2 Months old

Tomorrow Ashlyn will be 2 months old! It's amazing just how fast they grow! I was comparing these photos of her at 3 days old to 8 weeks old, and she almost doesn't look like the same baby!
We continue to have a blast with her! Babies are just so much fun! She is very happy and smiles all the time. She loves to have you sit and talk to her. She is sleeping better each night, and we actually have had one night where she slept through the whole night! What a little angel she is! Duncan has recently started to show signs of some struggle with not being the baby anymore. He continues to be very good with Ashlyn, but is just acting up in other areas. I'm just trying extra hard to spend alone time with him when I can, and I'm sure he will get through it. He's still just a little guy. Funny how I thought Hayden was just 'SO BIG' at 3 years old, and now I realize just how little 3 really is. It funny how your prospective changes!

Happy Birthday Ronan!

Happy Birthday Ronan! Today he is 7 years old! Here's a little tribute to him!
Ronan Hoy was born in Harrogate, England on Oct. 27, 2000. Ronan's name was picked by his father, and is Irish meaning 'Seal'. His middle name Hoy is from 2 family members, His Uncle Sean HOY Mahaffey, and his Great-Great-Grandfather HOY Jackson Mahaffey. There is also an island in the Scottish Orkney Islands called Hoy that we visited the year before he was born.
Ronan is a very spirited boy, full of life. We call him our 'Drama boy', as he can be VERY dramatic! His passions right now are Star Wars, Dinosaurs, and anything to do with water! Ronan has had a love of water since he was a baby. When he was 18 months old, I woke up to at 5:00am to the sound of him in the bathroom to running water for a bath for himself. An event that just happened again 2 weeks ago. I was up feeding Ashlyn around 3:00am, and heard the bath water running. When I went in to see what was going on, Ronan said "Mom, I need a bath, it relaxes me." This boy's favorite thing about summer is all the water activities. He loves to just run the hose in the back yard, and watch the water make a 'river' through the grass and dirt.
Ronan is a very sweet boy, and wears his emotions on his sleeve. He feels compassion for others, and is very upset when he sees someone else hurt or feeling sad. He gives the best hugs, and loves to let you know that he loves you! His tender spirit is one of his best qualities.
Ronan is a great big brother, and has started sharing a room with Duncan this past year. They love this, a little too much sometimes. I have gone in to tuck them in to find them both curled up together in the same bed-so precious!
Ronan is very smart, and Math is his favorite subject. He is great with numbers, and really enjoys it. He is also a good reader, and very proud of himself. Although Ronan learned to ride his bike last year, it has been this year that he has really gained his confidence on it, and is so proud of his skill! He is working towards a long bike ride with Hayden and Daddy.

This year in keeping with his love for water activities, we had his birthday party at the Splash Down Swim Center in town. Ronan loved this! There were water slides, diving board, and a monkey rope to play on. He had a blast, and was so happy to share this with his friends! The pool provided the cake and ice cream, and this was the first year that I didn't make his birthday cake. It felt very weird for me, but he was very happy with the Star Wars cake that they provided. It was a great day! I can't believe he's 7!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY RONAN!!

I live at the Doctor's office!

So, I was coming home from a doctor's appointment for Ronan today and thought how it feels like I live there lately! I decided to come home and count the number of times I have been to the doctor since Ashlyn has been born. It's 11 times! She is only 8 weeks old, and between the 5 kids I have been to the doctors office 11 times in the past 8 weeks! AND Hayden and Ashlyn both have appointments scheduled for the first week in November! It's nice and all when the doctor and office staff all know you, but this is ridiculous! We have had some fun though, from warts to allergies and surgery, and shots, to just plain old check-ups! Poor Hayden has been suffering with allergies, and hopefully at this appointment in Nov. we will get some more answers! His last allergy testing didn't reveal much, and he went off milk for 2 weeks (that was hard), but no change! I certainly am thankful for good health insurance, and hope to not be spending as much time at the doctors office in the next 8 weeks!

The Gym

So, Brian and I just joined the local gyms here in town, and I am loving it! The Kids Space takes kids from 6 weeks on, so the day after Ashlyn turned 6 weeks, we were there! It's been nice, I've been going right after I drop the 3 kids off at school, and work out for an hour and a half while Duncan plays and Ashlyn sleeps in the Kid Space. Luckily this is right during her morning nap time, so it's worked well. I felt bad for poor Duncan yesterday though. I wasn't even thinking when I dressed him that morning and put him in a pair of jeans with a button not a snap at the top. Apparently he made it to the bathroom, but couldn't get the pant undone, and had an accident! They came to get me, and I realized that I had no change of clothes for him in the diaper bag! We took a towel from the gym and wrapped it around his waist to make it to the car. He was very self conscious about it, and thought kids might laugh at him, and didn't want to come out of the bathroom in the towel. I assured him that the kids would be so busy playing they wouldn't even notice him, which they didn't. But, just as we were about to go out the front door the towel dropped to the floor! Poor guy! I quickly got it up, and this time put it around under his arms, and had him hold on to it tight! I had promised him a trip to Krispy Kreame after the gym (isn't this where everyone goes after a good work-out?), and said that we could still go, I'd just go through the drive-thru to get his doughnut. He was so afraid that the people would see him in the back seat in his towel that he INSISTED that we DON'T go! Poor guy, hopefully he won't be too traumatized by this event!
Brian and I took advantage of the Kid Space the other night, and dropped all the kids off and went to soak in the hot tub together! I don't know why we never joined the gyms 3 years ago! This is great!

Horse Riding

Morgan is our Horse Lover, so when I heard that the nearby riding stable has a free one hour lesson every Sat. to see if your interested in lessons, we just had to go! At first I was just planning on Morgan taking the lesson, while I stood there and took photos. Then she gentle said "I think Mommy's can take the lessons too."
"Do you want me to take the lesson with you?"
"Yeah! That's a good idea!"
So, I took the lesson as well. It was fun, and Morgan did really well. She was in heaven just being on a horse for an hour! I went to sign her up for lessons, but the only time they had available was Friday nights from 6:30-7:30pm. I'm not ready to give up every Friday night for her lessons, so we are on a list for when and opening comes up for another night or time. Hopefully one will come up soon, she is very excited to get started!

Our hiker Dad

Brian just went on his hike of the 4-States portion of the Appalachian trail yesterday. He and a friend from work actually started Friday night. My sister dropped them off in Harper's Ferry (about an hour away) at 11:00pm Friday night. They began their hike then, and rested at 6:00am for about 30 min. The idea of this hike was to go from West Virginia to Virgina, Maryland, and Pennsylvania (a 42 mile hike) in 24 hours. They have been training for this for a few months now. Well, the trail proved to be A LOT more rugged than they had anticipated! His friend quite at about 11:00am Sat. morning after 19 miles do to major blisters on his heels. Brian carried on for another 5 miles, and called me after 24 miles to rescue him! He said once he realized he wouldn't make it in the 24 hours, he decided to stop beating up his knees! We came out to 'rescue' him, and he looked beat! His knees were so bad that he could barely walk the rest of the day, I'm surprised that he was able to carry on for as long as he did with his knees in so much pain! We were all very proud of him though, it was a big accomplishment, especially since the friend he went with is a 'well seasoned' hiker and 'knows the trail pretty well', and Brian still made it 5 miles past him! Not that it was a race in any way, but he did good. He plans to still complete the trail, in shorter segments at a time, and with the kids!

Ghosts and Mummies

The kids and I made some fun Halloween decorations this year for our front yard! I had and old white sheet that I cut up, and some Styrofoam balls left over from a 'Solar System' project, and we made ghosts to hang in the trees out front! It was lots of fun to do, and at first we had enough for each kid to do 5. But then once we hung them outside everyone wanted more and more! So, I ran to the store and got more stuff to make them. The kids loved how it really made it FEEL more like Halloween (especially since it's been like 90 degrees!), that they hung some on the trees in the middle of the cul-de-sac, and gave some away to neighbors so that it would help the street feel even more like Halloween!

My sister Missy's birthday was today, and after the party the kids started wrapping themselves up in the streamers as mummies. Well, Ronan then ran to get a roll of toilet paper which worked so much better, and they all became mummies for the evening! I think we went through at least 3 big rolls!
Ronan the Mummy

Hayden the Mummy
Duncan the Mummy

Grounded From READING!!!

Did I really just ground my son from reading? I never imagined myself giving out that order! Hayden is a veracious reader, and is constantly reading SOMETHING! For 4th grade, they have to read 25 minutes a day, and have read 25 self-selected books by the end of the school year. Well, Hayden reads on average 2 1/2 hours a day, and has already read 15 books since the beginning of Sept. And these are not small books, they average at least 100-200 pages a piece, of course Harry Potter and Narnia were more than that! Anyway, he reads at night in his bed, and have been allotted an extra 30 min. after 'lights out' to read. He has however abused that privilege, and I've caught him up until 10 or 11:00 pm reading! I can understand not wanting to put a good book down, but then I can't get him up for school the next morning! So, last night at 10:30pm I declared that he was grounded from reading in his bed! He can read all he want to downstairs before bed, but once in his room he must hand over all books to me! I told Brian it just feels wrong to say 'Your grounded from reading at night'. I guess I'm thankful that this is what he wants to spend his time on instead of other things! But for the next week, he will be going to sleep with the rest of the gang!

Spiders for dinner

So, the kids and I spent Friday afternoon making Halloween crafts, and we were in the 'mood' for a little Halloween dinner. We had spiders! The kids thought this was great. It's just raviolis with sauce on the plate for the web and eyes, and carrots for the legs. We also ended up putting broccoli around the edge as the 'bush' that the web was in. It was something fun and different to do for dinner!

Apples Anyone?

We went back to Larriland Farm today to try and get some more apples, and I'm happy to report that this trip was much more successful than the last. The wasps were gone, and we had a much more enjoyable time. So much so that we just kept on picking! 60 pounds of apples later...... So we will be having apples for the next month! Apple pie, apple fritters, apple sauce, apples for lunch, apples for snack, apples for dinner! Again though it was strange to be participating in our traditional fall activity when it was almost 90 degrees outside! The kids wanted to go on the hay ride, but we didn't want to sit in the sun for that long! We said maybe before the end of Oct. it will get cool enough to put on a sweater and ride in the wagon. So they ran through the hay maze until they were hot and flush, then cooled off with cold apple cider (we came home with 3 gallons of that). And I also tried to get a few photos with the pumpkins.

All 5 kids by the pumpkin wagon
These were bigger than Ashlyn
Morgan and Ashlyn in the wagon
Brian and Ashlyn
I tried to get some cute shots of Ashlyn amongst the pumpkins, but she wasn't too happy about it. This was the happiest face I got. Everyone there loved watching me try to get that perfect shot though!

Neglectful Mother

Quick funny story! I've been on the computer now trying to post a bit (as I haven't done it in so long). I had just fed Ashlyn, and layed her on the boppy on the floor in the living room while Duncan is watching TV. I hear him talking to her, and peak up every now and then to see him being very sweet and lying next to her. Then I hear him say something about poo. I don't pay much attention until he says "Oh wow, that's a lot of poo coming!" I go up there to find that he has taken off her pants, and diaper, and she is pooing on the floor! Oh course there is not a blanket under her! He said, "I wanted to change her like Morgan does, but then the poo was yucky!" So I've cleaned her and the floor up, just don't pay attention to the mustard on the carpet (J/K :)). Definately never a dull moment around here!

Papa came to visit

My dad was in town this week for business, and we got to see him some. We surprised the kids and didn't tell him he was coming into town. Then on Monday after school we took them to the park (where my dad was waiting), and while they were playing he just casually walked by. Hayden say him first and yelled out, then they ran up to him. It was a good surprise. Missy met us as well, and we all went out to dinner, then back to Papa's hotel with an indoor swimming pool and swam a bit. Ashlyn and I just watched. Tuesday night he had a dinner with his boss, and gave us the key to his hotel, so we took the kids swimming again! Wednesday we got to have dinner with him and Missy at our house, and say goodbye.





He wanted me to take some photos of him and Ashlyn together (to tease my mother with), but she was being pretty fussy. She's not normally like that, and we found out why when he went to hand her back to me! There was yellow all the way up her back! Poor girl was sitting in a dirty diaper, I wouldn't smile either!



Swimming at the pool!

Photographer Hayden

So, Hayden wanted to try out his photo taking skills again. (This is after he has not been allowed to touch my camera since breaking one of my lenses 3 months ago). Brian and I were hanging out in the front yard with Ashlyn and Hayden asked if we'd be his subjects while he tried out some creativity. Here is what he did. Good job Hayden!

This is one of my favorites-not the typical up and down shot-good job Hayden!

They tell me that there is never any photos of me, because I'm always the one taking the photos, so he got one of just me!

Admiring our new little wonder

A Mother's thoughts

I just had to take a minute a write down all the things I love about Ashlyn as a newborn while she still is one! I know everybody says this, but it just seems to go by faster and faster with each kid, and I LOVE the newborn stage, and am truly savoring it right now!

*She giggles in her sleep
*She smells like Heaven
*I love the feeling of her sleeping on my chest (I could lay there all day long)
*She has brought calmness and carefulness to my children
*I love her staring into my eyes while she eats
*Her smiles warm my heart
*Those tiny toes are to die for!
*Her soft skin
*Her huggableness

Ashlyn brings so much joy to us all. It's amazing how one little person can do so much! Duncan has become so carefully and protective of her. He loves to show her off, and tells everyone we meet "Look at our baby, she's so cute!"











We are thankful for our little piece of Heaven here on earth!















It's amazing to think that 5 weeks ago we didn't know what we were missing, and now we can't imagine life without her!