Pictures....

I just wanted to share some pictures of Aspen. Apparently Malo has been trying to get Aspen to hold her bottle when he feeds her (I had no idea) and today she did it! I was cooking dinner and I hear Malo yell, "Squirty, come look at wee-wee" and there she is sitting on his lap holding her own bottle. So of course I grab the camera to take a picture....why? Because I am a dork! :)
Just another angle. She didn't hold onto it for a real long time, like maybe 2 minutes. But hey, I didn't even know she could even think about doing it. Props to daddy for helping her do stuff! :) This is the best book, "Guess how much I love you." And I found this HUGE book a couple days after we found out about Aspen....and I HAD to get it. And she really enjoys being read to...and she rolls all over the place and rolled onto this book herself...looks like she's analyzing the book....and see how intent she looks? She's the best! :)

I just love this picute! The shoes she's wearing...I bought those like 4 1/2 years ago...
Here she is figuring out that when she manages to hit the toy, it makes noise! :)
Carrots + Aspen = HUGEST messes ever! :)

Leify is here!

Aspen has a new cousin as of today! :-) Little Leify looks just like his daddy, Leif (Malo's youngest brother)! :-) We'll get to meet them in a little over a month when Leif, Lurlyn and Baby Leif come out to visit!!! Welcome to the world!!! :-)

So happy

Aspen is such a happy wonderful little girl! There were several pictures I was trying to post, but for some reason, this is the only one that took. I'll try again another day. We are so blessed to have her in our family; she is such a joy. She is so happy and loving and snuggly. I can't imagine our lives without her, I don't know how we were even happy before she came along. She is absolutely the best!!! :-)

My baby's getting big!!

Aspen had her 4 month well-baby check up today....she is getting so big! She is now 26 inches long!!! And she weighs 13 lbs, 2 oz. Since she is getting so big, I thought I'd share some of the things she has started doing:

• Yesterday she sat up all by herself for almost 2 seconds!
• She has great head and neck control and will sit up tall when held
• She rolls regularly onto her tummy and occasionally can get all the way around and back onto her back again.
• She sticks anything she can get her hands on in her mouth!
• She LOVES to watch us eat and she'll open her mouth when we are eating.
• She sits in her high chair and plays with toys on the tray while mommy cooks
• She has gotten to where she will not go to sleep without a snuggly blanket and a soft toy
• She is laughing ALL the time!
• She has just discovered her feet! She will analyze them and tug at them....she hasn't yet gotten them into her mouth...but I have the camera ready and waiting for the moment!!

Hmmmm....there's lots more, but these are the newest things!! :-)

Picking apples!!!

Yesterday Aspen and I went with "Aunt" Carrie to her friend's apple orchard and picked two bushels of apples! It was a lot of fun....and Aspen was happy the whole time! Here are some pictures of it! :-)
This is the apple she picked off the tree! :-)

And I just like this picture, so I thought I'd throw it in there! Its from Wednesday. :-)

Tag! 8 things about me!

Ok, so Emily "tagged" me and I had no idea what on earth that meant, so I had to ask her...and now I feel dumb! I can't even think of 8 interesting things about me....I'm a terribly boring person....but I'll give it a try! :-)

1. I LOVE snow! I love to play in the snow....snowboarding and snowshoeing are two of my favorite things to do....been snowboarding for more than 10 years.....just took up snowshoeing last winter. I taught Malo how to snowboard when we were dating....now he's WAY better than me. I love snowball fights. I love making snowmen. I love catching snowflakes on my tongue. I love rolling in the snow. I love watching the snow come down. I love night hikes in the snow. I love to kiss Malo when its snowing. I love eating snow. I love playing with my dogs in the snow. I love snow.

2. This is something I think MOST people who know me even a little bit know....but cheese is my favorite thing on earth. Seriously. I eat cheese almost everyday (which would seriously explain the shape of my body) and no, it does not "stop me up." My body is used to it. I always have cheese in my house. There is always enough money for cheese...and cheese makes everything better. If I had to choose between putting gas in the car and having cheese, cheese would win. I like ALL cheese.

3. I love to run. I really do. I used to run every day, but I have gotten so incredibly lazy over the last several years that I rarely run anymore. And I am so out of shape now that it makes me angry to run because my competiveness comes out again and I can't keep up with what I feel like I should be able to do. But I truly enjoy it and I always feel so good after I do it. I should run more. I should go run now.

4. When I was in middle school, I put toilet water in my friend's water bottle and she drank it. I still laugh about that today. I think that makes me a bad person.

5. I used to be a really great stalker.

6. I hate putting clothes away. Washing and drying clothes is fine, but getting them put away is something I hate. So often I have piles of clean clothes all over. By often I mean always; I always have the piles....its so ridiculous.

7. I have a little bit of social anxiety. I was so shy when I was younger that I couldn't even play soccer. I wanted to play soccer and I did one season in 2nd grade, but I was so shy and I didn't want anyone to look at me, so I avoided being anywhere near the ball. My 3rd grade teacher told me I was too quiet and I had to go to speech therapy to make my little voice "roar like a lion" as Mrs. Singer said. I still to this day don't like to be in front of people (so its odd that I have a career in which I am always in front of people and people are always looking at me, but for some reason, I do okay in those situations.). I get really nervous to teach or talk in front of people. My hands sweat and shake when I speak in church. I have a hard time approaching people and talking to them without getting nervous. I would definitely consider myself shy, with moments of outgoingness (is that even a word?!?!!?). Sometimes I overcompensate by talking too much....rambling and so on...and I can tell when I'm doing it, but I don't know how to stop! I have to work REALLY hard to get out of my shell.

8. I have very random thoughts and actions. I don't know why. I do and say things that are just random and I think a lot of people think I am just plain off. But its just who I am. :-) I want to eat some cheese right now. I think I will.

I am the most boring person on earth. I guess I tag people now....so since CO friends have already been done....I'm gonna ask Ess and Ally to tell us all 8 things about them! And of course, I need to post a picture of Aspen! So here she is:

Malo, me, Aspen, Buddy and Daisy took a drive on Saturday to look at some of the changing trees. It was really fun, but we lost track of time and were gone most of the day. The dogs loved the ride and the view from the back of the truck and Aspen did so good. I really love fall; it makes me happy. Tonight I made cheddar chowder because it felt like fall and what better way to celebrate than to eat yummy, cheesy chowder!! Mmmmmm.....its so good.

And here is a picture of Aspen playing in her daddy's blanket. :-)