3am ALARM!

Last week while Brett was out of town, I had a 3 AM alarm incident. When we bought Abby's baby monitor, it came with a motion detector. The motion detector is suppose to alarm when it can't sense the baby's breathing, to help prevent SIDS. (I know, we're paranoid parents.) Anyway, at 3 AM in the morning the alarm went off and being startled from my sleep, I jumped out of bed panicked. This is no quiet alarm. I made a jolt for Abby's room and...WHAM! In my panicked and tired state of mind, I ran right smack into our bedroom door, thinking that I had left it open. Ouch! When I got to Abby's room, she was sleeping peacefully. Her crib is elevated because of her acid reflux, so she had slid down in the crib and off the monitor. Moral to the story: don't run into closed doors, it hurts and I had a puffy lip to prove it. How embarrassing!

A Day at the Zoo

Tuesday, we headed for the National Zoo with my friend Jessica her baby Matthew. Our babies are only 6 weeks apart so it was fun to get together. Abby seemed to enjoy being outside, and it was fun to walk around the zoo. We had a great time watching the monkeys and seeing the pandas.









Here she is looking at the monkeys. The baby monkeys were born in July, the same month as Abby. :)

Here are two exhausted babies hangin' in the backseat, ready to head home. Thanks for a great time Jessica and Matthew!

Apples, Spice and Everything Nice!

It's officially Fall! To start off the season, I decided to head to Maryland to go apple picking with my friends. While our husbands were at school and work, we headed out to the orchards with buckets and wheelbarrows to find the perfect apples. All the kids had a great time picking apples, including the mushy ones that had fallen to the ground. :) After sweating through an unexpectedly hot day, we headed back with our many buckets of apples.
When we arrived home, we decided to be adventurous and attempted to can many of the apples we picked. I think we were a little over ambitious, because we found that canning apples takes a lot of time. We found ourselves peeling, cutting and smashing an eternal sea of apples, making it a very fun but vigorous workout. :) We did have a wonderful time!
There is nothing better than the smell of apples, cinnamon and sugar on a Fall day! I love this time of year!

As you can see, Abby decided to sleep during most of the apple picking. She did enjoy checking out the sights when she was awake in her Bjorn.













Here's Katie reaching for the best ones. Little Miss Sadie helped find the good ones. :)









We even made a trip to see the animals at the end of the adventure. Here is lil' Joe enjoying a moment with the goats.

Case of the Missing Socks...

I have a problem with losing things quite frequently. In fact, it happens daily. From cell phones, to car keys, you name it and I've probably lost it at one point. Now that we have little Abby in our home we have lot more laundry, including many tiny little socks. :) Somehow, after I wash Abby's clothes, the matching pairs to her socks come out missing. I shared this problem with one of my good friends and she reminded me of cartoon shows where the dyer/washer eats the socks. Well, I think I'm going to blame my washer for eating Abby's socks....what do I do, she doesn't have any matching socks! Any ideas???

Growin' Up!

It has been a big week for Abby! She has officially graduated from the bassinet and advanced to her crib. She seems to really like her new surroundings, which is a good thing. :) Another big milestone for Abby is, she can now hold her head up pretty well. It is amazing how fast she is growing and changing. It's fun to watch her get excited about the world around her.










Abby was being really fussy this weekend and I was running out of ideas to get her to stop crying. Well, I found a solution that worked...football. Brett sat down to watch football with her and the tears stopped. We have another sports adict in the family, following in her dad's footsteps...lovin' the game.


We were making cookies on Sunday and Abby had a fascination with the Kitchen Aid Maker. She couldn't keep her eyes off of the mixer, she was fascinated as it moved round and round. (The cookie dough was VERY mixed by the end of the whole thing.) :)










Monday night, we decided to have a picnic on the Potomac. It was beautiful to watch the sunset next to the shore. Abby seemed to have a great time, until she got hungry. :) It's fun living close to so many great sites.
Here is Abby checking out what's going on during the picnic.

Hello and Goodbye!

We had a wonderful trip to Utah these past few weeks. It was great to be with family and friends. It was an eventful trip as we blessed Abby and said our 'farewells' to Spencer. My parents were very kind to invite so many people over to their place for a celebration of Abby and Spencer. The house was packed with family and friends. I'm glad Abby and Spencer were able to meet before he leaves for his mission to Fiji for 2 years. It was tender watching Abby bond with Spencer during their brief time together. It's weird to think that she will be 2 years old when he gets home. Life changes so quickly. Spencer will be an incredible missionary and we're very excited for all that lies ahead for him.
The Ashton family on the big day.









Four generation pictures.













Brett's good friends from high school on left...Brett's family above.












Aunt Marged and Lizzy














Dan and Laura holding Abby on her blessing day.

Dave and Spencer hangin' with Abby. In this picture, Spencer is trying to teach Abby Fijian. :) Dave always seemed to calm Abby down with his personal rap songs...our baby is a rapper, she luvs it!
We had a great night at the Smith's for yummy Asian food! Thanks for a wonderful time!










Visiting Great Grandparents in Bountiful!

Visiting my good friend Amy and her baby girl.



What is a family gathering without arm wrestling? Here is Brett and Ben dueling at the coffee table.




















Good luck Spein! You will do great things for the Fijian People! We love you!

Visit to Logan

Here's Abby in her car-seat, on her way up to Logan for the first time. She was quite the traveler these past few weeks and handled it pretty well! Brett's extended family lives in Cache Valley, so we made a quick 2-day trip up North. We had a great time with all the cousins. Angie even made her famous chicken and dutch oven potatoes...yum!













Megan and Nicole holding Abby.

Gracie and Olivia cuddling Abby.

Brett at his grandparents grave. He wasn't able to make it to his grandma's funeral last year so he enjoyed visiting her grave.









Angie, Emma and Abby