Always Be My Baby

Today Baylen informed the kids that Ashlyn is officially a toddler now. I'm not ready to accept that yet, but she did turn 18 months on Friday. When she woke up that day, I told her it was her 18 month birthday. Her response was "birthday cake." I didn't really say anything else about birthdays but she kept saying "birthday cake" over and over all afternoon. So, when Baylen got home from work, we decided we couldn't disappoint her. We made a cake! When we went to cut it, she said "candles." Then when we put the candles in she said "happy birthday to you." I guess I didn't realize she understood so much about birthdays. So, we sang to her and did the whole spill.

Today Ashlyn went to nursery for the first time. She cried at first but the teachers told us to leave her. They said she cried a little but then just sat on the teacher's lap the rest of the time. I'm not sure how long she cried but her eyes were pretty red when we picked her up. She said she had fun, though. Here is a picture of her when we got home. It's kind of blurry but I had to post it because I think it really shows her personality.

This last month she's progressed so much in her communication. I think she can basically say anything she wants to communicate now. It makes it nice because she doesn't get as frustrated anymore. My favorite thing she's started saying is "thank you mommy." It kind of sounds like "tank too mommy." There's never a time I hand her something, or do something for her, that she doesn't say it. I seriously love it!

Baylen has taught her how to yell "honey" when she wants me. He's also teaching her how to sing "I love you... a bushel and a peck."

The other day I put a sweater on her that she had never worn before. She looked down and said, "I'm cute." She'll also say "cuuuute" to stuffed animals, hair bows, and anything girly.

Ashlyn says the cutest little prayers. When we ask her if she wants to pray, she'll fold her arms and start talking jibber-jabber in a really high pitched voice. I've often wondered why she changes her voice when she prays. Do we do that without realizing it?

She has become my little helper. Whenever I'm in the kitchen, she's up on the counter pouring and stirring whatever I'm making. She's A LOT OF HELP- let me tell you- but it's fun to have her by my side.

She always finds a way to get what she wants. The other day she was convinced that she wanted powdered milk. I told her it was yucky and I put it on a higher shelf in the pantry. I left the room for a minute. When I came back I found her here...
She had pushed the chair from the dining room table into the pantry. She climbed up on it and was able to reach what she wanted. She's also figured out how to push the chair over and climb up onto our counters. I always have to have my eye on her!

We took Ashlyn in to the doctors for her checkup. She weighs 24 pounds which puts her in the 50th percentile. She's 34 1/2 inches which is off the charts on the tall side.

She has such a cute, happy personality. She adds lots of sunshine to our lives.
So, happy half birthday Bug!

The World in Which We Live

Note to any reader: I just want to apologize for the fact that these posts are also my journal. There is probably more in this blog than most people care to know about us!

Since living here, I have felt very comfortable about the safety of my family. In fact, I have often thought that our little community is probably about as safe as an area can be. Those thoughts are now shattered. I'm wondering if there is such a thing as a safe place to live anymore. On Wednesday morning there was an attempted kidnapping right off of my street. This is the second attempt in our school boundaries in one month! It just makes me sick! My kids love being outside and I love that they love being out there. They probably spend 99% of their time, when they are home, outside. When outside they are riding bikes, jumping on trampolines, playing basketball, football, baseball, having races, and doing all sorts of "healthy" things. When they are inside all they can think about is TV and video games- not so healthy! So naturally I have encouraged them in their love of the outdoors. I am so so frustrated as to what to do. I've always kept an eye on them, but it is nearly impossible to watch them 100% of the time while they are out there. It's even harder that they get home around 4:00 and I have to have dinner on the table for Baylen by 5:15 (so he's not late for work). I know we shouldn't live in fear but I am now walking my kids to the bus stop, watching them when they walk to the neighbor's house to play, and not letting them be outside without me. Yesterday was mentally exhausting. We've talked to the kids over and over about stranger danger. However, I don't want them to always be scared. Anyways, sorry about this depressing post. I just needed to vent.

Through the Eyes of a Child

Today Tanner came home from school with an "I Voted" sticker on his shirt. I asked him about it and asked him who he voted for. He responded with "John McCain." Neither Baylen or I are that in to politics so I don't think the kids have ever really heard us talking about the candidates. I asked Tanner why he decided to vote for McCain and his answer was, "On the computer it said the other guy is going to be a taxi driver." I asked him what that meant and he said, "The people are going to have to pay to go with him." I'm pretty sure he was talking about taxing people. The only word Tanner knows with tax in it is taxi. I guess in his mind he thinks of Obama as a taxi driver. I haven't stopped smiling since the conversation. If only it were that simple!

Halloween=FUN!!!

So Halloween is over and secretly I'm kind of glad. We have been celebrating for a long time now. Even though it was a lot of fun, I'm glad to be done putting the kids in their costumes for party after party. I've decided that holidays are kind of exhausting for the mom (and I don't do nearly as much as my mom did!). But like I said, we had a lot of fun and made lots of memories- so I guess it's worth it!

Here are a few pictures of the different festivities (I'm realizing that I didn't take pictures at many of the things we went to. OOPS!)

We went to Frightmares a few different times. I didn't realize before that Lagoon does so many different things in October. The kids' favorite activity was the Spook-a-boo. It's kind of like Trick-or-treating, but they set up several different rooms (pirate room, mad scientist, astronaut on moon, castle, etc.) I was really impressed with it. They also give out really good candy. We probably got what we spent on our season passes worth in candy. Well, maybe not- but pretty darn close!
There are also several fun shows at Frightmares. Our favorite was Monster Classics. After the show they let people come take pictures with the monsters. Tanner loved it! He was so excited to meet the monsters. He informed us that he is going to be a nurse and a monster singer when he grows up.

Here are a few other pictures from Lagoon. I'm feeling kind of bad that I complained about the weather the first part of October. As you'll notice in this picture, Mickell is in a short-sleeved shirt at 10:00 PM on November 1st. The weather has been unusually beautiful!



We had a really fun Halloween day. The kids didn't have school, and so we took advantage of the warm weather and went to Layton Park with the Parkers.

Later on we carved pumpkins. The kids weren't too hip on removing the guts, but we had fun designing the pumpkins. Ashlyn would stick her hand in her pumpkin and say "EEW, gross!" Here is the end result...
That night Baylen took the kids trick or treating. Then my family came over for dinner. We had jack-o-lantern pizza, witches brew and lots of SUGAR!!! It was a lot of fun!
Here are pics of our little clown, cheer leader, storm trooper, and Tinkerbell...