New York New York

Just wanted to thank Jess and Mel for another great trip to the Big Apple. We had a ball. So Jess has the worlds shortest trip to Erie...This is how it went. Fri Night (10:40pm) fly into Buffalo, Drive almost 2 hours to Erie, wake up pack, get on the road to drive with boys to New York. So fun! We then stayed in the at Auntie Jess's for a night and head to Long Island to have a crazy and wildly fun time with Melanie, Zanna and James! Kids have a ball, kids get sick, kids go home with me and Mel gets more company!
Call me Brave or Call me Crazy...probably both. I get to drive the boys home for what was supposed to be an eight hour trip! :) I think it took us over ten...YIKES. The road trip home in a nutshell and then I am off to bed :) Leave Long Island at 2:30, boys fall asleep yea! get to Washington Bridge, Jackson wakes up, leave NY traffic and get into New Jersey traffic, "Mommy I have to go to the bathroom." OOPS forgot to put on the diaper! Pull off on the side of the road, apply diaper, load back into the car and into traffic...drive a few miles, car is close to empty, take next exit along with a 7 mile detour get gas for $2.93! get back into traffic, Grady's hungry, pull off on next rest stop, creepy truckers and men all over no restrooms, Grady is too distracted to eat. Leave creepy rest stop, Grady is still crying for food. I pump and drive, go through toll, pump and drive. Pull of on the side of the road to give Grady a bottle. Get him started, get back on the road, Grady drops bottle! Wah! Back in traffic so I pull off again, hold bottle, read books, and get back on the road. Grady falls asleep, Jackson watches Peter Pan. Finally back on the road again and making good mileage. This took 4 hours to get to this point...Drive drive drive, need gas and food it's now 10:00pm. Food for all and gas for the car and only 3.5 hours to go. Finally 12:30ish am arrives and we pull into home sweet home!
Soooooo Brave or Crazy???? you decide :)

I love love love the Fall!

Okay so before I actually begin, I want to say this is my second attempt at this posting! Arrrgh! I wrote a whole post andwent to publish it only to have the blogger out of service!
Having said that, I truly do love the Fall! I love the pumpkins, I love the changing leaves especially here in Pensylvania!, I love Halloween, haunted houses, the brisk air and all that the season has to offer.
Here are some recent pictures of Jackson and Grady. Here you can see Jackson's Haunted Gingerbread house creation! What fun! We had a ball. Thanks to Grandma and Grandpa Aguirre for sending it. Down below you can see our trip to Port Farms in Waterford, PA. What a fun day! We took a hay ride, played in the corn box, ran through the corn maze and the hay maze, and rode the slides. As we rode the slides it was so cute, there were a couple of school girls that took to Jackson. They took his hand and took him up and down the slides! They were so funny, I could see them arguing as to whether or not Jackson was a boy or a girl. When it was time for the girls to leave, I went over and told them thanks for sliding with him and one of the girls told me she asked him if he was a boy or a girl and he said, "I am a boy!" I responded, that's right he is a boy and she then snickered to her friend,"I asked his mom and she said that he is a boy!" Really it was pretty funny. Don't be fooled by his hair or eyes, Jackson is ALL boy! He currently loves, trains, balls, baseball, golf, basketball, coloring, painting, and books. He loves to play in the dirt with his dumptrucks and has a great love for life. He now can recognize all letters of the alphabet and has learned many of their sounds too!
Grady too is all boy. He is a mover and a climber!!! He loves to stand up and cruise, he climbs the stairs, crawls anywhere he wants to go and fast. He loves to play quite independently but loves to be in on ALL of the action. He his so observant and will fight sleep, food, whatever if he thinks he is missing out on something. He loves life and is such a happy baby. He says Dada and sometimes Mama. The boys have a great love for each other. Grady constantly watches Jackson and is learning from him all the time. Jackson likes to sing to and peek a boo with Grady. If he is sad he happily shouts BACON at him. Yes I said bacon. For whatever reason Grady loves the word bacon and you can get a smile out of him with that word almost anytime! Anyhow we love the fall, we love life and have much to be grateful for!
Happy Haunting!

Miles Halloween Birthday Party

The boys had a great time at Miles' 2nd birthday party. As you can see the kids got to dress up in their costumes. Good times were had by all...they got to play in the leaves, search for ghosts, decorate cupcakes, eat mummies, (pigs in a blanket) and much more! Happy Birthday Miles!

Here are my three favorite boys in the whole world! Gotta love em! We went on a pontoon boat tour down on Presque Isle. We had a great time and learned a lot about he nature and history of the area! Great times were had by all!

Grady's first meal

For those of you who faithfully check my blog even though I am so slow to update here's to you! I am trying out a new photo program that will hopefully upload my pics faster and encourage me to blog more often! Wish me luck:)
Here is sweet Baby Grady at about 5 and half months eating one of his first meals or should I say wearing it! Such a sweet boy he is! Grady is nearing 7 months and is crawling and standing on everything. He never wants to miss one moment of anything and prefers to be moving say 99% of the time. He is having lots of fun keeping me busy!

Wow! It's been forever!

Okay, okay so any of you who might be reading this and hasn't actually given up on checking my blog must think I really suck at this whole blog thing and I must admit you're right! But here I am posting again to give a quick update on life. As you might guess I am finding it difficult to find time to myself for anything other than family. I love being a mom of two more than anything and time goes soooo quickly. What I am doing these days...being a mom, training for marathon number two, staying in Utah again and trying not to say no too often to my adventuresome, mischevious, loving 2 year old son Jackson. What Casey is doing...currently he is in Meadville, PA doing an anasthesia rotation, studying his tail off for boards, trying to sneak in exercise time, getting his applications ready for residency, figuring out what kind of doc he wants to be and of course missing his family. He was recently released as the clerk and is now in the young men's presidency. What Jackson is doing...playing baseball, golf, paddle ball, running around, talking up a storm, (stringing sentences together), traveling, teasing and loving his brother, sleeping in a big boy bed and being all out goofy and fun. What baby Grady is doing... at 4.5 months he rolls over in both directions, is creeping, (gets up on arms and legs and rocks back and forth or lunges forward), this kid will be crawling before you know it! He is razzing and blowing bubbles, smiling all the time, trying to learn to sleep through the night and of course traveling too. At his young age he has already flown to Utah and back, flown to New York City and then again to Utah. Baby Grady will be blessed in a few short weeks on August 10. Other than that we have being living life a day at a time. Unfotunately being out of town, I don't really have any pics to post as I don't have my own computer but I will try to post some more recent pictures soon. We have had a lot of fun small adventures recently and have some great pics. No promises but I will do my best! Take care and we hope all is well with you!

6 weeks postpartum!

So here we are…6 weeks postpartum. Today officially marks Grady's 6 week birthday! Wow time flies when you are a mother of two! Here is a little update on the last 6 weeks of our lives.

March 5^th, Grady is born! March 7^th, Jackson's birthday! March 8^th, J's birthday party. Mom and Jess visit this week and we have a fabulous time! Wish they were still here! Miss you tons already. Casey is off work and is adjusting to the "slow-life." Each day is a new adventure, to the zoo, to the park, anywhere. Grady has no chance of living a slow life. (Gotta keep J entertained). Life is grand!!! April 3^rd, Nana comes to Erie! April 4^th Road trip to New York. Off to see the Yankees!!! (and Jess). April 6^th Casey starts his Psych rotation. We had a fabulous time with Nana, Shopping, playing golf/baseball, going to the museum, going to the park, etc. April 10^th Ashley and Jackson get haircuts. (J's First!) April 13^th Nana leaves town. April 14^th I become solo mom! (okay it's not been bad as Casey helps in the am and comes home for lunch everyday.) Jackson is adjusting well and it hasn't been as hard as I thought.

I am loving being a mother of 2 amazing boys and feel very blessed. I am looking forward to running again and working on getting my old body back! I just ordered my double jogger yeah!

To all who are reading this, hello. It is so fun to see who is actually taking the time to read this and thanks for being patient. If you check it too ofter you may get frustrated as I am not a great blogger but… if you check it every couple of weeks hopefully you'll be pleasantly surprised. Take care!

Ashley