Coming Soon

I will be posting about Disney World some time this weekend. It is just an overwhelming task! I took over 600 pictures, so it is quite the undertaking to pick which ones to post. My goal is to get it done this weekend.

Almost Time!!!

I really didn't realize that it has been so long since I blogged! I also didn't realize that I haven't taken any pictures the last few weeks, until I went to put some new ones on here. My new job is just taking over my life. I am putting in about 60 hours a week. To say my job is very stressful is an understatement. I just can't find the time to do much of anything anymore.

There is a lot of excitement around our house as we get ready for our BIG Disney World trip! Exactly one week from now we will be there! My entire family is beyond excited. We have been talking to Ashlyn a lot about the trip. I think that she has some kind of idea. We have also been doing a countdown and she gets a huge smile when I tell her we are counting down to see Mickey and Ariel. This week will fly by with trip preparations and work. (I don't even want to go into what it entails for me to be gone for 5 days from my job!)

I know Ashlyn will have the time of her life! She gets excited when airplanes fly over our house. She always says "hairpane". She said she is excited to fly on one. She has flown before, but she doesn't remember. This time she will have her own seat. She will ride in her car seat. I hope that this reminds her of being in the car and that she sits still. We are also bringing the portable DVD player and "The Little Mermaid", so that will keep her occupied for sure!

Ashlyn continues to talk up a storm. When I picked her up the other day from daycare, her teacher also mentioned how much she is talking. She amazes me everyday with the new stuff she says. Last night, Alli was trying to get comfortable on the couch. Ashlyn said "Alli lay down." (Alli did) "Good girl Alli". It was too cute! She now will say "what?" when you call her name. It is a little thing but it is just another way she is growing up!

I can't believe she will be two in a little over a month. I am already planning her birthday party. She is going to have a family party this year and then a party with friends. I bet you can't guess what the theme of her party will be?

I better make this a short post. I am trying to take advantage of every second of this weekend and get down a thousand things I have to do before we leave next Saturday. I plan on taking at least 1,000 pictures while we are there. I also am going to take down trip notes. I want to make some good blog posts and I also want to make a short book about our Disney trip. So, be prepared for the next post to be FULL of pictures. I hope it doesn't take me too long to get them up!

Below, are the very few pictures I have taken over the last few weeks. I need to get better!

Here is the countdown calendar that Ashlyn and I made together. I was marking off the days at first, but then I realized that Ahslyn loves doing it. She did sneak in a couple of extra days here and there, so it is hard to see that we have 7 days left.

Here is our little Broncos fan. She is carrying Alli's favorite ball.

Alli and Ashlyn playing at the huge park behind Ashlyn's Uncle's house.

This is my new favorite picture of Ashlyn. She just looks too precious!!!

This was Ashlyn after she ate something really, really messy. I honestly can't even remember what it was. I just love that mischievous grin she has.

Our Little Mermaid

Ashlyn continues to do very well after her hospital visit. She was bouncing around the house very quickly! That girl is just so wild! She can't be held back! We are getting very excited for our BIG trip to Disney World. We leave on October 3rd! Joey is finally able to go on a big vacation with us. It will be both Joey and Ashlyn's first trips to Disney World. Ashlyn and I created a countdown calendar the other day. We cross of another day each night. She doesn't understand the concept, but it is something for us to do! I am really looking forward to an entire week off of work!

Work continues to be very hectic. This job is quickly becoming very overwhelming. My old class was very difficult, but my school was great. We had one staff meeting a month that I would have to stay late for. With this new job, I am literally staying late every single day. Yesterday, I left for school at 6:30 am and didn't return home until 5:30 pm. What a day! I am just sad that I am missing precious time with my ever growing girl! I try to pack in as much quality time as possible. After dinner, we have been playing ever night. Her favorite thing to play is "ponies" with her My Little Ponies. Some of them are actually mine from when I was young. It's kind of fun because I get to relive my childhood.

Ashlyn continues to be OBSESSED with Little Mermaid. We finally let her watch the movie, and she would watch that thing on repeat all day if we let her. (It did SAVE us in the hospital!) She just loves anything Little Mermaid. If we are shopping and she sees something Little Mermaid, she gets so excited and screams "Ariel!" We are all taking bets on what she will do when she finally sees "Ariel" in Disney World. My mom finally found Ashlyn an Ariel costume. She loves it! It is more of a ballerina costume. She is in-between sizes and is too small for the really cool Ariel costumes yet. We are already planning a Little Mermaid 2nd birthday party.

We have been keeping very busy on the weekends. It seems that September is already filling up fast as well. Our trip will be here before we know it! I have included some various pictures from the last few weeks. I know in the past I tried to blog once a week, that is still my goal, but realistically, it may be 2 weeks from now on. I am praying this job gets better and less time consuming!

Here is Ashlyn as "Ariel". Please excuse her wild hair. She is just like her mom was at that age, and HATES having her hair combed!

She decided she needed the wand to complete the look.

A princess can ride a horse too.

She loves that horse.

I finally got her to sit still. For some reason, she did not want me to take her picture.

This one is funny. I was trying to get her to take a picture of the two of us. She was not happy. This is the face she made. It is priceless!

Again, she didn't want me taking her picture. She was covering her face with an Elmo book.

A friend won a box seat at a Sky Sox game. Ashlyn enjoyed it. She was having a great time!

Daddy, Ashlyn, and her corndog at the game.

Another game pic

A family picture

On Monday, we headed to the State Fair. I went growing up and I love going every year. It is neat to see Ashlyn enjoy the stuff I use to enjoy. They had a petting zoo area. They had a cool sandbox filled with dried beans instead of sand. Ashlyn really seemed to enjoy it.

Looking at the kittens.

Petting some sheep

Standing in front of a fountain. She loves water! It was cute, I told her to stand in front so I could take a picture and she did!

Eating a funnel cake as fast as she could.

Our attempt at a family picture. Really wish Ashlyn was looking at the camera.

At the Hospital

Here we are at the hospital. Since I have my computer, and nothing else better to do, I thought I would post about our VERY scary last couple of days.

When I got home on Thursday, my mom said that Ashlyn was not feeling well. Her nose was a little runny and we thought that she might have caught the cold I had a few weeks back. Thursday night she started coughing. It was a bark-like cough and I immediately thought it was croup again. I called her daycare to see if she needed to stay home the next day. The woman I spoke to told me that there had been croup going around her room. She said that as long as she wasn't running a fever she could come the next day. Well, that night she slept horribly. We were up most of the night putting her in the bathroom with the shower on, etc. I called my mom on Friday morning and told that she was going to have to watch Ashlyn because she was too sick for daycare.

On Friday, I had a workday at work. There were no students and it was a day to get things done. Joey came home part way through the day to see Ashlyn. She started breathing really funny. I guess they just thought she was excited to see Joey. I talked to Joey and I told him that I would try to get her a doctor's appointment. I tried calling the doctor all afternoon, but the office was closed for some odd reason. I talked to my mom later in the afternoon, and she said she wasn't doing better and I might want to take her to the after-hours clinic just to be on the safe side since the weekend was coming up.

I left work the second that I could get out of there. I came home and Ashlyn was in BAD shape! Every breath she took was very labored. Her chest was sinking in terribly with every breath. I have never seen anything like it in my life. She couldn't even talk. It was absolutely terrifying!!!! We headed to the clinic. On the way, I decided to call the nurse line and ask her where I should take her. She said that since she was breathing like that, we needed to head to the ER. We went to the new hospital by our house since we knew they had a pediatrics unit.

When we got to the ER, I filled out a form and wrote that she was having difficulty breathing. We had to wait for several minutes. Ashlyn, being the wild child she is, was still running around when she could barely even breathe!!!! They finally called us back. The nurse started to take us back to the triage room and said "Wow! I can see from here she is not breathing right". She took her pulse/ox immediately. The nurse's eyes got really big. She looked at the number and said "That's not good at all". She whisked us immediately into a room. Right away a doctor and nurses came in. They rushed to get an oxygen mask for her. The respiratory therapist said she needed oxygen quick and to just hold it in front of her face. There was a whirlwind of activity. There were so many people in the room working on her. Joey, was still not at the hospital, and he was trying to call me to find out what was going on. Poor Ashlyn was so scared and was just screaming and crying. They said they needed to start to an IV right away. It took 3 nurses to get one started. I had to help hold her down. She was screaming bloody murder! It was the hardest thing I have ever been through! Joey walked in just then and was able to help. They got her a breathing treatment right away that started to work right away.

The doctor came in and told us that she had croup really bad. He said that she would be staying the night for sure and that they would evaluate her in the morning. Around 7:45 we headed up to her room. The rooms are really nice here! There is a pull-out couch bed for Joey and I to sleep on. They even had a homemade quilt for Ashlyn to sleep with! The night was pretty rough. She was still wheezing really badly. The respiratory therapist came in a lot during the night to evaluate her. They were trying to hold off on giving her another treatment since they have bad side effects. Around 7:00 this morning, they decided to do another treatment. It helped her a lot.

The doctor came in this morning and said that she probably needed to stay another night. They like for them to be here for 24 hours after there last treatment. He said that it tends to get worse at night, and he wanted to make sure that she was being monitored. So, here we are for another night. Ashlyn is doing MUCH, MUCH better! Her breathing is starting to sound more normal again and her oxygen levels are great. Poor thing has to stay in a crib that resembles a cage. She is going stir crazy! They unhooked from the machines for a little bit so she could run around a bit. She loved it, but it made her a bit wheezy again. I am hoping she falls asleep soon and has a restful night! The doctor said thy would try to get us out of here early in the morning. I am excited to head home!!!!!

Ashlyn has been such a brave girl that has gone through so much the last 24 hours! Please keep her in your thoughts and prayers that she continues to get better and be healthy again!

P.S. She just fell asleep. I hope she is able to get some good sleep!

More Horse Fun!

Things have finally calmed down enough for me to blog! Last week was crazier than I thought it would be. I worked several 12 hour days. 12 hour days are not fun spent at a school! My team and I are getting more into a grove, and I think that I will be getting home much earlier! Today I left right at 3:00! It was nice.

I don't think that I mentioned it earlier, but Ashlyn is now in daycare. She is going 3 days a week, Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. Ashlyn just really needs interaction with other kids her age. I also needed to give my poor mom a break! She was beyond generous to watch Ashlyn full time last year. Now that Ashlyn is older, and MUCH more adventurous, we decided that daycare would be best. We choose a school right down the street from out house. It opened a few months ago and is just beautiful! Her class maxes out at 5 kids so she gets lots of attention. They do sign language, Spanish, colors, etc. When she moves to the 2 and up room they will even potty train her!!!! She is really enjoying school and I think she is benefiting from it already. Today when I picked her up, she saw me and came running. It was too cute!

Our weekend was pretty busy. I now have to get a lot of stuff done on the weekend, that I used to be able to do during the week. Ashlyn had her last horse competition on Saturday. It was a lot of fun as usual, but very HOT! I am kind of sad that it was her last one. She is just too cute to watch! I am posting some more pictures of her competing. I will get some more pics this week to post!


Here is a project that Ashlyn did at daycare the other day. Thought it was cute idea.

She insisted on wearing her cowgirl hat.

I love this one because you can see how excited she gets.

This one is my favorite. Too cute!!!

They were doing special activities for kids that day. They had a bunch of tricycles, so Ashlyn's Grandpa taught her to ride one.

She even found a cute little boy to ride with.

Petting the horse

What a great action shot!

Dad actually got on a horse and went for a ride.

I even rode too! I haven't been on a horse since high school. I forgot how fun it is!

Leading the horse. Seriously, doesn't she just look like a natural?

Lining up for a horse stick race.

Grandpa helping her.

We took a break to go get lunch, and was instantly out!

During her barrel race

Love this one!

Thought this was a great pic of Ashlyn and her Dad and Grandpa

Her last even for this year.

Delay In Posting

I realize that I have not blogged in quite some time. There has been a lot going on lately. I have also been really bad about taking pictures. I promise that I will do better this week.

I was offered a job last Monday. While I am very grateful to get a job, it is a big change for us after spending more than 2 months at home. I am going to miss Ashlyn very much! I was hired at the last second. I only had Friday to spend at my new school. I go in again tomorrow to finish planning and setting up. We have an Open House tomorrow night and school starts Tuesday. It is going to be crazy!

I will be teaching 3rd grade this year. I am at a different district than last year. It is the district that I attended for all of my school years. It is just a big change to switch districts because they do things very differently. The school is very close to my last school. However, this is only the schools third year. It is still very new and just a beautiful building. My classroom is HUGE and I have so much more technology! I like my teammates. There are a total of 4 of us and all of us are new to the school this year. We are all fairly new teachers. I am excited to meet my students and get to know my fellow teachers.

I am going to try to keep up with the blog the best I can. I know that I did a decent job last year. It will probably be awhile until I can get on here and blog. The first couple weeks of school are going to be VERY hectic and time consuming. I want to spend any extra time with my precious girl. It is hard to balance work, children, and keeping a home. I will try my best to get some pictures up next week!

First Rodeo

Ashlyn's fun filled day continued with a her first rodeo. I was not there, so I will do my best to explain the pictures.

They started the night by going to a Mexican restaurant. Joey said the food was very good and Ashlyn had fun. Apparently, she got to wear her first sombrero.

After dinner, they headed to the fair grounds. From what I have been told, it was a great time. Ashlyn just loved watching the rodeo. There are were lots of animals there that she got to see. She just loves animals and loves any chance to see them. It was a very late night. Ashlyn had so much fun that Joey said she was still going strong at 10:00! What a crazy girl! I am told that she slept really well that night after a jam packed day of fun.

Next weekend will probably be fun as well. There are fireworks on Friday night again. Ashlyn has another horse competition this Sunday. I am going to this one and I am very excited to see her in action!


Wearing her sombrero

A picture with Grandpa

She just looks adorable!

She just loves spending time with Grandpa

How cool does she look?

Looking at an animal

She really liked the turkeys. I don't know why.

Giving Havasu a kiss

Checking out the cows. Ashlyn really likes cows these days.

Petting a cow. She is a brave girl if you ask me!

Checking out some pigs

Petting a pig. Yuck!

I thought this picture was really cute. She just loves to climb!