July 2011

July Happenings
So July has been filled with lots of fun. Every year my moms side of the family has an annual family reunion by Hawley Lake and they rent out a private lake called Cyclone Lake and I have to say this was the best year yet. Branson was tons of fun and it reminded me of how thankful I am to have a family that was raised in the Gospel and has kept this tradition for over 50 years. This year was filled with lots of yummy food (as always) reminiscing with family, bears, boats & haunted cabins. Even 3 trips to the Showlow hospital for 3 separate family members (all fine now) Here are a couple of pictures below.

Forest and Branson in the back of our RV

Branson in Grampy's (my dads) truck with his cowboy hat on

My aunt Sharman picked this up for Branson, it was like a candied pacifier on the other end and huge and Branson would not let it out of his mouth.

Branson was moving literally the entire time up there and he would go and smell the flowers

Me, Branson and Cody (my sister Tera's baby) hanging out in front of the RV

And here is the trusty Bounder (our RV) it has proven to be so much fun and quite reliable for our annual reunion

Besh Ba Gowah
I hope I spelled that right. We headed to Globe one day to meet a guy and me and Forest have been talking about going to these Indian ruins for a long time and so we finally stopped and it was really cool and just $5. These are the ruins behind us and you could even go inside and climb up to the 2nd story. That same day we went to the Globe swap meet which looks completely ghetto but we have had a lot of success there in the past. We picked up an ice cream maker (we've been wanting one) for $5 and a jogger stroller in perfect condition for $15. It was an awesome day!

Fun times with cousins
One of our favorite things lately with the nice weather from the monsoons is taking a late afternoon ride in the ranger. SO MUCH FUN!

IT'S A GIRL
Well we found out this month that we are having a girl! We didn't care either way but I am excited to finally know. I had a feeling just because my body is so much different this time around. Our official due date is December 3rd.

20 weeks pregnant

Oh our Branson Boy
Lately I have been feeling overwhelmingly blessed to have this guy in my life and even more blessed to be raising him with someone that is on the same page as me. I can't imagine how different my life would be to raise a family with someone other than Forest. He really is amazing and helps so so much all of the time. This last week camping one of my younger cousins who is like 15 commented to me "Ashley, he is like the best husband, he does everything for you" and he is totally right. He is the best husband and dad I could ever ask for.

We went to Superstition Ranch Market in Mesa (my favorite place to get super cheap produce) and Branson was so tired he stayed asleep on me the whole time, something he rarely does)

Branson is turning out to be funnier everyday. We are always laughing at the funny things he does and the pictures above are one of them. Whenever me or Forest leaves our spot on the couch or go to sit back down he races to the spot we were sitting in and sits there before we can get there and just laughs.

A new thing Branson has been doing is folding his arms. We say the word prayer and he will drop whatever he is doing and fold his arms then at the end say "amen" and clap at himself

Branson in his "little sisters" hat from aunt Tera

YEAH FOR COUSINS NEXT DOOR
My sister Tera lives next door so Branson has been climbing up the couch and watching his cousins play out the window

April - June

MOTHERS DAY

For Mother's Day we spent down in the Valley with my mom but before that for the weekend we headed up to Pinetop with our friends Kevin, Tabitha and Keegan. It was super relaxing and included Mexican food, delicious breakfast with enormous portions,movies, fires, the driving range and surprise massages that Forest and Kevin set up for me and Tabitha for Mother's Day. It was much needed and we're glad we have such great friends.

Above is the gorgeous flowers Forest had waiting for me when we got to my mom's Sunday afternoon for Mothers Day

LES MISERABLES
At the beginning of June, my awesome BIL Gary Wright got me and Forest Les Miserables tickets at Gammage and as always took great care of our seating arrangements (we were in the second row basically in the center) He is the BEST!

The best picture I got of the evening

VEGAS (again)
We took another trip to Vegas (tends to be our destination spot) here is one of our pictures from our road trip on our way home.

BRANSON, BRANSON & MORE BRANSON
We just can't get enough of our Branson Boy! He has been getting more and more fun. He is talking like crazy and repeats almost everything. He is so funny and laughs at himself and everyone else. His latest is giving gnome kisses, knuckles and high fives. He is turning out to be quite the cool kid. So here is a bunch of random pictures of our everyday with him.

Branson and Forest ready for church

Branson LOVES the park! He will climb anywhere and even goes down some pretty big slides head first.

This one was at the zoo over by the petting zoo

Forest tied Branson's blankie around his head and he was running all around the living room just laughing at himself

Another hat trick that Forest gave Branson. It kind of reminds me of the hairdo from House Party.

Outside water fun with the buckets at Grammy's

Branson and me. He really likes to "pop" my back after Forest does and lately he has really been hanging out just laying around with us lately and we love it.

Branson loves to play the piano and sing at Grammy's

Branson at one of his favorite "destinations" in our backyard. The Ranger.

Another favorite spots of Bransons, the jet skis

Branson loves to put on mine and Forests shoes, here is one of him in my boots.

At my mom's (where we spend 1/2 the time) in Mesa, it has been so hot so we have been spending lots of time outside in the pool

Branson and Grampy (my dad) at Denny's - They love eachother!

A & W in Vegas - Diet A & W out of the tap in a chilled mug! Doesn't get better.

We've decided to add another!

So we are pregnant again! We are actually at 19 weeks now and just found out yesterday that we are welcoming a little girl. I didn't care either way if it was a boy or girl but was really excited when we found out at our ultrasound.

12 Weeks Pregnant

January - March

So in January, we celebrated our 2 year anniversary, CRAZY!, but they have been excellent. We have really been blessed to have eachother and especially our sweet Branson boy who has been so amazing! Since our anniversary and my birthday are a few days apart, we took a trip out to Cali and went on a short 3 day cruise. On our way out there we stayed the night in Palm Springs and that was probably the highlight of our entire trip.
February, we celebrated our Valentines by getting a hotel for the night in Phoenix while my mom kept Branson and as always Forest spoiled me completely rotten to celebrate the day (he's the best)
Our Branson boy is almost 18 months old. I swear he gets more fun every single day. He is running everywhere, he love to ride his 4 wheeler (thanks to Kevin, Tabitha and Keegan) and is repeating everything and is really becoming quite the ham. So here are a couple of pics...
All of them are really random and totally unedited so I'll just label them below as we go.

Gary (Forests brother) is always the best! Not only is he a great uncle and Branson loves him but he always takes extra care of us when it comes to Broadway tickets, so in January we went to see Wicked in Tucson.

Valentines! Forest went overboard as usual (one of the reasons I love him soooo much) These are the things he got me and this didn't include the hotel for the night accompanied by eating out at Brazilian Bull - a Brazil BBQ Churrasco (one of our favorites) in Chandler

We were driving to Mesa and my nephew Rhett says "theres Thomas the Train" and sure enough we saw this full size Thomas on the track

I made homemade pizza! It looks super sloppy but was delicious. Here we have on top 1/2 sausage, 1/2 sausage pineapple and bellpeppers and the other a white sauce pizza with BBQ chicken!

This last Sunday we decided to take a short roadtrip down to Morenci, it was a great day and lots of fun!

This picture cracks me up! I am always freezing so I decided to put on my red boots when I was doing dishes one night over my jammies so Forest had to take a pic.

Oh yeah! my new car. It's dirty in this picture but my amazing husband got me this bad boy for my birthday! Happy birthday to me!

I decided to do some canning for our year supply. We got some chicken in bulk for pretty cheap and we bought like 12 frozed turkeys this last Thanksgiving when they were so cheap. We ended up doing 31 quarts of chicken and about 12 quarts of turkey! Oh and Branson got in on the action in the pressure cooker.

Here we let Branson have at it at some pudding! He was a mess but he was quiet and we enjoyed our dinner out

Bransons new lounging zone! He loves the Baby Genius videos and does all the actions to the fun songs. So if I turn it on in our room he climbs himself on the bed and lounges out

Branson has been putting on our shoes lately and laughs at himself. It is pretty hilarious

Branson fell asleep in the car so to avoid waking him Forest unbuckled the entire carseat and took it into Del Taco while we ate. We were laughing about this one