Lilypie Kids Birthday tickers

Friday, December 31, 2010

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

 Our attempt at a family self portrait on Christmas Eve
 Grammy and Grandpa joined us at Grandma and Papa G's for Christmas Eve dinner and church

 Reading the Christmas story
 Daddy reading the Christmas story
 Uncle John, baby Grace and Auntie Kari
 Mommy and Grammy's self portrait, Grammy closes her eyes of course!
 Grace singing Christmas carols
 My very own tea set from Grandma and Papa G!
 My favorite new book! Grandma Mac reading me "Twas the Night before Christmas"
 Its the coolest book ever
 Grace opening her presents
 Opening my present from Grandpa Terry and Grandma Tracey
 Eating the candy cane out of my stocking...if you look real close you can see the drool on my chin!
 Some of my art projects from school. I did this one with finger paints and I didn't really like having the paint on my hands. My teacher had to hurry to get me to do even this one.
 This is my Christmas tree, I got to glue on the ornaments
 This is my Christmas doll that hung in the hallway at school. Every time we walked by it I would tell Mommy, "I made that! I made that Mommy!!"
 Merry Christmas!
My ornament
 What did Santa leave for me????
 Is this for me????
 Santa left me a new bike!!!!
I ride it! I ride it!!!

Sunday, December 19, 2010

Almost Christmas....

Is Christmas really this week? Where has this year gone? The McGrath house has been busy as always, working, playing and having fun.

Ashlyn is amazing us every single day. She is so funny and cracks us up every day. Her language is exploding and she's probably the smartest kid ever! She can count to 10 and say her ABC's all by herself. The things she remembers are amazing. She needs to know where everyone is at all times. She still asks about Kourtney and Melody almost every day. She wants to know where Macy, Bailey, Grammy and Grandpa are too. Every time the phone rings she says, "I talk, I talk, I talk to Grammy!" The other day in the car driving out to get our tree she just started saying over and over "I like Papa G, I like Grandma G, I like Papa G, I like Grandma G!" She talks about her friends and teachers from school. Friday she told me "Sull-y-ban got his hair cut today Mommy!" "Ash-l-yn get her hair cut?" and I told her that No Ashlyn is not getting her haircut any time soon but asked if Sullivan's haircut looked good. "Yeah Mommy, Sull-y-ban hair look good!". The other night she saw Jered's empty Gatorade bottle sitting on the table and she said "That's Bo-byn's bottle Daddy, that's Bo-byn's". Her teach Robyn, almost always drinks water out of a Gatorade bottle. She repeats everything! Yesterday Jered was bugging me and she asked "What 'appened Mommy?" and I told her Daddy was being annoying. So she kept saying over and over, "Daddy annoying!" She was still saying it this morning. He was only a little irritated with me!
She is very independent. We hear a lot of "Ashlyn do it! Ashlyn do it!" and "Ashlyn's turn." She doesn't like to ride in the cart anymore at the grocery store. "I walk, I walk." When she wants me to pick her up "Mommy hold you?" When we're in the car and she's tired of being in her carseat she either tells me "Mommy I stuck" as she's pulling the straps or I hear "Mommy sit on my lap?" which means she wants to sit on my lap.
Ashlyn is in awe of the Christmas tree. We got it the other night, Jered strung the lights and we decorated it together. She wants to touch every ornament! She loves the "Chris-a-mis lights" Daddy put up outside too. Everytime we drive by a house with lights up she says "I see Chris-a-mis lights! I see Chris-a-mis lights!"

I finished all of our Christmas cards last night so hopefully most of you will receive yours in the mail this week, before Christmas. For our Canadian family members you have pictures coming but I wasn't able to get them this week. I'll pick them up the weekend of Christmas and get them in the mail asap! Jered is also working on another dvd for you too!

I braved the shoppers this weekend. Saturday was definitely worse than Sunday. I really do not like shopping! I was able to finish almost everyone on our list though. Jered was home working on the red car so he got a free pass on the shopping. Although with as many picture texts I sent him, he might as well have come along! We've only got a couple gifts left to buy, phew! I love giving gifts to others, especially when its something that person really wanted or really likes but the shopping part gets me. Ugh! I hate shopping, but more than the shopping, I hate the crowds and the rude people and the traffic.

I'm looking forward to Christmas! I have to work Christmas Eve but hope to be off early. Then its a whole weekend Christmas extravaganza. We'll spend Christmas Eve with Grandma and Grandpa G (Glady and Floyd) then Christmas day at Aunt Jean's of course! Mom and I are planning to shop the day after with one of my cousins possibly coming along for the madness. Then its back to work for the next week. New Years is my holiday so I'm working 11pm-11am. But that weekend Mom, Eddie, Keith and the girls will be coming up so we can have our Christmas with Bailey and Macy. I'm planning to make a prime rib for our dinner. This will be my first time ever making a prime rib but a friend gave me a recipe that is apparently fool proof! I'll let you know how that goes :o)

Saturday, November 27, 2010

Happy Thanksgiving!!

OK so I know I've been a slacker lately as far as blogging goes. I'll try to be better in the future, I promise! Its just excuses but we have been busy lately. Working, working and more working. Jered has been busy at work lately, working overtime when he can. He goes in early so that he can spend his evenings with me and Ashlyn, which we appreciate. We miss him when he works too many late nights.

I can't believe Thanksgiving has come and gone already. We had a great Thanksgiving! I worked the morning shift (I'm a glutton, it's easy $$) and then we packed everyone up and went down to Woodburn to spend the day with Glady and Floyd. Grandpa made us a delicious smoked turkey and Grandma made all the fixings. Ashlyn ate at least three helpings of mashed potatoes and two of green beans. She also gets to have ice cream at Grandma's house, she had it dripping all down her face.

We had planned to spend the night and go wine tasting on Friday but Jered got really sick Thursday night. I think he had some food poisoning from bad pepperoni he ate. It had been in the fridge for way too long but he thinks he can eat anything. So wine tasting got scrapped and instead we laid around the house, watched football, I read a book, general laziness. Ashlyn didn't even get out of her pj's! I was disappointed we didn't get to go wine tasting and told Jered we'll have to plan another time. He said, "Yeah right when's that gonna happen? We're busy from now till next year!" Totally true!


We're zoo members and Wednesday night was members only night to the Zoo Lights. We almost didn't go because its been so darn cold but both of us were glad that we did. It was so awesome! Neither of us had ever been before. Ashlyn had big round eyes most of the night looking at all the lights. We rode the train and walked around a bit, then she started to get too cold so it was time to go home. Its definitely something we'll try to do every year.


Jered went hunting a couple of weekends ago. Unfortunately he was unsuccessful. But he had a good time traipsing through the woods. Since I was going to be alone Mom and Mel and Kourtney came up to stay with us. We had a good time. Went out to dinner at Kourtney's favorite, Applebee's. Did a little shopping. Had lunch and gelato at my favorite gelato place on Sunday before they had to go home. All in all a great weekend and I loved that came up to spend time with us.

We had Ashlyn baptized at the Lutheran church in Woodburn a couple of weekends ago. It went really well. Ashlyn didn't so much like the water being poured over her head or the oil being rubbed on her forehead but she handled it alright. She managed to be quiet through most of the service since Jered caved in and gave her her soothie, against my better judgment. By the time we got back to the house, she was not in a picture taking mood so we didn't get any Kodak moments. My plan is to dress her up in her dress again and take some pictures to post on the blog.

We also tried to get Ashlyn's pictures done with Bailey and Macy last weekend at Penny's and it was TERRIBLE! They were an hour behind after telling us they were only 15 minutes behind. So after waiting for more than an hour to get pictures taken, Ashlyn had pretty much had it and did not cooperate for the photographer. I was so irritated that we left without ordering any pictures. This means though that we'll have to try again, but not at Penny's. I'm not going back there! Ever again! Now I have to find another place to have pictures taken. I think we'll try Sears next.


Ashlyn it seems is turning into a little girl. It makes me sad sometimes that my little baby is gone. She's so grown up these days. She bosses the dogs around, she's very independent, she has very set ideas about things, she has an opinion on almost everything, she's too busy most of the time for cuddles. The other day I was dropping her off at school and she was in jeans, nikes and her sweatshirt and she just looked SO big! She talks so well that it surprises a lot of people. She learned about circles at daycare and now every time she's a circle, she points it out to us, "Circle Mommy!" If its raining, "Raining out-side." She loves to sing, one of her favorites is Row-Row and she can do most of the song herself. She still loves to read books, especially the sing song books. I can't tell you how many times Jered and/or I has read the Wheels on the Bus or Eensy-Weensy Spider. One of her all time favorites is still the ladybug book Macy and Bailey gave her. Sometimes for our own sanity we have to hide it! She loves books with animals in the them so that she can say all the noises. She loves books that count and can usually remember 1-5. She loves to color and write, the trick is making sure she knows what is appropriate to write or color on. She loves when Daddy plays blocks with her. She needs to know where everyone is at all times. Yesterday morning she couldn't find Grandma G "Grandma G go Mommy?" I told her she was in the shower so she had to go investigate. Grandma said she checked on her at least three times! She likes to know who things belong to. "Grandpa's chair" "Mommy's purse" "Daddy's hat" "Ashlyn's book" etc. She loves to see how things work, open and close, put the lid on things, take the lid off. She loves to take her shoes off, put them back on. She loves to take all her clothes off and walk around in her rubber boots or cowboy boots. Sometimes one of each! She almost always gets the shoes on the right foot too. I think she'd rather be naked most days. We've been trying to teach her to take her turns so its a lot of "Daddy's turn, Ashlyn's turn, Mommy's turn". There's a lot of interest in the potty, she likes to sit on the potty but has gone in it twice. Once at school and once at home. She definitely knows when she's poopy and will tell us "Ashlyn poopy!" as she's digging at her butt. We've started time-outs when she throws her fits and boy is she stubborn. She gets mad and throws things on the floor and if she won't pick them up, its time out. Papa Mac got to see her in action a few weeks ago. She loves to run, throw the ball for the dogs, climb on everything, jump on the couch. She's a busy girl! She's not that into dolls but loves her stuffed toys and still sleeps with her lovey and a puppy Grammy got her on our Canada trip last summer. She likes to do puzzles at school and her favorite spot at Grandma G's is still her little table. She can sit there for hours having her own little tea party. She likes to help unload the dishwasher, she likes to sweep the floors, "Ashlyn help, Ashlyn help". She usually repeats herself just in case you didn't hear her the first time. Every time she hears someone getting ice out of the freezer, its "ice, ice, ice!" Jered still can't believe Grandma Mac let her chomp on ice cubes! One thing Jered and I have learned though is Grandma's let their grandkids do lots of things they'd never have let their kids do!!
Enjoy the pictures:

In my time out chair and I'm not happy about it!
Aren't I the cutest Ladybug you've ever seen??
Brushing my teeth before bed
This is the only picture I let Mommy get of me of my Baptism dress. I was a bit of a pill.
Zoo lights with Mommy and Daddy was pretty cool, but also really cold!
This is my tea party table at Grandma G's
Mmmm, these cakes and tea are so good!
Daddy was sick on Black Friday, but not from Grandpa's turkey but because he ate some bad pepperoni that Mommy told him to throw out a couple of weeks ago.
Playing at Grandma G's
I stayed in my jammies ALL day!
I made this turkey at school with my handprint!
This morning, I took off my pj's and wore my ladybug boots instead!

Wednesday, November 10, 2010

Little Ladybug....


I was just reading my previous post about Halloween and realized it totally cut me off. I had a couple more paragraphs...not sure where those went! Or what I said either! Oh well, another time, another blog post.

Isn't she just the cutest little ladybug you've ever seen???

Sunday, November 7, 2010

Halloween

We had a lot of fun Halloween weekend! We went down to Monroe because Halloween was so conveniently on a weekend. Ashlyn dressed up in her LadyBug costume my friend Rach had given us at my babyshower TWO years ago. She was so darn cute and even kept her hat on for part of the night. Ashlyn was her usual shy self of course. She wasn't really in to the trick or treating so we just hung out at my dad's house for the afternoon and then went to my Uncle Larry's and cousin Tonio's house. Tonio and his wife Tracey took over the Halloween night party duties since Grandma Aggie passed. We had fun visiting with the family and eating popcorn balls. Ashlyn loved the popcorn balls! She doesn't eat very much sugar so it was a real treat for her. Plus my dad had bought her a cookie for her treat at his house so she was sugar loaded.

Jered had to work Monday after Halloween but I had the day off so I stayed at Mom's and made Mom take Monday off too! We did a few errands in Corvallis, had lunch, stopped at a few consignment shops. We picked Bailey and Macy up at their house when they got out of school and they all drove me and Ashlyn back to Beaverton. Ashlyn was super excited to see the girls and kept asking for them all weekend but they were with their mom for Halloween. As usual she was super sad to see them leave too. Instead of walking them out and waving goodbye, we tried to distract her. It seemed to work but she did ask "Where Macy go? Where Bai-ey go?" At least we didn't have total meltdown like the last time though.

Papa Mac was here last week. He  spent a few nights hanging out with us and Ashlyn. It was great for Ashlyn to get spend more time with him. He played peek a boo with her, one of her favorite games. She loves to 'hide' and let someone find her.When he left she asked "Papa Mac go?" for days!

We had a busy weekend again. Jered had a work function Saturday night in Vancouver that we went to. It was only a little bit lame but we did get to hang out with our friends that live up there. My friend Crystal's daughter Kayla babysat for us so we could go to Jered's party.

Sunday, October 24, 2010

Almost THREE Weeks????

Its been almost three weeks since I've posted! Time sure does fly. Now that summer is officially over though it seems like our lives are slowing down a little bit. The summer is always so hectic and busy, I look forward to fall.

Last weekend we took Ashlyn to the pumpkin patch with some friends of ours. She had so much! She loved picking out her pumpkin and riding daddy's shoulders for the corn maize. There were lots of animals for her to look at and a hay maize for little kids that had mom feeling a little claustrophobic and daddy crawling on his knees to get through. She thought it was hilarious though and laughed the whole way through. Thank goodness we had a flashlight because it was DARK!

This weekend was mine and Jered's weekend away. Mom and Eddie brought Bailey and Macy up on Sat so we could go out. We went up to Hood River and did some wine tasting, ate some awesome sushi and stayed the night at a really cool hotel. If you ever get the chance to stay at the Columbia Gorge Hotel, do. It was really cool and I'd definitely stay there again. We'd heard good things about the brunch buffet but we both thought it was overrated and too expensive. Ashlyn had a blast playing with Bailey and Macy. The girls are so good with her and she loves being able to play with the big girls. She was sad when they all had to leave though. She cried and said "I go! I go!" We'll see them next weekend though when we go down for Halloween.

On Friday I made our reservations for our Kauai trip!!! I drove my friends at work nuts singing, "I'm going to Hawaii, I'm going to Hawaii!" We're going in May so its still about 7 months away but when you're using a timeshare you have to make the reservations quite a bit in advance. We are so excited!! I've already started reading the guide book, realized I have a 4th edition and there's a 7th edition so I ordered it from Amazon :) I like to be well prepared for vacation so that we can see and/or do everything! I don't want to miss anything, especially since it'll probably be a few years before we get the chance to go back.

Ashlyn is talking up a storm and will repeat everything you say. And I do mean everything! Jered has taught her "What does a Beaver say Ashlyn?" and she raises her little fists in the air and says "Touch Down!" Its so darn cute we keep trying to get it on video but she won't perform. A duck apparently only says "Quack" but I'm trying to teach her say "Number 1!!" Its a work in progress. She's starting to be real interested in the potty and likes to sit on it but has yet to actually go. The whole idea of potty training is pretty overwelming but she's ready so I guess we'll be starting that soon.

Here's some pics from the pumpkin patch and a couple of me and Jered from this weekend.

 with Mommy and Daddy in the corn maize
 photo-op
 riding in the wheelbarrow with McKenzie
 which pumpkin do I want???
 this one looks good!
 Yummy sushi!!
 In the hotel
at the hotel bar

Sunday, October 3, 2010

Birthdays, zoo animals and bless you...

We had a great week! Wednesday was my day off and Ashlyn and I went to the zoo! She was so much more excited this time. Last time we could tell she really liked it because she was just in awe of all the animals. This time she was excited! We saw the monkeys, elephants, bears, fish, giraffes, zebras. She was excited to see the sea otters (we have a book from Grammy about sea otters) but they weren't out. So she said "sea otters night night" "sea otters night night Mommy". Where does she come up with this stuff?


Friday night after work we met up with Sam and Eli for drinks and chicken wings at this great wings place in Portland. It had been so long since we'd seen them. Do the summers get busier and busier, or is it just me?? I think we only saw them one time this summer. Ashlyn acted super shy with them even though she sees pictures of them at our house and knows their names. Lately she's got this shy thing going. If there's a lot of people or people she doesn't see a lot of, she acts all shy. She had fun though because there were some other older kids at the restaurant and she just watched them the whole time. She's an observer!

Last weekend was my mom's birthday so we headed down to Monroe. We spent Friday night in Woodburn visiting both Grandma and Grandpa Lendhardt and Grandma K. Then onto Monroe where Mom and I got pedicures. Its football season so Jered, Ashlyn and I went over to cousin Traci's to watch the Beavs and the Ducks game. We hadn't seen Traci the last couple of times we were down so we were excited to have time to hang out over there this time. I made enchiladas and Trac got all the snacks and drinks. Ashlyn wore her Ducks cheerleader outfit Grandpa got her last year and when we walked in the door, Dylan was pretty upset with us. He said "Its Beavers Day! Why is she wearing that?" I told him it was most definitely Ducks day as well! Jered wasn't wearing his Beavs gear either and Dylan made sure he changed his shirt....quick! Sunday was Mom's birthday, so she made dinner for us. Huh?? Yep, she made her own birthday dinner and it was great. My cousins Kourtney and Melody came over and then Aunt Jean and Uncle Hugh showed up too.


Ashlyn is a little copycat lately, so watch your language! She is a little talker, unless there are people around she doesn't know. I've had a head cold this week and a little cough. This morning I could hear Ashlyn in her room talking to herself, I coughed and I heard "Bless you Mommy". So dang cute!! She thinks a cough is like a sneeze.
coloring in my color book, one of my favorite things to do!
watching cousin Dylan be silly
Happy Birthday Grammy!!
Giraffes!!
I didn't want to walk on the road like most people, I like doing it the more difficult way :)
this looked like a great place to eat my snack
self portrait with Mommy....I've still got a little learn on self portrait skills
the only sea otter we saw at the zoo
playing with Daddy