cruel and unusual punishment = infant life jacket

just look at those cheeks.

this isn't cruel and unusual punishment, just the cutest thing ever

where did my baby go?

I had a "sobering" moment at the doctor's office the other day. I was there with Macie. She had some funky virus over the weekend, that apparently was just a virus. But that's not the point. As I sat in the waiting room (for 50 minutes) I looked around at all the mom's with newborns. And it finally hit me that my little Muckle Chuck isn't a baby. I kinda wanted to cry, kinda. Where did the time go? She's always been our little baby and now I have TWO crazy toddlers. Sheesh!

Macie always makes this weird face. I think it's hilarious. Especially when she does it to random people at the store.

PS Hold the "Maybe it's time for another one" comments. Not going to happen anytime soon.

We're back

We've been here. Now we're home and oh the stories to tell. LP is always an adventure.

Muckle Chuck is 9 months!

What a hectic day! For most of you that know us, we don't wake up very early. Ten ish to be exact some days earlier, some days earlier. So when I called to see when Macie's dr appointment was and they said "In 20 minutes", and we had just woke up. I thought it was tomorrow. Oops. I didn't want to reschedule because we FINALLY had an appointment with our very busy, Dr. Lauret or La-Radio, as Alli calls him. So we slapped on some clothes, luckily for me I had slept in sweats, and just threw on a jacket. Needless, to say we looked rough. Alli's curly frizzy had was all over the place; Macie had a comb-over as pictured above and repeatedly got called boy by the receptionist, even after hearing her name. That was the least of my problems. Determining if my gum was strong enough to mask the fact that I didn't brush my teeth was problem #1.

Turns out, Macie is quite healthy. She's 20lbs (70%) 29.5in (93%) and I can't remember her head circumference. Since she has started crawling, she's slimmed down. And she's crawling everywhere. I'm used to Alli never leaving my side, even at home. But Macie could care less where the party is, she just roams. Mostly to the bathroom. It grosses me out. Maybe she has a special thing with bathrooms since she's been sleeping in one for a month.

She's also pulling herself up on things. But once she does, she usually panics and starts crying because she can't get down. She loves Alli and everything she does. They're quite the duo. Alli is always sticking up for her. When she cries, Alli will say, "Mom, hold Macie. She needs you." And today at the doctor, Dr. La-Radio was looking in Macie's ears and she was crying and Alli kept yelling at him "Don't do that! She doesn't like it!" It was kinda funny. The doctor was good about it. He told Alli he was sorry, he was just checking.

PS. Macie has several nicknames: Macie Moo, Macie Muckleroy, and Alli's favorite, Muckle Chuck. These are all courteous of Jeff.

End of an era

JD's last home game was Wednesday. It's hard to believe he's a senior about to graduate. He's the last of the Ashman kiddies and the last boy. For the last ten years, our family has spent hours every week watching Sam and JD play sports. Now what are we supposed to do? Deanna has already started scouting out a few potential teams she'd like to start following, but as for us we'll probably focus on supporting our nephew, Tanner.

But back to JD, we've really enjoyed him play and excel in football and baseball. We're so proud of him and his accomplishments. Check out this article from Wednesday in the Salt Lake Tribune here.

Hey, Mom and Dad, maybe now we can start going on summer family vacations! Huh? No excuses now!

I seem to purchase one of these EVERY time I go to the grocery store. And I don't use them that often. But for some reason I always think I need one. Does anybody else do this? Or am I just crazy? I now have 5 yellow onions. Well, only 3, 2 were moldy. Sick, don't judge me.

New Blog

I started a new blog last night, The Vanchiere Information Publication (VIP). But let me go back a couple of years...
I was newly married and in a married student ward. I was called to be the ward newsletter editor. I thought they were having to make up callings because I had never heard of such a thing. Basically I would compile messages from the Bishopric, Elder's Quorum and Relief Society. Cut and paste, it was an easy gig. I did all of this in Microsoft Publisher, which I fell in love with. Weird, I know. I like writing and wanted to do something in Publisher because they had a lot of templates I wanted to try out. Thus the VIP came about. Even though Jeff and I lived 5 minutes down the road from family, we never knew about family events, games, recitals etc. So I thought this would be the best way to keep the family informed. I came out with a couple monthly editions, but soon it fizzled. I couldn't keep coming up with articles, birthday spotlights, recipes, crafts by myself!
So this blog will be the online publication. I've asked various family members to help keep the info flowing. It is open to everyone now, but may be going private. If you have a couple of minutes, skip Facebook and come on over to the VIP!