The Gangs All Here!

Well...almost. This past weekend, I attended the wedding of a dear family friend. He was the first of four boys to get married, so it was certainly a celebration! Chris was out of town this weekend, so I was lucky enough to have Aunt Jenny and Baby Chloe as my two dates! Gigi and Papa were also in attendance, as well as Great Aunt Suzy and Great Uncle Roger. With Chris out of town, Grammy and Grandpa offered to babysit Miss Ashley, so we all got to hang out together on Sunday morning to celebrate Chris's 36th birthday! Also, Ashley got to spend a little time with her baby cousin Chloe. She really loved sitting with her and wanted to give her hugs and kisses. She kind of needs to work on her finesse, as evidenced in the video below...

The Little Ladybug

This Halloween, Ashley was a little ladybug. As you can see from the picture below she loved her costume...


Actually, she was just fine as soon as we removed the headpiece! We took her to the neighborhood Halloween Parade and she was quite the little party princess!






This one is a personal favorite ... Ashley wouldn't stay still long enough for a picture with the grandparents! Gotta Go!


All in all, we had a lot of fun and I think our little ladybug did too!

Our Little "Walker"

Girlfriend is on the move...literally. She wants to walk everywhere! She can take several steps by herself, but mostly just wants to hold your hand and cruise around. Chris and I took her to Fashion Island this weekend to enjoy the beautiful weather and spend some time together since Chris has been gone for a couple of weeks.

We took a traditional trip to the pet store for Ashley to scream with delight at every puppy she sees. As we left, she insisted on walking from the pet store all the way to the carousel. So, walk she did...




After her long walk, she took a fun ride on the carousel with Daddy.




Again, she decided that she would rather walk to the car than hitch a ride in the stroller or in Mom or Dad's arms. She walked all the way from Macy's to the Koi Ponds, through the Atrium shops and out to the parking lot. For those of you not familiar to Fashion Island...that is REALLY far.





Once we got back to our car and we buckled her into her carseat, I took off her little shoes to cool off her feet. What did I find? Two big blisters on her big toes. My little girl is learning one of the most important rites of passage to womanhood at a very early age...I guess it's time for Baby Jimmy Choo!

My Apologies, Dear Readers

Originally, I had a grand plan to start a blog about what its like for a working woman to handle the transition to working mom. I thought I would have all of these cute stories to post and I really wanted to make people laugh and provide a little reprieve from daily life for our friends and family... How cute I was, thinking I would have all of this free time to luxuriate over how to dramatize our little stories.

My original intent was never to post an online scrapbook - it was just to share some funny anecdotes about motherhood and cute pictures of Ashley. So please know that if you haven't seen yourself on the blog or are wondering why you haven't seen certain pictures of family or friends, it's just because I was trying to make this into something different.

We are blessed to have so many visitors, both frequent and infrequent ... but sometimes we also just don't have the camera out and ready! All 6 grandparents visit quite frequently and so do Ashley's aunties and uncle. If you don't see pictures of them, its not that they haven't been here, its just that we might not have snapped any photos! I promise to try and be better about that and once a month will try and post pictures to share all of our fun photos of family and friends - regardless of whether or not I have a funny story to share!

And to kick off my monthly promise, here are some fun summer photos of Ashley and family! ...And sorry to our other dear friends and family that aren't represented here! I will try and do a better job at being the "historian!"

The Pumpkin Patch

This weekend, I took Ashley to the Pumpkin Patch. We had a great time - there were pumpkins and tractors and a petting zoo ... but really, its just a bunch of us parents being super annoying while trying to get our kids to smile for pictures. Here is some video for your amusement and please excuse my annoying voice!

The Great Escape

It seems our little darling is already trying to sneak out of the house!

Is That All You Got?!

I took Ashley for a flu shot today. Girlfriend didn't even flinch when they gave her the shot. No tears, no crying, nothing.

Tough as nails.