FIVE months!

My baby Paisley is 5 months old today! FIVE months! That's like almost 1/2 a YEAR!

She

*weighs almost 13 lbs

*can roll from front to back

*is sitting up, but topples over easily

*laughs at her brother

* smiles ALL the time

*loves to chew on her toes

*sits in the saucer and loves it

*can roll around in her walker at the gym and smile at any one and they will pick her up :)

*has lost the hair on the sides of her head, but sports a girly mohawk

*hardly wears the same thing twice unless it's mommy's favorite!

*has worn a bracelet since the day she was born

*LOVES her binky

*has her mommy, daddy, and older brother wrapped around her chubby little finger

Yeah, we're THAT Funny

Tonight was the AIM School Parent Orientation. After 5 years we're doing better and better every year. After I first moved here and we did a Spanish Toddler class with 5 kids in Kortni's living room, we are now a full blown school (3 preschool classes and a kindergarten) and gymnastics center. Mostly mom run and babies everywhere, we keep it real and work hard. But we do have fun! After the orientation I decided to go tell Kortni how well it went and "reward" her with some left over cake..... This was after we had a splits contest. And I must say for just having a baby and not doing the splits for a long time I didn't do half bad, although I didn't win! Jade won, she's the one doing the kick after winning. Right after all of this we saw Piper walking around with her hand on her forehead and blood trickling down, so Kortni had to rush off to the ER with cake all over her. I felt so bad, but Pipe's OK, she just got her head glued. Poor angel.

Chancho and the smell of ribbon

So we got a surprise at our BBQ we had last night with some friends. A friend down the street had an extra kitten on her hands since her older cat returned home from a week long hiatus and so she called to see if we wanted it and YES! of course we did. He looks just like our old Chancho and Beck couldn't be more thrilled. He carries it around and even send him down the slide. He walsk around carrying him, "My meow," he says. So we welcome another Chancho to the Ashton family.

This my friends is a grand sight. New ribbon and a whole box of it! And it was free! And it's beautiful! And it gives me the heeby jeebies! And it's so great to have wonderful friends who will give it to you! Thanks Jen....

Funny funny haha

So you wanna hear something that's really funny? I found my camera right? and I stated that I needed a card reader to get my pictures off my friend's camera before I gave it back to her. The funny thing is that it is the same memory card for both cameras, so as another friend's hubby stated, "well, can't ya just put the card from the other camera in YOUR camera and get the pictures off using your camera?" HAHAHAHA! So thanks for all the offers on a card reader that I could borrow, but I guess some brains is all I needed. :) So here's a sampling of some of those pics from our last crazy couple of days.

As you can tell we had a lot of fun with Kortni's girls. :)
Hanna at her first day of school, we picked her up and we were actually EARLY! She said her first day was boring....
I have started bathing Paisley in the sink in our laundry room. She loves to sit up in her Bumbo in the water.

Purse Tagged

I got tagged by sis-in-law Michelle to dump out my purse and name what's in it. I wish that I could take a picture of it..... (My friend let me borrow her old camera, but I don't have a card reader to put the pic on the computer)

In my purse (diaper bag) I have:

3 binkies, 4 things of chapstick and one lip gloss, 1 size 5 diaper, 3 size 2 diapers, 2 packs of 25 cent watermelon gum (Beck's favorite) 2 immunization records, a thank you note, a notebook, a calendar, ONE LOST CAMERA! That's right! Thanks Michelle for tagging me. I had looked in my diaper bag like 4 times, but I never actually DUMPED it out! :) 2 baby toys, a Lightning McQueen toy camera, a large plastic lady bug, nursing pads, 1 lose penny, a wallet with who knows what in it, a coupon for pictures at Wal-Mart, Tylenol, a roll of Sweet Tart candies, baby tylenol, a Tide pen, band-aids, a onesie, hand sanitizer, Butt paste, 2 pens, a calculator, nail clippers, sun screen, a CARS book, and a nursing cover. This was like the greatest tag ever because now I found my camera and I can sleep at night again! (well, after getting up to nurse 2-3 times, still working on cutting out one of those feedings, getting Beck a sippy, and comforting Kortni's girls back to sleep...)

One of Paisley's new favorite things; sucking on her toes...

Does anyone have a card reader to get the pictures off of my friend's camera?

Kortni's girls

My sister, Kortni was in Vegas the last few days, she left on Sunday. I have had her 3 girls since then (Hanna stayed at a friend's house 2 of the 3 nights) and Brandon came and got them last night about 7:30. Man, am I wiped out. And yes, I still want more kids. :) Beck had fun playing with his cousins and they all got on each other's nerves and mine, but we all survived and hopefully they still love me. There was a point when I locked them all in individual rooms because they wouldn't stop, biting, pinching, hitting each other. So I locked them in their own room and listened to them cry. None of them tried to get out, and then I let them out when they were finished crying and asked them if they'd rather play nicely together or sit by themselves and play alone? They unanimously agreed that it was better to play together. At least it lasted for 5 minutes and then it was back to the screaming. Stephen called Tuesday morning and he decided to go to Portland for work that night and the next. Little booger called when Piper, Paisley, and Beck were screaming, so I couldn't hear what he was saying, so he got away scot free and I was stuck trying to contain mysanity before it flew out the window. Paisley survived the chaos, barely. Piper is obsessed with petting her, shoving her binky in her mouth, and trying to hug her by squeezing her head. At one point she had her hand over her mouth trying to get her to stop crying. Yeah, poor thing. Oh, well, it was fun and exhausting and like I said we are all still alive. Now I am going to attempt to get ready for the school year, do Payroll for the gym and finish reconciling a bunch of statements.... Has anyone found my camera yet, I think that I am going to have a mental breakdown looking for it.

The winner!!!

It hit me the other day that school was starting, and with that Paisley is headed to the school sitter, Tammy, or as Beck calls her, MIMI. I teach Spanish to a Preschool class of 3/4 year olds on Monday and Wednesday for 2 hours each class time. I tried to give Paisley a bottle of water while we were in Mexico when she was 1 month old, she didn't hate it, but didn't really suck on it either. Then I tried a bit later just for the heck of it, but with the same reaction. So a week or so ago, I figured that I should try again since she will need to take a bottle while she is with Tammy, "just in case." Yeah, good thing I started now. Beck really had no preference on bottles, or binkies, but Paisley is a different story! I tried 3 different bottles with her screaming her head off, the longest I let it go is about an hour and Stephen lasted about 37 seconds of that hour before he was like, "give her the boob!" Then I made him try to give her the bottle and he lasted about 20 seconds before stating that he just couldn't handle it. I then bought the bottle that matches her binky, Gerber's Nuk, and after about 20 minutes of screaming she just started sucking! I had just closed my eyes to try and drown out the wails, because I hate looking at her teary eyes, and wo lah! She took it and downed the whole thing like a champ! Yeah Paisley. Wish I could have taken a picture, but alas the camera is still missing in action. Did anyone miss giving me a birthday present? I'll take a nice camera, oh heck, I'll even pick it out. ;)

ARGH!

I've lost my camera, has anyone seen it? Last used on Thursday....

My favorite things.... in my house

I decided to do a little post (maybe more following) about me because in 5 years I wanna see what changes I have made. :) I am going to start with my favorite things in my house. Then in future posts, maybe things about me, or other stuff, but just me, because well, I am self centered and I wanna know what I was up to or what in the crap I was thinking AND I am the writer of this blog and due to recent events in my surroundings (funeral) maybe people (my kids) will want to have known more about me.


1) I love these little jars. I get them from family, but mostly yard sales and Good Wills. I have them all over my house and they hold, medicine, Q-tips, candy, decor, mostly anything. I just think they are so cool.2) I love my Mountain Dew, I quit drinking it and lasted about 3 weeks. I thought that it was making Paisley spit up more since I nurse her, but she still spits up, so I decided that it wasn't worth it. :) I used to drink Mountain Dew a lot in high school, then I switched to Pepsi for a bit after I was married, then when I was pregnant with Paisley the thought of Pepsi made me sick, so it was Mountain Dew that I craved and I haven't turned back. And it helps that I can stash it in my mini fridge that is in my room. :)3) I love these frames that line my stairs. I have a frame for each of us and our baby/toddler pictures. Mine has mostly pictures of me and my twin Jakobi, I don't think that we have many pictures of us by ourselves. I hope that I am able to find more when I get more kids. I got them from Costco (where I buy pretty much everything that is in my house) so I hope that they carry them again someday and then I can stock up.
4) My sister Britni sales Lia Sophia jewelry and I didn't realize how much that I like jewelry. I really didn't think that I did, but now i wear it every day! I used to only wear this necklace that Stephen got me in New Zealand and gave to me on our honeymoon. It's symbol means "eternity." It's pretty huh? and it's my favorite.5) Once again more pictures, these frames are also from Costco. They all hang above our entertainment center, but I like them so much because the top ones are pictures of each set of our grandparents and then our parents and then the big one in the middle is our family and on each side is our "bigger" extended family with parents, brothers, sisters, nieces, nephews. Family is just really important to me and I love to be surrounded by pictures of them to see how it all came together. I am reminded of the song/saying, "all because two people fell in love."6) One of my new favorite things is my coffee table and matching end table that I just recently got for my birthday! Yeah! We had an old one from our wedding that one of Stephen's friend's gave us. Stephen loved it, me not so much. I wanted one that would hold our photo albums and scrapbooks on a shelf, so that I could set them out for people to browse through more. 7) Yes, more pictures. The next two are photos that my friend Jenn took and I had put on canvas of my babies. I love to look at Beck's face on his first birthday of him and that cake. And I always want to remember Paisley and her "newborn" stage. If you have been to my house, you know how full my walls are of pictures, I just can't help it and I am kind of obsessed. But at least the subjects are cute right?8) I got these baskets at the Liquidation World that used to be here in Moses Lake. What can I say" They're cool, they're big, and they hold a lot of stuff.
Well, I guess that's it. There is TONS more in my house that I love, but I could only do so much. I just can't wait to go back and read this is a few years and laugh at my color choices on my walls, or think, "where in the heck did those big baskets go?" And oh how I pray that I don't lose that necklace that Stephen gave me. I am quite sentimental.

Hmmm...

I propped her up for this picture, but she's supporting herself! I realized the other day that Paisley is almost 5 months! I moved Beck over to his crib when he was 5 months old, but Paisley is still very happy next to my bed in her cradle and I am very happy too. I roll over 3 times in the middle of the night, nurse, and put her back and roll back over and fall back asleep. She still wakes up 3 times to eat and I am not looking forward to having to walk the 19 steps to her room to get her out of her crib and then 5 more steps to the chair to feed her and then back again to fall asleep and then do it again and sometimes again. :) I know that I am not creating very healthy habits of her in our room considering that Beck sneaks into our bed in the wee hours of the morning. But I can do this:
and I come back a few minutes later and I see this:

so that counts for something right?

Paisley laughing

She started with a chuckle about 2 weeks ago, but it was so forced and sounded kind of weird, all deep in her throat and scary sounding! But the other night we finally got some real chuckles out of her courtesy of the sock monkey from my mom. Yeah! Sometimes now when I set her on Beck's bed to read stories before bedtime, I'll walk out to go get something and here her laughing. Beck is a good brother and she likes to laugh at him. :)

My beautiful, funny babies

Princess Paisley, 4 1/2 months old, 12 lbs 8.8 oz, 23 inches long. Smiling a lot, beginning to play with toys, starting to hold herself up (barely), good eater, wakes up 3-4 times to eat at night, just such an angel baby!

My Beck monster, 2 1/2 years 28 .8 lbs. Crazy kid who still bites sometimes. Talking more and more every day. One of his new favorites, " mom, wain me, wain me" (wait for me!) And he says, " mom. mom, moooommmmmm!" like 100-200 times a day. I called Stephen in my frustration and he said, "Well, would you rather that he didn't like you?" Wakes up and crawls into our bed in the wee hours of the morning. Still loves eggs. Finally calls Paisley by her name ( Pais a wee) instead of just calling her baby. Loves to wear his "Ween car" clothes. (Lightning McQueen) And when I go to pick him up from somewhere where he wants to stay he says, "mommy, me stay!"

Not a whole lotta color

My garden didn't turn out so hot this year. My peppers, cucumbers, zucchini, and cilantro didn't

grow. We were working feverishly trying to get in the water system in my garden and the path done, not to mention the fence, so I pretty much just threw the seeds in the ground and crossed my fingers. (It was already June and we had so much more to do!) We do have big pumpkins and little pumpkins growing out of our ears and growing right out of the fence too! We have some puny looking carrots, small corn stalks, our tomato plants grew out of their cages and toppled them over and some huge deformed squash, but all in all, it's pretty exciting to grow your own food and I am hoping for better preparedness next year...

Now what?

Well, I finally got my copy of Breaking Dawn the last of the Twilight vampire series, I picked it up at Hastings on Saturday and I finished early this morning. I liked it. There have been a lot of mixed reviews and I think that you can only please so many people, especially since they sold 1.3 millions copies in the first day of its release! I thought it was a little predictable, but good. I enjoyed it and I am sad that it is over. Yes, these books took young women and moms and some guys by storm, but so did Harry Potter and Jane Austen, and The Lord of the Rings.... There has been so much mixed controversy about the books and how "young women are going nuts over them." It's right, we all want to be vampires and drive BMW's, but we will get over it... until the next fun series comes out.... I wonder what it will be about? I have had fun reading the books and I am sad that the time is over, maybe I'll just start reading them again. :)

Happenings

We set up the tent on Friday night while my brother was here and slept outside and watched a movie. Stephen set up the projector and we watched Fool's Gold.
We are trying to get Beck used to to sleeping outside and camping, so we will probably do it a few times more before the summer is over. Paisley is an angel of course and it doesn't bug her one bit.
We went out to Othello for a friend's wedding on Saturday night. Rylee held Paisley most of the night, I never get to hole her when the little nieces are around! :) I thought she looked so cute in her dress and I was headed to get a good picture of her and Rylee and then she stuck her tongue out.
Here's Beck and one of his favorite cousins, they're actually all his favorite as long as they will play with him. Ashton just turned three and towers over Beck, but they like to wrestle.
Rylee gave Paisley this rose from the reception, Paisley added to drool....
This is Grandpa Yorgesen. The great grand kids sure love him and he loves them right back and is so good to play with them.
Well, I finally got my Breaking Dawn "vampire" book yesterday and am on page #313, so I will see you in a few days.....

Aquatic Center

We have spent the last 4 days at the Aquatic Center. My niece Kylee had been staying with us just visiting from Othello and we had to do something to keep her from getting bored! (And I had bought a pass and we've been gone so much I wanted to get some use out of it) On Thursday Kylee's family (sis-in-law Tiffanni) and another sister-in-law, (Mary) her family and another friend's (Elsa) family came in to join us swimming. This is Beck and Ashton loving the water spraying up in their faces.
Beck is getting braver and braver. I follow him around a lot just because he just walks off and I never know where he's headed, but sometimes when I have to feed Paisley I just cross my fingers and watch him from a far. (Does any one have an better ways of doing this?) I have asked people (people I know) if I could set Paisley next to them in her car seat while she was sleeping, and they seem to not mind, then I rush back and make Beck take a break and eat something or drink water before she wakes up and I feed her again. He loves his floaty and leans back on it all relaxed like and floats around.
Cousin Taryn taking a snooze with Paisley as I follow Beck around. Taryn said that he could sleep there holding her all day.

Ashton Family Week 2008

Ann gets us shirts every year, or every other year. The kids get their "number" on the back of what order of grandchild that they came in. Beck is #19 and Paisley is #23. We put a red J on the sleeve for our Jacksen who we miss so much! Argh!

Beck, Paisley, and I headed up to the cabin with Ann last Wednesday and then Family week started with people arriving on Sunday. We got back on Saturday and before even heading home spent the day in Mattawa for Grandpa Yorgesen's 89th birthday party. There are 40 people that all stay in Bob and Ann's cabin on Priest Lake in Idaho. A bunch of cousins for Beck to play with (and fight with) and a bunch of people to cook for and a bunch of pop to drink and games to play and I celebrated my 26th up there by accidently breaking my mother-in-law's stove! (love you Ann!) We boat, we hike, we tube, jetski, and EAT EAT EAT!On one of the days we made little scrapbooks of the pictures from the reunion last year. The kids had a lot of fun putting them together and remembering the things that happened at last year's reunion. This is one of Beck's new favorite things; he loves his "dishy pole." There isn't a hook on it, bit he worked on casting it for hours on end. He was so cute! Too bad it was broken by the end of the week, but he got some great fun out of it!On Wednesday we rented a party boat and along with our other boat went up to the Upper Priest. It takes a bit to get there, but this time we stopped at a place that had some cool sand bars for the kids to play on. We stopped the party boat too fast and there was too much weight on the front and it started to sink! After that the kids were a little nervous to ride back on it, so they all loaded into the MasterCraft for the trip back to the cabin. Thank heavens as it was almost sinking, my mind and body was able to do a few things at once; I had a video camera in one hand, (which I was too preoccupied to press record) Beck's handle to his lifejacket (with him in it of course) and my foot was able to scoop up Tiffanni's beloved Chaco shoes before they floated away!Beck and Piper on the party boat...My baby Paisley on the party boat...This is only a small amount of the beverages that we consume. I myself probably drank a full 36 pack of Mountain Dew. So much for breaking that habit....Paisley learned to grab at her feet while we were there, so cute! She is also rolling over from her front to her back. And the spit up continues.....On the hike to Chimney Rock (4 miles) Paisley was such a trooper. This was her first hike and she just "hung out" the whole time. )With her sun hat on of course, I had to take it off for the picture!) Hike to Chimney Rock. That last 30 minutes is a doozy, like straight up hill, gives the calves and thighs a killer work out! I even changed diapers and nursed when we got to the top, all while taking in a beautiful view of Priest Lake.

The all too famous Rock Slide that we hike to almost every year.

All in all it was a great week. We made lots of new memories and had some great fun. We missed our #1 Jacksen and the game playing and Mountain Dew drinking will never be the same, but this is one great family that I am so proud and happy to be a part of. It's been so fun to make my place in this family and do my best to blend in. :) It's so good to know how close we all are and all the fun cousins that my kids get to grow up with. The Ashton Family Rocks!