On our way!

Okay! Christmas with the family has been celebrated as well as Thanksgiving. felicity has been watched. We have packed and repacked our 5 bags at least 3 times. They are now loaded. Carry-ons are ready. Passports on the desk. E-tickets are printed. Good-byes have been said. Ashlyn has taken her last bath. Christmas cards are almost ready. The house has been cleaned. The 'to-do' list is officially all checked off. I think we are ready. Now I am sitting down to relax and watch one more movie with my parents.
I can't believe that tomorrow we head over the ocean to spend the next 6 months in India. There is, of course, a whole mix of emotions that go with this. Mostly excited but also worried about the next four days of traveling with a 10-month-old who doesn't sit still. This includes 24 hours of flight time, 20 hours on the train, and additional 5 hours in a jeep.
Now I am exhausted as I sit down to write one last post before we leave. I know it will be a week till we get settled and have a chance to update.
Farewell Winter Park. See you on the flip side.

Clapping, Climbing and Walking

We had a big week last week. Ashlyn started clapping which is fun whenever you say yay! Then we went down to Colorado Springs for the weekend. We had fun seeing friends and we went to Old Colorado city on Halloween for a little bit. Ashlyn got to borrow a lady bug costume and it was pretty fun. Later that night she got brave and took her first steps. She is getting a little better at it everyday but she still only takes a handful of steps at a time. She did decide, however, that she still likes climbing the bast!!

One Month

The countdown is on! We have one month from today until we leave for India. Where does the time go? It flies...that is why I feel like I have been blogging but it has been a long time since I posted.
Anyway, one month! There are so many feelings that go with that but I think mostly it just feels surreal. Are we really moving to India in a month! I have to really set my head to it and think about and then it hits that we probably have a million things to do before then. I guess the big things are pretty much taken care of but there are all those little things that go along with leaving the country for 6 months. Sometimes I feel a bit overwhelmed.
It is really exciting though after so many years of talking about going overseas it is finally happening. It is hard to leave family and friends at the same time.

For anyone who reads this and doesn't know, we are on our way to India! This summer we started a small non-profit organization called ECTA. ECTA means unity in Nepali and we use it as an accronym, Empowering Communities to Transcend Adversity. Our first project is in the Northeastern part of West Bengal India. We are going there to serve and train villiage Health workers and start a small clinic and dispensary and eventually help to establish and Emergency respoonse system. This is a very rural area in the Himalayan foothills that don't have much government aid as far as health care etc.
Well, that is it in a nutshell. If you would like to know more about ECTA you can go to our website: ECTA International

Little mover

So the crawling excitment didn't last too long. As soon as Ashlyn started crawling she decided to start pulling up and climbing on things! And now here we are and she doesn't do bad with this little walker.

Summer

Wow! How did it get to be August already!?! I guess I need to peice together an update of the last month!
I have been doing well! I finished my third Xterra triathlon of the summer on Saturday. This one was a little shorter and I did alot better than the first two! I am having fun doing them. On Saturday at the Indian Peaks Xterra I placed 5th in my Age-group and I think that I qualified to the USA Championships in Ogden, UT at the end of September! So now I am into some serious training for the that race! Here are some fun pics at the races.








Ashlyn is growing so fast! I can't believe she is 7 months old now! She has been crawling for about 2 weeks now and she pulled herself up the other day! I am not ready for that. I think she really would rather walk she crawls but then she always gets up on her feet. She sure is alot of fun!

Yep she did this one all on her own.





In other news we have decided to go to India in the fall with our new non-profit ECTA. I will post more about that later.

6 months old!

I can't believe my baby is already 6 months old. I was playing some photos and I tried putting together a little video for the half birthday. This is Ashlyn's favorite song! She smiles everytime I sing it for her.

Birthday

Yep today is my 28th birthday. Wow were have the years gone. I just remember turning 20 and thinking that what crazy and reflecting on that much of my life and now all of a sudden it is 8 years later and I don't even know how that happened! not really doing anything special today everyone is working so Ashlyn and I are just hanging out together having fun! I have re-entered the world of racing this summer. I did my first Xterra post-Ashlyn on the 20th. It was good but I was slow. I am not used to being that slow but I also knew that I couldn't have high expectations with what I have done this year. Then I did the bike race for the Winter Park series on Saturday, I was pretty slow in that one too but I had fun and still got 3 that is only because there are no girls my age that race in my category. Okay that is all I have on this Birthday post! Here is a cute video of Ashlyn. Apparently her cousin Alyssa is the only one who can make her laugh.

Ashlyn's Tribute to Michael Jackson.

Trying to crawl

Wow, she is really working hard on these skills and wanting to crawl. Maybe this is why she decided she doesn't want to take her nap in the morning anymore... she has too much to accomplish.

Fun Things

Ashlyn got to start on her first foods last week! It was pretty exciting for her. those first couple bites were a little strange but by the end she was loving her rice cereal! She loves that stuff.
Getting an early start on her Climbing magazine.

Also, a little video on one of here favorite things Bouncing and moving!

Watching

Here is a little video. She really never stops wiggling.

Texas

Last week we had a whirlwind trip to Texas and a jaunt to Oklahoma to see both of the Grandma Greats. It was good but also packed and went so fast.
While in Arlington at my aunt and Uncle's we were able to spend some nice mornings by the pool. Ashlyn went swimming for the first time, I think she had fun. We also got to go to the Rangers ballgame. Jim got a suite for everyone. That was fun, I haven't ever been to a game in a suite! Our trip to OK was very short but sweet. we got to ride up with Drew's parnets and spent the night and his grandmother's house. It was very quick but good to see her and Uncle Kent and Michelle. Here are a couple of fun pics from the trip I will post some more when I get them off of other people's cameras like pics with the GG's.

At the ballgame!

Fruita

Last week on Drew's four days we decided we had to get out of town to do something! We went to Fruita to get some warm sunshine and ride our bikes! It was a great time. Our friend Brian met us over there so that was good then Drew and I could take shifts going for rides. Brian even took a turn with Ashlyn and had a party! It was a lot of fun. Ashlyn is a great camper so far, good thing since she is our daughter I don't think she has much choice. :) I think we wore her out the first day she couldn't make it to bed time. Yum! Thanks, Brian, for the Elk stake! In other news, my title got taken from me at the Spring Splash! broke my 6 year streak. Maybe only skiing twice this year and still having 20 extra pounds had something to do with it. Lame... oh well I still got some money!

Catching Up

Oops! I guess it has been a little while since I posted on here. Since we have a new little girl all are pictures have her in them so we will just do a little photo tour of the last month and a half to catch up with what has been happening.



Ashlyn took her first plane ride to go see her Grandmommy and Papa Sullivan in TX.


In March she got to have a party with daddy in the Crowne Plaza while I went to the Phantom of the Opera with my mom and sister for their birthday.





Later in March she took her first camping trip to Moab. It was fun going to Arches and camping in the desert.



Early April we got to take a trip down to Colorado Springs where she got to hang out and meet all our friends there!






And then, yes, we celebrated Easter dress and all! What a fun day!





"Does this diaper make my butt look big?"

Snowshoeing!

Ashlyn went on her first snowshoe trip this weekend. You can tell from the pictures that she loved it... or maybe she just loves the babybjorn...she couldn't stay awake in it if she tried. Anyway, I had fun getting out in our spring February weather.



Ashlyn all ready to go out






Then a cut pic of Ashlyn on the couch like a big girl.

Smiles and Football!

Wow! I can't believe that Ashlyn is already a month old. It has been a hard month for me. I didn't expect the recovery to take so long. It has been hard to not be able to do anything cause I am still so uncomfortable. I just want to go for a run!! However, the last week has been sooo much better. I feel like I woke up one morning a couple days ago and everything was better. Ashlyn is sleeping better and we have figured out our routine, while not 100% I am feeling much better, physically and emotionally. I even was able to clean the house the other day!
Motherhood is such an adjustment and while hard it has been so fun. Ashlyn is always changing and she is just so adorable. It is amazing how much you can love this little tiny person even when you are mad and exhausted.

Here are some of the latest pics!



Here is Ashlyn all dressed and ready for the Super Bowl. Oh wait...the broncos didn't play? Oh yeah, they pulled off the amazing feat of losing a 3 game lead and didn't even make it to the playoffs, which is why Ashlyn hadn't had a chance to wear this yet. So, we rooted hard for the Cardinals but at heart we are still Broncos fans.


This is momentous!! Ashlyn started smiling 2 days ago. I love it!! I caught one on camera this morning. Of course it is much cuter in person...

Ashlyn's arrival!

Okay so here is the story for those of you who want all the gory details be careful in reading too far if you don't want it all :)
So like I said it took awhile for our new bundle to arrive. I was just over a week overdue and really at my wits end. I didn't think she was ever going to come. So my post about all the things people say to do. I tried them all! I mean all and multiple times nothing did anything! I had been having contractions for over a week but they where just like braxton-hicks ones that would never actually turn into anything more. So, I decided that she was never going to come out and we had to evict her from that cozy home to bring her to ours. We were able to do this just over week overdue because we live up in the mountains so they will induce slightly earlier (don't want to get stuck in a snow storm in labor). I think the final straw too was that my friend who was three weeks behind me in her pregnancy went into labor on the First! I couldn't believe that Alena beat Ashlyn out!
So being emotionally drained I decided I couldn't handle another 4 days when they would have to induce she needed to come now.

Here is me on my last day of being pregnant before we headed to the hospital.




We went to the hospital on Friday the 2nd I was having contractions that morning and was scheduled to induce that night anyway they didn't seem to be anything crazy yet but they said to go ahead and come in since we would be there that night anyway. So of course on the way the contractions petered out so they checked me and then gave us a four hour pass to leave and told us to go and do something walk around eat a good meal and such and then come back around 8 or 9 to get going. We chacked in that night and they give you something through the night to get the cervix ready before the pitocin she told me that it hardly ever works that this just gets labor going they almost always have to do the pitocin which I wasn't too keen on. Anyway, first dose nothing much changed so I got the second dose at 2am. I woke up at 5am with real contractions that were less than a minute apart. At 6am I was about 2cm. Well that never stopped so I didn't have to get the pitocin. But I also decided I wasn't that tough because those contractions were right on top of each other so I decided to spring for the epidural. Well, that took over an hour and a half to come and then I was 10 cm and Ashlyn got a little stressed cause it went fast. So they gave the epidural and something to slow it down just a little and let us both rest. The nurse sent Drew to go get breakfast so he had energy for the hard part. Well, we had to call and tell him we were waiting for him to get back to start pushing. My midwife said "you will probably push for awhile since this is your first... an hour or two is ver normal." Then she said lets just see how things are give me a test push on this next one. So we did and she was like "good... wow okay Stop! Okay you wont be pushing that long" Then she hurried away to get ready.
Dad got back and she came back and we started pushing it took a little bit about 20 or 30 minutes to get here all the way through. Yeah!! My 8lb 4oz bundle of cuteness finally came! I am still convinced that she would still be in there if we hadn't done something.

New arrival and she loves those fingers!

The proud Nana B








A happy sleeper with her dad