Latest and Greatest

Lately we have been soooo busy, but there have been many little things happening around these parts.

Dawson is very into pirates, in particular Jake and the Neverland Pirates.  His potty present was a Jake and the Neverland Pirates chest.  He loved it!

We took Daddy to the Akron Zoo.  They have a new grizzly ridge exhibit open, and we got to experience it together.  Although Dawson still loved the train the best!  Unfortunately the train is at the very back of the zoo and we have to hear him complain the ENTIRE TIME.  

Meme sent the kids a box of "treasures" including her very own wedding veil.  We've had quite a few weddings recently.  Also, Ava got another hair cut!  It keeps inching shorter and shorter, but I think it makes her look older.  Mike and I are pleased because it is so much easier to keep clean and brush.

Weird Story:  We were outside playing in the backyard and I see Carter had a mosquito bite on his forehead.  We go to bed and the next morning I notice it looks a little raised.  As the day goes on it got bigger and bigger.  Finally around three o'clock I look at it and realize wow, that has swollen up to the size of a softball.  Off to the doctors we go.  You can see it a little in this picture, he looks vaguely like a character from Avatar.  After a little Claritin he is back to normal. 

Also HOORAY CARTER!  He scored his very first goal in soccer this week.

This kid was at the very top of Mike and I's list this week.  Tuesday night I went to bed a little later than normal around midnight.  Around two I hear Dawson's bedroom door open.  I go to check on him and he tells me "it's getting darker and darker."  We turn on some lights and I think I get him settled.  Anyways, this kid ends up being awake for over two hours!  He was in our bed poking and tickling, I tried rubbing his back in his bed, Mike took a turn and this kid just wouldn't sleep.  It was so bizarre!  I've never had anyone do this, he was happy and just wanted to be awake.  If you look in the above picture you can see he eventually fell asleep on the floor at the entrance to his bedroom.  Needless to say I did not get up to work out that morning!  Now we have put a baby latch on his door so once it is closed he cannot get out.  So far, so good and we have had a normal night of sleep since then.  These crazy kids, you never know what they are going to throw at you next!  

Tiny Tracks - Touch a Truck

Yesterday our tiny tracks class had a touch a truck.  The kids had a ball!  It was so nice because it hasn't been as easy to find this sort of thing in this area, and I knew that Dawson would love it!

The first thing he found in the fire truck was the flashlights.

The firemen were so nice and let us do things we had never done before.  See the picture on the screen?  That is Dawson's heart beat!  Picture credit:  Ava Shadle

Dawson had such a great time despite pulling a yellow lever and detaching the air tanks and trying to jump out of the fire trucks.  I guesstimate that a fire truck is close to seven feet off the ground?  He seriously tried to jump!  Luckily there was a fireman there to catch him.  A couple minutes later a fireman said "He's the alpha male, isn't he?"  It takes one to know one and he had Dawson pegged in about a minute flat!

In the back of the police cruiser

Our Tiny Tracks class in front of the fire truck.

Carter, Ava and Dawson in front of the fire truck

They also let the kids put on the head phones and talk to each other on the microphones.  That was their favorite!

Goodyear tires Mom!

What a fun morning!  There were fire trucks, police cars, tractors, snow plow and an ambulance.  Our littest one was in truck heaven!

Pittsburgh Trip - Part 2

Sunday we spent the day with Uncle Michael, Aunt Colleen, Annie, Sara, Emma, Katie, Josh, Emme and Megan.  We went to downtown Pittsburgh for a little sight-seeing.

And of course a dip in the fountains at PPG plaza.  The kids had a ball running around the fountains with their cousins.  The water would shoot up high and low, and they thought it was so much fun.  The statue behind them is called the tomb of the unknown bowler {according to Uncle Mike}.  

Dawson got chilly chilly chilly.  But cousin Megan warmed him up.

Then it was off to Market square for a little lunch and some pigeon feeding.  Dawson focused on catching them.  He would dive and run after them, he was really close to catching one.  Carter thought he was the pigeon whisperer.  He would croutch down low, whispering to the pigeons, trying to get them to come into his hand.  None of the pigeons took him up on it though.

We took a little walk and Emme and Ava held hands the entire way.  It was very sweet.  Thankfully we had lots of older cousins there to help carry tired feet.  Thanks Sara and Emma!

We also visited Point State Park, where the Allegheny and Monogahalea Rivers come together to form the Ohio.  I'd love to go back and kayak it one day with Mike!  Point of fact: you are permitted to dip your toes in the fountain but not to walk in it.  Don't ask me how we know that.

The boys taking in the scenic view of Heinz Field.  Ava happened to be in the restroom at the time or I would have taken her picture too.  I told Carter to say "Go Steelers!" and he did.  Laughingly I said "your Dad isn't going to be happy about that."  Carter replied "But I like them both."  Don't worry buddy I understand.

Then we capped off the perfect day with a dip in the pool.  Carter and Ava were jumping in together holding hands over and over.

Finally some monster high makeup, inspiration from Riley and courtesy of cousin Megan.  As you can see we had a great time, even without Mike there were so many hands from older cousins that everything went really smoothly.

Pittsburgh Trip - Part 1

We spent a long weekend in Pittsburgh with Meme and Riley, unfortunately Daddy had to work but he did a great job fixing the shelves in our garage.  We all had a blast, and let me tell you they were soooooooo spoiled!  Friday night we had a pool party at Aunt Margaret's house with tons of cousins.  I took many pictures from this weekend and I was debating on writing out the genealogy for the Chester side of the family because it's so obnoxiously long.  But we did it for the other sides of the family, so here it goes:

Your great grandparents are Alice Jean Chester and the late William Chester.  They had eleven children:

• Aunt Carol - She has two daughters: Rebecca married to Chris and they have six daughers:  Katie, Beth, Claire, Abby, Lucy and Ruth.  Rachel is married to Josh.
• Aunt Uncle Kevin is married to Aunt Sally.  Their oldest daughter Kelli is married to Mike and they have a daugher Clara.  Their middle daugher Katie is married to Josh and they have a daughter Emily and one on the way.  They have a younger daugher named Erin.
• Then Meme, you know this part of the family!
• Aunt Janet is married to Uncle Coke {Tom} and they have two children Mary Beth and Tommy.
• Uncle Billy is married to Aunt Kim and they have three children:  Billy, Kasey and Maura.
• Aunt Patty has two children Bridget and Adam.
• Uncle Jim is married to Aunt Jodi and he has a daugher Amanda.
• Uncle Michael is married to Aunt Colleen and they have three daughers Annie, Emma and Sara.
• Aunt Jeanne has one daugher Erin.  Erin has three children: Ben, Hannah and Leah.
• Aunt Margaret is married to Uncle Bobby and they have four children:  Matt, Ryan, Robbie and Megan.
• Aunt Rachel is married to Uncle Ron and they have three children:  Ronnie {married to Liz and two children James and Olivia} Richie and    Ryan. 

Whew!  That's a mouthful!  But now when you look back at these pictures you will have a little idea of how everyone is related!

So anyways, friday night we had a pool party.  Afterwards we sat in the backyard with s'mores and 

Watched the Wizard of Oz on an outdoor screen.  I was so exhausted this night from getting up at five that I went to bed at 10 with Dawson while Meme watched they other two and put them to bed at close to midnight!

The next morning we woke up to facials.

The next morning Dawson was yelling at Megan "I VANT A FACIAL!"

He was a fan.

The boys were loved the cap guns from their older cousins.

Saturday evening we went to a family get together at Uncle Michael's house.  Dawson fell in love with Uncle Michael and I think it was mutual.  They played cars, reach for the moon and don't drop the baby.  When we went to leave that evening Uncle Michael gifted him with a flashlight.  He's been sleeping with it ever since!  The whole evening when Uncle Michael would leave his sight he would yell "WHERE'S DAT MAN?"

Ava loved playing with girls, girls and more girls.  Carter and Dawson were the only boys under the age of 13.  She had her hair put into a lovely braid during beauty parlor.

Swinging on the swings:  Carter, Lucy, Ava on Sara's lap, Emily, Abby and Ruth

More cousins!  Carter, Emma, Emily, Sara, Ava and Annie

Then of course our daredevil had to go and do this:

It was so nice to spend a long weekend because I feel like our little ones got plenty of time to play and get to know their cousins and first cousins once removed.  More pictures to come!

Our Week with Riley

When we returned from Miami we came heavy one awesome little girl - Riley.  We spent a week with her at our house, and I must say I felt so spoiled with her around.  She was such a huge help to me!  

One day we drove up to Pymatuning to spend the day with our other Shadle cousins.  Although technically they are Mike's cousins.  In the picture is Carter, Andrew, Ava, Jordan, Tanner, Alyssa, Dawson and Riley.  Little Ethan {who is two weeks younger than Andrew} was taking a nap during this picture, but he was there!

A little background for my kiddos:

Tanner, Jordan, Alyssa and Ethan are the children of Nikki and Todd.  Todd is Bo's brother.

We also took Miss Riley to the Akron zoo for a fun morning.

Her favorite animal was the jaguar.  Can you see him lying underneath the little structure?  She also loved this poncho.  It belonged to Ava, but she has always refused to wear it.  Riley took a shining to it, and would walk around saying "this makes everything fashionable!"  I swear she wore it for three days straight!

Ava and Riley penguin

Riley also went to summer camp with Carter, spent some time with Aunt Pam and Aunt Lee and hung out at the pool too.  We really enjoyed our time with her, she is becoming such a wonderful young lady!

Florida Vacation - Silly Sleepers

While we were in Florida we kept the kids busy all day long.  On the way home from our excursions the kids generally fell asleep in the car and it was funny to watch all the crazy things, Ava in particular, did in her sleep.  So Mike requested a silly sleepers post and here it is!

Ava fell asleep with a plastic snake in her mouth.

He was so exhausted he couldn't even keep his head up.

On this particular day Dawson was so tired, see the red blurry eyes?  But instead of sleeping he sat and had a conversation with each one of his individual toes.

While Carter and Ava passed out.  This was after our seven hour trip to the beach and the only day that Carter fell asleep {except for the long drives where I told everyone to sleep for awhile.}

This picture was taken on the trip home.  Look carefully at Ava's face, she fell asleep poking herself in the eye with her finger.

We have Ava sleeping with a pinky hat.

And sleeping with a pinky mask.  

Now, Dawson isn't sleeping in this video, but I wanted to include it because it didn't have any other logical place to be.  In a moment of desperation to buy us a few more minutes of happy drive time, we allowed the kids to pick out a peice of candy.  I know, this is unusual for us, but we were on vacation!  Dawson picked out this baby bottle looking candy.  Mike and I obviously did not check it hard enough because we turn around and see this: 

Dawson covered head to toes in sticky powdered sugar.  Very disgusting and we are traveling this day so there was no where to clean him up until we arrived at our hotel.  He will NEVER be having this candy again!

Two Year Old Terror

Yesterday was one of those epic-ly terrible horrible no good very bad days, all caused by our very own two year old terror.  I'm quickly realizing that I've got to watch him like a hawk and that high counters that I believed were safe are fair game due to his outstanding climbing abilities.  So here are the troubles that our very own two year old terror caused only yesterday:

• In the morning he used his outstanding climbing abilities to retrieve one of Carter's two working/current epi-pens and he managed to discharge it.  Luckily no one was hurt in this incident, but it obviously scared me.  Plus the fact that we are now going to have to go and pay $250 for another set of epi-pens dosen't make me too happy either.  We had placed it on the counter that is between the sink and the kitchen table because we had a baby-sitter the prior night and needed it to be accessible.  This counter which stands as high as my chest, which clearly should be safe from a two year old, but wasn't.
• Next we went to the pool where he screamed and cried and refused to wear a puddle jumper.  I was in the pool and turned my back to look at Ava when he jumped into the pool and promptly sank to the bottom.  I immediately grabbed him expecting him to come up a sobbing crying mess.  Instead he came up laughing "I like dat da best.  I walk on the bottom Mommy!"  Seriously Kid!  That's called Drowning!
• This week we have been hitting the potty training pretty hard, and he is doing well with number one, but not number two.  Today he created a potty accident which far surpasses anything I have ever seen.  I had to give him a bath, disinfect the entire bathroom and tile floor in the entryway and find a way to disinfect carpeted steps.  This total clean up took me about two hours.
• Finally bed time.  The moment I had been looking forward to all day.  As Daddy is reading him a story he takes a bite out of his shoulder that leaves teeth marks and draws blood.  Ok, we are done with you, good night!

Please say a prayer for my terror!  I really hope his daredevil ways don't cause any permanent damage!