Happy Birthday Ashley

I can't believe it but Ashley turned 1 today (Thursday).  I will post more about her monthly achievements etc. next week after she goes for her year checkup, but I wanted to get a couple of pictures posted from today.  We didn't have a party for her today.  For the first year or two I'll just combine her party with Bennett's since his birthday is in a couple of weeks.  We did let her open her present from us though. 

She is such a sweet little peanut.  I can't even remember what life was like without her!



These weren't birthday gifts but it was the first time we got her to walk behind her stroller.  She looked so proud of herself.

Christmas Tree

Bennett got to "help" me decorate the Christmas tree this year.  I had a branch with about 6 of the same colored ornaments.  Now I know why my mom always "fixed" the tree after we all went to bed.  He had fun though so I let him do it...and then fixed it when he went to bed.

Both Bennett and Ashley have luckily stayed away from the tree for the most part.  I've had a few ornaments that I can tell have been moved around alittle but I'm ok with that.  Last year I had candy canes on the tree and I kept finding Bennett pulling them off and eating them when I wasn't looking.  This year I opted out of the candy canes on the tree - apparently it's just not as appealing for him.

Santa Clause

The first weekend in December Santa came to town.  We didn't have to wait in line so Bennett hoped right up on Santa's lap with no hesitation.  I gave Ashley to Mrs. Clause and she looked pretty worried but Mrs. Clause quickly distracted her with a bag of M&M's from the treat bag.  Bennett told him he wants drums for Christmas.  Bennett also loved Santa's jingle bells - go figure right...anything that is musical and makes noise is a big hit. 

After Bennett got off, we quickly switched Ashley to Santa's lap so I could get a picture of her too. She was intrigued by his beard which is probably the only reason she stayed. She's kinda a scaredy cat right now about strangers so I was actually shocked she sat on both of their laps without screaming!

Holiday Centerpiece

Tonight my friend Angie and I took a Holiday Centerpiece Design Class at a local flower shop.  They taught us how to arrange a live table centerpiece.  It was alot of fun.  There were 6 people in our class and it was amazing to see how different each person's centerpiece looked.  The cost was $35 which paid for the instruction of how to do two different centerpieces and all of the materials we would want to use for our centerpiece.  Besides the 4 different green's which we used, we had the choice of tons of ribbons, pine cones, candy canes, berries, fresh flowers, ornaments, candles and more.  They gave instruction on a round version or a long version, like the one that I did.  I should have taken a picture of Angie's - total opposite of mine but still very pretty.  I'm sure their job is crazy busy and stressful around Holiday's but, what a fun job!  If you guys ever have the opportunity to take a class like this, I'd definitely recommend it!  

Ashley - 11 Months

Only a few more weeks and my baby will be 1 - wow! 

Ashley has found a few more interest during this past month and learned a few new things. 

- She has started pointing at things she likes or sees.  She's not really pointing at things that she wants yet but I'm sure this will come in the next month or so.  If she sees something she really likes she will point to it and squeal! 
- She has started to eat more finger foods.  For the most part she is still having jars of baby food but I think that once my supply is gone, I'm going to try to switch her to real food to save some money and because I think she is losing interest in it.  I've already started mixing her bottle's with real milk since the formula is almost gone and I'm not going to buy another container.  So far she has tried potato bites, chicken, pizza crust, banana's, hotdish, and I'm sure more that she's gotten fed at my mom's house. 
- She LOVES books and will sit and look at them for a long time by herself.  She often squeals while doing this too.
- Speaking of squealing, Bennett and her seem to have screaming matches back and forth.  Bennett will scream, she will, Bennett will, she will.  They think it is hilarious.  And, it kinda is! 
- She is able to stand on her own (until she realizes she is doing it) but she's not really showing much want to walk at all.  Bennett was walking by his 1st Birthday but I'm pretty sure she won't be.  And I am definitely ok with this! 
- She loves looking at pictures - especially on the computer's screen saver.  She will sit there and watch it show different pictures for 10-15 minutes at a time.  And she loves every minute of it. 
- She still is a little peanut and not gaining much, if any, weight in the past two months.  I hope that she is 20 lbs. or very close to it in the next weeks so that I can switch her to a different carseat. 
- She has learned how to cover her eyes and play peek-a-boo, which is so cute.
- She blows lots and lots of kisses, which is so cute.
- If I'm lucky, I can get her to say Meow meow meow, which is so cute.
- She can say:  Mama, Dada, and the N, B and G sounds.

She is just such a sweetheart and we love her so much!

Grandma's 87th Birthday

Today was Grandma's 87th Birthday! A group of us family went to her assisted living home to have cake with her and the residents. It was a nice time. She really enjoyed having all of us family there. And all of the residents LOVED having 4 little kids to watch and look at. After having the cake in the dining hall, we all went back to Grandma's room. It was like Christmas in the trailer house all over again - there was 14 of us all in her room - packed in like sardines! Here are a couple of pictures that I got from the day.

Grandma with a lady from the home.  So cute.

Grandma & Gideon

I originally took this picture of Ashley playing with Grandma's walker but I now chuckle at Gideon too.

Bennett's Latest

I think Bennett deserves a post once.  Like I said, I'm behind...  I can't believe it but Bennett will be 3 in a month!  He is such a good boy.  Sure he has his days where he is messing up faster than I can clean up, having tantrums, not listening etc. but for the most part he is such a good kid.  He is so sweet and gives Ashley a hug and kiss every night before bed.  He actually gets upset if she falls asleep before he gets to.  He also will say "goodnight, love you" over and over when he's going down for a nap or to bed at night which is the best. 

His speech is coming along.  He is constantly talking - it's just not that clear.  I can pick up on alot of what he is saying but there are many times during the day where I'll need him to repeat it a few times and I still can't quite figure out what he is saying.  If it is something that is really important to him though, it is usually a clear word that we can understand.  Like I said though, he is constantly talking (which sometimes gets so annoying) but is great to hear.  We're still trying to determine if we're going to have to get him in a speech program in the next year or not.  I think we're still going to play it by ear for the next few months and see how it goes.  At the beginning of summer he was barely talking so in the past 6 months he has made huge improvements! 

He has been fully potty trained (except for nights) probably since about September.  He rarely is in pull-ups anymore when we leave the house.  He does really well using bathrooms at public places and will tell us if he needs to go.  He can stay dry during nap time but is usually pretty wet in the mornings.  He has started standing up to pee - his choice - which scares me cause I don't feel like washing my bathroom rug all the time.  But so far no accidents!  He does a funny thing, he will wave and say "bye bye pee pee, love you" many times when he flushes. 

He is able to dress himself now which is awesome!  His socks slow him up but other than that, he can get himself from naked to fully clothed in probably 2 or 3 minutes!  I love this!!!

Ever since going to Kristen's volleyball games and watching the pep band play, he is in love with anything music related - from the drums, horns, directing - you name it, he loves it.  He directs songs on TV, he will make anything in to a drum (my pots being his favorite), and will blow in to anything that he thinks will make noise.  Me being a former band member, am psyched that he is so in to music and I hope this continues.  But, it is pretty loud and annoying in our house though these days. 

He still loves anything to do with farming, anything building or construction related and basketball.  His favorite TV show is Curious George, his favorite movie is Veggie Tales and his favorite books are Berenstain Bears (or Curious George). 

They made a band!  Josh is always such a good sport. 

This picture makes me laugh. 

He took a bite out of this apple and started freaking out.  I couldn't figure out what was going on but he kept saying "Bob" over and over again.  Then I got it - he thought that the apple looked like Bob from Veggie Tales! 

We made turkey hats for Thanksgiving.  He "helped". 

Sonnie Kitty

Ugh I've been terrible at this lately.  I have things to say, just need to find the time and energy to do it!  I promise I'll get better...

Last Monday, our kitty Sonnie died :-(  We got him and his brother Sancho from my mom's farm when they were baby kittens.  We have had them for 5 years now.  Last winter they both came down with something and got sick - lost alot of weight and had no energy.  We actually were wondering if they'd make it through it last winter but they did and seemed to be better.  About 2 weeks ago though I had realized that Sonnie seemed really really lazy and slow and was starting to loose weight again.  Last Saturday night I didn't think he looked very good so we started to keep a close eye on him.  By Sunday he was barely moving and wasn't eating.  And then on Monday he passed away.  We're not really sure what happened since it seemed to go so quick.  He is buried at my mom's.

We definitely miss him around here.  It's weird only having one cat running around or one cat being lazy and napping all day.  We can tell that Sancho really misses him too and is jumping up on our laps alot more for attention which is unusual.  I don't think the kids realize he is gone as much as Mike and I do though.  They were our babies before our real babies.  He was a great cat to Bennett and Ashley.  He would cuddle with them laying on the floor or let Bennett chase him (or vis versa).  Here are a couple of my favorite, more recent, pictures of Sonnie.

Ashley - 10 Months

It's been alittle crazy around here these past few weeks.  I'll be trying to get you updated on each of us this week.  I'll start with Ashley.  She turned 10 Months old on October 29th - I'm alittle behind on this post. 

- She is officially off of her belly when she crawls.  She's pretty quick at it too!
- She has been standing against furniture for a good month already but just recently she has started to let go and will stand by herself.  She is very wobbly though when we hold her hands to walk so I'm hoping this is still a couple of months away.
- She is always talking - her main sounds are Mama, Baba and Dada.  She is always squeaking too - she sounds like a mouse or bird all the time - such a high pitched squeal.
- She has made it up the entire flight of steps which is scary because she doesn't know how to go back down yet.  It's time for me to buy a baby gate for the bottom of the steps!
- She has gotten 2 new teeth on the bottom which bring her total to 6 teeth.
- She still continues to wake up once or twice a night usually for a bottle.  This is so annoying and I'm hoping this phase or growing spurt ends soon. 
- I put her on the bathroom scale and she is still a little peanut hoovering around 18.7 lbs which means she's only gained a few ounces this month. 
- I've starting giving her a few new foods - bread, little pieces of chicken and a small corner piece of a pizza.  She loved it all!
- She is wearing size 12 month clothes, size 2 shoe and still size 3 diaper.

I have been wanting to get her in for her 9 month baby pictures for weeks now but since these past weeks have been so busy, it hasn't worked.  So I got her in today for her pictures at 10 1/2 months old.  When I went back to check which month I got Bennett's done, I had his done at 10 1/2 months also because he had a bad cold around the time when he was 9 months.
Her pictures turned out great!  I only ordered two poses - P14 and P17 even though I wanted so many more of them since they were so cute. 
If you care to look at them, click the link below.  When you get to the login page, enter my email address rmford@frontier.com and password 123456.  Click on Most Recent Album and then click on Slideshow
https://viewimages.targetportraits.com/user/albumlogin

Happy Halloween!

On Saturday night our town had a Halloween Party that we went to.  This was the first year that they didn't have the party actually on Halloween night.  They have games to play for prizes or candy.  Bennett understood all of the games but it was all alittle too much for him still this year.  For instance, cutting in line, not even wanting to wait for them to give him the candy etc.  He did have fun though. 

Today for Halloween, Bennett and I made some gooo.  We mixed corn starch, water and food coloring.  It was fun and went well but it did end up being alittle more of a mess than I expected. 

Tonight I took the kids out trick or treating.  This is the first year we have done this because the other years I just took Bennett to the party in town instead.  We went to Grandma's, Shirley's, my Mom's, and then I think 7 houses in town.  Bennett could have done more but I was carrying Ashley and she was getting heavy and tired.  He totally got the concept of Trick or Treating.  He would run up to the house and immediately ring the door bell.  When they answered he either said Happy Halloween or Trick or Treat - as he was already starting to dig his hand in to their candy bowl!  He had fun but he was tired too.  It wouldn't have been that bad but we left the house to head to Grandma's around 4:30 and we didn't get back home till 7:30 and only went to 10 places total.

I tried to take a good picture of Bennett and the first one I took he blinked.  I said to Bennett, "oops you blinked" and he thought it was funny and was purposely blinking for every picture after that.  Stinker.

 My beautiful TinkerBell

We only had one group of 4 kids come to our house tonight after we got home and one of the boys said "I like your Larry & Bob".  I was sooo excited that somebody knew what they were without even seeing Bennett in his costume!

Ashley's Updates

Ashley had her 9 month checkup today.  I was alittle late in getting this done since next week she'll be 10 months.  Anyways, she is looking right on track with everything and alittle above her age range with how mobile she is - pulling herself up, walking across furniture etc. 

Her weight is 18 lb. 3 oz which is in the 25% and her length is 28 inches which puts her in the 48%.  Being thin runs in both of our families but the doctor figures her lower weight is because she's so active.  We've just got a little peanut on our hands I guess :-)

Bennett's Rides

Bennett has been one lucky kid these past two weekends.  Last weekend our neighbor was out riding her horses and Bennett was outside playing.  Next thing you know, Bennett was getting a horse ride and he LOVED it!  I haven't seen a smile that big on him in awhile.  He was probably on the horse for about 10 minutes.  She let him ride the horse back to her house to get it a drink so I followed to walk him back home.  For those of you that don't know, we live right on the edge of town and there is a farm right behind our house and a corn field right off our backyard.  These neighbors have 6 horses, chickens, a goat, cats and dogs.  I love where I live :-)  So anyways, that was his special ride last weekend.

Now this weekend they were combining the corn at my mom's place.  Bennett loves playing with the toy tractors, wagons etc. so now to get to watch them combine and unload the corn in person - boy, he had a fun weekend over there.  So today before they were done with mom's fields, we made sure to take him out and get him a ride in the combine.  He really liked this also and had another great experience. 

And speaking of farming at my mom's... for those that haven't heard, last Thursday, one of the corn fields actually started on fire.  It is sooo dry here in MN - we haven't had a decent rainfall for many many weeks!  They were combining one of mom's fields and somehow, something sparked which started a fire.  Besides it being so dry, it was incredibly windy this day which meant that the fire was jumping and spreading.  The fire department was obviously called out along with the neighboring town for backup.  It luckily was one of the fields behind the pasture and barn so it wasn't near the house or any other buildings.  If so, we would have had a huge problem on our hands!  It is hard to know exactly how much burned because of the fire jumping etc. but they are guessing about 10 acres.

It was hard to get a picture of what exactly happened partially because I didn't go back there when there was actually flames and a big fire.  But in this picture you can see all the black.  Most of that was already combined and the stuff that burnt was just the remaining stalks.  And the corn that is still standing on the left side they were going up and down the rows spraying it to make sure everything was out.  It was a pretty intense afternoon.

Ashley - 9 Months

A few days ago Ashley turned 9 months!  Wow this year is going fast!

Here are a couple of quick updates on her life.  She has had a very big month and has learned SO many new things!   

*She is slowly starting to actually crawl.  It's only a few crawls and then she flops back down to her belly to scoot probably cause it's faster. 
* She has started pulling herself up to standing - anywhere and everywhere.  She stood up against the patio door the other day and looked outside for 20 minutes!  She hasn't quite perfected getting back down though - she just kinda lets go and drops to her butt.
* She has (yikes) started crawling stairs already.  We were downstairs playing the other day and I was over by Bennett.  Next thing I know Ashley is on the second step.  Ugh, way too early for this!
* She is really starting to get in to things she shouldn't - pulling books off the shelf, playing with cords, picking at the plant etc.
* She LOVES wrestling with Bennett on the floor.  I honestly don't know which one of them is going to get hurt first! 
* She goes to bed at night at 8:30 but lately wakes up for a bottle around 4:00.  I hate having to get up with her, especially since I haven't had to do this since she was about 4 weeks old, but the plus is that she will then sleep until 8:00 or later. 
* And speaking of bottles, she is only having about 3 bottles a day totaling about 20 oz.  She has 3 big meals a day and lots of Cheerios.  Her favorite baby food is spaghetti and she also likes mashed bananas.  She not a huge fan of green beans and of course, that's the one that I made for her from my garden green beans and have in the freezer. 
* Naps - she used to have a short morning nap, a long afternoon nap and then a short evening nap.  But, some days now she's down to only one - (I'm not fond of this).  She's doing really good though and doesn't get very crabby even when she only has the one nap.  And she has also been doing incredibly well the nights when we go to Kristen's volleyball games and don't get home until after 9:00.  You'd think she'd be a nightmare by this time but she's still happy and smiley at everyone there.
* She waves Hi, Bye and Night night which is so cute.  She also shakes her head No and I think she's actually learning what No means because if I say "Ashley don't", she'll shake No. This doesn't mean she'll stop what she's doing though!  She also has learned to clap over the past month and is constantly clapping and laughing. 
* She will have her 9 month checkup next week but for now, I weighed her on our bathroom scale which says 18.2.  This is about 3 lbs. less than Bennett at this age.  It doesn't surprise me though because Bennett was chunky chunky and Ashley is pretty skinny. 
* She is wearing size 3 diapers and sizes 9 month or 12 month clothes.  The 12 month pants are alittle long but fit her waist. 

She is such a peaceful sleeper!

 And, she always wakes up in such a good mood.  (this picture is taken about 2 minuters after she woke up from that nap)

Wrestling