The Moon!!

We went up to Chimacum last weekend for Grace's 1st birthday party. Wow! What a crowd, that girl really knows how to throw a party! Ashlyn was a little overwhelmed by all the people and was pretty shy for most of the party. It takes her a while to get warmed up to people. We were able to spend some time outside because the weather cooperated for once. Ashlyn loves to be outside!

The drive up wasn't quite as fun. Two hours in to our four hour drive Ashlyn got car sick and threw up all over herself and the car seat. There's nothing quite like being on the side of the freeway with cars driving by at 80 miles an hour and having to strip your kid down to her diaper when she's covered in puke. Thank goodness I had a travel pack of Clorox wipes in my purse that Jered used to clean the car seat. I wiped Ashlyn down with some diaper wipes and put clean pj's on her but the puke smell did not go away. We stopped at Target in Gig Harbor for some air freshener and that helped a little bit but it took a few days for the smell to go away. So we had to wash the car seat pads and give Ashlyn a bath before the party. Jered left the car seat outside over night and let the rain wash it all away! :o) Its never been so clean!!

We're getting ready for our trip to San Francisco! I'm getting pretty excited! We're leaving Ashlyn with my mom for FOUR days!! This will be there first time we've left her for more than just overnight. I know I'm going to miss her but I'm really looking forward to taking a trip with just Jered. We'll get to SF on Friday afternoon and Jered will probably want to do some last minute cramming for his test (the whole reason we're going is for Jered to take his California survey license) but we'll also get to go out to dinner and have a few drinks by ourselves! Saturday morning will be Jered's test and I'll get to sleep in. Saturday afternoon we're going to do a little sight seeing, we've been to SF before so we'll hit our favorite spots. Then Saturday night we've already got tickets for the Alcatraz Night tour. I'm excited for this one! All the times we went to SF and we've never done Alcatraz. One of my friends said the Night tour was awesome, a little freaky and really really cool. Then on Sunday we're going to drive over to Sonoma and do a little wine tasting. We're going to go to Francis Ford Coppola's winery and another one that has had its sparkling wines served at the White House for the last four presidents. We've got plans for four or five places, depending on how we feel. We're going to do the LONG drive back to Portland all in one day. We may regret it but its the only way we can get optimum days of free time! I've already got the itinerary done and its got addresses for the first opportunity to stop In-n-Out (Redding, CA) and others along the route. I fully plan to get my double-double fix while we're down there!

After our SF trip we'll be getting ready for our trip to Hawaii. I've been busting my butt at the gym for 3 months now and haven't lost a pound but I'm still trying. It gets a little discouraging to be working out and not see results but my friends at work help out by making go on days when I don't feel like going. I figure even if I'm not losing any weight at least its good for my heart! That's what I tell myself about wine too!!
Here's a few pictures:

The brightest moon we'll see for the next 20 years. It was pretty bright!

I'm getting my nails cut. I'm not really sure why Mommy thought I needed my picture taken.

I had a blue lollipop at Grace's party and my tongue turned blue too!!

Terrible Two's???

There are days I'm not really sure where my adorable, squeezable, sweet, funny little baby girl went. It seems her little three foot body has been invaded by a bossy, opinionated, naughty, loud, too grown-up for her mama girl! Tonight at dinner she was telling me she doesn't like eggs as she's shoveling as many as possible into her mouth. "I don't like those eggs Mommy!" "I DON'T WANT BUTTER ON MY BREAD DADDY!!" "I can do it myself!" "I said, I can do it myself!" "Mommy what are you doing? Come here right now!"

Me: "Ashlyn please do not bang your feet on the chair at the dinner table." Looking me right in the eye as she continues to bang her legs on the chair she says, "I'm banging! I'm banging my legs!" "Don't hold my legs Daddy! Don't Daddy! Ahhhh!"

This morning in the car we're waiting at the tracks for the train to go by and we can hear it before we see it. Ashlyn: "What's that noise Mommy?" Me: "That's the WES train honey." Ashlyn in a very serious voice: "No its not. Its not the WES train Mommy." Jered: "Yes it is the train Ashlyn." Ashlyn: "No its not Daddy!"

Then when we least expect it we get "I love you Mommy!" "I love you Daddy!" Me: "I love you too baby!!" My sweet babygirl!

Busy busy busy.....

We have been so busy lately! We've been helping out with Mom and Eddie move. Then my cousins from South Carolina visited with their new baby boy Noah, and he sure is a cutie! I think we've only one weekend at home since before Christmas. It sounds crazy now that I sit here and think about it. We just always have something to do. We have managed to have quite a bit of fun too! We went out to the wine shop in Forest Grove with our friends a few weekends ago. We also went out with all of my friends from work to celebrate one of us having a baby! We met up with our friends Arrin and Wendy for dinner too. Jered used to work with Arrin at WRG. We'll be going to their wedding in Sept in Kauai! <3 ;o)

Ashlyn is growing like a little weed! She is too smart for her mommy and daddy thats for sure! She locked me out of the house this morning. I was loading the car at my mom's to head back to Portland, I heard her slam the front door closed, which is something she loves to do. When I tried the door handle, she had turned the deadbolt. I didn't even know she knew how to do that! Unfortunately, she didn't know how to do turn it back. Good thing mom has a hide a key outside!! First lesson after I got back inside was to teach her how to unlock the deadbolt as well as lock it!

She loves to sing and loves to make mommy and/or daddy sing with her. She sings her ABCD's (not ABC's), Twinkle Twinkle, Itsy Bitsy Spider, Baa Baa Black Sheep are a few of her favorites! She loves to count and is even learning to count in spanish. She is very strong willed and stubborn (wonder where she gets that?). She wants to do everything herself, by herself! She loves to sit at her table having tea parties. She loves to read books (we just get tired of reading the same ones over and over)!

We've started going to the local pool on my days off and she is loving it! She gets braver and braver every time. When she gets a little older we'll probably do formal swim lessons but for now the open swim is enough. We're getting excited about our trip to Hawaii in May. Every time Ashlyn sees or hears an airplane she says its going to Hawaii! She also loves to see school buses and now knows the difference between the city bus and a school bus. She loves animals and we get to see quite a few cows, horses and sheep on our drive from Monroe to Portland.

A few pictures now and maybe a video or two soon......

Hanging with Uncle Keith at the state wrestling tournament

I was really sick a couple of weeks ago. Mommy and Daddy had to take time off work to stay home with me. I had a fever for three days and just felt yucky! I bounced back quick though!!

The very next week I was playing at the mall

Face first down the slide.......

That was FUN!!!

Showing off my Ducks shirt!!

Hanging with Grandpa Terry at SkateWorld

Time to sing Happy Birthday to Macy!!!