Ashleigh

I've neglected writing about Ashleigh lately. She's so quiet and she's away from home playing so often that I don't have too many opportunities to take pictures of her.

however, I finally snagged her one day. :-)

Here she is doing some fun acrobats on an exercise ball. She was also using the ball to help her stretch farther in her splits. She'd sit on the ball, spread her legs and slide off and land in to a deep split. Pretty impressive.

We also did some hairstyles that I found on Youtube. Ash was a good sport and sat as my model while I practiced them on her. This first one is called a Waterfall Braid.

This one is called "twist back with a messy bun". Ash liked this one the best.

This is the website http://www.cutegirlshairstyles.com/

I'm excited to try out some more! :-)

Random pics...again

Picture of me and Preston while we watched Ashleigh do gymnastics.

The kids in line to get water from the fridge before bed.

Preston has a new trick...

Nick was showing the kids something on the computer. I think it was Angry Birds. Love Finley's smile. (cell phone pic...yup, my phone sucks!)

Yesterday the kids and I went to Burnt Bridge Creek Trail and went for a walk. It was SO hot outside, but this trail is completely covered with big tall trees. It was easily 15 degrees cooler on the trail. The trail is marked at every 1/4 mile which made it fun for the kids to look for the next marker. We probably would have walked farther, but the kids both wore flip-flops....and there were mosquitoes everywhere!!! We all got bit...a lot! but it was fun regardless.

As we were getting ready to leave we heard a train go by which made Preston freak out to go see it. So after getting some directional help from my mom, we made it to the Felida Moorage where there's a nice spot to park and wait for trains to come by. We only waited about 20 min before a train came. It was a short train and it was loud, but the conductor waved to us and it was really cool to be so close to a train. I remember fondly hitching rides on trains in Vancouver and riding them up to Woodland and having my friends come pick me up. Good times.

The happenings lately

Quinn came to visit us a couple weekends ago. It was so great to see her and spend time with her. She was a huge help to us especially on Friday when we had a little medical scare with Preston, and she watched the kids since I had to work at the same time as Nick and then later let me go grocery shopping all alone and watched the kids even longer. She and I had some great heart to heart conversations and she completely doted all of her attention on the kids and let them play games on her new phone. They loved all the attention. Ashleigh, especially was so sad when Quinn went home...it was so sweet and so sad.

Ashleigh doing Quinn's hair for her. :-)

Later Quinn put some make up on Ash. Look at her long eye lashes. I never realized they were so long.

Nick got a new front license plate. It's a black "Don't tread on Me" emblem. Looks pretty good! :-)

We've been telling Ash for a few months that we would get her a new bike. We kept putting it off, but finally her old bike's chain broke and she couldn't ride it anymore so off we went to Toys R us to get her a new bike. I had $15 in gift cards, yay, which helped with the cost of the bigger bikes. While we were there we was Irene from the latest Biggest Loser (she was in the final 3). I was a chicken and didn't ask her for a picture or autograph...but we did follow her for a few minutes in our cars since we both left the store at the same time. ;-)

Ash took the following pictures

We celebrated Independence day on Sunday rather than Monday with our neighbors who were having a big bbq party. The neighbors and I had to work early on Tuesday morning so we didn't see the point in staying up late Monday night doing fireworks only to get up early on Tuesday. It worked out really well and we had a lot of fun!

Nick made a little stand for our fireworks. It worked really well, but then the neighbors and Nick decided to put their big fireworks together so it would be a bigger display for us all to enjoy.

The kids really enjoyed themselves. It was fun watching them light their little fireworks and then run really fast away. Preston especially was hilarious to watch!

This one was Preston's firework...it looked like a silver mushroom but it had the best display and lasted so much longer than other ones that we bought. I think we all liked that one the most.

On the 4th we were busy doing all sorts of random things around the house and Ashleigh asked for cinnamon rolls so she and I set out to make some. She was a big help and only 5 hours later they were done. ya know...since we have to wait for the dough to rise, twice. lol...

On Tuesday we got to watch Bridget and Finley for a few hours. Finley always keeps me on my toes and just makes me smile so much. Ashleigh and Bridget played so well together and they had fun like always. It's always a joy to watch them.

Many posts in 1

Did I post this pic? Can't remember....

Preston loves playing with Dominoes and making "houses" with them. Here's his latest creation.

Emily watched my kiddos for me while I went to a job interview. When I got back to get them we were invited to join Em and her girls to go feed the ducks. There were a bunch of them!! It was so cute watching the kids throw bread to the ducks (and Preston thinking it's funny to chase them). We didn't stay too long, but we really enjoyed ourselves.

Ash had a good workout at gymnastics and had a really red face when she was done. She was so tired! :-) She LOVED it!!!

Here's where I work....it's called MotoSport and I work in Tualatin, OR. It's a long drive, which isn't good for the fuel/gas prices, but I actually enjoy the drive and I LOVE my job so far. I'm a Purchasing Assistant. It's a pretty complex job--hard to explain--but I caught on quickly and I really like my co workers and the environment and I like the job itself. I'm really happy there!

Thought it was funny that the toilet seat was UP in the women's bathroom....odd...

My desk. I haven't decorated yet and I'm still getting used to the layout, but I pretty much stare at my computer the ENTIRE time so I'm not sure I really need to get it decorated...we'll see.

Behind me sits Misty...my coworker(?)...my boss(?)....not really sure. My BOSS is Ian...so not really sure what Misty is to me... I'm taking over a lot of her work, so maybe I'm her assistant. huh...ya, that makes sense.

She's very nice, VERY quiet, and very focused on her work. It's been good working with her so far. (I love her chair)

The break room is really big...there's a ping-pong table, a BIG sectional sofa, 3 big screen tv's outfitted with dirt bike/atv video games, vending machines, fridge, etc. It's a nice place to take breaks.

On my way home from work one day I sat in traffic for a bit cause there was a car fire on the freeway. This was the only picture I could get of it...probably shouldn't have been taking pictures in traffic...oh well!

I've seen the tall thing on the right as I drive to and from work and kept wondering what it was exactly...on this day I actually saw a gondola carrying people from the West to the East....I wonder if the people who work on the big hill use this to get to their cars on the other side of the freeway, or what. It was cool to see.

Preston had some pretty bad allergies on Thursday. Allergy meds weren't helping at all so I thought maybe it was actually a cold or the start of a flu. Before he went to bed I gave him some cold medicine and put some Vicks on his chest. Friday morning Ashleigh woke me up and told me that Preston was having a hard time breathing. I hopped out of bed and saw Quinn carrying Preston to us and he was so limp. He was coughing like a seal (Croup) and was really really struggling to breathe. Poor Quinn was so freaked out!!! We got P set up doing his Albuterol breathing treatments. With in a few minutes he was doing a bit better. Once he did his breathing, I took him to urgent care. There was basically no sign by then that he had been having trouble breathing. Turns out he had an ear infection (either just starting or starting to go away...wasn't too bad) and he has bronchiolitis. We got some meds and were on our way. The medicine we got lowers his ability to fight off other illnesses so we have been keeping him away from other people until that medicine is all gone. He's doing TONS better now and his allergies seem to have lessened as well. We're very grateful!!!