takes off. She was SO proud and so were we! I just happen to have my camera and captured it on video.

Summer days means...corn on the cob! Here Ashley tries her first shot at corn on the cob. She was very excited about the green giant corn cob poker dealios.

She quickly learned the side effects of corn on the cob... corn kernels stuck in her teeth!

Yes we live on the lake but we set up a little pool for Ashley to swim in. It's clean, depth controllable and doesn't contain any rocks or weeds. She loves swimming and splashing.

Ashley posing in an adorable hand-me down outfit.

Ashley Jane - 2 years and 3 months old.

What else is new this month? Well, I am pretty sure that I have mentioned what a change we have seen in Ashley's vocabulary since she turned two. It's just so fun to have conversations with her. Here are a few stories from last month. Story #1- On 5/31 after I gave Ashley a bath, she had to go potty. So, I sat her on the potty stark naked and she did her usual tinkering around before actually doing her business. Because of this lallygagging and her being naked, she started to get cold and got blue lips and then her lips started to quiver. She looked at me with the most puzzled face and said "what lips doin' mama?". I sat for a moment and thought to myself that these are the kind of moments that really make me wish I could record every moment so as not to forget a single memory. Story #2 - 6/1 we took Ashley fishing for her first time (and I didn't have my camera!). She caught her first sunfish and was thrilled. Once we got back to our dock, there were 30+ geese on our neighbors shore. We watched them for a few minutes then I told her to say goodnight to the geese and she said goodnight. Then I told her that the geese said they loved her. Once I got her in bed, I told her mommy loves you, goodnight. She then said something that I didn't understand. She repeated it...she said, "ducks love me?". My reply- yes, the ducks love you too. Her memory is amazing! Story #3 - 6/3 Ashley had been in bed and quiet for at least 20 minutes when all of a sudden I heard her start talking. I listened through her door and this is the conversation I heard: "I want chicken nuggets, please. Go buy some? OK!" Now the funniest thing about this was, she was by herself and and chicken nuggets aren't even something we normally have. Where do they come up with these things? It was so funny.