Beach Pictures- Finally!

Since I did not post any pictures yesterday, I thought I would add some more California pictures. These are all from my Mom's camera, so she had some ones that I did not have.

The beach makes you very dirty!

Playing in the sand

She can even walk in the sand!

Practicing standing

I just love this picture because she looks so big and so cute with her little leg dangling.

The beach was really pretty and the weather was perfect!

Sprinkling some sand.

My Mom loves this picture because it shows her dirty little feet.

Waving "hello"

In the water

Getting her feet wet with Auntie.

She liked the way the sand felt on her feet.

How cute!

Sand feels cool in your hands!

My little California beach girl!

Having a great time at Medieval times.

At Universal Studios

In front of the Universal Globe.

My brother wrote Ashlyn's name in the sand. It is kind of hard to see though.

No pictures this week :(

I can't post any pictures this week because our camera is still broken. I called about getting it fixed, and apparently we have to mail it in and it takes 4-6 weeks. I am going to hopefully borrow my sister's camera. 4-6 weeks is way too long to not take pictures of our growing girl! I am going to try to post the rest of the California pictures this week.

Ashlyn had an okay week. I started my job and it was a big adjustment for all of us for me not be home all day. I missed her so much the first day. I hope that it gets better! She has been having fun with her Gram and her Dad. My new job was a little overwhelming at first, but I feel a lot better about it. I have a good class and I think it will be a good year. I just have a lot of work ahead of me. I have the next two weeks off because of Fall Break. I am going to have to spend most of this week at school getting everything ready.

On Thursday morning, Joey noticed that Ashlyn had a bad cough. My Mom noticed it that afternoon too. She was coughing a lot when she was sleeping that night. Her breathing was really raspy. I had Friday morning off, so I took her back to the doctor. The doctor confirmed our suspicions: croup. He said it was probably caused by her virus and not the actual croup virus. Pretty much her airways are just inflamed. He prescribed some steroids and she is doing much better. The doctor said that since she got it before a year old, she is now more likely to get croup. At least she did not seem to feel sick or be in any kind of pain. It just sounded really bad.

Well, that is our update for this week. I will be back tomorrow to do Ashlyn's 11 month post, since tomorrow she will be 11 months. I need to go cry now! Time is going by way too fast!!!!

Our Disney Vacation

I have not been good about updating the blog. We got back from our trip on Wednesday. I had intended on blogging much sooner, but things have been hectic. The day after we got back, I had a second interview for a fourth grade teaching position. I was offered the job later that day! I had to go fill out paper work, etc for that. Joey and I feel that our prayers have finally been answered. I have been looking for a job for a long time now. It feels great to finally get one!!! I am taking over for teacher going on maternity leave. I officially start October 20th. I know things are going to become much more busy. I just hope that I can continue to keep up with this blog. We are very fortunate that my Mom has offered to watch Ashlyn while I work. Joey does not go into work until noon, so Ashlyn will only be with her Gram for a few hours a day.

We had an AMAZING time on our trip. It was better than we even could have expected. It was so much fun to have Ashlyn to entertain us and we all loved watching her take everything in. We flew out on Wednesday and both flights were very uneventful. Ashlyn did great as usual and even slept through a good portion of the long flight. We arrived in California and checked into our hotel by Disneyland. That night, we went to Medieval Times. It is a dinner show type thing with actors and real horses. Ashlyn LOVED it! They encourage the audience to cheer and clap throughout the show. Ashlyn loved clapping and yelling with everyone. She did that for about an hour and passed out in my arms from total exhaustion!

The next two days we spent at Disneyland. We realize that Ashlyn will not remember any part of it, but the fun she had was so worth it! She loved all of the rides. Some of the rides she rode were Pirates of Caribbean, Winnie the Pooh, the teacups, and Mr. Toad's Wild Ride. She enjoyed all of them and loved looking around. Her two favorite rides were Finding Nemo and Toy Story Adventure. I was a bit disappointed because I was really looking forward to taking her on It's A Small World and the Haunted Mansion. Both were closed:( We had a great time and the park was practically empty on Thursday. We hardly waited in line at all. On Friday, we were lucky enough to win some special passes that got us right on all of the big rides.

Ashlyn even got to watch the parade on Friday. We sat on the curb and all of the characters waved to her. She has mastered her wave now and is very good at it. Ashlyn also got her very first balloon. It was a princess one and she enjoyed it. They have the cutest little baby princess dolls. They are princesses that look like little babies. It is basically a stuffed animal doll. I lined up about 5 on the floor and told her to go to the one she wanted at the store. She crawled right to Ariel. She loves that thing more than anything. She sleeps with her arm around her every night. She was such a good girl and napped really well in her stroller. We all had a great time and can't wait to back when she is a little older and can remember better. Ashlyn definitely slept good each night after Disneyland! (Ashlyn did have a little accident while we were at the hotel one morning. She was practicing her walking skills, and some how tripped and fell on her face. She cried, but I was able to make her feel better. Her nose was just red at first, but the next day it turned into a nasty scab/rug burn type thing. You can see it in some of the pictures. We put lots of antibiotic cream and it healed just fine.)

On Saturday morning, we headed to the Hollywood area. We stayed at a hotel right by Universal Studios. We spent the day at Universal. It was neat, but not as great as Disneyland. They also did not have much that Ashlyn could ride. Sunday, we spent lounging around the hotel and watching the Broncos game. On Monday, we did some sightseeing, shopping, and went to the Museum of Tolerance.

On Tuesday, we checked out of our hotel and headed to the beach. Ashlyn is definitely a California girl! She loved the beach. She loved playing in the sand and picking up things. She got a real kick out of the seagulls. We even went in the water some. We did want to leave the beach. Next trip, we are definitely planning more beach time!

On Wednesday, we woke up early and headed to the airport. We had some mix up with the tickets and my brother, Ashlyn, and I had to fly standby. We were able to get on all the flights we wanted, so it all turned out well. Ashlyn was an angel again and I think most of the passengers were quite surprised at how quite she was. Planes don't phase her since she is becoming such a traveler now!

We are happy to be home, but very sad our trip is over. We did all get sick at some point on the trip. It started with me and I pretty much passed it on to everyone including Ashlyn. It was just a bad cold. It was not something that kept us from doing everything we wanted to. Ashlyn got it the worst and was still not getting better it seemed. Joey and I took her to the doctor on Friday. Sure enough, they said it is just a cold. She was of course a lot better the next day and is fine now. We did find out she now weighs 17.9 pounds. That is not a lot for her age, but you would never guess by the way that girl eats!

I have included a TON of pictures. I have even more on my Mom's camera. My camera got dropped halfway through the trip. It is not working so we have to get it repaired. Hopefully, it is an easy fix so we can take more pictures of our girl! So, these are pictures from the first half of the trip. I will try to post more pictures soon. Enjoy!

Looking out of the window on the plane

Wearing our crowns at Medieval Times

Quick picture at Medieval Times

Walking with Papa and Auntie in Disneyland

Posing with a character. They scared her pretty bad. She was not fond of them!

Admiring her first balloon.

Sitting with Auntie at Bubba Gump's

Disneyland can really wear a girl out!!!

on the Winnie the Pooh ride

More Winnie the Pooh

A picture of how wet we got on Splash Mountain

On Pinocchio

With the sword and the stone

On one of the cars from Mr. Toad's Wild Ride

The teacups

With Auntie in front of Cinderella's castle

With Mommy

The space ship ride that she really liked

The teacups, I just realized that I should not have posted this one because I can hardly even see us in the picture.

Watching the parade

There was so much to look at!

More parade watching

The Fairy Godmothers

One last picture with Auntie

Slow Week

This week has been pretty uneventful. Ashlyn is still waving all of the time. She waves at everyone, every where she goes. There is always a big smile that goes with the wave. She now puts her arm in the air. She knows what she is doing, she just has not mastered the moving of her hand yet. She has digressed a bit this week with her walking. She has seemed to enjoy crawling a lot more this week. I guess she wanted to take the week off. That is fine with us. I know before we know it she will be walking like a pro! We also discovered that Ashlyn LOVES apples. She can't get enough of them. I am just glad that she loves something so healthy for her.

Today is Joey's birthday. He took a big test for work today. He called a little bit ago and said he had PASSED!!! Ashlyn and I are so proud of him. He has studied so hard for this test. He is also the first one from his class to take and pass the test. He is just one step closer to taking his Series 7 test. We are just so proud of his success at his new job.

On Wednesday, Ashlyn and I leave for another trip. I am very excited! We are going to California. We are going with my parents and brother and sister. We are going to Disneyland, Universal Studios, and the beach. The trip should be a blast. I know that my family is very excited to see Ashlyn's reaction to everything like Disneyland and the beach. I will take lots and lots of pictures to post. I probably won't update until we get back. I posted a few random pictures from this week.


Ashlyn doing some reading

I was trying to get a picture of her wave, but she wanted the camera.

Ashlyn and her new best friend. She loves Alli so much. She laughs so hard at Alli.

Sharing a laugh with Alli

Alli is so tolerant. She lets Ashlyn do anything.

10 Months

On Saturday, Ashlyn turned 10 months old. She had a very good day. We went out to lunch and she got to have some delicious macaroni and cheese. Joey and I then took her to the park to play. There is a pretty nice little park by our house. There is never anyone there, so we like to take her there. She just loves the park. Joey and I took about 100 pictures when we were there. We did get some cute ones.

Ashlyn's personality continues to come out more and more each day it seems. She is a very laid back girl. She is almost always happy and smiling. She is also very determined. If I tell her not to touch something, it makes her want to do it that much more. She definitely knows what she wants. She is also really funny. She loves to laugh and make us laugh. She is very sweet.

Ashlyn is still very close to walking. I keep saying any day she is going to take off. One of her favorite things to do is to stand by herself. She holds her hands up to show us she is not touching anything. We start counting to see how long she can stand. She gets the biggest kick out of it. So far her record is 29 seconds. I need to get a picture to post on here.

Ashlyn is doing all sorts of new stuff. She is getting really good at saying Mama. When she is upset she just says Mama over and over. It breaks my heart. She also says Dada pretty regularly. She has started waving. It is pretty funny because she just holds her arm up with her first clenched. That is how she waves for now. She also loves to clap. If we start clapping she will do it too. Another thing that she does is gives Eskimo kisses. She gets the biggest kick out of it. Cell phones are hands down her favorite thing to play with. She can open and close them for hours. She has an old cell phone to play with, but she still prefers her Mom's cell phone.

Ashlyn is teething right now. This week has been a little hard on her. Poor thing is in pain. She is getting two teeth on the bottom and two teeth on the top. She seems to be in less pain over the last few days. I hate to see my baby hurt and I hope they don't bother her too much longer.

That is all I can think of for now. Below are a bunch of pictures from the park on Ashlyn's 10 month "birthday".




I think this one is too cute. It makes Joey look even taller.

Her new favorite place to ride.

She loves being thrown up in the air.

I wish we could have gotten a better picture of the two of us.

She got to swing with her Mom.

On the merry go round

She LOVES the slide. These pictures are funny because she looks like she is screaming, but she is actually laughing really hard.

This is one of my favorites.

Daddy and Ashlyn at lunch.

Ashlyn and Mommy at lunch

On the swings, her favorite!!!

She can never get enough of the swings.

Ashlyn's First Horse Ride

I hope that this video works for everyone. She seemed to like it!