Halloween

Ashley dressed up as a bee for halloween. Thanks to Cassie, Christin, and Mom for putting majority of her outfit together while I was at work! I dressed up as a princess, or as Tyler said, the "queen bee" which is more 

fitting especially after you see that Nate was a...

beekeeper!

 Here are a few happy pics after she got out of her costume...

ZOO

We took our first trip to the zoo in Ocotober. I decided to take a day off work and hang out with my little one. We met Cassie, Hudson, and Tate at the zoo and I had fun afternoon looking at all the animals.

 When we got there, we stopped and saw Aunt Lissa and talked about all of the animals that start with the letter "P." That was the letter of the week for Hudson, so we were on a mission to find some animals, in particular a platypus, but we didn't have any luck there!

We had lunch first and then went off to see some penguins. They were very active. They were swimming all over the place and jumping up out of the water. Ashley enjoyed them since we were able to get up so close to see them. And they were moving like crazy so she liked to watch

We saw the giraffes and the elephants and rhinos, but surprisingly they were not nearly as entertaining as the penguins. They were BIG, and Ashley could see them, but they just didn't do anything to excite her. When we got to the lions, the male lion was making his way to the top of a big rock, we could see him perfectly,

but even more entertaining than the lion, was the...

 FISH swimming down below!

After the lions, we saw the gorillas! There was one gorilla that was sitting right by the glass entertaining a big group of kids, when they left we went over to say hi.

When Ashley first saw him, she thought he was funny, but when we went to sit by the window, she was a bit terrified and would not sit at the window by herself,

We stopped and saw the tigers, and then headed over to the petting zoo to find some more animals. On our way, Hudson stopped and fed some fish, which again was pretty cool to Ashley

At the petting zoo, Hudson "fed" the sheep and goats. (which means that he would hold out a piece of food in his hand and when the animal got close enough he would drop it on the ground because he got scared). Tate even fed one of them too, he wasn't scared though. Ashley got to pet them, she thought they were pretty fun.

After we washed our hands :) we went to see the Orangutans, this was the only animal really wanted to see and talked about the entire time we were there. So, we saw the monkeys and finally made it to the orangutans only to find the daddy, sleeping way at the top of the exhibit, and the mommy off exhibit with her baby. Talk about disappointing! We got over it quickly and took a few more pics.

I can't stop laughing at Hudson's new "look"

Cassie started a tradition of taking a pic of Hudson with this statue at each visit to the zoo, so we will try to do that as well.

Ashley Grace 10 1/2 months old (10-11-11)

The kids did great, nobody fell asleep the entire time we were there, about 3 hours, but we all went and took naps as soon as we left, this momma included!

11 months

I love the smiles you have for me every morning when I come to get you out of bed. Always happy to see momma! You have been so fun to play with and watch learn new things. You LOVE to walk around the coffee table. It doesn't matter who's house we are at, our house, Gigi's house, Awma's house, Maria's house, every single one, you go straight to the coffee table and walk around and around and around. You could do this all day! You LOVE it too when daddy chases you around the table, pretending he is going to get you. You squeal with excitement when he starts this! You've started moving from the coffee table to the couch. The other night in the basement, you even took a little step from the recliner to the couch!!! You have started standing on your own for short amounts of time. Usually not more than 10 seconds, but you seem to stay a little longer each time you try. I am sure you will be walking by your first birthday!
You like to get the mail each day and help sort through. You get the junk mail and mommy keeps the bills. It's a good trade off for both of us. Except for momma when the junk mail is all over the house by the time you are done!
You love to EAT!!!!! And thankfully you love to eat ANYTHING! You could sit in your high chair for an hour and eat and eat and eat if we let you, which most of the time we do. Momma is so afraid that you are going to choke on food, so I give you the smallest pieces, and we are still doing some baby food, just to top you off. The only things you seem not to enjoy are avocados and sweet potatoes (however you like the baby food kind). You may change your mind on the sweet potatoes after you have them at Thanksgiving though, you know with the brown sugar and marshmallows on top, yummo!
You like to drink out of a sippy cup. We've been drinking apple juice, orange juice, water, and milk and you do really good drinking all by yourself. I think we are almost done with the bottle, (and you could prob. care less about it being gone). You still love to nurse which makes momma happy!  You are nursing in the morning, twice during the day, and then again at night. (Well and then the 2 times at night that you wake up)! So, maybe it's more than I thought. I keep telling myself that I am going to let you cry it out and go back to sleep on your own at night, but it doesn't work when daddy keeps telling me that you are hungry, and crying, and need me. So, I come to the rescue. Usually you wake up at midnight, and then around 3. 
The other morning I went in to get you, I could hear that you were awake and playing in your crib, so I peaked through the door and you were standing in the crib, facing the wall, dropping your socks on to the floor behind your crib! Now I know where to look for all of your missing toys, blankets, and socks!
You love to have a blanket or something soft in your hand when you are nursing or sleeping. You have a pig blanket that you always seem to pick up when I come feed you at night, So far, we haven't left the house with it yet, but I'm sure we will eventually.
For the most part you are wearing 12 month clothes, there are some 9 month that you can still fit into, but we have packed up most of those and onto the winter wardrobe! You are wearing size 2 shoe, which is so small, you have small feet, but they are FAT, I can't get some shoes on because your feet are so thick! Your hair is SLOWLY getting longer. Last weekend, I had 3 different people think you were a boy!!!! You won't leave your hair bows in your hair anymore, and I guess people don't notice you are totally decked out in PINK!!!!
We saw the doctor this week and you weighed 20lbs 15.5 oz! So close to 21 lbs! We didn't do height and head measurement, but we will at your 12 month check up. You have 8 teeth, and at least one of those molars is going to peak out any day now I just know it!
You have started giving kisses, they are open mouth sometimes with your tongue out, but momma LOVES them!
Mommy is so thankful for this past year that we have had to love on you and learn all about YOU! I love you Ashley Grace!

10 months

You are a beautiful baby girl! I love the smiles you have for me every morning when I go to your room to get you. It's sweet when you wake up and instead of crying for me, I open your door and find you sitting in bed playing with a toy or looking at a book. You are a MOVER! You have figured out how to crawl on your hands and knees and can move pretty quick now. You've been crawling like this for about 2-3 weeks. You are also pulling up on EVERYTHING. It doesn't matter if it looks impossible, you will still give it your best effort and most of the time you succeed at pulling up. Daddy always laughs when you use your teeth to pull yourself up on something. He thinks it's pretty funny to watch. Yesterday I saw you pull up to the coffee table, stand up and then you dropped a puzzle piece you had in your hand. So, with one hand on the coffee table, you reached down and picked up the puzzle piece and stood back up, all without falling! I was very impressed. Also, there have been a few times where you have let go and stood for a millisecond without holding on. You are getting brave! Your favorite thing lately is to pull up on a coffee table and then walk around it trying to reach anything on it.You love to clap and think you are pretty fun for learning how to do it too. You also love to wave "bye bye" to people.
One of your favorite games right now is peek-a-boo. If you get a hold of a blanket or really anything that you can lift to cover your face, you light up when someone says "Where's Ashley?" When you pull the blanket you laugh when we say "There She is!" or "Peek-A-Boo."
Since you love to stand up you, bath time has become a little bit of a challenge because you like to stand up instead of sit in the water and play. But, these last few times, you've sat and played with the toys longer than before. So, maybe that is changing.
Another thing that has become a big CHALLENGE is diaper changes! You automatically want to flip to your tummy and crawl away. When we do a diaper change on your changing table, you immediatley want to reach for the shelf nearby and get a toy, or attempt to crawl onto the shelf. (Which I might add is a very dangerous act). You also love to pull on your hair bows that are hanging above the changing table.
Any other time we mess with the hair bows, you are not interested, you have started pulling them off the second they are on your head. We have to trick you in order for you to forget they are on there. They are so cute though, so we try often!
Your hair is getting longer and seems to be entering an awkward stage where it is at a funny length and won't lay down all the time so it sticks up. I think it might be like this for awhile until we get some length on that hair.  You LOVE to eat. This has become one of your favorite things. You love to feed yourself, especially cheerios, but even more so you love BANANAS! You get so excited and your legs start kicking when you see a banana. We have tried black beans, and tortillas, crackers, carrots, waffles, spaghetti, pasta, shredded cheese, peas, green beans, rice, and so far you really like all of it. I'm sure we've tried some other things too, but you seem to eat whatever is put in front of you. Along with eating the table food, you will usually eat one or sometimes 2 bottles of baby food. You are a growing girl. We have started to give you water/juice (which is really just flavored water because it is very diluted) in a sippy cup. Most of the time you like to just chew on the cup, but sometimes you do drink it.
You are in some 6-9 month onesie outfits still. They are getting small, but since it is still warm, that seems to be the best option for the weather. You do have some 9-12 months too and that fits the best. You weighed 19 lbs 9 oz at your last dr's appt (where we found you still have an ear infection!) You are growing fast!
You are still in size 3 diaper, but we have actually switched to cloth diapers, so the sizes don't really matter so much anymore. But, we are still using our supply of disposables up, and the size 3 fits.
 I wonder if you will become attached to a blanket or a stuffed animal. In your crib you usually have a pig and a blanket, when I go in to feed you in the middle of the night (yes we are still doing at least 2 middle of the night feedings :)  you like to bring one of those items with you to the chair to hold onto while you nurse. It's sweet!
We are still trying to convince you to say  mama or dada, but nothing yet. You certainly know the sign for milk and you have signed it on occasion. You know the sign for "all done", and we haven't been practicing "more" as much as we were at first. Better get back on that one.
Thank you for bringing so many smiles to our days! We love you!

Pratt and Medicine Lodge

What seems like months ago, we took a mini road trip to Pratt, KS for the KDWP celebration and then to Medicine Lodge for the re-enactment of the signing of the Medicine Lodge peace treaty. Our main reason for going to Pratt was to represent the Kansas Hawking Club, so Nate brought along his bird and another falconer friend came along with his bird too. It was a nice morning in Pratt, and Ashley enjoyed playing outside before it got too hot...

Ashley and Lolita

 Before we got back in the car, we watched daddy feed his bird

Next we went to Medicine Lodge Kansas. I didn't get any pictures of our adventure there because it was too much of an adventure! The peace treaty had about 10,000 people there and we had to walk quite a ways becuase parking was crazy, traffic was backed up for 2+ miles and it was h.o.t.!  So Ashley didn't watch much of the treaty reenactment, but we played in the shade. Next we went and visited some indian friends and had indian tacos and then stayed until later in the evening and had more indian food and fry bread, oh and s'mores too!