I love my life

it's NEVER boring!

Embracing the 2 kid situation

We had just put Hannah down for some tummy time and Ashton saw it and immediately crawled down from on top of the table to lay down next to her. We didn't even have to pose this.

The most common question I get these days is "how are you handeling 2?"
Depending on how the day has gone you could get any of these answers:
-we're glad we have one of each because we're done (this is saved for the occasions when both kids are crying at the same time)
-we're seriously rethinking our idea of a big family
-I'm surviving, enough said
-Not as hard as I thought

If you're reading this and you have more than 2 kids and are already rolling your eyes and thinking 2 is nothing try 3,4,5,6... give yourself a big pat on the back and let me boost my self esteem for a couple of minutes.

Anyway, Hannah is 3.5 months old and I have had a sweet life over the summer. David was with me almost the entire time. He went back to school last Monday and I'm finally like every other wife who says goodbye to her husband at 8 and doesn't see him until 6. It's been a couple weeks and I feel like I've finally gotten the hang of things. Before I've waited till the evenings or Saturdays to run most of my errands and my bravest activities were playgroup or going to a friend's. This week I've decided it's time to start getting back to normal and surely 2 kids and running errands can't be all that bad or everyone would stop at 2. In the past couple of days we've been to Costco, the museum, Michaels, grocery shopping, visiting teaching etc and we've survived. Only one piggy bank at Michaels shattering on the floor was evidence of how I wasn't totally keeping all my ducks in a row... but that was my fault not Ashton's so I figure I did pretty well.

So in answer to the famous question. Yes, we're doing great. I thought nothing could be better than having a kid and loving them so much... but I'm pretty sure the sibling love comes pretty close. Ashton adores little "How-wah" and can even get her to smile and coo with him.

Midway!

Well after 3 weeks of being on vacation it is a huge wake up call to be back in a 2 bedroom apartment. Poor Ashton already misses being outside. Here are some things we did up in Midway.

My parents backyard borders horses & cows!

Ashton was partial to the pony.

We went to park city to ride on the Alpine slides. Ashton went down once but it was scary trying to keep him sitting on the chair lift.

Some of the little cousins looking longingly at the little kid rides. The guy let them on even before we had tickets because they looked so pathetic watching through the fence.

The boys! David was super sunburned from standing in line to go on the zip line in Park City.

Me & the Ashbug!

Ashton woke up every morning and said "Ride - Ride - RIDE!!" until he could find someone to take him on a ride in the Rhino.

Luckily my parents were more patient taking the kids out on atleast 5 rides up Memorial hill or around town every day.

We haven't forgotten about our little girl!

Hannah & Anna. Thank goodness they don't have the same last name! They are just a few weeks apart.

And Hannah & Eli these two are just a month apart.

Ashton only went inside to sleep. He was outside all day long and he LOVED life. The weather was SO nice!

Breakfast with the Ashton cousins.

Quick family picture. This is the first time I haven't cried when I left Midway and that was only because I get to go back on the 3rd for Swiss Days! David will be taking me up there and staying the weekend but then I'll be flying home with both kids by myself. Wish me luck!

Disney!

We went to Disney for 3 days with my family. We had 9 adults and 6 kids under the age of 2. I was suprised at how well the kids did. We made it back to the hotel room almost every day for a mid afternoon nap. And my parents were nice enough to let us go back to the park at night without the kids. They had 3 extra hotel room keys lined up on their desk and did periodic checks on all the rooms. Thanks to my parents we got to go on a lot of rides and even left them all alone with all 6 kids so we could go on Tower of Terror. I was expecting one of them to be MIA when we got back but then I remembered they did raise 8 of us.

We made him sit in the A after a VERY long morning.

He pushed Kimball around in the stroller every extra minute he could. Finally he got tired and sat on her lap.

On our 3rd day in Disney we were beat. So we rode the train around for a good hour.

David & the kids on main street.

Small World... It was my first time going on kid rides and enjoying it because one of my very own children loved it. I could have gone the whole day just bouncing from one little kid ride to the next.

Hannah just nursed and slept for those 3 days. She was a champ. This is her cousin Eli sleeping with her. If you're going to sleep at Disney best to do it with a cousin!

Kimball & Ashton. He has not fallen asleep in a stroller since last May when we were at Disney. This was VERY impressive. Big kudos to my bro-in-law Jason who kept strolling these kids around in the hot sun while David & I went on a roller coaster.

These are the mint juleps you can get at New Orleans square. While we were waiting in line for lunch my mom got one for everyone. Not everyone liked theirs (including me) so Ashton drank 4 of these for lunch.

Thanks Mom & Dad for taking us to Disney we had so much fun!!

2009 Christmas Picture

Here is what it likes trying to get 23 kids under the age of 11 to look at a camera at the same time. Not to mention 17 adults at 9am.But check it off the list!

We're still up at my parents in the mountains. Details & pictures of our Disney trip to come!