Easter Time

Although Ashley was about a month old last year, this is really the first Easter that she could enjoy all the fun.  We got to be a part of "Breakfast with the Bunny" at the Coldstream golf course with all the cousins, thanks to Nana and Papa.  They had a little Easter egg hunt and as soon as Ashley found an egg in each hand she was thrilled and didn't need anything else.  She especially loved that the jelly beans inside rattled when she shook them.  It was great to see her excitement!

The Easter Bunny made it to our house and it was fun to see Ashley's wonder as she peered into her basket.  She especially loved the bubbles that Daddy let her open in the kitchen...

As I was scrambling trying to get us ready for Church, I turned around to find Ashley digging into an egg from the previous day's hunt.  I guess she wanted Jelly Beans for her Easter breakfast!

That evening we enjoyed time with family and ended with another egg hunt.  Ashley and Jacob were happy with what they found.

We had a wonderful Easter celebrating the life we have and the resurrection of our Savior, Jesus Christ.  What a blessing!

Ashley's 1st Birthday

The last year feels like it has flown by!  It has been such a joy to watch Ashley grow and learn with each passing day.  She has a cute little personality that has started to come out now and she is so much fun!   Ashley pulls her self up to standing, walks along all the furniture and loves to use her little walker, she says a few words like "go", "wow", "out", "down", "up", and of course, "mama" and "dada".  She loves to go up and down the stairs (I'm not as fond of this).  She is now 31 inches tall and weighs almost 20 pounds.  She is our little string bean!

 For her birthday, we have a Winnie the Pooh party with our family here in Cincinnati.  Ashley LOVES Winnie the Pooh so I figured that was a fitting theme for her.  We had a good time together.  Ashley was a little bit in shock with all the attention, but she seemed to do pretty well.  We took a lot of pictures so get ready for picture overload!

I made strawberry donuts for Ashley to have for breakfast

She loved it!

We put balloons on Ashley's crib for when she woke up and she was so surprised!

 We went to lunch at Chic-fil-A with the younger cousins who don't have school.  Nana brought a Winnie the Pooh balloon and Ash loved it! 

 

She also loved when the kids sang Happy Birthday to her.  She just watched them and took it all in.

Ashly wasn't too sure about the cake at first, but once we gave her some spoons she dug right it.  So proper!

 Happy Birthday baby girl!  We love having you in our family!

First Snow

We woke up this morning to a little winter wonderland.  As I love my Arizona sun, I don't get particularly excited about the cold.  Tyler, on the other hand, has many great memories from his childhood of playing in the snow and he wanted to share that with our baby girl.  So we got all dressed up for the cold and had a little family snow excursion.  Ashley liked it for about 5 minutes and then she wasn't so sure.  She looked so cute in her little snow outfit though, so we got a few good pictures out of the event.

Aquarium

We had been talking about taking Ashley to the Aquarium for a while and a couple weeks ago, we finally did it.  I'm so glad we did because Ash LOVED it!  Her eyes were wide with wonder and she kept reaching out at the fish through the glass.  We had a great time and will hopefully go back soon.

Christmas 2012

This year we spent Christmas in Mesa, Arizona with my family.  Before we headed to our vacation in the sun, Nana and Papa celebrated an early Christmas with us.  We had a wonderful evening and Ashley loved discovering how to unwrap her presents.

 

We had a great time in Mesa, I especially loved being home for Christmas!  It was such a joy to have our little Ashley with us this year!  She didn't completely understand what was going on and at times I think she was a little overwhelmed, but she was so much fun!  Christmas takes a whole new meaning when you have children around. 

Opening Christmas pajamas on Christmas Eve

The traditional, "waiting on the stairs" picture

Finding the presents from Santa Clause

About mid-morning, Ashley decided she was done with presents and just wanted food instead.

We resumed opening later in the afternoon

The whole family on Christmas Day

Our little Christmas baby!

We had a wonderful Christmas!  It was especially great to reflect on the birth of our Savior Jesus Christ and His life.  He is the reason for the season and I feel so blessed to know the love of my Savior.  Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!