Ashby's first Fish

Ryan's Dad is a superb fisherman. He loves all kinds of fishing, but fly-fishing is his favorite. This past spring when the weather got ripe for some good fly fishing (think really nasty, windy and rainy) he would practice casting little in the backyard.

Ashby loved to watch. So one day he made her her own "Rod" out of a flexible limb from a bush.
Since then she has wanted to learn how to fish from Grandpa Ken.

Well on the 10th of October he finally took her. I think she thinks it worth the wait because she came back SOOO excited to have "caught" her first fish!

She even loved eating it that night for dinner. Yum.

Thanks Grandpa Ken, maybe you'll have a new fishing buddy!

London is worth the wait!

London didn't come on her "due date" but I think we all agree that we would gladly wait longer if we had to for our sweet little one. Hope you enjoy some of the video Nana took at the hospital.


We have been soo blessed with 2 beautiful and healthy little girls. First Ashby and now London. Ashby is a fantastic big sister already. Here is the early proof of that. She definitely loves her baby sister. We know that London will be trying to do everything like her big sister before long. But for now, she is doing just what she should: eating and sleeping. Ryan and I so happy.

Playing at a Friends

It happens all the time. Children get bored at home. Bored with THEIR toys. You understand if you are a mother.

At this point you are happy when another mom calls you to say her son/daughter would like you kid to come over to play.

Up to this point in Ashby's life most of such occasions have been known as "play dates" where I would go as well and have a nice time (even if it wasn't exactly what I had been planning to do with my time). Recently though, she has been able to be picked up or dropped off to go play without me. A nice improvement. She is big enough to go away for an hour or two but still need me to help her get to where she is going.

Then Wednesday, she was invited over to our good friends house down the street. The child is 8, but she and Ashby have been having a blast playing together before Ashby could crawl. I'm due to have our second at any point now, so when the mom said her daughter would ride down on her bike to get Ashby I thought, GREAT! She is big enough Ashby can go with her safely.

Then, when our friend arrived and Ashby started to ride off on her bike without me, ALL Big and Grown up, I smiled. Wow, isn't that great. Then as I watched the two of them ride down the side walk together it hit me. WHAM. My baby isn't a baby anymore! I cried. I couldn't help it. The tears literally leaked out! Ryan came out and together we watched her ride all the way to the friends house.

My neighborhood friends have told me that when London is born Ashby will age and grow in an instant. Gee. I already can't believe kindergarden is in JUST 2 years. Can't she stay little for a little bit longer!?

I asked Ashby that. She said, "No Mom. I'm getting bigger see!?"

She's right. I sure love her

Firsts

So in this picture you see Ashby's first black eye. Yes, it is small, but I thought one day she might want to see it... so there it is. It happened around the 28th of Feburary when she tripped while dancing and hit her cheek on the hearth. It never got really too colorful as you can tell.

The other first is this cute kitty. Nana made it for her as a Valentines present! She loves it as you can see. Her first hand made stuffed animal!

Logan

While Ashby and I were on our merry little way to visit our good friends the Curdy's (see last post) in Logan we stopped a couple times along to way to document the beauty.

We also stopped to see the Temple. Ashby's first visit to the Logan Temple. :) She liked it a lot. She said it is "so very beautiful"

It's fun to be a Chun

All the cute little girls there that day!



Our ward had a baptism at the beginning of
Feburary. The Chun's, our good friends,
daughter was being baptized so we went to
show our love and support. :)

The meeting was wonderfully attended by the
family of the of the two children being baptized
and other friends in the area.

The meeting was very spiritually uplifting both
in message and song.



Two of Ashby's dearest and longest friendships!
(they've loved each othersince she was 6 months old)

We were glad we were able to go and show

Ashby what a baptism looks like. She was

happy to know that Missionary Aunt Amy is

finding others in Chile who want to be baptized

too!

It was Ashby's first Baptism!

Afterward all were invited to a fabulous

luncheon with delicious food and treats and lots

of fun for the many children who had sat so

nicely during the baptism meeting.

The Awesome Chun Family


Thanks to the Chuns and others for making

the day very special and fun.

It just proves that it really is 'fun to be a Chun'

Ashby's News

Ashby just couldn't wait to share this news with you all.

To be honest, neither could we!

Tracy and Brent

Tracy and I have known each other for like 8 years. I'm pretty sure we met in the spring term of my freshman year at UCSB. We hung out some here and there, made delicious monster cookies and I think that made us eternal friends!

Anyway, we both life in Happy Valley and so we try to get together. And now that she has a special main man I especially wanted to meet him!
Brent seems like an awesome guy and they are soo cute together!

After a delicous dinner in we played Rock Band (for our first time). Tracy is a pro and the rest of us did our best and had a blast!

One of the many fun dates that Ryan and I seemed to go on this Month. Man so far our social life this year has been happinin'. Thank Tracy and Brent for being so fun.

Once there was a Snowman....

Ashby loves snowmen. She even has one on her wall in her room! She loves to sing about them, make them out of play dough and really liked me to read her the Frosty the Snowman book! So when it snowed early in January I figured the following was long past due.

Her first snowman!

With a Licorice Rope mouth and a Carrot nose and two eyes made out of Grapes!

---------

That day when Ryan came home from work he didn't stop to look at the front of the snowman (with the face) and came in to compliment us on our "Snow Potato"! Silly Daddy

Sam Sheep Can't Sleep

So it's 6AM and I have tried for about 40 minutes to fall asleep with no success. Well 6 in the morning isn't too early you say. Well, it feels to me like it 'should be' when it is a Saturday morning and last night you were up until like midnight making a poster!

Anyway, Ryan is usually the one with insomnia. In fact I think this probably my first real no reasaon to be awake in the dark hours of the day that I can think of. Ryan on the other hand, :( not so lucky. In fact he was up earlier this week for a couple hours one night.

I guess that is the good and bad side of cable TV. Any suggestions for Ryan?

Sam Sheep, the one who can't sleep is a character in a phonics book that I love. In this story the silly sheep also can't sleep and wakes up his dog. His dog tells him of a neighbor that can help. Well, before too long, each neighbor knows who can help and in the end I think Sam Sheep falls asleep from all the late or mid-night walking that they do. hehe

I neither have a talking dog or neighbors I wish to wake up at the hour. So I got up and this the the result.

Good Day, Bad Day?

Today began in a pretty normal fashion. And normal for me is that I assume we will enjoy a pretty good day. Also normal for me are little surprises or speed bumps if you will that sometimes threaten my "good day attitude" But here is a synopsis of today so far:

Ashby wakes up approx. 20 minutes earlier than usual, but this is nice because she wants to snuggle in bed with me. Due to being up earlier than normal, Ryan was able to cuddle with us for a brief time. Cute. Hugs and we will see him at lunch time.

We Breakfast and cleanup, we practice our numbers,read "Little Quack" (thanks Andrew and Megan!" and get dressed in our snow clothes to go out to play and shovel the drive. (

note to neighbors and other Orem residents: Yes, I know there really wasn't enough snow on the ground to "need" to shovel, but I have discovered it to be an excellent cardio exercise for me that keeps Ashby outside, safe and happy) So we are both excited.

Outside we go to find an immediate "speed bump". Grandpa Ken has seriously like 5 different kinds of snow shovels. (the Bishops are serious shovelers!) 2 of which I really like to use as they are light weight and efficient at moving snow. However, there was only one option that really wasn't even a real "snow" shovel. It's just a big, metal, not wide enough for snow shoveling shovel.

But as mentioned before this activity is good for both Ashby and I. So the old yucky shovel it is.

After the shoveling is finished I ask Ashby if she would like to make her own Snowman! She excitedly responds with a big, "Yes!" Speed bump completely forgotten.

Snowman is given a beanie, Grape eyes, carrot nose, red-licorice smiley, stick arms and scarf! Snowman is named "Frosty the Snowman" (because he is her very first snowman and she really liked reading that book throughout the Christmas season).

Ashby loves Grapes, so seeing Frosty's eyes makes her want some. Excellent. Snack time for her, exercise time for me! Ashby has excellent snack and short video (My Little Ponies) time and I have excellent exercise time.

Shower and get ready for day. Check. That always helps with the makings of a good day.

Sticker Book time!! Let me tell you Usborne knows how to do sticker books! We have the Princess version. I'm not a big advocate of Ashby thinking the she's THE Princess, but princess play time can be fun. This was one of those times! Ashby loves putting all of the clothes on the girls so they match. Then she knows that each girl probably needs a hat, a bracelet, purse, scarf, or something cute to go with her outfit. -okay, so maybe she'll like to shop when she's older- Anyway, another Good day moment.

Lunch. Ryan came home. Yummy food. 'Bishop pizza' wass decided on for dinner yesterday. (another good, I enjoy cooking most when it's planned) I ask Ryan if he would make the dough. He's better at it than I am, really. He agrees. Does all that hard mixing and kneeding and places it on the stove to rise.

He mentions that I should turn the oven on the help it rise. Done. Timer set for 1 1/2 hours. When that time is up I'll place in fridge to cool until needed this evening.

I'm feeling so happy and blessed that my sweet husband would do this for me.

It's time for Ashby's "Quiet Time". My do whatever time. Prepare for next weeks pre school. Blog. Email a friend. All good.

Timer goes off for checking dough.

Seems bigger. Good. Remove towel and dough....BAD. Hot oven melted through plastic bowl. BAD.

I call Ryan. Good. He minds me all the reasons why it's no big deal. I smile. He's right. I decide I wanna remember times like this.

Times that are good. Thanks Ryan. You make lots of days good.

Snow fun

Ryan's youngest brother,

Jordan, came into town from Santa Barbara for the 2 weeks of his Christmas Holiday. He is a really fun and cool and super sweet with Ashby so we love having him with us. He knew that he was getting a snow board for Christmas but it wouldn't be available until post Christmas(when Nana Haskins came to town) so we had to creative in finding things to entertain him with before he could hit the slopes.

We got to go sleding which was lots of fun, we even ran into an old companion from Ryan's mission. It was good to meet you Jason Gough and fam. :) We made a small sleding hill (for the neighbor kids) turned snow house/igloo. Thanks Ryan, Preston and Ryan for all your hard work in making the igloo! It has shrunk and grown some with the warm and snowy weather, but it has been fun. We also made one up at my parents house in North Ogden, Thanks Adam for the help! There has been general snow fun, Ashby has become quite efficient at pulling her snow clothes (jump suit, jacket, gloves, boots and beanie) because she really is a little snow bunny! We went ice skating (once with Jordan, once without). And of course the always enticing fun of shoveling the snow off the drive. Ashby got to enjoy all of these.







Oh, I almost forgot and Ashby even got to meet Santa Claus and Prancer our in the snow!

Halloweens Past

2006

4 month old Ashby the cloud? marshmellow? giant cottonball?

2007
16 month old Ashby the duck (made by Grandma Loveless!)

Old Faithful

Ashby was thoroughly entranced by her first visit to Old Faithful. This was a first time visit for Ryan too. It was a beautiful day and all of the family enjoyed it.

Ashby had been asleep less than 15 minutes prior in the car. I had to run her over. Kind of a fun memory.

My Muscle Man

When we were down on the shore of Lewis Lake, I saw this awesome, huge, old log

I asked Ryan if he could pick it up for a picture

He did it! It was deinitely taller than him. Like a walking stick for a giant!

My Muscle Man! Look at how thick the end is! What a fun way to experience his first visit to the Grand Tetons!

Loveless family trip and reuion!

July 16th and 17th

It may appear that we packed as many of the Loveless family and had a wonderful holiday on the coast, but you would be decieved. All of these beautiful sences were taken while walking the "mudpot" loop near Yellowstone Lake (the water viewed in most of the pictures).

The weather was hot but not killer and there was actually a breeze during all of our touring at Yellowstone National Park. I hadn't been in a while and it was Ryan (and Ashby's) first time! I think that all of the National Parks that I've visited to be amazing, but this time Yellowstone seemed particularly great.