The cutest bicyclist ever!

Here are some pics of Ashlee trying out her new Dora bike that Santa got her. She looks so stinkin' cute in her Dora helmet and knee pads.

Its weird though, at first she loved riding her bike. Now, however, she is petrified of going too fast. She does 3 pedels, than stops. In fact, the past few times I have mentioned riding her bike she has said she doesn't want to. I hope I didn't make her too nervous, I was just showing her how to stop in case she got going too fast. I hope I didn't scar her for life!

Espanol baby

I've decided I want Ash to learn some Spanish. Mainly cause its freakin' cute to hear her say the words... :)

She learned how to count to 5 in 3 days! They are sponges I tell you, SPONGES!

Swimming in December?

Last week Ash said to me, "Mamma, we haven't been swimming in a long, long, long time!" So i decided to do something about it! Some friends of ours have told us about this awesome place up north called APEX, so we decided to check it out. Its awesome! First of all its huge, secondly, it so nice! They have a great indoor waterpark area with 2 big slides (one for tubes), a small lazy river, a big play area for the kids with 2 little slides, and a coupld of "warm" tubs that kids can get in.

Ashlee loved the little slides in the kids area because she could go slow and not get water all in her face. Well, the big ones looked like so much fun that Dale and I decided she HAD to try them. She rode down the body slide on Dale's lap and gripped him tight as can be the whole way. Poor lil' peanut was so scared! At the bottom her and Dale went under the water and boy, she was PISSED! I guess my little girl is not a dare-devil! So we spent the rest of the time chillin' in the "warm tub", not bad!

You can see the stairs and the big red slide in this picture. It doesn't look huge, but to a 3 year old it was enormous!

Lil' Peanut at 3...

*She loves Dora, playdough, dressing up, lip stuff (obsessed with it) and her dollies
*She is starting to know words to songs and loves to sing
*We have to sing "Happy birthday" every night before we eat dinner
*She asks "What time is it?" all the time
*She loves to help me cook
*she loves my coffe (I just let her stick her finger in it)
*Talks constantly (I have no idea where she gets this from)
*She still loves books
*Can spell her name, recognize almost all her letters and numbers up to 15, count to 20, and I'm starting to teach her Spanish!
*she is a great eater and will try almost anything once
*She gets mixed-up on when to use he/she instead of him/her
*Is just as stubborn as her daddy!

Happy 3rd birthday Ashlee!

On her birthday, Dale and I took Ash out for ice cream at her favorite place...McDonald's! I always said I would not be "THAT" mom and here I am, taking my kid to McDonald's. Look how happy she is though! A week later we had a small birthday party for Ash at our house. We had a great time celebrating with friends and family. Needless to say, at the end of the party Ashlee's toy room looked like a tornado had hit it! I was pretty impressed that when it came time to sing Ash happy birthday she sat there and took it all in. My shy little girl didn't run screaming into the next room! :) We are making strides! Thank you to everyone who helped us celebrate our lil' peanuts 3rd birthday!

Ash and her cousin, Jacob. What gorgeous smiles!

My Princess and her birthday balloons.

Gorgeous girls Jeannie and her daughter, Hailey
Ashlee giving Carson one heck of a hug!
Ash and her crazy Uncle Justin
This was the best I could do to get a picture of the 5 amigos. They were way too busy playing!

The best babysitter ever, Taylor, with Ash and Tyler. Ashlee loving her new Princess vanity and lip gloss. She is SUCH a girlie-girl!

Christmas 2009

Early in the month Ashlee got to visit Santa at my company children's Christmas party. She may not have smiled or talked to Santa, but actually sat on his lap this year (slowly making progress)! The kid's party was really cute, they had cookie decorating kits, photo ops, balloon makers, face painters, a puppeteer and lots of yummy snacks.

Ash with her purple balloon "puppy"!
She wouldn't go near Santa unless I went with her. :) At least she sat on his lap though!
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We had a wonderful time celebrating Christmas this year. It is so fun to see the holidays through the eyes of a 3 year old! So much excitement and joy! Ashlee still didn't quite get the whole "Santa" and "Christmas" idea, but she sure LOVED getting presents (I am still having to explain that Christmas is only 1 day)! It was so cute to watch her get excited over the littlest things; a tube of lip gloss, a coloring book, bath foam! I truly appreciate this because I know in a few years its going to be, "Mom, I want an Ipod. Mom, I want a Wii." Long gone will be the days of presents from the Dollar Tree! :) The funniest thing was that after opening about 7 presents she was DONE. It wasn't until late that night she got around to opening the rest.
Later that afternoon, we headed over to Dale's parents house for Christmas dinner. We enjoyed some yummy food and Ashlee had a great time getting crazy with her cousins.

Ashlee on her new Dora bicycle from Santa. Now if only it would warm up so we could go outside and ride it! PS- Don't ask me why she's doing that with her tongue! Ash seeing what else Santa brought her.
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Merry Christmas from our little family to yours!

Gingerbread...TRAIN?

YES! They have gingerbread trains! Soooo cool! Ashlee and Dale put one together last week and it was a great daddy-daughter bonding experience! Ashlee was so patient waiting for Dale to get the frame up so she could help decorate. She loved every second of this project (I think she liked having her daddy's attention!). I did have to step in when they started eating all the candy though! Personally I think the finished product came out pretty good!

Ok, I snuck 1 piece of candy too!