Baby Cheetos Help Me Chew

Found these lovely little baby snacks at Wal-Mart. Maybe he'll finally learn how to chew!

And then they were four...

You can't tell but there are four teeth in that adorable mouth! Hooray!

Sure would make eating a lot easier...if he could figure out how to chew with them!!!

All in good time, I suppose.

9 Month Check-up

Since we had been in Montana, the 9 month check-up with the doctor came a few days later than usual. Ashton did so great--he really is the bravest boy in the world. As soon as we came in, all the nurses kept ooo-ing and ahh-ing over how big and cute he's grown...although, I wonder with all the kids they see if they really remember him and mean it, or if they just say that to make you feel good! :) Like always, they told me to strip him down and then they'd be right back. The second I had his clothes off, he dove to the ground to explore all the fun cupboards and drawers he could reach. (That's his newest interest. Which is why we have tupperware all over the floor at home.)

When the nurse came back, she had to draw blood. It was his first time ever, so I didn't know how Ashton would react. She sat him up on the table and took out the poker and stabbed his big toe with it. Ashton didn't even notice! Then he wasn't bleeding enough to fill up the tube, so she started squeezing and squeezing to get it to come out, saying, "He just must not be a bleeder!" Of course, Ashton just sat there, totally calm, watching her violently squeeze blood from his toe. Not a peep, people! It was crazy! Then, she put a little bandaid on his toe, and went to get the doctor. That's when I took this picture:

As soon as I snapped it, I noticed he was pulling at the bandaid. I looked down and he was suddenly gushing blood everywhere! Like she'd severed an artery or something! All over the table and himself--yuck! The doctor came in as I was hosing him down in the sink. He looked at little blood-covered Ashton, looked at the blood-covered table, and asked, "Everything okay in here?" It was funny.

So anyway, Ashton is still great. He's 28 inches long (32nd percentile) and 16 lbs. 13 oz. (3rd percentile). Since he's so low in the weight catagory, the doctor lectured--I mean, encouraged--me to stuff as much food in him as I can. So that's what we're working on! And of course, his shots that day didn't even phase him. As soon as they were over he jumped down and happily played with the drawers again.

Like I said...tough as nails. :)

Surprise!!!

We're gonna buy a house!!! Now this picture is just a cartoony picture of sort of what it looks like, but not really at all. Just think of it as a symbol...real pictures of the actual home will come later, once it's actually built! That's right, we're building a house. We are so, so, SO excited, and we feel really blessed that all of this has worked out the way that it has. It's going to be so beautful, and new, and full of all of the things we picked out together...I'm just so excited to have something so important that is our very own. It has lots of rooms to fill up with lots of little babies (and no, that is not some kind of implication--that will come later!), or to fill up with visitors. So come visit us! (And that IS a hint--and not even a subtle one...)

P.S. This is the surprise that we took Becky and everyone to on her birthday...the one I didn't tell you in the previous post. Just in case you were wondering. :)

The Big Five-Oh!

We only had one evening to sleep off our traveling exhaustion, and then it was time for a surprise or two...because Grandma Becky turned 50 years old!

Isn't she such a pretty lady? Ashton is lucky that he has two gorgeous grandmas! Well, Becky's birthday was on a Sunday, so when we were done with church we went up to their house. We said we had somewhere we were going to take them that was a surprise, so we all got in the car and drove to it. (Trust me, you want to know what this surprise is...but you'll have to wait, because it merits its very own post...) While we were gone on our surprise, Becky's sister Tami and all of her kids snuck into the house and set up a great surprise party! They had the place decked out beautifully, with flowers and balloons and everything. When we got home, Becky was so surprised! She said she's never had a surprise party before, so I was glad we thought to do it for her.

Here are the beautiful flowers Tami made to put on the tables...the tablecloths and balloons were black, of course, but everything else was bursting with bright colors.

And here is the cake Tyler made. I was supposed to do it, but I was so exhausted from traveling that I just couldn't get out of bed, so Tyler did it for me. What a guy!

The bottom is chocolate cake with chocolate fudge frosting with chocolate oreos mixed in. It was SO good! The tombstones are carrot cake with fat-free cream cheese frosting--just for Becky. And yes, the middle one says, "Mother." Becky thought it was funny. :)

And here's everyone waiting for the food to be done. But for some reason, nobody would look when I wanted to take their picture...

Here's Michael, cooking dinner on the barbecue.

Ashton couldn't enjoy the real food, but he sure loved these little sweet potato crackers. This was the first time he'd ever put food in his mouth and fed himself, all on his own. Too bad we didn't know they had wheat and oat flour in them, so it gave him a bad rash... :(

And then there were presents! A Cafe Rio card from Kyle.

Here's the one we gave Becky:

A wok for making fried rice! Mmm...

And here's Tami's gift.

(What cute sisters they are!)

A beautiful sapphire ring.

And the best one of all, from Carlton...

A weekend getaway to see Donny and Marie in Vegas!

She was quite happy about that one. :)

I'd say that was a pretty lucrative birthday. And we had a fun time. Too bad it can't be your 50th birthday every day!

Happy Birthday, Grandma!!!

Spares and Farewells

Before we knew it, our visit to Montana was over. The last thing we did was go to dinner and the bowling alley with the whole family. It was great fun! Unfortunately, this is the only picture I've got of the evening, because as soon as we started to bowl, they turned all the lights out and had disco bowling! It was very cool, but not good for pictures. I was pretty pitiful at it, but Nicholas was the surprise star of the night! He did awesome! Ashton liked it--he loved watching all the colored lights swirling all around him.

Like I said, it was dark. :) Once the fun was over, we went home and got ready for our very early flight back to Salt Lake. It was sad to say goodbye, but we were excited to be back home with Daddy again. Every time I said something like, "We need to get on this plane to go see Daddy...we're going to get our bags and go meet Daddy...there's Daddy driving up to get us..." Ashton would start flailing his arms and shouting, "Dada, Dada, Dada, Dada..." over and over. It was so cute. I think he really missed him.

Ashton did well on the planes too--we had to take two of them. He didn't like me having to hold him the whole time, though. He kept wanting to get down and play. Luckily our layover was in the Seattle airport, where I've been a couple of times, and on our way to our next gate we found the kids' play area. Ashton was so glad we stopped to play for a little while.

He was a little timid at first--you can't tell in the picture, but there were a handful of slightly bigger kids bouncing off the walls in there. But then he discovered his favorite toy.

He stayed there and played with that thing until it was time to leave. He even made a little friend!

I'm glad I have such a sweet boy to travel with. Thanks for the fun in Montana! We can't wait to come back!!!

Maggot Rugby

Missoula has a rugby team called the Missoula Maggots (yuck--I don't like that name!). Some of the people who play on the team came down and started a team for high school kids in the valley, and Patrick (my 17-year-old brother) plays on it. The only things I know about rugby are what I saw in "Forever Strong," so that equals not much. :) But it was fun to watch him run around at practice with his friends for a while! (For your convenience, I've marked which of all the studs is my brother.)

Yay Patrick!

Yellowjacket Volleyball

I was lucky that I visited when Lexi (little sister--almost 14) had two volleyball games. I got to go see her play! I really like volleyball. It's a sport that I'm actually mildly good at--enough to understand all the rules and have fun anyway. (Don't worry, no delusions of grandeur here!) So it was fun to watch her team play a couple of times. And she did really well. Go Lexi!

Be ready!

Bump!

Set!

Serve!

Win!!!

Yay! :)

Happy St. Patrick's Day!!! (a.k.a. 9 mos. old pictures)

The day after Ashton turned 9 months old was great for many reasons. For one, it was St. Patrick's Day. Ashton felt very much better, though still a little sick, so he was quite happy (contrary to what the above photo may suggest). The sun came out and warmed everything up. Katie lent me her cool old photo lens--it has a very low aperture so it makes awesome blurry backgrounds. My Mom was home to play with us and help me take lots of fun pictures. And last but not least, Ashton had his "Farmer John" overalls on. He looked so cute and farmy! :) So here are Ashton's 9-month-old, farming fun photos.

My parents have a big, blue tractor with bright yellow wheels--perfect for taking pictures!

The cat decided to come say hello.

And then all the animals joined in!

Ashton sure liked to try to climb on the tractor...

...but not as much as driving it!

Oh gosh, it was SO fun to play with your lens, Katie!

Somebody sure loves his Grandma!

I honestly never thought a baby that came from me could be so beautiful. (And I mean no disrespect to all the other babies out there.) :)

And with the ripping off of the shoe, I knew he'd had enough.

On our way back inside, I wasn't paying attention and got a little surprise when I almost stepped on something. Let's just say this wasn't here when I used to live here...

I almost had a heart attack! Ha ha ha! Happy St. Patty's, everyone!!!