F is for Frost & Fifty Six

Brrr.

It's so frosty out this morning.

Happy Birthday, Mom!!!

You really are one of the most amazing women I know.

I'm so blessed to have You as my Mom,

as are my kids to have you as their Babcia!

I love you!

E is for Expecting

Thank you Cody for being my model!

D is for Drenched

C is for Curl

and Caitlyn

B is for Blue

I took this picture on our last trip from Eastern Washington.

Beautiful blue skyscape.

A is for Alphabet

Fitting for the start of my photographed ABCs!

ABCs

I got this idea from my friend, Kristen who got the idea from her friend, Shannon.  Each day, I am going to embrace my creative side and post a letter from the ABCs with a picture.  I figured this a fun way to try and unleash my 'inner photographer'.  I invite all of my blogging buddies to also use their creativity and photograph the ABCs along with me.  Yay... this is going to be so much fun! 

Flurries, Fun & Firsts

Yes, it is March 8th and it's snowing is the Pacific Northwest.

This morning has been full of snow flurries and fun.

During Ashton's first nap we experimented with

water, food coloring, a straw, and a paper towel.

Caitlyn loves her home art projects.
Check out her smile standing by her art on the fridge.

We learned this fun one from the Sprout channel.

***

Speaking of fun

***

Last week is when all the real fun began...

Ashton took his first steps!!!

(Sing this next part in the tune of your favorite song by the nkotb)

Step by step...

ooh baby!

I'm gonna get to you girl!

Please pay no attention to the blurriness of the above collage.

It is near impossible to catch this guy walking on camera.

Here I caught him on one of his longest walks!

He's all the way up to 5 steps!

Our little guy is on the move and loving it!

Coming This Fall

My preschooler.

She is perfectly prepared and precious!!!

I just got home from enrolling my darling daughter in preschool.
The preschool is less than a minute away from my house.
I took that entire minute to flashback on the past 2 1/2 years
and I balled my eyes out.
I cannot believe that this fall I will have a preschooler!
Oh my... getting teary again.

Waiting

Here I am blogging...

waiting for Ash to get home from work so we can celebrate our anniversary. 

It's been four years tomorrow that we've been married.

eleven years today we've been in love.

Both of my children are napping...

and those of you that have children know

You don't pass up an opportunity like this to get ready.

Thing is... they've been napping for a long while now

...and here I sit...

...waiting...

wearing my wedding jewelry and a dress I know he will love. 

One thing I know after eleven years is...

I still get butterflies as I sit here typing, smiling, waiting.

I waited 7 years to marry him...
I guess I can wait another hour to date him.
♥
Rest assured...
he is well worth the wait!

Olfaction & Memories

Currently, as I type this post, My oven is on self clean mode.

Both of my children are napping.
The sun is shining and

the scent of my house while the oven cleans itself...

forces me to take a trip down memory lane.
I remember the last two times I pushed that self clean button. 

It happened to be last April,

when I was 8-1/2 months pregnant with Ashton...

and the time before that...

August 2007,

when I was 8-1/2 months pregnant with Caitlyn.
♥
I just feel like something is missing.

10 Months

I pretty much summed up everything that was new with him in the February 11th post.  

Just a few things you might not know about our little Ashee.

Favorite Foods: all fruits, carrots, squash, pansit, rice puffs, mums, oatmeal,
and anything we're eating in tiny finger food sized pieces.

Favorite Time of the Day: anytime after a nap.

Favorite things to play with: blocks, anything that makes noise or sings, anything that he can chew on,
and he loves to be in Caitlyn's room when she's dancing to her music

(you should see him dance... or bounce-it's precious).

He still takes 2 naps at almost exactly 10 and 2

(Caitlyn naps again too during his 2 O'clock nap... yahoo)

He goes to sleep between 7:30 and 8pm almost religiously.

I'm pretty sure he loves Caitlyn and Roger the most...

Well... he proabably loves us all equal...
they just make him giggle the hardest.

He crawls and cruises so incredibly fast, he climbs the stairs, he is starting to sign and still talks baby talk.  He is starting to get a little personality. My mom told me one day when I was at work that he threw his first fit and I sure didn't believe her... not my sweet son who is so even tempered. Well, just days later he threw one for me too. It's pretty cute he arches his back and wiggles and squirms until I figure out what exactly he wants... usually it's just a bottle and a nap. He's still pretty easy going and 99% of the time he's HAPPY, which of course makes our whole family happy!!!

Happy 10 months, Son!

Valentine's Day

Ashley made reservations for us at one of the finest places to dine in town...

Cafeteria de Hospital!

I had to work so he brought the kids in for lunch!

Yay, lunch with my favorite sweeties!

♥

Busy Busy

Since returning from our vacation, our lives have been absolutely busy.  These past few weeks I've even found it difficult to squeeze in a little blog time. So here's a quick recap...

We've visited Dad a couple of times in his nice, NEW office. 

Now Caitlyn always asks to eat at Daddy's work.

We've geocached at Point Defiance and found 7 caches!!!

(The picture below is a spoiler...

if you haven't found this one and plan on trying...

don't check out the pic...)

Yep... we found it and it was a difficulty 4!

I should clarify that my Husband found it cause I gave up on it :)

We celebrated Valentine's Day a tad early with my family.

It was I think our 19th year in a row eating at the exact same restaurant

and we have all the poloroid pictures to prove it.

Caitlyn has truly enjoyed these few warm days we've had.

She absolutely loves playing outside..

and has mastered her tricycle.

Ashton's enjoying life... and baths!

He can stand on his own but hasn't taken any unassisted steps.

It's tough to catch him in the standing position.

The second I take out the camera is when he dives into the crawling position and tries to grab the camera.

Here's another attempt of catching it...

 a little better.

He actually stands alone a lot and then adds in a few funny looking lunges.

We've all taken time to enjoy a few good sunsets.

Just a few more updates on the kiddos...

Caitlyn is... 95% percent potty trained. She goes about 6 days without an accident. (She still wears pull ups to sleep in.) She dresses herself now and almost gets a little upset if  you try to help. She's been undressing herself for a while.  She's all of a sudden gotten an appetite. Recently she enjoys a good bell pepper, carrots, zuccini, and tons of fruit. She loves pasta, pansit, macaroni, and tuna casserole. Her favorite meat I'd say is ham then maybe turkey. Her favorite breakfast food is toast with fruit and milk, or waffles, or cereal... breakfast is probably her favorite meal. She loves cheese and skittles (she gets one for potty and two for number twos). She loves to sing and finger paint (some of you will see this because she painted, cut, and glued all of her valentine's this year).  She is an amazing little girl with a huge heart and she continues to amaze me everyday.

Ashton also is such an amazing little guy. Recently he learned to crawl up the stairs... and he's fast. He waves hi and bye... I think he signs 'milk' and 'all done'... Sometimes his hi and milk look a like so it's hard to tell :)  He verbalizes a lot more than Caitlyn ever did at this age. He talks to everyone including our cat.  His hair is coming in and it's starting to get a slight curl which is too precious and makes his dad happy. He's never been one to want to snuggle to sleep (he's enjoyed sleeping through the night and in his own crib), but our busy schedule has allowed me a few times to hold him until he fell asleep and man-oh-man did I ever enjoy the snuggle time.  It's hard to believe that this time last year we had a preterm labor scare and that in a few months he'll be a year.

I'm not sure entirely what has slowed me down or why but there has been a few times in each of the past days that I have truly taken in each moment as I know these days don't last forever.

I've said it once and I'll say it again...

I'm truly blessed to have all that I do.

A Birthday!!!

Happy Birthday to our Bestie's Newborn,

Gavin Edward Johnson!

He was welcomed into the world this morning at 6:52am.

8 pounds, 2 ounces and 21 inches long.

He is by far one of the cutest newborns ever!

The happy and healthy Johnson Family!

Check out the grin...

I know he's thinking how totally excited he is for me to babysit :)

Congratulations TIMES a thousand!!!

The Riggs Family is so excited...

Caitlyn has asked to see him atleast 50 times today and I have shown her his picture on my phone.

I'm not sure who's more excited her or me?!?

Congratulations!!!