Car Seat Coolers

Living in Arizona in the summer time requires a bit more out of a mom. For one thing it can be tough to avoid heat rash. To help, I have been making car seat coolers. Basically a car seat cooler holds ice packs in your child's seat to keep the seat and the buckles cool. That way, you don't burn your kiddo when you put them back in the car. Here is one I just made for a friend who has a new baby girl.

And it folds up nice and small so it can fit in your freezer!

Jammer's first trim!

Honestly I loved his shaggy look, but Sam convinced me it was time.

Well, that and people started to tell me how pretty my daughter was :-/

I wasn't super into the mohawk look, so I restyled it at home....

Isn't he handsome?

My slippery fish

I signed James up for swimming lessons. The class ages were 6 months to 2 years. It was a steal of a deal at $20 for 2 weeks. The lessons were held at the rec center and who knew there was a fun mini water park that is so close to home? AND it's only $3 per person!! We will definitely be getting season passes next year!

The first day of lessons I quickly noticed all the other kids were on average 2 years old. One mother admitted to me her kiddo was 3 and a half. So while the other kids practiced blowing a ping pong ball across the pool, I focused on making sure James didn't put the ping pong ball in his mouth. We did have fun little games and James loved jumping in (which was really me sitting him on the side of the pool counting to 3 and then flying him in the air and then into the pool). I was getting a decent workout and a decent tan. James did however improve his splashing skills. Now he goes wild in the bath tub soaking almost the entire bathroom.

Today was the last day of lessons and James was so excited to get there. He knew where we were going, I love seeing him flap his arms and kick his legs when he gets excited about something. I am really glad we did it, and I may even try to sign up to do it again for a later summer session.

To Learn

Have you heard of http://www.khanacademy.org/? It's amazing. You can go on and watch tutorials about various math and science subjects and learn, for FREE!! Amazing. I have always wanted to keep my math skills current so I will be able to help my children when needed. Now, there is an easy way to do so! I'm excited.

Cousin Outtakes and other things...

James, doing his Jim Carey impression

Um James, we're cousins, don't hold my hand.

Luke is bored with James' game of 'watch me get my binki with no hands'

Grace's best Courtney Love impression

CC is very helpful in quieting the baby, James is doing his best frog impression

Grace is checking the nutritional facts on the Marshmellows

Luke is preparing to be the next S'More spokes kid

Say S'More!!

Grandpa's 1st S'More, EVER!

Yum!

James just loved grandpa Ducks!

James met Kat for the first time!

And Uncle Richard

And he got his first set of bunny ears

He went to the beach for the first time.

And caught his first wave

And went on his first beach walk

(No idea what I was doing)

And on the walk wanted desperately to roll around in the sand

He spent WAY too much time in his captain's chair

He spilled an enormous glass of water in mama's lap.

And went on a golf cart ride around Friendly Valley.

He decided he had way too many treats while on vay-cay so he has been doing his best to work off the calories. Check out his Push-up position.

Note, he is balancing perfectly on his toes which he says makes for a tougher workout. With those muscles, who is going to argue?

Book Worm

I like to read. I like fiction for leisure. I like informational books, especially if they are relevant to things I am experiencing. I find self help books are tough for me to muddle through so I tend not to even try. Maybe there is a self help for readers who don't like self help books? I like to read religious book, but I get a bit picky about the authors. And pretty much, I will read anything Ambyr recommends to me.

I thought I would share some books that have been particularly helpful to me within the past 2 years:

-"The Fertility Book" by Dr. Richard Marr. While we were "trying" (I hate that term but what else can you call it?) I read this book. It helped me to understand everything I needed to know about fertility. I found this book very empowering. It was informative and helped me to know what I needed to be concerned about and what would be considered normal. It helped me to ask all of the right questions. This book has A LOT of information. I overheard a part of one of Sam's lectures on reproduction the other day and told Sam I could probably ace that section on the boards (I was completely joking, but partially wondering how I would do). One side effect, for better or worse, when I have friends who are "trying" (:-/) I all of the sudden cannot help myself and I become very nosy. Only because I want to help them figure out if there is anything to be concerned about so they can fix it if necessary. I have to give myself a mental face slap to snap myself out of it. If I have done this to you, sorry, know it was out of love.

-"The Womanly Art of Breastfeeding" by La Leche League International. I use it more as a reference book rather than a cover to cover read but it taught me so much about nursing and I love the way they really encourage nursing if at all possible. As mother's know, nursing can be very difficult and it was nice reading this book and feeling like I had enough information to do it.

-"Caring for your Baby and Young Child" by Steve P Shelov (among others). For first time mommy's this book is a must!! It helps you to know everything about caring for a new baby. It makes for an amazing gift as well. Ambyr gave me mine and I use it almost daily. It tells you all of the different milestones. What to expect. What different symptoms could be. Example. James had a rash. I went to my little book and it had photos of various rashes. James had a heat rash so I knew it wasn't anything serious and not worth taking to the pediatrician. Side note: I took him anyway :-/ I mean I am still a first time mom and wanted to be 100% sure.

-"The Read~Aloud Handbook" by Jim Trelease. If you like to read, you should read this book. If you do not like to read I insist that you read this book. It discusses the importance of reading to your children, reading yourself so your children see you reading, and how reading will improve your child's test scores and help them to become a life time reader. Simply put, Reading= Smart. People do not get this and I don't know why. If you read, you will know stuff. Certain people I know pretend to know stuff, but the secret is you can actually know stuff! Just read about it. Getting information from friends, relatives and acquaintances is good and can certainly be helpful but reading about the subject and getting information from various authors and subject matter experts is very informative and will make you smarter. It will also help to improve your grammer and your vocabulary.

-"Atlas Shrugged" by Ayn Rand. This is a political book by a Russian woman who calls her political philosophy Objectivism. I learned a lot from this book and I have to say, it is my favorite book. What I liked about this book is it shows the importance of learning, working, thinking and action.

James wants his recommendations included as well:

"The Very Hungry Caterpillar" By Eric Carle

"Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See?" by Henry Holt

Anything by Sandra Boyton

"Goodnight Moon" by Margaret Wise Brown

(Yes, he is wearing Halloween PJs, don't judge me).

Happy Reading!!

A bit of bad luck

Lately some fishy things have been happening around the Ashby household:

-A few weeks ago Sam kept getting flat tires. The odd part was after he would fill the tire, it would be fine but a few nights later a different tire would be flat.

-One night, Sam left his window cracked a bit and someone threw rocks in his car.

-A week later, someone keyed the driver's side of his car.

-Then someone tried to steal my car! Yeah that's right steal it. Something felt off the second I walked up to the car. Sam had been driving it the night before and the driver's door was unlocked. The rest of the doors were locked. Sam is very conscious about locking doors, I have never seen him leave a door unlocked so right away I knew something was wrong. Then, I got into the drivers seat and the chair was moved forward even more then where I would place it. Sam is 6'7" so it should have been all the way back, where he left it. Then I noticed all of my consul contents were all over the floor. Then I tried to put the key in the ignition and the car was left in the start position. And the battery was dead. Luckily they didn't take it but scary for us.

-The next night someone wrote on the hood of Sam's car in permanent marker.

-The next day James was napping and I heard a loud pop. I looked everywhere but didn't notice anything weird. Then when Jams woke up I looked at the window and saw this:

We're hoping things get back to normal soon...