The Ashby's

Well since I posted about Ava being the queen of manipulation in our last post, her manipulation gets better everyday.  These past few days she has learned how to get herself out of trouble.  Now whenever she does something naughty and Dave and I get mad at her she comes up to us and looks up with those big, blue, puppy eyes and says, "I love you lots!"  How can you get mad after that - trust me sometimes you still can but it definitely makes her punishments smaller :).  She is growing up so fast...

So Ava is the queen of manipulation especially at bedtime/naptime or anything really that she is trying to get out of.  Normally when we lay her down for bed she starts telling us that she is hungry or needs water or needs her princesses or blankets or wants to read another story or needs to go potty on the toilet (the same one she refuses to sit on during the day but that is a subject for another post) but you get the idea.  Her mind just comes up with everything she can possibly think of to get out of the inevitable.  So I just went in there to give her a kiss goodnight and we layed her down 2 hours ago so she's sound asleep snoring and all (she is our little snorer which is pretty funny).  Before I walked in though Dave says be careful she is just going to ask you for water. So I walked in her room and she is snoring as usual, so I tuck her in and give her a kiss on the cheek.  After I kissed her she says (in her sleep), "I need water! Water!" and then she starts snoring again.  Even in her sleep she manipulates.  She is such a smart and funny little girl.

So on Sunday Dave was on the phone and walked outside to talk while Ava followed him outside.  I started fixing dinner and all of a sudden Ava throws the door open and slams it shut with all the force she has and then put her tiny body up against the door to hold it closed and squealed, "I'm queasing (teasing) daddy!"  I started laughing so hard I couldn't get mad at her for slamming the door and nearly destroying our blinds.  She is so silly and loves to quease :).

So I finally got around to taking 1 year pics of Ella.  I got Photoshop for Christmas and have been able to play around a little with the lighting and coloring in the pictures but I am still learning.  I think they turned out pretty cute but I am pretty sure it was the one being photographed and not the one photographing that made that happen.  I'm still working on them so they aren't perfect but I figured I would share them anyways.