Happy Birthday Daddy/Chris!!!!!

Sometimes I write this blog as if I am Ashton but today I want to write it from the perspective of a wife and mother. Happy Birthday Chris! I have known you now for 17 years and I have enjoyed watching you grow as a Christian man and as a father.

• I love that we have grown up together and know how to support each other through the toughest times.
  

• I have also fallen in love with you again many times over the years and of course most recently everytime I watch you with Ashton.

• I love you because you are a fantastic father. You absolutely drive me insane with how overprotective you are but then again I would hate it if you didn' t love her as much as you do.

• I love that you are so wonderful to my family. You have your own special relationships with my parents, brother and previously my grandparents and you amazingly take care of each of them.

• I love how you love my friends and enjoy doing little things for them and ask about them when they are going through tough times.

• I love that we share dreams of exciting things that we want to show Ashton and have her experience over the years
• I love that you support me with school and my career
• I have loved you over the years for many reasons and at the end of the day most of all it is how you can make me laugh harder and more often than any other person in the world and I am starting to see this humor in Ash and I love it.

There are many more wonderful things about you and I can't wait to experience the next 17 and more birthdays together! You are getting old but also better with age!

We love you!

Afternoon fun with Kate

As always, playdates with Miss Kate are a blast! It is also more fun for their mommy's as they get older as they are more independent and we actually get to have an adult conversation. I am always amazed that we are getting to raise our girls together in the Hill Country.

Fun at My Gym

Once again I took Miss A to a free class at one of the local toddler gyms. She loved it except it was kind of hilarious when she would look in the mirrored wall, she would see all the fun going on and say "I want to play over there" - the concept of the mirror was lost on her that day. She was extremely frustrated. Overall, if I were to compare My Gym, The Little Gym and Gymboree, this one was my least favorite. Still $65 a month and not very organized or exercised focused. Oh well, still a great free Saturday morning activity.

Playroom Makeover

This is the playroom before Christmas. Only the tent in the middle is new. It is a replacement tent for the tent in the corner that has ripped and torn from waaay too many parties with our baby dolls and family.

My goal with all the new toys we received was to organize them into centers. This is a joke and most days the room is too much of a mess to even swim through but a Mommy can dream.

Miss A is always good for some interesting hair!

Just enough room for a 2.5 year old and a pink unicorn

Giddy Up!

The reading center

The catch- all stuffed animal center

The dress up & role-play center

The art center

The kitchen & cleaning center

The baby care center

And last of all.... this is Mommy at the end of a weekend. Miss A is starting to learn how to use the camera. As you can see, most weekends lately, makeup and hair is not a priority as my head is in my computer focused on my dissertation ~ yikes!

New Year's Day

On New Year's Day we enjoyed a wonderful lunch with Uncle Bart & Aunt Francine, Nana, Papa, & Mimi.