Merry Christmas with love !!

From our family to you and yours- We wish you a very Merry Christmas!! We hope you have had a wonderful year, and that the new year is filled with wonderful blessings!!
2006 has brought us many happy memories.
Ashtyn turned 2 on Feb 3 ( I can't believe she is almost 3!). She continues to bring us joy every day. She loves preschool, and currently her favorites are Mickey Mouse ( with Minnie, Donald, Goofy, and Daisy), and Penguins- as in Happy Feet. We took her to see the movie opening night and the LOVED it!! She danced so much in the chair she fell out !!! :) For Christmas she wants " 2 babies and a stroller". She has been asking for this for months, so Santa had plenty of notice !!
Ken and I are doing well also. We keep busy with Ashtyn and our jobs !! We truly enjoy our family time!!!
I have posted our family pictures and pictures of Ashtyn we has take last Sunday. Enjoy!

Merry Christmas with love,
The Jackson Family

Merry Christmas !!

Our family Christmas pictures!

Ashtyn-
Getting candy out of the tree !! Eating the candy from the tree :)

Merry Christmas!!

MICKEY MOUSE

We took Ashtyn to see Mickey Mouse ( aka Disney World ) at the end of Sept. She loved it & so did we. We drove down (12 hrs) but not once did she complain!! We saw Mickey- and she ran up and gave him a big hug! That was huge to us because she does NOT like straingers!!
When we first went into the park, we saw Minnie- there were a lot of people around, but we go to see her. Ashtyn was not sure of wat to think at first! Then we got her the only thing she had asked for- A big lollypop-

it made her day !! She ate that thing every day we were there- until we accidently broke it :( . At Magic Kingdom, she loved the Dumbo ride, Peter Pan, and Pooh- but her favorite was "It's a Small World" Since we went in the off season it was not crowded, so we were able to ride it 3 times in a row!! I thought Ken was going to kill himself!!

The next day we went to Sea World- Ashtyn is still talking about the Dolphins - 2 weeks later!!! I guess she gets that from me!! She loves them! We fed the dolphins, seals and sharks/ stingrays. She would touch the fishes tail, that is it, but she still had fun! After the dolphins, I would have to say the polar bears were her next fav- she really enjoyed watching them! It was exciting when we went, just 3 days earlier a new killer whale was born! So... we got to see the 800 pound baby! :) The Shamu show was orignally cancelled, but because of how well the baby was doing, we got to see the "Believe" show too! Ashtyn wanted to get wet, so we sat in the spash zone, but were not quite down far enough to get wet- oh well- maybe next time! Next to seeing Mickey Mouse- I would say Sea World was her favorite!

Next we went to Animal Kingdom- and went on a safari. We got to see all the animals- and some were so close we could have touched them! It was really fun! Ashtyn not only loved the animals, but loved the "bumpy" ride too!! We went over to Dino land in Animal Kingdom next, and we rode the dino ride ( a lot like dumbo) about 5 times- We could all ride together so we had a ball flying the dino up and down!

From there we went to MGM. We saw Airel ( Ashtyn is still talking about that as well :) ) we say Mickey again, and the playhouse disney show. This was the last park we were going to visit so we asked Ashtyn which toy she wanted- Mickey or Minnie. Her reply " I want two of them!!" "I want both of them"- and seeing that Ken and I are softies- She got both!! She was very happy and content, and fell asleep with them both!

The last day we were there we spent shopping and packing up. We had a wonderful time and cannot wait to go back!!!

Finally Some pictures...

This is Ashtyn playing dress up at Mrs. Viv's house. She loves playing with new clothes, shoes, and purses !! That is my girl!!! :)

This is Ashtyn on her last day of preschool- they had a party with ice cream and chee-toes- two of her favorites!! She had a ball !

Here Ashtyn is looking out the "window" of our tent and laughing as we get ready to back onto boat. We took her camping for the first time father's day weekend- real camping in a tent!! We did have a bath-house nearby so we could shower, etc. We went with our close friends and spent two days on Kerr Lake on the boat. Ashtyn loved it!! She loved swimming in the lake even though I thought it was way to cold !!! The first night she was too excited to sleep, but the second night she was so tired she did great!!! She called the lake the pool the entire time we were there! Any body of water is a pool to her- we were at the beach on the boat with our friends, and she called the ocean a pool !!!!! It did not matter what we said- that body of water was a pool !!! :)

Ashtyn LOVES Grandma and Grandad's ( Stacy's mom and dad) swimming pool ! We spent the afternoon of the 4th of July over there and she "swam"(with her swimvest on) by herself all the way down and back the length of the pool!! Her little legs were going a million miles a minute!!! ;) We went to see fireworks two nights in a row, she oved them too. We warned her about how loud they were before we went and told her the would go "POP" and "BANG". She picked up on the pop, and the next day she was asking to see the "pop, pops" again!!!!

She is growing up so fast!!! We have succesfully finished potty training (about a month and a half ago we were done!). She was fairly easy to train too! Once she was ready that is all it took !!! Yeah!!!!!!!!

Hope you are all doing well !! Have a wonderful day !!!

Busy Busy Busy!

Finally... a little time to catch everyone up! Ashtyn is doing great ! She only has one week of school left and then is out for summer break- it is hard to believe she has completed her first year of preschool!!!!!!! She is growing up way to fast !!! She loves to make us laugh, and keeps us on our toes too!! We are working on potty training, and so far, she has done really well. I think she gets tired of me asking " do you need to go potty?" The other day I asked her and her reply was, " No, I am fine." Way too grown up for me !!!!!!!
She is so so prissy... We were at Ken's softball game a week or so ago, and he asked her if she wanted to go onto the field and run the bases. She said yes, but one she stepped onto the field, dirt got into her shoe. She stopped, asked to be held, took off her shoe to get the dirt out, and would not go back out there!! We laughed soooo hard- she cannot stand to be dirty!!!
I registered her for dance beginning in the fall. We let her walk around, and go into one of the classrooms- she loved seeing herself run around in the mirrors- I really think she is going to like it. She told us she wanted to go to dance class- so we'll see come this fall.
I promise I will have pictures posted by next week!!!!!

Preschool Easter Day

Ashtyn had her Easter party at preschool today, and luckily I was able to go. First they hunted for eggs- Ashtyn was a pro at this. She would find one and say, "Here's one!" every time!!! She was sooooo cute with her basket!!! Of course I took tons of pictures- I will post those soon!
After the egg hunt they played a while outside- the weather is beautiful!! Then we went inside and they did their dot painting ( they use these things that look like the bingo dot things with washable paint in it- Ashtyn LOVES it !! ). Ashtyn's picture was pink and purple. I think those are her two favorite colors- every time I dress her in pink- she goes, " Oooooo Pink!! :) ".
Anyway- after the painting we sat on the floor and sang songs. They sang: Easter Is, The Itsy Bitsy Spider, and the ABC's. She did wonderfully!!! :) After the singing was lunch time! Ashtyn is not the best eater in the world- but LOVES to share her food. She would take food from her lunch and put it on her friend's plate to share with them. It was very sweet. For dessert they got a special treat... Cupcakes!!! Naturally Ashtyn wanted the pink one ( I really think Ken will have to give up his softball hopes for her !!! lol!!!!). She licked the icing off- did not eat the cake- but loved the icing!!!
That is all for now- I will post pictures soon! Happy Easter !!

You know no site of mine would be complete without pictures of Ashtyn !!!!! These are from her 2 years pictures we had made last month. Enjoy !!!

Here she is dancing away...
Princess Ashtyn with her boa... Taking time to smell the flowers...

Isn't she beautiful ?????

I thought I would start this site to keep my friends and family up to date on all of our activities since we do not get to see you all very much !!! Hopefully it will not take me long to get the hang of it !!
Hope you all have a wonderful day !!!