Life passes you by....

It's been almost a month since I have blogged. Boy, have we been busy. We had a great time at Easter with the Leavitt Family. They came over and we had an awesome ham dinner then an egg hunt with the kids. It was a blast.

Zoe is in Colorado right now visiting her friend Emma. Emma's Mom, Jennifer is graduating from nursing school this weekend. We are so excited for Jennifer and glad that Zoe could be there to share this with them. Zoe called me today from the mall to tell me she was shopping and told me about all the stores she had been in. She is definitely ALL girl!

Liam got his Wolf badge along with a TON of belt loops. He loves scouts and we are so proud of him! He is now in Bears and LOVES it!

Austin was student of the month and we had the chance to see him get recognized in front of the entire school. He was surprised and very excited.

Jared is Jared...what can I say. The kid has a mind of his own. We love him dearly and he keeps us laughing, but on the other hand he definitely keeps us on our toes!

Drew is of course the cutest thing EVER! He is trying so hard to talk more and more each day. We laugh at his vocabulary. I'll blog all of his words later. They are all too cute. He loves his "B" aka baby, and is already using his imagination. Did I mention that he draws on EVERYTHING!!!! The walls are a blank canvas for him to put his mark on. We need to go ahead and buy stock in Mr. Clean Magic Erase Markers.

Ethan is trying to crawl, he does the army crawl everywhere, trying to keep up with his big brother Drew. He now has 4 teeth and is as cute as ever! He also is our family vacuum. He eats EVERYTHING! I swear he smells food a mile away!

Gavin is finishing off his first semester of Law School with Finals over the course of the next two weeks. I have to be the proudest wife. He has worked so hard this semester and had enjoyed every minute of it. I am so blessed to have such an amazing man as my husband and best friend. He is so dedicated in everything he does.

I am busy being a mom. Trying to keep the house clean and laundry up is a CHORE! One of these days I'll be caught up (Yeah right). I'm not expecting that to be anytime soon. We are all looking very excited to this summer being able to relax. We have a great summer planned and can't wait for it all to begin!

Sweet Jared.....

Jared is such a sweet boy. He adds so much to our family. He's "Like a Box of Chocolates, you never know what you're going to get!"

As he got off the bus on Friday he comes running to the car and says, "Ashley, I am so glad you are picking me up, I've missed you all week." He then gets in the car, throws his arms around me and tells me how much he loves me and gives me a kiss.

Mom and Dad Curtis planned a last minute trip to come out and see us. The boys had flat tires on their bikes and my father in law was kind enough to help fix them. As he is working on the boy's bikes, Jared comes into the garage and says, "Grandpa, you look just like my daddy, but you're old!" We laughed and laughed.

We love haivng Jared in our family. He adds so much laughter!

Girls Rule!

The best thing about having a step daughter is I have a shopping buddy! When Zoe is home we SHOP! Last night I took her and her friend, Aspen, to Justice and to Old Navy. We got them matching shirts and bags. It was a blast. Zoe is a beautiful young lady and it is an honor to have her as my step daughter. Maybe one day I'll have a girl of my own, but for now, Zoe is definetely the next best thing!

Utah Trip

We had a great Spring break up in Utah. The weather was perfect and the company was a blast. Gavin was able to drive up with us and spend a couple days before he headed back down to Arizona to hit the books and study family free for a week.

We had a ton of fun with my family as everybody came together for dinner Sunday before Gavin flew home. It was great to put three of the four babies born this year together and compare. All of the grandkids born this year have been two months apart.

I was able to visit with friends and even managed to sneak away with a girlfriend of mine to see a movie, child free. Thanks for the great time. But the highlight of the trip for my little Austee Stewmontee, was being able to go on the Sponge Bob ride in Vegas. We actually took our time going up and coming home. We stayed at Excalibur on the way up. What a steal...it cost us $41, and we got a $25 food credit. So we did their breakfast buffet the next morning. That had to be the biggest breakfast spread I have ever seen. Gavin was in breakfast Heaven....Every type of egg imaginable. And of course, everyone that saw our babies had to come up and comment on how adorable and well behaved they were.

On the way home we weren't as fortunate to get that deal so we settled for Circus Circus, thinking it would be fun for the kids....were we WRONG! That had to be the ARM PIT of the strip. They didn't have our reservation. They said that because of the economy, they have cut back on their staff and the people in the reservation department weren't there to input our reservation. Common sense people....cut back in other places, not reservations when your a hotel....Duh! And then when they finally found it, an hour later, we went up to our room to find that it hadn't been cleaned from the people who were there before us. We go back down to the front desk, and at this point there are fumes coming out of my eyeballs. We go back to the "supervisor" and she apologizes saying that only clean rooms are reported and she didn't understand how that happened. She gives us the room next door. We go back up to our new room and not to our surprise, there were no comforters on our bed. It is now almost 10 o'clock and we are exhausted. We call house keeping and they tell us that they don't have bed spreads but to call back in the morning and they will have some then. Hello...I wouldn't be calling if it wasn't for that night. They tell us they will bring us blankets. I walk out and there is the cleaning lady, cleaning the room that we originally started with, and in plastic bags, brand new comforters. 2 hours later, no blankets so my sister calls house keeping again and they say they will bring blankets right away. They did, but when we opened the blanket it stunk of cigarette smoke. Like I am going to wrap my kids in something that smells like an ashtray.

Needless to say the supervisor the next morning got an earful from me and I swore I would tell everyone I knew how horrible it was and that I would never stay there again.

Other then that fun experience.... we had an awesome time and can't wait to head back up this summer where we will have more time to play! Thank you to my amazing parents for hosting an awesome trip! We love y'all and can't wait to see you again in a couple months!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY LIAM...

Happy Birthday to our sweet Liam. I can't believe that today he turns 9. How time has flown by. I'm still in Utah and Gavin is home. He was able to spend a couple of hours with the kids today, since they were with Andrea for Spring break. When I talked to Liam today he had his entire birthday party planned. Easy enough for me. Now I just make it happen. Got to love that! I am so grateful for Liam and what an awesome kid he is. We are so glad he is a part of our family!!!! We love you Liam!

These cookies just aren't edible....

Twice a month we pick up paradise bakery cookies for charity. A few weeks ago, I brought the bin in the house. Not thinking anything of it, I left it on the table. The next thing I know Drew is eating a croissant and Zoe a cookie. "Nothing wrong with that," I think to myself and leave the room. The next thing I know, Drew is in the bin helping himself. We laughed and laughed. Those cookies were definitely not donated that week!

My Babies!

Drew and Ethan LOVE to go for a walk. It doesn't matter where we go, whether it's to the park (Drew's favorite place in the world) or to get the mail. I have the cutest babies ever!

On a side note, it's fun to watch these two interact. You can tell that Drew is going to be the leader and Ethan will follow along. Gavin and I are already picturing the instigating that will take place with Drew and then giving us the eyes, saying, what did I do wrong?