December 2009 & January 2010

Hello! Happy February 1st! Below are some updates from events in December 09 & January 2010. Is it really 2010 already?

Here's a video clip of Ashley and Daddy going down our sledding hill and...over Ruby! This year, Ashley was brave enough to go sledding down the hill all by herself too!

Who says you can't swing in the winter? She loved it just as much as she does in the summer!

One evening, I had taken my eyes off of Ashley because she had gone into the kitchen where Matt was. Well, it turned out, Matt had gone into the garage for a minute. This is what I walked into the kitchen to find. Ashley had taken her booster chair from off of the kitchen chair, dragged it up to the counter and started helping herself to some chips and dip or should I say one chip and several scoops of dip! Naughty!

Ashley Jane on Christmas Eve. She absolutely loved wearing these beautiful hand me down dresses she was given. The best part about them was the way the dress moved when she spun around in circles.


Here's a video of Ashley with my cousins daughter, Izzy demonstrating how cool their dresses were! These girls had a blast together and stayed up till 11:30pm!!

Christmas morning as Ashley first takes in what Santa has left under the tree!

Ashley had asked Santa for a computer and flip flops and Santa brought her both items! I was very impressed that Santa's elves could still find flip flops in December! The computer was a total hit...and it was even Mickey Mouse!

Ashley Jane on Christmas day in yet another beautiful dress!

The toy that Ashley received for Christmas that she plays with the most is this stethoscope from Daddy. She puts on her white gloves (from her Halloween costume as Minnie Mouse) and then the stethoscope and then she starts assessing her stuffed animal friends. She pretends to be her doctor, Dr. Sara, and it is simply adorable. She listens to her friends hearts, gives them medicine, takes their temperature etc.

This weekend was the Celebration of the Lakes and we bundled up and head over to the festivities. We watched the kiddie parade, dog sleds, kiddie snowmobile races, hot air balloons etc. Ashley's favorite part of the day was riding in the sled with her buddy Maddy.

Ashley and Maddy having a great time together. It was so fun to watch these two interact. We were together for different activities on the lakes both Saturday and Sunday. On Sunday, the girls played in the truck for awhile to warm up during the ice-fishing contest. When I opened the door to check on them, Ashley told me they were playing house and they were sisters. She talked about Maddy both nights while going to bed and can't wait to play with her again soon!

Family picture out on the lake.

What else is new? We took Ashley for her first time swimming in a pool. She absolutely loved it and we have been back for more swimming since. It's a very fun family activity on a Sunday afternoon. Matt went on an spear fishing trip with friends in January and Ashley and I had a girls weekend. She was very excited and kept saying we having a fun girls weekend momma? Our girls weekend included painting our toenails and adding some fancy sticker decals that I had found. I was so excited about these decals and when I put them on our toes they were just fabulous. A couple of hours later, Ashley and I are in the kitchen and she says " Mom, are you excited?" I figured she was talking about us going swimming later in the day so I asked about what? She said " about our toenails!" She cracks me up! We also went shopping on our girls weekend and on the way to Kohl's, Ashley was in the backseat and must have said mom, mommy, momma about 20 times...even though I had said what without receiving any response. She just continued with mom, mommy, momma etc. Finally I said, Ashley - WHAT? She said "I'm singing a song about you." Good grief- I was starting to wish she'd lose her voice. On 1/12 AJ was sent home from school with pinkeye. Best part about it was that Grandpa Butch picked her up from school and brought her to the store to buy some lunch and treats and then she got to spend the rest of the day at G & G's house. Since then, she has asked her teacher if Grandpa was going to come pick her up and saying she doesn't feel good...my grandpa come pick me up? She even said, Tiffany, does my eye look pink? Grandpa come pick me up?

Ashley loves to color with markers and has started to learn the concept of coloring in the lines. She draws shapes for her self and then colors them in. She also loves for us to write her name. Now she wants us to hold her hand and write her name so she can practice. She will point to different letters on things around the house and tell us whose name starts with that letter. For example, if she sees an H, she will say, Hayden's name starts with that! Ashley loves hand sanitizer and calls it "ties zanner".

Lastly, another funny told to me by Ashley's teacher Tiffany. Tiffany told me: Ashley invited me to your house tonight. She said you would make me dinner and then we could get our jammies on and play her new memory game that she got from Santa. Then she said, "You can have more noodles even if you don't try your other food...because we aren't at school" The best part about this is that I can't get her to eat a noodle if it was the only thing on her plate...yet Tiffany said, Ashley loves to eat noodles at school. Unfortunately, I think my little baby is taking advantage of her mommy and being a picky eater at home when she will eat nearly everything they give her at school! What a turkey!

Back in November

Back in November...

Daddy took Ashley on her first adventure walk. She even got to use and carry the GPS. They walked the lake shore all the way from our house to the bridge on Hwy 8. They both had a great time. I stayed back and sat outside and read My Sisters Keeper. It was a beautiful sunny November day.

We took Ashley to the Osceola water tower. It's a great place for adventure walking and it was covered with leaves. Ashley enjoyed running and burying us in the leaves.

We found a hole and buried ourselves and then set the timer on the camera to take our picture.

Ashley on Thanksgiving.

After a few weeks of looking through ads and searching Craigslist, we found Ashley a new bedroom set. We still need to buy the mattress for her twin size bed but we have just about everything else to move her into her new room. Her new room will be Mickey Mouse themed.

What else happened in November? The H1N1 hit our house and Ashley was down for the count for about a week with a high fever, terrible cough and an ear infection. On 11/6 Ashley insisted on going to bed without wearing a diaper. I told her if she had to go potty to just call for momma and I'd come get her. Well, since then she has been diaper free and hasn't had any accidents! She did so great with potty training! Ashley has also started to chew gum and asks for a piece just about every time we get in the car. My favorite quotes this month: On the way home from daycare, Ashley is in her car seat and says " Ohhhh Mom, I gotta take off these work shoes" and then I felt two thumps as her shoes were kicked off against the back of my seat. In late November as people started to turn on their Christmas lights Ashley says "Oh beautiful" to the Christmas lights. Then I said, oh yes, oh beautiful and she said, NO Mom, you can't say that! Here are favorite quotes told to me by Tiffany (Ashley's teacher): On 11/17 Ashley informed Tiffany that she just can't say "ewww" she had to move her jaw back and forth when she said it! And Ashley wanted to know why she should eat her fruit at lunch and Tiffany told her because it was delicious. That answer wasn't good enough so Tiffany said because it was good for her. THAT answer wasn't good enough to Tiffany broke our the old "because I said so" and Ashley started to crack up laughing and said "my mom says that too!".

October Fun

Wow, is it really possible that October has already come and gone?

A few weekends back, Ashley and I went to visit my Grandma. Here we are with Grandma and Ayla. Ayla is Ashley's second cousin. We also stopped at my Grandma's house on Halloween since we were in her neighborhood. Since then, Ashley keeps asking me if we can go back to "new grandma's" house. Grandma made a lasting impression on Ashley by offering her a whole bunch of Halloween candy. :o)


On October 11th we were invited to Sheli's house for a
Halloween party for the kids. We decorated Halloween cookies, played in costumes and even got to take swings at the pinata!

Jessie, Elsa, Maddy, Ashley, Allie, Violet and Julie

Ashley, Maddy, Violet, Elsa and Allie

The latest round of hand-me down shoes!! Just in time too because she has grown out of her shoes.

On October 18th, Ashley, Sheli, Maddy and I went to see Disney Live at the Xcel. Ashley was very excited to see Mickey, Minnie, Goofy, Donald Duck, Tigger etc.

A picture of the stage.

Ashley showing off her new winter hat and a shirt full of sloppy joes! Cheese!

Ashley is now into playing with her "buddies". She likes to wrap them up like babies and talk to them etc. If you'll notice bear is next to the wall...he is on time out. Here is what she said " You (bear) on time out...I'll come get you. You ready to be a good listener?" Oh did I laugh!

Ashley was Minnie Mouse for Halloween. I think she wore her costume just about every day before Halloween and she continues to put it on and play just about every day. She just loves Mickey, Minnie etc.

We went to get pumpkins from Lendt's pumpkin patch. They have a big kids area with fun picture taking opportunities...fun for those families who's kids participate. I managed to capture a few good pictures but we mainly heard the words "no, because I don't want to" come from her mouth.

Daddy showing Ashley how to clean out the pumpkin.

Our pumpkins - a skull, a ghost and Mickey Mouse!

On Halloween, we had a very busy day. We went to my cousin Riley's 6th birthday party at the bowling alley in Shoreview. Ashley really liked bowling. Then once we got home we got her costume on and ready to go tricker treating. I was fairly sure that we would make it to one house and have to convince her to do that...but, she had a blast. After the first house, she said "what next momma" and we continued to go up and down the block at G&G J's house. She would get up to the door and say "trick or treat", then she would say "happy Halloween". Such a big girl! Ashley then got to stay over at Grandma & Grandpa J's and pass out candy to the kids. She really liked that until one of the kids scared her. She told me they had a scary mask with sharp teeth. Matt and I went out to a few different Halloween events.

Here we are at one of the bars. Matt was a shower (like in the movie Karate Kid), I was someone about to take a shower. We also met up with our friends. Brandi and Jesse were cops from Reno 911, Jere was a Shriner and Julie was one of the Roller Girls. It was a fun night.

I captured a few video clips this month. Here Ashley is showing off her somersault skills. She can do them so well! In the middle of November, she is starting gymnastics. She can't wait!

This video is of Ashley dancing like Minnie Mouse. She loves to twirl.

This is a video of Ashley singing "I like to move it, move it". She picked up these lyrics from watching Madagascar. If your not sure what I am talking about- check out this video clip on you tube - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0x3W6hutEj8

A few more quotes from the last month: on 10/20, I had asked Ashley is she wanted to make cookies. She replied "you (momma) snuggle with me...watch Aristocats...daddy make us cookies". I thought that was a great idea! :o) On 10/25 when Matt was finished with carving Ashley's pumpkin into Mickey Mouse, she ran into the living room and started rummaging through her toy box. She grabbed her phone, came running back into the kitchen, got down on one knee, flipped up the lid on her phone and angled herself just right to take a picture of the pumpkin. She then pressed the button to take the picture, looked right at Matt and I and said "I'll send it to you!". Matt and I just about fell over laughing. You never realize that your children absorb so much from what you say or do. (Matt and I often take Ashley's picture with our cell phones. We tell her, sit still and smile, I'm going to take your picture so we can send it to daddy.) Ashley also got in one of her two year molars. She has one more to go and then she will have all of her baby teeth!