5 Months

Our little lovely lady is well into her 5th month now, but better late then never on an update I think.

 She is still a happy baby.
She has found her voice more and can be pretty loud at times.
She loves to curl her toes (like she is in the picture), she pretty much does it all the time.
She says "maaaa maaaa maaaa" sometimes and it sounds like she is calling for her Mom!
She is great at playing/tasting toys and has started reaching for them a bit.
She is usually tired and READY for bed about 7pm and sleeps until 4-4:30, eats and sleeps a few more hours.
She broke a tooth through at the beginning of the month, but only one little corner is poking out still
She loves to sleep on her tummy.
She can roll from back to tummy and tummy to back.
She usually takes 3 naps a day, and is starting to have a longer morning nap- 2 or so hrs.
She is a great sport about being hauled around all the time to all our various activities.
She loves her sisters and likes to watch and laugh at them.

This is a terrible picture and Ashlee is trying her best to get Molly to look at the camera (with her hand), but its all I had of them together recently.

She is so sweet and we just love every second with her!

Our newest piano

Chris' parents came for a quick visit last weekend to bring us this piano, among other things.

It was Grandma Will's piano (Chris' grandma), but she has wanted us to eventually have it since we got married.  She moved into assisted living last fall, so it needed to be moved out of her house and has now made it to ours.  We are happy to have it!

Chris tried to take a picture of the grandparents and grandkids, but they had a hard time all looking at the same time!  

Last Summer Hurrah

Our summer is winding down as Chris went back to work Wednesday and school starts just after Labor Day.  We decided to do one more fun thing before Chris had to go back.  Monday we headed down to Utah to do a few things at Thanksgiving Point.

First to Farm Country.

The girls don't see animals in person very often so they really liked it.

 There were several mommy and baby animals.

 Harvesting the produce they picked.

 There was a wagon ride.

 I love pigs, but they STUNK!

 The girls had a pony ride, Caitlin named her pony "pony"- so creative.

 Ashlee named her pony "pretty".

 We had a picnic lunch.

Then on to the museum.
The girls favorite part was digging for bones.

We saw a 3-D movie about dinosaurs.
Ashlee was very apprehensive about the movie and about the museum in general.  She just couldn't be convinced that dinosaurs don't exist anymore when they were standing right there.  So she was nervous for the movie, but ended up loving it.  It was really about paleontologist, and she wanted to go back and dig for bones after it was over.  They were both obsessed.

One part of the museum was about sound.  It was interesting and fun.

Again, Ashlee was frightened to enter this area of the museum- a hallway of outer space.  We all went through together and she wasn't scared, so then she went through again and again and again.
Chris, Caitlin and Ashlee are standing on the path.

Roaring dinosaurs!

This part had sand and water to play in.

Remember how they became obsessed with paleontology?
They have played it in the sandbox many times since we got home.  We even gave them paintbrushes to clean the artifacts.  They look for toys mostly, not bones!

And the funny thing is, it actually feels like fall is in the air since our day trip.  I guess summer is officially ending.

Flaming Gorge

We live relatively close to the Flaming Gorge and headed down to one of the northern most parts of it on Saturday with a bunch of friends.

The girls wore their floaties for about 1 minute.  They were just interested in wading and not swimming.

 Chris and Ben made their second annual swim out to the buoy.

There is not a lot of shade down there- actually no shade at all.  And there was only one canopy, so there were times we were like sardines under it :)

 Once everyone had arrived, most of the men raced out to the buoy.  See them clear out there in the water?

Nick smoked them all out there, and when everyone else arrived he said, "Were we not really racing?"
It was a race, everyone else is just slow!

 There were a couple kayaks with pull behind kid boats.  Caitlin riding with Asher.

 Ashlee and Chole.

 Caitlin and Lilly.  All the kids loved the boat rides.

It was a very fun day and we were all exhausted by the time we got home.  We don't go there nearly enough seeing as how it is only 30minutes away.

Making, Baking, and more

We were in Utah last weekend for a couple extended family parties and we got some apples from my Grandma and Aunt Shirley- they are so great to always keep me in mind!!

Monday we made applesauce and I had 2 wonderful helpers and 1 wonderful observer.  I'm sure we will make lots more applesauce before the year is done and I hope these girls keep up their great help.

 A lady in our church ward makes THE BEST bread, and she taught us how to make it.  I made some on Tuesday and it was delicious!

 You can't have a little sister without putting her in the toy baby strollers.  She was a great sport about it.

 The girls liked to carefully push her around.

Sparklers during the day = major dud.
We still have 2 boxes and one of these days the girls are sure to still be awake when the sun goes down.

Kick Back

Going back in time (September 2010) to enjoy my favorite blog post of all time. 
It still makes me laugh.

Trying to get a 2 year old to cooperate

Sunday afternoon, after church, we found ourselves all sitting on the couch reading. So Chris got the camera to take a picture with the timer. We told Caitlin and Ashlee to read their books, and to not look at the camera. Ashlee would look down, but then look up at the camera when the picture was taken.

We tried again................

and again.............

(it was getting hard to keep a straight face)

and again..............

...............but no such luck. She just wanted to peek her eyes out over her book and look at the camera.

Our New Park

There was an empty lot around the corner from our house, and the city made it a park about 1 month ago!

 Really it is the toys in the middle of a big dirt lot.  Who knows if they will plant grass, trees, put benches, etc.  But we are happy just having a little play place so close to our house.

Ashlee turns 4!!

Yesterday was Ashlee's birthday, and she was so excited to turn 4!

She ran and jumped in our room in the morning and announced "It's my birthday!"

She said, "I feel older."

She opened her presents before breakfast.  She had no idea what was in the big present and wanted to open it last.

 Surprise, it was a new bike!  She was a lucky girl to get so many presents, and she loved them all!

 This girl is HARD to take pictures of.  She makes funny faces, looks away, and/or closes her eyes.
But here are a few better ones.
She loved her new umbrella from G and G Bishop, and she loved her new skirt that she got to wear on her special day.

 She got to have a birthday party this year, her first ever.
We had it at the splash park and some friends and their families.  The kids played, we served lunch and cupcakes and that was pretty much that.  It was a fun time.

 So there were lots of people, but it was so fun, and everyone watched their own kids!

 Dad put her bike together and we went on a bike ride.

 She wanted an Ariel cake, so that's what we delivered.
She wanted it to look like water with Eric and Ariel at the top, so I tried my best and she liked it.
(I really think she wanted it to look just like the Ariel ride at Disneyland)

While we ate cake I asked her what was her best thing of the day (she says her best thing instead of her favorite thing), she said she liked everything!

Ashlee loves

• orange, red and pink
• spaghetti
• tomatoes
• making people laugh
• all things the Little Mermaid
• using her imagination
• playing princesses
• playing dress-ups
• watching movies
• she is so excited for pre-school
• other people (she IS NOT shy)

Happy Birthday Ashlee!  We sure love you and are glad you are in our family.  You make us laugh and laugh each and every day.