7 Months Old

Ashley was having a crazy hair day and being really silly!

I honestly can't believe that I have to write about how Ashley is 7 months already! Before I know it she'll be diving in to her birthday cake! Here are a couple of new things this month:

-Her top two teeth have come in which brings her to four. She was alittle cranky but nothing too bad. And she still always sleeps the night (unlike Bennett when he was teething) so I can't complain at all.

-She is crawling everywhere! She isn't up off her belly yet but, she is using her knees so I would classify this as crawling. She makes it across the living room all the time in hunt of what she wants (usually Cheerios which she has scattered across the floor). Besides me, Bennett and the kitties are not huge fans of her crawling either. The kitties will go lay down and she'll make her way over to them. Then they get up and move and she'll go get them again etc. Also, she is getting into Bennett's toys which makes him alittle mad with her. And me, well I don't feel like anything is safe anymore since any little piece that she finds on the floor is directly in her mouth.

-That brings me to my next thing - she loves her Cheerios! I love this too cause now if she is alittle cranky and I don't have the second to pick her up, she's usually satisfied if I give her a few.

-She loves to eat but is starting to get really fussy about taking bottles. I am only able to get her to have about 15 oz. a day. Much different from the 32 oz. that she was drinking about 2 months ago. I've tried juice and water too but she doesn't seem to want that either. From her diapers though I know that she needs to be drinking more haha!

-Ba baa baaa baaa bbbbb. She is always talking but B is the first consonants that I've actually heard her babble.

Here is a series of pictures I took as Ashley was on her mission to get Sancho.

Pigtails and "Bananas"

Kristen is constantly doing Ashley's hair. The other night she put pigtails and barrettes in and it looked sooo cute! Also, Ashley started eating these Baby Mum Mum things I bought - they are basically banana flavored rice cakes for babies to help with teething and chewing. She loves them!

Bennett's Room

The other day I realized that Bennett has been in a big boy bed for a full year already! We moved him out of the crib and to the bed last July (thank you blog for keeping track for me!) so that he would be adjusted by the time Ashley came for the crib. He was in his bedroom upstairs and shared the room with Ashley for about a month. Once everything was done in our basement, he got moved downstairs in February. I was hesitant to do this but it was necessary. The kids were on different nap schedules and, Bennett kept wanting to climb in the crib to 'play'. So, he is in the bedroom downstairs by himself. He doesn't seem to mind being down there though. He goes to bed just fine most nights. He doesn't like the bed rail anymore for some reason so I haven't put that up for a few weeks now. There for awhile he would make his way up to our bed in the middle of the night every single night. He is much better now though and he only comes to sleep with us a time or two a week. And he's so good at it now that he climbs in and doesn't even wake us up! He usually goes to bed around 8:30 and sleeps until about 7:30 in the morning. And thankfully, he still takes his afternoon nap from about noon till 3:00.

Here are a few pictures of his new room. The bed and bedspread are the same he had in his room upstairs. The curtain valance I was able to get for free at Kohl's cause of a coupon and a gift card. The monkey picture was from the dollar aisle at Target. I couldn't really get it in the picture but in this room is also a dresser, a few shelves for toys and a toy box.

Dad Ford Update

Just a quick update...

They confirmed that Ken died of a heart attack. He had 80% blockage. They determined that he had heart disease since he was such an active guy and in great shape. He used to run all the time in FL but shortly before he left FL, he had hernia surgery. So since the surgery he had only been able to walk, but, was walking about 5 miles a day. It makes it hard to understand how someone who seemed so healthy can die from something like this...

Tomorrow (Tuesday) is the funeral. They are having the service at a funeral home. Then, since he served in the Navy for 4 years, (Mike was born at a navy hospital in CA), they were able to get him a military burial and he will be buried at Fort Snelling in the cities.

Here is the obit if you're interested.

http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/startribune/obituary.aspx?page=lifestory&pid=152487426

6 Month's Old

Ashley is 1/2 year old already!!! She turned 6 months last week and had her doctors appointment a couple of days ago. With everything that has happened this week, I just hadn't had a chance to get on here for this post.

-Ashley has changed so much again over this past month. She has been a full-time sitter for a few weeks already. She is really good and it and rarely tips over. She's even started sitting in her baths alittle bit (partially cause she has started rolling over in the tub!)

-She rolls front to back and back to front. So much so that she doesn't sleep on her back anymore. We put her in the crib and she immediately rolls to her tummy to go to sleep and sleeps on her tummy the whole night. She has also started rolling while we change diapers - she likes to make it VERY difficult for me.

-She is moving all over already. She is starting to scoot from place to place. It definitely is making me watch what small things Bennett is leaving laying on the floor. Watching her make her way across the floor makes me positive that by the end of summer she will be crawling (I'm totally not ready for this!)

-She loves it when Bennett plays with her and makes her laugh. He loves playing hide-n-seek these days and the other day I caught him with his little blanket over top her - she was hiding.

-She is becoming so good at playing by herself with her toys. If she's in a good mood, there are many times that I can get her to play for half hour at a time. Every toy goes in the mouth though. She loves chewing on everything! (she's teething and the top two teeth will be in any day now)

-She has become a totally momma's girl. Every time I walk out of the room she starts fussing. This has become hard. I can't go get her every time but it really does get annoying when it just keeps going and going.

-She is eating lots! She eats fruit or veggies mixed with rice cereal twice a day. She is not a picky eater at all - I haven't found any of it that she doesn't like yet which is great. She is also still having about 5-6 bottles a day and she's up to 6-7 oz at a time.

-She sleeps from about 8:30 till about 7:30 in the morning. Sometimes she wakes up around 5:00ish but I think that is because she hears Mike getting ready. All I have to do is give her a few oz.'s and she's back to bed within minutes and will then sleep till almost 9:00. She isn't the best with naps. She takes 1 small one in the morning, 1 in the afternoon and sometimes 1 in the evening. I wish the afternoon one would be longer but right now, it's (unfortunately) only about an hour.

Weight - 16 lbs. 6 oz. (60%)

Height - 26.5 inches (78%)

When Mike's dad first came to our place in May, he meet and held Ashley for a long time. She didn't complain or fuss at all. Ken had brought a card and $100 for her. He said he didn't know what she needed so we should just buy her what we wanted. Well, I didn't really know what to get her right now either since we had pretty much all the 'baby' stuff that we needed and she had enough clothes for now also. I didn't want it to all just sit in her savings account though so just a few weeks ago, I had decided I would buy Ashley her first baby doll and it would be a little gift from Grandpa. The picture below is her playing with it shortly after I got it. It is washable which is good haha since she loves to chew on the hair. I am SO glad I had decided to get this for her from her grandpa. The only thing I really really regret is that I never got around to telling him about it or emailing him a picture of her with it. It's one of those things you just assume you have time to do...

Mike's Dad

Mike's Dad Ken unexpectedly passed away this morning. His 56th birthday would have been tomorrow. They are unsure of the cause still - probably something sudden. Ken lived in Florida for many many years and worked at NASA. He just recently moved back to MN a few months ago. During that time, Mike was able to go to a Twins game with him, Ken helped Mike work on his truck, he got to meet Ashley and Bennett got to know him and called him "papa". Papa bought Bennett a twins hat and he always says Papa as he puts in on. Ken moved back to MN to not only be closer to his family but also to open a FireHouse Subs restaurant (quite the change huh - from NASA to a restaurant owner!) We really don't know any details yet. Mike is pretty shocked since this was so sudden. Please keep all of us but especially Mike in your prayers during these next days and weeks ahead.

4th of July

We had a very relaxed 4th of July weekend. We spent some time outside, time at my mom's and time just hanging out at home.

Sunday night Mike had planned to do a few fireworks (MN legal ones) at my mom's. Well, a few days earlier Mike's boss gave him a big one that he had picked up in ND and then Jon also had 2 that he got from a guy from his work the summer before that they never did. He had decided to light them off across from the grain bins pointing towards the corn field to keep it away from mom's house and other buildings. Well, turns out the two that Jon had must have had fireworks that shot out of the side instead of going straight in the air. Needless to say, we all ended up running away - Josh and Kristen especially since they were coming right towards them. A few shot off and hit the house even. It was a few seconds of scary but then lots of minutes of laughing since that was not supposed to or expected to happen! Kristen was taking video on her camera and all you see is shaking cause she was running haha.

this picture is of the 'bad' fireworks shooting sideways!

So the following night on the 4th we let the professionals do it and we went to watch them in Waconia like we do every year. We went around 8:30 and Mike took Bennett across the street to the park to play while we waited. They didn't start until about 10:15 but that didn't seem to matter to Bennett or Ashley and they both stayed awake without a fuss or meltdown. Bennett really liked them and even Ashley was watching. It's so fun to watch them through children's eyes!

I found a 'fireworks' option on my camera so got some pretty cool pictures of the fireworks fizzling out.

Ashley's Summer Days

Ashley has been having a great time outside too. She's gotten to go on stroller rides, splash in the swimming pool, sit in the swing and just hanging out on a blanket while Bennett plays.

Oops - tipped over in the pool.

She took her afternoon nap in the swing. We were outside for a long time because I didn't want to wake her to go in.

Kristen put little flower nail stickers on her big toes. So cute.

Hot Summer Days

We have had some very hot days this past week so we've spent lots of hours outside (mostly in the mornings and late afternoons). Bennett loves being outside and goes from playing in the pool to playing with one thing to another to another and then back in the pool.

I seriously had to hose him off after this.

Jungle Baby

I got some fun pictures of Ashley while we were hanging out outside while Bennett was playing.