Beginning to look like Christmas!!!

It's beginning to look like Christmas and Ashlyn is very excited!!!! This is the first year that she somewhat understands the concept. She recognizes Santa and says "ho, ho, ho" when she sees him. We have been discussing him and I think she may have a good idea of what is going on. She can even sing the song "Santa Clause is Coming to Town". It is very cute! She tells us that she has been a good girl. Last night, we went to a light display that a local church puts on. It is very neat! There were lots and lots of lights. Ashlyn LOVED it! She got to see Santa and he even knew her name! It was a great experience.

My Christmas break started yesterday. I am looking forward to spending 2 whole weeks with Ashlyn. We plan to spend the rest of the week finishing shopping and other Christmas fun. After Christmas, we are heading down to Phoenix. We are driving, so we really hope that the weather cooperates. Ashlyn and I are looking forward to some sun!

A couple of weeks ago we got blessed with a snow day! It was such a wonderful surprise. Ashlyn and I had a great day together. We invited Auntie over and made cookies. Ashlyn had so much fun. We drank cider and watched Rudolph. It was a great day!

On Friday, we went to Ashlyn's school party. Joey had the day off, so he was able to go too. We got to eat party food. Ashlyn even got to decorate a cookie. We love going to events at her school. It is so neat to see her interact in her classroom. Tomorrow, she will be going to daycare for part of the day. Santa is coming for breakfast and she can't miss that!!!!!! I have an appointment, so I can't make it :( I am sending my Mom and the camera.

This post is kind of all over the place. I apologize. I have a lot of resting to do to recuperate from what was a VERY long first semester!

Cutting out cookies

A pretty star

Rolling out the dough

She is a natural! Must get it from her Great Grandma Anderson

She was having so much fun!

She made lots of cookies.

The cookie Ashlyn decorated.

Yum!!!! The first bite.

Oops! Repeat

The other night, Ashlyn was eating dinner and being very silly. I had to get out the camera.

Feeding Ariel some milk. She was thirsty too!

Ashlyn loved the party food.

Decorating with Mommy.

She did such a nice job.

What fun we had!

She wanted lots and lots of sprinkles on her cookie.

We even got a nice family picture.

Eating cookies. Her favorite :)

Sweet girl!

Thanksgiving

I finally got around to blogging! Things have been crazy as usual, and I just haven't had the time. I have also been really bad about taking pictures. Ashlyn went in for her 2 year checkup a few weeks ago. Her doctor said she is doing great! I don't have her stats in front of me, but she is in the 15th percentile for weight and the 70th for height. Another big change for Ashlyn is her grandparents bought her a "big girl" bed for her birthday. She is not too sure how she likes it. It has been a bit of a struggle to get her to sleep in it. We are going to keep trying.

We had a great Thanksgivng this year! I woke up bright and early and ran a 5k called the Turkey Trot. I ran it with my brother, sister, and brtother-in-law. It was a great race. There were over 2,000 people in it! Right after the race, we met the rest of my family at The Sunbird for brunch. The food was wonderful! The Sunbird is such a nice restaurant. After we ate, we headed up to Crystola for our 2nd Thanksigiving. We went to Kim's Dad's house. We had a great day watching football and having Ashlyn entertain us. Ashlyn had a blast with the dogs and horses. She actually fell asleep on the floor right before we ate. We decided to eat without her. After eating another wonderful meal, Joey and I headed back home. Ashlyn is staying with her grandparents in Buena Vista for the weekend. I miss her like CRAZY, but I know she is having a blast! I got some shopping done and already put up the Christmas tree. I look forward to her return tomorrow!


Katy, Steven, and I before the race.

She has gotten really good at saying "cheese" for pictures.

Such a little ham!

Family picture

She is the sweetest daughter in the whole world!

I love her so much!

Sitting with Daddy

She was doing something silly with her hair. We deicided to take a picture.

She is Too Sweet!!!

So occasionally at Ashlyn's daycare, they send home Happy Gram's. A Happy Gram is a note for when they do something interesting or special that day. This is the one I received today. We always knew we had the sweetest girl in the world, but this just confirms it. It seriously melted my heart when I read it:

Ashlyn was so sweet today. One of the other children was crying and Ashlyn walked over to her and started rubbing her back. She said "She crying". I said "Yes, she's sad". Ashlyn said "It's okay, no crying". So Sweet.

She is the best!

Ashlyn's Birthday Party

For Ashlyn's party this year, I decided that I would have an actual birthday party with kids. We decided to have it at a children's play place by our house. It is a pizza/arcade/play area place. It is great for toddlers. There is lots and lots for them to do. We invited 5 kids, and we were very happy that they could all make it. The party was a huge success! All of the kids just had a blast. The kids arrived at 11:00 a.m. The kids played for a bit, and then it was time for pizza. They all seemed to enjoy it. While we had them all wrangled, we did the cake. Ashlyn was too cute when everyone sang Happy Birthday. She became very shy, but she had the biggest smile on her face. She did a great job blowing out the candle again. She then got to open her presents. She got lots of great gifts. She got lots of Ariel stuff. She has been having a great time playing with all of her new toys. After presents, everyone went and played some more. The party lasted about an hour and a half. All of the guests seemed to have a great time. I know Ashlyn had a blast. I honestly couldn't have asked for a better birthday party for her. Everything went just perfectly. We are already thinking of having it there again next year.

This is the cake that my sister and I made for Ashlyn. We were very pleased with the way it turned out.

A quick picture before we left for the party.

The party table

It looked so cute!

Her birthday balloons

Playing a game

With Dad. He was wearing Ashlyn's birthday crown since she wanted nothing to do with it.

She loves riding the carousel

Playing in the firetruck

What a cute fireman she makes

Time to eat pizza

They were all hungry!

Getting ready to blowout her candle

You can kind of tell in this picture how she was acting shy.

Blowing out her candle.

Yummy! Eating cake.

Opening presents

Wow! An Ariel doll

In the bounce house with Haiden

Acting silly

Riding the carousel with Katelynn and Haiden