Happy 1st Birthday!

Ashley is now one year old. We celebrated the day by having a little party with her. We blew up pink balloons and hung pink streamers. We layed out a sweet pink and white tablecloth with little teddy bears and ducks on it. We got out party hats and blowouts. And of course we dressed the birthday girl up in a sweet little pink party dress and took lots of pictures. When we handed her first present to her she didn't quite know what to do. She was WAY more interested in all those little lights coming from the half a dozen cameras from adoring family members pointed at her. But with a little persuasion from her Mommy and sisters she figured out the presents and then had great fun opening them. She loved every gift and immediately wanted to play with each one. After all the gifts were opened, it was time for cake. We sang, "Happy Birthday" to her and then her sisters helped her blow out her candle. We gave her first piece of cake to her and it didn't take her long to figure out how yummy it was. She kept saying, "Mmmmmm!!!" over and over as she enjoyed it. Afterwards, Grandma cleaned up the highchair and floor while Mommy gave her a birthday bath and then down for a nap, which she immediately passed out with barely a nursing. :) We're so happy to have this sweet little one in our family. She brings us so much joy. She loves reading books, going outside, and playing with her sisters. She also loves music. She gravitates toward anything that makes music. If she hears music, no matter where's she's at she stops whatever she's doing and starts "directing" the tune. :) Her vocabulary is really starting to grow and we just love hearing new words come out of her little mouth. Sometimes it takes us by surprise how much she knows and understands. She has been taking her food off of her high chair and throwing it down to the floor on purpose when she's done. I've taught her to put her arms up and say "done" when she's done and she can do it, but she prefers dropping her food. So one day I held her hands as she was dropping the food and said firmly, "Ashley, we don't throw our food on the floor. Okay?" She looked right at me and said, "Okay." My mother and sister were there and they both looked shocked, as did I, because we've never heard her say that before. Of course we thought she was just repeating me, but amazingly enough, she's not throwing her food down on the floor anymore! It might be a coincidence, but I'm not questioning it. I'm just thankful. I wish everything were that easy. :) She's definitely our little explorer and our home shows it. :) She loves to get into everything and try out new things. She also loves following her sisters around and playing with them. It's so sweet watching their relationship grow. She loves playing with Daddy and giving him kisses and she loves nursing with Mommy and watching the things I do. We love you so much, Ashley! Happy 1st Birthday, sweetheart!

Birthday Girl!

opening a present with Mommy

opening a present all by herself

pushing her new little duck walker

birthday girl with her sisters

singing "Happy Birthday"

Mmmmmm!

We love you, sweet baby!

Goodbye Training Wheels!

Last year when Alexis turned 6 I started thinking that she was old enough to take off her training wheels and learn to ride a bike. Well, between being very pregnant last spring, recovering from the C-Section and adjusting to a newborn, and then Alexis breaking her ankle, we never got around to teaching her. So this year we got her a bigger bike for her birthday since she was outgrowing her old bike. This bigger bike didn't come with training wheel and instead of buying some, we asked her if she wanted to learn how to ride without them and she said, "yes!" Well, it was not a pretty picture. She just wasn't getting keeping the balance and she seemed nervous about falling all the time. So I read online somewhere that it was actually easier to learn on a bike that was a bit too small for the child because it's easier for them to control. So we got out her old bike and made the adjustments and she tried again. This time by the third time out she was riding like a pro and we didn't have to hold onto her at all. She's really excited and it's so cute watching her ride all on her own now.

first time trying

Daddy holding on...she's getting it!

Yeah! She did it!

Emily on her tricycle

Ashley having fun watching

Playing in the Sand

We bought a sand table this year for the children play in on the back deck. I got it on sale this past winter, and Don just filled it with sand a couple of weeks ago. We wondered, at first, what would happen if we put Ashley in it. We remember taking her sisters to the beach when they were just a little younger than her and having to scoop sand out of their mouths and we couldn't seem to recall when that stopped exactly. But she apparently was old enough to know sand isn't food and she has a blast playing in it with her sisters. In fact she screams every time we take her out of it.

Garden

Last night we got our garden planted. Last year was our first year having a garden, but since I was VERY pregnant when we started it and then recovering from a C-Section and caring for a newborn during the summer, Don pretty much took care of all of it. This year, we hope to make it more of a family effort. So we spent yesterday evening planting it together. We have so far planted corn, cantelope, lettuce, zucchini, tomatoes, carrots, honey dew melon, pumpkins, and sunflowers. We're also planning on planting broccoli, but we found out it does better if you wait until the end of summer and then harvest it towards October. (Or plant it in March and harvest it now.) I guess it's sweeter that way in cooler temperatures. We're also thinking about putting in blueberry bushes, since we love blueberries. We were going to do strawberries, but didn't get around to it in time, so we'll do those next year. So we'll see what turns up. We certainly enjoyed all the garden fresh produce last year so we're looking forward to this year. Yum!

Immersed in Books

All of our babies have LOVED books. They honestly prefer them to toys and all of them would sit quietly mesmerized on our laps and look at books as we read them pretty much from birth. Ashley has been no exception and the bottom shelves in our living room is dedicated to her little library of board books. I often find her just sitting there amongst a whole bunch of strewn books just quietly flipping through pages and pointing to things and babbling to herself. I tried to catch her in the action in this shot but she looked up at me as I approached and flashed me a huge smile. :) My favorite thing to see her do is she picks up a book and clumsily crawls across the room while holding the book to me and them she picks up the book and gives it to me and says, "book" which really sounds more like "book" with a "p" sound on the end instead of a "k". I'll ask her if she wants me to read it to her her and she nods her head "yes". It's so sweet.

little Michelangelos

We did a fun art project the other day the girls really enjoyed. We talked about Michelangelo, read information about him, and studied some of his pictures. Then we taped some butcher paper to the bottom of there two little tables and gave them paint and let them paint on their backs wearing Daddy's old T-Shirts. They really enjoyed this and at the same time they realized how tough it must have been for him to do this. We use this neat book for Art called "Discovering Great Artists" in which each page is a different artist that tells about their work and then has a project for the children to do that mimics the type of work they did. We really enjoy it and the girls are learning alot in this hands on approach.

Walk at Dawes

We took the girls to Dawes Auboritum a couple of weeks ago to observe the new blossoms and budding trees. It was a little cloudy but the perfect spring temperature. The girls enjoyed showing baby Ashley different things and teaching her what they are called. We'd hear conversations like this every so often: "Look Ashley this is a blade of grass. Can you say 'grass'?" "Ga" "Good job, baby! Mommy, Ashley can say 'grass'!" It's so cute watching them be little mommies and teachers to her. We also tried to get some pictures, but it was pretty windy and the girls had a hard time all looking at the camera at the same time, but we did get a few cute ones. :)