Happy Fall!!

Well as usual, it's been a while since our last post. We're working on it! ;) We have had a great fall and are loving all the fun that comes along with it. Football, pumpkin carving, beautiful leaves, Halloween, and yes even a little Christmas music thrown into the mix! (Don't judge us)

Ashlynn has loved being a part of so many new things this year. She and Sean went to an Army football game up in West Point with a couple of friends of ours and she LOVED all the excitement. She would clap and cheer when everyone else did, she waved at everyone around her, and she even tried to 'share' all her neighbors popcorn with herself. But who could resist that face?! I'm sure that's her first of many football games to come.



One day for mommy group we decided to take the kids to a little zoo not far from where we live. I didn't get any pics of Ashlynn with the animals, but they had some fun fall decorations that Ashlynn liked playing with. She loves getting out and doing things with her little friends! :)



Ashlynn has started to walk around so much more lately. She still crawls the majority of the time, but it has been so much fun to see her progress to where she can walk quite a bit more now. I don't think it'll be long until she's cruising around looking for more trouble. :) Her hair is finally long enough to pull up in little piggies in the back and I think it's SO adorable! She is always getting into things she's not supposed to and has a knack for finding these things. I don't know how she does it. It's like she's attracted to things that she knows I'll tell her not to touch.






We had a little ward Halloween party last night and had so much fun seeing everyone's costumes and taking Ashlynn trick-or-treating around the church. Sean dressed up like Bobby Jones which I thought he impersonated very well, I was an Army person (not very creative but my Camouflage toes were AWESOME if I do say so myself), and Ash was a little Duck. She loved getting candy in her bucket and shaking it every chance she got. She loved the sound it made. . It was so fun to see her watch and follow what all the other little kids were doing. We are so blessed to have to many wonderful friends/ward members around that make living here so much fun.

Ashlynn: 1 Year Old!

A couple of weeks ago we celebrated Ashlynn's first b-day! And immediately after she's begun to change SO much, particularly in that she's begun talking! First words had to be "whoa" and "wow". She says these ALL DAY LONG!!! And they're actually well-placed expressions, too. For example, when dad (aka, me) pulls out in front of a car and guns it b/c we don't want to be late for Church you will hear a "wow" from the car seat in back as we did the other day. Other recent words have been "bye bye", "night night", she tries to say "duck" and "quack" but there's some progress to be made on those. She just started saying "amen" on her own at the end of our prayers. Even if she cries throughout the prayer because she just wants her food she joins us in saying "amen" when it's over. And yesterday we were sitting in the middle of stake conference and Ashlynn, from the middle aisle, through the open doors, and across the lobby, spotted a large picture on the wall that she saw the night before. Her finger shot up, pointed proudly and said "Jesus"! We've shown her several pictures of Jesus and say it often but she found this one and remembered who it was without us prompting her! It's been SO exciting to see her make sense of the world lately.

Oh, and Ashlynn made sure to dance to every hymn we sung in our meetings yesterday. It was definitely hard not to laugh. No matter if it's the organ at Church or the muffled blare of a dying car stereo from the road behind our apt, if there's music she'll dance.

Birthday:

1 Month:

2 Months:

3 Months:

4 Months:

5 Months:

6 Months: (Look at those massive cheeks! This was them at their finest)

7 Months:

8 Months:

9 Months:

10 Months:

11 Months:

1 Year!:

HAPPY ANNIVERSARY!!!!

Sean and I celebrated our 2 year anniversary on Sunday! I can't believe it has already been two years. It's amazing how fast the time goes by when we get older huh?!? :)

I just wanted to tell Sean how much I love him and what an amazing husband/father he is to our little family. He sacrifices so much for us and is so selfless! He is my best friend, my true love, my eternal companion, and I'm eternally grateful that I get to spend the rest of eternity with him! I LOVE YOU SEAN and HAPPY ANNIVERSARY!

-Shanny

My Favorite Sequence...

Something tells me we're not in New Jersey anymore!?!

Our African safari (Ok, technically it's a drive-thru safari... Unguided... And we had to keep our windows up (for reasons which you will soon understand)... Fine, it was nowhere close to Africa at all. It's just a theme park in New Jersey.):












By the way, this sign doesn't lie:

Just Some Summer Pictures

Our blog, as you may have noticed, is due for a few new posts. But in the interest of time I'll have to make it kind of quick. Here are a few sets of pictures from thus far this summer:

4th of July:

It's SHANNY again!!

So, it's been a LONG time since I posted anything on our blog (this is Shannon). I think the last time I did was the first post of our new blog. Now that I have a computer at home and don't have to take Sean's laptop away from him, I can finally update our blog a little more. Although, I think Sean is a lot funnier than I am so you probably won't be laughing as much. ;) I am so excited to finally have a computer and feel connected to the world again. It's sad that I feel so lost without technology isn't it?!?

Anyway, I found some pics that we've had for a while and haven't posted yet. Hope you enjoy. Love and miss everyone!

Here are a few more pics from camping.



I love Ashlynn's little cheesy grin!





I got a sack o potatoes!



Ashlynn LOVES to empty bags, so we finally just put her in and let her go at it! :)


YAY for chocolate frosting. Like daddy like daughter! (although she wears it much better than Sean. His picture isn't blog worthy lol)



Fun in the sun with Bashlynn (baby Ashlynn) and Bannie (baby Annie). They are just the best of friends. :)





My hungry, hungry hippo!





Our little boxer straight out of the ring...HAHAHAHAHAHA this kid cracks me up!