End of June

Ashlyn watching her baby einstein movies - so focused...
My sweet little Red Head....
*Ashlyn does this when she's crawling and we call her name - she turns around and has to grab on to her leg to balance, she spreads her toes apart too...


Well I've been a little busy this week but also a little bored sometimes! It started out not so well with my husbands truck being broken into on Monday while he was on his lunch break - they stole his GPS (it was in the center console) I got him for Christmas 2 years ago and we were pretty bummed, we didn't really notice much else gone which is silly because he had tons of tools under the back seat, expensive sun glasses, a knife and keys to his tool box in the bed of the truck. We did realize last night that they stole our diaper bag that we always kept in Blakes truck (they must have thought it was a purse or something) I hope they were surprised to find diapers, wipes, a spare outfit and a changing pad! They were quite messy and threw papers around all over. The next couple days Ashlyn and I just hung out at home and at times I was bored because daytime tv is nothing to brag about, my house was clean, my emails were updated, laundry was done, and I didn't feel like napping! Last night we went to an indoor shooting range with our friends Mark & Clarissa Judy - I shot a 40 caliber pistol and a rifle that was made in 1932. We went to dinner at Pei Wei afterwards and we loved it - Blakes parents watched Ashlyn for us and this was our 2nd date without her and she is 6.5 months! One thing I did get to do was plan for my sister in-law Robin Powell's Diaper Party which we had this morning and it turned out really nice... This is her 3rd baby so we just thought it would be fun to have everyone bring diapers! We did a breakfast pizza *yummy*, fruit, french toast bagels (my favorite), carmel popcorn, cookies, and we had sugar rimmed drinks with orange juice and sprite! We had rose pedals in the middle of the tables with pacifiers to decorate along with candles and we hung up boy onesies on a ribbon with clothes pins..... So Cute! It was really fun and we played a few games, visited and ate lots of food! Blake and all the boys in his family went to the lake this morning and I'm just waiting for him to return hopefully without a sun burn! A few days ago Ashlyn started scrunching her nose while she smiles and then breathes kinda fast through her nose and it is hilarious, she's growing up so fast! She also sat up with a few pillows around her and watched a whole movie of baby einstein on Thursday while I rested on the couch! I think her two front teeth may be showing up in a few weeks - they seem to be a little swollen. All in all it has been a pretty good week - Now it's hard to believe that July begins tomorrow!!! happy summer

TOOTH

It took me awhile but I finally got a picture of her only tooth!

Summer Fun

Last Thursday we went to Aunt Dusti's to swim and have lunch, we had a wonderful time in the water being that it was about 111 degrees that day! We had so much fun with cousins and just relaxing in the pool! Saturday we went to the lake with Blakes parents and Melissa & Gregg Rupp came to visit from California and brought Monica along as well! we had a great time wakeboarding and riding the air chair. Ashlyn of course did great on the boat as usual and we even let her float in the water next to her daddy - she seemed a little nervous at first - i think because the water was a little cold but soon relaxed and splashed away! We had so much fun at the lake and we were happy to spend some time with friends.

Dusti and Ashlyn

Robin and Charlotte

Ashlyn and Blake

Gregg, Melissa, Andrea, Monica, Blake

Ashlyn standing on the boat and spitting

Ashlyn floating in the lake water (looks kinda greenish brown huh!)

My little family

I don't have a lot to post about except how blessed I am. Most of you know it took 2.5 years for Blake and I to get pregnant and we still have no idea why but we are grateful for the time we had by ourselves! Now that we have little Ashlyn we can't imagine our lives without her and just feel like she's our little miracle baby! Being a mom is the most rewarding job even when your baby has leaked out of her diaper, made a mess with baby food or is screaming the whole car ride home and of course Ashlyn has done all 3. It's just part of the process so we grin and move on!! Ashlyn has been sleeping through the night for over a week and I am loving it! And she's getting better and better at scooting ALL over the house. Today we are going to my sister in laws for lunch and to swim - should be tons of fun!

Girls Day / Lake Trip

Left to right - Janae, Jamie, Kristi (Logan) and Delaina
Left to right - Shasta (Brinlee, Jamie's daughter), Janalie, Rachelle, and Me

Blake riding the airchair, preparing to do a back flip

Blake and Ashlyn driving the boat, she is SO good on the boat, it's awesome!!!

Blake at the beginning of his back flip - he landed about 3 of them but let go of the rope!

Saturday was a great day, I hosted a "girls day" with my girlfriends from high school and we always just get together and visit and have food of course - this time we had sandwiches, pasta salad, fruit salad, brownies, cookies and carmel popcorn - tasty huh!! it was wonderful to catch up with everyone (that could come anyway) and just have girl time!! Afterwards Blake, Ashlyn and I went to the Lake with his dad to test out a new part he got for the boat - what I thought would be a 2-3 hour adventure turned into a 5.5 hour trip but was actually fun and relaxing except I was the designated flag holder when Blake or his dad wrecked on the air chair and I had to hold Ashlyn at the same time!!! No sun burns this time... we then went and had dinner at Tropical Smoothie and just hung out at Blakes parents for a little bit afterwards! Today should be fun as well with Fathers Day and we'll be going to both our families tonight. Happy Fathers day to all the dads!!

- HALF WAY TO ONE -

My sweet little girl is 6 months today and is growing like a weed... we have her check up today at the doctor so we'll see how much she's grown in height and weight! these days she is scooting and pulling herself (with the help of our rug) everywhere. She loves to slap her hands on the wood floor and run her fingers through our shag rug! So far she only has one tooth and I can't tell if another one is on it's way yet! her red hair is growing in nicely on the sides and back now that she is on her belly most of the day and on the move. I love being able to stay home with her, her big smiles just melt my heart and help me realize how blessed I am to be a mom and have such a wonderful family! last night she was rolling and scooting all over the living room and I found her slapping the wood while half way under the couch - she loved it!

We love the LAKE...

Ashlyn's first time wearing her life jacket and being on a boat, I must say she did fantastic and only whimpered when she got a little sleepy...we were on the boat for 6 hours. What a good baby!







We pulled the boat up to a little beach area so the kids could play, perfect time to take off the life jackets and let Ashlyn experience lake water and sand...she kicked and splashed a whole bunch. we got her this one piece sun protector with snaps on the bottom for easy changing so she wouldn't get sun burned - she loved it

This is Blake riding on the new air chair his dad bought,

the guys had a great time -

This is me and Ashlyn, we had so much fun and I

think all of the adults got sun burned....

This is Trent (Blakes brother) and Kolbe our nephew,

he is learning how to wakeboard and he's 6 years old.

Home Remodel = DONE

This is the wall from the couch in the living room (Christmas was the only time I took a picture with the wall in it!) It made the space so weird... View from the kitchen, we basically took out the kitchen nook and added it to the living room, but we have a seperate eating/dining area so we didn't need the nook...

View from the living room again, in early construction - it was such a mess tearing out the dry wall...

Here is after the wall was taken down but we still needed to remove the tile from the kitchen before we could put in a pony wall and more wood floor.

The tile was removed and the pony wall was framed, it already added so much space being just partially finished.

Here Blake added the hard wood and the electrical is finished in the framing too


These are the new ceiling fans Blake and my dad installed, it makes the room so much brighter than the previous floor lap we used.

Here the wall is finished, all textured and painted with outlet covers and base board. Yeah!

Wahoo - thanks to Blake and with help from his brother Trent for working really hard to get it done.

A Tooth...A Tooth!

Ashlyn had her first tooth break through her gums last night (her bottom right) and seems to be a little cranky because of it... I don't blame her but it's hard not being able to do much besides put baby orajel on it. We went swimming today and had a great time, she loves to wear her sun hat and won't even touch it. She scoots herself all over our living room on the rug and the wood floor so it looks like I'll have my work cut out for me trying to keep her contained in one area...

Baby Water Safety.....

We are trying to plan ahead for our annual summer vacation to Lake Powell with Blakes family and one of the many things we have to do this year (since adding our baby) is buy Ashlyn a life jacket... As most of you know babies/kids have to wear a life jacket at all times while on a boat and of course in water so we've been searching for something that might be comfortable for Ashlyn - lets just say it's impossible for a 6 month old to wear a poofy, tight vest! We've found 2 choices so far... FIRST- the soft one that's red and yellow but leaves no room for a baby neck and SECOND - the blue and yellow one that is half the price of the soft one because its a little scratchy looking and also has no room for a baby neck. To be honest I wish we could find one in the middle of these two. We haven't purchased anything yet, but (would you?) if your babies cheeks would be raw after wearing one of these for 10 minutes because it rubs directly on her face.... if you've have any ideas for life jackets for babies or a place to buy them I'd appreciate any suggestions. So far we've looked at Sportsmans and Sports Chalet! Ashlyn makes the jackets look pretty tasty huh!!! Oh and Ashlyn likes to look at books, it's too cute.