Road trip, Museums and randomness.....

WARNING, LOTS OF PICS!
What I normally wake up too when I open Aspen's door to her room in the morning. She doesn't know how to get out so she just plays while she lets me sleep until she's done with playing then I hear knocking on the door to let her out. It cracks me up.

After eating lunch one day.

Temple Square

Nice shot of the temple. It was a bit cool but perfect for pics.

Dylan and Aspen on Temple Sqaure

Aspen and her cousins eating popcorn. Aspen had the best time waking up to a house full of kids to play with. I felt bad for her when she had to come home to just Dylan and I. Soon enough she will have someone to wake up to and play with. Only 6 more months.

Aspen sleeping soundly on the air mattress where Dylan was supposed to be sleeping...

Dylan sleeping on the toddler mattress where Aspen was supposed to be sleeping. So funny story...We drove literally all night to Utah. We got in at 3:30 am and Dylan had almost hit the 24 hour mark for how long he had been up. Aspen slept for 5 hours in the car and once we arrived at Danielle's she woke up and was crying. I was tired and my sweet husband told me to go to bed because I'm pregnant. He had lots of patience with Aspen and finally got her calmed down but she kept giving him these huge smiles and touching his face while lying down like she was ready to get up and go for the day. Dylan finally came to bed. Aspen sleeps with her Cookie Monster who sings Old McDonald and talking Elmo. Well all of the sudden we hear (think about Cookie Monsters voice), "Old McDonald." So I think, oh she must of just rolled over on it and it went off. Then soon after we hear, "Old McDonald had a farm, Old McDonald, Old McDonald, Cow a bunga, Moo." Yeah get the point, so I look down at the mattress and I see her dark shadow sitting up playing with her Cookie Monster at 4:30 am. Needless to say it didn't last long, Dylan took the toy away and put her in bed with me and went over to her bed to try to fit in a couple hours of sleep before the day began.

Aspen all packed in and ready to go on her first 8 hour road trip. Which she did awesome by the way. But I have to say thanks to Andrea for letting us borrow her portable DVD player. I will definitely be investing in one of those in the future.

Free day at the Children's Museum. Every 1st Tuesday of the month from 4-8 pm. Aspen playing receptionist for a veterinarian.

Very concentrated on her work and my niece, Lexi, looking for something.

My niece, McKenna and nephew, Wes scoping out the x-rays.

Wes getting ready to give an animal a shot and Aspen observing so she knows what to do when the she has to do it.

Checking the puppies heart rate.

I'm not sure what Lexi and McKenna are doing but whatever it is it has their full attention. Good thing. The dogs are in good hands.

The famous grocery store. Aspen helping another little boy shop. She didn't care who's cart she was throwing food into as long as there was a cart she was throwing food in it.

She finally got her own cart. She must have been trying to save money because the other cart she was throwing food into had a ton more. Until 2 seconds later some other kid totally stole it away from her.

Aspen in a cage

Aspen was absolutely terrified of this dinosaur man. Dylan went up to it and had his head in the mouth and Aspen started crying for her daddy. Such concern. Dylan would start walking towards it and she would yell out, NO! It was hilarious. Aspen is scared of so many things.

I love her face in this pic. Are you frightened by the mummy behind you?

Here's another animal she turned her head twice to make sure it wasn't following her. She did not like the creature she was looking at.

The creature that freaked her out. I don't blame her. It is kind of scary looking.

Aspen looking at Dylan for information. Okay not really but that's what it looks like.

More dinosaur bones. Aspen found them fascinating when they stood still unlike the one that had a man controlling the bone body structure of a t-rex

So that is what we have been up too as of late. We went to the Museum of Nature and Science for free as well. I will definitely be looking up the free days there next year. We were kind of rushed because we waited for Dylan to get off of work but it was fun. I love taking Aspen to all of these places that I grew up going too. It makes it so much fun. For the free days just google free days in Denver and it will tell what days are free for the Art Museum, Museum of Nature and Science, Botanical Gardens, and Zoo. Free days are the best, especially how tight things have been for many.

Zombie child...

So last night poor Aspen fell out of her bed again. She of coarse started to cry so I got up to see how she was and when I got into her room she had stood up and started running back and forth in her room while crying. I picked her up and sat on her bed to calm her down and by my surprise she crawled out of my arms over to her pillow and laid down. Now normally she would be wide awake and not let me put her back in bed without screaming. But she was silent. I covered her back up and left the room to go back to bed and didn't hear a peep out of her. I think she was freaked out and that is why she ran back and forth in her bedroom. I have to admit it was sad yet really funny at the same time to see that.

Halloween Bash with the Fam...

I had to put this picture on of Aspen. Dylan brought this lovely wig over and everyone enjoyed trying it on as you will see as you look at the pics.

Halloween is my mom's favorite holiday and likes to have a party and make fun food for the grand kids. I made these lovely mouths with the tongues sticking out.

My aunt brought the guacamole with the fingers and ghost chips. Yummy.

Here's some of the other food. We had cookies and brownies, lots of sweets. Aspen took advantage of all of those. Every time I turned around she had a something sweet in her mouth.

My grandma made the jello leaves and pumpkins.

Here's my aunt, uncle, and cousin enjoying the baby while the others are starting their pumpkin contest. My aunt made hers before. She didn't realize that we were going to carve them that night.

Aspen eating one of many brownies. This was the second one I saw her eating.
She just helped herself. Who knows what else she ate when I was paying attention.

Dylan had an afro that he brought over and so everyone enjoyed trying it on, even my grandpa.

Dylan and Melissa prepping their pumpkins

Everyone working hard on their pumpkins.

My aunts pumpkin that she did before she got there. We have a picture of Cassie and she has a bunch of sea weed on her head so this was the look she was going for.

The finished products. Looking good.

The carvers

The babies. Brecken and Cache enjoying a nice nap.

Some of the grandchildren. Cache was already strapped in his car seat.

Aspen wearing my mom's witch hat.

Dylan and Aspen with their lovely wigs. That's my good looking family.

We had a lot of fun. My mom made burritos with green chili for the main coarse and they were delicious. We had a slime drink with a gummy worm in it. Yum. It was good until you got to the big chunks of jello in there, then it really tasted slimy. Everyone had fun carving the pumpkins and McKenna and Melissa won with their witch pumpkin. I think there was a little convincing there. Although there were 4 grandparent's there so there you go. All in all, it was a fun Halloween bash!

Happy Birthday Aspen!!!

So we celebrated Aspen's 2nd birthday yesterday and it went way better than her 1st one, thank goodness. We had her party at my parent's house which was a blessing, being that we had 37 people there. We don't do anything small. Between family and friends it gets a little crowded. My mom made Aspen a Nemo cut out cake that turned out way cute and then we had cup cakes for the bubbles. Aspen thoroughly enjoyed getting special treatment all day. This day couldn't of come faster for Dylan and I because we had some exciting news to share with everyone.....BABY #2 IS ON THE WAY! So we got Aspen a shirt that read "big sisters are the coolest" to announce our exciting news. It was priceless to see everyone's reaction. At first it was silent and I don't know that everyone got it at first. They all asked if I was pregnant just to make sure they were understanding it completely. It was a wonderful day to share with our precious little girl!!! And we are excited to expand our family and give Aspen a sibling to play with. We love you Aspen!!! We are so blessed to have you as our daughter and we hope that you will be as excited as we are to add to our family. You will finally have a play mate! HAPPY BIRTHDAY SWEET GIRL!!!

Big girl bed

So the other day I decided we should transfer Aspen out of her crib and into a twin size bed. I mean she is going to be 2 on Sunday. Although Aspen would have been fine with staying in her crib. As we made this move of across the room, the first couple of nights she cried when we put her to bed but then we got her stuffed Pluto, her snail pillow and her blanket that she slept with and it made it a little more comfortable. I was worried about a couple of things though, her falling out of the bed, and her waking up early and waking me up earlier. If you know me I sleep until 9 in the morning and Aspen would just play in her crib. So I was a bit spoiled and I have to say I am still spoiled. She's been in her bed for a week now and every morning I hear her get up and think ok she's going to come and wake me up but she doesn't to my surprise. She stays on the bed and plays with her Pluto until I get up and get her out of bed. I guess you say it's habit which I'm fine with. One day she will figure out that she doesn't have to wait for either Dylan or I to walk into her room to get her out of bed, that she can do it herself. Until then though I will still enjoy being spoiled and sleep in. As for her falling out of bed, she did fall out one night. We put pillows on the floor so it's a softer landing but she did not like it. She screamed and Dylan went in there and when she wakes up it takes her a long time to go back to sleep. So Dylan laid with her in her bed for about 2 hours that night, her wide awake and Dylan trying to sleep until Aspen started kicking Dylan in the face. That was when he had had enough and came back to bed. She cried for a good 10 minutes and then fell asleep. So all in all, it's been a successful transfer across the room to her new bed.

My little helper

We went over to my in laws to help Jeanne with a venetian wall in her home. The girls watched us and wanted to join in on the fun after we done but we didn't want them touching the wet wall so we told them to act like they were painting on the door. They totally had the technique down. It was cute.

One day Aspen was having one of those days so I decided to keep her busy and try making cookies with her. She thought it was great. I was patting the bowl to get all of the flower off on the sides and so Aspen copied me as you can see in the picture above. She is a very good copier! I will definitely do this again. And then to make the night even better I had her help me unload the dishwasher with me. It was more enjoyable with her helping me and she got a kick out of it. Teaching her young, that's all I have to say!

And then the best part about making cookies (I think) is "tasting" the cookie dough to make sure it tastes alright, if you know what I mean. Aspen thoroughly enjoyed that. It was like a big sucker but better. Andes mints chocolate chip cookie dough. Mmmmmm.

I was putting up all of my fall/halloween decorations and Aspen jumped right into that as well. Before I took the picture I was on the chair hanging the lights and she climbed up with me. She is all about doing what mommy does.

Fun day with the family...

So we went to EB Rains today and ate at the park as if we were having a picnic. We had the geese that were begging for food. It was quite hilarious. So Dylan ran to the store and bought some bread to feed the geese and ducks. Aspen just about had a heartattack at first, which I don't really blame her, the geese started to flap their wings and snap at eachother for the bread. So Dylan held her most of the time. She liked throwing the bread to the birds after that. Then Aspen spent a little bit of time on the playground and in the swing. All in all, it was a fun day and so nice out.

Aspen in the swing. One of her favorite things at the park to do. It's so relaxing.

Dylan and Aspen feeding the geese and ducks

Aspen and I hanging out while Dylan went to the store to get bread.

The geese wanting some of Aspen's delicious peanut butter and jelly sandwich and fries. Aspen did throw some fries at them before we had bread and thought that was great.

Aspen looking at the geese.

The geese Aspen was looking at.