Pumpkins

We continued our tradition of going to the Pack Farms Pumpkin Patch. It's fun to pick out your own pumpkin, plus they have a hay maze and some other activities.

Finding our way through the hay maze

Ashlyn wasn't real excited about the hay maze, but she loved the stairs

Looking for the perfect pumpkin

Too big to take home, but just right for sitting on

The finished product

Hogle Zoo

In October, we took the girls to Hogle Zoo. They loved it! Their favorite things were watching the monkeys play, watching the elephants eat, playing on the playground at the zoo, and climbing on the statues.

Ashlyn Turns One

Okay, I'm a month late, but better now than never.

My baby is one! It's gone so fast. It's a bit different having Ashlyn turn one because with Clara I was already pregnant with Ashlyn so it almost seemed better at the time that she was getting a little bit older and more able.

We went to the doctor and here's where she's at:

weight: 19.6 lbs - 25%
height: 30 inches - 88%
BMI: 15.28 - 10%
Head circ: 18 inches 60%

Ashlyn is changing every day. Some words that she sometimes says:

Mama
Dada
Uh or Ara = Clara
Uh (then blows air) = Uh-Oh
chs = cheese
whasa = What's that?
She also will sometimes repeat things after you ask her to, but she doesn't really say much else on her own right now.

She's walking very well at this point. She walks with her knees wide and lifts them high with each step. It's really cute. Her and Clara are the best of friends. Clara is a friendly girl and doesn't have a problem making friends, but one day when we could hear Ashlyn on the baby monitor that she was awake, Clara said "Let's go get my best friend, Ashlyn!". This makes me very happy. I'm not saying that they don't fight some, but that's to be expected.

We did an animal theme for her birthday because whenever we go to Lagoon, Ashlyn loves riding the train. When we're standing in line and we're holding her, she will lean her body toward the train to try to get us to go. She loves to look at the animals and she will reach out to them when we pass them. She also has loved seeing cats at family members houses.

Raspberry lemonade and double chocolate cupcakes!

Ashlyn had no problem with the concept of opening presents. Christmas is going to be a blast!

Very small nibbles at first.

Oh but it didn't take long for her to get the idea. She wouldn't let me take it away! She was at it for about 20 minutes. She also had a couple of other little girls to help (Clara and Cambree):).

Stopping to pose for the camera.

A quick clean-up in the kitchen sink.

Birthday rasperries from Grandma.

My silly girls

I haven't blogged a lot lately and I have so many fun pictures that I would just put all in one post.

Ashlyn loves bananas...

and yogurt.

Scary Ashlyn (I know I'm a mean mom for even taking this picture, let alone thinking it's funny.)...

Cute Ashlyn.

We had so much fun at Jeff's sister's ranch.

The girls have had lots of fun playing with the new water table.

My little mommy.

Clara's owie from burning herself on a sparkler :(

Heeeyyy!

Cute matching outfits.

Ashlyn's walking!

Ashlyn took her first steps this week on July 19th! She's now 11 and 1/2 months. Jeff would stand her up and she took a couple of steps towards him! We have an ancient video camera that I don't know how to upload on a computer, and I couldn't even find the cord for it, so I missed this beautiful moment. Oh well, we'll get it on camera eventually.

Winning prizes at Lagoon

We got season tickets to Lagoon this year. We haven't really been able to enjoy Lagoon the way we would have liked, having it so close to us in years past, but this year we've gotten more than our moneys worth.

Jeff's favorite part about Lagoon is their games. Clara likes when Jeff plays the games because she gets to bring home all sorts of prizes.

The hammer was a fun one because it was different from the many stuffed animals that we have.

I really should have taken a picture of all of the stuffed animals that we have, but I don't know if I could fit it all on the camera screen! ;) I found this picture where Clara covered Ashlyn with all of her little puppies. She has 2 big dogs as well.

Anyone want to come stuffed animal shopping at our house?

First word, faces and sleeping

As we close a prayer and everyone in our family says "Amen", Ashlyn would say "Mmmen". Even after the second and third time I looked at Jeff and thought "Was that a coincidence?" But today I said "Ashlyn, say A - men." and she repeated back to me exactly as I said it! So I guess Ashlyn's first word is Amen. She will sometimes say "Yay!" when she claps or "Hi", but Jeff and I think that Amen is really her first true word.

Ashlyn pulls some of the funniest faces and I've been trying to get a picture of some of them unsuccessfully. Clara was playing around with the camera the other day and captured this! I was excited to finally have it recorded so I can embarrass her with it some day. :)

This is what I found today when I check on her for her nap today. Camera ready even in her sleep.

Nine Months

I left the papers that had all of Ashlyn's weight and height, but I'm pretty sure I still remember, I hope:

Height: 28 inches
Weight: 17 lbs 15 oz

Ashlyn started crawling the first week in April which was the week before she turned 8 months. She's now pulling herself up on things and has even let go for seconds at a time when she isn't paying attention. She's starting to also slowly walk along things.

Ashlyn just cut her 6th tooth! They're coming in like crazy!

Ashlyn loves to clap and say "Yay!" but her favorite thing to say is "Uh-da". She'll say that over and over and over. That's her happy sound and when I say it she'll repeat it back. She also tries to repeat other sounds that I make, like when I say "Mama" she'll say something like "Rara". Another favorite thing she loves to do is she'll make funny noises by talking and rubbing her tongue from front to back over her front teeth.

Ashlyn is also going through the dreaded separation anxiety. She will notice every time that I leave a room even when daddy's home. It's going to be really hard when I have to teach YW this Sunday and Jeff has to take her! She's already ornery at the end of church because she's tired as it is. Oh, well. She's being really snugly and I sure do enjoy the snuggles. It luckily hasn't interrupted her sleeping schedule. She still sleeps about 10-11 hours at night and takes two 2-3 hour naps during the day.

One last thing that Ashlyn does that's kind of cute is when someone looks at her and tries to talk to her she'll tuck her head as far as she can into he shoulder acting shy.