Christmas!

We had a great but busy Christmas. We spent Christmas in Woodburn. Ashlyn stayed awake pretty much the whole time. She finally fell asleep in church around 11pm. We had a great dinner, opened some presents and then church. By the time we got home, we wer tired! I don't usually stay up that late.

Friday morning Ashlyn opened the present we got for her. She wasn't too into the paper like I thought she would be. She tore a small piece off and wanted to eat it. She wasn't interested in tearing it all off like we'd hoped. Next year! Then we drove down to my Aunt Jean's house for dinner and the kids got to open one present. My brother was able to have the girls for a few hours on Christmas and it was great to see them both.

Mom and I went shopping the day after Christmas and it wasn't as busy as I thought it would be. We went to the Hallmark store and then to Target. Target was pretty busy and by the time I was able to get Mom out of there, I was more than ready to leave!

Both Friday and Saturday nights we spent at my cousin Melody's house. We drank a few too many beers both nights but had a lot of fun playing games and being together. My cousin Cindy was here from Wisconsin and it was just like old times when they all lived in Seattle and would come down to my mom's house for the weekends.

We hit the road after breakfast on Sunday since I had to work the evening shift. It was so busy, ugh!! I'm not going to go into politics, but seriously 90% of the patient we see through the ER are uninsured. They come through the ER for things they should be seeing their doctor for but they don't have a doctor because they're uninsured. Which is why my co-pay for an ER visit is $150. Believe me, I'd have to be on death's door before I went to the ER and paid $150 co-pay. Only one of the 12 patients I scanned last night through the ER should've been in the ER. Oh well, I guess it is what I get paid for. That just meant the two movies I brought with me stayed in my purse all night long ;o)

I'll have pictures and maybe even some video for ya later in the week. Happy New Year!!

Christmas is almost here....

I can not believe Christmas Eve is tomorrow!! We are not quite ready yet. Just a few small gifts left to buy. We're both off tomorrow and looking forward to sleeping in and then will head down to Woodburn for the festivities at Grandma and Grandpa Lenhardt's. I can't wait to see Ashlyn open gifts, she is going to have so much fun tearing paper! We're spending Christmas Day with my family at my Aunt Jean's. For me, it's not Christmas unless I'm at Aunt Jean's for dinner and the gift exchange. Ashlyn participated in the kids gift exchange so she'll have one gift there as well. We won't be opening gifts with my two nieces until New Year's weekend at our house. My brother only gets the girls for a few hours on Christmas Day and we just won't have time.

We went to a Christmas party last Sat at our friend's Gary and Dawn house. We had a lot of fun, I drank one glass too many of red wine because I was feeling a little hung over Sun morning. Ashlyn was a little party animal and wouldn't go to sleep. She was up till after 11pm. Gary and Dawn' daughter Cammy finally got her to go down. She was wore out from playing. She was definently a hit, everyone thought she was pretty cute.

I did a little shopping Sat and Sun morning. I braved Costco, Winco, Target and the Mall. Ugh, I hate the mall! I went to two stores, I got in and I got out as quick as I could :) We got Ashlyn something really cool for her present. Lots of bells and whistles as Jered says. She's going to have a blast with all her Christmas gifts I'm sure. Playing in the paper will probably be the most fun!

WeeCare helped Ashlyn make Jered and I a gift. Its a wreath with her picture in the middle and it is so darn cute! They used a white paper plate, then did her hand print in green construction paper all around the plate with a red bow at the top. Then a picture of her in a Santa hat in the middle. So cute! I'll try to take a picture of it and post it soon.

Merry Christmas to everyone! I hope I get to see most of you!

Here's a few pics from the party that Gary took:

Cameron had the magic touch and was finally able to get Ashlyn to go to sleep at 11pm!! I don't think she's ever been up that late, since she started sleeping through the night.

Ashlyn loved pushing the ottoman around

Fun fun fun all night long!

Playing with Cammy's bear

With Daddy, he let her have his cell phone and she felt pretty cool!

Pictures!!!

We got our tree on Thursday night. Jered cut it down for us and Ashlyn had fun walking through all the trees but boy was it cold! Her little cheeks were so pink. We had her all bundled up in her snow suit Uncle Justin & Aunt Steph got for her. We decorated the tree yesterday morning and it looks awesome! We put up all of our ornaments that we've collected through the years. Jered's Grandma has given him an ornament every year since he was born and we have a lot of those too. Grandma & Grandpa McGrath gave Ashlyn her first ornament and we put that up this morning too.

Jered and I were able to go out for a date on Friday night. We had so much fun! Our friends babysat Ashlyn so that we could go out with my cousins. We saw Bob Saget and he was so funny! After the show we stopped off at the Yamhill Pub, total dive bar, but cheap drinks! We were home by midnight, thats a pretty late night for us these days. Ashlyn slept in till almost 930am! Of course we were up by 8am. Sleeping those couple extra hours was so refreshing. I feel so rested this weekend.

Last night we went down to Grandma & Grandpa Lenhardts. Jered's sis was here with her new husband. We hadn't seen them since the wedding. Ashlyn was a little crabbier than normal, she's teething again. Ugh, teething! She loved the dinner Grandma made: roast beef, green beans and mashed potatoes and gravy. She got peaches for dessert. She ate almost everything.

We're almost ready for Christmas, good thing too since its right around the corner. We only a few more gifts to buy. I'm looking forward to being off Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. It so nice this year being on Friday. We'll get a really long weekend. Not sure about our plans for New Years yet. Both Jered and I are only working half days. Two long weekends in a row!

Ashlyn's first birthday is approaching fast! We're still talking and debating exactly what we're going to do for a party. I've applied for a volunteer position on the Citizens Review Board of Washington County. Its a review board thats reviews foster care cases and gives recommendations as to what the next steps should be for the kids and/or the parents and/or guardians/foster parents/adoptive parents. My cousin Angela recommended me and I hope it all works out. It would only be one day a month but its going to take some finagaling with my schedule. Work schedule, babysitting options, etc. I had an interview last Thursday with the man that does the hiring. I have to go through a two day training class and he thinks it may be Jan 21 and 22. Ashlyn's bday weekend. He's not sure yet so I'm waiting to hear back from him before I schedule her party. Its an interesting oppurtunity for me. I have huge reservations about whether or not I'll be able to handle. Ang told me its heartbreaking and rewarding all at the same time. I'm excited though too so I hope it all works out.

These are from Thanksgiving and after:

Pretty sure all the parenting books could use this picture of how NOT to let your baby sleep! She loves that pink bear blankie. Its silkie on one side and she likes to rub it on her face to go to sleep. And she mostly sleeps on her side or belly these days.
Playing with my toys at Grandma Glaydy's on Thanksgiving.

Mmmmm, pumpkin pie with whip cream, Yummy!

Talking with Grandma

Giving Grammy hugs!

Supporting the winning team :)

Picking out our tree

Our finished tree. Mama put these collars on the dogs. They have bells on them, the dogs hated them but I thought they were pretty cool!

Brrr its cold outside.....

Its so cold!!! 18 degrees this morning is just a little too chilly for me. I wish it were snowing, at least then it'd be warmer. Ashlyn and I have been getting all bundled up to go to work everyday. We got her a pretty cute stocking hat. Had to buy toddler size cause the baby sizes were too small for her big 90th percentile head.

I know its been a while since I've posted and I know people want to see pictures too. Well first I had been working so much there for a while that on my day off all I did was clean house, laundry and errands since I wasn't getting any of that good stuff during the week. Last Tues was my last OT shift for a while. I am working on the 27th and half day on the 31st but I'm off the 1st so those barely count. Then a couple of weeks ago I picked up a virus on our computer that has Jered's IT dept at work totally stumped. ALL of Ashlyn's pictures since she was born are on that computer. Jered is doing his best to save at least the pictures. The ones of Ashlyn are the only ones I really care about. And no we didn't have them back up onto anything. Stupid, I know!

We had a really great Thanksgiving. I worked a 12 hour shift, got off at 11am, came home to shower and we left for Glady & Floyd's. It was a nice relaxing day. Ashlyn loved all the food. She ate everything on the table except the stuffing but Grandma had made us gluten free bread so we didn't feel left out. Everything was delicious!

My dad came up to visit us on that Sat and stayed for a while. It was good to see him and my stepmom. Dad is out of town a lot for his job so we miss him sometimes when we go down. Ashlyn was crankier than usual and it took her a little while to warm up. but they got to see her show off a little. Sunday Jered put up all of the outside Christmas lights while Ashlyn and I decorated the inside. We're planning to get our tree Thurs afternoon. So far she's doing pretty good with the decorations. She recognizes the tone of voice and the word NO. I'm sure she'll hear it a lot more too :)

Last weekend we went down to Monroe again. My niece Bailey was 10 years old on Dec 1st. so my brother had a birthday party for her on Sat afternoon. They do a lot of parties at Papa's pizza in Corvallis and lucky for me and Ashlyn they now have gluten free pizza. It was Ashlyn's first time having pizza and she loved it!

Ashlyn is loving any and all food! As long as its real food. She's bored with the jarred stuff and we try not give it to her anymore. She's ate up pretty much all we had left anyway. She especially likes to feed herself. I make gluten free pancakes to take to Wee Care with her and she eats anything on the menu as long as its not gluten. She loves it all. If we put it on her tray and leave it there long enough she'll eventually try it. Last night she had some pork ribs we did in the crockpot, mashed potatoes and green beans. If you're eating in front of her she expects you to share. She still joins me and my co-workers for lunch and she stares at them when they're eating hoping they'll share. Unfortunately they're rarely able to share. Belinda did share her spaghetti squash the other day and she loved it. Hopefully she'll love sushi just as much as Mama and Daddy!

Ashlyn is becoming more independent every day. She is pulling herself to stand any chance she gets. She opens all drawers, doors, cabinets that she can find. She pulls things out of places you were sure she wouldn't be able to get into. Tonight while I was cleaning the kitchen she had a blast pulling all of the jars and containers out of the refill box (goodies we get from Grandma Glady that need refills). She's been mastering the stairs at Wee Care for the last week or so. She's been able to crawl up them and stop at the top but then she couldn't figure out how to get to down. Today she finally figured out how to crawl down! Our little munchkin is growing up. I'm afraid she'll be walking soon, before her parents are ready for sure.

We're getting ready for Christmas. Both Jered and I are off Christmas Eve and Christmas day. We'll be spending Christmas Eve at Glady and Floyd's and Christmas day at Aunt Jean's in Monroe. Hopefully we'll get to see my two nieces at some point too. I think it's their Mom's weekend. They love their little cousin but its hard for them to understand she doesn't want to be held all the time anymore.

I'll post new pictures as soon as Jered figures out the virus.

10 months old!!

Ashlyn is 10 months old today, WOW!!! In those first few weeks after she was born we couldn't even imagine what 10 months down the road would be like. Its better than you think it will be. She's so much fun these days! She is getting more independent all the time, doesn't like to be cuddled all the time unless she's tired or just woke up. She is curious about everything! You can see her just absorbing everything around her. If she hears a noise or new voice she wants to know what it and where its coming from and she's likely to investigate. She still thinks her sisters are the coolest. She pulls herself up on anything and everything. She's starting to shuffle sideways a little bit when she's holding onto the coffee table or couch. She's learned how to go from standing to sitting without falling on her butt, most of the time. She gets mad when she doesn't get her way :) She knows how to work her parents, she's definently got us twisted around her little finger. She smiles at anyone and everyone. She's learned how to get people to talk to her and she loves to talk! We had parent-teach conference last week at Ashlyn's daycare. I thought it was sorta funny at first that they would do conference so young but it turned out to be pretty informative. Ashlyn already has a couple of favorite kids in her class that she plays with really well, Gemma and Sullivan. She still comes to lunch with me everyday. I really look forward to that hour in the middle of my day that we get to spend together. When I drop her off in the mornings she couldn't care less that I'm leaving, when I take her back after lunch she usually cries a little when I leave. Her teacher's assure me that it only lasts until the door shuts behind me! :o) She is happy and developmentally on track and her daycare is part of that so that makes us happy.

We had fun last weekend when we went out to Edgefield with friends. We were both pretty tired and only made it till 11pm but we had a lot of fun. Going out with adults without kids is a necessary part of life. Reminds us that we are important too and gives us something to talk about besides Ashlyn. Most of our day/night is so focused on Ashlyn....when she eats, when she sleeps, when she poops, it was nice to get away and leave all that to my mom for the night.

Last week was a long week. I worked two extra shifts and it was so nice to just be able to stay home this weekend and relax. We don't stay home very often. Yesterday we did yard work outside, got the backyard all cleaned up and ready for the winter. We didn't do a lot this summer and the yard reflects the lack of attention. So this weekend has been all about cleaning up and getting ready for winter. We did take a break yesterday afternoon to pick up our wine shipment at the winery that we are club members at. Since that also includes free tastings anytime of course we had to do a little tasting! :)

Today Ashlyn is going to stay home with her daddy while her Mama goes out to Indian food and to see New Moon with her girlfriends.

These are pictures of pictures so they may be a little grainy. Ashlyn had school pictures that we got suckered into buying. $45 for 4 sheets, not cheap. Also one in her Halloween outfit. I'm glad we got those done since we missed Halloween.

This one is my favorite and the reason I ended up buying!

She smiled in every single picture, made it really hard not to buy.

Sitting in a chair like a big girl

Isn't she the cutest bumblebee you've ever seen?

Tired.....

Here's a few pics since I haven't been posting regularly lately. Some evenings it feels like a I barely have time to do much of anything except get Ashlyn ready for bed. We've been busy this week, working. Feels like all we ever do lately. I'm covering extra shifts, Jered's been working a lot of late nights. Looks good on our paychecks, but it sure makes us tired.

Last night Ashlyn and I went to Rose City Ceramics after work to paint pottery with my mom and a bunch of my aunts. It was a lot of fun & hopefully my bowl turns out at least a littlte bit decent. I'll post a pic after i pick it up. Jered is hunting today with his friend from work. Ashlyn and I are just hanging out, cleaning house and doing laundry. This afternoon my mom is going to come stay with Ashlyn so Jered and I can go out with friends. Should be a fun night, I just hope that I can stay awake enough to be a little fun! :)

The shirt says it all :)

Visiting with my Grandpa

This is Mama's bff Rachel and her husband Lee. Rach is having a little girl too, Kenzee Rae

Rach with her pregnant bikini cake. We went to her baby shower, but I slept most of the time.

Halloween=Flu

We were so excited for Halloween this year. Ashlyn had her costume all ready, she was going to be a BumbleBee and she looked so darn adorable in it. Lucky for us we had taken her the week before to get her pictures done in her costume at Penny's because both Jered and I got sick that weekend. On Friday at I got some deli roast beef and a couple slices of cheddar from the sandwhich bar at work and about 15 minutes after eating it I started to get SO nauseous and clammy. This went on for a couple of hours before I finally threw up (at work, ugh!). I figured I had food poisoning because I felt so much after I threw up. I still went home early (good excuse) and on the drive I started feeling crappy again. By the time I got home I threw up again and went straight to bed and slept for 16 hours. I was up a few more time to be sick and felt really terrible all night and the next day. But by Sunday morning I was feeling a ton better. Too bad for Jered he woke up Sat feeling pretty crummy and pukey. Both of us were sick all weekend, luckily Ashlyn was fine. She was her happy self all weekend, even if she did miss her first Halloween. Bummer! We had one set of trick or treaters, they rang the bell and knocked multiple times so we finally opened the door. All we had was some mints and dove chocolates. Pretty lame! Jered made a sign to put in the driveway that said were sick and not taking trick or treaters. It was a pretty tiring week after being sick all weekend. Plus I'm working an extra shift a week right now to help out until we get our new hires on board. 16 hours is a really long day!

Last weekend we went down to Monroe. I went to a baby shower for my best friend Rachel on Sat. She's having a little girl and she's due Jan 24. Ashlyn's bday is Jan 22, so maybe they'll have the same bday :) It was a lot of fun and she is just too darn cute! I'll post a pic later. That evening we went to a 50th bday party for my cousin Sheryl at El Presidente in Corvallis. Yum-my! They have such good food and even better margs. I indulged in both :) After that we hung out for a few hours with my other cousins at Traci's house. We had fun, drank a few beers and had some good laughs! Sat was super busy, obviously! After breakfast at Mom's and a visit from some other cousins and my aunt and uncle we drove home. Whew!! Thank goodness Ashlyn is such a trooper. That kid can sleep anywhere! She slept through most of the shower and the bday dinner!

This week is another busy one. I'm working a 16 tonight and I have meetings on Thurs and Fri which means I have to be here at 7am both those days. I guess that's good practice for me though because they are trying to move our start time to 7am so then I'd work 7am-530pm. Getting home a half hour earlier doesn't seem like much but it will be awesome for us! Sometimes I don't get home till 645p or even 7pm. By the time we feed Ashlyn and she gets her bath its time for her to go to bed. Our nights just go by way too fast and it'll be awesome to get that extra half hour with Ashlyn in the evenings.

Ashlyn has changed so much in the last few weeks! She is super crawler baby these days. Turn your back for a second and she is across the room. She is loving her johnny jumper and her walker. She can really get going in the jumper but her legs still aren't quite long enough to get the walker moving. She can make it go backwards though. She pulls herself up to stand every chance she gets. She falls on her butt a lot but she's learning. She eats pretty much anything we give her, but new foods take her a while. She's got to see it and check it out a few times before she'll eat it herself. If we spoon feed it to her she'll eat. She loves yogurt! She loves her rice crackers and crunchies. She likes chicken and turkey dinners but still isn't too in love with beef dinners. We're still giving her a lot of jarred foods but she does get veggies and fruits that she feeds herself. I think the carrots and mandarin oranges are her favorite. She's not a huge fan of anything peach, but neither am I. She loves mashed potatoes and gravy but can't figure out how to hold onto her banana, it just slips right out of her hand. She's getting very good at feeding the dogs and letting them lick her hands or her food. They know when she's in the high chair they'll probably get a treat. She thinks the dogs are the greatest thing ever. Sinder lets her crawl all over her and poke and pull at her. Tori usually moves out of the way when she sees her coming :o) She loves it when Jered holds her on his lap and plays fetch with the dogs. She belly laughs when she sees them running after that ball, its so cute! I'll have pics to post soon, I'm at work waiting for a patient to get here.

Party animal....

We had a busy weekend! A friend of Jered's spent Friday night with us. Him and his wife and kids are moving here soon. Brady and Jered were on the track team together at OIT and have remained good friends. It'll be fun having all of them in town soon.

Sat night we went to a pumpkin carving party at Jered's co-workers house. We went to watch the Beavers/USC game and then Jered carved a pumpkin. I was planning to carve but Ashlyn would not go to sleep. I tried everything but she wasn't having any of it. There was just too much going on. Finally I gave up and we ended up watching the very competitive Beer Pong game. Ashlyn thought it was awesome! She finally fell asleep in Jered's lap about 1030pm. Two hours past her bed time!

Sunday Grammy and Grandpa came up to visit us. They haven't seen Ashlyn in a while, so she showed off her new tricks. She showed how she can crawl, clap, wave and climb on stuff. She says Mamamamamama and Dadadadadadada and she knows which of us is which! Ashlyn is loving the dogs these days. She thinks they are so funny, especially when the wrestle with other or we play fetch with them. We went out to lunch at Applebee's and found out they have all day happy hour on Sundays. Bonus!!! Of course we took advantage and had a couple of margaritas! We also stopped at Costco (on a Sunday....quite possibly the worst place to be) and picked out fancy Christmas dresses for Bailey and Macy. They didn't have any Ashlyn's size but we were actually just given a super cute dress from a friend of ours that her daughter wore at Christmas. Luckily it'll match up with the girls' dresses perfectly. Grammy wants to have their pictures done again before Christmas and they all three look very fancy in their new dresses!

A few more pictures....

In my cheerleader outfit Grammy got me. She knows Daddy's a big Beavers fan. Mama's still waiting for my Ducks outfit :) I wore this to the pumpkin party. Everyone thought it was my Halloween costume. Too bad it wasn't better luck for the Beavs with USC.

With my Daddy, he wore his Beavers jersey to go with my outfit.

After the party, I was pooped! I'm not sure how I ended up like this. Mama put me down on my back, but I guess I move around a lot in the crib.

Our pumpkins. Daddy did the one in the middle at the pumpkin party. Mama did the one on the left and Daddy the one on the right on Sunday night.

Vacation, not really...

Well my forced vacation day wasn't really a vacation. I cleaned house and did laundry all day. Fun....yeah right! I did manage to watch a few episodes of Oprah from the DVR. DVR has got to be one of the greatest inventions ever! We'd never watch TV anymore if we didn't have it. We rarely watch a show at its regular time and when we do I'm always trying to fast forward through the commercials. The $35 (yep even with insurance, fantastic!) eye drops we had to get for Ashlyn work like magic! Her eyes looked better that very night. As you can imagine putting the drops in is a piece of cake. I'm sure every 9 month old loves to have their eyes pried open and liquid dropped into them. Yeah she doesn't fuss or push us away or anything. She's a little angel of course! Poor little muffin still has a cough but overall feels pretty good. We do an inhaler twice a day for the chesty cough and it helps but its really hanging on this time. She's received two seasonal flu shots so far. I hate it that they insist on giving the same one twice, but our pediatrician insisted it was necessary. Next week we go for her 9 month appt and she'll get the H1N1 shot. They're already running low on that one so thank goodness she only has to have one of those.

A few pictures.....

I like my friend Sinder! She lets me climb on her, pull her tail, her ears and then pays me back by licking my face.

See Sinder likes me too :)

Daddy went in the pool with me at my class today. We had a lot of fun!

Aren't we cute???? Mama thinks so, she says I'm cutest, don't tell Daddy!

Oh yeah.....

The smartest kid in the world now claps by herself and waves bye bye (usually only at herself)!! :o)

Pumpkins and Pink Eye....

Ashlyn had been feeling better but yesterday I noticed that her left eye was all watery and after her nap it was all goobery. Well this morning the left eye was glued shut was all those goobers and the right one was pretty goobery as well. Wee care of course freaks out about these types of things so I had to take her to the doctor to see if it was pink eye. I love my doctor! They almost always can get us in same day. She does have a very minor case of pink eye and incidentally a minor ear infection. We got drops for the eyes and numbing drops for her ears. The doctor says the ear infection is very mild and should clear up on its on in 4-5 days. We see her in a week for Ashlyn's 9 month appointment and if its not better by then we'll get antibiotics. I'd rather not give her antibiotics if its really not necessary. As for the eyes we got kicked out of Wee Care until Friday. We have to give drops for 24 hours before they'll take her back. So get a little mini vacation. I'm off half day today and all of tomorrow. Luckily I worked an extra shift Monday night so I'll only have to use a few hours of PTO for tomorrow. Un-lucky, I won't get overtime for working the extra shift. Oh well I guess the savings account won't be getting any deposits any time soon.

A couple of pictures from the pumpkin patch:
Self portrait, not too bad, better if Ashlyn were looking at the camera.

Eating peas and carrots :) she's got a cheek full!

Feeling better....

Both Ashlyn and I are feeling a lot better this week. Ashlyn still has a little cough but overall is much better. She's crawling all over the place now. She likes to pull herself up. We caught her standing in the crib last weekend so Jered lowered the mattress. Now if she stands at the side, she can barely see over. She loves chasing after the dogs. They're pretty good with her. They just lay there when she's grabbing at them and climbing on them. The only thing they don't like is when she tries to grab their feet. She's eating like a champ. She's very observant though. She has to check everything out. If I give her green beans or carrots or whatever she likes to look at it first from all angles. She smells it, tastes it, looks at it again and then will start chewing. She's like that in other things though too. She needs to observe her surroundings before she feels comfortable enough to play.


We went to the pumpkin patch yesterday afternoon. Picked pumpkins for all three of us, rode the hay ride, went in the animal barn and ate carmel apples. Lots of fun! We're invited to a pumpkin carving party next Sat so we'll get to carve them up then.

Here's a few pictures. We went down to Glady and Floyd's on Tues for dinner with Steve and Patsy. They're getting ready to take off for Canada again. They'll be gone most of the winter and maybe the spring too. It was good to see them again and I know they had fun playing with Ashlyn.

She's found the dog bowls. She thinks this is the coolest thing.

With Grandpa Steve

Playing pat-a-cake with my Grandma Patsy

I love my Daddy!

An eventful week.....

Jered usually gives Ashlyn her baths at night. Its good one on one time for them. He still uses the tub that Grandma Glady gave us and this night it was a good thing. I was watching a movie on the computer in the living room and Jered was in the bathroom giving Ashlyn her bath. He started yelling for me so I ran in there and Ashlyn was sitting in the tub of water full of poop. She had pooped in the tub. Ugh, it was so gross! I picked her up under her arms and dangeled her over the tub so Jered could rinse her off. We scrubbed her up again before putting her jammies on. Nasty!!!! After that I sprayed the whole tub down and Jered did the little tub. It was more gross than I can even say!

Ashlyn is a crawling genius these days. She gets where she wants to go now. Yesterday when I went in to pick her up for lunch from Wee Care she was standing at the side of this foam climby thing they have for the kids. She was looking around like she didn't quite know how she had gotten there. As soon as she saw me she started crying. She had pulled herself up and didn't know how to get back down. My little baby is growing up.

She's sick again. She started to get all stuffy Sunday night. She was pretty crabby Mon and Tues. Crabbier than normal so I took her to the doctor Wed just to make sure she didn't have an ear infection. No ear infection! Yay!! But now I'm sick too, which totally sucks. We had been planning to go out with our friend tonight to a wine shop and her daughter was going to babysit for us. I'm super bummed cause there's no way I could even taste any wine tonight.

We're in trouble now.......

She's crawling!!!!!

Growing, growing, growing....

Ashlyn is growing like a weed! She graduated to the next class recently. She is no longer a Ladybug, she's a Dragonfly now! :) She is trying really hard to crawl. She's still rolling all over the place. She can go from a sitting position onto all fours. She rocks back and forth and you can tell she really wants to take off but just can't figure it out. She does this hop thing to go forward and sometimes just belly flops until she reaches what she wants. Usually its the computer, computer cords, remote, anything that either Jered or I have. Jered said she did manage a couple of crawls yesterday morning but I missed it.

Yesterday was Kari and John's wedding and it was beautiful. Everything was perfect. The weather held off, it didn't rain and it really wasn't even that cold. Ashlyn looked like a little princess in her dress Grammy got her. I'm going to have her pictures done in the dress. She managed to stay in the wagon Tyler was pulling her in down the aisle. She only fell over a couple of times. Five minutes into the ceremony she was asleep. Thank goodness!! I had wanted her to take a nap before the wedding but she wasn't having any of it! She slept for a couple of hours and then partied until almost 11pm. She takes after her daddy, she's a party animal!

Last night was the last wedding Jered and I were invited to this year (so far). The next wedding is my cousin's in March. We're both looking forward to having our weekends back. We had a great but busy summer. We didn't camp as much as we would've liked but the three times we did we had a blast. We had a great time on our trip this summer with my mom and Eddie. Grand Canyon is amazingly beautiful. Sometime in my life I'd love to do one of those mule trips down to the bottom and maybe even raft the Colorado. We visited with a lot of family this summer too. Our trip to New Mexico was so much fun! Jere and my cousin Ricky get along so well. Ricky is hilarious, its hard not to have fun with him. His wife Stef is a sweatheart too. My cousin and her girls came from Wisconsin, my other cousin came up from Florida, there were plenty of excuses for bbq's and get togethers! There were six (I think) new babies born this year and I think we still have two or three on the way that will be born in 09. Needless to say the Ballards are still working on taking over the world :)


This is me with my Aunt Sam and Uncle Eli at the Melting Pot the other night.

Here I am with Uncle Justin

With Mama and Daddy at Aunt Kari and Uncle John's wedding.

Here I am with my Uncle Keith

All of the bridesmaids and the beautiful bride holding up the groom :)

Yay!!!

Picture a friend took of Ashlyn.....

$82.57

"That'll be $82.57" is what the lady at the pharmacy told me when I went to pick up Ashlyn's reflux medicine on Wed. "Uhhhhh........whaaaaaaat?" I said back to her. The last time I filled the prescription in April it was $29 for a month's supply. My doctor had given me some extras so I had enough to last till this week. Needless to say I was a bit surprised at the increase in price. I just looked at her with my mouth hanging open I'm sure. "But I have insurance.....", "that is with your insurance. Insurance covers 50%" she tells me. Oh well awesome, I'm thinking, I can totally afford 80 bucks every month. SERIOUSLY! "Do you want to think about it?" "Uh yeah!" By this time though its already after 5pm so the pediatrician office is closed. I have to wait till Thursday to call for an alternative cause we can not afford $80 a month for a prescription, that's just craziness! The nice lady at the pharmacy did tell me that there isn't a generic alternative and its the most prescribed med for babies with reflux. Oh and that the company increased their cost by $150. Nice!

So Thursday I leave a message for the pediatrician telling her everything. Her MA calls me back a couple hours later (one of the reason I love that peds office!) to tell me that Dr Oller will call a different prescription in but that it has to be from a compounding pharmacy. There is one by the Lloyd Center that they usually use. Great! What the heck is a compounding pharmacy?? Thank goodness for Google! What did we do before the internet and Google? Compounding is basically when the pharmacist hand mixes the prescriptions, pretty much like they used to do in the old days. These days we just get all our meds from the pharmaceutical companies. I called the compounding pharmacy yesterday afternoon and she checked my insurance and it was only going to be $37. Well better than $82 that's for sure!

I picked it up today after work and the first thing the pharmacist tells me is that it has to be kept cold. Can't even leave it out on the counter for 5 minutes. It loses its potency if it warms up. He recommends I buy an ice pack for the drive home to keep it cold. They sell them for just $2. Well great, I love being nickel and dimed! Thank you!!

Weddings, friends and new babies!

We had such a great, but short trip to LA for Labor Day. We stayed with our friend's Noelle and Mark. They carted us back and forth to the airport, thank you so much! We ate lunch at one of our favorite restaurants, Versailles, best Cuban food EVER!!!. We went to our other friends wedding, which was absolutely beautiful! In the glass church in Palos Verdes, Wayferers Chapel. I am so happy for my friend Angela. She found and married a great guy and he's totally lucky to have her. We had to come home way too early though. We weren't able to see anyone except those we saw at the wedding but it was great to see them. I hadn't seen my friend Daniele in forever and she's still the same. We were all sitting at the same table and it felt like the old days! Daniele made a comment that we could have been in the cafeteria at Cedars 5 years ago and she was so right. It was like those 5 years just fell away and we were all together again.

I am so happy tomorrow is Friday! I've only had to work 3 days this week and it feels like forever. We're taking Ashlyn to her third swim class Sat morning then heading down to Woodburn to help get the place all spiffy for Kari and John's wedding. Sunday I'm going down to Mom's and Jered will stay and do more spiffy work. It's been too long since my nieces have seen their cousin. Plus my brother has a big day on Monday and I wanted to be there for moral support. My cousin Katie is going to babysit for Ashlyn on Monday so I can be with Keith.

Next week we're taking Ashlyn for a flu shot. Jered is so worried I'm going to bring the home the plague or the swine flu. Wash your hands, wash your hands, wash your hands! #1 way to prevent flu this season is hand washing. I Purell all day at work, I carry it in my purse, I use it at home. I hope I don't get the flu, I don't have any PTO. We were told if we have any flu-like symptoms to assume its the swine flu and stay home until symptom-free for 7 days. Are they crazy??? Yeah I think so. I can't afford that! If you have any flu symptoms, please don't go to the doctor or the ER. Assume its the swine flu and call your doctor instead. Most likely they will tell you to drink lots of fluids and get lots of rest. Also, get your flu shots!!! and when the swine flu vaccine is available, get that one too! The ER is just going to be a breeding ground for all sorts of viruses this winter, avoid it if at all possible.

We seriously saw Santa Claus driving on the 405 freeway in LA on Sunday! It took me three tries to get this good of a picture. I figure you don't go out looking like this if you don't want people like me taking your picture!

This is my BFF Olivia, she was trying to sit on my lap :)

Livi gave me lots of hugs this weekend.

I think this was supposed to be a hug but really she had me in a headlock! I'm a little worried, can ya tell??

This is Mama's friend Angela. Doesn't she look pretty? And me too? I got to wear a really fancy dress.

This is my Bulgarian mother. I call her Mama. She told me I had better hurry up and have another baby because I am old and if I don't get it on my ovaries may dry up. Thanks Mama, I can always count on you for the honest truth! Love, Love her!

These are some of my previous co-workers from my time at Cedars, except the girl in the black dress. She works there now and is funnily enough a cousin of one my co-workers now :) So from L-R is Hailey (I think), Mama Lana, Angela (the beautiful bride), me, Jaime and Daniele.

Our good friends new baby. This is Hailey June, born on 9-8-09. Proud mommy and daddy are Will and Rosie Irwin.

This is Addyson Dawn, born 9-9-09 (pretty cool birthday huh?). This is my co-worker Denise and her fiance Chad's new baby daughter.