Way too long in between blogs

Things are crazy, and I frankly don't have enough time anymore to sit down and blog.  I wish I did like I used to, but I just can't.  Anyway, here's a little of what has been happening since November last year....

I missed this in September, but Bill's sister threw him a great surprise party for his 40th birthday...he hated it. Haha!

Thanksgiving was normal, and the kids had a great Christmas this year.  They got almost everything they asked for, including a dog! Santa brought the kids a Shetland Sheepdog named Sheila, who was rescued from Arizona Sheltie Rescue.  December is always a busy month for us, between birthdays and Christmas, but it was a good month :).

January I started back school 3/4 time.  It is currently draining all my brain I have.  LOL. See? That sentence didn't even make sense.

February, Bill's aunt, uncle, and cousin came out to visit, so that was fun.  Lily also made a part in the school play, The Secret Garden, again! This is her 3rd year being in the play.  She has auditioned every year, but didn't make the cut once.  She did a great job!

Now we are in March, and the month is keeping us busy as usual.

Now a little about each kid:

LILY:
I already mentioned she made the play.  We still see her on the weekends only or extra days when she has extra days off of school.  So we basically don't see her because when she is here, she is playing with her friends! She is doing great in school, and her most recent report card revealed to us that she EXCELS in P.E., Art, etc. classes. She still does great school work, those are just her favorites, obviously.  Lily finished up selling girl scout cookies, and did quite well! We sold a ton here in our neighborhood!
Lily is also a pretty good help when I need her to be, like when Bill is working at his night job.

SHELBY:
Since last blog, Shelby is now pooping on the potty! WAHOOOOOO! He is getting to be such a big boy, really growing out of the little boy stage.  He is super independent, and I have even caught him trying to make himself a waffle, toaster strudel, and chocolate milk (all separate occasions).  Then one day he managed to get him and Ashton a bowl, and gave each of them 4 crackers.  Guess it's good he could take care of himself should something happen. He has also finally taken an interest in learning letters.  He recognizes all letters and can tell you the sounds they make.  We are still working on counting past 13....that seems to be taking forever.  Shelby is officially done napping :(.  He is actually worse if I make him take a nap.  The bright side, he goes to bed before 8 now.

ASHTON:
Oh boy, where to start with this little boy! He has grown so much since November.  It's like he has become a toddler into a little boy.  He had his 18 month check up, and is still pretty big for his age, 96th percentile in height, and I can't remember weight percentile, but he weighed in at 25.5 pounds. Ashton is definitely a bigger mamma's boy than Shelby ever was, he cries if it even LOOKS like I might be leaving without him.  I hate to say it, but he knows and talks more than Shelby also at 19 months.  Shelby could talk, but Ashton is really starting to communicate.  Ashton also knows a lot of letter sounds, and can recognize letters also.  He can count to 3, knows the colors green, blue, and red, and still only knows star and circle for shapes.  Ashton is a random sleeper.  Most nights he sleeps well, but some nights he is up a few times, but usually puts himself back to sleep without me even getting out of bed (sounds like I am talking about an infant!). He still goes to bed at 7, and I love it!

I also cannot take credit for my kids learning letter sounds and recognition.  They do watch Leap Frog's Letter Factory, which has a catchy little song to help them remember letter sounds.  Now that they know them, I am constantly asking Shelby what words start with what letters, and Ashton just loves to point at letters and either say their sound, or tell me what letter it is.

OH! How could I forget?! Shelby also got his first BIG haircut! Bye bye, long hair! He looks super cute with his new "boy" haircut!

I guess that is all for now.  I don't want to bore you all with anything else.  More to come soon...since Shelby will soon be FOUR!

Shelby 3.5, Ashton 15 months.....TROUBLE!!!

Last week Shelby and Ashton had a couple well checks.  Shelby also had his very first dentist appointment! I am happy to report that he had no cavities!

Here is what Shelby is all about at 3.5 years old.....

He's 38.5 inches tall, and weighs a whopping 31 pounds. As some of you may or may not know, Shelby has been potty trained since August of last year with the exception of pooping in the potty, he always asks for a diaper to poop in. Our pediatrician recommended we use MiraLax to help soften his stools so Shelby feels more comfortable going poop. That's the first item on our list for our next Target trip!

Shelby continues to be a fairly smart little boy, I would actually say he's more average, but have been told that he's pretty mature for his age. Shelby is pretty good with Ashton, he definitely has his mean moments, but he also loves to play with him.  Shelby is very good at teaching Ashton to talk for himself, instead of talking FOR him. He tries to teach Ashton "please" and "thank you", but Ashton doesn't seem to be a fan of those words. Haha. Shelby's most favorite things to do are ride his bike down our long driveway and up the neighbors, ride his scooter,  and play with the kids in the neighborhood; he's actually become quite the socialite! Here are some things Shelby knows:

*how to spell his name
*count to 13
*ABC song
*he knows a good 10 letters or so, but it depends on the day, lol. Some days he can tell you a ton of letters, and other days all he says is he doesn't know....he's about the same with numbers
*knows a few letter sounds
*still knows all basic shapes plus hexagon, pentagon, and octagon
*although he doesn't care to practice writing, he is actually pretty good at it for only being 3. When he takes his time, he traces very well, and can also write a couple letters without tracing. He has no interest in writing his name, I think because the "S" is too hard for him.

I am sure he knows a lot more, but it's hard to remember everything all at once.

Shelby seems to be outgrowing naps, which I am dreading! He naps about 4-5 times per week now, and when he does nap, he won't go to sleep until 9, even if I put him to bed at 8. On the days he doesn't nap, he WILL go to bed at 730, but starts to get really tired around 6.  I am not ready for him to not nap! Today I had him lay in his bed and read books, other days he doesn't nap, I will let him watch a little tv and rest on the couch.  Hopefully the no nap deal is just a phase he is going through.

For Christmas this year, Shelby has only asked for 3 things, a firetruck, green scooter, and a dog. He has been asking for a dog since his birthday. Lily also wants to ask Santa for a dog for Christmas, so we are thinking that might just be a gift for all 3 kids.

Onto Ashton.....

At 15 months, Ashton is 33.5 inches tall, and weighs in at 24.5 pounds. He's in the 93rd percentile for height, and 50 something for weight (I can't remember). Ashton is also very healthy, and the pediatrician told me Ashton has the behavior of an 18 month old, that made me happy! Ashton is talking SO much, I can't even believe it, Shelby definitely didn't talk this much at 15 months old! He tries to say just about anything you tell him to. Mind you, although he can say about 50 words, it's not like he says them so just anyone can understand them. There's quite a few that you can understand, but most you'd have to know it, then you'd understand it.
Here are his current words:

up, kitty, juice, milk, moon, star, stuck, stop, Shelby, daddy, mama, more, bug, donut, truck, circle, car, pumpkin, cactus, sit, done, bubble, button, bath, beep-beep, shoes, shorts, chips, poop, uh-oh, duck, monkey, hi, bye, balloon, blankie, doggie, ball, book, bed, night-night, cracker, cookie, eat, ear, eye, spoon, water, brush, ribbit, bunny, baby, grandma, grandpa, Freckles (grandma and grandpa's dog), no-no, band-aid (because Shelby is obsessed, Ashton knows what a band-aid is), bat

He has only put 2 words together a couple of times; once he said, "more cracker", and he has said, "night night, Kitty." It was actually funny because there was a pause between the first and second words, so he had to think about what he was saying. 

Ashton is funny because when we read his animal book, he points to the animal, and makes the noise of the animal...he currently knows the following animal noises (and makes them): horse, cow, cat, dog, dolphin, bunny (we say "hop, hop, hop"), lion, tiger, monkey, pig, sheep, snake.

Ashton is getting better at using his shape sorter....he is a pro at circle and star, and is working on square and triangle. He also does know these shapes if you ask him where the circle is, or to show you the circle or star.

He can show you the following body parts: eye, ear, nose, mouth, teeth, leg, feet, and hands....when you ask him where your nose is, he immediately tries to bite it! Weirdo kid! He does laugh the whole time though.

I am also very happy that Ashton can communicate so well now. If he's trying to tell me something, and I don't understand, I can say, "show mama", and he will run and show me what he wants to show me, or to do. He will also ask for milk by using his words, or say "eat" if he is hungry.

He's pretty good at using utensils, and actually won't let me feed him anymore, so I guess he will just continue to get better! 

Toddlers seem to learn so much so quickly. I used to think that Ashton was a little dopey, but he has proven me wrong! I actually think he might be a little smarter than Shelby was at 15 months, and I am sure having Shelby around all the time helps him to act older than what he is.
Just like his big brother, Ashton's favorite past time is playing outside!

Ashton is still a pretty good sleeper; he goes to bed at night between 7 and 730, wakes between 6 and 630, naps at 915ish, and again at 215ish. His naps aren't extremely long, but the couple times I have tried one nap, he sleeps only about an hour and is grumpy the rest of the day.

I guess that is all for now! I will update soon with Lily, as soon as we get her report card!

Lily, the Girl With the Most Birthday Parties!

Let's just say that every year, Lily always ends up with multiple parties between friends and families. I am going to start with her party with her friends.....

Bill and I had been talking about what would be fun, and I mentioned Wet 'N' Wild Waterpark.  We thought that maybe that wasn't such a good idea since her birthday is not until October 8th, and we would have to do her party mid-September.  It turned out that the park was actually open through the end of September, score! When the idea was brought up to Lily, she was all over it! Of course when having a fun party at a place like that, the friends are very limited, so Lily was allowed to invite 7 friends.  She chose her two friends from our neighborhood, then she chose 4 girls from school.  It ended up being 7 girls, Bill and I, and Lily's mother and stepfather.  At first we thought the girls would just take off and have fun on their own, but we all stuck together and rode the slides with them.  I have not been to a water park since I was 14, so it was a fun time to say the least!  For the party, Wet 'N' Wild provided lunch (mac and cheese, hot dogs, chips, 2 hours of unlimited soda) and cupcakes.  The girls loved all the slides, and Lily says The Tornado was her favorite.  We were basically there all day, and still missed a few slides, but it was still a blast, and I do believe we will be buying some season passes for next year!

Lily with Bre (left) and Tara (right), her best friends!



All the party girls!


We didn't have Lily on her actual birthday this year, as her mother won tickets to LegoLand, so they went to CA for a few days for Lily's birthday. I can't write much about that since I wasn't there, but I do know she loved it! Anyway, that is the reason for Lily's next party at our home this past Saturday.

Since she has her friend parties now, we always do a separate party for family.  In the past, this consisted of us, Bill's parents, and Bill's sister's family.  Yesterday I learned that those people will be included, as well as all of her friends in the neighborhood :)! We felt kind of bad for Lily, as she had to wait a whole week past her birthday for her presents from family, so we let her open them once everyone had arrived and settled.  She got a few new Roxy outfits, since Roxy is her favorite brand right now, a pair of Converse, some undies, earrings, a Wii uDraw tablet with the My Studio game, as well as Pictionary, Famous Amos cookies (her favorite), and the best gift of all.....A NEW BIKE! She has wanted a new bike ever since Shelby got a new one for his birthday, and she actually needed a new bike anyway, so we decided that would be the perfect gift, along with new clothes, for Bill's parents to get her. They already had the bike put together, and had wrapped the manual for her to open.  She was so confused when she opened it....watch the video to see the excitement when she saw the new bike! After presents, we had the cake.  Lily was very excited for the pistachio cake we had made! Pistachio cake was a tradition for Bill's birthday when he was a kid, now Lily loves it so much, it has become tradition for her as well! I talked to Bill's mother, got the recipe, and we made a cake! It was delicious! After cake, Bill rounded up all the kids for a game of kickball, and they all had so much fun, but they all also had some RED faces! Yikes! After kickball, Bill made some of the best burgers ever! I don't even really know what goes in them, but they are tasty! The kids had hot dogs though.  Then the rest of the day was lots of fun talking to family and neighbors, it went well into the night! Today (Sunday) Lily was off to have another family party with her stepfather's side of the family....yup, the girl with the most parties!

Now to start thinking of next year's party, something that will top Wet 'N' Wild!

Kids, Kids, Kids!

I decided I need to update everyone on all three of our kids...I will start with Lily, since she is the oldest...

In just a little over a month, Lily will be 10! That's so crazy to think that she has been in my life for almost 6 years now.  I remember the first birthday I had with her was her 5th, crazy.  This year Lily is having her birthday party at Wet 'N' Wild water park, and she is beyond excited! She is in 4th grade, but in a 4th and 5th grade combo class.  She loves school as usual, but apparently has about 1-1.5 hours of homework every night! Since we moved, and Bill moved his office closer to our new home, we now get Lily on the weekends vs. the previous crazy schedule, so we don't really deal with her and homework at all.  In all reality, we really don't see her anyways, as she is always playing with her 2 friends on the street, Bre and Tara.  Almost every Saturday these 3 girls play all day, then have a sleepover.  What the girls do is alternate whose house is the sleepover house, that way one parent isn't always the host.  Anyway, Lily is getting super tall, and becoming more of a "woman", if you will, or maybe I should say teenager, since she has also started with the attitude! YIKES! She has had a few little pimples, and some blackheads, so we bought her some face wash and are making sure she keeps her face nice and clean.  All I can say is I hope she is with her mom when that time comes! HA! 

Oh, my little Shelby.....there is so much to say about him, lol.  There's actually not a whole lot to say.  He is crazy.  He loves doing "work" like his dad does outside (fixing things, trimming trees, etc).  He probably watches a little too much TV, but it's so hot right now, there's not much else to do, and he has really grown a love for "Tom and Jerry"! Shelby has really grown up a lot lately, and is pretty mature for his age, with the exception of his crying fits.  He has gone from hating Ashton to loving him, and even checks on Ashton after he has gone to bed.  Shelby loves to play with Ashton now, instead of push him, haha.  After seeing my friend Melissa doing "preschool" work with her kids, I decided I should work on some stuff with Shelby too.  Don't get me wrong, it's not like he doesn't know anything, but we have been working on letter recognition and sounds, writing his name, writing his letters, and practicing numbers as well.  He is pretty good with number recognition from 1-9, so I would like to focus more on letters and his name right now.  He is actually great at tracing, when he wants to be, and he can even write a few letters on his own, those would be 'A', 'I', 'O', 'L', 'E', 'H', 'X'; so basically anything with a straight line.  He is not interested in learning too much, so our sessions are very short lived.  I recently found some flash cards, and he actually loves to do them, so hopefully that will help.  I think that is really all about Shelby, it seems as they get older, there isn't too much to keep up on, just what new information they are learning.  He is quite a funny kid and keeps us laughing, or he gets into trouble...one or the other all the time, but we love him anyway!

Ashton Cooper....the last one.....boy has he changed in the last month! WHOA! This little boy has quite the temper! When he gets mad, he lets you know by throwing toys and crying.  He is getting pretty independent also....if I have a snack out, he wants to get it out of the bag/box himself, or get his own cup from the refrigerator.  If I hand either to him, he throws it down on the ground! Ashton is now a pro-runner! He no longer walks, he is in speed mode wherever he goes! He loves to go outside with Bill in the mornings while Bill waters all the plants.  Bill will ask him if he wants to go outside, and Ashton will run to the door! We are learning new songs (Wheels on the Bus and Itsy Bitsy Spider), which Ashton loves.  He has also started saying a few more words; shoes (he is obsessed, I have to hide his shoes or he will wear them all day), sit, kitty; then he has this new way of talking that is pretty funny, and sounds like "mo mo mo mo" with his lips puckered out.  I don't have much more to say about Ashton since he just had a whole blog to himself  :).

I really want to be better about blogging, but it is so hard with kids.  Some day I will be better about blogging again!

Ashton.....1.1

I am calling this blog "Ashton 1.1" because I am about a month behind on Ashton's 12 month update....however, all the info is from when he was 12 months, not 13 months (because that is such a HUGE difference ;)).  I actually sat down and wrote all this in a couple day time period from my phone, emailed it to myself, and now it's finally making it's way here......

Wow! I can't believe that Ashton is already a year old. Seems like just a month ago I was driving myself to the hospital while Bill tried to find a babysitter for Shelby.
Ashton has really grown, and learns so much everyday. He is still such a lover....loves attention, loves to be held, loves all his family, loves his stuffed animals, etc. He also loves his blankies, and won't sleep without them. Speaking of sleep....Ashton takes 2 naps a day now, at 9ish and 2ish, goes to bed at 645 and wakes around 6. Playing...Ashton loves to play, and always wants to play with Shelby...Shelby on the other hand, isn't always so interested in playing with Ashton, and gets mad that Ashton is bothering him. Ashton then gets mad in return and clenches his fists and "yells" at Shelby, pretty funny if you ask me! Ashton has also started throwing fits if he doesn't get his way....he thrashes his body back and forth and cries, or he will just get mad and lay with his head down on the floor.
Ashton took his first official steps at 11 months on the day, and now at 12 months, he fully walks. The only time you'll see him crawl is if he wants to get somewhere really fast! Even then, he first attempts to "run"!

Here are some stats on Ashton, and some things he knows:

*Height: 31 inches, 89th percentile
*Weight: 22.5 pounds, 67th percentile
*Has 8 teeth (4 top, 4 bottom), and molars are quickly coming in...although, not quickly enough!
*certain fruits (grapes and berries) make his eye and temple area break out in this weird rash...wouldn't it figure I forgot to ask about it at his 1 year check up.

Things he knows and does:
*plays pat a cake (and sings it in his words)
*can tell you monkey, cow, duck, and dog animal sounds, we are working on pig (every time I get the video camera out, that becomes much more interesting)
*mimics almost every noise you make
*has quite the vocabulary: mama, dada, hi, bye bye, more (also signs for more), stop, cracker, shhhh, de-de(blankie), truck, peek-a-boo, poop, bath, no, duck, milk
*knows where eye, nose, and hair are
*loves to give kisses, and blow kisses
*is a very good laundry helper (said with sarcasm ;))
*opens doors to everything!

In the past month....
Ashton has really become quite the little walker, and even started to run. He is not interested in staying in strollers, carts, holding hands, etc...he's a baby on a mission at all times! He thinks putting his cup in the cup holder on his high chair is the greatest thing ever, he always claps for himself.  He doesn't want to eat food that has been cut up, don't you know he is a big boy and needs to take bites?! LOL! His bottom 2 molars are almost through, and they are causing him lots of pain.  Shelby has actually taken a turn for the opposite, and now often times gets upset because Ashton DOESN'T want to play with HIM! We have been 100% done with bottles and formula for about 3 weeks now.  I had some formula leftover, so I continued a night time bottle until we got back from vacation, I feel fortunate that Ashton had no problems giving up any bottles :), and not too much problems with milk.  He didn't care for it too much at first, but a simple switch to Playtex cups, and he was good to go! Now he loves his milk.  He also loves water.  I just introduced juice this week.  I give him about 1/3 juice, 2/3 water.  I am not a big juice fan, but he was starting to drink so much milk, I didn't want him to get constipated.  Ashton still tries to repeat words constantly, likes to tell "stories", and loves his alone time when Shelby naps.  I think that's about all.....more to come.....when I find time!

Piseco Lake Family Vacation 2011

Ahhhh.....vacation! This was something I was not part of last year due to being 37 weeks pregnant and not able to fly.  It was nice to get away and be part of this again, plus with adding Ashton into the mix also!
We left Phoenix on a red eye flight July 15th, and ended up in New York on Ashton's first birthday! What a birthday gift, right?! Our flights went great, with all kids sleeping most of the time.  We were at the camp by about 1pm, so we were able to enjoy the whole day on the beach! Lily was beyond excited, and couldn't get into her suit fast enough! Ashton didn't know what the heck was going on, but he was starving, so he had some lunch first.  Bill and Shelby were in a different car, and had a couple stops to make, so they were a little behind us, but they both were immediately in suits also once arriving!  We just hung out and visited that day, and I went to bed early, since sleep on the plane was non-existent. 

This year, with adults and kids, there were a total of 18 family members! Bill's aunt and uncle who rent the camp, Bill's parents, Bill's sister and family (4 people), his cousin and girlfriend, and their son, his cousin and her husband, plus the 5 of us.  Oh, and not to mention the 3 large dogs :).  The kids are all almost stair steps in age....Lily 9, Mason 5, Mackenzie 4, Shelby 3, Cash 2, Ashton 1....Lily is obviously the exception with the biggest age gap.  She was in a spot this year where she didn't want to play with the little kids, she wanted to hang with the adults, but she is really too young to hang with adults.  There were kids at the beach next door, which she played with some, but not the whole time.  Then there were times she even played by herself.  Hopefully for her sake, as she gets older, she will be able to bring a friend along.  I think Shelby and Cash probably played together the most.  I guess I would expect this since I watched Cash for the first year and a half of his life.  I am scared for years to come, as I know the 4 boys are going to get into SO much trouble! HA! Who knows, Mackenzie may be right in there with them getting in trouble!

Since space is limited, we got to stay at the neighbors converted barn.  This was perfect because Ashton woke up early everyday we were there.  Plus it was private, we were not sharing with anyone else.  Shelby slept with Bill the whole week, and Lily and I each got our own bed, with Ashton in a pack and play.  Ashton got a little spoiled during vacation, as for the first time ever, I rocked him to sleep.  It was a little nice, but I definitely like being able to just lay him down and go.  However, by the end of the week, he was used to it there, and actually did not even want to be rocked.  Lily went down to the fire almost every night, she said she liked to go because she liked listening to the adult conversation! That was the only downfall of the barn....it was too far for us to leave the kids sleeping and go to the fire.  Bill put Shelby to bed every night and would tell me to go to the fire, but I would just go to bed.  I went once, and he went once.  I guess you could say we were the lame ones in bed by 10 every night.  Shelby was pretty good about taking naps, but never until later in the day.  I would actually swing Ashton on this big wooden swing, and then he would take a nap in the tent on the beach.  I actually think he may have slept better naps there than in the pack and play! Lily of course had no naps, but was EXHAUSTED by the end of the day.

As the week went on, all the kids went tubing (15-20 mph, yikes!), including Ashton (which makes me nervous beyond belief).  Lily always loves to go tubing, and thinks she is like pro-tuber and can't fall off.....she actually fell quite a few times this year.  She tubed a lot with the neighbor girls, and I think that is when she fell the most.  Shelby also thinks he is big stuff when on the tube, he goes with Bill, but holds on like he has been tubing for years.  Lily went tubing every day, and I am sure they probably go a little faster than 15-20 mph with her, and she also gets whipped around a little. The day before we left, Lily suddenly decided that she wanted to go knee boarding! She did it 2 years ago, and when she fell, she got a little stuck in the velcro and hurt her legs, she was scared since then.  So when she said she wanted to go knee boarding, we were totally shocked! It turns out, that she is a great knee boarder, LOVES it, and wants her very own $500 knee board now!  I am sure she wishes she would have been knee boarding all week.  Ashton didn't become a pro tuber or knee boarder, but he did pretty much become a pro walker there! He had been taking steps and walking decent for the past few weeks, but he really took off while we were there.  He basically made the big turn from crawler to walker while there, he even did a great job walking in the sand! I guess if he wanted to keep up with all the kids, he had to walk!

Tuesday was a rough day for Shelby.  First of all, he is attached to Bill, and Bill could not come to the beach that morning because he had lots of work issues come up, and needed to be on the computer for a while.  After Shelby finally got over it, we went to the beach.  Mason, Mackenzie, Shelby, and Cash had all been playing nicely in the boat house.   Mason and Mackenzie decided not to play anymore and went to the water.  Shelby and Cash came out of the boat house, and played on the sand right in front.  They were pretend skiing, and pulling each other with the ski rope....here's where things went bad....Cash pulled a little too hard, Shelby let go and fell right into the wooden picnic table, later giving him a black eye! Shelby also had a couple more head bumps that day. 

On Thursday, we had some more family and friends join us...Bill's father's best buddy came out, and Bill's aunt, her granddaughter and husband, and their little boy came also.  His aunt came with a smorgasbord of food! She brought tomato pie (an upstate NY "pizza" made with pizza crust, tomato sauce, and only parmesan cheese, also not eaten hot), coney dogs and hamburgers, the best pasta salad ever, and all sorts of desserts from assorted mini cheesecakes, to assorted brownies, to assorted breads! So yummy! They stayed all day, and had a great time, and we had a great time with them. 

Then came Friday and our vacation was coming to an end.   Every year Bill does a barefoot run (this is skiing without skis....hence the word barefoot), but the water had not been cooperating, and had been choppy.  Later in the day, the water had calmed down some, and Bill figured he better go in case the water was worse on Saturday.  I missed it, but he did AMAZING! He had the best barefoot run he has had in 20 years! And all at the ripe age of almost 40 :).  Bill does this every year, just to keep his yearly barefoot run going.  After all, this is extremely hard, especially the older you get!  

Saturday was here, and our time was up. You could tell Lily was sad to leave, she would choose coming to NY over any other vacation.  She actually said she would go there by herself for a few weeks before the annual scheduled vacation!  We went to the main camp for breakfast as usual, then I headed to the barn to finish up some packing, and put Ashton down for a nap.  Bill, Lily, and Shelby came back for their swimsuits and went to spend the last few hours at the beach.  Of course though, Lily needed to get in a couple more rounds of knee boarding before we left  :).

Our plane rides home were pretty good, all kids awake on the 2 hour flight, then all kids asleep on the 4 hour flight :).  Ashton was pretty ancy on the 2 hour flight, he wanted down so he could walk.  There was another baby the same age sitting diagonally from us, so Ashton did enjoy looking at her and waving.  After flying round trip with 3 kids, I noticed that on each flight, it seemed like all small children and babies were seated in the same section.  Either that, or there were just lots of kids on the plane!

On an ending note, each year while visiting NY, we always tease about bears. The last few times, apparently there have been bears seen in the area. A couple nights before we left, I swear I heard a bear, followed by barking dogs. I don't know for sure though...... Monday after we were gone, Bill's aunt came into the kitchen, only to see a BEAR looking right back at her through the screen door! AHHHH!!!! This was around 10 am. Later that day, Bill's father and uncle, saw 2 more bears (cubs) in the garage getting into the garbage! WOW! Guess maybe that was a bear I heard!



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Prior to injury



Black eye!



Bill and Ashton

Ashton's 1st Birthday Party!

This past weekend we celebrated Ashton's 1st birthday.  His actual birthday isn't until the 16th, but we knew that we would be in New York at that time, so we did it a week early.  Just like Shelby's 1st birthday, we ccelebrated at Rain and Kim's house.  They have a great house with a huge backyard and a pool, and what else is there really to do for a 1 year old who has their birthday in the middle of summer?! Anyway, I really wanted a pirate themed party for Shelby, but considering he has a mind of his own now, that wasn't really going to fly, haha! Needless to say, pirates it was for Ashton!  From our guest list, we were expecting quite a few people, and Rain and Kim always have a few of their friends also, so we decided not to go overboard with plates and such.  I made pirate cake pops (which were a hit), and cupcakes with pirate cupcake liners and a jolly roger flag.  For party favors, I had a treasure box set up that was full of "treasure".....gold coins, necklaces, rings, jewels, and tattoos.  I am pretty sure the kids loved it! Most of the party everybody was swimming, the kids also did play inside for a bit.  For food we had pulled pork for the adults, hot dogs for the kids, then we also had potato salad, cole slaw, baked beans, chips and dip, and veggies with dip.  I would say that Ashton definitely had a great day, and I was very happy so many of our family and friends were able to make it! Here are some pictures from his big day....