Old Man Birthdays!

Last weekend we celebrated both Papa's and Grandpa Butch's birthdays! They share the same birthday and were born the same year - weird huh? For Grandpa Butch's birthday we went to dinner at Outback with the family - my favorite! It was a great dinner and then we went to their house for dessert - brownies as usual! For Papa's birthday we went to the lake - his favorite place ever...

Ashtyn FINALLY got back in the water with Papa - the last time she was in the water was back on Memorial Weekend, but the water was still very cold and she was freezing cold for hours after she got out, so I think she's been very hesitant to get back in the water fearing she would freeze again! But of course Papa got her in the water on this HOT day and once she was in she played like a little fishy...

Eli is growing so FAST! He was laying on his blanket just smiling and relaxing at the Lake - I am sure he will love this place as much as we do...

My dad may be an Old Man, but he can still water ski with the best of them! What a nice life we have...

Happy Birthday Papa and Grandpa Butch - We love you both so much!

Keystone Trip

We spent another beautiful weekend up in Keystone with the Harms Family. It was so nice to get away for the weekend and enjoy what I love so much about Colorado - the gorgeous mountains! It was also so nice not to have an agenda and just lay around with our kids and enjoy each others company. We headed up Friday afternoon and once we all got settled in at the condo we headed to Breckenridge to walk through the town and enjoy dinner. Breckenridge is such a cute little town and it was a perfect way to spend the summer evening. While we were walking Shannon noticed this cute cupcake shop so after dinner we stopped there for dessert. Ashtyn loved her cupcake, although she basically just ate the frosting off the top and left the cake for Matt to eat...

Payton and Eli hanging out together - so CUTE! Payton got a little upset though with Eli moving into her territory - It should be fun to watch the two of them grow up together. Look at Eli already trying to hold her hand...

On Saturday we all went swimming and hot tubbing - Ashtyn of course had fun as well as us big kids. After swimming the kids took a nap and we enjoyed cocktails and snacks on the porch - so NICE! We also celebrated Kole's birthday on Saturday too - although we were all in bed by 10pm - we are such party poopers, but I guess when you have to be up at 3am to feed babies you can't party all night! Next year maybe we can have a bit more fun...

On Sunday morning we woke up and then walked along the river to have breakfast in Keystone Village. Where we had breakfast you could sit at this pond and feed the fish and ducks - which Ashtyn very much enjoyed - especially when the fish would splash her when they would eat the food. We definitely enjoy our time up in Keystone with our good friends. It will have to be an annual trip we make together every summer and create tons of fun memories with our kids. Thanks Shannon and Kole for the invite - We love you!

Eli's 1st month

A month has already past and Eli is 4 weeks old! Why does time go by so fast? It felt like it took forever for him arrive and now he has already been here an entire month - Unbelievable! Well, I couldn't imagine life without him at this point. I was very scared about how I could possibly love another child as much as I love Ashtyn - but it is possible! I have completely fallen in love with him - he has definitely completed our family! We have been blessed with yet another easy going baby - how could I be so lucky (knock on wood)! I can't complain about much - he sleeps, eats, poops and sleeps. That's about it! He has the sweetest cry, so when he does cry it just sounds like a little kitty purring - I am telling you I lucked out again! Hopefully, it will not wear off and a little monster will appear!


He is great sleeper and prefers to be snuggled which I am just loving! He is already sleeping in his crib at night - which Matt made me do since Ashtyn didn't make it out of our bed till 6 months or so - poor 2nd babies. I love to have him sleep on my chest which he typically does after his 3:00 am feeding till our next morning feeding. He has been sleeping a 5 hour stretch followed by a 4 hour stretch at night - so we can't complain about that. His feeding schedule during the day is every 3 hours and he is eating about 2 1/2 ounces of breast milk which I freshly pump for him - yep, I reverted to pumping again, the whole breastfeeding thing is just not my thing, but I still want him to have the good stuff. So until I go back to work I will make milk for him - and boy do I make the milk!

At his 2 week appointment he had gained his birth weight back and more now weighing 8lbs 2 ounces and grew to 21 inches long - so it looks like he is doing good! His umbilical cord and circumcision fell off a week later which I was very impressed with how fast that happened, so we gave him his first bath earlier then expected. He didn't enjoy it too much the first time...

Probably because he was cold - He's just like Matt and hates to be cold...

By the end of the bath though he was enjoying it a little bit. His skin was very wrinkly and dry - they say that's common with late babies - so he hasn't had to many baths to avoid over drying his skin! He has only peed on me 1 time, which I am quite proud of - I thought this would be a daily occurance, but so far I have been lucky. He loves to be swaddled all the time, so he is constantly wrapped up like a little burrito! It is so fun having a summer baby since we can be outside all the time - we took him on his 1st walk around the neighborhood around 2 weeks to enjoy the nice Colorado summer evening we are so lucky to have...

Eli is doing great so far and we are enjoying every minute of him. Ashtyn has been getting better with me and I think is finally coming around to the idea of having a sibling around. She still will not call him by his name he is still just "Baby" - but she is always making sure he is around and involved with whatever we are doing! I love having a baby boy and can't wait to watch him grow - the next month should be more exciting as he comes out of his newborn coma!

Aquarium Outting

Another summer outing we took while Matt was home was a trip to the Denver Aquarium. We thought Ashtyn would love this since her favorite movie is Nemo and she would get to see REAL fish and sharks up close! We went along with Ariana, Robbie, Sandy and Emily!

Ashtyn was very interested in all the fish, but after the first few exhibits she wanted to know where the hippo and tigers were! I think she thought it was going to be like the Zoo - thankfully they had tigers there - but she wasn't as impressed with them as she was at the Zoo!

Robbie seemed to have fun riding around - Not sure if he understood where he was, but he seemed entertained - Next year might be a different story!

BRUCE! Ashtyn was most fascinated by the sharks! She kept calling them Bruce - since that is the name of the shark on Nemo!

Again, we had to enjoy some Dip-N-Dot ice cream!

The Aquarium was a little disappointing in how short the exhibit is - and somewhat boring after the first couple tanks - once you've seen one fish you've seen them all! I would say the Zoo's exhibit is just as good and not nearly as expensive! But we enjoyed our day hanging out with family as always!

Lions, Tigers and Bears

We took a trip to the Zoo while Matt was home on maternity leave - it was so fun just the four of us on our little outing - VERY HOT though! I was telling Matt, why do we always visit the Zoo when it is freezing cold or blistering hot - we need to maybe come in September or something. It was still a fun day though - especially watching Ashtyn get so excited when she would see the animals. I took her last year, but only being 1 years old she was really only interested in the elephants because that's all she could see - but this year she knew what all the animals were by name and would try to imitate what sounds they made. She loved watching the seals - she said they looked like snakes in the water! She also loved the hippo, although she thought it was very smelly. We saw a baby billy goat which was so adorable and he would hop on his mountain like a little bunny which Ashtyn found so entertaining!

But Ashtyn's most favorite were the penguins - which are mine too! They were so cute and especially Maddie who is a little penguin which was raised by one of the Zoo Keepers and has quite a personality...

We of course had to enjoy some Dip-n-Dot ice cream since it was so hot and that is one of Ashtyn's favorites! It melted very fast though, so Ashtyn ended up drinking most of it!

Eli enjoyed his trip to the Zoo hanging out in the wagon sleeping - I was worried about the heat, but the hotter it is the more comfortable he is! I guess it reminds him of being in the tummy!

We had lots of fun touring the Zoo as a family - I loved that Matt could join us since it's not something we typically get to do together! It will definitely need to become a yearly summer outing!

Fourth of July

Fourth of July this year was a bit quieter then usual - I am sure it was due to the fact that we had a 3 week old! We typically go camping out at the lake but that was just not going to be all that practical this year - but I guess we have many years ahead of us to enjoy the 4th camping with our kids! On Saturday night we went to the firework display at Vista Ridge in Erie with Grandma Sandy, Butch and Emily- it was Fantastic! I had never been to this show and was quite impressed when it was all done. It was short - but very entertaining and the best part was we had great seats and didn't have to sit in traffic to get them! Ashtyn loved the firework show and talked the entire time - she had a comment for every firework there was! She didn't even mind the sound which I thought for sure might scare her but she would just smile and say "Loud!" Eli didn't mind the fireworks at all - he slept through the entire thing! The evening was wonderful watching the fireworks with the family - next year we just need to bring a cooler of drinks!

On Sunday we headed over to Aunt Pammy's for a BBQ with the other family. It was fun hanging with the family and we had great food as usual. Even though the weekend seemed quiet we were still all exhausted...

We were supposed to head to the lake that night to watch the fireworks all around Boulder and surrounding areas, but with the major thunderstorms our evening was cancelled - so instead we went home and watched all the crazy people who were setting off fireworks in our neighborhood - Ashtyn thought they were very entertaining - I guess next year we may have to invest in some sparklers or something! Happy 4th!

Sand Box

While Matt was on maternity leave for 4 weeks he completed many things on his "honey do" list and one of them was building a sand box in the back yard for the kids. Ashtyn can occupy herself for hours playing in sand, so we thought it would be great to have a place for her to play right in our back yard...and later once the kids grow out of this phase we can turn it into a planter for tomatoes - eventually!

Ashtyn has been enjoying her new sandbox and hopefully Eli will enjoy as well next summer. Let's just hope the sand stays in the box instead of all over the yard and my house! Matt did a great job for his first time building a wall out of stone! Thanks Babe - your children love you for it - and so do I!