Ashley's 1st Birthday Party

Ashley had a blast at her first birthday party. She loved the petting zoo and I think her little friends did too. She also loved her farm animal cupcakes and opening presents. It is hard to believe her first birthday has come and gone! She is such a little ham and brings so much joy to her parents lives! We love you Ashley!!!

Giving back...

I am so grateful to my mom for instilling in me at such a young age the importance of thinking of others and giving back to the community. When we (my sister and I) were younger, my mom was always encouraging us to help others. I can think back on so many neat experiences that helped in some small way touch the lives of others in need, from making easter cookies to take the the nursing home to hand out to residents, to volunteering at the Ronald McDonald house, to serving food at a shelter downtown, to making and delivering 350 care packages to the men and women in the Corps at A&M when bonfire fell, to gathering up old clothes and toys and donating them, to cleaning up trash and helping to make the outside of an elderly persons home pretty again, to going out and shopping like crazy at the dollar store and 99cents store for shampoo, soap, toys, clothes, shoes and anything else that the victims of Katrina might need, to filling one, two or three shoe boxes every year for operation Christmas Child and so many others. When I was at Baylor I was involved in a service organization that allowed me to continue to serve and help others, Baylor Women's League. I loved BWL and the opportunities I had to give back as well as the many great friendships I made in this organization. I have missed this aspect of my life, the friendships and the bonds made while serving others...and have decided to join the Junior League of Plano. I went to the informational meeting last week and got to meet a lot of neat women who all had a desire to help the community in one form or another. I am excited to enter my provisional year with the JLP and hope to be able to serve greatly. A lot of people know the JLP for their annual christmas boutique sale, Neath the Wreath, but the JLP does so much more than that! It is a group of 900 women from all over Collin County who serve in TONS of different ways. Check out their website if you want to see more of what they do, Junior League of Plano. I'm excited to join this great organization and excited to once again make an impact in the community.

Happy Independence Day!

Ashley celebrated her 2nd Independence Day this week. It sounds so weird to say her 2nd anything, because up until this event everything has been her first! She got to see fireworks on both the third and the fourth and loved them. She clapped for them...it was cute! She also go to see her cousin, Alex, in his 1st 4th of July parade. Alex decorated a wagon with red, white and blue crepe paper and balloons and pulled it behind him in the parade. It was a fun day, we definitely enjoyed the day off and the three of us had a blast hanging out as a family!

Happy 1st Birthday Ashley!

Ashley celebrated her first birthday today! Today as I reflected back on her first year, I kept thinking to myself how lucky I am to have been blessed with such a sweet, wonderful, loving, vivacious, innocent, explorative, smart, healthy, rambuncous (at times), inquisitive, world embrassing, friendly, intelligent, silly, beautiful little girl who loves to show you things and share with you. God is amazing. I sometimes wonder to myself why he trusted me to raise her, but I selfishly am so glad that he did. She truly is a blessing, she is my JOY! And she is ONE today! We, like any other crazy parents, gave her her very own cake. Be forewarned...about 1 million pictures follow this post. I couldn't help myself...I just had to capture every second of this precious moment!

Ashley's 11th Month

I can't belive it, my little baby is almost a year old. This year has flown by so quickly. It is amazing to think back to when Ashley was first born and how much she depended on Mommy and Daddy to help her do everything. It is amazing to see how much she has changed and grown and how much she can do for herself now. Here are some photos from her 11th month.



She will watch TV sometimes...but only if it is Barney, Finding Nemo, or Johnny and the Sprites.



She loves to read. I think we could give away all her toys and she'd be just fine as long as she had her books to read.




She likes to put things in her bus and then push them around. She is a smart little thing...the other day she pushed her bus up to the couch and climbed on top of her bus and then onto the couch...YIKES!!!

Father's Day

Ashley and Eric celebrated their 1st Father's Day. Ashley loves her daddy so much! When he gets home from work she sprints to him as fast as she can with the biggest smile on her face...it's really cute! She definitely knows who her daddy is...you can ask her, "Where's Daddy?" and she'll point to him....TOO CUTE!

Dinosaur Nuggets

About six months ago one of my friends posted on her blog that her 11 month old had his first McDonalds Happy Meal and I can remember thinking she must be nuts...what 11 month old can eat a happy meal?? Well, here we are...Ashley is 11 months old today...and she is eating Dinosaur Chicken Nuggets. Funny how much a baby grows and changes in 5 months! She's almost a year old, time flys so fast!

1st Vacation ~ St. John ~ USVI

Ashley went on her first vacation this past week. The plane ride there was great...Ash was a little angel, and all the passengers around us kept telling us how good she was and how cute she was (the trip back to Dallas was a different story...I think the other passengers may have been planning to mug us when we landed). We spent seven wonderful days in St. John, USVI with Gigi, Granken, Uncle Michael, Aunt Kristen and Matt. Ashley loved the ocean and the beach. Gigi and Granken rented a big villa on top of a lush tropical mountain. The villa was beautiful and should have been in a magazine. The decor was amazing! The main house had a huge wrap around balcony with amazing views of the ocean. Ashley, Mommy & Daddy stayed in the little house across the pool. We had a great time and it was so nice to just relax and hang out as a family!

1st Mother's Day!

Ashley got Mommy a chandelier for the dinning room. She also made me a card with her footprint on it...TOO CUTE!
Ashley with Gigi & Mommy
4 Generations: Ashley with Gigi, Memaw & Mommy
Happy Mother's Day to all the special mom's out there!

Sunbathing Beauty!

Saturday was such a beautiful day...while Daddy mowed the grass, Ashley and Mommy headed out to their favorite store...Target. We were shopping for some things we needed for our upcoming trip to St. John and were looking in the pool toy area when we came across this baby splash pool. I thought Ashley would really enjoy it because she loves her baths so much! I was right...Ashley loved playing in her pool in the backyard. She only got to play in it for about 15 minutes before it started to rain (that's the weird TEXAS weather for ya...one minute sunny enough to play in the pool...and the next raining!) I took her out and she started grunting and trying so hard to squirm out of my arms...she wanted to get back in so bad...it was really cute! She loves her splash pool so much and I'm sure she will spend a lot of time in it this summer! I also got her the Little People school bus ride along. The original plan was to get Ashley this for her birthday next month...but I couldn't wait to see if she could figure out how to ride on it....so we opened it up after we came in from the rain. She thinks it's pretty fun.

Good Times in the Kitchen

Ashley loves being in the kitchen with mommy and daddy. Her favorite thing in the kitchen is the refrigerator...perhaps because she loves food so much?? Every time we open the door to the refrig. Ashley comes sprintcrawling (really really fast!) over and gets so excited.
This morning Eric was eating breakfast at the kitchen table and Ashley was crawling around. She ducked her head down really low and crawled under the lowest bar on the center pedestal part of the table and then crawled into the center and stood up. The table is glass and she thought it was hilarious to see daddy eating his breakfast through the glass when she looked up.

1st Time in the Pool!

Ashley spent the afternoon relaxing in Gigi and Granken's pool. This was Ashley's first time in the pool and she LOVED it! Memaw and Papaw bought her the little swimsuit she is wearing...isn't it cute? She loves to play with dinosaurs and rubber duckies in the pool....she also thinks it's fun to splash in the water, but doesn't really like it when the water splashes into her face.

Diadeloso

Diadeloso is a tradition at Baylor...it's held every spring and a great time to relax and have some fun. Class is canceled for one day every spring and students get to hang out and play games, listen to music, eat food, and just have a great time. Eric and I have a lot of great memories of our time at Baylor, definitely including Diadeloso.

The alumni association carries this tradition on throughout the world. We participated in Diadeloso with the Dallas and Ft. Worth alumni groups on Saturday at the Ft. Worth zoo. Ashley loved it! Her favorite animals (ranked in order) are:
1. Giraffe (or giant ostrich) not sure which one she got so excited about
2. Elephant
3. Kangaroo
4. Shark
5. Monkey

We had a great time!

Rotavirus....AHHHHH!

Ashley was hospitalized for four LONG days with Rotavirus. No fun for mommy, daddy, gigi, or anyone at the hospital...including poor little Ashley! She was so sick...she wound up losing a little over 2 lbs. Here are a couple of pictures of her in her 'jail'.

Easter Lunch

We decided it would be fun (and a break for our parents) to have Easter lunch at our house this year. Everything turned out really well and I think everyone had a great time. Unfortunately a few family members weren't able to make it this year due to a nasty stomach bug, we plan on hosting again next year and can't wait for them to be able to come!

A visit to see the Easter bunny

Today, we took Ashley to see the Easter bunny. She kept trying to grab his whiskers, but she stopped long enough to get this picture.

Happy Easter!

Daddy got a new grill...and Ashley got a huge box. The picture looks scarier than it really was...she was fine...I promise. That girl LOVES to climb!!!

My little trapeze artist

So Ashley took a 15 minute afternoon nap today and I couldn't get her to go back to sleep in her pack-n-play...so I thought I'd try the swing. I heard her playing with something so I peered over the couch to see what she had since I only gave her a pacifier and her 'baby' (doll she sleeps with) when I buckled her into the swing. There she was leaning over the edge of the swing - her head was completely hanging off the end...the only thing keeping her from falling out completely and hitting her head was the straps on the swing. She was upside down and playing with a toy that was on the floor. Needless to say my heart sank as I ran over to rescue my little trapeze artist. I think it's time to retire the good old baby papasan swing. It has been a great investment and Ashley has loved it, but obviously since she has now figured out how to hang upside down from it....she will never be placed in it again! No picture with this post...obviously :)

Big Girl in a Little Chair

It's Opposite Day! Check out the post on February 23rd :)

Giant Easter Egg Bunny

Gigi and Grandken got Ashley the funniest looking Easter Bunny I've ever seen. It is bigger than she is, but that doesn't stop her from rolling over it, picking it up and throwing it, and laying her head on it. Here is a pic of Ashley outside w/ her Giant Egg Bunny. They also got her a Tiny Egg Bunny. (Check out our new fence in the background...we finally got it fixed...YEA!) I wonder sometimes if Ashley gets tired of us posing her with strange things and jumping around like a bunch of crazies trying to get her to smile....I think I got my answer...take a look at the third picture....she's like, what are you doing mommy!