Chompers!

That's right! Ashley has her first two teeth!
They bothered her quite a bit when they were first coming in,
and even kept her up at night (poor mom and dad!)-
but now she is all smiles again!

How many more times do we have to do this? ! :)

Look closely and you can see them popping out on the bottom row!

Play Dates!

It's never too soon to start play dates!

Here is Ashley playing with two of her friends, Sienna and Abby.
She and Abby even have matching outfits :)

So...maybe it is more for the parents, but it is too cute seeing them interact!

Cousins Make the Best Friends!

Ashley LOVES her cousins, and we of course LOVE putting them in matching outfits! Here are two pictures of her matching her girl cousins - Kassidy and Ellie on the left, and Abby on the right. They are so darn cute!










Here she is with her cousin Joshy- who is one of the cutest little boys ever! Every time we get together he is constantly at her side giving her hugs. If Ashley ever starts crying he will come up and hold out his arms as if to say "Just give her to me- I will make it all better!" The fact that he loves his baby cousin is amazing considering that his baby brother Noah will be here in just a few months! We are SO glad that Ashley gets to grow up with cousins who are so close in age!

Crazy Beautiful!

Ashley has the craziest baby hair and we love it! When she gets out of the bath it gets all curly, and when Mom and Dad amuse themselves by combing it straight up-- let's just say it's hilarious! She doesn't even look like the same baby!

She has so much hair that clipping it to the side was not working anymore- so we went for it and gave her pigtails! She looks like she has antennas (which goes perfect with her nickname 'Snugle-bug') and is just too stinkin' cute!

And here is the gorgeous girl herself after her hair has been taken out for the night :)

Our 12 days of Christmas :)

On the twelfth day of Christmas with the Yeadon family........

We were with 12 happy families
Living 30 minutes away from family is truly a blessing! We were able to get together with both families a number of times in December. Over Christmas we saw both sets of parents, Matt's grandparents, four sets of Aunts and Uncles, and our five brothers and sisters along with their families. Ashley had a great time seeing everyone, but by the end of the day- she was tired and ready to be home again!

There were 11 gifts for Ashley
Ok, no, we didn't get her all of those gifts, but after getting together with both of our families, let's just say she did well:)
As a family, we have decided to continue a tradition from Matt's family which entails giving Ashley 3 gifts each year to represent the three gifts given to Christ. She received two from Mom and Dad, and of course, one from Santa! She had so many new toys we had to get this shelving unit from Target. It makes our living room look SO much more organized and put together-Erin LOVES it! :)


Here is little Mozart herself with a light up music center from Grandma! When you push the keys you can play different instruments, hear songs, and of course- Ashley's favorite, look at yourself in thr mirror!
We think she looks hilarious when she sits in her Bumbo chair!




We took 10 trips to the Springs
Of course, having family in the Springs means we get to make the drive quite often! Between birthdays, parties, Christmas Eve, Christmas day, and New Years Eve let's just say that we did our fair share of traveling. I don't even want to calculate how much we spent on gas! Thank the Lord the prices have gone down! We have talked though, and even though driving can get to be such a huge pain, we wouldn't want to spend the holiday's any other way.

Ashley had 9 Christmas outfits
Yep- 9! She even had three more that were given to us that ended up being too big! She looked so darn cute in all of them though! Her actual Christmas dress is the red one. It was so fancy with her tights and black dress shoes! I know it might seem silly to have so many outfits, but as Erin's mom explained, "You only have your first Christmas once!" Amen to that!

































Ashley got an 8oz jar of cereal
That's right- we got a green light to start cereal with the wee-tyke:) The first round she made some hilarious faces, and didn't seem too impressed. She then proceeded to scream through each bite until we made it extra soupy and warmed it up:) Now she is as happy as can be when we put her in her high chair (or her 'Bumbo seat' to the left). Just make sure you keep it coming! If you take your time feeding her- she will tell you to hurry it up by screaming and kicking her feet. Don't worry though-as soon as that spoon touches her lips again- it is smooth sailing:) That's my daughter!

We had 7a.m. wake up calls
Poor Ashley got a pretty bad cold the week of Christmas! She faught it like a champ during the day, even though we had to clean out her nose like every hour. At night it was a different story. Due to the fact that she could barely breath, she was up quite a bit. We would give her a pacifier, rock her, try and feed her- nothing really lulled her to sleep for an extended period of time. The only thing that would work was bringing her into bed with us- she LOVES to sleep on people. Unfortunately, that means that our night of sleep was constantly inturrupted and of course- she never slept in past 7! Oh well, I guess that is just one of the joys of parenthood...yeah, sure!

We watched 6 football bowl games
How can you get through New Year without watching the Bowl games? Our boys at Notre Dame walked all over Hawaii in the Holiday Bowl! Now where was that all season?!


We watched 5 Christmas movies
We LOVE Christmas movies! Some of our favorites inlude Elf, Christmas Vacation, Home Alone, The Santa Claus, and White Christmas. There are so many to choose from sometimes it is hard to get them all in!


Ashley had her 4 month appointment
Poor thing had to get four more shots! She was a champ though and took them with just a little crying. She weighed in at 13lbs 10 oz and is 23 1/2 in long! Her head is still holding strong at the 85th percentile (what a little genious :) and everything else looked good! Yeah!


We hung up 3 Christmas stockings
What fun to decorate for Christmas! We absolutely loved adding Ashley's stocking to our decorating collection! This year was so much more fun to celebrate even though she is still a little too young to understand.


We waited 2 hours for Santa
Oh yes we did! We, being obvious first time parents, waited until the week of Christmas to bring her- and on to top it off, we went in the middle of the day! 45 minutes of our wait was Santa's lunch break and so we were literaly standing in line for NOTHING for half of the time! Oh well, 30 seconds on Santa's lap and this picture make it worth it right? Next year we will definitely do this earlier! Erin's mom and Matt's brother and his fiance were with us, so at least we had company. We also took 'shifts' waiting in line so the others could do some shopping:) They must love us to be willing to wait with us through all of that!



and we put up Ashley's 1st ornament on the tree!
Another favorite of Christmas time-decorating the tree! Here Ashley is with her first ornament! It is a picture frame with "Baby's first Christmas 2008" and her name. Another one of our traditions is to give a new ornament each year, so here is the first of many more to come!







We always seem to feel blessed beyond measure around Christmas! The obvious reason is remembering the gift of Jesus! We hope his love has surrounded you and your family, and that it continues through the new year! God bless!

You've got to get in on this!

Check out this amazing giveaway and an incredible site at Creative Mama's Blog! The items they have are absolutely adorable! What fun to have a girl:)

Simple Pleasures

Who knew that a Baby Einstien vibrating block could be so much fun?

Hearing Ashley laugh is one of the greatest joys we have ever experienced!

Mom went back to work!

Wow! So mom went back to work, and our blog has been seriously neglected! There has been so much happening lately and so many wonderful things that we would like to share- but instead of having like 15 new posts all at once, here is a quick summary of our last month!

LITTLE MISS ASHLEY MARIE

Ashley turned three months and is growing more and more each day. She is giggling and smiling - especially in the mornings (which she gets from her dad!) and has amazing head control! She loves to sit up and take in the world around her and absolutely loves looking at herself in the mirror. One thing she is still learning how to do is suck her fingers. She goes back and forth between the pacifier and the 'fist' so who knows what she will end up doing!

ASHLEY IS DEDICATED AT CHURCH!

Ashley was also dedicated on November 23rd at our church, Calvary Chapel Castle Rock! For those who do not know what a baby dedication is, it is a special time where we publicly declare our desire to raise Ashley in a Godly home, seeking out his will for her life. We choose not to baptize babies because biblically, baptism is explained to be an outward expression of an inward change. It is a demonstration of a person's faith, and symbolizes their new life in Christ after they have become saved. A baby cannot express that decision for their own life yet, and so her baptism will be saved until she has made the decision to accept Christ as her personal Lord and Savior.

For her dedication, we present her before our church, and more importantly, before God, and ask for the support of our family, friends, and our church as we try to raise her in a way that is pleasing to God. Baby dedication is also based on biblical scripture in 1 Samuel when Hannah presents her son, Samuel, to the Lord. She recognizes that her son is God's creation, entrusted into her care, and declares that she will raise him in a way that is pleasing to God.

Our pastor led the church in a prayer for Ashley, and for us as parents. He then presented her with a certificate, and her very own pink baby-sized Bible. Too cute!

Ashley also got a very special gift from Erin's mom. A baby cross necklace that Erin's Grandma gave to her Mom when she was a baby. She wore it for the dedication and Pastor Brian pointed out that she had 'baby bling' :)

She also had a special keepsake bonnet given to her by Erin's friend Ashley. It has a small cross on it and now gets saved for 'good luck on her wedding day'--I can't even think about her getting married right now, but it is still very special to have!

It was an incredible day and we were so blessed to be able to share it with both immediate and extended family members! Afterwards everyone came back over to our townhome for lunch. It was a tight fit- but everyone had a good time.

Thank you Jesus for our little miracle!

THANKSGIVING!

A week later we were able to travel back to Minnesota to spend some bitter-sweet time with Erin's Dad's side of the family. Erin's Grandmother sadly passed away just shy of her 92nd birthday. She had led a rich life and was ready to be reunited with Christ and her late husband, but it was still heartbreaking to lose her. We were blessed with the opportunity to go back to Minnesota for her funneral, and while we were there we were also able to celebrate Thanksgiving with extended family members. We do not have the opportunity to get out to MN that often, and so it was nice to have a few days to visit and spend time with each other. Here is Ashley-bundled up and ready to face the chilly MN air! She looks both extremely chubby, and completely adorable!

Erin was very nervous about traveling with Ashley on a plane, but she was AMAZING and slept the entire way! The airline allowed us to take a bottle and benadryl through security, and after we checked our stroller and carseat at the gate, the rest was smooth sailing!

One of the many highlights was being able to meet Abbigail, Erin's cousin's daughter, born just 6 days after Ashley! Everyone loved having the two babies together and it was tons of fun dressing them in matching outfits!

Whew! Thanks for reading all about our fun filled November! We will try and be much better about updating our blog more frequently, but with the Holidays coming up- no promises! :)

Such a Champ!

Ashley just recently had her 2 month check up! The doctor said she looks great - weighing in at 10lbs 6oz and 21.25 in long, and a head size in the 80th percentile (thanks dad!). Unfortunately, she also had to get 4 shots! Yikes! It was heartbreaking to hear her cry, but the nurse was really fast and our little snugs took it like a champ. Here she is with her camo bandaids a few hours later- still as happy as can be!

To make it easier for her to sleep that night we gave her a bath with some 'soothing bedtime' baby soap. She was loving her bath center when we changed the setting from newborn to infant! Now she looks like a queen on her throne! It seems like the whole 'shot' experience was definitely harder on Mom and Dad than it was on her!

Happy Halloween!

Our Halloween activities began by going to a harvest pary for one of our friends a couple weeks before. Ashley of course was the cutest darn Tinkerbell you have ever seen, and Matt, Erin and Cheryl were of course, the three blind mice! Someone did actually ask Erin if she was a bunny- we worry about the bunnies that this person has seen!

Next was one of everyone's favorites-carving Ashley's first pumpkin! Ashley helped Matt carve the perfect jack-o-lantern, an exact copy of her very own pumpkin-booty!

On the actual day of Halloween Ashley got to hang out with her buddy A.J. as Erin, and her friends actually had time to sit down and talk while eating a 'pumpkin pizza'- trust us, it is supposed to look like a pumpkin! Then we took the kiddos to Enterprise where Ashley got to see her daddy and all his co-workers go crazy with decorations!



Last but certainly not least we drove down to Palmer Lake so that Ashley could meet up with her cousins. We had Pebbles and Bam-Bam, Aurora (Sleeping Beauty) and the little fairy herself. By the end of the day she was EXHAUSTED! What a fun first Halloween though!