Ashley Update

This picture is from a few weeks ago while we were in Cedar City. Ashley wanted to donate a dollar to get her picture with a search and rescue dog. It was cute. ;)

So, I feel I need to take the time while Ashley is sleeping to let you all know that she is now officially walking! Yes! Finally! After all this time she's finally learned to do it. She's always kind of acted like she didn't care whether she learned to do it or not because she can get anywhere she wants by crawling, so why walk? Well, desperate times call for desperate measures and I did the one thing I thought would work even if it meant giving her a lifelong addiction. Yes, I admit that I bribed her heavily with M&M's. She only got an M&M if she would walk to get it. Within a week she was walking! I must say, she is her mother's daughter! There's not much I wouldn't do for chocolate... ;)

Ashley has always been a jabber mouth. Anyone who has endured a long car ride with her knows how she can babble! I'd so much rather listen to her babble than screaming so I'm okay with this! Her list of words/phrases include: "hi" "hi dad" (never "hi mom") "doggie" "what's that?" "wall-e" "WOW!" "uh-oh" "daddy" "moma" (said only when upset and crying of course) and a number of other words she says on occasion but we can never get her to repeat again such as: "fish" "fireplace" and "bellybutton." She even said "o-hee-o" once which we think meant "obispo" since that's what Spencer is constantly calling my dad who was recently called as a bishop of a University ward in Cedar City.

So I'm going to make a quick update on myself as well since I'm pretty excited about this. I've never been able to lose the weight I gained with Ashley and have since gained even more weight, almost enough to equal what I weighed right before delivery. It's been really hard for me and I've worried that I would just get bigger and bigger with each kid and never lose the weight no matter how much I exercised and how careful I was with food. I finally saw and endocrinologist this last week who informed me that my thyroid is very swollen and unusual in its texture and all that. He seems to think I have thyroid issues (which I was suspecting as well) that can cause all of the problems I've been having, being tired all the time, no energy, headaches, generally feeling crappy and depressed sometimes, and unexplained weight gain. I know it's weird to be happy that something is wrong, but I'm really excited because I get to go back and do some blood work to find out what exactly is going on and what medications I need to feel better. I'm so excited to be taking care of this! I can't wait to feel good again and I can't wait to finally start losing the weight that I've been trying so hard to lose! I'm really happy about it!