Ashton's 2nd Birthday - The Zoo

So we celebrated Ashton's birthday with friends and family a few days before his birthday. On his birthday, we took him to the zoo for the first time. He loved it. He would get really excited when he would see animals and by the end, he was saying "animal" really well. Unfortunately, 1/4 of the zoo was closed due to reconstruction, so we didn't get to see the penguins, the bears or the lions. But it was still a lot of fun. The area they are reconstructing is going to open next Spring, so maybe we'll go back for his 3rd birthday.

I love this picture of Kyle and Ashton.

Checking out the monkeys

I loved these two little monkeys. Just basking in the morning sun.

I think skunks are so cute. They just look so sweet and innocent.
I actually know someone who has a pet skunk.

Sweet little boy excited to be at the zoo for the first time.

The elephants had just gotten their breakfast so it was neat
to watch them eat their food.

When I first saw this elephant, I thought it was baby Suri.
I didn't see the little gray thing laying on the ground at first.

THIS is baby Suri. I was sad she wasn't up playing around,
but we were there early so she was still enjoying her nap in the
morning sun.

This is the baby orangutan. I don't know it's name or sex, but
it was so cute watching it play.

And here are the parents. Buried in the hay and fast asleep.
I wish Kyle and I could do that while the little ones played, but we would
wake up to a disaster.

I was glad I got this shot when I did. Right after I took it,
he turned his bottom towards us and wouldn't move. They were
cleaning his habitat and he wanted back in.

These birds are so majestic. It's no wonder they are our nations
bird. Just look at them. I did observe something about them though.
Down by the Wild Animal Amphitheater, they had a golden eagle, a bald eagle
and an owl. I heard what Kyle and I thought was the bald eagle. It turned
out to be the owl. The bald eagles cry was high pitched and kinda "wimpy."
Not at all what I thought it would be. But it is still a beautiful bird.

The tigers were so active that day. They are such beautiful
animals. I was awestruck watching them.

This one was pacing back and forth by the entrance to their enclosed
habitat, which happens to be right above the underpass. It
was pretty neat.

The birthday boy!

This giraffe was all by themselves. I think they may have the
males and females separated.

And the rest of the giraffes.

I love this picture. This one is just sitting by while the other one
works hard burrowing away.
I don't remember what they are called, but they are actually a rodent.
I think the largest species of rodent in the world.

I loved this lone bird sitting in the center part of the reptile house.

This was my failed attempt at taking a picture of all four of us
on the train.

I love this picture of these Prairie Dogs. Kyle said that was me and him.
I totally agree.
You can barely see the two cougars sleeping in this picture.
You have to look really close.

After all that fun he fell asleep in the car shortly after we left.
I hope he had a good birthday and knows how much we love him.

He may drive me absolutely crazy, but he is the sweetest little boy. He is a good big brother. He has such a big heart, and I am so thankful he chose me to be his mommy.

Ashton's 2nd Birthday - The Party

I cannot believe that my sweet, little Ashton was born two years ago. The time has just flown by me. Two years ago, he was so content to be in his bouncer or swing, or even just chilling on the floor playing with toys. Now, I don't seem to be able to keep him entertained long enough for him to sit still. The longest I can keep him focused on something is when I put Cars on for him, and even then he still loses interest at times and starts wreaking havoc. But I love him and I wouldn't want him any other way.

Ashton Kyle Walker 05/02/2009 8lbs. 1oz. 22" long

Ashton was lucky and got to celebrate his birthday twice. The first time was a family and friends party. Since my family was all in town we celebrated his birthday early. We crammed everyone into our little apartment living room and watched Ashton open all his presents, play with his cousins and friends and eat his cake! He had a blast!

Ashton loves the movie Cars. So much that he ruined the DVD
we had from playing with it too much. He got a new DVD/Blu-Ray
Cars movie for his birthday, and was so excited that he actually
opened up the whole thing. Plastic and all!

The day before his party we went to my cousins wedding.
The favors had were taffy and Swedish Fish. Ashton loved
the taffy so much my Aunt Susan gave him a bag of taffy! He
was so excited!
He took the bag right to Nana so she could open it and give him one!
"No more presents? Who's running this party?"
He blew the candle out all by himself! I'm kicking myself now
because I forgot to take a picture of the cake before I destroyed it :(
Enjoying his yummy birthday cake

It was a great party for him. He got lots of fun new toys and cute clothes. I can't believe how quickly he is growing up. It makes me sad at times, but I am loving every minute of it!

You know you have a two year old when you feel like you are constantly going, going, going. I feel like I can never sit still for 5 minutes when Ashton is awake. A couple weeks ago, I had to run an early morning errand to the Drivers License office to get my DL renewed. I didn't have time to put my make-up away before I had to leave. When we got back I was catching up on my chores and routine when I realized that Ashton wasn't around, and he was being quiet. Signs of mischief. So I looked in all the usual places. Under the side table, the bathroom, my closet, my bedroom, and finally his bedroom. I looked in there to see he had gotten a hold of my make-up bag. I was about to get mad and exclaim "Ashton NO!!!" when he looked at me,

and I saw this. Now, tell me. How am I supposed to scold this? I just started laughing and took a video of him "committing the crime" in which I gave him the mascara to "make-up" himself again. All I could do was laugh. It reminded me that he is still learning, and if all I do is get mad at him, he's going to think that he can't have any fun in life. I don't want to be that kind of mom. I want to be the kind of mom who plays games with him, and gets down in the dirt to play.

A couple days later, I was cleaning up the house and dishes and Kyle needed to take his nightly shower. Ashton has an obsession with water. Literally, an obsession. He always wants to take baths, he plays in glasses of water, and he has tried to climb into the toilet to play in the water. Well, that night I was feeling a little flustered and stressed so I wasn't really in the mood for much of anything. Kyle was in the shower, and Ashton, who now knows how to open doors, had gone into the bathroom for the umpteenth time. All of a sudden I hear Kyle yell, "EDRIE!!!" I go into the bathroom ready to grab Ashton and scold him for not listening to Mommy and bothering Daddy during his shower, yet he's not in the bathroom. I ask Kyle where Ashton is and he says "In the shower... with his clothes on"

Again, tell me how you're supposed to scold and discipline this? He's soaked. So I laugh and undress him and tell Kyle to call me when he's done and I'll come get him out and dry him off.

I can't believe my lil' Triston is 6 months old already. Santa brought Ashton a bike for Christmas and I thought it'd be cute to put Triston on it and take a picture. It was cute!

My boys just love each other. Triston lights up when he sees Ashton, and Ashton loves to give his little brother attention. I caught this cute moment last Saturday morning.

Kyle painted his brothers race car last Saturday and it turned out awesome! I am so proud of him and his work! He is so talented!

Okay, so it has been way too long since I've blogged. But I have a good explanation. I have been super busy! I've been trying to get my family healthy for the last month! I think I have finally succeeded with that. Besides allergies, we are happy and healthy. Allergies are really unavoidable in my house. I am allergic to pretty much everything that buds in Spring. Trees, grass, flowers, you name it, if it's budding, I'm probably allergic to it. But other than that life has been good!

I finally started myself on a good exercise routine. Since I don't have a gym membership, I have started doing my cardio by "playing" Just Dance 2. They actually have a program where you can "just sweat" and it counts your "sweat drops." Basically depending how you score while dancing, it gives you a certain number of sweat drops. I've chosen to do 7,000 sweat drops a week, and since I only work out 5 days a week it averages about 1,400 sweat drops a day, which, timing wise is about 30 minutes a day! Which is great since it's recommended to have 20 minutes of cardio a day in order to burn fat and calories. On top of that, I also do 200 crunches, EVERY DAY!!! At first my abs were sore, but I thought about how flat my tummy was in High School, and it made the pain worth it! I've also been doing some strength training so I can build up my muscle again. I've come to the conclusion, who needs a gym when you have have a 6 month old and a toddler! I can use them as my weights!

Along with the exercise, I am also trying to eat better. I've been using portion control to help me control how much I eat. It's actually been working. I have lost about 5lbs. since I started working out (which was only a couple weeks ago)! I've also seen my tummy shrink and my clothes are fitting me much better! I also have more energy and don't feel as sluggish as I used to!

I started Triston on rice cereal about a month ago. He loves it! I started him on it hoping it would help him sleep through the night. It didn't. He still wakes up once around 4 in the morning. A lot of it is me being so tired I just want to go back to sleep, so I just bring him to bed and feed him. But I can put him back and he sleeps for another 3 hours. I just wish he would sleep completely through the night. He is great about going to bed at the same time everyday. He also takes his naps at the same time and sleeps for 1-2 hours for his naps. It's nice that he does that, but I feel bad when I get so busy it gets him off his schedule.

Ashton has definitely reached his "terrible two" phase. I'm hoping he's reached the peak of it, but I'm not going to hold my breath. His favorite words to say are "NO" and "WHY?" But he has a whole array of words that he says which include:
Lightning
fast
super
baby
drink
Lunch
sippy
juice
milk
cereal
walk
toys
car
binky
watch
George
cat
"Woof Woof"
doggy
puppy
fish
eat
And many many more!
He understands what I ask him to do. Not that he always listens to me, but he asks so many questions. He learns so many new things and is so smart. I try to put educational shows on for him to learn his letters and numbers. I would love to buy "Your Baby Can Read." So hopefully when I have the money saved up I can buy it.

Kyle got a raise at work. Well I guess you could call it a raise. He was switched to commission. I know that being on commission can be great when it's busy, but when it's slow it can be horrible, but they guaranteed him $1,000 a paycheck. So we really won't have to adjust ourselves with the budget change. He is so excited though because when the work is done he can leave and not have to worry about losing hours.

I applied for a job! Not that I need to work, but that I WANT to work. I heard that Jetblue was hiring and they were only going to be keeping the post open till they got a certain number of applications. So they day they posted the position, I got on and applied! I got the phone interview and was called in for the typing test and first interview, so now I just need to wait to hear from them to see if I get called in for the second interview! I hate waiting, but if I'm meant to get the job, it will be well worth the wait! It will be nice to do something for myself and have some time for myself, even though I won't necessarily won't be leaving the house.

I am so excited for Easter this year! I'm excited to be able to hide eggs for Ashton and to color eggs and make Easter baskets! Triston is still too young to really care about those things but I'm just excited to have Easter with my little family. I want to make a pot roast with some veggies and some homemade biscuits or rolls. But we'll see. It will be a busy day for us, but it will be fun!

I had the best weekend! Kyle and I just relaxed and lounged around most of the day Saturday, which I think we both needed. Then later that night we went to the Home and Garden Show! At first Kyle wasn't too thrilled about it, but as we got in there and started looking around he really started to enjoy it. Ashton has definitely reached the "Terrible Toddler" phase. He makes it very difficult to do things when he is such a little pill! He just wanted to grab everything from the booths and eat all the candy that they had out! Luckily, he hadn't really had a nap that day so he crashed pretty hard towards the end. But it was very fun! It made me and Kyle really want to get a house, so we are going to be working very hard so we can accomplish that goal of ours.

Sunday. Oh my gosh! The weather was just GORGEOUS!!! It really gave me Spring fever. Kyle and I just wanted to be outside. The breeze was still a little chilly, but for the most part it was warm and sunny! Kyle and I had a nice "Summer-ie" dinner, sloppy joes and potato wedges. It was so yummy! I had been up really late Saturday night and with the time change I didn't go to sleep till 3:00am. I couldn't help it though because I was watching an incredible movie! I watched Inception, and if you haven't seen it, you need to because it is really really incredible! But I had only gotten about 5 hours of sleep, and after dinner I fell asleep. When I woke up it was cloudy and cold. Definite change in an hour. But that's Utah for you.

So Kyle and I are really trying to get in shape for the Summer. Not so much Kyle. I still need to lose my "baby gut" I've lost the weight just not the gut. Plus I want to get my muscles back. I know I won;t ever look as good as I did in High School, but I can be in as good of shape as I was in High school. So my goal is to get into shape! I'm really trying to eat better, and that will definitely help.

Triston's Blessing

Triston's blessing was a great success! My dad did a wonderful job blessing him! I balled, of course, simply because I felt the Spirit so strongly. Most wards who have apartments in their boundaries don't really reach out to the families who live in apartments just because they come and go so quickly, but that is not the case with my ward. They have been so kind and so welcoming to us. And on the plus side, Kyle and I are thinking about signing another lease with our apartments, because we don't want to move again unless it's into our own house.

Anyway, back to the blessing! It was so fun! I had my family and Kyle's family there. I made a bunch of cupcakes and some pasta salad, plus some family brought some other food. But it was so nice to have everyone together for this special event! I love having family and friends together! Our good family friends came and it was so great to have them part of this experience, especially since I consider my girlfriend close enough to be my sister!

Triston with his Daddy and Papa Johns

The family!

Triston was so good during the blessing, he didn't whine or cry. And despite being passed around like a sack of potatoes, he was happy through the whole thing! Unfortunately, we had to make a trip to the ER last night. He had been throwing up more than he was eating and wasn't having any wet or poopy diapers. I took him into the ER just to see if he was dehydrated, which thank goodness, he wasn't they did keep him there to monitor him for about an hour after they gave him some nausea medicine. But he kept what I fed him down, and slept fairly well through the night. He woke up at his usual time, despite the fact he didn't go to bed till 2:00 am and he had a little bit of a wet diaper, first sign of urine in nearly 24 hours. I was hoping he would finally be over this little bug, but I think I spoke too soon, because he started to throw up just as bad as he had been last night. It has been a couple hours since he has thrown up but he is sleeping a lot, so I'm hoping he's getting whatever he has in his system out. Now I just need to wake up from my lack of sleep. I'm only going on about 4 hours of sleep, so I'm really tired. I don't like to drink coffee or energy drinks, but I think I'm going to go get a Dr. Pepper from the vending machine so I can get some kind of boost. I'm falling asleep right here typing!

Kids, Colds, Chaos

This past week has been insane!!! Ashton got another ear infection, plus when I took him back to the doctor, apparently he was also coming down off of pneumonia. So it was a hard weekend for us. Then on top of all that, I caught a cold. A very miserable cold. I have had nothing but, headaches, a stuffy nose and a sore throat. It has been so hard! All I want to do is sleep. So, besides the fact that I have a super busy week planning Triston's blessing, I'm sick.

So enough ranting. As I mentioned before, we are blessing Triston this Sunday! I am so excited! It's such an exciting, memorable time for him, even though he won't remember it, it's still exciting and memorable. I am really looking forward to having all the family together to celebrate little Triston!

I bought some fabric to make a car seat cover. I'm going to customize it to work for what I want it to do. When I make it I will take pictures of it and post them! I'm really excited to make it. I fixed Kyle's paint suit yesterday. It really made me feel like a mom and a wife. To feel needed, even just to fix a little tear in a paint suit. I know I'm needed by Ashton and Triston everyday. They rely on me to feed them, change them and clean them everyday, but it really hit me yesterday when Kyle needed me to fix his paint suit.

Yesterday, Ashton decided to throw a fit. What else is new, right? Well, yeah. I had Triston on one arm and was trying to prevent Ashton from climbing into his closet, when he made himself completely limp and slammed his mouth into the closet frame. He cut his lip really bad, and it was bleeding pretty bad. Now he has a big cut on his bottom lip. I feel bad for him.

So with how busy I am I really shouldn't be blogging right now, but anyway, I have to plan the food for the get together after the blessing and clean my house and get the food ready! Lots to do, so little time!