Ashleigh's Third Birthday!

I can't believe my little girl is already 3! The speaker at this month's Mom's R&R brunch was speaking on Sanity Savers for Moms yesterday and said that "the days last forever, but the years fly by!" Isn't that the truth with so many of my days?!? Especially this past week, between sanding our deck, the Mom's brunch, selling our car, trying (unsuccessfully) to get World Series tickets, watching the games, and Ashleigh's birthday, it's been a long week and I'm very thankful today is Friday.

We had a great birthday party for Ashleigh on Wednesday with the neighborhood kids. We did a little painting/stamping fall centerpiece craft and then took all the kids outside for a picnic lunch in our backyard. We also had cupcakes and ice cream, which was Ashleigh's favorite part! It was a fun, low-key party, which is just what Ashleigh needed with her shy personality. We are also taking her to the Denver aquarium tomorrow with a few other people, which I'm sure she will also enjoy.

Frosting and decorating cupcakes for the party

Making Fall Centerpieces with Luke and Kellyn

Picnic lunch in the backyard

Kenzie and Ashleigh waiting for cupcakes

(I know this is Ashleigh's birthday post, but I took this adorable picture of Ethan yesterday (4 mo) and couldn't resist!)

Anniversaries and Fall Fun

Ashleigh at our neighbor, Chase's birthday party

Ethan (3 mo) in his carseat

Ashleigh (almost 3) and Jonas (4) watching the Broncos

Laina (5 mo), Ethan, and Ashleigh

I can't believe Rob and I have been married for five years! The time goes so fast and I guess having kids makes it speed up even more than when it was just the two of us. Ethan is already three months and 14.5 pounds, so he also is growing quickly. During the past few weeks, we've been mainly hanging out with friends, going to the park, and enjoying the last bit of summer. They're predicting snow and a cold and rainy weekend, so we have been taking advantage of the warm weather. We even went to Cold Stone for ice cream after dinner tonight and Ashleigh just loved it! Ethan watched us with his big eyes the whole time (just like in the second picture up above) and can't wait to eat what we're eating. He gets hungry just watching us eat dinner, even if he just ate.

Earlier today, we went to storytime at the library down the street and after the books on firefighters, we took a tour of the fire station next door. That was great and my first time in a firehouse. Ashleigh was quite nervous and scared of the man in his firefighting gear and mask, but loved their pet salamander and touched it and told daddy all about it when he got home.

I can't believe our Rockies are doing so well in the playoffs! They're up two games and play their third tomorrow night, so GO ROCKIES! Wouldn't that be crazy if they win tomorrow and the division playoffs and make it into the World Series?!? Broncos on the other hand... not doing so well, but it's still fun to watch the games.

Cell phone mishaps

For the record, cell phones do not survive being submerged in hot chocolate. We've been having cooler weather this week as fall is quickly approaching. What better way to bring in fall than with a nice mug of hot chocolate. I don't even know how I managed to drop it in, but I did with a big splash all over the carpet, and now it no longer works. Even with my engineering husband's wonderful talent to fix things, he couldn't get it to work again after taking it apart and cleaning every piece, it still didn't come back to life. So now, we have 1 1/2 months to go on our current contract and are hoping we can get new phones before then.

I also just realized Ethan is 12 weeks old today. He's doing great and converses with me in baby babble talk. His smiles and coos are the cutest! Here are a few pictures of the little guy. Also, potty training is going much better since my last post.

Four Generations on Rob's Dad's side

Four Generations on Rob's Mom's side

My sister, Jen, and Ethan celebrating her birthday

Potty Training Accidents

Ugh! Just when I thought Ashleigh was potty trained, now come the accidents. We were 11 days without any incidents, but we had a pee accident on the floor in the bathroom this morning (no big deal, just throw the floor rugs into the washer and some 409 on the floor and it's cleaned up). She was also very cranky and when she refused to eat anything for lunch, I thought maybe she wasn't feeling well. After a short nap, she felt warm, so I took her temperature. I found out she had a fever of 100.6 F and was a little relieved that her crankiness was sick related.

Kenzie, Ashleigh, and I played Play-doh for a while, and I put Ashleigh back to bed. While Tracy was over to pick up Kenzie, Ashleigh woke up again after another short nap, cranky and waiting for me at the top of the stairs. I picked her up to bring her downstairs and when I was setting her down on the couch, noticed her lumpy bottom. She had her first poop accident without a diaper since we started potty training three weeks ago and it really was awful. I don't think it would have been so bad, if not for Tracy waiting for me to finish cleaning up Ashleigh and her clothes (more laundry). She did help me out by holding Ethan and keeping Kenzie out of the bathroom. However, when I made the comment, "that's the fun of potty training", after everything was cleaned up, she said "I want to have Kenzie potty trained by the time the new baby comes." Now Kenzie just turned 2 and is showing great promise by going on the potty and is very interested right now, but I really don't want to have two potty-training toddlers plus a newborn. We would never leave the house! After a day like today, I'm almost ready to put Ashleigh back in diapers (well, not quite because she did have a fever), but I'd definitely say it was a discouraging and very challenging day, to say the least.

Ethan's First Camping Trip

Rob, Ashleigh, Ethan, and Janice at the falls

Ethan in the Snugli dazed by the trees

Meadow where we saw a moose on our hike

Hanging out at the campsite

Rob making s'mores with the kids

A few weeks ago, we took little Ethan camping with three other families from our small group near Grand Lake. At just 5 1/2 weeks old, he did amazing! He's definitely a trooper and babies seem so adaptable to different surroundings. He woke up once in the night the first night, then the second night was colder, so he did sleep half the night in Rob's sleeping bag and the second half in mine so that he'd be warm. He also performed an amazing feat after we got home from the trip and he was laying on the floor, he rolled over for the first time! Rob and I missed it as our backs were turned, but Ashleigh saw it and said "Ethan's doing something!"

Speaking of Ashleigh, she fell in the creek by the campsite and was drenched from head to toe. Actually quite scary as a parent as it was waist-deep water. At least it wasn't fast moving, or our little girl may have been swept away. Although she is still scared of water, but maybe that's a good thing. Here's the after picture:

We've been doing well and are getting some sleep now. Ethan started sleeping through the night a week ago, but now, Ashleigh is waking us up to use the potty. We started potty training with Ashleigh a few weeks ago and she's definitely getting the hang of it. No accidents for over a week now! Yea, Ashleigh! We're so proud of her. I'd say potty training has been THE most challenging thing I've done as a parent so far. Some parents have said potty training is the pits of parenting and others say that's as hard as parenting gets, but I'm not getting my hopes up just yet...