Life's a Beach!

Our life is really fun and eventful which is why when I do blog I have a million pictures to post and a story to go with each of them. Unfortunately I don't know how to post picture, words, picture, words...like most of you so I will sum up our busy week and then post the pics.

Our bestest friend Shelby was here for the week last week and we had a blast. She stayed in the Ashmore home and fit right in, crazy! Braxton and her really got to be buds this trip and she was a ton of help to me too. What an amazing gal!

We spent all day Friday and Saturday at Cherry Point with my mom and dad crabbing! It was so fun and Braxton went on the boat every single time anyone went to check the pots! He even fell asleep on Jeff's lap on the boat at one point after two days with no nap. He is definetly a boat man. Jeff is now really into crabbing too and so far he has his own license and crabbing shoes, next will be the pots and then maybe a boat! Grandma, Adelle and I love the beach and the sun so it's a perfect fit for everyone to be there. Plus you can't beat fresh crab right out of the ocean. We really are true Northwesterners I guess. It was such a fun and relaxing weekend and I feel like it was the first really nice weather that we've gotten to truely enjoy and bask in! Horray for the beach, for the best family and friends, for sunshine and really good food.

Happy Campers!

Jeff and I decided that to we would celebrate our 5 years of bliss with a camping trip to Harrison Hot Springs up in Canada, BC. It was one of my favorite places to go growing up and Jeff had never been. The resort there is amazing but we decided to save that for later when we don't have our little kiddos to bring along......so we camped! It was a total blast and we couldn't imagine not bringing our kids to such a fun place. Braxton loved every single thing we did from setting up the tent to swimming to tearing the tent down in the pouring rain Saturday morning. He was such a good sport. Adelle was happy too and loved all the fresh air.
The pictures I've posted crack me up because we are the only ones in the lake. The weather was overcast Friday but it's a good thing we swam anyway because Saturday it poured rain. In all the pictures we look so cold and uncomfortable but it really wasn't that bad! It was a great family outing and camping with 2 kids was way more fun and relaxing than I ever would have thought. I guess I just have awesome kids!

5 years!

They say that it’s in the first five years in your life that you learn the most. You learn to depend on your parents for your every need. You learn to breathe and to eat and to walk and to talk. You learn the alphabet and your numbers and your colors. More importantly you learn security. You learn whether or not your basic needs will be met and by who. Ultimately the things you are taught and the way you are treated during these first years will greatly affect who you will become and how you will treat yourself and others for the rest of your life.
I would argue that likewise the first five years of your marriage are just as important to the rest of your marriage as the first five years of life are to your future. It’s in these first years that you learn to loose yourself and to be dependent on each other. You learn the other ways that things can be done, even if it’s not the way you would have choose to do them. You learn that your needs are still important but that they are worth sacrificing to meet the needs of the one you love the most.
You learn to talk so that your spouse can understand you and to listen without judging or being critical. You learn that they think differently than you and that they may have different opinions then you do but they are still valid. You learn to defend them and stick up for them when others think they are wrong or out of their mind. You learn to live to make them happy and by doing so you become happy yourself.
You learn that the promises you made to each other aren’t to be broken and that forgiving each other is essential. You learn that you are stronger together than you are alone and that you have been commanded to be each others helpmate and to cleave to one another. You learn that others won’t always support you and that you have to be truly committed to overcoming your hardships. You learn that the reasons you love each other the most is because you know each other the most and you accept the good with the bad.
You learn to say “I love you” as many times as you can and to say “sorry” more and to hold grudges less. You learn that although you may be tired someone is working hard to make your life easier and to provide you with all the things you need.
You learn that you really are amazing and beautiful to that one person in the world who can get turned on giving you a morning kiss and that stretch marks can actually be sexy. Who would have thought?
That’s briefly some of what I have learned. Thanks to you, my one true love and my everything. I love you and can’t wait to spend the next forever by your side!

Big.....BIGger....BIGGEST!!!

So our kids are growing up too fast! Adelle is 8 weeks today and she is already growing up way too fast. She is such a smiler and now she has increased her cooing and talking. She is so amazing and such a cutie. Her personality is so sweet and she is so chunky but still has such a delicate little countenance. We love her so much and can't think of what our life was like before. Baby Carson, Braxton and Adelle's cousin, came over last night with Lesha and Peter and we had fun playing with all the kids. They are so fun! Carson, who will be 6 months, makes Adelle look tiny and then putting Braxton in the mix makes both the babies seem so small. Braxton loves being the big brother and cousin and both Addy and Carson just watch Braxton in awe. He is definetly the ring leader and eats it all up!

Kids say the Darndest things!

Jeff to Braxton: "I think baby girl is hungry, what do you think?"

Braxton: "Yeah."

Jeff: "Should dad feed baby girl?"

Braxton: "You can't feed baby girl, you don't have no nipples."

Apparently Braxton is picking up some anatomy lessons during the day. I wasn't in the room for this conversation but I walked in afterward to Jeff practically rolling on the floor laughing.

Huge Muscles

So Braxton has been really into his muscles lately. He found his muscle shirt the other day and wanted to wear it because it was like "uncle bent's" (Brent). Since then he has also found out that Jeff has a muscle shirt and everyday when Jeff gets home from work Braxton convinces him to put on his muscle shirt. It's pretty hot! We've been teaching Braxton that when he eats a good dinner that his muscles grow huge. He totally buys it and it's working great to get him to sit down for more then 2 minutes at dinner and eat.
This is Braxton using his huge muscles to push Carson in the swing in our backyard.
As for Adelle, she's got her share of muscles already and I love her in tanks and t-shirts. Chubby arms are so cute. For those of you who are wondering if she is always in her bouncy chair the answer is no! Unfortunately when Jeff's at work and I want to take a picture of her cuteness I can't hold her and Braxton can't hold her by himself so she gets put in her chair. I'm so lucky to have such a chill baby!

5 weeks

So I realize that our blog is suffering but the last five weeks have been a real whirlwind!

First of all I can't believe Adelle is almost 6 weeks old. It's going so fast and she is growing like a little weed. She is still the most perfect baby and I don't just say that because she's mine. Even my mom says she's never seen a baby so laid back and easy going and just to rub things in she slept 8 hours last night! Wow!

So here I go to sum up the past 5 weeks in the Ashmore home. Braxton got his first fever when Adelle was 2 weeks old. It was awful and lasted a week and I seriously thought I was going to go crazy. I'm such a worry wort sometimes. As it turned out it was his left ear and after the week of fever and not feeling well he was better. Oddly enough his ear never even hurt him which was good but he was pretty miserable.

During all of this Jeff's grandpa Johnson got really sick and had to be put in intensive care at the hospital. He too is doing remarkably better now but it was pretty scary for a while and he was in a lot of pain. The up side of that was that Jeff's whole family ended up coming up to visit from Arizona and so they got to meet Adelle and we spent lots of time with family. One night we went minature golfing and Jeff got to golf with Addy in the front pack. What a champ! The weather also started to finally feel like summer so we are spending many days and nights at my parents pool. My parents think we go there to swim but we really go there so they can hold our babies and we can have a little break! So lets see....Jeff and I got to play some tennis the other night by ourselves while his family stayed with the kids which was really fun and I kicked Jeff's booty! Then the next dayJeff's tonsil was swollen almost to the point where he couldn't swallow and he was really hurtin'. He was sick for 4 days and it was miserable and I can't believe he and Braxton have both gotten so sick this summer.

I think that basically sums it up. There has definetly not been a dull moment since Adelle joined our family but she fits in perfectly and we already feel like she has been with us forever. Although my little female partner can't quite help me take care of her brother or dad yet her spirit is so sweet and after a hard long day I just hold her and rock her and she makes everything better.