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!!!

Ms. Mature and lots of randomness

        I didn't post last week because I didn't have a whole lot to post about.  The kids went to their grandparent's house in Buena Vista.  They had a great time spending time with them.  Joey and I had a great weekend sleeping in and relaxing.  I think it was just what we all needed!

      The kids have a had a lot of play dates recently.  On Tuesdays, my friend Brooke comes over with her sweet little girl Emma.  The kids have a great time together and I love getting some grown-up conversation.  Our next door neighbor, Aidan also came over this Tuesday.  He is one week older than Dawson.  He and Dawson seemed to have fun with one another.  On Saturday, Ashlyn had her first friend come over all by herself.  Catelin came over for a few hours to play.  It was kind of a big deal because she had never had a friend over without their parents here.  She was too cute showing Catelin all around the house.  They had a great time playing in the basement.  In typical girl fashion, there was lots of princess dresses and play makeup involved. 

         On Saturday I ran a 10k.  I was once again undecided if I was going to do it or not.  I wasn't emotionally in a very good place to be running a 10k.  However, I woke up Saturday morning and saw the sun was shining and I figured I would rather run a 10k outdoors than on a treadmill at the gym.  I called my brother and told him I was doing it.  He has ran this race before and warned me it was kind of challenging.  Since I really didn't care how I did, I just decided to take it slow and do it for fun.  The course was 90% covered in snow and ice.  I have never ran in snow or ice before and it was a little scary.  People were falling, etc.  I went pretty slow at first for fear of falling.  I soon realized that the 6 mile course consisted of hill after hill.  I'm talking rolling hills.  It was by far the toughest race I have ever done.  I just focused on my music and just enjoyed myself.  I knew that my pace was getting faster according to my Garmin.  Around mile 4, I saw one of the girls who beat me at my last 5k.  I decided right then and there that I wasn't going to let her beat me again.  I sped up and caught up with her.  I passed her and she kept trying to pass me again.  At the very end, she caught up with me and gave me a look like she was ready to race to the finish.  I pushed it harder than I ever have before. It was neck and neck, but I managed to beat her!  Felt great.  I came in 20th overall for females.  I was pleasantly surprised because I didn't even try all that hard. 

          I have to speak of our new litte mature girl, Ashlyn.  A couple of weeks ago I noticed that she seemed to have really grown.  All of her pants were getting too short and her shirts were a lot shorter.  I had to go out and by her some new clothes.  Well, in the last week or so she seems to be growing in our other ways too.  She has become so independent.  She now helps me fold clothes, brushes her own teeth, buttons her clothes, buckles her car seat, etc .  I can not believe how much she has grown.  I always joke with her that she doesn't even need me anymore.  Intellectually she is also growing like crazy.  She was reading a couple of months ago.  She was doing okay with it.  She was getting the hang of it, but it seemed like we really had to work at it.  I decided since she wasn't even 4 years old yet, to wait a little bit longer.  Well, this last week she has shown a ton of interest in reading.  She is doing an amazing job sounding words out.  She can read books like a pro now.  I am so incredibly proud of her.  She is also really into writing all of a sudden . She is now writing all of the time.  I find her writing on my shopping list, scrap paper, etc.  I love it!  She just seems to be going through a developmental explosion.     When Joey picked her up from school last week, her teacher told him that she was so impressed with the way Ashlyn talked.  She said she seemed a lot older than four.  We have always gotten that a lot about Ashlyn.  

        Here are some pictures:      

Here is little man drinking from his big boy cup.

We went to Ikea last week and got him this little tool belt with felt tools.  He looked adorable in it.  For some reason, he felt the need to put the hammer in his mouth.

Such a little boy

Bath time!  Always their favorite time.

Here is Ashyln buttoning her pajamas. 

On Saturday, the kids both got haircuts.  I decided to have about 4 to 5 inches cut from Ashlyn's hair.  She loves and I do too.  It looks adorable. 

Good shot of her new haircut. Dawson's haircut isn't as noticeable.

We got this for Dawson for his birthday, but just now got around to taking it out of the box.  He loves it. 

Ashlyn had to take it for a ride too.

Ashlyn and her beloved "blankie"

Dawson has mastered going down the stairs now.  He loves doing it.

Here is Ashlyn helping me fold the laundry.  Ella wanted to help too. 

She is actually really good at folding things.