Saturday, December 26, 2009
Christmas Day
Christmas was a lot of fun this year as the kids get older and understand things more. Kairingtin was the first up so I got her feed and ready until Reighlyn woke up around 7:30 then she waited as patiently as she could for Keegan to wake up. They were biting at the bit waiting for dad to go down and see if Santa came. After opening their presents from Santa, Kairington went to sleep and mom made breakfast while they played with their Santa toys. Then after breakfast was done and cleaned up we opened the other gifts one by one. It actually worked pretty good and it made Christmas morning last a lot longer. I don't think we finished opening presents until 10:30. Then I made nachos while Mike got everyone ready to go and get things cleaned up. We headed over to the Gleisbergs around 12:30 so we could have some lunch/snacks with them while we waited for Garth to call. We thought he was calling around 1 or 2 but didn't end up calling until 3. Once he called and gave us the number, we had to call him back, it took a couple of tries since he is in a village in Africa, then we had to connect to my dad and sister, Melia in Iowa. Then we had to call Tasha on a cell and had her conference in and have Thayne via text. There was a bad snow storm in Iowa and everyone was snowed in, so not everyone could make it to my dad's, so we got creative to get everyone together to talk to Garth. It was a good talk and we are all looking forward to him coming home in a couple of months! Then we cleaned up the toys that all the kids got out while we were on the phone and headed home. Mike and the kids played Gator Golf, a new game they got for Christmas, while I feed Kairington and got dinner made, then we ate and the kids were in bed by 6:30. They were very tired...it had been a long day and once again Keegan didn't get a nap so they were ready. Then Mike, Kairington, and I sat down to watch a movie and we were all asleep on the couch by 8:30 so we finally headed up to bed at 9:30. I guess we were all tired from a fun Christmas day.
Today we are just going to chill as a family since yesterday was a lot busier than we thought. So we are going to play games together that we got for Christmas, go build a snowman, watch movies, etc. I will post pictures later of the snowman we build.
Reiglyn and her new doll
Keegan's new train....his favorite toy
This is how excited Keegan was about his new train
Reighlyn & Keegan opening the present together
Dad being silly... walking around with Reighlyn's new tent on his head
Reighlyn & Keegan playing in her new tent
Reighlyn & Keegan sporting their new slippers from Santa
Christmas morning before the kids got up... gifts from Santa
Christmas morning with the Christmas lights on
Christmas tree on Christmas morning
Today we are just going to chill as a family since yesterday was a lot busier than we thought. So we are going to play games together that we got for Christmas, go build a snowman, watch movies, etc. I will post pictures later of the snowman we build.
Reiglyn and her new doll
Keegan's new train....his favorite toy
This is how excited Keegan was about his new train
Reighlyn & Keegan opening the present together
Dad being silly... walking around with Reighlyn's new tent on his head
Reighlyn & Keegan playing in her new tent
Reighlyn & Keegan sporting their new slippers from Santa
Christmas morning before the kids got up... gifts from Santa
Christmas morning with the Christmas lights on
Christmas tree on Christmas morning
Christmas Eve Fun
Christmas Eve was full of fun for our family. Reighlyn, Kairington, and I started out the morning around 6:30 while the boys slept. We got up and made jello for jello salad we would be having later. Then we put cinnamon rolls in the oven. While those cooked, Reighlyn helped mom bring all of the presents up from the basement to put under the tree. We opted to not put the presents under the tree any sooner, since both Reighlyn and Keegan open any present they see. Later that day, the Gleisbergs came over for our annual Christmas Eve dinner together. Usually it is done at night and over candle light, but this year we had a lunch because Jonathan had to work from 2-10. Therefore we didn't have candle light since it was in the middle of the day, but that's ok because last year the girls all cried when we turned off the lights and the candles almost got knocked over. So we will probably stick with none candle light dinners for a couple of years, until we know we can get through a dinner without crying and starting a fire. Then we opened gifts that the two families got each other. Amazingly all the girls got dress-up shoes and dress-up skirts, Aiden got soft blocks, and Keegan got cars. Kairington was sleeping so she didn't open anything. Jonathan and Mike gave each other movies.
Our next fun adventure was a first for our family. Mike and I decided to start a tradition of taking our family to a movie on Christmas Eve. So we loaded up our very excited 3 year old, our very tired 2 year old (no nap!) and our screaming 7 week old up and headed to a 3 0'clock showing of "The Princess and The Frog". It actually went great for a while....Kairington slept the whole time after screaming the whole way there, Reighlyn loved the show but was a little concerned about all of the people behind us watching the movie. She actually thought that anyone that had to little girls were Addison and Kileigh. Keegan did great until the popcorn and m&m's were gone, then he decided he was sick of sitting and watching a movie, so Mike ended up standing up by the door the rest of the movie with him. But I would say all in all, it went pretty good. Some good tips we learned though were, take the baby car seat in with you so you don't have to hold the baby the whole time, bring more food, and don't bring a 2 year old without a nap!
Our last adventure of the day was opening our matching p.j.'s that I made for the family for the first time and making cookies for Santa. Thankfully the p.j.'s fit everyone ok and we got some cute pictures together in them. Making cookies was fun to do as a family...even though some of the cookies turned out looking quite funny.... they were made with love and I am sure Santa loved them anyways! Reighlyn helped dad leave 3 cookies and a glass a milk out for Santa before heading to bed. Mike decided to eat 2 1/2 of the cookies and drink the milk around 8:30 so he wouldn't forget....well Reighlyn decided to wake up at 9 and check to see if Santa had been there yet and so was shocked when the cookies and milk were gone, but there were no presents yet and mom and dad were still awake. So thinking on our feet we had to tell her Santa came and checked to see if she was sleeping and ate the cookies and would be back later to see if she was still sleeping and if she was then he would leave the presents....Good thing she is only 3 and she was ok with that answer. Needless to say Santa learned no eating cookies until right before bed or early in the morning before everyone else wakes up!
Our next fun adventure was a first for our family. Mike and I decided to start a tradition of taking our family to a movie on Christmas Eve. So we loaded up our very excited 3 year old, our very tired 2 year old (no nap!) and our screaming 7 week old up and headed to a 3 0'clock showing of "The Princess and The Frog". It actually went great for a while....Kairington slept the whole time after screaming the whole way there, Reighlyn loved the show but was a little concerned about all of the people behind us watching the movie. She actually thought that anyone that had to little girls were Addison and Kileigh. Keegan did great until the popcorn and m&m's were gone, then he decided he was sick of sitting and watching a movie, so Mike ended up standing up by the door the rest of the movie with him. But I would say all in all, it went pretty good. Some good tips we learned though were, take the baby car seat in with you so you don't have to hold the baby the whole time, bring more food, and don't bring a 2 year old without a nap!
Our last adventure of the day was opening our matching p.j.'s that I made for the family for the first time and making cookies for Santa. Thankfully the p.j.'s fit everyone ok and we got some cute pictures together in them. Making cookies was fun to do as a family...even though some of the cookies turned out looking quite funny.... they were made with love and I am sure Santa loved them anyways! Reighlyn helped dad leave 3 cookies and a glass a milk out for Santa before heading to bed. Mike decided to eat 2 1/2 of the cookies and drink the milk around 8:30 so he wouldn't forget....well Reighlyn decided to wake up at 9 and check to see if Santa had been there yet and so was shocked when the cookies and milk were gone, but there were no presents yet and mom and dad were still awake. So thinking on our feet we had to tell her Santa came and checked to see if she was sleeping and ate the cookies and would be back later to see if she was still sleeping and if she was then he would leave the presents....Good thing she is only 3 and she was ok with that answer. Needless to say Santa learned no eating cookies until right before bed or early in the morning before everyone else wakes up!
Monday, December 21, 2009
Sunday, December 20, 2009
2009 Ashton Family Catch-up Blog
Ok, well now that it has been almost a whole year to the day since I have posted anything, I thought I would write a blog....a crazy thought, I know. But as a gift to Mike's parents a started a family blog and I thought hopefully that will help inspire me to update our blog more often then yearly.. the goal would be at least monthly....we will see how that goes.
Life for the Ashton's has had a lot of changes in the year 2009. We started the year out buying our first house together in February, also for all you who don't know our family has grown since last year. We now have three children....Reighlyn who is 3, Keegan who will be 2 in January and Kairington who was born in November. Life with three children has been an adjustment, but we are now in the groove of things I think. It was a hard start with a new one because we came home to sick kids and a sick daddy and we all took turns being sick for the first couple of weeks of Kairington's life. Luckily though Kairington never really got sick. Kairington is now 6 weeks old and has started smiling. We have yet to get a picture though...she just started a couple of days ago and it only lasts for a couple of seconds. She is a spitting image of Reighlyn when she was a baby though...so it's kind of weird to see Reighlyn holding a mini her...crazy. We had a bit of a scare with Kairington a couple of weeks ago because she was throwing up so much that we took her in and after 2 ultrasounds, we found out she has the beginnings of a blockage in her stomach that if it continues to grow will have to be fixed surgically, but as of right now she is medicated with some medication for acid reflux and it has been working great. So cross your fingers we will get by without any surgery. She was the smallest baby of the three so she has taken a little bit longer to sleep through the night, but we now have 2 nights of 8 straight hours of sleep....so mom is loving life right now.
Reighlyn is defiantly a 3 year old through and through. When we are in a store and she is deciding to tell mom what is up, someone will look and say you must be 3 and I just have to laugh and agree. She is a VERY talkative little girl and a lot of the time she talks as though she is 10, not 3. I am sure my dad would laugh and say like mother like daughter. Reighlyn's favorite things right now is anything princess. She loves to dress up like a princess( hence her choice for Halloween), she loves to watch them, and seems to think she needs anything that has a princess on it. Reighlyn started preschool this fall and loves it. I called around and found a preschool that would take her in September even though she was still 2 since she was potty trained. She goes 2 days a week, Tuesday and Thursday from 8:30 to 11:30. It is a great thing all around, she gets to go have fun and learn and mom gets a little break and time to spend one on one time with Keegan more. In the new year, I will hopefully use that time to start doing learning time now that I am finally getting sleep.
Keegan has hit the terrible 2's quite early it seems. He seems to be into everything if you give him half a seconds chance. He has decorated our house with some colorful crayons, washed his hands with toilet water, climbed onto the table to eat anything left, and decided that our couches are best when you climb on top and jump off the back. He is quite the dare devil and has hit his head so much I am amazed that we have not had to visit the ER for stitches or broken bones yet. I am sure it will just get worse as he gets older, the life of a boy I guess.
Mike has recently started a new job. He was working for the local radio station selling advertising and decided to change things up a bit and now sells radio advertising for a Internet radio station called yourldsradio.com. The new job brought more that just a new employer...it also meant his new office was our basement office. It was hard adjustment at first, going from getting up and leaving the house to go to work to not leaving your house sometime for a couple of days at a time. Also learning to deal with the daily noise level that happens when you have 3 children 3 years and under. I think that we all have adjusted pretty well. I am still trying to adjust to being booted out of the basement from 8-5 everyday, but have learned to just check my email in the evenings. I am really trying to talk Mike into buying me a laptop, so I can have Internet access during the day too! We will see how that goes. Mike also we recently called to serve as the Elders Quorum president in our ward. He loves his calling and seems to be getting things all organized in the Quorum.
I am of course sometimes running around with my head cut off it seems since I have 3 very young children, but I wouldn't trade it for anything. Along with being a busy mom, cook, house cleaner, taxi driver, and counselor I have found somethings to keep me sane. Back in May or so I started sewing skirts fora local lady who owns her own business. It is the best thing in the world. About once a week or so I go and pick up a load of fabric and the instructions for the skirts I am to make for the week. It is a great stress reliever for me. During the day I can just put the gate up blocking my sewing room and sew while the kids playing the other room and Kairington is either sleeping or hanging out in her swing with me while I sew. My other outlet is I go into Mike's old job, the local radio station, once a week and file paper work, etc for one of the guys that works there. It is great no one is there, so for an hour or so once a week I go and work in complete silence! Church wise I am currently on the enrichment activities committee which is a great calling. We meet once every couple of months and plan things, and then I help set up for the activities. It's great because it gets me involved in things with the ladies at church. Plus its a calling that lets me go to all of my Sunday meetings. I was in nursery from the time we moved into the ward at the beginning of the year until I had Kairington. It was fun at first, but it got old the bigger I got pregnancy wise, so it was good to be done with that calling.
Well that is kind of the short version of what has been happening in our lives this past year. I will post some pictures of the kids to update everyone what they all look like now. Happy Holidays!
Ok, well now that it has been almost a whole year to the day since I have posted anything, I thought I would write a blog....a crazy thought, I know. But as a gift to Mike's parents a started a family blog and I thought hopefully that will help inspire me to update our blog more often then yearly.. the goal would be at least monthly....we will see how that goes.
Life for the Ashton's has had a lot of changes in the year 2009. We started the year out buying our first house together in February, also for all you who don't know our family has grown since last year. We now have three children....Reighlyn who is 3, Keegan who will be 2 in January and Kairington who was born in November. Life with three children has been an adjustment, but we are now in the groove of things I think. It was a hard start with a new one because we came home to sick kids and a sick daddy and we all took turns being sick for the first couple of weeks of Kairington's life. Luckily though Kairington never really got sick. Kairington is now 6 weeks old and has started smiling. We have yet to get a picture though...she just started a couple of days ago and it only lasts for a couple of seconds. She is a spitting image of Reighlyn when she was a baby though...so it's kind of weird to see Reighlyn holding a mini her...crazy. We had a bit of a scare with Kairington a couple of weeks ago because she was throwing up so much that we took her in and after 2 ultrasounds, we found out she has the beginnings of a blockage in her stomach that if it continues to grow will have to be fixed surgically, but as of right now she is medicated with some medication for acid reflux and it has been working great. So cross your fingers we will get by without any surgery. She was the smallest baby of the three so she has taken a little bit longer to sleep through the night, but we now have 2 nights of 8 straight hours of sleep....so mom is loving life right now.
Reighlyn is defiantly a 3 year old through and through. When we are in a store and she is deciding to tell mom what is up, someone will look and say you must be 3 and I just have to laugh and agree. She is a VERY talkative little girl and a lot of the time she talks as though she is 10, not 3. I am sure my dad would laugh and say like mother like daughter. Reighlyn's favorite things right now is anything princess. She loves to dress up like a princess( hence her choice for Halloween), she loves to watch them, and seems to think she needs anything that has a princess on it. Reighlyn started preschool this fall and loves it. I called around and found a preschool that would take her in September even though she was still 2 since she was potty trained. She goes 2 days a week, Tuesday and Thursday from 8:30 to 11:30. It is a great thing all around, she gets to go have fun and learn and mom gets a little break and time to spend one on one time with Keegan more. In the new year, I will hopefully use that time to start doing learning time now that I am finally getting sleep.
Keegan has hit the terrible 2's quite early it seems. He seems to be into everything if you give him half a seconds chance. He has decorated our house with some colorful crayons, washed his hands with toilet water, climbed onto the table to eat anything left, and decided that our couches are best when you climb on top and jump off the back. He is quite the dare devil and has hit his head so much I am amazed that we have not had to visit the ER for stitches or broken bones yet. I am sure it will just get worse as he gets older, the life of a boy I guess.
Mike has recently started a new job. He was working for the local radio station selling advertising and decided to change things up a bit and now sells radio advertising for a Internet radio station called yourldsradio.com. The new job brought more that just a new employer...it also meant his new office was our basement office. It was hard adjustment at first, going from getting up and leaving the house to go to work to not leaving your house sometime for a couple of days at a time. Also learning to deal with the daily noise level that happens when you have 3 children 3 years and under. I think that we all have adjusted pretty well. I am still trying to adjust to being booted out of the basement from 8-5 everyday, but have learned to just check my email in the evenings. I am really trying to talk Mike into buying me a laptop, so I can have Internet access during the day too! We will see how that goes. Mike also we recently called to serve as the Elders Quorum president in our ward. He loves his calling and seems to be getting things all organized in the Quorum.
I am of course sometimes running around with my head cut off it seems since I have 3 very young children, but I wouldn't trade it for anything. Along with being a busy mom, cook, house cleaner, taxi driver, and counselor I have found somethings to keep me sane. Back in May or so I started sewing skirts fora local lady who owns her own business. It is the best thing in the world. About once a week or so I go and pick up a load of fabric and the instructions for the skirts I am to make for the week. It is a great stress reliever for me. During the day I can just put the gate up blocking my sewing room and sew while the kids playing the other room and Kairington is either sleeping or hanging out in her swing with me while I sew. My other outlet is I go into Mike's old job, the local radio station, once a week and file paper work, etc for one of the guys that works there. It is great no one is there, so for an hour or so once a week I go and work in complete silence! Church wise I am currently on the enrichment activities committee which is a great calling. We meet once every couple of months and plan things, and then I help set up for the activities. It's great because it gets me involved in things with the ladies at church. Plus its a calling that lets me go to all of my Sunday meetings. I was in nursery from the time we moved into the ward at the beginning of the year until I had Kairington. It was fun at first, but it got old the bigger I got pregnancy wise, so it was good to be done with that calling.
Well that is kind of the short version of what has been happening in our lives this past year. I will post some pictures of the kids to update everyone what they all look like now. Happy Holidays!
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