Little touches of Fall

I'm pretty proud that the only thing I purchased for my mantle was the acorns. I re-decorated the wreath from last year using stuff I already had, printed out the signs, and added items that I had laying around the house. 

Give Thanks Printable

Give thanks in all circumstance. Beautiful and fitting!

I think this will be the last year for the Ashe pumpkin. It needs some new paint. 

It doesn't seem to be holding up too well, but it has been a couple years so I should cut it some slack. 

Here is link from when I first displayed it. 

Autumn has arrived!

Few things we can check off on our fall bucket list:

 Obligatory pumpkin patch pictures....✔

 Throw down some Apple Cider doughnuts like there's no tomorrow.....✔

Sling shot an overpriced pumpkin across a field ....✔

Ride a barrel train....✔ 

and finally hug a goat......✔

The last one isn't really a fall item, but we don't want to make Lexie feel awkward. 

We will let her think it was something we needed to check off. ;) 

Eli turns 2!!

This little guy has all of our hearts in the palm of his little hand.  He almost makes me want to have another baby.  Eli is laid back and always has a smile on his face.  He is growing more and more everyday, but we are still trying to put some weight on him.  His tongue aversion is making it a little difficult, but like all of his accomplishments so far, he will succeed.  He has transitioned from army crawling to crawling on fours and just two days ago, he showed us that he has no problem walking along side the couch.  Shocked mommy, but it was a good shock.  His favorite thing to do is unravel the toilet paper and he absolutely loves his bed.  We never get a fuss out of him whenever it is bedtime. He grabs his pillow like he's been missing it all day and passes out within minutes.  Must get that from me because I feel the same way about bedtime.;)  He, like most babies, loves to be tickled, is pretty much into everything, and absolutely adores his siblings.  I don't know if Eli has preferences on which one he enjoys being around more, but Lexie seems to get the most laughs out of him. We are still working with his speech therapist, but Eli seems perfectly happy only saying, DADA. Speaking of Daddy, Eric wants to cut his hair short, but I can't allow it. Once that happens, Eli will suddenly look older and it will remind me that we technically don't have any more babies.   Well I guess since we are done, we sure did end on a great note! 

Ice cream cake! 

Peanut and egg free, of course.

As you can tell from the last three pictures that Ethan and Gracie 

thoroughly enjoyed "helping" Eli blow the candle out.   

I just love how it doesn't even bother Eli.  

Giggles and The Dark Side

**Disclaimer** 

Regarding the last video.. I didn't expect that ride to look that intense.  Eric showed me the video afterward and said the wind makes it look ten times worse, but this momma's heart jumped up into my throat.   Lexie met the height requirements and we try let her lead us on what she can handle.

From the video, you can see she absolutely loved it, so I didn't freak out too much. 

Plus, the way she throws herself around on the trampoline, I shouldn't expect any less.  

           Ethan absolutely LOVED fighting the Dark Side and I know he will remember this forever. 

                       Be sure to read the hilarious commentary that first appears on the screen. 

                                                        Courtesy of Eric, of course! 

 

Dearest Disney

It has been 5 years since our last vacation to Disney, and this trip was just as lovely as the first. Disney goes above and beyond for families, so I don't have a single complaint about our trip.   Anytime the front desk answers the phone with, "How can I help the Ashe family today?", you just know that it's going to be a great trip.  We enjoyed visiting a park a day and made sure to add plenty of rest time for Lexie and Eli.  This was Lexie and Eli's first visit, so we wanted to make sure that they enjoyed it just as much as Ethan and Gracie.  Ethan and Gracie love roller coasters, so I wasn't surprised that Lexie absolutely loved them too.  Anytime you see you your special needs child find complete joy in a activity that any child her age does, your heart pretty much explodes.  However, when she wasn't on a ride, she found being in the confines of the stroller soothing.  I was anxious that she would fight us on staying in the stroller and would want to run away every chance she got, but I think even she realized how much a sensory overload that would be.  Eli is so easy going that he could honestly care less about what was going on.  Plus he loves when Lexie is in the stroller with him because he enjoys playing (annoying) her.

We had an wonderful time reveling in all of the magic that Disney exudes and enjoyed watching the kids ride the rides that they're now tall enough for.  Their smiles got even wider when they met their favorite characters.  Which I might add can be a little depressing for a parent when Winnie or Piglet are characters of the past.  They still loved seeing Mickey and Minnie, so I guess that's a small victory that they aren't growing too fast.  Now that we're home they're still talking about our Disney trip, which makes me thankful that we got to share this with them.  However I knew it was a success on the first day when we were all in bed by 9pm. Yeah, Disney is exhausting and can be downright nerve racking, but all that is only temporary as Disney makes it super easy to fall in love with it all over again the very next day!


Seeing how we were there for 4 days, you know I took an obscene amount of pictures, which means it shouldn't surprise you that a good amount of them made it to the blog.  Yup, momma loves her crystal ball moments!

The road trip buckets to keep the big ones busy on the road to Disney. 

Those hats are from our last Disney trip. 

This is right in front of our hotel room. 

We stayed at Art of Animation, Cars themed room and it was fantastic.  

Animal Kingdom

Lexie was showing Pocahontas how to sign the way Lexie signs cup. It was super cute! 

Kilimanjaro Safaris

Lexie has sensory meltdowns at restaurants, but these noise canceling headphones and her home videos helps delay them enough to throw down a quick meal.  We rely on those headphones a lot! 

Thanks to the headphones, she took a 3 hour nap that day.  

If Lexie doesn't get her sleep, her seizures increase.

   While we there, we got to enjoy a great meal with our good friends, The Pubillones! 

It was wonderful seeing them again and our kiddos got to meet for the first time!  

Magic Kingdom

Hollywood Studios

Ethan and I waited for a good hour to sign him up for Jedi Training and it was soooo worth it!! 

He loved every minute of it. 

Epcot

Lexie was having way too much fun with Minnie and as Eric reached for her, 

Minnie told him to back off. haha!! 

They continued to have a good time!

Princess Lunch

Character dinner Garden Grill

The next post will contain video clips from our trip!