Three Great Girls

Okay, I guess I will just start with the oldest pictures. I feel like I have so much to catch up on. But I am guessing that is just how it is going to be around here for awhile. I will just blog when I get a free minute. We made the mistake of mentioning to Ashlyn several weeks ago that we were planning ski trip for this winter. Three year olds are so cute in their inability to grasp the concept of time. Ashlyn figured that if we were going on a ski trip that she would be a helper and get ready. So she did. She got a stool and climbed up to get the ski suit out of the very back of the closet and got dressed. When she came down the stairs dressed like this I laughed so hard. This little girl is so cute! As you can tell from the picture, she was so proud of herself for getting dressed for skiing all by herself. She only stayed in the ski suit for about 5 minutes because it was about 95 degrees outside. Although it will be awhile before she can actually wear it, we do have a ski trip planned for this winter. I am so excited to go back to Reno and catch up with friends and take Ashlyn skiing for the first time at the same place that I learned to ski. I can't wait!

Ashlyn started school several weeks ago at at new place. She loves it and is having a blast. She came home the first day saying that she learned about the letter A and that apples and alligator both start with A along with her name. I was quite impressed. She is now learning the letters by sight and learning to write the letters. She is really growing up. She absolutely loves school and does very well. At her new school she goes Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday. They didn't have an opening for Tuesday, Thursday. It has been difficult for me to be away from her so much, but the positive to it is that she takes a nap at school now and when she comes home she has me all to herself because Kenley is napping. It has worked out well. I cannot believe that she is going to be in Pre-K next year. Wow, time flies.
Kenley is still just as sweet as she can be. She is our little snuggle bug. She just lays her head on my shoulder. Still loves to be held which can be very tiring. I know that people think that I hold her too much (and I do) but I will only get to hold her for a short time. Too soon she will be grown up and I will long for these times.

She has also started to climb the stairs. She has been playing at the bottom of the stairs for several weeks now. She just stands there and pats on the steps..so cute. It was keeping her entertained for 15-20 minutes at a time...not anymore. She crawled up one step the other day and that was all it took. She climbed the entire flight of stairs. She has gotten to be quite good at it in the few days since she has learned. Now we have to teach her how to come down.
She is still having physical therapy twice per month and it is going pretty well. We have had x-rays done of her neck and everything came back normal so that is good. We are still working on stretching her neck out. She is still very tight on her left side and screams when it is stretched because it is painful. We are hoping that this will loosen up soon.
Kenley is crawling everywhere and has been starting to cruise around the furniture. I cannot believe how fast this first year has gone and we are about to be planning her first birthday party!
Julia is doing well. She has had a rough first six weeks in school adjusting to America, being moved and new classes mid grading period. She was really nervous about taking a Pre Calculus test yesterday. This was a class that she was move into because she was doing so well in Algebra II. She is the only sophomore in PreCal! She was so nervous that she would do poorly on the test. I told her I wanted her to try her hardest to study for the test and then we would talk about options after the test. We studied hard all weekend and Monday night and....she got an 87!!!!! I was so proud of her. So now we can move on to the 2nd six weeks and start fresh. She is such a bright girl and is just a joy and a blessing to our family.
Ken and I will be leaving on our anniversary trip this weekend and I have no idea where we are going. All I know is that we are flying. I can't wait to get away, but it will be difficult (as it always is) to be away from my girls. Thank you Nana for coming to help with them this weekend. I know they will be in good hands. Stay tuned next week for the recap of where we went....