My favorite season is here!

I love Fall. I love the weather, the decorations, the holidays, the activities, the clothes! I love it all. Besides decorating the house for Christmas, decorating for Fall is a close 2nd for favorite seasonal house decor :) I took me a full week to get it decorated, versus the usual one afternoon (that whole taking care of a baby really takes up my time) but I love it and cant wait to add a little here and there as the months go by :)

and to top it all off a made a batch of these bad boys Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Muffins , I coulndt indulge myself (still no dairy thanks to the little one) but Tony told me they were delish :)

xoxo
Ashlea

Exploring Fabric

  The other day I was trying to think of some new toys and play to do with Charlotte. I thought about what she loves to grab and mouth which right now is her bib and blanket, so I came up with exploring fabric in different ways.

I set up her Bumbo seat with the tray, found an old (but clean!) shirt and went to work. I made the fabric into different "styles" and presented them one at a time to her, she loved them! They kept her attention for 20 minutes which is like 50 years in baby time :)

First was a simple strip of fabric....

Next was a braided strip...

and next an "octopus"strip....

and finally a sleeve stuffed with the rest of the shirt to make a big ball with a tail on the end....

 

And she took some breaks to stare at the electrical outlet on the wall...

While we explored the fabrics I had some classical music on and we talked about how it looked and felt and lots of "YAYAYAYA great grabbing! What good talking, tell me more about it!" :)

I definitely count it as a success and will be pulling it out to play with again in the future.

xoxo
Ashlea

Photo Dump

We take lots of walks :)

She is getting so good at grabbing toys!

so pretty <3

smiles!

more walks

first airplane ride!

she did great! she spent most of the time like this in the seat beside me playing

she found her awesome hair and pulls on it all the time now

:)

I decorated for Fall and a certain someone got into my wheat and unknowingly had evidence hanging off her lips

she has started to grab my face when I play with her, its so precious!

This is what flying by yourself with an infant looks like :)

It was chilly up at Grandma Moose's, thank goodness for Grandpa's flannel :)

Hope everyone is having a great weekend!

xoxo
Ashlea

First airplane trip!

  Tomorrow Charlotte and I will set off on her first airplane ride, I will be doing this solo - eeekk! Tony doesnt have enough vacation to come this trip so its just me and the little one. I am trying to plan ahead and be as organized as possible but with all things relating to a little baby, you can only control so much :)

Wish us luck on our adventure and we cant wait to see the family!

xoxo
Ashlea

One year later.....

     In September 2012 I was beginning the process of IVF with the hopes of getting pregnant. Now one year later I have a beautiful and healthy little girl that I am watching sleep on the baby monitor. Doing IVF was one of the hardest things both physically and emotionally that I have ever done but man it was so worth it. I documented a lot of IVF, my pregnancy and the first few month of Charlotte's life, I put it all together in a video and I have cried all through making it and watching the final result because goodness gracious do I love this little baby of mine :)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J5JeJUAP9VI&feature=youtu.be

xoxo
Ashlea

My favorite view

I walk every morning with C unless its raining. It gets me out of the house and we both get fresh air while she takes her morning nap, its a great way to start the day. Lately while riding in the stroller she has been doing "prayer hands" while she looks around and takes it all in. I love it. Its my favorite view - this little girl taking in the world, seeing, hearing , smelling everything around her and her little hands seem to be showing how wonderful she thinks it all is :)

xoxo
Ashlea