10 months

Hello 10 months! My babies are growing up!! This past month has been so fun. It seems as if the boys are learning something new everyday. It has been such a joy to watch them grow and learn, especially since I never got to experience many of the things they are doing when Karissa was alive.

Preston is consistently waving 'hi' and 'bye' and will say 'mama' and 'dada' discriminately. He is cruising around everything and is learning how to play with several different shape sorters. He loves when I read to him and has an amazing attention span for a 1o month old. He has also started using a sippy cup and has showed interest in self-feeding with utensils.

Ethan is my little ham! He is able to stand up on his own. He loves to just stand up in the middle of the room without holding on to anything. He even took his first step last Tuesday. He has also learned how to play with shape sorters. He copies a lot of sounds and actions. He has started naming objects, for instance, if I show him a banana, either in a book or the actual object he will say 'nana'!!!

Preston and Ethan also have a new cousin, Riley Geneve, born Sunday, September 4th!! I'm am beyond excited that the boys will have a cousin that is so close in age! There are many fun times ahead!!

~Preston~

~Ethan~

9 Months

To all my faithful (and few) readers, here are the 9 months pictures. The two pictures at the bottom were taken a little over a year ago...wow, I was huge!

Better late than never...8 month pictures!

I figured I should post the boys' 8 month pictures before they turned 9 months. :~) Ethan is now crawling and is getting EVERYWHERE! The baby gates have gone up all over our house. He is pulling up to stand and is starting to cruise around furniture. Preston is waving "hi"and "bye" and will copy many sounds and will even say "I Love You." Preston is working on his 9th tooth while Ethan just cut his 3rd. I am amazed at my babies! I love how they are so different. It's so fun!

This month has been quite fun and busy! The boys had their first plane ride. Yes, we are starting them young. We flew back to Washington DC for a conference that Mark had to attend. We had my parents with us the majority of the time which was a big help! Fun times!

This month also marked the 3 year anniversary of Karissa's death. The 8th was pretty awful, but its never as bad as the day before. I miss my girl.

7 months old!

My babies turned 7 months old a few days ago. I took a ton of pictures and it was so hard not to post every one of them!

Welcome Babies!!

A few weeks ago, my mom and her friends had a welcoming party for Preston and Ethan. We couldn't have asked for a more gorgeous day! The day was filled with great food, drinks (Peach Sangria!!) and friends!! Preston was flirting with all the women at the party. Ethan, however, was cutting his first tooth and was miserable the entire time...so out of character for him.

I've posted a few pictures from the party below. Unfortunately, for whatever reason, I was unable to put captions to the pictures. So frustrating. Here are my captions for the pictures: The cake had a pea in the pod decoration and was all chocolate, which, if you know me, I LOVE CHOCOLATE!! The party favors were two peas in a pod cookie. The tables were decorated with pictures of the boys. The pictures of the ladies below include my mom, my sister, Aunt Chelsea and Aunt Annoula, my mom's close friend. And yes, my sister is pregnant and very cute, almost as cute as I was when I was pregnant with Preston and Ethan... :)))! I'm so EXCITED for my boys to have a cousin so close in age!!

Happy 6 month birthday babies!!

Preston and Ethan are a 1/2 year old already! Huh?? Where did the time go?? We've had a lot of fun over the past month. We had a welcoming party for the boys (post and pics to follow) and Mother's Day was a fun day as well. This month, Preston started sitting on his own and playing peek-a-boo with his blanket!! Ethan is very close to crawling. He will get from one side of the room to the other in minutes. They are doing everything by the book as far as when they should be doing what by a certain age...Praise God!! The boys also had their 6 month well-baby visit. The pediatrician was very pleased with their growth and development. These are the stats from their 6 month well-baby visit:

Preston:
Weight: 14 lbs, 7.4 oz
Length: 2' 1.75"

Ethan:
Weight: 14 lbs, 5.3 oz
Length: 2' 1"

~Preston~

~Ethan~

~Brothers~

I went out to the grocery store ALONE with the boys for the first time since they've been born. It was a pretty big step for me. The boys were great and I actually cried as I was walking into the store, just me and my boys, for the first time. It was quite empowering, actually. I was amazed at the number of people that asked if I needed any help. My response? "Thank-you, but I do this all

the time." Haha! Ya right! I had Ethan in the shopping cart and carried Preston in the Babyhawk. It worked beautifully!

Ashley Family Happenings!

As promised, here is what we've been up to the past month.

The boys started eating solids. So fun!!! While I had every intention of waiting until they were 6 months of age, they both showed almost all the signs of readiness to eat solid foods. I started with avocado, followed by sweet potato and currently we are on bananas. Their first bite of solid food was a very special day, too, since we started them on March 29th, which would have been Karissa's 6th birthday.

I'm making all their food, as I did with Karissa and I love it! I went and bought the Super Baby Food book and have been using it as a reference.

~Preston's first solid food~

~Ethan's first solid food~

~I don't think he's quite sure about avocados!!~

This month we also hosted a few riders that raced in the Redlands Bicycle Classic. We hosted a few riders back in March of 2008, a few months before Karissa died. We haven't done it since, so it was kinda a big deal for us (or me really) to do it again. It brought back a lot a memories from when Karissa was here with us. ~My dad and I waiting for the cyclists~

~It's a lot of work to watch other people workout!!~

Preston's two bottom teeth have come in! I think he may be working on his 3rd, too!

Ethan is really close to sitting all by himself. Apparently, he's also a great multi-tasker, since he can barf and focus on sitting up all at the same time!

I ran my first 5K with the boys this past Sunday! It was local which was so nice. We didn't have to drive anywhere, in fact, the start and finish was right down the street from our house. I did fairly well, considering I hadn't trained AT ALL and was pushing the boys in the BOB. I completed it in 32:14, (a hideous time, BUT, I was pushing close to 60 pounds so I'll take it) and came in 17th out of 129 for my age group. After the race, we cooked up a fabulous breakfast at our house and enjoyed it with some friends who ran the 1/2 marathon.

~Ethan and I after the race~

The boys are growing up so fast. Much too fast!! They are doing well in their development and are hitting all their milestones as they should, some even a bit early! They are blowing raspberries and Preston has started imitating sounds and was copying me saying "uh-oh" just the other day. They are really starting to interact and play with each other much more now. It's so fun to watch.~And, this is how I roll when the boys BOTH demand to be held AND walked around!!~