Ashton-isms

Ashton has said some pretty funny things lately. Here are a few that I remembered to write down.

She came home from the park with Joseph tonight and told me that she talked to the "squitos" (mosquitoes). I asked her what she told them and she mumbled something. Hopefully she told them to go away and stop biting.

At the national night out activity we went to (post coming), she sat in the back of a pick up truck meant for emergency rescue. They had a wide space between the two front seats with a big console, just like my mom's truck. Ashton pointed to that area and said, "Molly's car seat." Molly is my mom's dog and Molly often sits on the console in their truck. She remembered that from Wisconsin.

After nap, Ashton will ask to go on a walk for Daddy. I have to tell her everyday that he is still at work. One day, she replied, "Daddy at a meeting on the phone." She was probably right.

We were driving one day and she randomly told me, "I want to be in the circus." I had no clue how she knew what a circus was. At dinner that night, I asked Joe to see if they had read about one in a bedtime story. He said no. I asked Ashton how she knew about a circus. Her response: "Daniel and Margaret." It dawned on me that several days earlier she had watched an episode of Daniel Tiger that includes them pretending to have a circus with baby Margaret. I asked her what she wants to do at a circus and she started dancing. I hope her aspirations change over the years!

Funny girl!

General Conference and Birthday Weekend

We had a wonderful conference weekend! We went to the beach Saturday morning before conference started. It was a little cold but Ashton loved building a castle in the sand. Ashton enjoyed listening to the choirs sing and always asked for more singing.

For my birthday, we had some friends over for cake and ice cream Sunday night. The cake didn't turn out the best. I tried to make a funfetti cake from scratch, which was fine. But I used a 6 inch pan and the middle of the cake took much longer to bake than the outer part. This meant that part of it was overdone and the middle was barely done. Oh well. Ashton picked the color of the frosting. Yellow. I tried to persuade against it but that's what she wanted. Of course, she assumed my birthday was her birthday and blew out my candles.

Monday morning, I woke up to Ashton telling Joseph that she wanted to open my presents. Ashton helped wrap them the night before so she knew what they were for the most part. As she is handing me a gift, she is also telling me what it is. How kind! She enjoyed opening my presents.

Her self-portrait that morning

We took advantage of some free birthday treats. Ashton and I went to Panera Bread for breakfast, which just opened in town, and had a yummy (and free) cinnamon roll. For lunch that day, we met up with a friend and her son at Chick-fil-a. That way, the kids could play and the adults could have a conversation with minimal interruptions. That night, we went out to eat again with Joseph and Ashton did very well at the restaurant. Now, Ashton asks for "restaurants" all the time. Her gift to me was taking a long nap and being happy for the majority of the day. I think there was only one meltdown when she wanted to pet our neighbor's dog.

My visiting teacher stopped by to drop off a yummy cupcake and a freezer meal.

Random picture- a friend made this for Ashton's birthday. She likes it.

Two Year Old Ashton

I wanted to wait until her doctor appointment to see how tall and big she was. Here's an update on being two.

Quite a bit has changed since Ashton was 18 months (see here). She continues to talk, talk, and talk. That has stayed the same. She says sentences, tells stories, all sorts of talking. We love her memory and how she tells us things about her day. She can retell a lot of what she does to Joseph when he comes home at night and it's fun to see what details she cares about. Ashton is also starting to prefer Joseph. I think our trip to Wisconsin caused that to happen. She went two weeks without Dad and then when he flew out to meet us, she was very attached to him. Now, Ashton prefers Daddy to read nighttime stories, jump on the bed, go to the park, etc. I think me being pregnant impacts it too since I can no longer do as much physical activities with her without a lot of back and stomach pain. Her sleeping has improved greatly as well. We are far from giving up naps, which is good news considering another baby is coming.

Here are her favorites.

Favorite book: Somehow we acquired a new baby book by Mercer Mayer from our Utah trip. She requests this several times a night. It takes about 30 seconds to read it. Needless to say, we have it memorized already.

Favorite toy: Her baby doll still. As well as all the things that go with the doll like the bottle, blankets, stroller, etc. Ashton loves burping the baby, rocking it, and singing "Rock-a-bye Baby" to it.

Favorite word: A single word no longer applies. Her most common phrase is probably "Watch me."

Favorite show: Daniel the Tiger. This continues to be the only show she really watches. Every now and then, she will watch part of the Curious George movie but it doesn't last long before she insists on Daniel again. I don't mind. We tell her she can watch Daniel with our babysitter and then she doesn't get sad when we leave.

Favorite Outing: The park. Ashton requests the park several times a day. Sometimes I can convince her that the park is closed because it's dark outside or it's raining. But even then, she can be adamant.

Favorite food: Any fruit. She pretty much devours fruit when offered. A special treat for her would be fruit snacks though. She loves those too.

Favorite activity: Cutting up her wooden food that she got for her birthday. You can find her concentrating on this several times a day. Every time she cuts something up, she yells, "Yeah Ashton!" I don't think we have a lack of self-esteem yet!

Height: 35.5 inches. Still in the 90+ percentile. If the predictions are close, she will be between 5' 8" and 6' tall. I would guess the lower end of that range.
Weight: 29 pounds. She graduated to the big girl scale this time so she just had to stand on a normal scale. Hooray! They also calculated her BMI this time. Weird!

The doctor said she was happy and healthy. He asked about potty training. Yeah... it's a work in progress. She likes sitting on the potty and wiping and flushing but she doesn't actually go. After a day or two of taking her to the potty a lot, she refuses to do it. Then a day or two later, she likes it again. Diapers it is for a while longer. At least until after our trip to Spain. Then maybe I'll hit it hard again.

Pictures and Videos

Taking care of baby on Daddy's back.

Showcasing her lovely artwork. I think she got my art skills.

Loves reading with dad at bedtime now.

Ashton Turns Two!

Having a two year old is a bit harder on me than when Ashton turned one. I think with one I was so excited to be done nursing and to say I survived the first year. Now with two, I feel like the last two years have flown by and Ashton is quickly morphing into a little girl instead of a baby.

We celebrated her birthday twice- once in Utah with family and then on her actual birthday on Sunday. For her Utah celebration, I made a Daniel Tiger cake. It turned out alright. I would make a few changes but for decorating a cake on vacation, it wasn't too bad. I missed some of my tools/baking supplies but we made it work. Ashton was very excited about her tiger cake. Although, she didn't want to eat any as she was too busy playing with cousins that night.

Sorry it's side ways. Just turn your head.

Birthday girl in Utah

 I was really excited to spoil her on her actual birthday at home. We flew back the day before her birthday so it was a mad dash to get ingredients from the stores, cakes made, and decorating the cake. When she woke up that morning, I told her it was her birthday. Immediately, she said, "Daniel cake." I was bummed I didn't have another Daniel cake waiting for her but it was nice that she remembered the cake from the week prior. We started the morning by having pumpkin muffins, Ashton's favorite. We put a candle in it and she was happy to blow it out. I actually missed getting a picture of it because I didn't think she had the capacity to blow out a candle. We went to church and did our typical Sunday thing. She opened presents after her nap and she was very excited about that. She had to inspect each toy before moving on to the next. That night, we had some friends over for cake and ice cream. Ashton missed all her friends while we were gone so that made her day.

So happy for a muffin with a candle

Her second cake. It was pretty tasty. Ashton liked the sprinkles the best.

 My favorite part of her being two so far... last night, I was saying good night to Ashton and I told her, "I love you." She gave me a hug and said, "Love you too Mommy." I cried. Such a sweet little girl. She also slept through the night then too. How nice of her! Her two year molars are wrecking havoc on her sleep again... And she's still on Utah time so she sleeps in past 7am (8:15 this morning!). I know the day will come soon enough where she wakes at 6am again so I'm enjoying it while it lasts.

Extra picture. Shopping has begun! Hooray for cheap Wal-mart sales!

It's A...

If I had to guess one or the other, I thought boy. Simply because this pregnancy was a lot different than my pregnancy with Ashton. So I guess my hunch was right. And I knew a boy meant more shopping!

I always enjoy the ultrasound because it's cool to see all the organs and bones that I learned about in anatomy. I kept asking the technician about certain things such as if the spinal cord was closed off, if the four heart ventricles were working correctly, etc. and she kept reminding me that she couldn't answer those questions. Ugh. If only the radiologist could be in the office too.

I'm nervous about a boy simply because of my comfort zone. I know how to raise a girl, at least to the age of two. A boy... not so much. Especially a hyper, bouncing off the wall boy. But I do look forward to mommy-son dates and Joseph taking the boy on campouts. That will be fun. Either way, we're having a boy! Hooray!

Utah Trip

We did a three-way trip this year between Texas, Wisconsin, and Utah. That allowed us to save a little on airfare as well as group Joseph's vacation time. It does mean Ashton and I were away from our beds and home for a month but it was worth it to see family so much.

On the flight to Utah, Ashton was excited to see mountains. She was pretty upset that she couldn't "touch them." She kept crying on the plane to touch the windows and the nice lady in the window seat was not willing to let Ashton touch the window. How rude! Actually, if I didn't have a kid, I would probably be the same way. Overall, it was a great time in Utah. We prefer Texas still but it is always nice to visit for a little bit.

Here are the highlights in the order in which the pictures loaded.

Ashton opening a birthday present with cousin, Oliver. She got little figurines/play dolls of the characters on Daniel Tiger. They immediately went in the bath with her. We had a big family party for her birthday, which was fun.

We spent a day at BYU. We went to the Bean Museum, Brick Oven, and the bookstore as well as walking around the new buildings and all the changes. Ashton was excited to find Cosmo and to sing the BYU fight song.

Joseph and I went away for a night to Park City. We did a little kid swap with Joe's brother and sister. It was great! We rode the gondola/ski lift and hiked around Park City. I was hoping to sleep in. Nope... body woke up at 5:45 just because. Ashton and I survived being apart for 24 hours. It was good practice for Spain next month.

A little nervous on the ski lift.

Joe's brother got us some passes to Thanksgiving Point. Ashton loved riding the pony and petting some animals at Farm Country.

At the children's museum of Thanksgiving Point. They had this cool water table with seats to play in.

In the water area of the museum. She loved wearing the rain boots.

We also went to the aquarium. They had this cool rope bridge to cross, which Ashton loved doing and did so about ten times!

To kick off our night away, Joseph and I went to Boondocks and went mini golfing. Then Joe decided to do the batting cages. It has been several years since I played softball but I hit more than I thought I would.

Feeding the ducks at BYU.

Cheering for BYU on game day!

Walking around the hardware store in Nephi. This store is owned by Joe's brother-in-law and Joseph worked there for a few years in high school Ashton enjoyed using a plunger as a hat.

The turtles are a huge hit for her at the aquarium

More aquarium exploration

We went hiking near Lehi and Ashton loved throwing rocks in the creek.

 

 

Our hike to the waterfalls.

Halfway to Baby #2

If you aren't aware yet, we're expecting another little bundle of trouble joy in January!

Here I am at 20 weeks. Mind you, this is in the morning when I haven't eaten much. By 7pm, it's a whole different story!

Impromptu picture while hiking in Park City

This is me at 20 weeks with Ashton.

I feel a lot more tired as sleep is harder to come by. I seem to wake up early most mornings just because. Compared to my pregnancy with Ashton, I was a lot more sick this go around. That stunk. Ashton was lucky as she got to watch a lot of Daniel Tiger for several weeks while I laid on the couch for hours on end. Unfortunately, I am well aware that I will only become more tired as the weeks and months wear on. And then comes January when I can throw consecutive hours of sleep out the window for a year of my life again. My doctor is convinced the baby will come three weeks early like Ashton. I doubt it. I'm betting this baby comes two weeks late in February just to make me suffer. However, I am aware this time around that keeping the baby inside you is a lot easier compared to when they are born.

We have our anatomy ultrasound on Monday so we're hoping they can tell the gender then. I have no intuition on this one. I was fairly certain Ashton was a girl before her ultrasound but this time, I have no clue. It will be a big surprise! I'm hoping the ultrasound makes everything feel more real. I still don't believe that we'll have another baby in January. I suppose the bulging stomach and weight gain will help with reality too. Hooray for another baby!