Grandparent's Day 2011

We had a great weekend and Ashlyn got to see 2/3's of her grandparents!  Saturday afternoon Mimi and PaJ came over to hang out and spend the night.  We had no plans and just enjoyed hanging out, eating good food, drinking good wine, escaping the building for a fire, and watching the sun set over downtown by the pool.  We got up Sunday morning and had a yummy brunch outside at Dream Cafe.  Then we walked around the Farmer's Market.  It was a nice time!

Enjoying Sunday Brunch

Then we decided to surprise Gma and Gpa (and Aunt Sarah) and stop by for a little while!  We just relaxed, ate pizza, watched football and took a NAP!  Sorry, no pictures.  It was a wonderful weekend.  The only thing that would have made it better would have been seeing Nenna and Poppa on Grandparent's Day.  We got to chat with them over the phone and will hopefully will get to see them again very soon.  WE LOVE YOU NENNA, POPPA, GMA, GPA, MIMI & PAJ!  And a special shout out to the great grands...Mimi and Papa and Grandma Sally.  Ashlyn is one lucky little girl :) And to our grandparents who are no longer with us, we miss you everyday!

Gymboree

We tried out Gymboree for the first time this weekend.  Ashlyn had a good time, despite her lingering cold and the fact that is was pushing nap time.  The theme for this class was slides! Not sure if we will join or not.  We are going to try out a few more activities before we decide.  We are trying to find some fun things to do with Ashlyn, but it is a little difficult finding evening stuff!  There are some classes/activities on the weekends but we are often out of town or have other things going on.  We are trying Kindermusik this week!

It was close to nap time and this was an awfully soft blanket!

Towards the end, we all had to raise the parachute really high and then crawl underneath.  I almost had to excuse us.  It was really hot and stuffy under there.  And the song went on and on and on!  

There were about 30 of us underneath there!

Please...

Take your first steps this weekend.  My arms are getting tired from constantly holding up the camera hoping to capture the moment on film and I am scared you are going to accomplish this milestone at school and we will miss it.  I know it is just minutes away!

Thank you,
Your Mother

90 is the new 70

Degrees that is!  Although I did get a little overzealous when I put on a jacket to take the dogs out one morning.  I expected 70 to feel a lot colder!  Nonetheless, we have been enjoying the cooler weather with walks, trips to the dog park and lots of fun at the playground!  And Ashlyn and I have been trying to avoid catching the stomach bug that hit Chance midweek.  It was terrible!  That was the sickest I have ever seen him.  He is recovering and we are glad to have him back!  Here are a couple of cute pics from our time outdoors!

I spent a lot of time fishing wood chips out of her mouth.  

I wonder what she is missing in her diet?

She also had lots of outside time at school!

A side note...One of my patients told me today, "It's a good thing you are a good PT because you would make a terrible nurse!"  (I was trying to put a dressing on one of his wounds...I didn't mention that PT's actually do wound care.)  I beg to differ...I played head nurse at the Wimberly Infirmary this week and I think I did a darn good job!  Both of my patients are recovering nicely, but the little one left me with her cold :/

Up on the roof

Since we moved into the loft, we have enjoyed sneaking up to the rooftop pool in the evenings after work for a refreshing dip.  I think we took our last dip in the pool as it has cooled off rather quickly!  Oh well, it was fun while it lasted.

It was a little too chilly to get all the way in,
 but we enjoyed our beverages on the ledge, nonetheless!

The pool may be too cold,
but we can still enjoy the view and the sunsets!

Fussy gussy

a summer cold + a touch of croup + molars

=

Happy Hour with Daddy

I stopped by a happy hour after work one day last week that was a going away party for one of our PT techs.  Chance picked Ashlyn up from school and they headed to happy hour at their favorite spot...yummilicious.  

About-face

We finally turned Ashlyn's car seat forward facing.  Most people do it at 12 months, but the new recommendations are to rear face until 2 years!  We tried it as long as we could, but decided to turn her seat around for several reasons: 1. I think she may get car sick...I certainly do.  I can barely walk backwards without getting queasy. 2. Her knees were up to her chest! 3. It is so much easier to entertain her from the front seat.   4. Those rear facing mirrors SUCK! 5. She was missing out on all the action.  Except for road trips when she could have a staring contest with the dogs!  All in all I think it was a good decision.  She seems happy with it (although you wouldn't know it by this picture:)

Pickin' for Preemies

It is only fitting that Ashlyn's first concert to attend (outside the womb...yes, her first concert ever was Bon Jovi:) was a benefit for Cook's NICU...Pickin' for Preemies.  It was an acoustic concert full of great Texas Country singer/songwriters.  We loaded up on Labor Day, after I worked all day, and headed to Fort Worth.  Donnie Nelson invited us to come out to the event and hooked us up with backstage access! We hung out with several of the performers and got to check out their tour busses.  Ashlyn watched the show from backstage sitting next to Cody Canada's 2 sons!  Randy Rogers asked to hold her and shared videos of his 16 month old daughter.  Ashlyn roamed all over the tour busses and I honestly thought it was there she would take her first solo steps. (Yes, I washed her hands very well).  We had a great time and will definitely be making it an annual event. What a great cause!

Valet Parking

Her stroller looked so cute next to the busses

Chance, Danny and Randy

Randy Rogers and Ashlyn

Hanging with the cousins

We took a trip to Abilene this weekend.  We got there Friday night...a little later than anticipated but it takes us a while to load up and get it all down to the car these days.  We are quite a sight in the elevator!  Saturday was spent playing, eating, drinking, swimming and playing some more!  Ashlyn and Jules had fun playing together.  Jules wanted everything that Ashlyn had...including her mom!  Jules didn't leave my side and even called me "Momma".  It was pretty funny!  Jules started wearing bibs and sitting in the highchair to eat...things she hasn't done in quite some time.  The best part of it all was when Jules came in today at lunch sucking on one of Ashlyn's pacifiers!  It was hilarious.  She never took to a pacifier, despite Kristin's multiple attempts to get her to take one.  She didn't really even know what to do with it.  She didn't suck on it, she just let it kind of hang out of her mouth.  It was priceless!  I think they had a great time playing.  It was nice to just relax and catch up with everyone.  We packed up Sunday afternoon and headed home.  Traveling isn't quite as easy as it used to be when Ashlyn was younger.  She doesn't nap the whole time now so we have to entertain her.  I packed a bag full of toys and would hand her one at a time which repeatedly ended up out of her reach.  The other occupier of time is eating.  This didn't go quite so well.  We were about an hour away from home and pulled over to grab some dinner.  I gave Ashlyn some snacks and then with much debate, decided to give her a pear/mango yogurt smoothie (one of those squishy bags that you can eat directly from the pouch).  She has a history of not doing too well with yogurt, but it had been a while and this wasn't REALLY yogurt.  Bad decision.  About 20 minutes from home she barfed and she barfed and she barfed some more.  It was terrible!  I won't go into details, but let's just say we will not eat yogurt again for a very long time!  After we got home and bathed, I decided to let her try and eat a little something before bed.  Pedialite and applesauce...we saw that again.  Maybe she has a little bug or maybe the yogurt really did a number on her tummy.  I am not sure what is going on.  She stayed up and played for a little bit so we could keep an eye on her.  She was acting fine with no more barfing so we put her to bed.  Saying prayers for a healthy nite!

We were so relaxed that I forgot to even pull out the camera this weekend :(  Kristin and Scott captured some cute and funny pics on their phones.

Ashlyn and Kellan
He is so good with her!

Notice her onesie (Lil Peanut)
Thanks Aunt Sarah!

Like I said, Jules wanted whatever Ashlyn had.  Ashlyn was okay with this at first but quickly decided this car wasn't a 2-seater.  The look on Jules' face is PRICELESS!  I absolutely love these pictures!

Hope to make it out west again really soon!