Conferences and St. Patrick's Day Fun

       Parent/Teacher conferences were held at Ashlyn's school this week.  Ashlyn's teacher had so many wonderful things to say about her.  She said that she thoroughly enjoys having Ashlyn in her class.  She said that she is very social and has lots of friends in her class.  She also said that Ashlyn is very bright and ahead of her peers in most areas.  We discussed ways we could challenge her both at home and in the classroom.  I was very proud when she said she knows her shapes better than anyone other child in her class.  She also said she is the best at drawing in the class.  I was one proud mommy!  I know what an amazing little girl Ashlyn is, but it always is so nice to hear it from others like your child's teacher.  Its one of the best compliments a parent can get.  As a very special treat, we got Ashlyn a happy meal that night for dinner mainly because they are giving out My Little Pony toys.  She was one happy little girl!

       On Saturday, we were up bright and early to head downtown for the annual St. Patrick's Day race.  I have ran this 5k several times and it is always one of my favorites.  They changed some things about it this year, and I was less than impressed with the entire event.  This year a record number of people signed up.  I get very frustrated when races accept an unlimited number of participants when they clearly aren't prepared to deal with that many runners.  They ran out of shirts, had no water on the course, ran out of water cups after the race, it was too crowded, etc.  I am very disappointed that one of my favorite races was ran so poorly this year.  I really hope they work out the kinks for next year. 

       I have been training pretty hard for this race.  The weather was absolutely beautiful.  It actually might have been a little too warm.  It is a fun course and I enjoy watching the people as I run.  I did not finish as quickly as I know I could have, but I now know what I need to focus on more for this upcoming race season.  I did end up setting a new PR, so I was happy.  I ended up coming in 31st out of 1,821 females.  So even though I was disappointed in my time, I still did really, really well overall.  At the Turkey Trot there were 50 women ahead of me, this time there were only 30.  I love that I am closing in on my competition.  It feels so rewarding to have all my hard work really pay off.  There are so many nights I don't feel like heading to the gym to run after a long day.  I always remind myself that my competition probably ran that day.  It's motivating.  I have a bunch of races lined up for this spring and summer.  I am most excited to run the Bolder Boulder in May.  I am going to continue to train hard and pray I stay injury free!

         This race also had a kids run.  Ashlyn has enjoyed kids runs in the past and when I asked her if she wanted to do it, she enthusiastically said, "Yes!"  This kid run was kind of neat because they also got a t-shirt.  It was supposed to only be a 1/2 mile run, but I am positive it was much longer than that.  It too was very disorganized and they had to have two separate heats.  Ashlyn had a great time while she was running though.  She ran the entire time and didn't walk once.  Ashlyn is proving to be pretty athletic. 

     Despite some major kinks and problems with the event, we still had a great time.  I am already looking forward to next year.  I'm entering Dawson to do the kids run. 

     Here are some pictures that Joey managed to take.  He had a hard time taking pictures this race because it was so crowded and he had Ashlyn and Dawson to keep an eye on.  He still did a good job. 

My little man watching mommy

I'm kind of hard to see, but I'm in the purple.

Here I am at the end

Ashlyn and I after my race

Taking off in the kids run

It was very crowded and kind of hard to navigate through all the participants.

Hi Daddy!

Waving to the camera.

In between my race and Ashlyn's race, my mom took Ashlyn to get her face painted.  She picked a cat face of course.  She has never had her face fully painted like that and she LOVED it.  She was very sad to have to wash it off that night in the bath.



Zoo Day

     The weather continues to be nice and we are taking full advantage of it around here!  I know how short lived it will probably be.  The rest of this week is supposed to be just beautiful.  Today, we went to the zoo with Brooke and Emma.  I  watch Ella on Tuesdays, so I was a little apprehensive about taking 3 kids to the zoo.  It went surprisingly well.  Ella and Dawson really got into watching and looking at animals this time.  We haven't used our zoo membership in months because it has been too cold.  It was a great day to get outside and soak up the sun.  We even got to have a nice little picnic lunch at the zoo.  What a perfect day it was!

      Every night we have been going on long walks around the neighborhood so Ashlyn can ride her bike.  She just loves riding her bike.  She has gotten so good at it!  She brakes like a pro.  She can even ride up hills.  She has such a great time.  I enjoy getting to watch her.  I can't believe how big she is getting!

    This Saturday is the big St. Patrick's day race.  I am very excited for it because it is my favorite 5k to run in Colorado Springs.  There is a parade afterwards so there is always a lot of people watching.  I have been training really hard and hope to do really well this year.  Ashlyn is going to do the kids run.  This will be the first kids run she will do where she gets a shirt.  We went on a run last night for practice.  She did so good.   What really impressed me was when she started to get tired, she would walk for a minute, then she would automatically start running again.  I didn't even say a word to her.  I think she has running in her genes!

       In addition to her preschool, I also work with Ashlyn a lot at home on her school skills.  I went and bought her a kindergarten workbook because the preschool one was not challenging enough for her.  She is such a smart little cookie.  She is a very lucky little girl.  Things come extremely easy to her.  As a teacher, I often see how hard some kids have to work to barely understand concepts.  I don't see Ashlyn being that way.  I think most things will come easy for her.  I just worry about her being challenged enough. 

        Dawson said some new words this week.  He started saying, "Alli" and "bye".  I love making out new words.  That's about all for this week.  On Friday, Joey and I are going to Ashlyn's parent/teacher conferences at school.  We look forward to hearing what her teacher has to say about her.  I will have lots to update next week.  



We love pizza at our house, but I find delivery pizza to be expensive and not the healthiest.  I decided that we are going to start making our own pizza once a week.  Ashlyn is thrilled with the idea.  I tried a new recipe for whole wheat pizza dough and it turned out really well.  Ashlyn had a blast making a pizza for her and Dawson.

Sampling some of the cheese.

Getting the pepperoni on just right.

I forgot to take a picture of the finished product, but I did get this picture of Ashlyn's pizza.  She said is was delicious!

Joey and the kids were their matching Nuggets shirts for the Nuggets game

Checking out the animals at the zoo

Ashlyn got to ride an ant

As usual, Dawson headed right for the slide.

He's getting so good at going up.

Great action shot of Dawson having a great time.

Ashlyn and Emma

We were so excited to see a peacock.  Ashlyn later said that the peacock was her favorite animal we saw after the hippos of course. 

Checking out the monkeys.

We tried to get a group shot, but it is very hard to get 4 kids to look at the camera at the same time.  This was the best we could do.

I thought this was adorable.  Think they are related???

Finally a Nice Day!

     We are so over winter and cold at this house!  The kids are just dying to get outside to play and explore.  Unfortunately, it just has not been nice enough to get much outdoor time in.  On Sunday, I had to go into work for a bit.  It was a beautiful day.  Joey decided to take the kids to the park.  He said the they had a great time playing.  Dawson kept climbing up the slide (That didn't surprise me one bit! LOL).  We are so excited for spring and look forward to warm days ahead.  I hope that we get some more in the near future. 

     Joey, Ashlyn, and Dawson have had coughs all week.  Yesterday, Dawson's got a lot worse.  He also developed a pretty high fever.  I gave him Tylenol, but the poor guy was just miserable.  I decided to take him to urgent care because I didn't want him to get worse over the course of  the night.  They tested him at urgent care for RSV and the flu.  Both tests were negative thank God!  They determined he has bronchitis.  They gave him an antibiotic and a steroid for his lungs.  He seems to be doing much better today.  His fever has really gone down and he seems to be feeling much better.  I am so over all this sickness at our house!  I hate seeing my babies sick.  I am praying that this is the last of it for awhile. 

 Here are some pictures from our week.

Last Tuesday, Aidan our neighbor came over for a bit.  I got to see what it would be like to have triplets.

They are all so close in age that they play really, really well together. They had a fun time.

Joey had to take a picture of the funny way that Ashlyn fell asleep the other night.  We couldn't get over how she slept with her legs up like that.

Playing some soccer

Look at our future soccer star go!

Here is danger boy climbing up the slide.  I am amazed he got that far by himself.

I think I can guess who he learned it from?

Time for the swings.

Ashlyn is such a good big sister and gave her brother a push.

Ashlyn is also a climber.

Heading back up the slide.

Dawson recently discovered that the oven drawer opens.  He also had decided that he likes to climb in it.  I just had to snap a picture.

Ashlyn is starting swimming lessons soon.  On Sunday, she got a new bathing suit and new shoes.  She wanted me to take a picture of her in both.  She didn't want to take her bathing suit off. 

Dawson is doing awesome with a fork.  He is really getting good at feeding himself. 

Dawson 13 Months

     Last week, Dawson turned 13 months old.  How has another month already gone by???  He is such a delight at this age.  I am remembering how much I loved this age with Ashlyn.  They are still babies, but becoming fiercely independent.  He loves exploring and doing anything that tickles his fancy at that moment.  I just love watching it all. 

       Dawson has gotten very good at climbing on the couch.  He can now do it without any help.  I am not too excited about this recent skill, but there is no stopping him.  The kid loves to climb.  He climbs off and on the couch all day long.  At first I tried to get him to stop, but he was too strong willed and determined for that.  He really is a daredevil.  He likes to stand up on his ride-on toys, and anything else he finds to be "dangerous".  He gets a kick out of it and always gets a huge grin on his face.  I am going to have to  keep a close eye on him. 

      Another thing he really likes doing is pretend that he is cooking.  He is often in the kitchen with me and likes to watch me cook.  At my sister's house, she has a play kitchen in the area where he spends most of his day while there.  Katy said he pretends to cook things all day long.  He loves it when you "taste" his food and gets such a kick out of it.  It is really cute.  My sister joked the other day that she things he will be a rock-climbing chef one day. 

        Along with pretend play, Dawson also loves playing, "Where's Dawson?" His favorite spot is to hide behind the curtains in the dining room.  I say, "Where's Dawson?" and he pops out and laughs so hard.  He will play it over and over.  He has also taken a strong liking to the cat.  Our cat is smart enough to make herself quite hidden most of the time.  When she does come out, he gets so excited and points and says, "Kitty!" My sister's cat is much more tolerable of him and Katy says he just loves petting her and often pulls her tail.  Poor cat!  

     Dawson's other favorite activity at this age is to be read to.  He has two favorite books, a Mickey Mouse book and a spring daisy book.  He brings me those two books at least 20 times a day to read to him.  I am surprised I haven't memorized them yet!  He loves turning the pages for me.  I love that he already seems to have a passion for books!

      That is a small glimpse of what Dawson is like at 13 months.  I am sure next month I will have lots of new things to add.  I swear he does something new everyday!

Dawson at 13 months (Excuse the drool, he was very drooly that day!)

He loves his pot.

He can entertain himself with the funniest things.

He is such a handsome little man!!!