Ashlee lost her 2nd tooth!

Really....and she's not even 5 yet!  She has the cutest big gap in the bottom front.  Adorable!

My little swimmer

At the beginning of the summer, Ashlee would not even get her face wet.  If water splashed on it, she'd freak and immediately yell for a towel.  She had NO desire to go under water, jump in the pool or anything that would come close to getting her face wet.

After a summer of pool fun, my little pumpkin is officially a FISH!  She LOVES jumping in the pool (see video above), putting her head under water (in the bathtub too), and swimming around WITHOUT goggles!  She still plugs her nose, but she is getting better at holding her breath all the time.  I am so proud of my peanut and how she is overcoming her "fear" of being underwater.  At the beginning of the summer I told her I was not going to put her in swim lessons until she would get her face wet.  The other day at the pool she said to me, "Mommy, I'm ready for swim lessons now!"  It amazes me how that selective remembering works! :)

Ashlee and her buddies Lenja and Landon.  Funny, all 3 of them are December birthdays!

Daddy and Ashlee at the pool!

Ashlee has her first loose tooth!

It seems a bit early, but yep, its loose!  Bottom, front, left side.  Ashlee is SUPER excited for it to fall out and the tooth fairy to come.  She asks me every day how much longer till it falls out.  It was so cute, today she said, "Mommy, I know what I want to be when I grow up.  A tooth fairy."

More zoo fun in 2011

We just love the zoo!  Here's some pics from our 2nd trip of 2011 with Ashlee's buddy, Tyler!

VBS June 2011

Ashlee attended her first VBS this year at Southeast Christian Church.  She had so much fun playing, learning about God, singing, and playing some more.  When I asked her what she learned, she really didn't have much to say, but she sure could talk about the bounce house, water fights and bean bag toss! :)

Ashlee, Tyler and Austin on their first day at VBS

My little pirate!

This is what happens....

When you let a couple of 4 year old girls get a hold of the camera!!

Last day of Preschool and Field Day

Ashlee has had such a great time in preschool this year.  Not only has she made good friends, had fun, and had wonderful teachers, but she has grown so much socially and educationally.  Some of her favorite projects this year were watching caterpillars cocoon and turn into butterflies, going on a field trip to the museum, planting her own flower seeds and watching them grow, and the daily job chart.  Let me tell you about the "job chart".  Those little kiddos loved that thing, I think it gave them a since of responsibility and purpose! Everyday Ashlee would tell me who what her job was, and what Lina's job was, and Trinidee's and David's and on and on.  The most coveted job of all was the "Weather Bear Helper".  Don't ask me why, but the kids loved it when that was their job! 

So, after only 1 year of school, se is no longer my insanely shy, timid girl.  She has gained so much confidence (as witnessed at her dance recital) and learned so much (as seen when she writes her name and knows all her letter sounds).  We are going to miss alot of her dear friends next year as they move up to Kindergarten, but I know she will have no trouble making new ones.  I look forward to another year of her learning and falling more in love with school!

Ashlee, Lina and Trinidee at the museum

Ashlee, Trinidee and Lina at their last day of school

Ashlee's preschool class

Showing off her certificate at Field Day

Ashlee, Natalia and Lina at field day

You go girl!

Me and my girl at Field Day

Getting a good tickle from dad!

Little peanut all dressed up on her last day of preschool, 2011

Gymnastics- Ashlee's fav!

Ash on the beam.  This is her favorite event and probably her best too.

Performing a cartwheel!  She's getting the hang of it.

Ok, this is just her looking pretty darn cute!

More beam.

Doing a front flip on the tramp.

Ash with her certificate.  Way to go pumpkin!

Ashlee and her buddy, Lenja!

Dale and I have always secretly hoped Ashlee would love sports because we both did and they were such an important part of our lives growing up.  So you can imagine how elated we both are that she is becoming quite the little athlete.  The kid is SO strong, seriously, her guns are huge for a 4 year old girl.  I'm super excited because she loves loves loves gymnastics and she's pretty good at it.  I am praying that she sticks with it cause I can already picture Dale and I in the stands cheering her on at her meets.  Ok, I'll probably be psycho mom and screaming in the stands, but we'll talk about that later.

Easter 2011

Well hey, since its almost June, I better put some Easter pics on here!

Ash with her pillow pet from mammy and papa

That crazy Easter bunny had a hole in his bag when he came in through the window!

Ashlee with her Easter basket full of goodies.

Probably her favorite gift, fake nails.  What a girlie girl!

Working on a card with the new crafts the EB brought her.

Beautiful girl!

Ashlee, Kaylei and Brooklynn in the matching dresses Dale's mom bought them.

We went over to my friend Brooke's house and had a huge Easter egg hunt!  The girls had so much fun and got around 30-40 eggs each!  WOW!  Of course, the rain held off until right as we were walking out the back door.  The kids didn't seem to mind though!

Hunting with Lexi!

Check out all our eggs!

Me and my girl.

Look at all the loot!

Tickle Time!

Ashlee's FAVORITE thing in the whole world is to be tickled.  Seriously, if you ask her what her favorite thing to do it, she will 90% of the time say "play tickle".

Tonight, Dale and I were putting her to bed, one of us were laying on each side of her.  As usual, we gave her a little tickle.  Ashlee then says "Ok, wait a minute.  One at a time.  Mom, you tickle first." So I tickled her for a bit, then she said "Ok dad, now your turn."

That's my girl.  Taking charge no matter what is going on! LOL!

Little jokester

Yesterday I thought Ashlee a knock-knock joke.  Ya know the one...."knock, knock.  who's there?  Banana.  Banana who?  Knock, know.  Who's there?  Banana.  Banana who?  Knock, knock.  Who's there?  Orange.  Orange who? Orange you glad I didn't say banana?"

Ashlee thought this was hands-down the funniest, silliest thing she'd ever heard.  She then preceded to tell everyone (myself included) the joke about 20 times.  We even called mammy and papa up to tell them about it.  While she was on the phone she made up another joke, Ashlee style.

Ashlee:  Knock, knock.
Mammy: Who's there?
Ashlee: TV.
Mammy: TV who?
Ashlee:  Knock, knock.
Mammy: Who's there?
Ashlee: Bed.
Mammy: Bed who?
Ashlee: Knock knock.
Mammy: Who's there?
Ashlee: Lamp.

Ashlee continued the joke naming several more household items and then laughing hysterically at her made-up joke.  Watching her crack herself up was simply priceless.  I would give anything to go back and videotape it cause it would be so much better than just re-telling the story.  Trust me though, it was hilarious!!

So much snow....

Ugh.  You'd think it was winter out here in Colorado with the weather we've been having!  Snow, snow, snow, snow and more snow.  Oh yeah, and FREEZING cold temperatures (-20 degree windchill, seriously). 

Ashlee keeps telling me "Mommy, I want to go to the beach.  Like, right now."

Me too girl, me too.

Cruising the Southern Caribbean- Part 1

We had our 7 day cruised planned for about 6 months and boy, when the time came we were READY! There was quite a large group of us, 14, going together and it was so exciting!  3 families with kiddos and 3 single guys, all who'd all known each other for a very long time! 

First, I have to brag about how awesome Ashlee did traveling ALL DAY from Denver to San Juan, Puerto Rico.  We started our journey at 4:30AM (yep, that's in the morning) and got to the hotel about 5:30pm San Juan time.  She was a trooper, never threw a fit or cried, and slept on both flights.  We did do some awesome planning and brought a portable DVD player (thank you Dora).

Our cruise left out of San Juan (note to self: we will NEVER do that again).  We got in a day early and stayed at a gorgeous hotel with an amazing beach.  We made a big mistake though, instead of relaxing at the hotel and playing in the 24/7 pool and hot tub, we decided to check out the festival going on in Old San Juan that night.  BIG BIG BIG Mistake!  We spent an hour stuffed like sardines in our tiny cars trying to find a parking spot in the WORST traffic jam ever.  Another mistake we made was not feeding the kids or ourselves before we headed out.  The poor kiddos were starving and it was SO packed and insane that everywhere was an hour or more wait to eat (except the shady side street carts).  The music was blaring loud, the kids were SO tired, it was so crowded, let me sum it up...it was miserable!

Ok, enough of that! The next day we woke up, got on the ship and explored!  Oh, and we successfully snuck on 8 bottles of alcohol!  Funny thing, I didn't even finish my bottle of vodka I brought aboard....I'm still pondering why this was the case.  The ship left port about 10pm that night and we spent it wandering around, eating, drinking, checking out the casino, etc.  Poor Dj wasn't feeling well and had to spend the night in the room. :(

Day 2 (Port 1): St. Thomas.  Love this port.  The island is just beautiful, tons of shopping, easy to get around.  Dj and I did an underwater scooter adventure with a few of our group (see pictures below).  Needless to say, if you are a scuba diver (as are we) do NOT do this.  You will be severely disappointed. But, it was an experience and the weather was gorgeous so all in all, not too bad.

Day 3(Day at Sea):  Not much to say about this day.  We did a little swimming in the pool (which was terribly small) and took a nap.  In the afternoon it got really cloudy and rained a bit.  This was our first formal night and it was fun to see everyone get all spiffed up in their Sunday best.  Especially my handsome hubby, HOT!

Day 4 (Port 2): Barbados.  Dj and I love this island.  It is very adventurous and rugged.  We decided to do something as an entire group kids and all in this port.  I had read there was a beach not far from the cruise ship dock where you could snorkel with the turtles.  We decided to give it a shot.  We found a big bus that could accommodate us all and took a small tour around the island.  One of the kids favorite things we did this day was stop and feed some monkeys (there were pretty cute)!  Once we got to the beach and got settled, we got some snorkel gear and headed out to where all the catamarans where.  It wasn't far at all and the water was like glass, we definitely got lucky with the conditions.  In the beginning, there was not a turtle to be found.  Then Dj had the idea we should swim closer to the other boats, and once we got up there it was turtle city!  It was so cool, they would swim right up to you!  I actually touched 2 turtles.  They are such beautiful creatures, so graceful.  In all my scuba diving I had only seen a turtle in Belize, so it was quite an experience.  After and hour or so, we headed back, got some food, played on the beach (Ashlee loves the beach) and then headed back for a bit of shopping and a nap!

*****Here are a few pictures from the first days of our trip******

Ash on the beach in San Juan

Dj and I on the beach in San Juan (can't really see the beach cause it was night, but just trust me)

Dj and I being silly in St. Thomas

Beautiful St. Thomas

Lil' peanut looking so cute on formal night

Silly group shot on formal night

Professional family photo on Formal night

Fun in the pool on our day at sea

Michelle and I hamming it up with Travis

The kiddos feeding the monkeys in Barbados

Gorgeous Ash in Barbados

Ashlee and Dj on the beach in Barbados