Holidays...Welcome 2011!

The holidays have, sadly, come to an end. We enjoyed so much time with friends and family. Ashlyn, of course, enjoyed Santa's visit. As you can see, she was obviously a very good girl.

Waiting to Open Presents

The Aftermath

We spent NYE at home. This was a treat because this would normally be her time with her dad. But he had made other plans that weren't really "kid friendly", so I gladly stayed home with her and enjoyed making cakes in her new Easy Bake Oven (which were horrible) and drinking from our new fancy glasses (filled with Cherry 7-Up and garnished with an orange slice, pink straw and umbrellas). We ate junk food and stayed up til midnight to watch the countdown. This was her first New Year to make it all the way to midnight. Woo hoo!!

Sad little Easy Bake Cakes with pretty drinks

CHEERS to the New Year!! Welcome 2011!

Our NYE Entertainment. Rocking Princess Ashlyn!!

I hope you all had a safe and happy holiday season. I pray the New Year will bring you many blessings! Happy New Year to you all!!

Holidays in full swing!

Wow! I keep promising myself to be a better blogger and then...I fail miserably. Maybe I will attempt to make that my New Year's Resolution. (That's a great idea Trish!)

Well, we have jumped from Halloween to 2 weeks before Christmas in a flash. Where did the time go? I guess my other resolution should be to stop being so busy all the time. It seems I do nothing, yet I never have any real "free" time. How does that happen?

So, on to Christmas cheer then. Ashlyn has been so very good the past few weeks. Not that she's a bad kid anyway, but she just seems to be caught up in the Christmas cheer that surrounds our home, family and friends this time of year.

We visited Santa last week and this year she wasn't scared at all. She ran right up and hugged him. He loaded her up with lots of toys, of which, she has chosen her favorite and it hasn't left her side since she got it. This is the first time she has really latched on to a toy, so I'm hopeful that it doesn't get lost in her journeys to school, to her Papa and Nana's or to her weekend visits to her dads.

Please enjoy the pictures below of my gorgeous little girl...and I PROMISE to try to post a few more times by years end. PROMISE!!

Visiting the best Santa EVER!

Holding her new toys from Santa.

(A bright yellow poodle, a princess mouse and a reindeer!)

My beautiful girl with her beautiful smile!!

She absolutely LOVES this dog!!

The fireplace awaits Santas arrival.

(Looks a little like E.T. doesn't it?)

Halloween 2010

Ashlyn and I had a battle over costumes this year. She won of course, but I settled for 2nd place by getting her to wear my favorite costume on Saturday just for pictures. She was sooooo cute!! Well, she's always cute, but she really made this costume work. Here they are:

On Halloween she won the battle and made BOTH of us dress up as Pink Princesses. She absolutely LOVED this costume. However, finding an adult Princess costume that wasn't too revealing or too expensive left me wearing something that appeared to be more of a glorified nightgown than a costume. Oh well, it worked, and she was happy that I dressed up with her this year. I'm hoping for something a little more fun next year...and warmer too!

We had a great time at her Papa and Nana's (my dad and step-mother) trick or treating. There were a ton of kids out and about and she made most of the journey without complaint. As the night went on and the wind continued to pick up, Papa did have to carry her for the last leg of our journey. However, she perked right back up when we got back to their house and she got 400 pieces of candy in her.

Papa, Nana, Princess Ashlyn and Gizmo

I hope you all had a happy and safe Halloween!!

If you need candy...we have PLENTY!!

Updates and Halloween

We visited Children's Mercy Hospital on Monday and after a few tests we have been told that Ashlyn has an "innocent murmur". The doctor said it's so mild they wouldn't even track it. She doesn't have any restrictions or worries. She said it should not cause her any problems and it's possible she may even outgrow it. So THAT was terrific news!!!

Now on to the fun stuff....

We (my mom, Ashlyn and myself) visited a huge pumpkin patch on Saturday. We wandered around searching for 2 perfect pumpkins for carving. Ashlyn was more intrigued by the gourds with the weird bumpy things all over them. For $5.00 for 10 of them, I was okay with this as well, although I don't know what you do with 10 of them. She picked out 4 or 5. Then she picked out 2 small pumpkins for decorations and the search was back on for the perfect carving pumpkins.

We finally found the perfect pair and made our way back to pay for them when Ashlyn spotted a small hay bale tunnel she could crawl through. She started in but it was pretty dark in there and it was so short that there was no way I could walk through there without crawling on my hands and knees. I didn't really have the right clothes on for that little adventure. We paid for our pumpkins and headed back to the car when she gave the tunnel a 2nd thought. As we walked by another little boy walked by with his family and Ashlyn invited him to crawl through the tunnel with her. I should have taken a picture because he didn't hesitate and off they went. I could hear giggling in the tunnel but couldn't see a thing. Finally she popped out the other side and decided to go through the tunnel about 15 more times, even without the involvement of the little boy. She just needed some one to help her get brave. That's MY job! :)

So here are the pictures of our Jack-O-Lanterns. We had so much fun. She's such an awesome girl. How did I ever get so lucky???

HAVE HAPPY AND SAFE HALLOWEEN!!!