Halloween

I'll skip my speach on why I haven't blogged. No good answer really. just lazy. But, we are back!! Halloween was fun. We carved a pumpkin and made ghost cookies the week before. Then, on halloween I had put ashy in a Gator's cheerleading outfit, in honor of the FL/GA game that day (FL won- GO GATORS!!!!). But, then we changed her into princess bell for her big night out with the cousins. When she put it on, she kept saying "Look at me, I cute", and she was. She did awesome. Here are some pics. (What everyone cares about)

Pumpkin with Mom and Dad (rotted on our kitchen table in 2 days- that is what 80 degree FL weather will do for ya)


GO GATORS!!! If you "Gator Chomp", she will happily chomp those hands togethers.




Now onto our princesses for the night, Bell, Snow White, and Cinderella.

Lots going on

My life usually doesn't seem that eventful. But, I was sitting here thinking, but in the world has happened in the last month and lots of things came to mind--

1) At least twice a week pool visits (that equals some tan people around here)
2) Mother's day. It was nice. My present was a few weeks earlier- WICKED tickets.
3) My dad's 75th birthday!!! He's been saying he is a gonner for 30 years!! I think he has proven himself wrong.
4) A week of vacation. Lots of bumming around the house.
5) A few trips to the beach. One with my mom, Stacey (sis n law), Sydney, and Ashlyn. Included a wave knocking my mom and the girls all over. didn't even phase them.
6) Father's day. Danny didn't get what he wanted, an eliptical. But, he did get a nice wallet and shirt!! Maybe the eliptical is in the future.
7) Finally got approval from the association to put our fence up. Now, we have to get comfortable with paying thousands of dollars for it. (darn white vinyl requirement)
8) Both Danny and I still have our jobs- in this economy, that is definite accomplishment worth notating.
9) Ashlyn got her first busted lip on Tuesday. That is what happen when her face meets a friend's pool deck. Lots of blood and freaking out. But, she was over it in 5 min. and ready to keep swimming.
10)And the MOST exciting happening. Ashlyn said her first "sentence"- I LOVE YOU (or at least her version of it). She can also be reverent and pray by folding her arms and closing her eyes. Ask "where is XXX" and happily exclaims "ALL DONE" when we finish reading a book.

here is a short video trying to show her "skills". I would upload another one but I don't have the patience. This one took me forever.

PICS-Here ya go. hopefully, I'll post before another 1mth goes by.

Daddy and Daughter-Easter.

Disney and the Dumbo Ride!!


The Orel Granddaughters- Ashlyn, Sasha, Adrienne.

Two of the Manning Granddaughters (less, Kipin): Sydney, Ashlyn


Ashlyn and her mop of hair.

Attempting to Blog

OK. I am attempting to blog with Ashlyn's face covering the whole laptop screen. She is so nosy. I finally am trying to do an update. My mom gave me the TSK TSK today about not having it updated.

Nothing too exciting has happened recently. I am finally part time now- this is week three. I am working 3-10 hour days (Monday, Wednesday, Thursday). So, having Tuesday and Fridays off is great. Tuesday is grocery shopping, errands, cleaning day. So, hopefully Friday's can be my "fun" day with Ashlyn. I can't wait till it warms up and we can go to the pool and beach. (Not that I am excited to get in a bathing suit, but I'll suck it up for her). We spent last Friday with my friend, Brianna and her kids. She has a little zoo going on at her house- dog, bird, little chicks, and ducks were in the process of hatching while we were there. Ashlyn was memorized with all the animals.

Danny is doing well. He did a fun guys trip out to Vegas a couple of weeks ago with Chris Porter and Matt Davis. Both of them managed to win some money. Danny unfortunately came home broke. But, that's alright. There were no ATM trips, so I call that a win.

Ashlyn's pics to come. She is pulling on me to go somewhere. I think I have a high maintenance girl on my hands.

Pictures

As promised, here are some pics. Just ignore Ashlyn's wild mane. She freaks when I try to fix it, so she goes 'AS IS' usually.

Pictures aren't in date order.

This is what we have been getting a lot lately from our little one. Terrible twos have started at 14 mths.




This is the newest Orel- Adrian Hope Orel.




Fun on the carousel at the Zoo:





Doing what she does best, climbing on things she shouldn't.




Posing for the camera.



Here are all the Manning grankids: Josh, Kipin, Ryan, Joel, Reed, Sydney, Trevor, Tyler, and Ashlyn.


'What are you looking at?"




The happy family on christmas eve (I've really got to start actually styling my hair).

BLOG SLACKER

I know. It has been forever since I put up a post. I won’t bore you with all the reasons (and they are all good ones, I promise) that I haven’t gotten around to providing an update on our lives. I will spare you all the boring details. But here is a quick overview of the past two months for us:

Thanksgiving Night (where I left off with my last post): Ashlyn took her first consecutive steps!!! (She is now practically running around the house (or at least speed walking).

Christmas week: I took that entire week off. It was really nice to just hang out at home and relax and not have to go anywhere. Of course, Danny and I were hit once again with a stomach bug. But, luckily, it was only the 24 hr kind and not the monster bug that hit us earlier in 2008. We spent Christmas Eve and Christmas with the families. Ashlyn got some good loot- shopping cart, baby doll and stroller, toy box, and clothes (among other things). Danny bought me a nice pearl necklace. He won out with the Band of Brothers DVD collection and a fire pit for outstide (the smores have been great!!)

New Years- Stayed at home and I fell asleep at 11:45pm and woke back up at 12:05am. So, I missed ringing in the New Year. L We went earlier that day to the zoo with Ashlyn. She liked the animals and love the carousel. In fact, I practically had to take her screaming off of it.

January- For me, this has been one big blur. My life has been work (it is year end for us, and times are nuts). One week, I got home every night that week after Ashlyn had fallen asleep. Definitely a bummer for me. Danny has been awesome. He has handled Ashlyn without much of a complaint at all while I’ve been MIA.

However, there were some good moments:

· Ashlyn has broken two more teeth (all on the right side of her month). So, I wonder what she’ll look like if she keeps getting all her right hand teeth and nothing on the left.
· An old friend from college (UF days) came to crash for the night. Nicole, it was great to get to see you. You are free to stay anytime your in town. Good luck with #3.
· We welcomed another niece into the family. Danny’s brother, Chris had a little baby girl last week- Adrian Hope Orel. Cute as can be. We can’t believe Chris is now a daddy.
· Ashlyn has hit her terrible twos earlier (she’s only 14 months old). She now will sit down and cry if we take something away or won’t let her do what she wants. I think we have some long years ahead of us with that one.

So, that about sums it up. What to expect in the future:

· Danny and I getting to go see a movie in an actual movie theatre!! A staff of mine gave us tickets as a christmas gift so we have to go use them.
· Hopefully a planned vacation somewhere in March. I’m the slacker that won’t commit to anything. I’d better soon or Danny will go on a vacation without us.
· If all goes as planned, I will be cutting my hours back to 30 hrs a week (3-10 hour days) so that I can spend more time with my little one. Yeah for me, not as much a yeah for the pocketbook. We’ll just have to stick to a budget for once. (I’ve always had a budget worked up for us, but didn’t really try to enforce us staying within it.

I’ll post some pics tomorrow. I promise.

Happy Thanksgiving

I hope everyone has a wonderful thanksgiving and gets to spend it with family and/or friends. Danny and I are heading to my parents for lunch and then to his parents for dinner. We will be little stuffed turkeys ourselves once the day is over.

I wanted to say how thankful I am for my husband and daughter. They mean the world to me. I'm thankful for our extended families and all that they do for us on a daily basis. I'm thankful that we have a home and have all the necessities in life (especially since so many right now are struggling). I'm thankful for the church and the meaning and direction it gives. I could keep going with a much larger list, but that hits some of the highlights.

Have a good one. And Ashlyn wanted to wish everyone happiness as well. So, here she is sending everyone her kisses.

ASHLYN'S 1ST BDAY (Belated Post)

Ashlyn's Birthday was last Thursday (I know I'm a week behind). She turned the big ONE. It is hard to believe that my little girl is getting so big. (Literally, on a side note, had her doc visit yesterday she is off the charts in height 100% plus and 75% weight. Maybe a future super model. :) )

Here are a couple pics of the birthday girl.

On her actual B-Day:

Enjoy the party we had for her on Saturday at out house:


In the beginning of the cake festivities:



In the end:



She at one point was using the cake as a drum. Icing flying everywhere. To get her clean I just unhooked the highchair and took it and her together into our bathtub for a good washdown.

We had some family and friends over for yummy sandwiches, potato salad, chips, fruit, etc. Ashlyn got some great gifts. I think almost all the toys make noise. But, that is ok since they all also have an off switch!!!

WOW-5 New Posts

Lots of happenings. If you want to read the saga in order, start with Vacation Part 1 and this scroll up. :) Hope every had a happy halloween and election day.

Beaver

I forgot to write in my vacation book below about Ashlyn's little act. I was putting up her 3-6 mths closes (which I needed to do for a while since she is in 12-18 mth clothes now) in her room and she kept crawling up on me. So, I threw her in her crib to stay contained while I finished. Next thing I know I hear this little scrape, scrape, scrape and look back and I see Ashlyn just gnawing away at the bed rail like a little beaver.

Observe the damage:





I tried to buy some guards for the rails but her crib rails are twice as wide as a standard rail and I can't find anything to fit.

What really is the kicker is this was the replacement foot board of the crib because the original one had a paint crack down the top of the rail and I was scared it was start chipping and pealing the paint. So, we just recently had gotten the replacement from the manufacturer. So, we now have an eaten railing and one with a paint chip almost 6-8 ins. long. O well. i guess some repainting will be in our future.

Vacation-Part 4 Uh Oh!!!

Saturday was nice relaxing day and then Saturday night came....

Ashlyn woke up with a fever and not feeling good. Then proceeded 1 vomiting and then 3 days of a yucky stomach flu. Sunday afternoon her fever spiked to 104.8 so off we went to the emergency room. I called my pediatrician first but they sent us off to the ER anyways. Luckily, the hospital we went to wasn't busy at all so we got right in. Of course all they gave us was some motrin and 2 hours of sitting there just waiting to make sure the fever started going down. I hate to see how much a little thimble of motrin will cost us. :0)

It was so sad to see her that way. She just kept wimpering like a little puppy. Here's our little one and her first official hospital band while sick--



And that ended our very eventful week of vacation. I hope my next vacation is more boring. :)

Vacation Part 3- Furniture and Halloween

Well, danny went back to work on Thursday and I was able to try to resume the rest of my vacation. Lots of erands. Fun visits to Target and Party Shop to prepare to Ashlyn's upcoming B-day bash. Eating with my parents and a trip to Ashley furniture to finally buy a new kitchen table. After 2 1/2 hours, the deal was made. We pick it up on Tuesday. I'll post before and after of my kitchen nook then.

One thing I learned, you can get a better deal if you shop at the end of the month. I was trying to decide which table to buy and was going to wait till the next day. But, since they wanted the sale in October, they gave me an additional $50 off ( on top of the $90 I am getting off for simply donating my old table to habitat for humanities). So, $140 off the price. I thought that was pretty great.

Then, we had to finally get ready for Halloween. Ashlyn was a little lady bug (thanks to my sister-n-law offering to let Sydney's old costume be used). see the pics below. We went over to my brother's house to go tric-or-treating with them. Danny, Brad, and Danny's brother Steve hung out at the house while Stacey, danny's mom, and I headed out with the girls. they both had such a good time. It was soooo fun to watch Sydney go say trick or treat at every door like a good little princess that she is.

Vacation Part 2- WORK EMERGENCY

Tuesday afternoon (after getting back) I had to call my boss because there was a little emergency at work. Yes, believe it our not, major fires can occur in the accounting world. Well, this one was such a doozy that I had to go into work on Wednesday to handle things. The biggest bummer was that my mom watched Ashlyn Tuesday night so that Danny I could could have some nice quiet time and actually get some good sleep. Well, with the work thing going on, I hardly slept at all and was up at 4am working. Then, I went into the office around 9am for the remainder of the day (around 5:30-6).

So, danny got to get his haircut and then he headed to pick up Ashlyn. He ended up going out to Cotton's BBQ with my parents and niece and hanging out at their house in the afternoon. Oh so eventful.

My job is so stressful sometimes. I'm thankful that I have been as successful as I have in my career. But, sometimes my colleagues and I talk about maybe it would be better working at Target. Definitely less stress. The whole work/life balance thing doesn't really work when your working 50-60 hrs a week.

Ok. enough about my vacation break.

Vacation-Part 1

Last week Danny and I were on vacation. We went to Savannah, GA for a couple nights. I had been there, but Danny never had. He loves anything history related, so we headed off. Of course, it wasn't till we got there did we realize we didn't bring the camera. So, no pics.

On our first day, we headed out to get in line to get a reservation at Paula Deen's restaurant- The Lady and Sons. They start setting up reservations at 9:30 each morning of that days lunch and dinner times. So, we setup a reservation for 12:15 and went on our way.

We then took a 90 min. tour of historic Savannah on one of those trolley buses. The weather was really nice, so it was fun to sit in the open air trolley and enjoy the tour. Savannah has some of the most beautiful homes. Most of the historic district is setup in squares, so you have a these little parks.

Then we headed to our yummy lunch reservation. The Lady and Sons is still in the same building it started out in. It's been expanded to 3 floors. We ate on the 3rd floor. You can order something specific or just get her buffet. Of course, we did the buffet. It had:

Fried chicken
Baked chicken
yams
mashed potatoes
mac and cheese
collar greens
butter beans
creamed corn
green beans
biscuit/hoe cakes
salad

Then, for dessert you can choose from peach cobbler, banana pudding, and some type of chocolate gooey cake. Danny got the peach cobbler and I got the banana pudding.

though everything was really good. I have to be honest. It just was like eating at my mom's house. She makes almost everything that was on the buffet, including the deserts. So, we told my mom she should start her own restaurant. she could make a killing.

We headed back to the hotel then to crash after the lunch. After a much needed nap, we went down to River Street and took nice walk. It reminded me of St George street in St. Augustine. Our take from that was some yummy original and chocolate pralines.

The night held a trip to a cool little pizza joint right across the street from our hotel and back for danny to watch Monday night football.

Tuesday brought us packing up and heading out. Before we left Savannah, we went to Ft. Jackson for a little tour. From my perspective, if you seen a fort before, you've seen this one. There are all pretty similar. But, danny really enjoyed it. He reads all the plaques and soaks it all in.

Then back to Jax we went.

Finally

I'm sure you are all tired of opening this blog and seeing my recipe. So, here's something new. First and most importantly is an update on Ashlyn.

She is now 10 1/2 months old. She is growing fast and becoming her own self. She now is crawling everywhere (and is pretty fast too). She can wave bye-bye and clap (her clap is a polite golfer's clap-one hand hitting the other one lightly). She has stood up on her own once (that we saw) for a good 15 secs. So, I'm sure walking is in our near future. She also is loving REAL food. She's gotten to eat pancakes, waffles, turkey sandwich, rice and beans, and lots more. So far, she will eat anything you give her. So, I am very thankful for that.

She loves the outside and animals. In fact, Danny and I have to go out every Saturday to walk around somewhere just to keep her "contained" and content. Though she loves animals, she doesn't really know how to act around them. She decided to use our neighbor's cat's tale as a yanking toy the other day. I don't think we'll see the cat around to often when Ashlyn's around.

We are even ready for halloween allready, thanks to my sister-n-law. She is letting us borrow my neice's old halloween costume- a lady bug. She will be one cut little bug!!!!

Well. That's a quick update for now. I promise to try to do better. I'll do an update on danny and I tomorrow (course, not much going on there, but I'll find something to say)

So, without much ado, here's some pics of our little handful:



Enjoying her waffle:





Look at that hairdo!!!! Finally, I can try to fix it up.



Not feeling so hot and after a bath. Looks like a little Middle Eastern baby.



Loving life. Can't get many "normal" smiles lately. She's just wants to be too silly.


Hanging out in Daddy's new chair (when he was gone-sshhhhh, don't tell).



I got this shirt and pants at Target the other day. I couldn't pass up the shirt, it was just too cute.

What's for Dinner?

I got this recipe out of the weekly Publix ad and made it last night. It actually was pretty good. And made a ton of food. So, thought I would share. It would be great for families with lots of kids.

Mac and Beef with Broccoli and Carrots

1lb Hamburger
1 (14.5oz) can Beef Broth
1 cup Water
8 oz of Elbow noodles (about 2 cups)
1- 12oz can of Evaporated Milk
1/4 cup of Cheez Wiz
8 oz of Shredded Cheddar Cheese
Chopped Broccoli and Carrots (I used a box of pre-chopped broccoli and just adds some chopped fresh carrots)


1) In a large skillet, brown the hamburger meat.
2) Stir in broth, water, and macaroni. Let simmer for 10-12 min. till noodles are tender. Stir occasionally.
3) While that is cooking, cook the broccoli and carrots in the microwave according to package directions (usually just add a couple TLBS of watter and cook for 6-8 min)
4) Add Broccoli and Carrots to beef and mac.
5) Lower burner to lowest setting, add milk and cheeses. Stir till smooth and bubbly.
6) Serve and Enjoy.

9 Month Pics

As promised--





As promised

End of August Update

My little doodlebug is 9 months now. We went for her check up and she weighed in at 20 lbs, 7ozs and is 28 1/2 inches tall. 80-85% for both so. So, still a happy and healthy baby. She is finally crawling forward this week. So, we will be putting up the gates on the stairs this week. I have nightmares about her falling down the stairs. I've decided having a 2-story house with babies isn't a good mix. If we do move at some point while she or any of our future kids are little, we will definitely go 1 story.

She loves to pull up on everything. I put her on the floor and she immediately turns around, crawls over, and wants to pull up to standing. Course, she can't stand by herself and it's really moving around while standing, so it's a constant up and down. It's fun to see her developing though.

We are getting her 9 month pics either tomorrow or Monday, so I'll post some once we get them.

Hope everyone has a happy labor day weekend. Mine will be good, except I'm the closing speaker at church this Sunday. Speaking on "May the soul delighteth in the things of the lord". It's such a hodge podge talk that I'm having trouble organizing myself. I do better with one specific topic like tithing, holy ghost, etc. I guess I'll need all the hodge podge since I'm the closer. So, my talk could be 10 or it could be 25 min. Let's hope for 10.

Danny is just working and happily getting geared up for his fantasy football leagues he is in. I think he is up to 3 now- 1 free, two betting ones. He even made his cell's ring tone the Monday night football intro.

that's it for now.

Itchy

For the last two days, small red bites have been popping up on my fingers and toes. A couple of them have swollen up into little blisters where they are getting irritated. Danny nor Ashlyn have this. They look like ant bites. I'm going crazy trying to figure out what it is. We don't have pets, so no fleas. And, I just saw a story on bed bugs, so now I'm thinking it might be that- YUCK!!!! I've inspected our bed-don't see anything but I'm still washing the sheets to put nice, clean sheets on.

So, does anyone out there have any clue what these could be. They don't really bother me except for the fact that I can't figure out what is causing them. I hate not knowing.

Sorry for such a gross post. Had to reach out (webmd gave me nothing).

AMAZING!!!!!- 1/100th of a Second

I haven't watched a whole lot of the Olympics live since most of it starts after my bedtime. But, I did watch the 100M Butterfly race last night and all I can say is- WOW!!!! That was an awesome race. I can't believe Michael Phelps won again. I thought he had second as well (even his mom had two fingers up indicating second place).

Sometimes in things like this, a little bit of lucky or destiny has to play a part. I swam a couple years on teams when I was younger, so I always love watching swimming.

Now, onto the medley relay race. It should be very exciting.

Once swimming and gymnastics is over, I usually don't really keep track after that. Track and Field events don't interest me as much. But, it's been a fun week.

The opening ceremonies are great and swimming and gymnastics definitely hasn't been boring.

Tooth

Houston, We have a tooth. You can't really see it from the pics below, but Ashlyn does have her bottom left (her left) tooth in. It broke through two weeks ago, but its being really slow to really pop up. But, it is there-look close.




Sorry- I haven't been blogging much. Working way to much. Hopefully it will get better. Only seeing Ashlyn for maybe an hour if at all at night during the week, just isn't enough. Can you blame me, look at that face (taken right as I was writing this).

Reality

I am a reality junkie. Not the stuff on the main channels, but on cable. so, here are shows that i watch:

The Girl Next Door
Jon and Kate Plus 8
Little People Big World
Tori and Dean
Kathy Griffin-My Life on the D-List
Kimora, Life in the Fab Lane
Project Runway
Keeping Up with the Kardashians
The Realty Pros
and more....

I'm flipping between Kimora and Kathy right now.

I am fascinated with others lives-especially ones that are nothing like mine.

Work and Friends

My life this week and has been a whole lot of work (it's our quarter end). So, dealing with the split of our company and quarter end all at once has been interesting. Plus, since I'm not over GL again, it's my first time having to "try" to run things. I put "" around try because I've certainly screwed up a lot this week. Had to work all day today as well. 8-6. The one highpoint to that was einstein's bagels and Al's pizza. Good stuff.

Also, my friend Keira (we met at UF, she did her undergrad at Notre Dame and I at BYU. So, neither of us knew anyone at Florida and were paired on a team project. Been friends ever since). She had her hubby live in Denver. But, she was in town for another UF friends wedding this weekend. And, we happily had her crash at our house Thursday night. It was really nice to get to talk to her and just chat.

For those of you that know me, I really really suck at keeping in contact with people. So, I always enjoy a chance to redeem myself. Even if just to offer my house for one night and a dinner.

I made sure we got at least one pic together to prove she was here. I'll have to upload later. haven't put them on the computer yet.

that's been about it. maybe something exciting will happen next week.

Beach Baby

On July 5th, Danny and I decided to make our first attempt at going to the beach. Neither of us had been in almost 2 years. Yep, we live 10 min. from the beach and never go.

We have learned that going to the beach with a little one takes a whole lot of "stuff" to survive. Food, bottles, beach toys, chairs, umbrella, towels, sheet, and more. But, we had a lot of fun. Stayed for about an hour and a half. It was high tide so we were stuck sitting in the soft sand and that stuff sticks to everything.

Luckily, Danny's parents live at the beach and we were able to stop by there on the way home and go for a dip in the pool to partially get rinsed off.

Ashlyn loves to water and really enjoyed sitting in the tidal pools. They were just her speed and size.

Dad and daughter enjoying the shade.

say CHEEEEEZE!!!!
Hey, Pay Attention To Me!!!

July 4th

So, I'm a week late getting this up, but better later than never. We had a good July 4th. Had a cookout at my parents. Then, met up with the Kirks- Carson, Amber,and Grayson and went to beach to watch the fireworks. Grayson stayed up the whole time. But, Ashlyn fell asleep right before they began. O well. We will try again next year.

Ashlyn and my nephew Tyler. He's interning with KPMG right now in Jax.

A sleepy little Ashlyn and we weren't even to the beach yet.

I usually wouldn't put other kids pics up but I love this one of Grayson. What a look!!
The happy family.

Lucky #7

Danny and I celebrated our 7th wedding anniversary at Ruth's Chris last night. We did an early dinner right after work so we could get home to see Ashlyn before she went to bed. Here are some pics of what we happily devoured--

This was the really, really good dessert we had-caramelized banana cream pie.

Above is what Danny got- Surf and Turf. I just had the petite fillet. How can you not like a steak brought out to you on a plate sizzling in butter.

It definitely was a good thing that our reservations were at 5:30 because we had some time to digest our food before we went to bed.

We don't splurge this big on a meal often, but it sure was worth it!!

The scenery was nice too. We ate at the location downtown and saw a family of dolphins going up the river. That was pretty cool too.

Happy Father's Day!!

Happy Father's Day to all the dads. I've been very fortunate in my life to have a wonderful dad and a husband who is a great dad as well.

My dad has been a really good example to me. Even though my brothers and I give him a hard time a lot, it is all out of love. I'm definitely a daddy's girl.

Danny has really amazed me since we've had Ashlyn. He's always loved kids, but he has really stepped right into the Dad role for her. Their is no doubt how much he loves his little girl. I have a feeling that she may be pretty spoiled (just as I was. :) )

Happy Father's Day again to the two most important men in my life.

P.S.- I'll have to do a mom post soon since I forgot to at Mother's Day for her (I guess the cooties i had made me forget).

More June Pic's-My happy little girl

Ashlyn's Room

Anyone who knows me will say that I'm not exactly a big decorator. I would love my house to be nicely made up. But, I'm not good at it and get stressed out when I try. So, I end up avoiding it. That results in lots of bare walls, windows, etc.

But, for Ashlyn's room, I did make an attempt. I still have a little empty wall space to figure out what to do with, but I think it's pretty good. See my pics:

(the furniture came from all over: Crib- USA Baby, Changing Table- Babies R Us, Dresser- Ashley furniture, Bookshelf- Target)






The item above Ashlyn's changing table is something my coworker's did. It says Baby Ashlyn and then in the white they all wrote very nice notes (they gave it to me at my shower).


Look how happy she is to be in her room.

Update

So, I'd better do a quick update so that my Ankle Envy post isn't at the top. Apparently my male readers thought it was a little odd. So, I've been given a hard time by them. It's ok though.

Danny flew to Atlanta Thursday night for a training class last Friday. The one thing I really like about Atlanta is the MARTA system. It goes directly into the Airport, so you usually don't even need to rent a car if your staying downtown or near a station.

The company that sold Danny's company their new software is actually headquartered in Provo. They do a training once a quarter in Atlanta though.

Copyfax (danny's work) also had a company picnic on Saturday at Camp Blanding on Kingley lake. It was a nice time. Really nice weather. Ashlyn and I enjoyed getting in the lake and Danny got competitive with horseshoes.

That's it for now. Maybe something exciting will happen this weekend. :0)

Ankle Envy

OK. This may be really weird but I thought I'd say it anyways. I have ankle envy!! I guess I should explain. My whole life I've had "almost cankles". My legs just come close to going straight to my feet. I don't have the nice skinny ankles like a lot of people. (Even when I was 20lbs lighter than I am now, it was that way)

I thought of this today as I was walking out of work and the lady in front of me had really skinny nice ankles. She overall was heavier than I am, but still had pretty ankles. Why was I cursed?

I say this partly joking and partly serious. Don't get me wrong, I have lots of insecurities about my body, but this one thing is something that I actually notice about other people and say "I wish I had her ankles".

So, after this odd post, I'll ask my readers, does anyone else have a weird or odd "Envy" or is it just me?

Photo Shoot

I'm putting these pics on the blog since my parents just flew out to SLC yesterday for 3 weeks and I know my mom would be itching to see these photos before then.

Mom-tell Aunt Weta, Aunt, Hilda, Aunt Norma Jean, Uncle Larry, and Aunt Ginger hello. (yes, all of my dad's family now lives in Utah- Brigham City and Logan to be more precise).

We took Ashlyn for her 6 month pics today to Picture People. They did a really good job. My pretty little model.

6 Month Checkup

Ashlyn had her six month checkup yesterday. Everything went well. She is still a healthy and happy baby.

Stats:

Height 27 inches (90%)
Weight 18lbs 3oz (90%)

Danny came with me this time to get initiated into the shots routine so that if I can't take her one time, he will know what to expect. I held her while they did it, then he got to scoop her up to get her calmed down. (Daddy saves the day!) She was a trooper. She forgot about it 10 seconds after it happened.

We are definitely blessed with such a good baby.

Tampa

This past weekend Danny, myself, and Ashlyn headed to Port Richey (just north of Tampa) to visit his grandma and other family. We had a really good time visiting with family that we hadn't seen in a while. The trip down and back went really well. Ashlyn hardly slept on the way down but I was able to keep her entertained and happy. We drove down on Friday afternoon after I had my massage (a present from danny for my last birthday, which is in June. So, that tells you how long it took me to get it. That experience is a whole other story :) ). Once we got there we dropped our stuff off at the hotel and headed to his grandmas to say hi. We visited a little then went to eat with some of the family. Danny's parents and two of his brothers also went down. So, lots of family there. Danny's grandma, Aunt Nina, Uncle Serge, Cousins- Michelle, Julie, and Stephen (Nina's kids) all live in the area. Also got to see his second cousins- Jacob-12, Azaela-4, and Alexis-18 mths. All so cute. Unfortunately we missed seeing his cousin Stephen and his family, but was able to see everyone else.

Saturday was more visiting. Danny wanted to take Ashlyn to the Tampa Aquarium to see the penguins. But, when we finally got down there, it was only open for another hour. So, we decided not to go since it was around $20 per person and wasn't worth it for an hour. We would have made it sooner, but our little cat nap baby decided to take TWO- 2-hour naps (and those were only that long cause we had to wake her up both times to go somewhere). I guess the trip the day before wore her out. After we ate in Tampa in area called Channelside (Stumps restaurant), we headed back to the hotel and enjoyed a dip in the pool. The water was the perfect temp. It was great.

Sunday we headed to the zoo (see post below) then headed to Danny's grandmas for some more family time and a nice dinner. Thanks Grandma Olga for the dinner. It was delicious.

Monday, one last chance for a visit and then we stopped at Serge's demonstration in Largo. He is affiliated with a group that was protesting the war. It wasn't a protest with picket signs, etc. It was more suttle. They setup a spot in a park where they laid out a set of boots for each FL soldier killed in Iraq. They then laid various "civilian" shoes in the middle to represent the Iraqi civilians killed. Very thought provoking scene. I thought it was a well done way of protesting the war while also commemorating those who had died and those who were still fighting without being negative toward the soldiers.

After that, we headed home. Though we really enjoyed the weekend, we also are happy to be home. Hopefully we can do better at visiting his and mine family more often. Most of our immediate family is here in Jax, but the cousins, aunts, and uncles are all over. So, we will do our best.

Here are some pics of the family.

The Zoo

While we were in Tampa, we went to the Tampa Zoo with some of Danny's family. We had a lot of fun. It was Ashlyn's first time to the zoo. We were a little worried since Ashlyn was scared of Danny's gradma's dob-snowball. But, she seemed to really like the zoo. ( i think she is happy as long as she is out and moving). We saw chimps, gorillas, zebras, elephants, penguins, bears, O my!! Azaela and Alexis even got to feed a camel and pet some goats. Another highlight was Ashlyn getting to ride the carousel. Below are some pics of our fun day.


Ashlyn ready for the big day out at a zoo!!!

Alexis and Azaela posing for the camera (what cuties!)

Ashlyn and I on the carousel.

Alexis and the goat.

Azaela excited to brush the goat.

Cool Baby

Here is Ashlyn in her new shades. Also, our first pics of her sitting by herself at the old age of 6 months old.

Hair Pics

Before (my nice hippie look) :0)

Here we go!!!:


After:

MY HAIR!!!

I finally did it. I chopped my hair off. It is still to my shoulders but I cut 16 in. off yesterday. I'm donating it to Locks of Love. My aunt used to be a hair stylist (now she is a probate judge) and was in town and offerred to cut it for me. So, I took her up on th offer since it was for free!!! Thanks Aunt Jeffrey.

It is amazing. It took me all of 5 secs. to brush my hair this morning. Before, it would take almost 5 minutes to brush it and get all the tangles out since it was so darn long. Pictures are coming soon. I took before and after pics.

Mother's Day

Even though Danny and I spent the morning at Solantic for our sickly selves, I still had a good mother's day. Danny took care of Ashlyn most the afternoon while I laid on the couch trying to feel better from a sinus and ear infection. Danny himself has a throat thing and gunky eyes.

I got a cute card and a very nice watch. Here they are below. I was very surprised. I wish had could have enjoyed it more. But, I look forward to wearing it. I haven't had a watch in years, so I definitely need one.

I couldn't get the watch pic to be clear. My photo skills need some work. It is really pretty with a mother of pearl face and diamond trim.

The Pool

We have a community pool in our neighborhood and took Ashlyn out on Saturday for her first pool trip. She seemed to really enjoy the water. Here's some pics. Just ingore my whiteness. I need a tan bad.

Pretty Princess

Ashlyn attended her first pretty princess party. She got to wear a cute tootoo, earings, wand, and necklace. Thanks Kristin, Rob, and Capri (the b day girl)


This is Ivy, Jillian, and Ashlyn.

Sick Again

Haven't updated in a while since our household has the sick bug again. Ashlyn got sick early last week- bronchilitis. Then, I caught it on Friday. Ashlyn then got an ear infection from the other sickness. And now, Danny has it too. So, I've mustered enough energy to take care of Ashlyn and that has been about it.

We got our IRS payment on Friday-$1,500 big ones. We were allready planning to start going through our wants list and buying/doing a few things for the house. So, I'll keep you updated. Our wants range from various new furniture, hardwood floors, fence, etc. Who knows. Everytime I go to make the list, I think of something else.

One more thing: Here is a funny pic of Ashlyn. I'll post more this weekend.

Sydney

I've been meaning to do a short post on my niece-Sydney. She was the first baby in our family in a long time. Before her, I had 6 nephews and one niece, but they were 10-23 yrs old when she was born. Sydney is now two and is so much fun. She is very smart (almost too smart sometimes) and she always makes us laugh. Here are some pics. She and Ashlyn are at the same daycare, and Sydney is a good cousin and checks on her "Baby Ash" everyday.

More Firsts

Ashlyn giggled for the first time Friday night. We haven't been able to get her to do it again since then, but we did get it on tape that night. So, we have proof!! If I can figure out how to get the clip loaded on the computer, I'll put it out there.

Ashlyn also got to play in her jumper for the first time. She doesn't know what to do with it yet. Sydney loved it, but my sister-n-law said that it was around 6 months before she'll really get into it. Hope that is true. Danny loved playing with Sydney in the jumper, so he's been waiting to put Ashlyn in it.

Day at the Park

We took Ashlyn for her first trip to the park on Sunday. She enjoyed the swing. We can't wait to take her to the pool and play in the kiddie water area. Here are some pics.

Update

Nothing too exciting has happened this week. It's quarter end at work, so I had to work all day Saturday, which was a big bummer. The biggest thing was I had a doc. appt. on Monday and waited an hour and a half and the doctor never even made it in. So, I'm trying again on Monday with the assistant. I just don't have much patience for stuff like that.

Ashlyn has been busy rolling over. Of course, she immediately rolls from her back to her belly and then fusses since she doesn't like her tummy. Hopefully she'll get the tummy to back thing soon and solve her own problem.



All that rolling and reading has made her tired. :)



Lastly, I find it amazing how fast Ashlyn's mood can change. We have a burst function on our camera and the pics below were taken within secs of each other.

Kissing Spot

I don't like referring to Ashlyn's spot in the back of her head as her bald spot since that is for old men. So, I've coined the term "Kissing Spot" since it is just right for me to plant lots of kisses on while I hold her looking out (which is the only way she likes it).

NKOTB!!!

We got false new a few months ago about this, but it was just posted on MSNBC and sounds more ligit!!!

New Kids on the Block are Reuniting for a new tour and album!!

I am so Excited. Yes, I was an avid fan during middle school and early high school. I went their concert when they came here (and yes, I am sad to admit that I actually ensured that my dentist put pink bands around my braces so that they would match the outfit I was wearing).

So, make all the fun you want, but I will be going to their concert if they come here. My friend Brianna allready confirmed she was going with me when the news popped up earlier.

Ready Set Bumbo

I may be behind on this, but I just saw the You Tube trilogy- "Ready-Set-Bumbo" and it was hilarious. So, if you haven't seen it yet, go to YouTube and search on that name. There are three of them (obviously) and you must watch them in order. It will definitely make you smile.