The DeLorme Family

Monday, February 15, 2010

Valentine's Day Fun

Ashlyn had a wonderful Valentine's day this year. It started on Thursday with her class party. She had worked on signing her princess valentines earlier in the week. Ashlyn got a bag full of valentines from her friends. She loved looking at them. She also got to eat a cupcake! Yum! It was a very simple party, yet she had a lot of fun and I think it was just the right amount for this age.

On Saturday night, we worked on decorating cupcakes. Ashlyn loves helping me cook. The night before, we made a pizza together. She loves sprinkling and stirring things. She also likes to watch the food in the oven. I am sure she will one day be a wonderful cook, since she is a DeLorme! We had a blast making cupcakes and she had even more fun eating one!

On Valentine's Day, I wanted to make it special for Ashlyn. Joey and I HATE Valentine's Day and usually do nothing for it. We decided that we would do something for Ashlyn. Joey had mentioned maybe going out to dinner. Immediately, I thought of lots of crowds and people. I got out my cookbooks and planned a special dinner for us to cook at home. I will admit that it was a little more stressful to cook and clean, but the food was AMAZING and well worth it! We avoided all the crowds. We had wedge salads with homemade ranch dressing, steak, roasted asparagus, and rosemary cream potatoes! We agreed it was just as good if not better than anything in town. For dessert, we had chocolate fondue. Ashlyn loved that!!! She couldn't get enough. She was quite the messy girl when she was done.

All in all, we had a good Valentine's weekend. Joey and I enjoyed getting an extra day to spend with Ashlyn today. It will be hard to go back to work tomorrow :(

The Valentine bag that Ashlyn decorated.

Looking to see what is inside.

Lots of good cards.

She had so much fun looking at all of them.

Ashlyn has lots of friends.

They even got a chance to color pictures for parents.

Yum!!!! Cupcakes are great!

She was loving it.

Joey took a picture of the self-portrait that Ashlyn drew.

Mom and Ashlyn

Family picture

Ashlyn watching the cupcakes cook

Almost done

She did such a good job spreading frosting

She loved helping.

Look at all of those yummy cupcakes.

She had a BLAST sprinkling sprinkles on the cupcakes.

As you can see, she really enjoyed the sprinkles

She was so excited to try one.

Yummy!!!

A picture of the decorations we put up for our special dinner.

We tried to make it festive.

I bought Ashlyn this balloon and she LOVED it! She carried it around all day.

Ashlyn dressed up in her Valentine's day dress

Mommy is making a very funny face.

One last pretty girl picture for Valentine's day.

Ashlyn showing how messy she got from the chocolate fondue.

Wednesday, February 3, 2010

Back By Popular Demand

I decided that it might be time to blog, since I haven't blogged in a month!!! That is the longest I have ever gone. It saddens me that I am so busy and have so little free time. I use this blog as a "baby book" of sorts and it is going to have some major gaps. I just feel like time is flying by. I'm afraid the next month might be worse with our big state tests coming up at my school.

January was a whirlwind month. It consisted of recovering from the holidays, starting school and work again, a birthday party, a trip to Texas, and much, much more. Even with all of that activity, I just realized we managed to take about 7 pictures of Ashlyn. I have to start taking pictures like crazy again. 7 in one month is horrible!!!!

Ashlyn is growing like crazy again. She is so incredibly verbal. I LOVE it because she can now communicate. She can say "I am hungry. I want to eat cereal". She has been saying "Just a minute" lately, which totally cracks Joey and I up. I don't think there is much she doesn't say at this point! She loves to sing! She sings all day long. Her favorites are ABC's, Old McDonald, and Happy Birthday. She is so aware of others and their feelings. The other day I stubbed my toe, and she immediately ran over and said "You okay Mama? Ashlyn will kiss it and make it better". She was so concerned and it just melted my heart.

Ashlyn continues to love her basement toy room. Her favorite is still her house and her new kitchen. She loves "cooking" for us. She still loves to color and draw. She loves anything involving art. She seems to be pretty creative.

Ashlyn still loves to go to "school". She has a new friend, named Ryan that she is quite close to. She seems to be pretty popular. When I picked her up yesterday, as we walked out the door, several boys said "Bye Ashlyn". I think we are in trouble already!!!!!

That is just a small update of what Ashlyn has been up to lately. I VOW to blog at least every other week. I will also take more pictures. We spent last weekend in Texas, and managed to take 3 pictures of Ashlyn. Below are some random pictures from the last month.

Forgot to turn it, but this is a picture of Ashlyn and I before she went into her party.

Ashlyn having a blast in the bounce house.

She would have spent all day in that thing if we would have let her.

One of Ashlyn's new favorite things to do is feed Alli. She loves to watch her eat too.

How exciting!

Ashlyn enjoying her snacks on the airplane.

Eating at a BBQ place in Texas.

Tuesday, January 5, 2010

New Year's and other ramblings

I wanted to add that this is the first of 3 posts. Please make sure that you look at all three! There is this post, a Phoenix post, and a Christmas post.You will have to go back a page to see the Phoenix post and back one more page to see the Christmas post. There are lots of cute pictures so please make sure you look!!!!

Ashlyn is literally growing by leaps and bounds. She does so many new things each and every day. I may just start posting what she does each day. Today, she used the potty for the first time, did a somersault for the first time, and told her dad "You are my best friend". I promise I will start jotting down the things she does and says so I can post them here. It was so fun to watch her grow and learn. She is talking amazingly well. You can have conversations with her. My sister got a video camera for Christmas, I plan on getting some video of her talking and posting it.

Below, I posted some pics of Ashlyn and I on New Year's Eve. My Mom got her a dress in New York and she looked so cute I just had to post some pics!!!!

Running away from Uncle Adam's dog

She wanted to keep taking pictures. She gave me the biggest hug. I love her hugs!

See how cute and festive she looked?

Phoenix

We had a great time in Phoenix this December. I have always considered Phoenix a home away from home. I am glad that I have been able to show Ashlyn all that I love about it. This was her 5th time going there. If we keep this up, she will also consider it a home away from home! I am so happy that we have friends and family to visit with when we are down there. We always have such a great time with everything. I enjoy getting to spend time with my Grandma.

The car ride wasn't bad at all. Ashlyn enjoyed watching movies. She kept us entertained with her singing. Her favorite is "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star". It is the cutest thing in the world. She also amazed us with her ability to sing her "ABC"'s. I honestly didn't know she could sing them that well. She is very good at it. She is so smart!!!!

I will let the pictures explain the rest of the trip.

We spent one day at Jacob and Maya's house. Nadia is a little older and at an age where she can play better with Ashlyn. They had a great time together.

Riding Nadia's pony

Playing so well together.

Don't know what they were doing here.

Such a silly girl!

They both really liked this phone and had a little trouble sharing it.

I really think something is wrong with Blogger, it keeps double posting pics

Another thing we did, was go to the nearby train park. Ashlyn has been there a couple times before. She definitely enjoyed it the most this time. My good friend Jen and her 3 kids met us there. Ashlyn had so much fun playing with the kids. We have visited with them every time we have gone down there since she was born. I think they will remain good friends.

She really liked climbing this rock wall. She did such a good job.

On the train waiting to ride

Having a blast!

Riding the carousel

She loved it!!!!

She was laughing so hard.

Riding with Kodan. They had lots of fun together.

An attempt at a group picture

Monday, January 4, 2010

Christmas

I finally had time to blog about Christmas. With going to Phoenix immediately after Christmas, then coming back New Year's Eve, and Joey's brother being in town, things have been very crazy!!!! I am just glad I finally found some time!

We had an amazing Christmas this year. It was lots of fun because Ashlyn was really beginning to understand the concept more and more. She had been singing "Santa Claus is Coming to Town" for weeks. She loved looking at light and the pretty Christmas tree.

We started Chirstmas Eve with out annual tradition of going to dinner at a German restaurant with my Dad's side of the family. It is a great tradition and I love getting to see family I don't often see. Ashlyn had a good time trying some new food. After dinner, we drove around and looked at some lights. We found an AMAZING house down the street from my parents. It was programmed to music and just so much fun to look at! We didn't get home until fairly late. We got home and changed Ashlyn into her Christmas pajamas. We then helped her put out milk and cookies for Santa. It was too cute because she even left a little Santa toy for him. Ashlyn then went to sleep so Santa could come.

We woke up bright and early Christmas morning. Ashlyn came down and was truly shocked to see her presents. She was really surprised that Santa ate her milk and cookies! It was very cute. Ashlyn spent the rest of the morning opening gifts. As usual, she got very spoiled! Santa brought her a pink kitchen and a Bitty Baby. Santa was a little concerned she wouldn't care about the baby since she is so attachd to her Ariel doll. No worries, she loves both equally the same! Just like a real Mommy.

After presents, it was time to eat. Unfortunately, Ashlyn was so tired that she fell asleep and missed Christmas dinner. We went home and set up her new kitchen and packd for Arizona. More info in the Arizona post.