Vacations, Graduations, and Admirations

We have had a fun and crazy few weeks here at the Ashby household.  I am now officially married to a doctor! He even has a badge that says Physician that he wears to work now.  I can't believe how fast these last four years have flown by and now we are gearing up to start residency next week (wish me luck I am kinda nervous).  Dave has had training all this week and next week at Phoenix Children's Hospital and is loving it and can't wait to get started. I on the other hand wish time would slow down a little bit.  I have enjoyed having the time off from school and I am not sure I am ready to give my husband away again to long hours and a crazy schedule. I am so grateful that he loves where he is at though and is going to get great training at PCH. 

 Congratulations Dave!! I am so proud of you! Only 6 more years to go :)

 These 2 little girls are little buddies and I love how much they love each other (most of the time).

 We are rearranging at our home to and switching up the sleeping arrangements for the girls getting ready for the new baby.  Poor little Ella has slept for the last 2 years in a pack and play. Poor girl! We had a crib for her but just enjoyed our sleep too much to put the girls in the same room and are still separating them for that very reason.  They are too crazy together to sleep.  Ella has moved her way up to a toddler bed that Ava had been sleeping on.

 And we got new bunk beds for the girls that Ava is now sleeping on.  We are working our way up to transitioning them to sleep in the same room.  In a few months we are going to have to when the new baby comes.  We also found out that we are having another little girl!! We are so excited and love our little girls!

 I got matching swimsuits for the girls this year.  I couldn't resist - aren't they so cute!

 Partners in crime!

 Don't let those innocent faces fool you :) They are crazy!

 Right before graduation we gave ourselves a graduation gift to California to go to the beach and Disneyland.  It was SO fun!

 This guy was awesome and had a great little song he was singing about bubbles :).  Ava loved helping him with his performance.

 We loved the Santa Monica beach.  It was so pretty and fun.

 Then off to Disneyland for 3 full days of fun.  Ava was in HEAVEN meeting all of the princesses and characters.

 Sleeping "Cutie" (As Ava calls her)

 She had an Ariel shirt on that day so she was especially excited to see her.

 She loved talking to the princesses

 Cinderella

 We found the hidden treasure!

 Here's a fairy.  I love Ella's face in this shot.

 Tinkerbell

 This is how we started each day.  The girls had maps and led the way :).

 California Adventure Land was so fun too

 Ella decided Donald Duck scared her so she wouldn't get anywhere near him.  I'm still not sure why he was so scary.  The life size talking Mr. Potato Head was her favorite though - she is so funny!

 Ava was such a big girl and had fun on the rides.  We got her some 2 inch platforms so she could ride on more things :).  She is such a shortie like her mama.

 We loved Cars Land!! I thought it was awesome how they recreated the whole town just like it is on the movie.  The cars ride was so fun too.

 The girls loved meeting Mater.  Ella still talks about him. She has a Mater sippy cup that she begs for everyday and every time she sees it she says, "Hi Mater! I love you so much Mater!" She cracks us up.

 It really is the happiest place on earth!  Even after going strong for 9am-9pm for 3 days we all still had a smile on our face and wanted to stay longer - except for my feet which begged me to rest :)

 Dave wanted to take this picture for my brother Paul.  They had the whole Tony Stark dungeon set up like the movie.  There were too many people to get a better shot though.

 MICKEY MOUSE

 This was our third day and Ella had finally reached her limit.  This was the only time she took a nap the whole time we were in California.  We had so much fun there at Disneyland though and if it wasn't so expensive we'd go there all the time.  We loved it!

 After graduation we went on another fun vacation up to the mountains closer to home.  It was nice to get out of the 110+ degree weather we enjoy in the valley.  Thanks mom and dad Ashby for arranging the fun trip for us!

 We got to do a little horseback riding.  Ava did anyways.  Ella was too scared of the big horses.

 She is such a silly little girl!

 Surprisingly Ava had no fear though and loved riding on her horse named "Buzz."  She kept telling him "come on Buzz."  It was so precious and this picture is one of mine and Dave's favorite of her.  She is such a pretty and sweet little girl.

 We finally warmed Ella up enough to pet Buzz but that was as far as she would go.

Our last night up there we roasted some marshmallows in the fire pit behind our cabin and had s'mores with Reeses peanut butter cups instead of regular chocolate .  I'm not sure we will ever go back to the regular way of making them.  The PB cups were delicious.  I am not sure if we were supposed to have a fire up there as it was a high fire warning but we didn't know and luckily Smokey the Bear didn't find us :).

We've had such a fun few weeks that it is hard to get back to our normal routine and to have Dave start back up.  We are going to miss having him around all the time.  We are excited for the changes that are coming though with his residency and a new baby and we are definitely excited to actually be making a little money instead of paying it. 

Big News

We have had a few big announcements these past few weeks that we are excited to share.  First, the long awaited and much anticipated match day occured for us in the middle of March.  For those of you who don't know what match day is it is where all 4th year medical students across the nation find out where they will spend the next 3-6 years of their lives for residency (depending on what program they choose).  We ranked our programs in February and hoped and prayed we would get into the right place for our family - the match is a binding commitment so once you are assigned there is no turning back.  We were THRILLED with the outcome!

Phoenix Children's Hospital here we come! We were so happy to not have to move and it was our #1 pick.  We start 12 days after graduation on June 11th.   We were especially happy to not have to move since our second big announcement is Baby #3 will be joining our family in October! We are so happy! I am especially happy that I have now finally reached my 2nd trimester and am feeling a lot better.  Those first few weeks were pretty rough.  Right before residency starts we should find out what we are having.  I am trying not to think about it so I don't get my hopes up to high either way but mainly I am just praying for a healthy and CALM baby as I have yet to be blessed with a calm child :) My hopes for that were slightly shattered though at our ultrasound at 10 weeks when I watched that baby in there moving like crazy.  Even my doctor kept watching it and said "This is so entertaining.  I have never seen a baby this early in pregnancy be this active!" YIKES! I am not sure how I am going to do it with a super busy husband.  It will all work out though. 

At the end of March we celebrated Ava's 4th birthday! I can't believe she is that old.  She is as crazy as ever but has become so helpful and sweet.

 

 

Here our some favorite quotes from our little 4 year old:

"I have a question" - all day long and the things she says after are never questions :)

"I need to ask you somephin"

Prayer: "Please bless the food we're not eating...Please bless I'll be a princess...Please bless that I can give Jesus a hug."

Prayer: "Bless I will get married and daddy will buy me a ring and take me to the Temple."

Prayer: "Please bless mommy to feel better and bless the baby in her tummy to not be grumpy." -when I was so sick with morning/all day sickness :)

Prayer: "I love daddy! And he went to work and he doesn't leave me and he'll be home later because he's not afraid of the dark and he scares away monsters."

"Mommy can I be 3 and be baptized?" - she is really into being baptized

Nightmare - The Incredibles spanked her bum :)

I apologized to Ava for yelling at her for making a mess.  Ava said, "it's ok Mommy.  I'm sorry I yelled too.  You yelled louder but I'm sorry I yelled too." :)

Stands on her chair after dinner telling us she is getting bigger and going to break the house. (like Alice and Wonderland)  If only she would actually sit still and finish her food.  That is our struggle with her - it takes her an hour to finish dinner.  Mainly because she talks our ears off during it :).

She is such a beautiful little girl and we can't imagine life without her.  She is the life of the party where ever she goes and has no fear of anyone or anything.

 Our little Ella is our more timid little girl who's afraid of everyone and everything :). Not really but she does like having mom or dad close by.  She is the silliest little girl though and makes us laugh all day.  Most people don't get to see the Ella we see because she is more like her mother (reserved until she knows you really well and then is as crazy as can be).  At the store when people try talking to her she gives what we call the "grump face." Most people probably think she is grumpy but she is far from it and runs around our home being crazy and silly all day long.

 Some of our favorite 2 year old Ella quotes:

"Aba did it!" -normally true

"Hold you" - when she wants to be held

"Aba hit/pushed me." - normally true too but sometimes she just says it :)

Lately her 2 favorite quotes she repeats throughout the day are:

"What's that noise mommy?" - and whatever I say it is she normally tells me no it's a firetruck.

"What's that called?" - This is in reference to people, things, you name it.

 She has also mastered the tantrum throwing! She throws herself to the ground and tries to bite it or bite whatever is making her mad - not such a good thing.

 She LOVES brushing her teeth and following Ava around saying "come on Aba" to get her to play with her.

She has the cutest little voice ever and we love hearing her talk.  She says the cutest things and is so funny to watch try to fold her arms and close her eyes for prayers.  She normally has one arm folded and the other eating her food.  Sometimes she even likes to help Ava say her prayers and tells her what to say like, "Aba bless the foodies." We also have to be careful not to laugh to much at the things she says and does because she gets really embarrased.  It is very cute to see her get all shy and embarrased but we always want her to be able to be herself around us because she is so precious and so fun!

We love are crazy and fun little girls!