ashley and vaughn

Wednesday, October 26, 2011

4 years ago today...

Vaughn and I went on our very 1st date!

(photo taken on 10/26/07)

Man, am I glad I gave him my phone # ! Vaughn is the best thing that has ever happened to me and I love him more than anything.

On our first date we went on a hike, had hot chocolate and talked while sitting a huge rock. Then we went to Applebee's and shared dinner. The minute I suggested that we just share something, he said that was when he knew he wanted to marry me :) Ha!

And the chemistry between us? Let's just say, sparks were flyin in all directions :)

After dinner we went to his parents' home to watch "Night at the Museum".

Needless to say, we didn't do a whole lot of watching, just a whole lot of talking.

We went on our second date the very next day.

Carving pumpkins with Chels and Drew.

We went on our third date, more of hang out really since it was a Sunday.

He invited me over to his parents' home again to meet everyone.

By Sunday night, I think we were both hooked and totally smitten with each other :)

and the rest is history...

December 16th, 2007 was the day Vaughn told me he loves me. Oh, such a special and magical night!

Then on Christmas day evening, we decided that we wanted to be together forever.

The glorious marriage came on July 15th, 2008!

Ah! I'm so in love with this man.

He makes my butterflies flutter :)

Thursday, October 20, 2011

one

My baby just celebrated her 1st birthday on October 12th!
Read about her birth story and see more photos HERE

12 month stats 19 & 3/4 lbs (30th percentile)

28 inches (30th percentile)

She's still our little peanut!

How is it even possible that our baby is a year old?

It seems as though we brought her home from the hospital just the other day.

We love Ava way too much. She has brought lots of joy into our lives.

Ava has so much personality and makes us laugh everyday :)

Happy birthday sweet baby!

We LOVE you :)

Tuesday, October 4, 2011

{HopeSmiling Brightly}

I love reading. Sometimes instead of a good old fashioned book, I'll read blogs. Blogs of strangers a lot of the time. Is that weird or creepy?! Because I'm totally not weird or creepy.

Anyway, lately I've come across a few different blogs of families who have had children pass away. I just can't even go there with my mind. Maybe I shouldn't read them because it scares me to death that something like losing a baby or a loved one could happen to any of us.

Now that we have Ava, it puts things into whole new perspective. After reading about the Jackson's, the Mack's (his wife & newborn passed away & he now has 3 children to raise alone) or the Sullenger's, I feel so blessed to have my baby here with me on this earth.

Lucy's Story:

gosh..I can't help but cry while watching that..

Life is so fragile, tragedies can happen in an instant, you just never know what Heavenly Father has planned for us.

I feel terrible that I've sometimes gotten impatient with Ava or that I sometimes spend more time on my work than with her. If something ever happened to her I would regret that more than anything. I realized last night (well I already knew) that she is FAR more important than work, more important than reading, more important than updating Facebook, the time that I spend with my baby is more important than any THING. Vaughn and Ava come first. At times it's hard to remember that but, I need to, no excuses.

Sometimes when I have a deadline for work, that takes over and I don't pay much attention to anyone or anything else until it's done and I feel bad for doing that. Vaughn and Ava see my crazy, stressed out side once in a while and that's not fair to them.

It's hard to remember that in life things can wait but, little ones grow up so fast and they won't always be little. I can see my baby leaving for kindergarten, going on her first date, leaving for college, and getting married. I'm crying right now as I type this. I want her to be my sweet little Ava baby forever but she's already coming up on her 1st birthday and I'm blown away.

Where has time gone? I miss my newbie (newborn). On Friday night she snuggled just like a newborn with daddy when he came home as if to say, I've missed you all week daddy, I just wanna hold you. She snuggled on his chest for a good 15 minutes and we both just melted :) I'm so glad that I recorded that on the video camera, it was priceless!

We love you sweet Ava, you are our pride and joy!

Thursday, September 8, 2011

Real Salt Lake

This was so much fun! I totally recommend it :)

hello handsome :)

crowd passing the flag

almost our turn

in action

awesome sunset

this is the dedicated fan section, they were going CRAZY the ENTIRE game, so hilarious!

out to dinner before the game

such a fun date night!

Monday, August 29, 2011

Wow, this is super late!

Ok.. I realize that I'm officially the last person ever to blog about father's day. Wow, where have I been?! But, I didn't want to NOT post about Vaughn's first father's day.
Better late than never right?

Vaughn is such an amazing daddy to our precious Ava, let me prove it with pictures: