I am thankful for ( In no particular order)...

* My three beautiful, amazing, sweet kids!! I love them. They bring joy and happiness to our lives. I look forward to seeing their sweet faces after they have had baths in the evening. So sweet and innocent. They make my heart sing!!

* My sweet husband Dan. He is such an amazing dad to our kids. He has more patience than I could hope for. He is SUCH a hard worker, and an excellent provider for our family. He is always willing to do any task that I need him to. No matter how crazy it is!! Love him!!

* My Mom, Dad, Sister Erin, and Brother Alex. As we get older, we become closer and closer. We always have so much fun when we get together!

* My beautiful (and crazy!!) home.

* Modern medicine-- without this, my kids would be in pain, and my baby wouldn't be here with us.

* My wonderful friends and neighbors.

* The gospel.

* Fun Day Friday (and "The Bad Chad")! Or Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, whenever it is, it is such a nice break from the monotony of everyday. Erin-- I hope we will always be great friends!!

Well, the list could get longer and longer! I love this time of year.

The list could go on and on. This is my favorite time of year!

Bananas

My kids have been on a banana kick lately. Here are a few pictures of them eating breakfast!! Collin was at school, so I don't have a picture of him, sad!!

Twilight, the obsession returns...

So I was pretty much over the whole Twilight obsession. After I read the fourth book, and with the knowledge that everything was right in the world of Bella and Edward, I moved on with my life. When all the movie hype started, I was thinking yes, I will go see the movie, but I wasn't all crazy with excitement!! As the date came closer and closer, yes, I got more and more excited!

I LOVED THE MOVIE!!!!!!!!!!!

Seriously, the most fantastic thing EVER!!! I saw it twice on Saturday ( Yes, I know I'm a freak)!! I went with Erin, Heather, and Jeanna. After we dropped Heather off at her house, Erin and I walked right back in to that movie theater, bought two more tickets and saw the movie again!! SO MUCH FUN! And, we have two of the best husbands in the world for watching the kiddos all...day...long!!! And, I will go see it again! So much fun!!

Confession...

Yep, here we are November 19th, and I started to put my Christmas decorations up! Decorating for Christmas is one of my FAVORITE parts of the season, and since Thanksgiving is so late this year, I decided that I wanted more than three weeks to enjoy my decorations. So I started in the living room with our gigantic 12 foot Christmas tree... It took me all afternoon! One tree down, one to go! I can't wait!

Goin' to the doctor

So I took Jensen for his 18 month appointment on Tuesday ( He is 19 months, but he kept getting sick-- The story of our life!!) Here are his stats:

Head: 49.5 cm-- 90the percentile (HEED!!)
Length: 34 1/4 inches-- 90th percentile
Weight: 27 pounds-- 75th percentile
This kid is SOLID!!

He isn't really a talker. I counted the words he says, and the grand total is... 9!

*Mama
*Dada
*Baba
*Hot
*Juice
*Weeee
*Yeah!!
*Wow!!
*NO

I was starting to get a little worried about his talking, but they tell me is is doing fine. His cousin Gracie talks and talks and talks. She is a CRAZY talker! You can ask her to say anything, and she'll say it not only once, but she'll remember it. She is only 17 months!! I always tell her she is gifted. :)

Some of his favorite things are:

*Cars, cars, and more cars!!
*His blue soft blanket
*Collin-He follows him EVERYWHERE!!
*Mommy!!
*Juice
*Suckers
*Anything with a lid that he can take on and off.
*His ride on car

Some of the funny things he does:

*He walks around with his eyes closed--SO FUNNY!
*He looks at you and starts having a conversation in his "baby talk"
*He copies everything Collin and Maya do.
*When we pass a McDonalds with a play place, he says "Wow, wow, yeah!!!" So stinkin' cute!

I can't believe my baby is 19 months already!! He even got his first haircut on Saturday... pictures of that to come!

Look how tall I am!

This morning as I was rushing to get Collin out the door and to the bus stop, I looked over and saw this:

"Hi mom!"

This baby is HILARIOUS! He is our comic relief!

Proud Mommy Moment...

Collin and Maya got their report cards two days ago, and they are doing AWESOME!!

Collin struggled last year with his reading speed and accuracy. I was in a PANIC because my brother struggled and struggled in school. I was concerned that Collin would have the same fate. He is a whiz at math, but his reading and handwriting were off. His teacher last year worked and worked with him, and he made some progress. She was amazed at his math skills. He even received the President's Award in math. He amazes me. He can do math IN HIS HEAD that is WAY beyond his grade level.
Anyway, that was last year. This year his teacher kept telling me that he is doing great in his reading, and all assessment tests she has given him, he has been above where he should be in his reading. He scored a "5 --Student extends mastery of this task beyond the instructional expectation of the course." What a blessing!! We were both so concerned about his reading, and this year he is doing excellent. I guess kids all learn in their own time.

Maya is also doing well in Kindergarten. She is right at grade level with all of her scores. I guess we'll have to tackle the reading thing with her shortly. She has shown interest, and is slowly but surely learning to sound words out and read on her own. She loves her teacher, and loves school--especially the social part!

Collin and Maya, I am so proud of you, and I am so happy to be your mommy!

Terrible 5's Update

So while I was getting Maya ready to get on the bus to go to school today, I told her that she was being a sweet girl. She says to me "I know, I forgot how to be nice, I just kept whining and whining, but now I remembered how to be good!!" So often my kids say funny things and I think that I will remember to write it down, and I never do. That's another reason why this blogging thing is so fun! She is such a sweet girlie!

Christmas Shoes Song

DISCLAIMER: ERIN POSTED THE CHRISTMAS SHOES SONG. I REALLY REALLY REALLY CAN'T STAND THAT SONG!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! LOOKS LIKE IT'S TIME TO CHANGE MY BLOG PASSWORD!

I (Erin-- Ashley's sister) LOVE this song!

I really just love this song. Every Christmas season, I look forward to hearing it on the radio. When I am driving around during the hustle and bustle of the Holiday season, it really reminds me what it is all about.

It was almost Christmas time
There I stood in another line
Trying to buy that last gift or two
I'm really in the Christmas mood
Standing right in front of me
Was a little boy waiting anxiously
Pacing around like little boys do
And in his hands he held
A pair of shoes
And his clothes were worn and old
He was dirty from head to toe
And when it came his time to pay
I couldn't believe what I heard him say

Sir I wanna buy these shoes for my Momma please
It's Christmas Eve and these shoes are just her size
Could you hurry Sir?
Daddy says there's not much time
You see, she's been sick for quite a while
And I know these shoes will make her smile
And I want her to look beautiful
If Momma meets Jesus, tonight

They counted pennies for what seem like years
And cashier says son there's not enough here
He searches is pockets franticly
And he turned and he looked at me
And he said Momma made Christmas good at our house
Most years she just did without
Tell me Sir What am I gonna do?
Some how I've got to buy her these Christmas shoes
So I laid the money down
I just had to help him out
And I'll never forget The look on his face
When he said Momma's gonna look so great.

Sir I wanna buy these shoes, f
or my Momma please
It's Christmas Eve and these shoes are just her size
Could you hurry Sir?
Daddy says there's not much time
You see, she's been sick for quite a while
And I know these shoes will make her smile
And I want her to look beautiful,
If Momma meets Jesus tonight

I knew I caught a glimpse of heavens love as he thanked me and ran out.
I know that God had sent that little boy to remind me
What Christmas is all about

Sir I wanna buy these shoes
for my Momma please
It's Christmas Eve and these shoes are just her size
Could you hurry Sir?
Daddy says there's not much time
You see she's been sick for quite a while
And I know these shoes will make her smile
And I want her to look beautiful
If Momma meets Jesus tonight
I want her to look beautiful If Momma meets Jesus tonight

So, if you made it past that painful song, please note that this is Erin, and Ashley, this is WAR!

Growing up

So Jensen had his very first Happy Meal the other day. He really didn't really like it! He ate the apples and drank some of the apple juice, but he wouldn't touch the Chicken McNuggets!! What a cutie :)

The Terrible 5's???

So when I found out that Maya was a girl, I was THRILLED!! You always hear that girls are more emotional than boys, but I figured hey, cute clothes, bows, and bracelets, I'll take it!! And after raising Collin the wild child, it would be a piece of cake, right? WRONG!! Can we all say EMOTIONAL?!? Now I know what everybody was talking about!! Oh well, hopefully it is just a phase and she'll turn back into my sweet little Maya...

Candy Kids...

A couple of weeks ago Dan went into Collin's room to wake him up for school. Collin woke up, and the first words out of his mouth were "I gotta get me a little taste of candy." Can I tell you I about died laughing when Dan told me this!!!

Last night Jensen woke up with a fever. Of course he did, we were all getting over the last series of disease that hit our house this fall!! It was about 3:30 in the morning, and Dan was downstairs getting him some medicine. Maya woke up and went downstairs and asked him if she could have some candy!! It was 3:30 in the morning!!

I think the Halloween candy needs to find itself in the garbage can...

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!

Here are some pictures of our monsters on Halloween!



Collin was Jengo Fett from Star Wars.


This year I told Maya that she couldn't be a princess. She decided to be a witch. I think she made a great decision!!


Jensen was a stinkin' cute chicken without a hat!! He refused to wear the hat. He pretty much didn't want to get into his costume, so I had to bribe him with candy!! (I'm such a good mom!!!)


We took the kids over to my parents house, and tried to get a picture of them with their cousin Gracie in their Halloween costumes... This is as good as it gets!!
On Halloween, it is a tradition to take the kids to Dan's work and do trick or treating around his office. The kids LOVE it, but it makes the day that much crazier! When it was time to go trick or treating around the neighborhood, Collin and Maya had pretty much had enough--but they would never say so! They were whining and being mean to each other, so they didn't stay out very long... They still got a TON of candy!