It was a great Birthday!

The day started out normal. Ashton wakes up at 6am and takes his animals and his blanket to the couch to watch some of his favorite T.V. Shows.

Then we hopped in the car to the Bellevue Square Mall to have lunch with Auntie Christy at Red Robins.

We walked around the mall afterwards and found the Disney Store at the end of our adventure. He loved it there. A fun tunnel under the stuffed animals display. He was trying to race Auntie Christy from one side to the other.

Who Won?

Then we went out to dinner at the Saw Mill Cafe in Mill Creek. It was a breakfast dinner night because the kids are with their dad this weekend, so this place was perfect. 

Thanksgiving Weekend (or should I just say my Birthday weekend)

 Hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving.  We were glad to finally meet Jacob's new girlfriend, Megan. She seemed very lovely and sweet.

Toby had on his "handsome" costume. He couldn't find his tie today, but he still loved amazing.

Hannah and her sweet smile like always.

Alice and Christy sharing some time together. Alice was sharing her new book.

Watching some good football together. (I think my dad was just standing there.)

Another delicious meal. Ham and Turkey. Wow- double header. It was great to take some left overs home and make fried rice the next night.

Carving the turkey. 

Very excited about my Gluten Free Vegan Pumpkin Pie!  Delicious!! Christy, Hannah and I couldn't wait for everyone else. We dug in and helped ourselves.  Christy and Hannah wouldn't claim having any part of it, but they know what they did with me. I have no shame in sharing!

Of course they are watching the Football game. What else would my boys be doing?


And my party continues with a fun night out with the Bergmans! Thank you for coming all the way to our place to go out to dinner and help me celebrate. It was a fun night!

Mark and the kids picked out a beautiful cake! It looks amazing!

I did make myself a cake. My own special recipe:

Gluten free Vegan Coconut Pecan Chocolate Cake

It was scrumptious!  Wow!  So excited about this one.

I know my birthday isn't until Thursday, but after the weekend I feel as if it is over. It was a great weekend. Thanks for the parties! Thursday we will be just going out to dinner and eating all the left over cake!

Busy Weekend

I know most of you think our schedule is always full and we seem to go-go all the time, but this has been the busiest weekend since our summer. I think it would have been more enjoyable with a little sunshine, but I do love November and the thought of our Washington Fall.

Our busy weekend actually started on Friday morning. Ben had a tournament in Seattle and had to be there by 9am. It was a school day for him, but unfortunately our priorities went to his tournament. It isn't often, but he really needs to prepare for State in May.  He did great. It was a Men's Open level tournament which means it is some of your top players. There are a lot of great playing Juniors that will compete in this tournament. Ben did play a kid his own age for the first round and won in a Set tie-break. It was good tennis to watch.  He then played doubles at 4pm with a friend of his, but they lost.  Ben said it was fun and a great experience to play doubles agains some really great players. We had to be back there Saturday morning by 8am. Thank goodness Ashton always wakes up around 6am, because we had enough time to eat and leave at 7am.
Ben had to returned to play the #9 seed, who plays in the #1 spot for Whitman College. Ben was amazing running down some serve and volleys from this guy. He had great scores, but lost in the end.

Hannah had her soccer tournament this weekend too. Her games were held at the coldest park around here. Kasch Park. For some reason that park has some wind tunnel going through there and you can always bet that you will be freezing.  One game was at 8:30pm. Unbelievable that they would play that late. Her dad took her because I had to be at a Community College play my friend was in that evening. But the next morning, we bundled up after Ben's tennis and watched.  Her team won her first game, but lost the next 2 games. If they had won they would have played on Sunday too. It would have been great for them to go to the finals, yet I was happy that our over scheduled Weekend was done with tournaments.

Playing Football during the half

Trying to keep warm!

Ashton wanted to bring bubbles to the game. 

Sunday morning was nice and free so Mark, Ashton and I headed to the club.  Ashton likes to have "daddy time" so he asked if just his dad and him can be together. I said of course, and told him I would watch through the window while on the Elliptical. 

It is hard to get a tennis court at the last minute on a Sunday morning, so they come to the gym and have some fun. They do so many things in there. Ashton is hot and sweaty in the end. 

In this next video Daddy takes Ashton to "Boot Camp".

Sunday afternoon we drove to Graham, WA for Matt's birthday party. They aren't going to be here for Thanksgiving so the family decided to visit them at their place. It was quite a drive, but I am glad we were able to visit and celebrate Matt's Birthday. He is a great addition to the family, and we are so happy they have little Autumn to add to it too. 

My first attempt at a German Chocolate Cake. (one of matt's favorites) It was delicious! Mark said it would probably be better with some Chocolate (of course he would say that),  so I looked online and found a few options with some chocolate to accent the cake. Everyone seemed to like it.  I wish I had the funds to start a bakery. I sure love making things. Well....I Love eating them too. Mark says he would gain 200 pounds if I had my own Bakery. I told him he doesn't have to visit me at the bakery. He can stay home! Hee hee....

Happy Birthday Matt! Apparently this was his first birthday party in a long time. Last year he was in Iraq during his Birthday. He seemed very glad to have his new family over to celebrate with him. 

Ben and Hannah couldn't come, and Kim and the kids were busy this weekend.  After a while we turned on Ashton's Innotab and let him play.  He loved this gigantic bean bag they had. It was very comfy!

Cormier Family

Fun Day with Grandma and Grandpa

Ashton always has fun when Grandma and Grandpa visit!  I normally go and do errands all day or have a tennis match to scramble off too.  Today I was around the house doing things and I was able to get some fun camera shots of them.

It was beautiful outside so they went outside and played T-ball.  

Great Eye contact Grandma!

They are ready to catch that one!

After T-ball they played hide and seek outside for a long time. Ashton loved it!

Then they came inside and played many games and watched a few of Ashton's favorite TV shows.  What a fun filled day! 

He sure loves to spend time with them!

Ashton's favorite game right now is Go-fish.

Boo-Boos and the joys of parenthood

I think one of the hardest things as a parent is seeing your child get hurt or suffer. I remember when Ben was little, and that poor kid would hit his head left and right. He found himself in the ER about 3 times before he was 4 years old, and we had very nice Firemen visit us at the house once because I wasn't really sure what to do. He had Stitches once in Hawaii, a concussion another time. (Not to mention the time I accidentally dropped him on his head in Costco and we had to get wheeled out in the ambulance. In my defense, He was 2 1/2 and already potty trained. He had to go pee, so I had to hold Hannah in one arm and Ben in the other arm while trying to walk/run to the restroom. I tripped on something and down went my little guy. It surely was a sad day and boy oh boy, Parenthood is a tough one.)  I have always felt that his brain got knocked up enough to make him such an intelligent boy that he is today.

Ahhh....The life of a first time mom. Amazing how things just don't seem as traumatic with the second child, and how I feel like I may be too laid back with the third. Thank goodness we aren't having any more kids because that child may never see a doctor and it could just be too late.  Poor child I will never have. I already feel sorrow for her and happiness that she will never be here to experience a mom that is lackadaisical.

Our little Ashton has had a black eye when he was 1 years old, (hit the side of his head on the corner of a chair at Ben's tournament one summer) but I think last night takes the cake for big Boo-Boos. Ben and him were playing football in the house. (Yes. You just read the word "house". We have the nice soft nerf ones, but perhaps it is time to take it outside now.) Somehow Ashton went to tackle Ben and Ben grabbed a chair to make sure he didn't fall on top of Ashton. The chair came down and hit Ashton right on the forehead.  Poor thing. Luckily he screamed and seemed very alert and crying his head off because that meant he didn't loose consciousness. One always hope crying means it hurts and he will be ok.  Of course I had to keep my cool on the outside because the big kids eyes were looking back and forth at me for reassurance and Ashton in sadness.

I must admit I called the nurse to confirm I needed to wake him up every 4 hours. Doctors rules seem to change every few years, that you never know what they have discovered recently. Like with CPR, you do not have to administer breathes anymore. And laying a baby on their side in the crib, versus laying them on their back had changed from Ben to Hannah's birth.  The doctors office wouldn't even answer my questions. They said with any head trauma I need to go to the ER where they can evaluate him with better equipment. Boy oh Boy. I have been there many times and done the waiting room and CT scans many times to know that a child hitting their head happens all the time, and I just need to watch him closely for a while.So I didn't want to take him in, and yet should I?

Would you if you saw a bump like this one:

Well, I decided to call my friend who is a first time mom and send her the picture and ask her what she would do. She seems reasonable enough to make a good motherly call. She agreed to just wait it out and see how he does in the next few hours before bedtime. I called "daddy" at work to make sure he was good with that decision too.  He came home right away and babied Ashton a bit more, and decided he seemed normal enough because he kept asking about what football game was on tomorrow night. 

I am happy to say that he woke up this morning with only signs of a bruise, and the big golf ball size bump seemed to have vanished.

We do have family pictures this Saturday. I wonder if I will need to borrow some of Hannah's makeup to hide the bruise. Our Poor little guy.