Happy Birthday Livia!!

The top three things I love about Livia!

1. I love how she dances! She did it so much while we were at Disneyland with all the music playing everywhere. And it is even better when she sings along. That girl loves to sing and dance! And rock back and forth on her feet! It is so cute.

2. I love how she talks. Her L's are a w sound, like Disneywand. Her C's are a t sound. She even has this high pitched voice that is so dang cute! I have been trying to catch it on video more. Sometimes I close my eyes and listen to a sentence and try to engrave it on my mind hoping I can replay it later in life. It is so precious!

3. I love her sayings. Her new favorite is "I wove it, mom!" or "I don't wove it." And my other favorite saying from the week is when she puts on her tiger mask for Halloween, she says "Rar! Did I stare you, Mom? You were stared!" I love it!

4. And since number 3 kind of falls under the #2 , I love her hugs. She often times will run up and throw her arms around me and squeeze my neck so hard! Its heaven!

Livy is three today! And she has been so excited about it for weeks leading up to her birthday. I think it had something to do with the fact that we went to disneyland this last week for her birthday! (We had to squeeze in one last trip while she was still free, since the rest of us have passes, and I have always wanted to go to Disneyland at Halloween! So we packed it in!) And she would be over the moon about it being her birthday today, but she woke up not feeling well. It was our primary program at church and we had two friends coming, so Ben and I decided we would take the kids to Sacrament and then bring Livy and Jackson home (Jackson had thrown up earlier in the morning. I thought it was because he had eaten too much...that kid chows. But now i think it is a bug.) Luckily i had taken Livy out to the Foyer because she wanted a drink of water. And I just held her out there, while our friends sat in there by themselves. I was feeling like a horrible "host". But thankfully i stayed out there and was near the bathroom, because she threw-up all over me. I bee-lined it to the restroom where she puked some more, i'll spare the details. So i stripped her down and cleaned everything up (which is not an easy task with soap and paper towels, I think the floor is still a little sudsy, but better soap than other liquid.) I walked home with her and held her on the couch.

A pretty yucky birthday if you ask me. Thankfully we celebrated a little in Disneyland though.

Happy Birthday Livy!

Won the Lottery

That's right! Front row tickets on Broadway for In The Heights with Jordan Sparks!

New York - A little taste

We are loving our trip in New York City! Here's a little taste of what we've been up to...more to come later.

The food here is amazing!!! Here is a local Indian Food place that was crazy good.



The highlight so far was a little trip to the top of the city in a secret building known only by the Eyre boys! Noah got us in, led us up an elevator, then took us past a secret door into the heating vents area, up some stairs, up some crazy outdoor ladders, and to a breathtaking view of Manhattan. Don't believe me? Check this out!





Will post more of our adventures later...stay tuned!

Whirlwind of a Day

5:50AM Jackson wakes up ready for the day

6:00AM Finally settle on the fact that he is not going back to sleep

6-6:30 play and cuddle with J. crawl, play catch, laugh, try to feed him breakfast

6:30-6:45 start cutting tomatoes to make Bruschetta for dinner tonight (have to use the tomatoes before I leave.)

6:45 Quickly shower while Ben can watch Jackson before he leaves

7:00 Ben leaves for work-Start making salad dressing for dinner-finish bruschetta, start making a smoothie and keep J happy. He didn't get enough sleep.

7:20 Jackson wakes up Livy by crawling in her room and laughing. She didn't get enough sleep.

7:30 Feed Jackson and Livy oatmeal.

7:45 Read books to Livy and Jackson

8:00 Get Livy dressed and try to put jackson down for a nap...no luck.

8:30 Try to pick up the house a little bit (it was so clean when we woke up and i am trying to keep it somewhat put together for company coming tonight.)

8:45 Finally finish making the smoothie, brush livy's hair, Brooke wakes up, a little bit on the cranky side because Livy and jackson woke her up by being really loud in the hallway.

9:00 nurse jackson and put him down for a nap

9:10 get Brooke some Breakfast that she will eat (I had already made her oatmeal, but she wouldn't eat it, because it was a different kind than I usually buy)

9:15 Kimberly comes over so I can zone her

9:20-11 Zone Kimberly with a few mishaps in between- Eliza and Livy dump half the bottle of elmers glue out on teh table, Livy totally gouched her finger with the scissors (there is a pretty big hole in her right pointer finger, yikes.) lots of crying and laughing from the kids. Thankfully Jackson slept through it and baby rachel was an angel, otherwise it could have been a very HARD hour and a half.

11:05-11:25 the usual scrambling to get shoes on, mouths fed, lunch packed and out the door so Brooke isn't late. Brooke had to change her shirt three times (she is really picky when it comes to how her clothes "feel") we had to tie and untie her shoe three times to fix her "sock"....that is the norm, and I really try to pad in extra time every morning and it always seems to go like this.

11:25 Wake Jackson up

11:32 Finally walk out the door to get Brooke to school

11:40 drop Brooke off at school.Livy goes down the slide a few times and insists that Jackson goes too, i finally give-in and we have a bit of a mishap with feet and arms getting stuck under kids, and lots of crying for both. Lovely.

11:55 10 minutes late for a Chiropractor appointment with two kids in tow again. Just as i lie down on the table to get adjusted, Livy informs me she needs to go to the bathroom. Get the key-take her potty. Come back and get adjusted while jackson pulls at my hair, livy hangs on the doorknob and opens and closes the door to the room. And Jackson still didn't get enough sleep. He is extra cranky today.

12:25 Go to the grocery store. Hurry through the isles, get everything I need in 25 minutes! That is a record. But still not quick enough for a perfect trip. The last 5 minutes and the whole time at the register Jackson had to be bounced and held and loved, and livy wants more treats. And her finger is hurting.

12:55 Stop at Bank and deposit checks

1:05 get home- only 5 minutes behind my goal time- unload groceries, try to feed Jackson some lunch.

1:30 try to put jackson and Livy down for naps...no luck on either one. So we read a few books and played in the toy room instead. Of course livy wanted to play marbles, so i was trying to play with her and keep jackson from eating them at the same time.

2:00 start getting nervous that I won't be able to finish dinner and clean up from this mornings art projects and get Brooke on time.

2:10 turn on wiggles for Jackson and Livy. Make two lasagnas (one nut, one regular) and try to give the kids some attention in between.

2:42 Leave to pick up Brooke. Livy falls asleep within 1 minute in the car

2:59 Park in the teacher's parking lot (Brooke always reminds me that this is a no-no.) Leave Livy in the van with the windows down.-don't worry I can see the van the entire time. The parking lot is right in front of brooke's room. There is only a fence in between-if you can call it a fence. Grab jackson

3:05 start home to race cleaning up the mess of a kitchen from my scramble to get dinner ready.

Leave livy in the car sleeping with the doors open. Jackson still didn't fall asleep.

3:45 Pack Brooke and jackson back in the car. Drop all the kids off at Donna's.

4:00 go to Volleyball Practice

5:40 Race and pick up the kids at Donna's

5:59 get home just in time for friends to come over for dinner at 6. I am so glad ben got home and put the Lasagna's in

Thankfully everyone was a little late. it bought me a little time

6:40 Enjoy a fun dinner with old friends outside on the patio. Meeting new friends (Nick's wife, Teal.) Telling stories, laughing and just having fun enjoying each other. Nick played the guitar and sang for the kids, and even played hide and seek with them.

9:45 finally get the kids in bed after a fun evening. Write on my blog and get motivated to pack for our trip to New York tomorrow!

It was a jam-packed day. But thankfully I have been implementing my mind organization for mom's, and I actually didn't feel stressed at all. I even felt like I got to enjoy my kids during the journey instead of being frustrated with them. It was a crazy day, but it was a great day!

10:08PM finish my blog post. sigh of relief that I actually recorded something

Playground fun

Ben got home early today. So I decided to make it a "mommy date" and pick Brooke up from school and run some errands with her. After school she asked if we could stay and play on the first graders playground. We sat down on the wood boundaries and she finished her snack. Then she started climbing on the jungle gym. And she turned around and said "Come on, Mom." So, instead of reading through her papers in her backpack. I climbed up to the top and swung around jumped off, and just plain-played with Brooke. It was so fun! I realized, i haven't done that stuff in so long. We played tic-tac-toe, we played hopscotch, we climbed some more. And then, just before we were going to leave, Brooke wanted to go on the monkey bars. So we headed to the other side of the playground. There were two boys sitting on top. Before we even got there the one boy (Olesis) said to me-"Look at me. I bet you can't get up here." I kind of ignored him at first, because I didn't think he would be talking to me...then he said it a few more times. And said in a very haughty (but playful) voice, "Look at how I can get up here." Brooke just looked at me and then started climbing up on top of the bars. After about the fourth time he said it, I thought-Come on, Ashley. You better be that cool mom. So I said, "Watch this." (And i could see brooke starting to smile) and i pulled myself on top of the monkey bars, without using the steps, and sat on top. He chuckled a bit and then said, "Wow." Then the other little boy said, "oh, yeah, watch this." And he hung upside down. So i hung upside down and stayed there for a bit, then I put my hands on the ground and went into a handstand (they were short monkey bars for 1st graders.) and got off that way. The boys and brooke were very impressed. I told brooke we had to go and I said goodbye to the boys. Brooke and I went over and did hopscotch one more time. Then we started walking toward the other playground to get out the gate. THe second little boy (i never got his name) walks up next to me and says, "Wanna race." I smiled and looked at Brooke and she smiled. Then i said back to the boy, "Sure. Ready set go." I ran side by side with him, then sped up at teh end (he was pretty fast for a first grader.) I touched the fence first. And said "Beat ya" And he said, "Wow. You are fast!" Brooke and I waived goodbye. And I held brooke's hand out the gate and to the car. I could tell that she thought i was a "cool" mom at that moment.

We then went to Michael's and she picked out a craft. I think she thought it was a pretty good mommy date. I thought it was awesome! It was so fun to climb and swing on a playground again. I definitely need to do it more often with her! It was also fun to show up some little boys!