Four Months.

Dear Holland,

I am almost a full month late writing your four month post! I can't believe you are already almost FIVE months now! I feel like the first two months of your life went by kind of slow but now the time is FLYING! Ever since you started laughing and smiling more you have just seemed so grown up! Your dad and I loving watching you grow and learn and trying to take in as much of this wonderful age as we can since it is so fleeting!

Here are some things your dad and I have noticed about you in your fourth month:

• You have started arching your back and throwing your head back when you are upset or happy or just to look at the lights on the ceiling because those are pretty exciting! 
• You have started talking and it is so cute! 
• You love to go on walks--either in a front pack or in the stroller 
• You want to be a part of everything and stop nursing whenever you think something is going on/hear a noise. Nursing is not very easy these days! You are a little wiggle worm! 
• You try to grab anything and everything that Mom and Dad are holding and bring it straight to your mouth. 
• You want Mommy to hold your hand while you eat--she must not be distracted by ANYTHING else. 
• You still smile at everyone! I really hope that you don't get a fear of strangers anytime soon because I love your ridiculously happy personality!

Sweet baby girl, you bring so much joy to our lives! Once we move into our own apartment we're hoping to finally sleep train you because you still think that you should get to cuddle next to Mommy and nurse ALL. NIGHT. LONG. and while I love our cuddles it does make me just a tad bit exhausted every day. You are however taking pretty regular naps during the day which we're loving! And you are finally to the point where we can set you down in your exersaucer or on the floor for a few minutes and you're happy to be entertained by your toys or your cousin. You are just growing up so fast and we're seeing your little personality emerge more and more every day! We are grateful for every single one of your smiles and you definitely cheer us up when we're having a bad day! 

Love, 

Mom and Dad 

4 months

3 months

2 months

1 month

Merry Christmas

Stationery card

View the entire collection of cards.

Love, The Ashby Family {Race, Emma and Holland}

Holland's Blessing Dress

About a month after Holland's blessing I got her dressed back up in her dress to get some more pictures because we didn't get any closeups the day of. So, here is her beautiful, blessing dress made by her {great} Aunt Sage in all its glory and Holland in all her cuteness! 

Adorable booties

The whole dress with the bonnet.

 The whole dress with the headband.

I love my sweet baby girl and she looks absolutely beautiful in white! 

I look forward to seeing her in white again on her baptism and on her wedding day!

I just hope all of that doesn't come too fast!  

Love this song: 

<iframe width="420" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/izArrpzKu20" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

Holland's Third Month in Instagrams

In Holland's third month she: 

{In conjunction with this post}

Flew to AZ and visited lots of cousins! 

Spent a lot of time in Mimo's arms.

Went to the zoo and slept through the entire trip.

FaceTimed with Daddy every day.

Turned three months old! 

Holland's Second Month in Instagrams

In Holland's second month she:

{In conjunction with this post}

Smiled all. the. time. 

Decided that standing was just about the coolest thing ever. 

Met her Great Grandpa and Great Grandma Hogan.

Watched Daddy watch General Conference.

Went to Daddy's mission reunion.

It was a wonderful second month! 

Holland's First Month in Instagrams

In Holland's first month she:
{In conjunction with this post}

She went on a trip up to Flagstaff. During her first week of life. 

She was blessed by her daddy.

She hated her first bath and has yet to have another. 

She LOVED her first shower and now showers are her go to for cleaning out all her cute rolls! 

She moved up to Idaho. {She survived the 18 hour car ride!}

She loves to watch her mom get ready for the day!

She turned one month old and was not too excited about it! 

Three Months.

Dear Holland Girl,

Another month has flown by! This last month was filled with lots of new adventures for you! You went on your first airplane flight with your mum to visit family in Arizona. The trip to Arizona you did wonderfully {slept the whole time other than eating on the take off and landing} but the trip back to Idaho you were super squirmy and talkative. Cute as always but a little louder and definitely more awake than before. And you refused to eat for the landing so I attempted to have you suck on my fingers as you stared out the window at all of the exciting airport lights.

You went to the doctor this month and you weigh 13 lbs. 10 oz. {75th percentile} and you are 25 inches tall {95th percentile}. Your Grandpa Olmstead pointed out that you are already almost half as tall as your mom! Only five more inches to go little one!

Here are some of the exciting new things you are learning this month:

• You roll over but mostly just when you are mad. 
• You grab at anything and everything and bring it straight to your mouth to chew on. 
• You LOVE chewing on your fists. {This might have been last month too but you love it still!}
• You still smile all. the. time. and we love this about you! :] You make a lot of people happy because you smile at them! 
• You do not like the car at all anymore but I'm thinking that might be changing in  your fourth month now that you have toys on your car seat to grab at. 
• You think it's the coolest. thing. ever when we get water out of the dispenser in the fridge. 
• You think you can't sleep anywhere other than in bed with Mom and Dad. 
• You got to wear about a billion and one Halloween costumes and you looked adorable in each and every one! 
• You giggled for the first time! And now Mommy can get you to giggle on a pretty regular basis and it's a blast! 
• You sit in your bumbo like an old pro! 
• You realized you have a tongue and stick it out all the time. Licking things is your new favorite!

We love our three month old Holland girl! It is so much fun to watch you learn and grow! Life is crazy and sometimes stressful but we always have your sweet smile to cheer us up! 

Love, 

Mom and Dad

You got a beautiful new bracelet from Gram Ashby! 

You have the cutest itty bitty fingernails I ever did see. 

Your long fingernails are one of the only things you got from your mom. 

You make the cutest faces.

You are already almost too big for the laundry basket! Silly girl!

Three Months. 

Two Months.

 One Month.

P.S. Your Uncle Stuart picked out your bow for these pictures!

One Month.
Two Months.

Two Months.

Dear Holland,

Another month has gone by! We are loving watching you learn and grow and you are smiling more and more every day {although you have always been a smiley baby}! We're still working on your sleep schedule because for some reason you never want to go to sleep before 2am! We keep you up for hours on end to try and get you to fall asleep at a decent time but you just won't have it! Someday we'll get this whole thing figured out. Until then we'll just all sleep in and cuddle when you wake up in the morning. That works for me!

This month has been much more laid back than your first month of life. We are enjoying life in Idaho {with lots of family walks and hanging out with your cousin} and this month you got to meet your Great Grandma and Great Grandpa Hogan over conference weekend! Other than that we are trying to figure out what our plans for the future are. They keep changing which makes things confusing but we'll figure it out eventually! Your daddy got a couple job offers BUT....they were pretty dead end jobs that he would hate soooo....we're actually going to do something we've talked about before--your daddy is going to try to get into law school! This is a whole new, different kind of adventure but we'll see where it leads us! The next month and a half to two months will be filled with lots of studying for the LSAT and lots of Mommy and baby time so Daddy can work on that! We don't know if this will work out but we're going to give it all we've got and see where it leads us!

Now, onto some things your daddy and I have noticed about you this month:

• You LOVE standing up with the help of someone {usually Mom or Dad}. You've got some strong legs! Oh, and mommy can balance you on her hands while you're standing up. It's a pretty nifty trick. One of these days we'll get a picture of it!
• You still hate bottles and pacifiers but you have started sucking on your fists. Not your thumb or a couple fingers--the WHOLE fist! It's pretty hilarious. And sometimes you get both of your fists up there and sometimes you suck on Mommy and Daddy's hands. It's pretty cute. And super slobbery! 
• You spit up ALL. THE. TIME. It's pretty gross and it will probably stain all of your adorable clothes. Looks like I need to go buy some Oxiclean! 
• You smile ALL. THE. TIME. This makes up for the spitting up all the time and the going to bed ridiculously late. 
• You are the happiest in the mornings. Although you really are a pretty happy baby all day. 
• You fit into some of your 3 month size clothes! You are a little chunker and we love it!
• You love hearing Mom and Dad's voices. The other day you listened to Dad on the phone and were just so smiley and happy to hear his voice. It was so stinkin' cute! 
• When we're trying to keep you awake in the evening and you sneak in a nap it is so hard to wake up up! We have a video of your daddy and I poking and kissing and bugging you and you are just OUT! It's pretty funny. Even though we don't want you to be asleep just yet.  
• You hang out on your little playmat and kick it so that your toys make noise and wiggle over your face. It is so nice to finally be able to set you down for a few minutes! Although I honestly don't end up getting much done just because you're so fun to watch.  
• You are kind of getting  on a nap schedule. You take two pretty good naps during the day which gives Mommy time to get things done. 

And now onto the new nicknames you've acquired this month:

• Monkey 
• Da chunky monks
• Chunky Monkey 
• Chunky monk
• Monkey Chunk
• Madame Squeesh 

{As you can tell, they pretty much all reference how cute and chunky you are. :]}

And now your two month pictures in the laundry basket! 

So happy to be two months! {Unlike turning one month!}

And one from when you were one month for comparison's sake! {You're definitely getting chunkier!} 

We love you our sweet, chunky girly! Happy Two Months! We are excited for all the months to come! 

Love, 

Mom {and Dad}

Sweet Holland's Newborn Photos

I am FINALLY getting Holland's newborn photos posted! I won a giveaway on Facebook just after we had Holland for a free photo shoot. I was so happy since we didn't have the money to pay for a photo shoot at the time. It was wonderful to work with Rennai of ten22studio to get these sweet sweet photos of our baby girl. Enjoy!!

Just to be real, this is how Holland was the majority of the time.

I'm amazed that our photographer was able to get any good pictures of our crying little one!

And now onto the exciting news of the day: Race got a job! Along with a bunch of other job interviews! So now he may have a few things to choose from! We are excited to start looking for an apartment and have our own space for the first time since a couple of months before Holland was born! Life is wonderful! {This paragraph had lots of exclamation points. But let's be honest, this is exciting stuff!}

Oh, and we have a new giveaway winner for the modestpop.com giveaway! The winner is #13 Rachel Frakes! Thanks again to all of you who entered! And don't forget that you can get 10% off with the code: RANDE10. I'm pretty sure they have a sale going on right now but it ends soon so check it out!!