Ashlyn: Months 5 &6

Okay...so after my sister in law emailed me looking for an update I realized it was time because she was the 13th or 14th person to ask me! Life has been very full and there have always been a hundred other things to do rather than blog. I will catch up and try to stay with the blogging!

Ashlyn is so big! She's just become this really entertaining and energetic little one! She and Preston play and have tons of fun together! The favorite activity of both is when Ashlyn wakes up from a nap. Presotn will come running to tell me that he hears her through the monitor and will jump up and down in front of her door until I open it. Ashlyn (who usually is crying when she first wakes up) will immediately start to coo upon hearing her brother bust through the door and scramble to climb in her crib. The smile on her face at seeing him plop in her bed is so sweet that it never fails to make me teary eyed! The two of them will play in her bed for as long as I will let them. Preston turns on her mobile and they just have fun! I love seeing their little relationship grow and flourish!

She started to crawl in her 6th month and hasn't slowed down a bit since!!!!! We had been waiting and waiting for her to do it and then one evening Preston was playing on my laptop and up she goes and chases after it. Pres caught on to this quickly and we had a good hour of moving the computer from one side of the room to the other. She started off on her knees but doing a low crawl with her arms! It was too cute!

She is also eating food. The girl has a BIG appetite and I have yet to find a food she won't eat! Now she just needs to hurry up and get some teeth!!!!

Words
ma ma
da da
bubba

Favorite Food
Strawberry yogurt

Favorite Toy
Preston's blanket!!!!!

Here are some pictures to update you on the kiddos!

New Babies!

I am in Florida visitng and had the wonderful opportunity to meet up with a high school friend Tammy. She had her beautiful baby girl yesterday and I had a blast going to visit and being able to hold this little blessing! She was so tiny in my arms. It's amazing how fast babies grow! I also was able to meet her husband and my heart was so glad to see that he is just as sweet as Tammy is! I would like to say a BIG congratulations to the Reedy family for their beautiful new addition!!!!!! Make sure and stop by her blog in a couple of days to see the pictures of the new addition!

P.S. We are having a wonderful time in Florida and I will post some pictures from my phone soon. (Can you believe I forgot the camera?!)

Life as we now know it!

Our little family of four has finally found the groove. The first few months were a bit tough, but we have found our way and now each day brings us all great joy!

Ashlyn has to be the best baby in the whole world! I know most parents probably think that, but my experience with Pres at this stage was not fun at all. My baby girl is just this peaceful breath of fresh air! She will play while I work out in the morning, happily watch her brother in the afternoons outside, and easily bounces in the Baby Bjorn in the evenings as we take our nightly walks! I can lay her down in her crib for her three times a day nap and Pres and I both have a great time doing tummy time with her!

Preston is this big bundle of energy and never, ever pauses to rest! He is a great big brother and gives his little sister endless hugs and kisses. He is such a boy and his favorite new activity is to ride his scooter up and down the driveway! I can't believe how grown up he seems and the time is passing so quickly.

Pete is doing really well in flight school and I am so proud of him. It is and will continue to take a big toll on us as a family and him individually. Despite the long hours, missing out on almost all family activities, and having his nose in his study material all the time, he has finally found a nice balance to make us all feel important! Hubbsies...I can't put into words how proud of you I am and I love you for making sure that you will always be able to take care of us!

As for myself, I am truly enjoying this time with my babies! Most days Preston has me laughing to the point of tears with the crazy things he does and says and Ashlyn has stolen my heart with her sweet smiles! I have thrown myself into our life here in backwoods Alabama head first and am making sure to take advantage of the few good aspects to living in a small town. Preston and Ashlyn have been dragged to farms, plantations, and as many museums as I can find in the paper! I have found a few wonderful people here (thank you Megan and Jodi) that make the days go faster! They both are willing to go with me to these silly small town things! Check out Megan's pictures from the New Brockton Homecoming parade here.

Today we started off our rare family time with a trip to Pioneer Days at the Pioneer Museum in Troy, Alabama. I would highly recommend it to anyone in the area because it was awesome!

That's about all for now, but I have more pictures to show everyone that I will post this weekend since I have Pete here!

P.S. My life is defined by my love for the Lord, my family, and my friends who are family to me. The rest is not important to me and for those that might think it is, there is a reason that I do not choose to spend my time with you!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Pres and Mommy date!

I was able to take Preston and have a day with just him. We went to Alpin Farm in Dothan and it was a blast. We took a hay ride, picked a pumpkin from the pumpkin patch, cut down our own sunflower from the field, went through the corn maize, and played with all of the animals! It was a great day! I was so glad to have the time with him! Thank you to my special peanut for spending the time with me!

Here we are on our way to the farm!

Ashlyn: Three months!

WOW, WOW, WOW is all I can really say about my baby girl right now. She is advancing super fast and is already waaaaay past any sort of newborn status. At three months and 1 day, she mastered rolling over. At three months and 2 days, she can now sit up with the boppy around her! I could continue like this over and over. She doesn't give me any time to delight in her new milestones before she is moving on to the next one! Pete and I call her our little overachiever.

Here is our little overachiever at work! Much to my surprise/dismay, she's starting to scoot once she's on her belly! Yikes! My baby is determined to not be my baby for long!




It's amazing how different she is from Preston. At this time with him, I was one frazzled momma with my still colic baby boy. There is none of this with my baby girl who now only wakes up once in night to only take two ounces!

She is always quick with the smiles and seeing those chubby baby cheeks get even chubbier in a big toothless grin is enough to make my whole day!

Pres is totally in love with his little sister and loves to give her big, messy kisses. She has completely gotten used to him running up to her, scream out "HI ASHWYN" and give her a not gentle at all hug! He loves to help me as I work with her on belly time and motor skills. The favorite game is Open-Close which consists of us opening and closing our hands in front of Ashlyn and then doing it to her hands (Pres loves to grab her little hands and open her fingers and then close them!)

While she is 99% of the time happy, she has her moments and they are so sad. She gives the lower lip wobble and then just breaks out in the most pathetic cry I have ever heard. It's not the piercing scream of baby Preston but rather a whimper that can progress into a forlorn, tear filled sob. It already makes her daddy almost breakdown with the feeling of failure at not getting her what she wanted/needed before the bottom lip wobble! As for me, it nearly stops me in my tracks at how patient they are compared to her brothers. (I know you are scratching your head and wondering what a patient cry is, but I'm telling you that's what it is!)

Like her brother was, she is not content to sit still. When you grab her hands, she not only wants to pull herself up into a sitting position, but would rather go all the way to standing. Once she reaches standing, she is so pleased with herself that it is usually followed by a lot of cooing and squealing!

Here Ashlyn is after bath. She loves bath time! Can you believe how big she is?! She's 27 inches long!!!!!



I could go on and on, but will end this as it's just meant to be a quick update. I will say that my son was a huge blessing and never ceases to inspire me and now I have this beautiful gift in my daughter. Preston will force the world to change for him, but Ashlyn will be the one to make everyone in the world feel better!

One last picture! Here she is playing with daddy!

A Walk through New Brockton

We live in this really quiet and wonderfully quaint town in Alabama called New Brockton. I absolutely love it here! The only drawback is that there isn't really any place to shop here so I have to either go on post (a 30 minute drive) or go into the dirty and annoying city of Enterprise (not all parts, just near the Wal-Mart). Besides being out in the middle of nowhere, it is a wonderful place to be with young children. We live in this subdivision called Mayberry (it makes me chuckle every time I tell someone). Our subdivision is right outside of New Brockton and an easy walk into the main street of New Brockton. Every day I go on a three mile walk through the city and every day I see something completely crazy and new. There are some everyday sightings from the pot bellied pig named Tallulah May to the homegrown Joe that always comes out of the woods with a big stick that he keeps with him because of all of the diamond back snakes!

I was lucky enough to have Megan come with me on one of my walks. I handed her my camera and she deigned to take pictures with my Canon!!!!

Sooooooo...without further ado, welcome to my daily walk in a small southern town!

Our first stop is always to bring a treat to the horses. The friendly ones are Rocket and the Young One. Their owner, Dwight, is a sweet southern man who has welcomed us to used his pool, ride the horses, and has given us permission to bring them treats at our leisure. Preston loves this part of our walk and will gladly feed the horses treats. He has learned that apples are their favorite and gets pretty annoyed with me when I only bring the horses carrots!



After the horses, we always get to walk past the old black school. It is a beautiful building that is now used for Sunday school by one of the local churches. This very friendly stray dog is always there and on some days much to Preston's delight, she joins us for the rest of our walks!


The next part of our walk is past the mission house and church. The building used to be some sort of business and the name is still in big letters on the side. They have a weekly auction of donated goods to help and provide for the needy of New Brockton. It's always an adventure to walk past here because you never know what you will see-including the cowboys from the local cattle farms taking a mid-afternoon ride!



Next we pass the police station and the post office. The police station has a broken window that has just been fixed with a piece of plywood!

After there we pass the house with all of the animals. On the front porch there are kittens, birds, a little annoying dog, and as of last week, a rodent of some kind. The house looks a WHOLE lot nicer on film than in person. The people that live there always run inside when ever we pass.

This "animal house" is right next door to the post office. We continue along and turn down one of the residential streets. This is my favorite part of the walk! There are all of these vines that grow over everything and they are just super beautiful!




After we pass the vines we walk up the road to head back. The last thing on our walk is the stinky sewer system that overflows and puts poop water down the road every time it rains! You can see Ashlyn in her favorite place...strapped in the baby carrier close to mommy!!!!!


Finally, our neighborhood. This is always Preston's favorite part because I let him get out of the stroller and he runs/dawdles the rest of the way home!


There are so many other crazy things that happen on these walks. Everything from being invited to house parties by the cousin to the Mayor (he told me that which is the only reason I know) to dodging copperhead snakes! Life in a small town really is small, but it is also never the same two days in a row!

Family Day

Friday was Family Day for Pete's flight school. The Fox family joined us for the fun and all of the boys LOVED the helicopters. My crazy daughter fell asleep with all of the noise. It could have something to do with the ear protection we used. She looks so funny in the big 'ole headphones!

It was really fun to see Pete fly. Pete's stick buddy (the other student that is in the helicopter with Pete), Brandon, pointed Pete out to us up in the air and I had a blast watching him do all of these maneuvers that he's been studying here at home.

There was a cool set up at the airfield of food, drinks, and a helicopter for the kids to play in. Pres and the Fox boys took over the helicopter the whole time we were there!

Pres found his favorite friend of Daddy's, Mr. Mawk (Mark) right off. Mark was flying in the second shift, so with his daughter Rachel in one arm and Pres in the other, he walked them around the airfield. Don't know what we would do with out the Davis family!!!!


Pete was flying 76F so here he is doing one of the landing maneuvers.



Here's a picture of Ashlyn in her gear. She spent the whole time we were there in the carrier alternating between watching everything that was going on and sleeping!

Here's Pete in the air!

Pres in the helicopter! Notice his big, fat lip! He fell on the tile at Ms. Jodi's house while running around the house like a crazy man!


Here is Pete after he landed. He is wearing the new Army Aviation uniform. It looks a lot like the regular ACU's, but it has special pockets and a cinched waste. It is also fire retardant.

Pres was so excited to see daddy!

Not the best picture of Pete and I, but the only one we took! It was so windy so excuse all of the hair in my face! Also, can you see my crazy daughter all zonked out in the carrier?!

Last but not least, here is Pete's stick buddy, Brandon. He's a sweet guy and I'm so glad the the other student in the helicopter with Pete isn't a ding dong...makes me feel much better about the whole possibility of crashing thing! If you look in Brandon's eye protection, you can see me!

Sometimes it's the small things...

that can turn a bad situation into something hilarious! Pres has had an ear infection and we've been doing the medicine battle for about 5 days. It has been a loooooong five days and the other night after bath, Pres was hiding from me in order to not take his medicine. While hiding and screaming "NO" in the closet, he found this bathing suit for Ashlyn next year. He wanted to put on the bottoms and because I was so frustrated I decided to put it on him and take as many embarrassing pictures as I could. Years from now, I will bring these out-maybe for a first girlfriend-and will feel no shame because I will remember how tired I was this night!

As a small disclaimer and in Preston's defense, he did realize this was a bathing suit and wanted to put it on to go swimming!

Ashlyn: Two months!

Ashlyn had her two month check up (finally...we were a week behind) and her stats are as follows:

13.9 lbs
24 inches

She's a long girl! Preston was 24 inches at four months so she is much longer already than he was. Ashlyn is such a good baby. She rarely cries and it is always because she needs something. She'll cry if she is hungry, tired, or in need of a new diaper. Other than that she is a happy baby. In the middle of the night when she wakes up to eat she still doesn't cry. She just does these really sweet sucking sounds to let you know she is ready to eat.

Ashlyn is now loving to play on her play mat and loves nothing more than to bat at the hanging keys. Those seem to be her favorite. She'll try to grab those for 15 straight minutes! She is also very giggly. She'll sit in her bouncer and giggle and smile at you. This is my favorite activity and one that she and I have been able to do alone together while Pres is at school. Here are some pictures from last Thursday as she and I did just that!






Pres is still a wonderful big brother and he is enjoying her starting to be responsive to him. He loves it when I put her in the bumbo seat so that he can try and get her to "play" with him.





Lastly I'll end with a picture of her in the jumper. She's still a little too small for it so I had to prop her up with a towel, but she loved it and it was fun to see her in it!

His face says it all...

...this is how he looked when I went to pick him up. So sad!!!! He wouldn't even go and play on the playground. He stood next to the steps waiting for me to come back. The drop off this morning was pretty awful so we'll see how today's pick up goes. I'm giving it two weeks and if he still hates it, then there is no point in making him go.

Pres' first day of school

****UPDATE****

Pres did okay at school. Ms. Amanda said that there were a lot of tears. He wasn't too interested in participating, but hopefully that will change.

This morning I dropped off one happy Preston for his first day of school. He didn't even cry and I was so glad for that! I'm not sure I could have left him there if he had been in tears.

We were able to get him into the Mother's Day Out program at Hillcrest Baptist here in Enterprise, Alabama. I had heard wonderful things about the program and was glad when I got the call that they were opening up a third two year old class so they had a spot for Preston. We went last Friday and met his teacher Ms. Amanda. She is very sweet and the classroom in adorable. He goes on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 8:30-12:30.

For those of you that don't know, I taught preschool for years (in fact, it lead to me meeting Pete!). My standards because of this are a bit high and I was pleased to find that Hillcrest met them all! I love that Preston will have chapel on Thursdays and get art, library, story, and free play time! It is my hope that he will learn to play well with others (Megan-L will be glad about that!) and have something that belongs to just him. He's been such a great big brother to Ashlyn that he has more than earned something that is all his! This also gives me some time with just Ashlyn and since her big brother is very demanding of my time, this will be good for her as well.

I'll update this afternoon after I pick Pres up from school. I'm also going to try and get some pictures from his classroom. I didn't take any this morning because I wasn't too sure how the drop off would go!

The Catch Up Part 2:Florida Trip and Flight School

Okay...so here we go. I need to get these pictures up so I can go crazy with Pres' first day of school next Tuesday!

At the end of July, I ended up with a very sick Preston. Tot Time Wednesday and Story Time Friday seemed to have introduced us to lots of germs! Getting up with a sick two year old for a week straight and a new baby wore me out!!! If one wasn't crying at me, then the other one was and Pete was gone all day with the start flight school (We'll get to that in a minute). I was at my wits end and tired beyond all measure. Needless to say, I was one GRUMPY April! I called my mom and asked for a visit. I knew that there would be lots of hands to hold babies and I could catch up on some sleep. I packed up the kiddos and made the drive down to Florida. It took about 7 hours and I must say that they were both awesome!!!! Preston happily played in the front seat of the car as I stopped to breast feed at rest stops along the way and Ashlyn seemed content to wake up, look at her toys for a bit and then fall back asleep. We got to my parents house in the afternoon and were greeted by the willing hands of Grandma!!!! Whoo-hoo!

While I was in Florida, I had the icky task of getting the condo ready to rent again. Rent again...so soon... you ask?! Well, our renters skipped out on us in the middle of the night. They skipped out after kicking in two of the windows (brand new windows by the way), who knows where the screens or screen door are, putting holes in the bamboo almost indestructible floor, breaking every single blind in the house, burying trash in both the front and the back, leaving the golf cart broken halfway down the hill in the back with all four tires ruined, busting the glass shower doors, and taking all of the face plates! Did I mention this was the damage after my mom spent two weeks cleaning up the dirt, dog pee, and bugs from the inside?! Welcome to the world of landlord I suppose. While my mom took the kiddos, I had the disgusting task of trying to fix everything. I found out that the screens for the windows are irreplaceable (it's cheaper to buy a whole new window since they are custom sizes), the blinds are also custom sizes so I had to special order those, and the yard in the front and back was such a disgusting mess with trash that it took me two days to finish. Forget about getting to the shower doors or face plates. I was beyond pissed and angry at what these people did to my home. He was a paramedic and worked for the city so Pete and I thought that we would be somewhat safe. He also passed a background and credit check. We learned the hard way that that means NOTHING! While I was there, my neighbors were more than happy to fill me in on the other people living in the house (three to be exact), the cops being called for violent fights, and the damage the dog did to the neighbors porch. Why they didn't call us and let us know BEFORE hand is beyond me. I ended up having to call Pete in tears and tell him that it was just too much damage for me to take care of-not to mention the terrible emotional toll of having to spend hours in the home that I worked years on and see it trashed. My dad came to the rescue at the end of the week and the realtor has it listed as we are working on trying to get the repairs finished. Pete has finally been able to get in contact with our renter (nothing like the threat of small claims court to speed up the returning phone call process) and he didn't even try to deny the damage they caused. He wants to work out some sort of payment plan with us and I am leaving that all up to Pete. For my part, I want nothing to do with it anymore and I am happy that Pete is going to take care of the details.

Despite all of that, it was a good visit to Florida. Here are some pictures of our trip and you can see how much Ashlyn has grown...she is such a big girl!







Now onto flight school...SIGH...what a difficult time for all of us as a family. Not too much else to say because I don't really have anything nice to say other than Pete loves flying...so there is one positive!

The catch up Part 1:Pres' b-day party

We've been super busy here and I have lots to catch up on! I'll start with the pictures from Pres' second birthday party that took place on July 11th (I am REALLY behind!) and work my way up! Ashlyn is two months old now! She is really starting to become fun, but we'll get to that later. For now, here are the pictures from Pres' b-day!

Pete made the Thomas cake from scratch! He did the face with fondant! It was really amazing and I can't wait to see what he does next year.

There were a lot of kids, friends, food, and tons of fun. Preston has so many great little friends here and we had a great time playing with everyone. Preston received so many wonderful gifts! I have two people to say a big "thank you" to! First to the Davis clan that showed up early to help! I completely underestimated the time it took to get things done with a toddler and a newborn. If they hadn't shown up when they did, then nothing would have been ready! Thank you Jeanne Anne for keeping Ashlyn happy while I ran around cleaning and decorating and also thank you to Mark for finding that Thomas balloon!!!!! A second special thanks to Melissa for once again finding her way around my kitchen! Not only did she get the food ready for the kiddos, but she did dishes. I have wonderful friends!!!!!