Musuem Fun and More Sickness

This last week Jacob, Maya, and Nadia were in town.  We just love any chance we get to see them.  Ashlyn just absolutely adores Nadia.  She asks about her all the time.  On Tuesday, they invited us to join them at the Denver Museum of Nature and Science.  I haven't been there in several years, but much is still the same.  Ashlyn had a blast looking at all of the animals.  There was a big group of us and lots of kids for Ashlyn to play with.  They have added a new interactive area that is a lot of fun.  Ashlyn loved exploring and discovering.  We had a great time and I definitely plan to go back to the museum but I want to take Joey next time.  The kids had a great time and they all fell asleep the second we got in the car.

On Wednesday night, Dawson started coughing and got really fussy again.  He coughed all night long.  Poor thing didn't sleep well at all because of his cough.  (His sickness always has impeccable timing on nights were I work the next day).  I had to go to work but called the doctor during my plan time.  I described his symptoms to the nurse and she said that he better come in to be seen.  I brought him in as soon as I got off work.  The doctor he saw was the same one he saw the week before.  She looked in his ears and said that they actually looked worse than they did last week.  She said the ear infection he had was resistant to the antibiotic he was on. So, she prescribed him a new antibiotic.   We started the new meds and he seems to be getting better, but he is still fighting the same nasty cold that Ashlyn fought for weeks. Ella has it too, so I spend a lot of time wiping poor baby noses.  I pray that they both get better soon and stay that way!

On Saturday, Joey took the kids up to Woodland Park.  I had to do my long run, so I couldn't join them.  They went up there for the awards ceremony for horse competitions.  Ashlyn got a ribbon and a $10 McDonald's gift card.  She is very excited to buy some Happy Meals with her card.  They also got a chance to ride the horses which Ashlyn just loved of course. 

Here are some pictures from the week. 

Our little cowgirl.

Papa and his grandkids

Dawson and Ashlyn riding the horse together.  Melts my heart!

It looks like Dawson was having a blast on the horse.  He is a natural like his sis.

Ashlyn getting her award. 

Ashlyn loves goofing around with Papa.

Ashlyn and Grandma riding horses.

Nadia and Ashlyn hugging goodbye.

Dawson also loved the kids discovery area.

This is what Dawson and Ella did.  They had a great time.

Nadia and Ashlyn digging for dinosaur bones. 

Having fun

Ashlyn with antlers

Nadia and Ashlyn have so much fun together.  I so wish she lived closer!

Ashlyn and her crafts

Sick Baby and Last Cabin Weekend

Sadly, we won't be enjoying this beauty for some time. 

     What a week and weekend we had! Ashlyn developed a cold earlier in the week.  She was congested and coughing.  I was really hoping that Dawson wouldn't get it.  Well, Tuesday and Wednesday he was pretty fussy.  I didn't put two and two together that he may be getting sick.  I put him to bed Wednesday night, and he struggled falling asleep and staying asleep.  Thursdays are a work day for me and I have to be up at 5:00.  Joey got up with Dawson and laid with him for most of the night.  I managed to get a couple of hours of sleep.  Around 3:30, I woke up with him.  Poor thing was just miserable!  He was so congested and his cheeks and nose were bright red.  He had a fever too.  I knew that me staying home wasn't going to be a possibility.  Since its so early in the year, I don't have any sort of sub plans set up.  It was the worst thing in the world to have to leave him when he was so sick and needed his mom the most.  Joey stayed home with him and was able to get him into the doctor first thing.  Turns out he had an ear infection.  Ashlyn has never had a single ear infection, so I was very surprised he had one.  They prescribed antibiotics and he felt better later that day.  He is back to his happy self once again.  It was just so hard to see him so sick.  Joey was such an amazing husband.  He not only stayed up with Dawson so I could sleep, took him to the doctor,  I also came home to a sparkling clean house and the laundry done! I definitely have an amazing husband!

We headed up to the cabin for our last weekend of the summer.  Joey and I dropped off Dawson and Ashlyn off at his Dad's house on our way up Saturday.  They had a blast spending the night with their grandparents.  Ashlyn got to see her beloved horse, Pistol.  On Sunday morning, Joey and I picked the kids up.  I took Ashlyn to the hot springs.  She has never been there before, and really had a great time.  We will be going again for sure.  We spent the rest of the weekend relaxing at the cabin.  It is very obvious up there that fall is looming.  Not only was it quite a bit cooler, leaves were already changing.  I'm so sad that we won't be going up there for a long time.  I'm glad that we were able to go up there so much this summer.  I know that all of us had so much fun there. 


Ashlyn left her dinosaurs out this afternoon.  Dawson crawled by and saw them.  He immediately started playing with them.  It was pretty cute. 

He was very intrigued by them.

He knew just how to play with them.

He's so cute!

He had a blast at the cabin jumping in his bouncer.

Ashlyn showing her mom what a rugged cowgirl she is.

Ashlyn was so excited to see her favorite horse.

Ashlyn and I did a lot of art this week.  She just can't get enough of art projects.  Here are some of the ones we did this week. 

This is a ladybug made from her footprint.

This is recycled art.  She used an empty toilet paper roll as a stamp.  She made this one for her Papa to hang at work.

Ashyln has been loving monkeys.  She insisted we do a monkey craft.  She really liked the way this one turned out.  She decided to add some finishing touches to his face.  One of ears also fell off before I took a picture because she was playing with him.

Ashlyn had a blast making this fish.  Her favorite part was going outside and gathering rocks for the bottom.  I think it turned out adorable!

Seven Months

I'm pretty sure I was JUST writing Dawson's six month post. My little boy is growing so fast. I wish I could just freeze time for just a little bit longer. I treasure each and every second with him. He is such a sweet and loving little boy. He is still a huge Mama's boy and loves to cuddle with his mom. He also loves to be held still. He is definitely most content when he is being held by his mama.

As much as he likes to be held, he is still on the go. The boy is fast when he crawls and can move. We recently had to put up the baby gate at the bottom of the stairs because he was crawling up the stairs. He continues to pull himself up and practices standing. I am waiting for him to start moving around furniture. I know it will be soon because he just has places he needs to go!

Dawson is still a champion eater. There is not one food yet that he hasn't liked. He literally gobbles it all up. He will cry and get mad when it is gone. His favorite is still bananas I think. He also really likes mangoes and pears. I am excited for him to try more and more foods. Unfortunately, I know that just because he eats anything now, doesn't mean he will later. Ashlyn also would eat anything and now she is the pickiest eater in the world. I just hope he continues to make healthy choices. In eating news for me, I am finally able to eat dairy again after 6 months of not eating it!!! It was a pretty big sacrifiace on my part, but I would do it again in a heartbeat if it means my child being able to get the best nutritiion possible. I have slowly brought dairy back in my diet a little bit at a time. I am now able to eat it pretty much withouth abandon. I can't tell you how good cheese and milk on cereal tastes. I truly missed it!!!!

Dawson is FINALLY becoming a decent sleeper. It literally took almost 6 1/2 months and A LOT of sleep training. I think I have pretty much weaned him from his middle of the night feeding. He goes to bed every night at 8:00 p.m. and wakes up between 4:00 and 5:00 a.m. to eat. I feed him and then put him back to bed until 6:00 to 6:30 a.m. I can not explain how good it feels to finally eliminate that night feeding and get some longer stretches of sleep. The only complaint I have is on the two nights I when I have to wake up at 5:00 a.m. for work. He often will wake up to eat at 4:00 or so. So, I'm basically waking up at 4:00 a.m. for the day on the those two days. At least it is only two days and I can make up for it on the other days. But, after getting up at 4:00 and teaching all day, I am more than ready for bed that night!

Dawson's favorite activities include playing with his cousin Ella and his sister. Ashlyn loves making him laugh. She also really enjoys teaching him things like songs. Dawson gets a kick out of watching her. Dawson loves playing with his toys and chews on everything. His favorite is his car racetrack. He is such a boy!

Here are some pictures I took of Dawson yesterday when he turned 7 months old.

Fair Fun

We had an amazing weekend! It was filled with lots of fun. On Friday night, we headed down to Pueblo to go to the drive-in. We saw Smurfs. Ashlyn had really been wanting to see it and she really liked it. We meant to go to the drive-in a lot this summer, but it is such a drive that we only went twice. I'm glad we got to go one last time before summer was over. We thought that we were going to miss the fireworks on Friday night while we are at the drive-in. The game actually went really late, and the fireworks started right when we got home. Ashlyn had fallen asleep in the car and Joey took her out back to watch them. She was kind of out of it. The next day when Joey asked her about them, she had no memory of watching them. It was the perfect summer night.

Joey had to work on Saturday during the day. Ashlyn and Dawson were invited to a birthday party, so that's what we did while Joey was at work. Ashlyn had a blast at the birthday party swimming and eating cake and ice cream. On Saturday night, Joey and I headed up to Denver for the Broncos pre-season game. Joey was given tickets at work for doing such a great job. My Mom watched the kids while we went. It was a perfect night for a game and we had a really good time.

On Sunday, we headed to the State Fair bright and early. We were hoping to beat some of the heat. We weren't too successful at that, but we had a great time. We just love the State Fair. One of our favorite things to do there is look at ll of the decorated cakes. Ashlyn really enjoyed looking at them this year. We were very excited to see that they were having a cake decorating competition right when we got there. We got to walk around and see kids decorate cakes. Ashlyn decided she wants to decorate cakes one day. We had a great time looking at baby animals and Ashlyn got to hold a chick. We also saw pig races which were quite interesting. Ashlyn's other favorite part of the day was a Lego area they had this year. It was full of Legos and areas to build. They had an area for smaller kids. Ashlyn stood there for a long time building with the Legos. I definitely think she may be getting some for her birthday. What a great time we all had. We came home Sunday afternoon and just relaxed. We got out Ashlyn's pool so she could swim a bit. We were all pretty exhausted from such a fun filled weekend. Next weekend, we are heading to the cabin for the last time of the summer. I'm sure it will be another fun filled and exciting weekend!

On Thursday, Joey had the day off from work. He took the kids to a really neat park. It was a Charlotte's Web theme and Ashlyn just loved it.

Playing with "Charlotte"

Climbing the web

This is what Dawson did while Ashlyn played

I just LOVE, LOVE, LOVE watching Dawson and Ashlyn play and bond with each other. I thought this picture captured that well.

Dawson had a great time playing with his toy at the fair.

Such a happy little guy.

Ashlyn holding a chick. She LOVED it!

Mommy and Ash in the petting zoo

Pirate Ashlyn

Uh oh

Ashlyn really enjoyed her ice cream treat

This shark was built entirely out of Legos. Pretty cool

This Lion is Legos too. How cute is Ashlyn?

Dawson and Daddy. I was trying to get a picture of their matching camo cargo shorts, but you really can't see them.

Ashlyn creating with Legos

She was very focused.

So many possibilities.