Many of you know that we have moved. This is our new house. Yes I know that it looks like a old barn. That is because it is. We have some land not far from my parents house that we are trying to build a house on. We are living with my parents and trying to save money for the build. This little old barn has two bedrooms and a bathroom. We have a very close family. Life is good! We look forward to our future. While being at mom parents house we have come to acquire many animals. My brother Luke gave Emma a little puppy. She calls him Rascal. He is cute and loves to play with my girls.

The girls were playing around my parents house with this toy horse. They were all on it at once. They sure thought they were funny. Crazy cute girls.

Krista loves the kitties at my mom's. She has been so cute with them. She grabs them every chance she has and loves up to them. They are so good with her. They put up with so much. Krista and Jessica dress them up in doll clothes and push them around in the stroller.

I pulled out my kids holloween costumes the other day and all the kids tried them on. Zack is going to be a puppy. Emma thought it would be fun to take a picture of Zack with Rascal. I think she was right. They look alike don't you think. Zack has been growing up so fast. He wants to be playing with his sisters. He is so close to sitting up on his own, and I am sure that it will only be time before he is off chasing after them. He loved playing with the puppy and being outside. We have loved the fall weather, and look forward to playing in the snow.

Zacky-Po-Packy

Zack sure is growing up fast. He smiles every time I talk to him. I wish all of my kids smiled when I said hello to them. I love how easy going he is, just like his dad. Every time I change his diaper he laughs. His sides are so ticklish. He is my most active baby. I know that he will be running around the house before I know it. My mom tells him that he looks more like Andrew then Andrew looks like Andrew. My little boy is such a joy. I am so thankful that he is in our family. We call him Po-pack. Emma started to call him Zacky-po-packy when he was first born, and the name has just stuck.

The summer has blown by, and I have so much I want to blog about. The sad part is... I no longer have the internet. I only get the chance when I make time to go to my moms. So here is a little update.

Krista--My little girl just turned two. My how the time flies. She is such a joy in my life. I find myself just sitting back and watching her all of the time. Her smile is contages. She has been keeping me very busy this summer. She loves to take all her clothes off and run around the house in the nude. I don't love this so much, but she seams to be winning the battle.


My Zacky-po-packy-- I sure do love this little boy. He is so much fun and such a good boy. He is really getting to be fun. He loves to play patty-cake and laughs at me all the time. I love to see him smile. He looks so much like his daddy did when he was a baby. My mom tells me he looks more like Andrew then Andrew looks like Andrew. I can't belive how fast he is growing up. I feer that before I know it, he will be off on his mission and trying to conquer the world.

Andrew and I took the kids to the Zoo for Kristas birthday. Krista was being a monkey while looking at the monkeys.

On the 14th of June Andrew blessed our little boy.

We had such a wounderful day. Ron and Becky (Andrew's parents) came down to be apart of Zacks day. My parents, the kids at home, Steve, and Deven and their families all came. We had good food and a wounderful blessing.

Andrew did such a great job blessing his little boy. It has been so much fun watching Andrew care for and play with Zack. He has always been good with his girls, but I can tell that Zack has a special place in his Dads heart.

Zack looked like such a big boy in his blessing suit. Grandma did such a good job on the vest and pants. She has always made each of our children their blessing day clothes. They are very lucky kids to have such a loving Grandma.

Baby boy blue!!

I love having Zack as part of our family. He is such a good little boy, he hardly makes a noise. Only little squeeks when he wants fed. I have really been blessed with baby #4. Enjoy a few pitures of our boy.

BLUE

Today as I was getting the girls dressed I noticed that I had put them all in blue. Then I started to dress Zack and of course I put him in blue. We then thought it would be a great day to go take family pictures. We did the best we could. Zack was great, he slept the whole time. Emma only pouted half the time. Jessica was the best, but wanted to pick all the flowers at the temple. Krista just wanted to run and jump. She would not sit for a picture. We had a great day and did end up getting a few good shots.

Zack is growing more and more every day, but boy is he cute. He sure looks good in dark blue. He is a great sleeper(for a new born) and loves his sisters. I never knew how much a little boy would fill a void in our home. He is a very special spirit.

Krista always makes me smile. She is so funny and energetic. She loves to jump ( and can really jump well for a 2 year old), she jumps all day long. She had so much fun playing in the gate at the temple. We couldn't pass up such a cute picture.
Jessica is a great helper. She loves to hold Zack. She gets me burp rags, diapers, wipes, and any thing else I ask for. She is always talking about when Zack grows up and becomes her big brother. I keep telling her that he will never be her big brother, but she just doesn't get it.

Emma loves to pose for pictures. She is also a very big help, but not the little momma that Jessica is. She is more help with Krista as I try to care for Zack. I am so grateful to have her as my first child. She always wants things just right. Having any thing out of place drives her crazy. It is very helpful to me. She keeps things picked up and in the right place.

First Born Son

Our son has finally arrived!!

Zackery Wade Ashby

Date: 7 May 2009

Time: 11:49am

Weight: 6 lbs 15.4 ozs

Length: 20"

Come what MAY!!!

On the first day of May I was so happy to know that the month I will have this baby has finally come. It had been a long few weeks, and I needed a break, one last adventure. Andrew and I thought it would be a fun (yet dumb) idea to take the kids to the zoo. I have wanted to go to the zoo for weeks, but being large with child the time had never seemed right. Even though it was a dumb idea we went for it. At 1:00 friday afternoon we loaded up the kids and hit the road.

Utah's Hogle Zoo

Emma wanted a picture with this big elephant the moment we walked into the zoo. The kids had so much fun listening to it play a little song and then shoot air out of its nose.

Emma, Jessica, Krista with the Aardema boys Benson, Porter, and Tanner

Emma & Benson

Future engagement picture?

Tanner & Krista

"Our Little Monkeys looking at the big monkey"

All in all it was a successful day, I would say that it measured up to the girls expectations. It was a joy to see the expressions on the girls faces as they explored each exhibit. It was a good day to be at the zoo, with the weather, not many people were there. We had free run of the place. One last grand adventure before our next challenge...the new bundle of joy.

Weekend with Grandma and Grandpa!

On Monday night I got a phone call from Andrew's step dad asking if he and Becky could come to visit. Tuesday afternoon Ron and Becky showed up and spent the next three days with Andrew and I and our girls. We had lots of fun. We started by taking them to "the farm". Emma had lots of fun pulling Grandma from animal to animal. Krista just enjoyed being outside and Jessica just loves being with animals. The next day Andrew took them all over to Fantasy Canyon (I didn't go because I had a docters apointment). The girls had a great time and Ron and Becky enjoyed the interesting rock formations. We played games, ate great food, talk lots, stayed up late and most of all had a wonderful time. We are grateful that they were able to come spend time with us and we can't wait for the next grand adventure.

I loved this video. I hope all of you enjoy it, and laugh as much as I do.

Easter Weekend

We had a lovely Easter weekend, although it started off sad. Marci's Grandfather DeVon McKee passed away Sunday before General Conference. His funeral was Saturday. Saturday was cold and rainy. It was a good funeral, all of the family was there. He was 86. Afterwards, we went back to Marci's parents house and visited with a lot of family while our children colored Easter Eggs. Sunday we had a family dinner for Diana's Birthday (Marci's youngest sister). Sunday was such a beautiful day with warm weather and the sun shining. We decided to do our Easter Egg Hunt then. This was the first year that Krista really got excited about it. The girls were so cute running around looking about for eggs. Marci couldn't resist snapping these photos.

Monday we got together with Marci's family for our traditional Easter Picnic and went for a drive to the old farm where they used to grow alphalpha on approx. 3000 acres. It was a 30 year lease on Indian Land. They farmed that area until they their lease was over and couldn't be renewed. It was sad to see it has all gone back to looking like a desert, but it was fun to climb the hills that Marci climbed as a child. Krista loves being outside and couldn't get enough. Emma & Jessica were finding interesting rocks all over and wanted to take them all home. True to form, Krista started to copy her sisters and pick up little rocks and put them in her pocket.

Afterwards we drove out to Fantasy Canyon, where we had our picnic. It is a very interesting formation out in the middle of this desert (of course everything out here is desert). Although the canyon isn't very long or deep, I could spend a lot of time there. There is a trail with little markers pointing out different formations. I was proud that my wife, great with child, had kept up all day. Hiking up the hills, exploring the canyon, squeezing through the rocks, and smiling all the while. On the way home we stopped at a sanddune and played in the sand. Just in case we didn't get enough exercise with all the tromping around. We tried to build a sand castle, but didn't have much luck with the dry sand. In the end, we settled for digging a hole. What a fun day...Marci & I got sunburned.

Okay, for all those mom's out there, this is for you to smile at. Being great with child these day's I feel the need for quite time. Krista is great, because she still naps, but Emma and Jessica are not so understanding. Yesterday I put Krista down around 3:00 and put a movie on for the other two. I asked them very nicely to be quite so I could have a little nap. The first 30 times they came into my room I was understanding.

"Emma hit me"

"Jessica started it"

"Mom, look at my owie"

"Can I have a snack?"

"Emma hit me"

"Jessica started it"

"MOM!!!"

"Jessica smacked me"

.................and on and on it went!

By 4:30 I was starting to loose it (in a very calm voice)"The next person who comes into my room, will be very, very sorry!"

So at this point I thought I had won. It had been a good 30 min and I was not bothered. They were happy and laughing. Then the phone rang. It was Andrew telling me he would be home soon. Well so much for a nap. it was time to start dinner. I walked into the kitchen and saw why Emma and Jessica had been having so much fun and laughing together.

Picture this if you can. Each child had a hand towel, and three wash rags laid out and stacked on top of each other. On top of the pile of rags was a glass of milk. (okay so they were thirsty, right?) WRONG! They had gotten the chocolate milk mix out and a straw for each of them and were blowing mountains of chocolate bubbles. Now when I say mountains, I mean six inch cascading mountains of bubbles. They were so proud! Now if I were a good mom, and not 8 months pregnant, I would have grabbed my camera and had a great laugh with the two of them. Well as you can see, there is no picture. I was tired, and angry. They were good girls and helped me clean up the mess(and I didn't even have to yell). I was just walking to the sink to wring out the last of the rags, as Emma was going to put the chocolate milk mix away. Many of you know that Emma won't walk any place. She bounces. She did not have the lid on the mix very well, and before I knew it, my house was coated in a chocolate powder of dust.

Oh the joys of children. I love being a mom. It is the joy of my life. I don't love the messes that I am always cleaning, but I do love the joy that I see when I look at my girls. A few (many millions) of messes is nothing to pay for the gift the Lord has given me by letting me be a mother. Next time, I will remember to laugh (and take a picture) and not let motherhood overwhelm me.

Life on the farm is agreeable to the girls. They love to go with Grandpa to feed the cows. Only in the country can you get away with having five children, two adults, and one calf in the front of a truck...and no seat belts. Isn't country life great! On this adventure, my father-in-law and I took my three girls (Emma, Jessica & Krista) as well as two of Devin's children (Lorena & Ammon) to trade some hay for a calf with one of the neighboring farms. The only place we could put the calf (safely) was in the front of the truck, on the floor. Jessica was horrified that the calf poop on Grandpa's foot. Lucky for us it was the farm truck and didn't actually make a difference in the smell of the truck. Every time we go over to the farm, the girls don't miss the chance to go feed the animals, and this calf is no exception.

Andrew and I have enjoyed so many friends and familys blogs, that we thought it was time to start are own. Enjoy!!