Ashley

The little lady. The 9 year old going on 16. These were taken in September or early October when Jason and Ashley went to a Daddy daughter thing at our church. It was a cowboy theme, if you couldn't tell. I'm not sure if we ever did a post about it.

I thought I would write a little about Ashley since she hasn't been featured for awhile on our blog. She's many things, and I'm having a hard time deciding where to start. She's very smart and seems to soak everything in. She asks many questions. She'll always ask what a word means if she doesn't know. She stumps us sometimes, because some words are just hard to explain without using the word in the definition. I don't know if we always explain it well enough for her to understand. She for the most part is very calm and quiet. She has her hyper moments, but they are getting few and far between. Sometimes she's content to go sit on her bed and read for hours. If you give her the opportunity to talk though, she will. For example, not too long ago she went with me to run some errands. I asked her about Webkinz. For those of you that don't know, they are stuffed animals that you buy and register online and can do an array of things with online. I didn't really know too much about them, so I asked her what all you can do online. She talked for an hour and a half non-stop about all you can do with them. After that time, she said "I know there's more, but I can't remember everything". I said that was okay, I think I understand now. She's a very special girl, and it has been fun watching her grow and learn. I'm excited for the years to come to see what kind of woman she becomes.

Olivia's Teeth

It's been awhile since there's been a post about the girls. We like them too, but there just hasn't been a whole lot going on. We haven't had a lot of time to do anything fun. Here's a couple of pictures of Olivia and her holes. We try to get good pictures of her, but this is about the best we can do. This past year has been near impossible to get a normal smile out of her. She has lost three teeth in the past couple of months, and here she is showing them off. She's really dramatic when it comes to losing teeth. She'll leave them in for way too long, and cry every time she eats. When the first tooth was loose she actually came home early one day from school, because she was crying about it during lunch. Her Mom had to pull out the first and third one, and Jason pulled out the second. She kept the third one a secret from us. I think because we make a big deal about getting them out. She's a very stubborn little girl. She keeps us on our toes. She's lucky she's cute, because I don't know where she would be right now if she wasn't. She's a lot of fun.

Giggles

Donovan has been laughing for a little while now. Up until today he only laughed when he was tickled. He almost always laughs when I'm dressing or undressing him. Jason got him to laugh in the second video pretty good. I've gotten some bigger laughs from him than what's on these videos, but I haven't been able to get it on tape yet. I'm going to try to record the bigger ones. I love to make him laugh, it makes me happy.

Thumb Sucker

So, yep I have a thumb sucker. Before he was born I talked to Jason about not wanting him to be attached to the pacifier, and he's not. We'll sometimes force it on him, but he doesn't like it at all. For those of you who don't know I sucked my thumb. I sucked my thumb for way too long too. So, it's extremely fitting that I would end up with a thumb sucker. It didn't even cross my mind before he was born that he may be a thumb sucker. I completely blame myself for this. I would much rather him be attached to the pacifier than his thumb. You can take a pacifier away when you want, but you can't take his thumb away. It amazes me that he can completely reject one but prefer the other. It makes sense to me that if he liked one he'd like the other. It is cute though to watch him suck his thumb. It won't be so cute though if I have a five year old walking around with his thumb in his mouth. Hopefully he'll grow out of it.

Blessing and Christmas Party

We had Donovan blessed on Jan. 4. Jason gave a beautiful blessing. I'm so happy to have a husband that is a worthy priesthood holder. I'm really proud of him. We also had a belated Christmas party with Jason's family afterward. Brenda organized a family feud game. It was really fun, even though my team didn't win. Thanks Brenda for putting that together, it must have taken some time. Also, thank you to all that came and brought stuff for us to eat. I don't think I thanked anyone that day. Sorry for the late thanks. It was really nice having people over and spending time with family. Here's the only pictures that were taken. I wish I would have taken more.

I have such cute boys. Huh? I'm sad I ruined the last one.

Cute Baby

I like this picture.

Christmas Morning

I know this is a little late, but here it is anyway. We had a really good Christmas. There's so much build up for Christmas and it always goes by so fast. I think we all got pretty spoiled. The girls came over about ten and we opened gifts. Donovan slept through it, he didn't seem too sad about it. We opened gifts with him later. We got dumped on that day(as in it snowed a lot). We weren't sure for a bit if we should go to Mom and Dad Howells. We're glad we did because it was only the west side that got a lot of snow. The roads got better the more east we drove. It was a good day and enjoyed spending time with family. Here's some pictures from the day..

Two Months Old

We went to Donovan's two month check up yesterday, and all we got were these two bandaids. They had to give him three shots, it made me sad. He handled it pretty well. He didn't cry too much, which I was happy about. He's doing really well. He's in the 90th percentile in both weight and head circumference. He's smiling lots and talking lots. I can't get enough of it. Here's a few pictures I've taken the past month.

Bangs

My bangs have been bugging me for awhile now. Even when I just get them cut I am never happy with them. I thought I would try something different. They're straight across now. I'm not sure if I like them yet. They make me look different. It also bugs me how sleepy I look in pictures lately.

The Rug

I don't think we told too many people about the rug we got for Donovan's room. Here it is with my cute baby on it. We like it and were excited to get it for his room.