You are how old?

Jade REALLY enjoys "helping" with the dishes!

Who says cleaning isn't fun?

This is Ashlyn striking a pose. She likes it when I just take pictures of her. Oh brother!

The other day I went to Wal*Mart to pick up a few things. I cut through the clothing to get to the light bulbs when we passed racks of women's bras and panties. Ashlyn being the funny little girl that she is had something to say about all of those bras. She very loudly said, "Mommy when I get big I'll need a mommy bra." In other words one day she will need me to buy her one. Nice. Just what I want her to announce to the store, especially since there were only men around us, (what were they doing in the women's section anyway?). She has also taken my bra while I'm getting ready to go somewhere and stating that she "needs it." The other day she told me we couldn't leave the house yet because she had to shave! I often times find her doing the dishes and trying to mop the floor. It's so funny to me that children want to be so much like mom and dad that even the "unfun" things we do seem SO cool and exciting to them. She sure does scare me sometimes though. I'm a little intimidated of the teenage years ahead of us with two girls. I will also admit that when we are ready for another baby it too will probably be another girl. Bras, deoderant, shaving, talking on the phone to boys, dating! AHHH! Of course I'm not stressing over this now. I'm enjoying my time with them as little children. I'm just unsure of the future. lol. Thankfully we have the Holy Ghost and Heavenly Father to help lead and guide us. I "thank thee O God for a prophet!" Otherwise Kenneth and I would be toast!

Braggin' Rights

On April 25, 2009 Kenneth participated in his very first Triathalon. For those of you who do not know what all this entails I'll clue you in. It begins with a nice swim that is 1/2 a mile long in a chilly lake. Next you race to your bike and take a leisurely 12 mile ride. After burning some calories on the bike you run for 3.2 miles. All of course without any breaks in between. Kenneth finished all of this in 1hr. 33min. and 10 sec! He came in 3rd place under his division! Not too shabby for his first try at the race huh!?! Ashlyn was screaming and cheering so loud for her daddy! She was so excited to see him running and swimming and biking so hard. It's great for her to see him working so hard for something. Kenneth has been training for this race for about 3 months. He'd been wanting to give a triathalon a try for sometime and got the chance and jumped on it. He's lost 20lbs and a few inches off of his waist during training and still counting. He's found a new hobby to enjoy and a great stress outlet. He's already planning on doing another one this June and then again in July. He wants to continue to train so that he can do another triathalon at the international level. The international level is a 1 mile swim, 24 mile bike, and a 6 mile run. He hopes to be ready this October. I think he'll be great! I'm SO proud of him and this great accomplishment. It's wonderful to see him enjoying something he has grown to love. Just in case you are wondering, NO I am not planning on doing one any time soon, (which translates to never). I like to exercise, but I don't feel the need to race. However, I LOVE watching him do it. I cheered for him as loud as I could. All that cheering in middle and high school actually paid off. lol. jk. We had a great day with Kenneth and sharing that experience with him. We love you Kenneth. You're our Champion and we're your biggest fans!

From left to right: Ariana, John White, David David (the man who introduced Kenneth and John to the sport) Kenneth and Ashlyn's back.

After all of that hard work he can still pick up both of his little girls for a picture with their hero.

I couldn't be any prouder of him!

Here he comes through the finish line!

Kenneth (on the right) is grabbing a quick swallow of water before getting deep into his 3.2 mile run.

The crowd of men and women ready to see what they are made of.

Advice one may receive from an upcoming 4yr old

Kenneth has been steadily training for the triathalon this weekend. He's been swimming and running and riding his bike a ton trying to get ready for the big day. Ashlyn calls it his exercising. In fact tonight she asked me if I exercised like daddy. Of course I was honest and said no, (which I hope to change soon. Kenneth promises to watch the girls a couple times a wk for me to go run). Her next question was, "well can you wrestle like Daddy and Uncle Zachary?" Everyone from the Lexington ward knows "Uncle Zachary" as Zach, our cousin. I guess since he's older than her and he lives with Aunt Lesley and Uncle Brian it makes him Uncle Zach. lol. Anyway Kenneth wrestled from middle school through college (until the program was cut). Again I was honest and said no. She just looked at me like, well what can you do? lol. Anyway back to the title of this post. Earlier this evening Kenneth got home and got dressed to go ride his bike. On his way out the door she said, "Don't fall off Daddy. Be careful. Look out for cars. Don't fall off the bike. Daddy I love you. Have a nice trip!" I heard the conversation from the back of the house and was just grinning ear to ear. She says the cutest sweetest little things! Earlier today Susan came over to help me with the computer, (Thank You Susan!) and to drop off Brooke while she got her hair done. She came back with lunch for the two of us and while we were sitting down eating Ashlyn came and sat beside me. I was just happily eating my very, oh so delicious chicken supreme combo from Bo*Jangles when Ashlyn out of nowhere said, "Mommy, I like your face." I said thank you baby I like your face too. A few minutes pass by and she says, "Mommy, I like your pretty face." So of course I hugged and kissed her and told her I love her pretty little face too. It's little things like that that make all of my frustrations seem worth it. I can't wait to hear Jade say things. She says a few things like, "mama, dada, no, uh-oh, and today said, bye." My favorite thing to hear a child say for the first time is "Love you." I can't wait to hear her say that so that when I say it back she'll know what I mean. I say it to her now and I know she knows that I care about her. I think she and every baby for that matter know that we as their mothers love them. We play with them, feed them, change them, bathe them. We do it all and usually with a smile or goofy look on our face, (trying to make them smile). They can FEEL the love we have for them. I am very blessed and just wanted to share that with everyone.

Girls weekend

What sweet little faces!

Who stays up 'till 5am?

We had an awesome weekend with Aunt Sarah! Kenneth, Jonathan and Scott all went to Cherokee, NC to go camping this past weekend. Well Jonathan and Sarah are living in Tennessee so she came down here to hang out with Susan and I and the kids. We had a blast! We went to the Virginia Hylton Park, McDonalds, and Cold Stone Creamery all in one weekend. It doesn't get any better than that. Well maybe if it had been Ruth's Chris rather than McDonalds, but what kid wants to eat there if they can have chicken nuggets. lol. Anyway...It was a great time and lots of memories were made. Chance, (Aunt Sarah's son, dog) came along for the trip. He was SO good and he followed Ashlyn everywhere. It was quite cute. The kids had so much fun playing together and with Aunt Sarah. For those of you who don't know, Ashlyn has been quite taken with Sarah. In fact almost all of her stuffed animals and imaginary animal friends' names are "Sarah." It got to be so many Sarah's that we had to put what the animal is on the end of it, (i.e. Sarah dog, Sarah horse, Sarah kitty). Good times. I missed Kenneth but was grateful for the time I got to spend bonding with my sisters. It's so great to marry into a family and feel like sisters rather than sisters-in-law. =) Sarah and I actually stayed up until 5am on Friday night! Can you believe that? I couldn't either. One would think that if you have two children you KNOW they will wake up early so you should get decent amounts of sleep right? We were just having too much fun talking and laughing. Good times. We went to the temple Saturday morning at the 10am session while my mom babysat the girls. It was a great session and we both felt very uplifted. Well here are some more pictures of the park. Enjoy!

Some conversations with my little adult

Some things that Ashlyn has said recently that made me laugh. I thought y'all might enjoy this.

On the way to Publix to get their prescriptions:
Me: "Wow Ashlyn! You and Jade sure did take a long nap!"
Ashlyn: "Oh no! I forgot to take a little nap. I forgot to take a little nap, aw snap!"

While getting ready for bed last night:
Ashlyn: "Mom I get to have a little brother."
Me: "You do!?"
Ashlyn: "Yeah. I can have a little brother. And I want to keep Jade too. Then I'll have two babies!"
Me: "Of course we'll keep Jade. Why do you want a little brother?"
Ashlyn: "So I can teach him and Jade things."

At mom's/Lovey's house a few wks ago:
Ashlyn: "Lovey lets go get Jade and Aunt Amy", (they were pretending to be monsters and Ashlyn uses a blanket to cover herself with while she growls ferociously at you).
Lovey: "Okay."
Ashlyn: "I'll use the blanket...you can use your face."

Lol. She cracks me up! She's also doing her own hair now. It's a little frightening, but she looks SO pleased with herself. If we show up to church on Sunday and it looks like hairbows attacked her head, just smile and tell her how beautiful her hair looks. We'll see if I can be sneaky enough to have her let me do her hair. I gave her two little braids today for the first time and she loved 'em! I'm hoping she will want that on Sunday. Well I tried to post some pictures but something keeps happening. I get a msg error that tells me something is invisible and it can't find it or something like that. Hopefully it will work next time. Sorry for the delay.

Well Aunt Sarah is here visiting from Tennessee while Kenneth, Scott, and Jonathan are in Cherokee camping. So we'll be having lots of fun hanging out with Susan and Brooke and Aunt Sarah and her super cute dog Chance. Ashlyn's been looking forward to this visit for quite some time. She has named almost EVERY stuffed animal that she owns Sarah. It's way cute seeing how much she loves her aunts and uncles. We sure do miss y'all! Well I'm hoping to get lots of awesome pictures at Virginia Hylton Park tomorrow. Hopefully my computer and camera will settle their differences soon so that I can show y'all the amazing pictures I'm going to take. lol. Here's hopin'!

Ashes, Ashes, we all go to the Drs. Office?

Don't worry, our house didn't burn down or anything. So here's what happend. Kenneth was Super Man on Saturday and did a lot of work in the yard and garage, (I can park in it again)! He had a good bit of yard trash to burn on Sat and so he did. All was well. This morning Ashlyn wanted to go outside a little bit before it rained and I was okay with that. That is as long as she put some shoes on and stayed out of the burn pile. There were no longer flames and it wasn't red or anything like that, but just to be on the safe side. So of course as soon as I look up to the back yard guess who's walking through the ashes. You guessed it! Ashlyn was. BAREFOOT! She had shoes on when she went out there, I'm not exactly sure when they came off. She claims she was wearing them when she walked through the "fire" as she calls it. Well I got an ice pack and called the Dr. since a few small blisters were forming. I went outside and was touching the ashes to see if they were hot. They weren't really that hot at all. The nurse said they wanted to see her because they needed to bandage the foot so the blisters wouldn't pop to avoid infection. I'm all about that since I may not have insurance soon, (that's another story for another day). Anyway we got to the Dr. at 11:45. I was instructed to not let her walk so I had to have a woman from the front desk carry Jade inside for me so that I could carry the weight. Ashlyn weighs about 42lbs! Well Dr. Taylor looked at her foot and said it was fine, no bandages needed and to clean the area often and use Neosporin. Yay. Then he asked how Jade was doing and I told him of her new congestion so he checked both Ashlyn and Jade's ears. Guess what! They BOTH have a mild ear infection in their right ears! What are the chances of that? How grateful I was to have gone to the Dr. I knew her foot was fine, but I just felt right about going in to the Dr's office for some reason. Now we know why. Luckily Publix Pharmacy gives Amoxil (the generic for Amoxicillan) for free. =) So my girls can get better and fight this pollen fair and square. I feel so much better. They fell asleep in the car on the way home around 2pm. It's 15min after 5 and they're still asleep! I should probably wake 'em up. I do want them to go to bed at some point tonight. I'm not a fan of being woken up in the middle of the night or really early in the morning. Well I'm off to go mother. I sure hope my blog is as fun for y'all as y'alls blogs are for me. =)

A-S-H-L-Y-N What Does That Spell?

Ashlyn learned how to spell her name on Sunday April 5, 2009. I had been working with her for awhile trying to get her to spell her name. I would spell it several times and have her say it with me and then try to get her to do it on her own. Well that didn't work. I know, I was shocked too. I thought it would take a few minutes and she'd have it. Well Kenneth took a different approach on Sunday before and on the way to conference. He kept spelling her name with a rythm over and over and OVER again. She was begging him to stop spelling her name. lol. He told her he couldn't stop until she spelled it on her own. Can you believe that that actually worked? I was amazed. I think more than anything she liked the rythm he put with the letters of her name so it sounded like a song. If you ask her how to spell it, she still breaks it up. lol. Very cute! I was so proud of him for teaching her when I couldn't figure out how to motivate her to do it. Everytime I would try she would say she needed help, even though I KNOW she could have done it on her own after I spelled it 600 times. She just needed Daddy. I also named him driving instructor as well. I think he'll be better at it than I will. My nerves will be so shot by then I won't have a prayer. We dyed Easter eggs on Thursday with my sister-in-law Natalie and her two little kids. I made one that had Ashlyn's name on it. Yesterday she saw it and said, "That spells Ashlyn!" I was so amazed that she could learn how to spell it, and then to recognize it. It seems so simple to us, but to only be 3.5 it's quite remarkable. Or it is to me anyway. She's beginning to show more interest in writing letters, but not by a whole lot. lol. We'll keep working on it. We have this whole summer and school year.

Jade is walking and semi-running. She LOVES to be chased! She gets so excited when she sees Ashlyn or Kenneth or I coming after her on our hands and knees. She has 16 teeth! She is saying, "Mama" "Dada" "Uh-oh" "No" and sometimes "hey." I have been trying SO hard to get her to say "Cup" and "Juice." Unfortunately all of my hard work is mocking me. Ashlyn picked up talking so quickly and NEVER stopped. I truly and honestly believe that Jade could say the words I'm working on with her. Maybe she's just focusing on other motor skills while I'm stuck on language. I'll just go with her flow. I think she knows what she's doing. She's obviously intelligent. I don't compare her to Ashlyn as thinking that she's not as intelligent, but to make sure nothing is wrong. She's done a lot of things after Ashlyn did at certain ages, but she did walk sooner than Ashlyn. Just goes to show ya how different children can be. They are truly born with their own identities and personalities. How I love my little girls. I get teary just thinking about how much they mean to me. Even though Ashlyn does continue to go into the bathroom and put hand soap in her hair to "wash it" and Jade would rather say, "ugh ugh" instead of cup or juice. They eventually will learn from the "wrong" things they're doing now and move on to something else. Like daring one another to eat gross things. And getting into my lingerie drawer. Oh wait, they already do that. lol. Don't worry, the drawer has been moved. Ashlyn thought I had pretty dresses. lol. My mom told me that when I was 5 I walked into the kitchen which was full of 6 missionaries and said "Teedah!" while WEARING some of her lingerie. Poor mom. Sorry about that one. At least you can kinda laugh at it now. =) Well I've had long enough of a break. Back to more cleaning and praying for insurance guidance.

Toothpaste is NOT for the bum!

The other day I heard Ashlyn in the bathroom and she'd been in there for awhile. I was getting suspicious so I went to take a look. After I walked in she looked up with the "I am SO guilty" look and said, "my bottom was dirty so I'm just cleaning it. Oh yes! I can't make this kind of stuff up ppl! She had covered her bum with antibacterial soap and Crest toothpaste. Nice. So of course I'm really worried that she got it in other places than her cheeks, so I ordered her into the tub immediately to bathe her. The good news is she's in to good hygene and she didn't hurt herself. She also smelled of lavender and fresh breath. lol. The bad news is that I have to monitor her potty time and RUN everytime I hear water runnning that I didn't turn on. Not only is she into hygene, she is also in to making up her own drink concoctions. I was terrified when she brought me a FULL glass of something brown. It was water, fruit punch juice, and chocolate syrup. WOW! After pretending to taste it I poured it out when she wasn't looking and told her (after I was asked where it was) that I drank it all up. I even had her taste it so that she could see making up her own drink isn't tasty. Unfortunately she thought it wasn't too bad. This morning I caught her trying to put some cake crumbs into a choc. milk bottle from last nights Krispy Kreme trip. That is now in the trash, again. No more drink concoctions! GROSS! You all MUST be thinking, "Where was Heather during all of this? Surely a good mom would do a better job of keeping her children outta truouble." Well my friends, I was doing laundry so the only thing I could hear was that water and the sound of Oxi clean spray. She WAS watching a movie before announcing to the whole house that she had to peepee. That's when the red flag went off after not hearing her for several minutes. Good times.

A lot is on my mind right now. We were told a few months back that Kenneth had to take a mandatory furlow day (a day off without pay) once a month. That automatically takes a good chunk of $ out of one paycheck each month. But we weren't bitter, he still had his job and we had insurance. Yesterday we learned that their company insurance will be $325.00 more expensive a month! So we've lost a good bit of $ out of our monthly budget. Lets just say I did a LOT of pleading with the Lord last night along with a lot of tears. I'm trying very hard to rely on my faith and to be reminded of the SEVERAL times I was in need and asked for my Father in heaven's help and was always given His aid. I go through these little moments when I'm like, "we'll be just fine, I have faith." Then I have other moments when I'm freaking out when I think about how we will pay our bills. Of course we have the option of purchasing our own insurance. Or we could be VERY risky and not have insurance at all. I can look into medicaid but I'm pretty sure we will not qualify for that. Kenneth has a great job and I'm very thankful for it. I need to focus more on that. He's SO gifted with his hands and the way his mind works with numbers and building. I need to just be more faithful. Well if you know of any great insurance packages that are cheaper than about $850.00 let me know. Not very likely I'm sure, but I thought I'd put it out there. Thanks for letting me vent. Keep us in your prayers and if you have any words of wisdom, I am ALL ears! Oh yeah! Jade is finally beginning to fit into 12mo clothes. lol. She's 16 months old. My sweet little blue eyed baby. =) There are still SEVERAL wonderful things in my life. I am blessed and I am grateful.

Happy 88th Birthday G.G.

Today is my Grandmother's 88th birthday!!! Happy birthday G.G. Ashlyn and her G.G. love each other SO much! They really love spending time together. This is my Grandmother's first birthday without my Grandaddy, so we'll be having a big birthday celebration for her on Sunday after General Conference. It's gonna be SO much fun! I have the best grandmother in the world. Every single one of her grandchildren has felt that they are her favorite. It's an on going joke that we know that we're her favorite. But lets be honest, everyone knows it's me! lol. My grandparents have been a guiding light in my life along with several of my cousins. Our parents are the wonderful ppl that they are because of my grandparents. We have so much to be grateful for. I'm thankful to them for opening the door and welcoming the missionaries into their home so many years ago. Because of that I have more blessings than I can count. Just imagine how many lives were/are touched because they accepted and taught the gospel in their home. They have 8 amazing children and 27 wonderful grandchildren, (and still counting if Aunt Lesley and Uncle Brian have more). They have 32 great grandchildren and still counting! What a miracle the gospel is! Thank you Grandmother and Grandaddy for your examples and your selflessness and kind hearted natures. We love you both! We love you G.G. and we can't wait to see you Sunday! HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

My Daughter is giving, and a flirt!

This afternoon while watering the plants and our hopefully growing seedlings of grass, a little boy rode into my driveway. He said, "Um, I need some money for the fundraiser please." lol. I'm thinking, I need some money for the Walter fundraiser please. lol. jk. Well I told him I didn't have any money and he said thank you and rode away. Not 30 minutes later a little girl rang my door bell and very elloquently told me what the fundraiser was for and gave me all of the details with the cutest little lisp ever. lol. I was going to tell her too that I didn't have any money, but my little Ashlyn said, "I have some money. It's in my money jar. I wanna give her some money." Of course I'm not going to let an opportunity of charity go by so I said okay. Oh yeah, the fundraiser is for children with cleffs in their lips that need surgery. Well Ashlyn got a chair and got her money jar out of the cabinet and brought it to me. I told her to pick out how much she wanted to give the little girl and she pulled out about .63. I wrote Ashlyn's name on the back of the fundraiser and the amount since it was her money. Well the little girl was leaving and saw her little brother and his friends. Ashlyn ran to get shoes to try and play with them. They were still at the end of my driveway when she got outside. The little girl was gone but there by the mailbox were the boys. She spoke to them and told them she was running and asked if they wanted to play chalk. They said no, but one of the older boys offered her a flower he was holding. I thought that was very sweet. It makes me feel so good when other children are so nice to mine. Anyway, the three boys walked away. They were probably a good two hundred yards away or so when Ashlyn yelled out this noise she does as a whistle. The three boys turned around and she hid her face and got closer to the porch. She continued this "whistle" every time they would turn back around to leave. It was quite funny. Wow! Flirting already though?! Kenneth and I are in for a treat, this little girl isn't shy, just like her mother. lol. We'll be praying a lot. lol. Well I thought everyone would enjoy that little story and Kenneth will be happy to hear that I finally watered our seedlings of grass. lol. Seeds are so much cheaper than sod! Anyway, I hope everyone is enjoying our little family blog. I'll have new pics. this weekend so I hope to make the time to get those posted.

I almost forgot to mention...the kids slept until 9:30 this morning! Can you believe that? It was like a blessing from on high! I didn't know what to do with myself. So I stayed in the bed and just rested and enjoyed the silence. It was beautiful. Until Ashlyn called me from her bedroom. She decided that wetting her bed was much better than getting up alone to use the potty. Jade's diaper had the same idea because it soaked through to her sheets also. So my morning began wonderfully and quickly turned into a few loads of unexpected laundry. Oh well. I told her if she peed in her bed again on purpose I was going to make her wear pull-ups to bed. I think that did the trick. We shall see. I know sleeping so long didn't help the situation for either child, but I did really enjoy that. Well I'm sure I'll have a new adventure to post soon enough. Love y'all!