What Happened to My Baby?

What on earth happened to this girl?  How did she become this toddler?  Our little Ashlee is still skinny but she is growing up so fast.  Next month she will be 18 months and start nursery...  WHAT???  I cannot believe I just typed that...  Seriously, where did the time go.  Ashlee walks around the house like she owns it.  Katelee never leaves her alone and she can get anything she wants from Ethan!  She is perfectly content playing by herself, in fact I think she would rather play by herself.  Just like in the picture, Ashlee loves to carry her drinks under her arm.  Give her a drink, she might take a drink and then it is back under that arm.  She is such an easy go lucky girl and rarely causes problems.  The only time she is grumpy is when she is hungry, she may not look like it but she does eat at times.  She eats when she wants to eat and that is the only time.  If she is done eating the food will go in and ALL come out!  Soley is really loving Ashlee....  This summer we have gone swimming quite a bit and Ashlee is a big fan of water.  She loves to get splashed and try to eat the water.  The other night at our friend's house Ashlee just kept walking off of the stair and crashing into the water. I couldn't keep her still for more than 1 second...  It was crazy!  She was LOVING the water....  The summer has just begun so I can't wait to see how much she loves it at the end!!!  

Ashlee is still quite small, probably just over 20 lbs, if that.  She is still wearing mostly 12 month clothes, but she is getting tall, and her legs are so long!!!  Ashlee is such a joy to have in our family.  We are so grateful for her, her personality and her crazy talking, spitting and even her little attitude when she throws everything you hand her.  Thank you Ashlee for keeping us on our toes and giving us hugs out of nowhere and being the most cuddly kid we have had.  When I get home from work Ashlee will stop what she is doing and come run over and give me a hug, that absolutely makes my day, no matter how crazy it might have been, PERFECT!!!  This girl is going to do great things and I can't wait to see them!!! 

Names

When we found out we were pregnant for the very first time we already knew what the name would be if it happened to be a boy.  The first name would be Ethan, just because we both really liked that name.  The middle name would have to be Andrew.  Chris's middle name is Andrew, his dad's middle name is Andrew, and so on for 5 or so other generations.  Chris is the third boy in his family and he didn't want to take the risk of us not having another boy to carry on the Andrew name, so our first boy got the name!  (Plus Ethan Andrew Nelson has a ring and a good flow)

When we found out we were pregnant with a girl next we decided on the name Katelee Maree.  (I was trying to convince Chris that spelling Marie with two 'e's would be really cute....  He wasn't buying it, which ended up being ok)  Katelee was due on September 17th or so, but we found out we would be having her a week early.  When we got the official date of September 10th we called and told Chris's mom.  She informed us that date was her mother's birthday.  From the moment I heard that I knew what Kate's middle name was going to be.  From that moment on her name was Katelee Madge.  I wasn't the biggest fan of Madge, but I knew it had meaning and before long I LOVED the name.  I look at Katelee sometimes and think how well Madge fits her...  It just works.  And from what I hear about Grandma Madge, Katelee and her would get along well.

When we found out we were expecting another girl we were a bit stumped.  We have had a boy name picked out but no girl name.  We thought and thought and finally came up with Elizabeth Ashlee or Ashlee Elizabeth.  Being that the other kids had family middle names I wanted this child to also have a middle name with a person behind it.  We started leaning more towards the first name being Ashlee, so I started asking about my family history and women named Elizabeth.  Unbelievable, (well not that Elizabeth was an uncommon name in history) I was able to find two great ladies with the name Elizabeth.  They were both pioneers and had rich history and strong courage.  I fell in love with these woman when I heard all that they went through and accomplished.  One Elizabeth was crossing the plains and gave birth to a child who later died on the journey.  Wanting to bury the baby in Zion they continued on only to have Elizabeth die on the journey as well.  She was bury with her child on the side of the trail.  The other Elizabeth was the wife of Joseph Smith's bodyguard.  She has a very rich religious history.  

For Memorial day we were able to go to Spanish Fork and place flowers on the graves of family members.  While there we were able to get a photo of Ethan with one of his name sakes....  John Andrew Nelson. 





















And Katelee with her name sake.  Madge Johnson....





Unfortunately for Ashlee, Elizabeth's grave has not been found.  My grandfather once tried to find it but was unable to, so she will probably never have a picture by that headstone.  However I will do my best to tell her the stories I have heard so she might feel some connection to them.

.My kids are very comfortable in cemeteries, some might think this is weird, but I like my kids to go with me to place flowers on my grandparents and others graves.  And the kids like it too.  It helps them realize that even though some people have died we can still talk about them, get to know them and not be afraid of dying.  We talk about that person and what I remember of them and how important they were to me.  We talk about seeing them again one day and how we will all be together no matter what happens.

Names are important to me....  I hope my kids are grateful for their names and always have the thought of making that person or persons proud that they share that name.