Merry Christmas, Happy New Year, Happy Birthday, Happy Everything

So it has been a crazy few months here at the Ashby household.  A week before Thanksgiving we headed out to Dallas, TX to spend a month with my sister while Dave did a rotation at the hospital out there.  It was both fun and crazy having 5 kids and 4 adults in a 3 bedroom house but I think it went way better than expected and was lots of fun too.  Here's some pictures to prove the fun :).

 My sister's 3 daughters with Santa

 You gotta have the crying baby picture right?

Ella was happy once Santa gave her a candy cane...

We returned home about 5 days before Christmas so it was crazy getting all ready decorating our house for the festivities but the girls loved it and especially loved the presents Santa brought.

 Traditional Christmas eve pajamas

 Ava REALLY wanted this pillow pet that makes stars on the ceiling.  Good thing Santa brought it!

 She was so happy!

 Ella really liked opening presents...

 But her favorite part was the candy.

 Ava and Ella really love their new purses from Texas Grandma and Grandpa sent all the way from Cape Verde.

I especially loved my presents as well! Yes I am that excited about a new vacuum.  I did just turn 32 so maybe I am just getting old... but check out that carpet! It's never been cleaner.

 Ava's cool tricks she loves showing to people.

 Christmas evening we headed down to spend time with Dave's family for dinner and more presents.  We love our family!

Sorry Mike! Someone had to post it though :) We had a little white elephant gift exchange too and here's Mike showing off one of the awesome gifts.

 A few days after Christmas we headed up to visit my grandpa, Granky, who turned 93 the beginning of this year.  He is such an amazing man and example to me.  He goes on 3 mile walks every morning, goes to the gym a few times a week and works in the Temple twice a week.  Not very many 93 year olds could say that.  He is amazing and I am so glad he is my grandpa and has set a great example to me of how to live life. What a good looking man :)!

 My parents who are serving their mission in Cape Verde, off the coast of Africa, were also able to come visit us at Granky's.  My mom had a horrible ear infection and was sent to Salt Lake to receive treatment as the care in Cape Verde is not so great.  They had been there for almost 6 weeks and my mom was finally starting to show improvement so they made a quick trip down to Vegas too.  It was so fun to be able to see them before they headed back to their mission a few days later.  They are also great examples to me and I love them so much.  I am surrounded by great examples and people I need to be more like!

I love all of these people so much and it was so fun to be able to spend a few days together.

A few days after we got back and my parents had returned to Cape Verde, we were Skyping with them and realized our children were being pretty quiet upstairs.... This is what we found.  That is permanent marker just so you know.  Luckily it was only on them and a white board and not all over our walls... Ava decided she wanted to be a cat so she drew some whiskers.  I am actually pretty impressed of how good of a job she did with it.  Ella just wanted to draw on her arms and all over the board.  It all came off eventually so that was good and I know they had a really fun time doing it although Dave and I didn't have as much fun cleaning it.

 A few weeks ago we headed over to the Wildlife zoo close by our home with some friends.  Dave's mom was so nice and gave us a bunch of free tickets from her work.  We had never been to this zoo before but had so much fun.  Unlike other zoos this one let you actually get really close to the animals and even feed some.  Ava chickened out of feeding the giraffe and I would have too.  Chris was the only brave one.

 That is a huge crocodile behind us! Yikes!!

 Ava got a little tired and decided to take a nap on the ground...

 This little girl LOVES friends and had so much fun with McKenna and Adyson and we had so much fun with the Fowlers and so glad they could come with us. We unfortunately forgot to get a group shot...

 Ella and I both celebrated birthdays recently.  Mine was on Jan 28 and Ella's was on Feb 2.  We celebrated with cake down in Mesa with family and had a great time.

I can't believe our baby is 2!!  And yes she is still in need of a constant binky.  That little girl just loves it and I don't have to heart to take it away nor does my sanity.  Yes both of our girls will probably need braces when they get older but that is the price I am willing to pay to not have screamers.

 For Family Home Evening this last week we made some delicious caramel apples.  The girls loved them!

Ella loves showing us the food in her mouth especially when she finds things she isn't supposed to have so she will come and show us and then run away.  She is crazy but so are the rest of us :).

Halloween to Thanksgiving

 

I just realized I never posted our Halloween pictures.  This year we went with a zoo theme.  Dave really appreciated me not making him wear something crazy like I have in Halloween's past.  He was our zookeeper, Ella was our "Ella"phant, Ava was a cheetah and I was a zebra.  We were pretty low key this year but the girls had lots of fun and Ella is still asking for "dandy" (candy) and Ava is always asking when we can go "Kunk and Treat" again.  They are crazy and unfortunately love treats like their mom.

We took a few family pictures don't judge them yet because I still need to edit them but thanks Jessica for taking them for us.  Unfortunately there were people behind us that would not move so it got dark.  Oh well at least we all look ok in these and we are all looking at the camera.

Dave has had several interviews for Residency next year (I can't believe we are already at that stage) so Ava wanted to celebrate when he got home from some of them.  We decorated with some streamers and balloons.  Ava was so excited.  She is our animated little girl and easily excitable.  I took her to our local library a few weeks ago where they have a throne you can sit and read on.  Ava sat on it and yelled "Look Mom, I'm a drama queen!!" I have never called her that but realized one of the shows she watches says it in it but she is a little bit of a drama queen.  She is a sweetheart too.  At the mall one time Dave and I stopped at one of those blood pressure machines to take our blood pressure and Ava wanted a turn too.  She hated it and how it squeezed her arm.  The next morning though she walked downstairs and said "Thanks Dad.  Thanks for helping me squish my arm." She is always very thankful even for things she doesn't really like.  I love that about her.  Ella is growing up so fast too and talking so much.  It helps when her sister is a non stop talker and is always saying "Ella, say..." and Ella repeats her.  It is pretty precious.  At dinner one night we were having spaghetti and Ella picks up a noodle and says "snake! SSSSSS." She loves her daddy so much too and is always talking about daddy and asking where he is.  She is such a daddy's girl and I love it.

We are doing great though and loving this time of year from Thanksgiving to Christmas.  There is so much to be grateful for. I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving!