4th of July

It's a little late but here are some pictures of our wonderful 4th of July.

It was probably the best one we've had in a while. No stress just lots of fun. This picture is of Asha in our backyard waiting for it to get dark so daddy could light off some of our own fireworks. Our town has fireworks on the 4th of July every year and fortunately we can see them from our backyard so it's alot quieter and less crowded. She loved them and would yell "Sparkles" every time they lit up the sky. She did really well since there was minimal booming from where we were.

Also while waiting for it to get dark we lit our outdoor fireplace and grandma brought marshmallows so Asha had her very first roasted marshmallow. She LOVED it and couldn't get enough. I didn't get a picture but she had marshmallow all over her face. It's a good thing grandma's think of fun stuff like marshmallows.

This is Asha trying to see the ribbons she put on her head. Daddy bought brother some poppers that shoot ribbons out and she thought they were supposed to go on her head once they came out of the popper.

Daddy also bought the kids sparklers and Asha got to hold her very first sparkler. I got a picture but it's not the best. She liked it but it freaked mom out so the first was the last for the night. She enjoyed watching brother play with his so it was no big loss to her.

Here's my girl in her "kini" as she likes to call it. During the day we went to grandma and papas house to go swimming. She's not a big fan of the water but she really liked it this time. She was shivering and still didn't want to get out. I hope by the end of the summer she is really into swimming more.

Over all it was a wonderful 4th of July.

Tinkle Potty!

She did it she went tinkle on the potty yesterday. We've been trying for months now and nothing but of course when daddy is home she will do it for him. I think she barely went but we made a very big deal out of it so hopefully she will do it again.

She has been very good about letting us know when she needs a diaper change so I hope we are getting closer to her telling us when she needs to use the potty. She asks to go on the potty but it's usually after she's already gone in her diaper.

She's actually been asking to go on the potty more since she had a poop accident in the bathtub on Monday. I had to sit her on the potty for a while to clean up after her accident so maybe something clicked there a little. It was NOT a fun time. That was her first accident in the bathtub ever so I am counting myself lucky. It wouldn't have been soooo bad if she wasn't still sitting there with conditioner in her hair ready to drip in her face. I had to then rinse her hair in the kitchen sink which you would have thought I was trying to kill her with all the screaming and flailing about. We got through it and it will be a nice memory to tell her about when she's older.

Back From The Zoo!

This was the best picture we got of Asha at the zoo. It was so incredibly hot that day that none of us were smiling much. They even had cool mist areas that you could walk through and cool off. We went to the Minnesota Zoo and a good portion of it is indoors which was really nice but once you got outside it was packed and HOT!!

In this picture Asha is growling at the Sun Bear. She loves bears and she loves to growl at them. "AARRRRR" She sounds like a pirate when she growls it's funny.

We tried to take her to the dolphin show which I really thought she would like but as soon as the dolphins started splashing she was done. Daddy took her out about 5 minutes into the whole thing. I guess Sea World is out of the question, at least in the near future.

Asha did really like the hotel we stayed at. She always does so well when we sleep away from home. She loves to sleep in her pack n play and so it's a nice vacation for mom and dad as well. We put it in between the 2 beds so no one would hurt themselves trying to get to the bathroom at night and she would dive head first into it. She thought it was the best and funniest thing ever. She just kept throwing herself in and laughing.

In this pictures she is waiting ever so patient for daddy to get off of work. Daddy works away from home and one of the perks is that we get to stay with him out of town if we want. Since we showed up on a Thursday he still had to finish work.

In the background is her big brother Dakota. She loves him sooo much and he is such a good big brother. Someone at the dolphin show took one of her stuffed animals she HAS to bring with when we go places and he saw them so he walked up to them and told them that they had his sisters bear and asked for it back. They gave it to him and we were really impressed with him for that.

Asha impressed us alot at the hotel too. She has a little magna doodle that we take when we travel and daddy was drawing fish on it and showing her. She took it and started to draw and she drew a frog. It was a frog. She made the little dots for eyes and a line for the mouth and it really looked like a frog. She watches people very closely when they do things especially when we draw or write and she catches on very fast. Later she made a circle with 2 lines coming out of the top and 2 lines coming out of the bottom and she showed me and said "spider". It looked like a spider. She also did a pretty good job drawing fish after daddy did a few more.

This picture is our last day at the hotel and Dakota obviously is not happy about leaving daddy behind. We had lots of fun and it was nice to see daddy and get some time away from home to relax.

Busy Days!

We've been pretty busy around here. Trying to get the outside of the house to look like a home. We finally planted some Hostas and bought some flowers.

I like this picture of Asha in front of our hard work. We have more to plant but need to do some work to the ground first.

Asha is just getting to be so big and so smart. I love to hear her talk and the things she says make her sound years older than she is. She picks up on things rather quickly and suprises me with all the things she can say. She can count to 14 now and we are working on the alphabet and her favorite part of the alphabet is XYZ. She sings it over and over again. She can recognize the letter O and A in words which I think is really good.

We had put a chalkboard up in her room so I could write out the alphabet and start to teach her letters the same way I taught her brother but she doesn't like letters on her chalkboard only hearts and stars. She always wants me to draw hearts and stars and if I sneak any letters in there she erases them. Stinker she is!!

In this picture she is doing her newest thing. She likes to put her finger to her mouth and say "Hmmmm" like she's thinking really hard and then she'll put her hands out and say "I know" or "I don't know". It's the cutest thing.

I love this dress on her. She wore it today and I just could not stop taking pictures of her in it. She just looked so summery and pretty in it. I love summer because we get to see more of her beautiful skin. Her arms and legs are just so cute and we miss them when they are covered up all winter.

She also learned at a playdate we had how to bump fists. It's so cute when she comes up to you and says "fist" and bumps her little fist into our fists.

Potty training is not going well. She is very cooperative about sitting on the potty but still has not done anything on the potty. I thought we may have had some success today but nothing happened in the end. I'm not pushing it but just don't know how to figure out how to make her understand what needs to be done on the potty.

She is still doing great in her big girl bed. When she wakes up in the morning she stays in her bed until someone comes in to get her. For naps I only caught her once trying to get out and once I caught her she went right to sleep.

I can't wait to post pictures of her in her bikini. I can't wait until it's warm enough to go to the beach. We have one nice day and then a week of cold days lately.

We Did It!!

Asha has been in her big girl bed for almost a week now. We converted her crib into the toddler daybed and put a railing on so that she wouldn't fall out but could still get out on her own. It was time. She could get in her crib all by herself so it was only a matter of time until she figured out how to get out. She stays in when we lay her down for the night and she waits until we come in in the morning before she gets out. Now I know that eventually she will start getting up on her own in the morning but for now I'll enjoy her not running into our room and waking us up.

Still having problems on the Nuk front. She has been Nuk free for a few weeks now and the last few nights have been pretty hard on us. She will sleep good for about 4 hours and then she's up crying and whinning alot. The only thing that makes her stop is to have her cd of lullabies on. The problem with that is it's only a 1/2 hour cd so she's up shortly after it stops. It's been up and down all night for the last few days and then she's been getting up before 8 a.m. to top it off. No naps either so I'm pretty tired and don't know what to do. Suggestions????

We've been pretty busy lately with Asha's brother Dakota. He joined soccer this year and we've had it every Thursday night and Saturday morning. The above picture is Asha and Daddy at one of Dakota's soccer games. She did wonderfully at the games and would cheer for her big brother. It's so cute hearing her yell "Go Dakota, Kick It!!"

Now normally I don't have luck at yard sales but I hit the jackpot the other weekend at our town yard sale. I got the above shirt for Asha at a great price and I absolutely love it on her. She is just so darn cute in it and I can't wait until we have nice weather again so she can wear it. Of course daddy loves it because it's camo.

My girl is just so darn cute!! She says and does the funniest things. Today she gave her baby doll a time out since she (Asha) has been getting them so much this week. I just had to laugh. Also when the phone rings she'll run to where the phone is and yell "I get it!!". If I catch her doing something wrong and ask her what she's doing she'll say "Coming". She just speaks so well. She does know how to count to 14 now but I love it when she gets to 11 because it comes out "lemon". Along with all the time outs this week we have been having fun and I've been laughing so much at her. Her personality is just so bright like her and I feel so blessed to be her mommy.

Cute Pictures

I found this cabbage patch doll at a yard sale and it's the nicest African American doll I've found. They just look so darn cute together. Asha loves to play dress up. My husband loves the clearance isle at Walmart because he finds all kinds of goofy hats for her to wear. She's not wearing one here because she was trying to be pretty but she's got some pretty old lady looking hats in her collection.

Asha has discoverd the joys of sidewalk chalk. She loves to color anyways but to be able to color outside and pretty much anywhere she wants is beyond fun to her. She has also discovered that sidewalk chalk shows up really good on her legs. I didn't get them in the picture but they are beautifully colored.Asha had her 2 year pictures done about a month ago and this is by far my favorite. We didn't even intend on getting any Sepia pictures but when she pulled this one up we just fell in love with it. It is just so precious.

Vegetarian???

I think my little girl is a vegetarian. The only thing that I can guarantee she will eat at every meal is her vegetables. She will eat any kind of vegetable but meat is hit and miss. Most the time it's a miss. She loves vegetables that most of us Northerners won't even touch or have never heard of. My husband grew up in the South and has introduced Asha to fried Okra, Mustard Greens, and Collard Greens. She loves asparagus, Homney, spinach, corn and salad. She goes nuts over salads.

We were at McDonalds today and I ordered her the traditional chicken nugget kids meal and she wouldn't touch them. All she wanted was her apple dippers and fries. What kid doesn't like McDonalds chicken nuggets?

She loves fruit too. She's always asking for apples and bananas. I am so happy that she eats healthy but she does need some meat in her diet doesn't she? She eats really good for the most part just not meat.

Toddler Bed~ I think we have decided to convert her bed into a toddler bed. She can now get into her bed by herself even if the railing is all the way up. She can't get out though so all day long she climbs in and then yells "Mama Stuck" so I have to get her out just so she can climb back in. She literally spent over an hour in her crib tonight just playing.

Here's a picture of my future basketball player. She loves basketball now after just playing for one day. She looks out her window and says "Basketball Hoop". She would put the ball over her head and look at her brother and say "help" and then when he would throw the ball and make a basket she would jump up and down like she made it. It was soooo cute!! She's got the height to be a basketball star. She is 90% for height. People don't believe me when I tell them she JUST turned 2. They think she's an older 2 or just 3. My girl is so big and growing so fast. I bought her sandals today and had to buy her a size 7 in toddlers. Last year she was a 4 or 5. Why do they have to grow so fast?

Here is my girl showing her sassy side. Daddy and mommy were talking and laughing about how silly she was being so she was pointing at us laughing at her silly self. We fenced in the backyard for her and she was loving running all over and antagonizing the neighbors dog who could only run to the end of her fence and Asha could go further so she would and that would make the dog whine for her to come back.

We are definately loving the outdoors and I should have plenty more outdoor pictures of her to share soon.

Bye Bye Nuk!

Well last night turned out to be very sleepless. Asha fell asleep on me at 7:30 last night since she didn't have a nap at all and I thought she was down for the night. Guess again. She woke up at 11:30 crying so I went in to find her Nuk (she only gets it for bed) for her and I put it in her mouth and she spit it out and continued to cry. I tried the Nuk again and the same happened only this time she was getting more mad. I finally looked at the Nuk and it was ripped through the middle. I told Asha "Nuk broken" and she had a complete meltdown. This would not be that big of a problem if we had more Nuks but DH said after this one is done that it's no more Nuk. So she threw a temper tantrum until she fell back asleep but continued to wake up many many times throughout the night screaming and crying because she couldn't find her Nuk.

This is going to be so hard to listen to every night. It breaks my heart to hear her cry like that but I know it is something that needs to be done so why not sooner rather than later right? I don't know how much I actually believe that but we'll see how it goes and how long I can hold out before I buy her another one.

We are still undecided about the toddler bed. She doesn't climb out yet but she gets her leg over the top of the railing and just kind of sits there until I get her down. She's getting there but not there yet. How long do you think we can hold out????

Crib to Bed?

Now that Asha is 2 we have been debating if we should move her to a toddler bed. Actually her bed is a conversion bed so it would just mean taking the railing off of her bed to make it into a toddler day bed. She rarely naps anymore but on the days I would want her to nap it would be IMPOSSIBLE if she were in a toddler bed. The positive side of no naps is that she is ready for bed between 7:30-8:00 and she is out cold so there would be no fights to get her to stay in bed. I just don't know if I'm ready to give up the few naps she takes a week. Those days are so nice to have time to get things done without her wanting "up" and hanging on me. I love her to death but some days it's hard to fold the laundry multiple times because she's "helping" or being pushed away from the sink/stove because she wants me to pick her up.

I also don't know if it's a good idea to change too many things at one time for her. We have sort of started potty training and I don't know if that would all be too much for her.

I don't know what to do. In my head she is still a baby and I don't want to think of doing any of this because she's just a baby but then when I REALLY look at her I realize she's getting to be such a big girl and these are things we need to do.

Any advice anyone?

My Baby Is A BIG Girl!!

I don't have a baby anymore I have a big girl. The family picture was taken when Asha was 3 months old and she is now my 2 year old.

Asha had her 2 year doctor appointment and she is 90% for height. A whopping 35" for height and 26 1/2 pounds which makes her 50% for weight. She is tall and skinny .... very tall.

I can not believe she used to be only 6 pounds and 18". When we brought her home she was too small for her car seat. She was just this little itty bitty ball. She didn't even fit in the preemie clothes we had to go out and buy her. Time really does fly.

The doctor had suggested that we start to potty train her since she seems to understand when she is wet. She will tell me "change diapey". It's so cute!! She has yet to go tinkle on the potty but she sits there nicely while I sing stupid little made up potty songs to encourage her to go tinkle on the potty. My step son thinks I'm crazy but if it eventually makes her go tinkle I'll look crazy.

My girl is sick today. No fever but she can't keep anything down. I feel so bad for her because she cries so hard whenever she is throwing up. At one point I had her in the tub to clean her up after one of her episodes and she just started to cry and puke and shake. I was crying because I felt so bad for her. I hope she feels better after her nap.

We did Easter last Sunday since DH won't be here for Easter. I didn't get any good pictures of Asha with her Easter basket because she was all serious again like with her birthday presents. She is really enjoying jelly beans though this year. She will ask "Heas (please) jelly bean" and run over to where her bucket is on the counter. Hopefully next year daddy will be home for Easter and we can do it right.

Happy Easter Everyone!!

Where Does The Time Go?

My girl is officially a 2 years old. We had her birthday party yesterday with family. She has finally gotten the hang of presents and went right to town on them when we brought them out. The funny thing was though that she got so serious about the presents. She didn't crack one smile the whole time she was opening them. She concentrating very hard on getting them open and then deciding which ones she wanted to play with right now. Look at that concentration on her face. She had a job to do and she was going to do it well.

Daddy thought it was funny to pile all of her bows on her head while she was opening presents. She was concentrating so hard that she didn't even notice they were on her head until she was all done.

On her birthday and for her birthda party I painted her finger nails for the very first time. She loved it. She felt so pretty and kept looking at her nails. The really funny part though was when I blew on her nails to dry them she kept saying "hot" "hot". I had to keep telling her "not hot just wet". Silly girl!! Here are her nails all painted and full of frosting from digging into the cake. Here you can see that concentration again. She's usually not so serious. She is actually a VERY silly girl.

On her actual birthday we went and had a girls day out and did some shopping and had lunch. It was alot of fun and exactly what I always hoped to do with my daughter. Here is a picture of her on her actual birthday. She's such a girly girl and I love it.

I just can't believe she is 2 years old. We talked to her birthmom on the phone yesterday as well and she is having a hard time believing it's been 2 years as well. She seems to be doing really well. She is busy with her other 2 children. They were at a parade when we called so we couldn't talk long but it was nice for her to be able to talk to Asha and for Asha to be able to hear her birthmom's voice. Asha didn't say much because she was watching me frost her birthday cake and REALLY wanted some of that frosting but she was listening to everything her birthmom said. It was really sweet.

My Babies Turning 2!!!

I can't believe that on Tuesday my little baby will be 2 years old. I can't believe it's been 2 years since we drove 19 hours down to Florida to see her for the very first time. It just can't be 2 years already. Time can not possibly have gone by that fast. She's still a baby in my head and I think she will always be my baby.

She got her first birthday present in the mail on Friday and it was from her birthmother. I cried when I saw it. It will mean so much to Asha when she is older. It is a red velvet heart shaped box with a crystal angel bear inside and under the lid was this little poem:

A GIFT OF LOVE My gift to you is my love given from deep within my heart. This special love will never end even when we're apart.

It was just so sweet. I have it right where Asha can see it every day. Her birthmother is such a wonderful person and we are so blessed to have her in our lives. Asha will be blessed to grow up knowing how much her birthmother loves her.

Asha's birthday party is going to be on Saturday and we are having family over and cooking out weather permitting. I think we got her just as many presents for her birthday as we did for Christmas and that's saying alot because we went over board on Christmas.

I will post pictures next week of the party. It should be fun and I HOPE we have beautiful weather.

All Moved In!! YEAH!!

Well we are officially moved in. Here is a picture of Asha helping me pack before the big move. She was such a big help can't you tell?

The first day was alot for her to handle. At first she was scared and didn't know what to think of it all but once we got some of her toys in her room she was happy as could be. She loved yelling "HI" to all the guys as they came in and out and she loved running around the nice open space that our new home has. That first night was rough going for sleep. She fell asleep at 8:30 really well but was up at midnight and wouldn't go back to sleep until 5 a.m. Made for a very long and tiring day unpacking the next day. After that first night though she has slept better here than at our old house. She rarely gets up in the middle of the night now and goes down without a fuss.

We are both loving the new house. It is open concept and her bedroom is now on the main floor so no more toys in my living room!!! She does drag some out but for the most part it is contained in her room.

Her new passion now is toilet paper. She has never had access to the bathroom before and now there are 2 on the main floor. We are constantly having to roll the toilet paper back up.

I bought these really cute butterfly pegs and frames to hold her pictures of her birthparents and biosiblings and painted them purple. On the frames I stamped cute little yellow butterflies that will match the wall color. I also put white glitter on the butterflies so they sparkle when the light hits them. They turned out really well. Here's a picture of the finished product. Her room will eventually be yellow walls and big purple butterflies. It should look really nice when done.

Funny Things My Baby Girl Says!!

My little girl has become a jabber jaws lately. She likes to repeat what everyone says including stuff on tv. She tries to make it sound as close to the real word as possible but sometimes she just mutilates the word. She is so funny to listen to. Here are some of my favorite words that she says:

"Amaming" ~Amazing
"Kiki"~ Cookie
"Gooey"~ Cody
"Ucky Cone" ~ Ice cream Cone
"Ucky Toes" ~ Twinkle Toes
"Chill" ~ Chill
"Asha's Amaming" ~ Asha's Amazing
"Hees" ~ Please

It is just so funny to listen to her talk. She is getting so verbal.

She also likes to mimick what is going on on her favorite cartoons. She is a big Blues Clues fan and copies most of what they do which is really good since they do alot of sign language. She also tries to sing along with the songs. It's so very very cute!!

I wish you could all hear her. Like I said before she's got the voice of a thousand angels. It's just the sweetest thing to hear and I feel so blessed to be her mommy!!

Adoption Again?

Well we just had our taxes done yesterday and it was a pleasant suprise as to how much we are getting back. I am so excited because the money is putting us closer to our goal of HOPEFULLY starting the adoption process again next year.

Asha will be 3 next year and I think by then she will be able to handle having a younger sibling. I too will be able to handle another baby alot better with her being a little older. I'm not the kind of person who could handle two children close in age.

My mind is just swimming now about all the possibilities. We know that we want another girl. I never had any siblings growing up and I would have loved to have had a sister. I really think Asha will like having a younger sister. She played much better with the little girl I babysat than the little boy.

We also want to adopt another little girl with Asha's beautiful skin color. We want her to look around our family and see someone else who resembles her. I think this is really important to bring more diversity into our family and for her to have someone to share her heritage with and some of the life problems that may come from being adopted or even from being African American. We can try to help her but we could never understand as well as another sibling who may be going through it as well.

Our problem now is how to go about adopting again. I want to do domestic adoption again but am so scared of going through all the emotional turmoil we had prior to adopting Asha. I don't know if my heart could take it again but this time around may be easier since I do have Asha and know what to expect already of the process. My husband wants to adopt from Liberia which was also a dream for both of us but I enjoyed the baby stage so much with Asha that I would love to do it again from the beginning. They grow so fast and it would be so hard for me to celebrate a 1 year birthday after only having them home for a few short months. I still haven't had my baby fix yet and would really like to have another itty bitty baby here to cuddle.

I also love open adoption. We have an amazing relationship with Asha's bmom and I would love the opportunity to do it again. I know it will be different than our current relationship with Asha's bmom but I think adopted children grow up happier knowing where they came from and who they look like. I like being able to e-mail Asha's bmom and ask questions about their family and heritage so I can pass it on to her. This means alot to me and I think it will mean alot to Asha and our new baby as well.

I guess it will be a year long discussion between my husband and I until we have to make a decision next year. I will keep you all posted.

First Time Sledding!!

We finally got enough snow to go out and play in. At first Asha didn't know what to think of it other than it was really hard to walk in but once daddy got her on that sled and they went down a few times she was all for playing in the snow.

We didn't stay out long though because they don't make good winter gloves for 1 1/2 year olds and her hands started to get wet and cold. She however did NOT want to go in. She was having so much fun and just wanted to keep going down in the sled. Unfortunately big brother wasn't home to enjoy this with us because they would have had so much fun together.

We even put Asha not even half way up the hill and let her go down a little ways by herself and she was just squeeling with delight. My camera wasn't fast enough to catch all of her but I got most of her going down by herself.

I can't wait to go out more. There is a bigger hill not far from our house that we want to take both kids too. I'm sure our little adrenaline junky will love it.

We're Moving!!

We looked at a place today and decided to buy it. It's alot less to handle than our current home and since my husband travels so much I just can't keep up on my own.

It is right in our little town so Dakota will be able to walk to school and his Tae kwon do class. This way I won't have to wake Asha up from her naps, when she actually takes them, to go and pick him up from his after school activities.

We are pretty excited and I like the neighborhood ALOT. It should really make life a little easier and we'll have more family time to spend together which is what is important to us.

On a side note the kids made out for Christmas and our home is full of toys. I'm sure you all have this problem as well. We just took a load to my inlaws house of toys that are still in good condition but the kids don't play with and they will distribute them to needy families from their church.

I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas and you all have a wonderful new year!!!

I will post a picture late when I have more time!! Check back for pictures!!

Christmas is coming!!!

I can't believe Christmas is almost here again. Asha's second Christmas WOW. This year should be really fun with her. Last year all she wanted to do was rip everyone's bows off their presents and play with those.

Lesson number one learned!! Don't put Christmas presents under the tree 3 weeks prior to Christmas. Will drive the little one CRAZY!!! We had to take all bows off the presents because she kept stealing them. Now she just steals the presents.

Lesson number two learned!!! I guess there is no lesson number two. Just don't put presents under the tree early unless you want to chase little one around and repair presents multiple times.

My stepson is loving this though because Asha keeps damaging the wrapping paper on his presents and he is hoping to get a peak of what's inside.

Christmas is at our house this year and I am going all out!! I found a fun punch recipe that will be fun for the kids, now all I have to do is find a punch bowl. We are baking this weekend in preparation and I will also be making snacks next weekend in preparation for Christmas Day. I am so excited. Last year was hard on us so there wasn't much excitement which bummed me out since it was Asha's first Christmas but her second Christmas is going to ROCK!!

Our Christmas morning tradition is to have Belgian Waffles with strawberries after opening all of our presents. The kids love it and it's something we only have time to do once a year.

What are some of your Christmas traditions?

Again I am trying to upload pictures but I am having problems. I will post pictures later if I can.
I have the cutest picture of the kids in front of the tree and I so want to post it!! UGH!!

Straight From My Heart!!

I can't believe how much I love my little girl. I never felt unconditional love from my mom and was always fearful that I wouldn't be able to give it but WOW I am full of it. Asha could do anything good or bad and that girl would still hold that special place in my heart. There are days that my heart feels like it will burst with all the love it feels for her.

I cry daily for her. Mostly happy tears but some sad tears and some scared tears. I just can't believe that I've been so blessed with her and that she is our little girl forever and ever. It was such a hard journey to get her and some days it still feels like someone's going to come and take her from me. I cry because she is growing up too fast. It's hard to believe she will be with us for 2 years in March. The time is just going by way too fast. I cry for the possiblity that somene will hate her for her beautiful brown skin. I was flipping through the channels the other day and stopped when I saw an African American baby doll hanging from a rope. Turns out it was a show about the KKK and I just wanted to throw up. How could someone hate my baby just because she has brown skin. She brings us such joy and others around her as well so how could anyone hate her who doesn't even know her.

Sorry that got a little too intense there. LOVE LOVE LOVE is all I feel when I look at her and I couldn't have gotten through these last few years without her. She makes me smile when I'm too sad or tired to even want to smile and laugh ..... I don't think I've ever laughed so much in my life. I keep telling my mother in law that Asha has the voice of a thousand angels, but then it can turn to the sound of a screaming banshee in a matter of seconds. It's the thousand angels voice I love to listen to. She lays up in her crib and just talks herself to sleep and it's the sweetest thing I've ever heard.

I tried to post a recent picture but either my computer is acting up or blogger wouldn't let me so no picture this time. SORRY!!!

A little bit of this and that!!

Here is Asha in her actual Halloween costume. She was supposed to be a fairy princess but wouldn't keep the crown on and once she got ahold of her first sucker she wouldn't hold the wand either so everyone kept calling her a butterfly so I guess that's what she was. Like the antenna's? I thought it was a cute idea. She unfortunately got a cold that day so didn't have too much fun but was happy to have her blue sucker through the whole thing.

The funniest thing though was that instead of saying trick or treat at the door she would walk up and say "eat". It's her favorite word and most people thought she was saying treat. Only I really knew what she was saying and would just laugh to myself.

Here's my first attempt at corn rows with beads. It was pretty interesting to do and took about an hour and a half of Blues Clues to get it done. It only lasted a few days and then she started pulling them out. When I first put them in she kept walking around shaking her head no because she liked the sound and the feel of them. It was funny to watch!! I don't think I did them completely right since they came out so easy but I'm sure the more I do it the better I will become at it.

Does anyone have any suggestions on how to make the last bead stay in and how to tuck the hair under the rest of the beads? Any suggestions would be GREATLY appreciated!!