Around the farm

We had a big project going on all summer at our place, good thing there were two supervisors on the job!

overseeing the concrete work

work faster! grrhh!

Helping daddy shovel with her new "my size" shovel. She was super excited!

what you lookin at?

I promise more updates soon, we've been pretty busy around here!

10 months old

Not much "baby" about our baby anymore!  She's getting into everything! Still not doing the traditional hand and knee crawling but she army crawls pretty fast! Just this week she figured out how to go from laying on her belly to pushing up and sitting on her butt. Now she does it all the time!  She is working on pulling herself up to standing... she can get to her knees in her crib and likes to bounce. Her favorite word is Dada. I ask her to say Mama all the time and all she says is Dada. She will say Mama when she's crying, it sort of sounds like she's begging me, "Mooomma!".  Hasn't cut any new teeth this month but has been able to handle a lot more cut up food. She LOVES food and she loves to feed herself. Still hasn't refused anything we've given her. Ashlyn is really good at making sure Kaelyn doesn't get into anything she's not supposed to. She says "no, no Kaelyn" many times during the day. Kaelyn had a thing for my plants recently and she tasted dirt and didn't seem to mind at all!  She's also changed her mind about our dog Gauge. She wasn't a big fan of him at first but now she loves seeing him and trying to pet him. She is starting to wave bye-bye. She also has a grunt/ruff sound she likes to make and she loves it when you say it back to her. It's almost like a little conversation :)

I couldn't get her to lay back in her seat for her picture this month... she just wanted to sit up like the big girl she is!

Two princesses

Ashlyn and Kaelyn dressed up as a "beautiful princess"

Ashlyn's 1st day of preschool

She's attending Little Lamb's Preschool at the St. Peter Evangelical Lutheran Church. She goes Tuesdays and Thursdays from 8-11am. There are 5 boys and 5 girls in her class and her teacher is Mrs. Voigt.

 She woke up so excited to go to preschool this morning. She couldn't wait to put on her backpack! She even made sure that we had her folder inside it like she's supposed to :)

Going down to her room. She knew exactly which hook was hers and she hung up her backpack and jacket and went to play with the kids. She gave me a big smile and wave when I said goodbye. Not scared at all!

Her friend Vivian is in her class and she knew a few other kids already too.


Just like I thought it would happen, she cried when I picked her up because she didn't want to stop playing with her friends! Good thing she gets to go back twice a week!

Ring Pop

We discovered a few weeks ago that Kaelyn really likes suckers. She never gets her own but Ashlyn is always happy to share with her little sister.

Kaelyn army crawling

This was last week, now she can do it without smashing her face into the carpet :)

Kaelyn's 9 months old!

Kaelyn sure is one happy little girl! She is always happy to see you and is very ticklish. She is on the move too. Rolling of course, but now she has started army crawling. She's getting better and better and I'm sure 'real' crawling isn't too far away (I'll post a video soon). She also likes to stand. We love all this progress but we're in no hurry for her to be so mobile yet! Where did my little baby go?!  She gets lots of compliments on her beautiful blue eyes and smile when we are out and about. Her mohawk is also still going strong, I might try to get a clip in there one of these days :)  Getting better at saying Dada and mama. She likes to raise her hands above her had for "So Big" to get you to smile. She is still eating like a champ, there is no food that she doesn't like so far. She prefers finger foods to baby puree's... can you blame her? Some of her favs are pasta pick-ups, cooked carrots, avocado, peaches, pears, puffs, cheerios and yogurt melts. She is also taking 2-3 bottles of formula a day and can hold the bottle herself. She has 6 teeth and I think that is what has been waking her up the last week or so once a night. Still takes one nap a day for about 2hrs.

She had her 9 month check-up yesterday and everything looked good! Ashlyn even got to wear a pair of the Dr's gloves and put on the stethoscope and listen to Kaelyn's heart just like Dr Knudson :)

Stats:

Height  30" (99%)

Weight  22.0 lbs (92%)

Makes sense why everyone seems to comment that she looks so long!

4 days, 3 months, 6 months, 9 months

(click on picture to make it bigger)

Feeding myself is messy business!

New pool

The girls got a new pool to try to beat the heat. Ashlyn really likes the built in slide and that it's much deeper than the old one so she can actually swim.

Show me your bear roar!

Kiddie Pool

We enjoyed some time at the kiddie pool. Kaelyn really liked it since the water was nice and warm. She just floated around, played with toys and let Ashlyn pull her around the pool.

slopping the hogs

Ok, so we don't quite slop our hogs but Ashlyn loves to give them grass through the chicken wire!  This is one of the fun things we do when Kaelyn is taking her afternoon nap.  Ashlyn usually asks if she can go inside the barn and go in the pens to ride the pigs... of course the answer is no! A 280lbs pig is not something for a little girl to mess around with!

Cruising around the yard on her 4-wheeler... pretty serious!

She draws a crowd!

Sometimes she gets "lucky" and they lick her fingers.

checking for aphids

We drove around checking for aphids in the beans and Joe showed Ashlyn what he was looking for. Sure enough they were bad. Beans will have to be sprayed for the 2nd time.

Checking out the new cattle.

Beans are almost as tall as Ashlyn!

more birthday pics

We had her open her gift from us on her actual birthday.

Apron with her name on it...

to go with her new little kitchen!

She picked Pizza Ranch for supper, her favorite!

Lake Belle Taine

We spent the last weekend in July at our friends cabin on Lake Belle Taine with our friends the Simon's and Dorn's. We borrowed Lyndsey & Keith's camper for our family to stay in and the girls slept in the bunk beds. Ashlyn was pretty proud of sleeping on the top bunk too!  Weather was perfect as was the lake and sandy beach. Lots of R&R and even a little skiing! Ashlyn asked Emily if she could live up there with her, she didn't want to leave - it was so cute!

Emily & Ashlyn

Kaelyn enjoyed the lake too!

Perfect beach!

Lincoln & Ashlyn playing on the beach