Summer Bucket List

I'm a lister. It shouldn't come as a shock. I have spent a couple of years in MOPS and at the end of each year, they have encouraged us to make a Summer Bucket List of things that we want to do throughout the summer because sometimes, if we don't have a visual or write it down, it just doesn't happen.

Summer itself is just so lovely and care free. Saturdays at the Farmer's Market, yes please. Throw some burgers on the grill, grab a cold one and play t-ball, done. I could spend any given day at a park, at the pool or outside on a blanket with a stack of Tyson's books and a popsicle. However, here is our wish list of things that take a little more planning:

• Strawberry Picking
• Blank Park Zoo
• Backbone State Park
• Adventure Land Trip with Friends
• An adults only dinner under the lights in our backyard (I think of fantasy Braverman meals but we'll have card tables and paper plates)
• A rainy night campout in the living room
• A day long Sunday Funday for Tyson and friends (water balloons, sprinklers, bubbles) 
• Biking - now that we have everything we need and after 4 years, Ryan and I both have usable bikes
• Movies Under the Moon (Toy Story, Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs, The American Tale, Brave)
• St. Louis Cardinals Baseball Game with Tyson
• Sunrise Picnic
• My Waterloo Days Hot Air Balloon Rally (June 12-15)

Here are some of the favorites from last year that we will be hitting up again: 

• Lost Island Waterpark where kids 3 and under are free and we go to get our feet wet. I got the season pass last year and it was such a good deal - we would go there a few times a week sometimes for an hour, other times for 3-4. There is so much for Tyson to do that it is certainly a must-do while it is so reasonable and close! 
• Cedar Valley Arboretum is our favorite play date during the summer months, the worlds largest sandbox, ha - kidding but it is big. It is full of fun activities for the kids to experiment with. 
• Our absolute favorite frozen treats! 
• Outdoor live music - when and where ever we can find it. 
• On a week day, we will go to the Splash Pad. On a weekend, we'll probably pass. :)
• On a super hot day, we will sneak into the ac at the Youth Pavillion

The Fountain Hills Times

We just got back from Arizona. My parents gave me a plane ticket (including one for my Mom, thank goodness and Tyson, well he was a couple of weeks away from not being a lap child so it was his last free ride) for my birthday to see Derek and Jamee. It was such a good time. Obviously, we love any and all time that we get with our family but Tyson was so in love with airplanes, being outside and their new puppy, Ace that it was especially fun.

We spent a couple of days in the pool which confirms that Tyson still loves the water. I always wondered after a break from our pool time last year, how he would come around this year. Turns out, nothing has changed with the exception of an improved arm.

On the Saturday night that we were there, Jamee packed up a yummy little picnic and we went to the Fountain to watch the outdoor movie, "Frozen" with Angie, the boys and Uncle Ken. Tyson had never seen the movie but our play dates with little girls have made him well aware of the song "Let it Go". He loved it. It's tempting to see how he would do in a movie theater. Tempting. And for the record, no, it really doesn't get more beautiful than this city's fountain at sunset with mountains in the background. 

On the way back, our flight was delayed a night due to a pilot no show. As much as I hated the airport process, with a toddler, two days in a row, we got to spend a lovely night at Greyhawk, with live music and this... 

And this...

And a little more of this...

Tyson's last free flight was a memorable one as he slept the entire way home. Thanks buddy, mama needed that. We could not have asked for a better trip. Tyson couldn't ask for better quality time with his aunt and uncle and we couldn't have asked for a better time to come home to Central Time and of course, our Ryan. 

Tyson's First Birthday Party

What a couple of weeks it has been! We had some serious celebration around Tyson's first birthday. We were blessed and surrounded by amazing friends and family, love and cold weather (yep, that last one kind of stunk but we went with it). I love planning parties but I am 100% horrible at capturing details and they were a little off due to said chilly weather (snow in May, come on Mother Nature). Anyway, here are a few of the details that I recall and a few photos from the day.

Tyson loves taco or everything that makes up tacos so it was only fitting that we had Tyson's Taco Bar complete with all of the fixings from queso fresco and guacamole to cilantro and limes. We dug into Scratch cupcakes - Oh, Happy Day (obviously) and then cuddled in the garage to watch a few movies (the Lorax and Despicable Me).

15 takes and this is what we get. Life with a busy little dude.

Grandma & Grandpa Shaw

Grandma & Grandpa Bohlen - Thanks for hosting the party!

Um, I am going to take a moment to say I have the best sister in the world. She took care of everything before I even thought about it. While I was running around with my head cut off, she was silently replenishing the table of food, cleaning up, snapping pictures (which is why you have this post). Seriously, she is one lovely lady, a silent server and the most down to earth girl I know. We love Auntie Jamee. And Derek, our I.T. man is pretty cool, too.

 

 

Wait for it! One of my favorite pictures of the year!

Check out the ham in this picture - ha!

He loves tractors, dinosaurs and all things that he can drag around the house with him.

I'll take a bite of that. Happy First Birthday Buddy!

Thanks again for everyone who loved on us with our first baby this year! We have felt incredibly blessed to be Tyson's parents. There are nights days that can be long and trying, there are difficult things that we have to do as parents, there are more laughs than we can count and is more joy in our life than we could have asked for. 

XOXO
Ryan & Ashley

The One with the Funny Valentine

Can you tell I have been on a Friends kick? If not, you may want to pass on the invitation to participate on my Friends trivia team but I still love ya! Ha. Speaking of love, did our munchkin have a fun first Valentine or what?!? Last week was a busy one around here. We chose a theme for the week - dinner with friends. A good one to have, eh? Literally, Wednesday night was the only night we had nothing planned but that still consisted of groceries, making dinner and Ryan playing hockey.  Prepare yourself, I know I am biased but this post has cute baby all over it! As soon as the New Year celebration was over, I picked out some of Tys' cutest red outfits (and toys and any books that say love, kisses or hugs) and he sported them for the last month.

On Valentine's Day, we whipped up some cookies, attended MOPS and made some deliveries. It was a blast! These little holidays are just too fun with kids. Tyson got a special package in the mail from Aunt Jamee and Uncle Derek - a garbage truck! He loves it. If he throws a fit, we just push the little buttons that makes the reverse alert and what do you know, he is a happy kid again. The funny thing is all of the tissue paper in the box entertained for days, bonus! Tys also made out with treats, a sweet outfit and a John Deere (awesome) hoody from Grandma & Grandpa Shaw AND a new ball, dinosaur and outfit from Grandma & Grandpa Bohlen. Yes, this child is loved.

 

 

For several years, we have spent Valentine's night with our friends. Before the kids, we just thought it was a fun night to go to a great restaurant together. Well, this year we have the addition of four beautiful kiddos so we had our nice dinner at Matt & Amy's house. The food was yummy and mostly  prepared by our handsome husbands. I couldn't ask for a better end to our day.

XOXO
the Shaw Fam

Celebrate good times...

Come on, you know the rest. Seriously. Don't make me sing it. Holidays are so much more fun with kiddos and my kiddo doesn't even know what is going on yet. I don't care, I love it. I didn't do a great job of posting about our Christmas but we had a blast! So many firsts. We took Tyson to visit Santa (he didn't care about that). We dressed him in the cutest, jolliest outfits (didn't care about that either). And started a few tradtions with our little family. We are crossing our fingers that he will always get this much satisfaction out of tissue paper, not to mention, just being with the ones we love.

We were able to spend a good chunk of time with Derek and Jamee as they were home. Tyson totally hates any attention he receives from his Aunt and Uncle (please note the sarcasim). We had Christmas with our Bohlen fam. We cracked crab legs, played games (primarily Blockus and Derek primarily lost), laughed a lot and just enjoyed the time together. Grandma and Grandpa got Tyson a sweet sled that he loves. Although we have only taken those wheels out in the snow once, it gets plenty of miles inside the house. Who needs a playyard when you have a sled?

We had our own family Christmas on Christmas morning. Tyson was in love with the tissue paper but now we see the benifits of our carefully selected presents for him. The Zany Zoo and Sippy Cups were the biggest hits! We then traveled over to our Shaw family festivities on Christmas day. We enjoyed time with the extended family and then time with Grandma, Grandpa, Ian and Adrian afterwards. Tyson scored the cutest little monster mittens and plenty of snuggles!

We had an amazing first Christmas. I can't help but to think how much fun each added year is. As I said, I just love holidays with a little one. Any smalliday is just too much fun to ignore. Now that the Christmas/New Year hustle and bustle is over, I get to work on Valentine's, Easter fun and of course, a first birthday party. Yay!

Simply overwhelmed...by love

I can't help but to swirl around and be amazed by our blessings. I've got an incredible spouse, a cozy (and festive!) house, an amazing family, incredible friends... This time of year, I am reminded how different God's plan for us is yet it is far better than we could ever plan or even dream ourselves. I love the reminder that God works in the small things as well as the large. Mary giving birth to her son probably wasn't how she had always imagined it would be - in a situation that was not exactly socially acceptable, in a strange land, giving birth in a stable and laying that newborn child in a manager. Nevertheless, it held blessings far beyond her expectations.

For us this year, I am constantly reminded of how God is working. I can't be more thankful that He is in control and we aren't. I wake up every day so blessed that we are pregnant with a healthy baby. One day closer to meeting the little one. Yes, it took 16 months on the rollercoaster of trying to conceive. It is funny, the more we talk to people about some of the problems we were experiencing, the more we run into people who have similar stories. The road to parenthood can be a hard one, unfortunately it's not uncommon.

In May 2011, we found out we were pregnant which ended in a miscarriage. Our baby never grew past four weeks. This was another difficulty and a part of our plan that we just didn't understand. Just when we thought our prayers had been answered, God took us down yet another road. We had so many questions and faced a multitude of feelings - luckily, Ryan is such an amazing man. I can say through our entire journey to parenthood - our relationship has never been better (see - we couldn't have planned that!). As we (our doctors) dug a little deeper into why this was happening or what was going on, we found that I had hydrosalpinx (a tube that was blocked due to fluid). This isn't a problem if you get pregnant but can be a problem that prevents you from getting pregnant in the first place. Well, there was one answer for us! The doctor told us to wait a bit before we start trying again but to see if we can make it work without medical intervention on the tube. Sure enough, the first month we could try we found out we were pregnant again!

He knows what our hearts really need and when they really need it. It took us a while to admit that we are pregnant and to talk about it openly - believe us we wanted to scream it from the mountain but we were very protective. We can't believe we are just over the halfway hump and we couldn't be more excited to meet this little bean that God has prepared our hearts for. This Christmas, we are surrounded by love. We need nothing more.

We wish you all a wonderful Christmas, ask that you count your blessings and keep them close to you, and hope that you bust out the cake, candles, party hats, song and dance in celebration of the birth Jesus!

XOXO
The Four of Us
Ryan, Ashley, Myles and Baby

Leaving Las Vegas

Sorry, it's been a while since the last update. I realized I haven't posted about our trip. The last weekend of April we met Amy, Andrew, Angie, Derek and Jamee in Las Vegas!! Ah, we had a blast in Vegas. I want to go back. I can't stop smiling when I think about it. Lots of love and laughs.

The night we flew in, we stopped by the Price Room which happen to be cleverly stocked with all the goods you would need for Vegas - yummy snacks, yummy drinks and the sweetest hosts you can imagine. We then took a brief tour of our surroundings and hit up a fun, little Irish pub. Along the way, Andrew gave me a challenge, he was under the impression that everyone knows the phrase, "cash is king". I set out to prove him wrong, a few of my favorite answers for your entertainment: cash is - green?, dinero, AWESOME.


Friday Angie joined us! We enjoyed a little time by the pool, played sand volleyball and had a mouthwatering dinner at Fix. The ladies stopped in The Bank for a quick free drink, ha. Truth is we just wanted to ride a special escalator into the place. We then hit up Pure for a few cocktails and a view of the strip.

On our last and final day (before traveling back - I never count the travel day as our last day), we explored the city. This was Ryan's first trip to Vegas so we went in most (you can't see it all in a day) of the must-sees. We decided on our next trip to Vegas, we want to stay at Aria - we loved the vibe.

We had a few late nights and more walking then we imagined(in not the best choice of shoes - Angie was the only smart one there) but came back refreshed. Nothing like a little family time to get you out of the routine.

On our way home, Ryan and I both thought we are pretty blessed. We both love to travel. As much as we love Iowa, we knew when we 'settled down' here, we both wanted to ensure that traveling is a good part of our lives. In the past 6 months we have gone to Flordia, Mexico, Atlanta (Ash), Vegas and Kansas City (Ry). That's a lot of traveling for these two peeps who have two very happy faces.

Enjoy the pics!

Photo and video editing at www.OneTrueMedia.com

XoxO

April Showers Won't Ruin Our Parade

Despite the rainy days of April, we are enjoying the days of Spring. Here is a peak into our lives as of late:

The weekend of the 16th, we QUASHed. QUASH is a scavenger hunt around UNI's Campus and the hill where teams of two to four compete in physical and mental challenges. All of the fun and funds raise go towards a good cause, the ALZ (or properly branded since I am the PR person - the Alzheimer's Association). Ryan participated with Emily and Blake as an Indiana Jones themed team, QUASHers of the Lost Ark.

This year the QUASHing was more outrageous than ever. The proof of these shenanigans is in the pictures. (Here is a fun fact for you, I chose the song because of its name - Burrito Polka, okay, continue..)

Make an on-line slide show at www.OneTrueMedia.com

The following week (which was just last week - seems like much longer than that) was my birthday week! Ha, not that I actually need a birthday week but I do get to celebrate with friends and family all week long. Ryan spoiled me with flowers, dinner and an afternoon off to just be graced by his presence. =) I loved it, quite a nice way to ring in the big 2-8.



The weekend was filled with a trip to Des Moines to celebrate Landon's 1st Birthday (one day after mine - pretty cool little man if you ask me). We also celebrated Easter with our church and families. All and all, I'd say April has been pretty good to us.

AND it's going out with a bang - VEGAS, that is. Tomorrow we ship out to the West to enjoy some sun and time with Angie, Amy, Andrew, Derek and Jamee. I am so excited!

Much love and hope of sun in the near future!

:::more holiday hoopla:::

What a whirlwind of Christmas, New Year's, Birthdays and Weddings. Needless to say, life is good. We especially love this time of year as we celebrate our relationships with family and friends. I honestly don't know where the last 3 weeks went. It has been a month of celebrations! Go ahead and enjoy a few photos from our recent activities.

Make an on-line slideshow at www.OneTrueMedia.com

As for the New Year, Ryan and I have never been big on 'resolutions', we both like the idea of learning and growing BUT it never hurts to make a few goals. So serious or not, here are some of our hopes for 2011!

-Improve our fitness
-Increase our creative jive
-Travel (we already do this but we love it)
-Take dance lessons
-Read books together
-Ryan would like to teach me the ins and outs of hockey in hopes I will appreciate the game
- More yoga
- Begin our midwest baseball tour
- Get outside of our comfort zone
- Complete a handful of indoor/outdoor projects around the house (including the lawn in our backyard - it's sad)
- To be better listeners when our hearts are quiet

Happy New Year to you!
"It matters not the number of years in your life. It is the life in your years." Abraham Lincoln