Smores Anyone?

One of my favorite things in the world is

to get my loved ones together, build a fire, and eat smores. Yum!

Krista, with a mouth full.

Jessica, enjoying the fruits of her labor.

Mimi!!!!! YUMMY!!!

Enjoy this cute boy, and his firts steps.

Turning ONE!!

Zack is sure getting big. He just had his first birthday, and we can't believe how the time has flown bye. This is the toy he got, and he loves it. It helps him walk around all the time.

Zack's birthday cake. He made the biggest mess. We had to take his chair outside and use the hose to clean it off.

Like Dad, like Son. He was helping his dad put his new toy together.

(okay, he really just wanted to eat the screwdriver.)

Who says that boys don't help in the kitchen?

When I was in the girls room cleaning up toys, and getting them ready for bed. Zack crawled out of the room and went off to play. Now most of the time he goes into his room and pulls all his toys off the shelf. When I went into the kitchen this is what I found.

All the dishes in the dishwasher were dirty, but he was helping me unload anyway.

Thanks Zack for all your help and many great laughs.

What does a snow queen and a black eye have in common?

Emma!!!

All winter long Emma has been wanting to build a snow queen. So this last snow storm we got Uncle Craig came over and helped them build the best snow queen I have ever seen. You can't tell from this picture, but she is very well endowed(Andrew helped with that part). After church today they wanted to take a picture of her before she melted away.

On Thursday I got a call from Emma's teacher telling me that she fell on the playground and hit her eye. Three days later this is what it looks like. It gets more and more purple every day. The morning after she hit it her eye was swollen shut. She missed two days of school and got a lot of attention at church. She was kinda embarrassed, but I told her is looked really cool.

Just another week at the Ashby house!!!!

Changing

As I look back on the last year, my family has had many changes. The best change was having Zack come into our family. He is a great little boy, full of energy and spunk. In September Emma went to her first year of school, and then we moved. Four days before Thanksgiving we moved back. Why all the moving? Well, many reasons, but mostly because it was the best thing for my family. All changes are not easy, and ours were not, but now that we can see the past we are grateful for all that the change has brought us. I have many things in my life to be grateful for, but most of all are these wounderful kids. As you can see they have also changed in many ways.

Christmas Gift

This year for Christmas Marci & I gave my family their last name spelled on blocks. As part of the gift, we found a song by Dierks Bentley "My Last Name." It talks about being a part of something and how special it should be. Here is the link if you want to listen:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZUYzCbZLS0Y
and here is the link for the lyrics:
http://www.lyrics007.com/Dierks%20Bentley%20Lyrics/My%20Last%20Name%20Lyrics.html
...more later...

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.