Happy (belated) Birthday!!!!!

Yeah... this blog entry took FOREVER. that's what i get for procrastination... true ashley style ; )


HAPPY 30th BIRTHDAY BRADLEY!!!! that's right he's an old man now ; )


Emma stole some of Brad's thunder and so brad wanted me to make cookies instead of a cake for his birthday. Look how excited he is.


emma... being emma...


So for emma's birthday i tried to recreate jamba juice which is her favorite. This came from a WIC cookbook and it was goOoOOooOooOd and EASY to make too. Here is the recipe:

Fruit & Juice breakfast shake

1 ripe med banana, peeled
1 (6oz) can pineapple juice
1/2 cup low fat plain or vanilla yogurt
1 cup strawberries, rinsed and stems removed

Break banana into small pieces and put in blender with pinapple juice, yogurt and strawberries. Secure lid and blend until smooth. Serve immediately.
(i found refrigerating the juice and strawberries made it better. you can also use frozen strawberries, which gives it a stronger strawberry flavor).


The officially 2 year old birthday girl! thanks gma and gpa newbold for the present!


She loves the book she got!


So here's some of my beautiful walking group! I love these girls! We do about a 3 mile walk every morning through the brutal hills of pullman. i took some pics to give you an idea.


There's a mini hill before this beast hill #1


hill#2


hill#3


hill #4


and there's a mini hill before this last beast hill #5
this last killer hill is forever long. these pictures really don't do these hills justice
Thanks ladies for the butt shots ; ) you're troopers!


afterwards we let the kids play at the apartment playground. for emma's birthday we brought cupcakes and sang happy birthday.


the aftermath : )


Ava cracked me up!


still emma's birthday, and she got to choose her afternoon snack. Notice the change in clothing, a birthday shirt from her birthday package.


yeah... she didn't want to share : (


So gma and gpa newbold heard about emma getting into trouble by stealing my chapstick and eating it... so they sent her her own. She's good about not eating it, but she's very much into the layering it on like her aunt rheanna ;)


(last change of clothing ; ) ) and so ends the birthday with pizza (her choice), cupcake, and ice cream. We love our "spirited" child and can't imagine life with out our little fireball. She continues to amaze us with how smart she is. she's really talking up a storm these days. Some recent things that made us laugh: "Jude, go time out!" - as jude sits there doing nothing; "phew, emma's poopy"- what she says after running around... she's mimicking me saying "i'm pooped;" "mom! come find emma's bed! Emma sick! Emma need medicine!"- one last try at getting out of going to sleep 45 min after daddy had put her to bed; "Mom (pointing finger at me), be nice!"- after i told her to get her hands out of the trash can; "Jude, pumpkin head!" and "Jude! Wake up buddy boy!"- what she says when she goes in to wake him up. We know there are more, but we can't think of any at the moment. She cracks us up. Oh and she's a BIG fan of the Ting Tings and can sing along whenever we have them on.


(Sooooo we don't mean to offend anyone, but brad and i stumbled across this 3 mos photo of emma and couldn't help but laugh. Little did we know how prophetic this photo would be.... note what the bib says and the finger she's displaying on pup pup.... we're just sayin....)


So i tried to find Jude a doll for his 2 month photo he could grow with but apparently they don't sell big stuffed animals out here... so the pup pup tradition continues : ) now, which one's jude and which one's emma.... hmmm....


hanging out


first time i did buns in emma's hair, and she kept running to the mirror to look at her "balls"


she insisted on getting dressed up after nap time. it amazes us how well she can walk in heels


once again caught playing indiana jones with jude


playing with the wsu cougar


playing in emma's crib


how jude REALLY feels about his sister when she's not looking


Par-tay in emma's crib! HOLLA!!!


Our happy lil boy. we all just love him SO much! he has been such a good baby and tolerates emma sooo well... like when she purposefully screams to make him jump so she can have a good laugh...


our newest find in our storage unit


Apple, plum and pear picking last saturday! SO much fun!






So this is what happened shortly after we opened a letter from Gma Ashley in which she sent kung fu panda stickers. It's her favorite movie.

All in all we are really loving washington. We have made some friends with some wonderful people and truly feel at home here. We miss you family, come visit soon! : )

(Videos to follow)

The Emma-nator vs Judicus Maximus

GASP!!!! Can it be?! Did i really just do two postings in under a month? ; ) i realized i haven't really posted many pics of Jude and figured some of you might be wondering how emma and jude are getting along. Truth be told... they hate each other... TOTALLY kidding. They actually love each other and do great. Emma can calm him down, even, when he's upset. She really is a good mommy. And as they get older i worry for anyone who dares to pick on emma's little brother/baby boy.


Jude LOVES bath time. It cracks Brad and i up cause he'd just happily float in the tub forever if we let him.


Emma's hair is getting long enough that i can braid it. It was funny cause this pic was the first time i'd braided it and emma kept running to the mirror to look and would happily point and exclaim, "Girl!" Glad she's starting to realize what she is.


I was rushing around getting things ready to head out the door when i came across emma and jude playing indiana jones.


Doesn't it look like their on a roller coaster?
P.S. Sorry Dee's mom, i know emma's not wearing her matching bottoms, i put pants on her cause it was cold : )




Our handsome little man. We all love him SOOOO much!





So here are some neighborhood friends Brad and emma discovered one night while playing outside. A "breeding pair" of great horned owls (according to Brad). They are HUGE and beautiful. We've been seeing and hearing them a lot lately, and we LOVE it!


So all in all, we are LOVING washington. We've already made friends with some really great people who have made the transition go a lot smoother than we'd anticipated and are so grateful for them. We miss all of our family and friends though and can't wait to see you all soon? Oh and if anyone has any connections to cheap housing in the Seattle area come January, give us a heads up : )



So i LOVE it when Brad puts emma down, because when HE does, emma will read with him. When i do it I have to do the reading. She's such a smart little girl, and she makes us so proud!

Playing major catch up...

K, i know it's been awhile and Jude is almost 2 mos, but please cut me some slack, we've been just a tad bit busy the past few months. Some have been asking for the delivery story, so i'm gonna try and be quick 'cause i need to get to bed.

So I was supposed to wait for a call from the hospital who would call me between 6:30 and 9 am. My Dr. said if they hadn't called me by 9 to give the hospital a call. So time keeps ticking and we decided to go for a walk, and while on the walk 9 comes and goes, so at 9:30 i call the hospital and they say they're super busy so just go eat something and they'll call me sometime that day. So slightly disappointed we decide to take emma to the park. MAYBE 5 minutes had gone by when my phone starts ringing. It's the hospital and they're ready for me. So we drop emma off at Dee's and head to the hospital. By 11:17 i'm finally hooked up to the pitocin, and the contractions start (the not painful kind). Oh and i was already dilated to about a 3.5 and 80% effaced when i got there. So an hour passes, and i'm like a 4 and the nurse says my dr's gonna come soon to break my water. SOOOO i decide since the contractions are getting stronger i'd get the epidural before they broke my water. Even though i knew what it was like getting an epidural i was still scared for some reason. And of course right before they get there to give me it, brad had to go home to put emma down for a nap. But it all went well and the epidural was AWESOME. So by like 2 they come to check me, and i'm at a 9 and ready to have a baby!!! i was in shock. i thought they were joking. I'd totally planned on it taking awhile to pop the sucker out. The whole time i'm in labor i was texting family play-by-plays, all chipper and happy. And then in 3 or so pushes (less than a minute) he was out. I think the first thing i said to the Dr was, "Did i seriously just have a baby?" i can't believe how night-and-day this labor and delivery was from emma's. I really felt so blessed because i'd been praying that the Lord would help me out because i had SO much to do after Jude was born. The Lord has truly been mindful of our family in blessing me with such a speedy recovery so i could get things ready for this move.

That being said, we are now in Pullman, WA home of the annual Lentil Festival (which we sadly missed...no really, we were bummed we missed it). It really is beautiful here, and we're gradually getting settled in. There are lots of little kids in our complex and it was seriously 2 weeks before we saw any other white kid. Emma's made friends with kids from Egypt, Pakistan, Lybia, Japan, Africa (we're not sure which country yet) and have no doubt she'll meet other cultures. it really is going to be an amazing and cultural experience living here. We miss our family dearly, but we're excited to see what the future holds. We're still trying to get settled but i thought i'd take a quick break and give an update. We love you all and want to thank you for all you've done to support our family. we truly feel richly blessed with the amazing family and friends we have!


This was in June, so i was 8 mos right?


Rheanna wanted to take some pics of Emma and Elliott so she could make a present for father's day. Emma just loves elliott so much she just wants to SQUEEZE him all the time :)




Emma taking advantage of her soon to be little bro's bassinet...except she thinks the undercarriage is the bed...hey, could this work as a bunk bed dealio? cause that would save me A LOT of money...

Heading up to see uncle daniel who just got back from his mission to spain in june. i was still pregnant with emma when he left so we were really excited to see him!


On a family vacation with the Newbold's in the mountains. Emma wanted to go swimming in the pond, but it was cold and rainingish, and i don't think she could have even if it wasn't.


Happy Fourth of July! Posing with Grandma


Excited and anxious to get the show on the road


What daddy did while waiting. (We'd gone almost a full year without tv.)


I'm pretty sure this was taken right after i had Jude, but this is pretty much how i was the whole time. It was AWESOME


Jude getting his tags




Just after his hospital sponge bath


"You, me, staring contest, NOW.....you win...you always do..."




Emma gives being a big sister a thumbs up!


Passed out eating for the first time. See video at end of blog


Jude's first bath. My child fake-bakes


Shout out to dee's mom! Thanks for the pj's :) And look it's ALL matching! ;)


My little man is already trying to pretend he's a super hero


Emma is obsessed with putting on everyone's shoes now and even sometimes insists on wearing some of my clothes. She's actually scary good at walking in heels, and she's not even 2!


One of our last outings with Josh :( We miss you guys!!!!


These next few photos are just little candid moments i was able to catch after Jude's blessing. This one is with grandpa and great grandpa Newbold


great grandma and grandpa Newbold


Great grandpa Newbold


Aren't they cute?


everyone who helped with the blessing :)


The grand-daddy's


The fam


Smiling with a proud papa


fish face kisses :)


Great grandma Newbold


Singing and jamming on Rock Band




we were all busy unpacking while emma watched tv and i found she'd passed out. Poor kid was so tired from lack of sleep during the move


Saying good bye to grandma and grandpa ashley who were absolutely AMAZING in helping us pack, clean, and move. i KNOW we couldn't have done it without them. We love you mom and dad! thanks for everything!!!


Emma playing indiana jones... if indiana jones wore hot pink ghetto shoes



this was a week after jude had come home and emma was having the time of her life playing with aunt katie that morning. Mind you emma rarely falls asleep anywhere other than her crib, so i was SUPER excited when i noticed she was doing the head bob at lunch.



So this is emma singing along to a song her uncle daniel gave her. i thought he might be proud ;)