Ashley's 2nd Birthday - Part 2!

     As I mentioned in my last post, I had too many pictures of cute little Ashley and her birthday celebrations to do just one post. :) Her birthday was Wednesday the 11th and a few days later on that Saturday we had some of my family down for a little party. I figured Ashley wouldn't remember a birthday party with friends and Spencer was in the middle of finals so I really didn't want to stress about planning a party for friends too (besides the fact that I don't have the money to feed all those little mouths and make fun decorations and games haha, maybe next year). But my dad and my older brother and his wife were able to come down (my mom was already here) for the party. Poor Uncle Danny missed it because he had to go to drill.

     Ashley was so excited to see her grandpa. I'm pretty sure she loves my dad more than she loves me, as evidenced by the pictures below (When was the last time she chilled on the grass with me? Try NEVER!):

     After lunch (and before her nap which I wasn't so sure she'd take with all the excitement) we had cupcakes and opened presents! I'm dumb and I videoed the blowing out of the candle but didn't make sure anyone was taking pictures of it haha. So, sorry, you miss out on those but you got them from her real birthday so I don't feel quite so bad. :) She loved all her presents and we had to open all of them immediately so she could play with them. Again, she needed grandpa to help her open them because they're super buds like that. ;)

 

     Perhaps the funniest thing of the day was her exploration of the Play Dough puppy Uncle Alan and Aunt Alexis gave her. She loved mushing the dough and squashing it into the molds. There was a little crank that you could shove play dough in and grind it to make dog food for the puppy. She really loved that. You could also fill some tubes in the puppy's head with play dough and when you pushed his head back down onto his neck, hair wold grow out the top of his head and a tongue would come out of his mouth. For whatever reason she was terrified of this little feature! We all had a good laugh making the puppy grow hair and watching her freak out (is that child abuse?) and I'm still working with her, but I think she's not so scared of it anymore. She still doesn't like it but she's also not backing away saying "I'm scared! I'm scared!"

    


     This is before she got all freaked out. She was shoving pieces of the dog food we'd made into his mouth. She thought that was pretty cool. She likes to feed her toys. I think she worries about them going hungry. ;)

      And this is just before we abused her with the "growing" hair and tongue. Like I said, I'm working on it with her and she seems to be making improvements. ;) We love our little girl to death and we were so happy to be able to have a family party for her!

Ashley's 2nd Birthday!

     I had almost finished writing this post when all of a sudden everything disappeared and and I can't even tell you how mad I am about it because I've been working on this for an hour! Lame...

     Well, Ashley turned 2 on May 11th! I had a ton of pictures to choose from (we had a little family party for her on Saturday as well) and I decided to split her birthday into 2 posts and save this one just for her actual birthday. Spencer was in the middle of finals so he was hibernating in the bedroom all day (and let me tell you, he felt so bad!) but luckily my mom was here to help me make all the preparations leading up to our little celebration that night. We decided to have pizza that night because it's Ashley's favorite (yeah, she's not our daughter is she haha) and then we did a simple cake since we'd be making 2 during that week for both parties. When it came time to sing happy birthday Ashley sang along and ended up spitting all over half the cake trying to blow her candle out. :) It was too cute. In the end she counted to 3 with me and on "three" she must have blown just right while saying it because she blew it out! She was so shocked! :) After cake we opened presents (which she was completely thrilled about) and I think she tried to lick the first one... not sure why haha.

     Along with her new Rapunzel jammies (which she insisted on wearing to bed three nights in a row and threw a fit every morning when we had to take them off to get dressed), she got a Little People fairy set, a princess puzzle, a giant doggy floor puzzle, and a new bike! Every day when we're at the park (all the little kids that play there in the morning are in our ward) Ashley borrows bikes that no one is using but when all the kids are on their bikes she's so sad and lonely! So I thought it was time she got her own bike. She wants to take it everywhere! The only problem seems to be that she can't reach the pedals but she's content enough for now to push along like a little Flinstone. :) At her 2-year check-up she came up in the 30th percentile for height and the 76th percentile for weight. I had no idea she was such a shorty! I guess that's why even on the closest seat setting and with the pedal blocks on she still can't reach haha. (At this point the doctor also said it's fine to get her off whole milk haha. Apparently she's healthy enough without the extra fat haha.)

     And last, but certainly not least, here's Ashley helping grandma put together the floor puzzle. After a nice bath and her lovely Rapunzel PJs I'm pretty sure this little girl was in heaven. :) I can't believe she's already 2. I may have actually shed a few tears later thinking about how little and helpless she was when she was born and now she's a crazy little toddler who can do so much for herself. We just love her to death!