Skyler Sarah Ashton & Carson

Good Bye Hadyn!

2010-04-25T13:13:00.001-07:00

Hadyn left for the army on 3/28/2010. We had several farewell events that weekend, and it was great to spend time together as a family. We will REALLY miss you Hadyn! ...especially Ashton. He adores his Uncle Hadyn! I told Ashton I was sad because Hadyn was leaving, and he said "It's Ok - Hadyn come back". I sure hope Hadyn is doing well!

Best Buds!

2010-04-25T12:53:00.001-07:00

Watching these 2 boys together is so wonderful!

Blue Bell

2010-04-25T12:49:00.000-07:00

We visited the Blue Bell factory in Brenham, and it was so much fun! The tour was very interesting, and the generous helping of ice cream at the end was great. Afterwards, we went to a really cool park in Brenham.

Happy New Year!

2010-01-12T12:01:00.000-08:00

NEW YEAR'S 2009
(We did go to dinner, but I found no reason to be awake at midnight if Carson wasn't up!)

...AND NEW YEAR'S 2005 (PRE-KIDS)
(my oh my how times have changed!)

Merry Christmas!!

2010-01-07T10:16:00.001-08:00

We had a wonderful Christmas. I was so thankful to be off of work during the holiday season. We celebrated with my family twice - Once on the 20th before Brian and his family left for El Paso and again on Christmas Eve. Like always, we had several tins of homeade cookies to help us celebrate. The cousins love getting together, and it's always fun to watch them play together.

On Christmas morning, Ashton woke up to find a remote control train from Santa. He is really into trains right now. Every time he plays with his train he says "Thank you Santa".

After celebrating at our house we went to Grandma's house to celebrate Christmas yet again! Ashton really loves hanging out at Grandmas's house. ....especially when Uncle Hadyn is there!

Hi Santa!

2010-01-07T09:55:00.000-08:00

We got to visit Santa and go for a carriage ride the weekend before Christmas. The weather was beautiful, and we all had a great time!

It snowed in Houston, but it was WEAK at our house

2010-01-01T19:26:00.001-08:00

The flakes barely showed up in the pictures, but at least it snowed. We're hoping to take a trip to SLC with the kiddos next winter so they can see some REAL SNOW.

From Snow Day - 12.4.09

Baby Carson is HOME!

2009-12-10T09:01:00.000-08:00

Poor baby Carson got a fever when he was only 9 days old. We called our doctor, and they told us to take him to the ER. Once we got there they called us in immediately. For all infants less than 1 month old who get a fever, they do a urine test, a blood test and a spinal tap to test for various bacterial infections, the flu, RSV, herpes, mengintis, etc. They started all of these tests right away and told us that baby Carson would have to be admitted to the hospital for at least 2 days so they could administer antibiotics and wait for the test results. My heart sank when I heard this, and it killed me to watch my 9 day old baby go through all of the tests. His fever persisted for 3 days but finally broke, and you could really see his change in attitude. Praise God that all of the tests came back negative! The doctors were also a little concerned about his heart, but after a chest xray, EKG, and echocardiogram, he now has a 100% clean bill of health! Our time in the hospital was really tough on all of us, but we are now home happy and healthy. Thank you to everyone who prayed consistently for us. We needed those prayers, and I am so thankful that God is watching over us.

Happy Thanksgiving!

2009-12-06T21:19:00.002-08:00

We had a great Thanksgiving. We were so happy to have baby Carson here to celebrate with us! We had dinner with Skyler's family on Thursday. Melanie cooked a great meal for us, and both of Skyler's brothers were there. It was great to have the whole family together. We celebrated with the Spencer's on Friday at my Dad's house. Skyler cooked an awesome fried turkey, and Amy and Brian made the infamous and delicious cinnamon rolls. It was great to spend time with family and have everyone meet baby Carson. We are so thankful for our family!

Carson's 1st Outing - The Park

2009-12-06T21:19:00.001-08:00

Baby Carson is here!!

2009-12-06T20:43:00.000-08:00

We welcomed baby Carson on November 20, 2009 at 10:53 am. Carson weighed in at 7 lbs, 8 oz. and 20.5 inches long (FYI - Ashton's stats were 7 lbs, 5 oz. and 21 inches). We got to the hospital at 6:00 AM, started the induction at 7:00 AM, started having EXTREMELY painful contractions at 9:30, got the epidural at 10:15 (a little too late in my mind!), and delivered Carson at 10:53. Everything happened so fast. We were a little nervous when Carson came out. The umbilical cord was wrapped around his neck during delivery, so we had to get him out very quickly, and the quick delivery caused Carson to have a little bit of shock and a hard time breathing at first, but he is now fine and healthy. Unfortunately Ashton couldn't meet Carson right away because the hospital does not allow visitors under 12 years old during flu season (that darn swine flu!). It was so hard to not have our full family together right away, but we got through it and we are now home and are a happy family of four! I can't tell you how much I love my boys!

Random Pics - Pre Carson

2009-12-05T12:36:00.000-08:00

Happy Halloween!

2009-12-05T12:05:00.001-08:00

We had a great Halloween! Ashton was a tiger this year. He loves tigers and sleeps with his stuffed animal tiger every night. The night before Halloween we went to the fall festival at our church. They had a lot of fun games for the kids to play. On Halloween we carved a pumpkin during the day and then went trick or treating at night. Ashton was so shy! He was talking our ear off while we were walking, but as soon as we got to someone's door, he was a mute! Ashton was SOO excited about all the candy he got. As soon as we got home he organized all his candy.

Ashton's FIRST Haircut

2009-11-13T20:32:00.001-08:00

Yes, I know what some of you are thinking - It's about time! I was so hesitant to get Ashton's 1st haircut, and I was pleasently surprised. He still has some curls, and that makes me so happy !

Pumpkin Patches

2009-11-13T20:24:00.000-08:00

Fall is one of my favorite times of the year, and I LOVE going to pumpkin patches. We made it to 2 pumpkin patches this year, and we all really enjoyed both of them.

Ashton turns 2! (...watch out for the terrible 2's!)

2009-11-08T18:35:00.000-08:00

Before Ashton's "real" birthday, we celebrated at my Dad's house with the whole family. Ashton always loves seeing his cousins. One of his favorite gifts was the Spiderman couch that my Dad gave him.

On his actual birthday we started the morning off by surprising Ashton with breakfast on his new table and chairs and set. He was so excited when he walked out of his room and saw everything waiting for him. Later that day we enjoyed dinner at McDonald's. I think Ashton really enjoyed his special day!

Baby Shower for Baby Carson

2009-11-07T13:41:00.000-08:00

My friends hosted me a wonderful baby shower at the end of September to celebrate baby Carson (yes, that's right - we finally decided on a name!). I really enjoyed having a celebration even though there is not much that I need since this is baby boy #2. The food, the decor, the gifts and the company were all great! Thanks everyone!

Ashton's Birthday Party

2009-11-07T13:26:00.000-08:00

We had Ashton's 2nd birthday party at the neighborhood park. The weather was BEAUTIFUL! The theme this year was airplanes, and each kid packed and decorated their own suitcase at the party. Everyone had a great time, and we feel so blessed to have such great friends and family to celebrate with.

Happy Birthday Skyler!

2009-11-07T12:59:00.000-08:00

For Skyler's birthday I decided to surprise him with a trip. We went to San Antonio and stayed at the Hyatt Hill Country. I have always wanted to go there, and it was really awesome. Skyler enjoyed a round of golf, and we all enjoyed the lazy river, the pools, the playground, the hammock, the nature walks (where Sklyer and Ashton found a ton of golf balls), and the game of BINGO. Our room was perfect - We were on the first floor and had a patio that opened right up to the playground which Ashton loved. It was a very relaxing trip (great for a 7 month prego lady)!

Ashton's 1st day of school

2009-10-25T11:32:00.001-07:00

Ashton started "school" this year twice a week at Winwood Presbyterian. He has really enjoyed it so far. I hear from his teachers that he is very queit but very well behaved. On the first day so many kids were crying, but Ashton did really well. I am so proud of him!

All of the Hughes Boys

2009-10-25T11:12:00.000-07:00

Skyler and Ashton with Sklyer's brothers Hadyn (left) and Rayce (right)

From Rayce's Bday Aug 09

Minnesota!

2009-09-06T11:35:00.000-07:00

Our family trip to Minnesota was great. My entire immediate family made the trek up to Minnesota and while we were there we got to see most of our extended family as well. We started the trip out with a night in St. Paul and visited the Mall of America. We took Ashton on a few rides there and then headed to Snuffy's for dinner. They have the best malts! On our way up to the resort we stopped by and looked at my Grandma's old house. It still looks the same! That house has so many great memories for me, and I found myself getting teary eyed while we stopped there. One of the best memories there was my Grandma's cookies. She would bake several tins of cookies for us each Christmas and leave them on the front porch. For some reason the cookies tasted so good after sitting on that cool porch. After reminiscing, we headed to the resort, New Frontier in Little Falls. It was really awesome. They had a beach front lake, paddle boats, a trampoline in the lake, a water bike, a playground, shuffle board (which is actually a really fun game!), COOL weather, and an incredible view of the stars at night. One of my favorite parts of the trip was at night when all the kids were getting ready for bed. We started a tradition there where we would all sing songs together before going to bed. Jeff even joined us on the last night by brining his guitar in. The kids were SOOO cute! We spent so much quality time together as a family on this trip, and I am so thankful that we were all able to be together. We used to go to Minnesota every single Christmas growing up, but we hadn't been there in 5 years now.

Circus

2009-07-25T06:23:00.000-07:00

We took Ashton to his first circus. Before the show started we got to see the animals, and Ashton really enjoyed that. It was like an indoor zoo. We enjoyed the show, but I have to admit, it wasn't quite as good as I remembered. It was a little slow moving, and the clowns that performed in between acts just weren't funny. We bought Ashton some cotton candy thinking he would love it, and he wouldn't even taste it. We could've saved ourselves $12! (Yes, the cotton candy cost $12!). Overall, we did enjoy the show. Ashton was so overwhelmed by everything he saw.

4th of July

2009-07-25T06:14:00.000-07:00

We had a busy 4th! In the morning we went to a birthday party for Ashton's friend Lexi. After that we went to Uncle Brian's for a pool party (check out the great action shots!), and then we topped off the night by attending a fireworks show at our church.

It's another BOY!!

2009-07-04T14:21:00.000-07:00

We just found out we are having another BOY!! Here's a pic of Mommy and her 2 boys
*Ashton-20 months
*Mommy with Baby #2 (don't have a name yet!)-4 months pregnant

From Mommy prego with #2