Sunday, December 23, 2018

And baby makes 9!

Ashton's 9th sibling was born on Friday Dec. 21st at 11:09 a.m.  Noelle Charlotte.  6lbs 7 oz 18 3/4 inches long. She's in the NICU right now to have a little help breathing, as she inhaled some fluid on the way out and it got in her lungs, but she seems to be doing well.



So now Ashton has:

Lily Gjerde
Stian Gjerde Jones
Fredrik Gjerde Jones
Aiden Lane
Ethan Lane
Annabelle Sines
Arianna Best
Paisley LaRuffo
Noelle LaRuffo


That's a lot of siblings!

Friday, December 14, 2018

Beat the toaster

I've never been one for rituals or traditions, but Ashton and I have a little tradition this year that I have really enjoyed!  Most days when we drive to school between 7:30-8:00, on the radio station 91.9 WTGS, a call in game called Beat the Toaster comes on.  The objective is to name 5 things of the topic in 10 seconds (or before the toaster dings).  Usually the topics are things such as things you put on a Christmas tree, types of cars etc...We love playing this game together in the car!!!  Ashton is always asking put on 91.9 mom!

Thursday, November 15, 2018

Love this boy!

Love this little guy!  Sometimes I wish I could keep him small forever!  Even though he can be moody, he is a love bug at heart.  He looks for any excuse to sleep with us at least several times a week.  He is so creative.  He can take any type of material and turn into something.  He loves to run, jump, climb, flip, and hang.  He loves to do his own version of Parkour, hang on the money bars, jump from tables to furniture, and even climb the walls!  Today we had an usual fall snow!  We enjoyed playing outside for a short time!

November 15, 2018

My monkey boy

Wednesday, October 31, 2018

Fall Fun

We had a fun filled October.  Lot's of fun camping trips with friends, pumpkin patch, and Halloween fun.


Pumpkin Patch with Garrett, Arianna, Michael, and Chloe



Beginning the disection

The finished product



Halloween with Ms. Hancock's 2nd grade class

Trick or Treating with our friends, Keagan, Garrett, and Michael

Steve from Minecraft

Always climbing the walls both literally and figuratively!

Thursday, October 4, 2018

A first time for everything

First, let me say that Ashton has improved greatly since the summer.  He still has his moments, but they seems to have decreased in frequency.  We believe it has to do with a new medication we added to his ADHD repertoire called Intuiv, which can't be crushed up, but swallowed whole.  Ashton embraced swallowing a pill with little drama.  It took him a few tries, but he finally got it.  Hopefully this will make managing his ADHD in the future a little easier.  Of course I also pray that he will not use his newly learned skill for bad things either as he grows up!

His teacher reports that overall he is doing well in school and she enjoys having him in her class.  He seems quite happy, which makes a mama's heart happy too!

Ashton will be starting Parkour classes next week.  He's been asking for months!  I hope he likes it!

Tuesday, September 4, 2018

2nd grade!

Today was Ashton's first day of 2nd grade at Lisbon Elementary!  I think I was more anxious than he was considering that he was going to ride a bus to school for the first time from our daycare providers house (Ms. Ord-White), and I wouldn't be at Lisbon all the time like I was last year.  He appeared to have a good day!  Which makes a mama's heart very happy!


Ready for the 1st day!

Waiting for the bus with Ms. Ord-White    

Away he goes!

Sunday, August 26, 2018

More half-siblings

Image may contain: 2 people
Ethan (age 6 months) Aiden (age 2)







We recently received communication from Ashton's biological father's family.  They are interested in perhaps building some sort of relationship with him in the future.  We learned that Ashton has two more half-siblings, Ethan and Aiden.  Mr. Rick recently married their mom Ms. Tiana.  Ms. Tiana sent us some photographs of Rick as well.  Ashton favors him in looks greatly.



We have yet to tell Ashton Ms. Taylor is pregnant again too.  Assuming all goes well with Ms. Taylor's pregnancy that will give Ashton 6 half-siblings as of this year!  If you include Lily, Stian and Fredrik, Ashton has 9 siblings!  WOW!

Saturday, July 28, 2018

Challenging July

July has been filled with some great summer fun, but I think the lack of routine has been a real challenge to Ashton, hence a big challenge to the family as well.

To start Ashton had an absolutely lovely time with my niece Lindsey's son Collin.  Ashton was so happy to have a playmate for several days in a row!

Video gaming buddies

Enjoying Crabs with the family


Ashton continues to enjoy playground camp with all his little buddies!

Twins at the Walkersville Carnival


Mid July we went to Bethany Beach with Ariana's family and Ms. Jessica's family.  Genetics was strong on this trip!  Ashton and Ariana where a force to be reckoned with.  They definitely feed off each other and unfortunately NOT in a good way!  The good thing is they really got along VERY well and seemed to enjoy each other's company greatly!!!!

Trouble!!!!


Beach fun!


Ashton said the highlights of the beach trip for him were flying a kite and sand surfing!  I must say I was super proud of him for trying to stand up on the boogie board, I didn't think he would do it, but he did!

"Look mom, I did it!"


Sand Surfer!






Lastly, this summer Ashton begged me to put up our "redneck" pool.  While it was a pain, I am glad I did.  He has spent many happy hours in it!  Plus with a little creativity he and daddy created a "redneck waterpark".  LOL

Redneck waterpark


I usually don't write the tough stuff down in these blogs, but July has really been a whammy.  While at the beach at night, Ashton and Ariana ran away.  Needless to say it was terrifying.  Thankfully they were found at home safe and sound, but for a while there it was pretty scary.  Apparently, they destroyed someone's sand castle on the beach and someone saw them and was going to tell on them, so they ran.

Also Ashton has been threatening to kill himself on numerous occasions.  Some of it of course is just for attention when he doesn't get his way, but one day I actually had to talk him out of jumping from his bedroom window.  That really shook me up!  Needless to say he is back in counseling again!  I hope and pray that learns how to manage his emotions more effectively before the hormones kick in and that he will develop some impulse controls so he is less reactive and slows down to think about the consequences of things.

I am headed to Thailand for two weeks in August so hopefully Ashton does okay with the Nannies and daddy.  It will be the longest I have ever been away from him.





Tuesday, June 26, 2018

Bring on Summer and 2nd grade!

Ashton had the most fantastic school year at Lisbon Elementary!  We are so super proud of him!  His report card reflected all his hard work!
Last day of 1st grade

By the end of the school year his teacher reported that he caught up to his on grade level peers for reading!  Go Ashton!  In math he continues to soar, scoring in the high average category.  My favorite though comes from science.  One of the special education para educator sent me this little gem from science class a sound and water investigation!
Someday Ashton will find the humor in this!





Olav has been wanting a mohawk for quite some time now, so he finally got his wish!  He does look super cute!

Mohawk dude!




Lastly, all of Ashton's short life, I've always referred back to the book Ruby in her own time.  It's a book about a baby duck who eventually is able to do what all the other ducks do, but she does it on her schedule not anyone else's. This is Ashton to a t.  We've been trying to get him to learn how to swim, but he has been very resistant.  But finally this weekend, in his own time, with some help and instruction from Lily he finally learned how to swim!!!!  Yeah Ashton!  I think he is pretty proud of himself!


Thursday, May 31, 2018

Busy May

Our May has been full of fun adventures and a few medical traumas for Ashton.

First, Ashton contracted Lyme's Disease from a deer tick and had to be treated with a 2 week course of antibiotics.  Fortunately he got a classic bulls-eye rash that we recognized and was able to be treated immediately!  Then following that, one night why he was helping me clean the bathroom, he accidentally sprayed Windex ammonia in his eye.  Poor thing!  Flushing out a 7 years old eyes with water is not fun!  But he was a trooper.  However he kept saying between the deer tick and the ammonia that he was "having the worst time of his life".  He even had to do a time line of his life from birth to the present for math class  and his milestones were, going to Norway at age 1, getting an Xbox 360 at age 6 and getting Lyme's and spraying ammonia in his eye age 7.

Mug shot
Bulls Eye rash
On the adventure side, we have taken 3 fun family camping trips with various friends.  Ashton of course has had a blast.  Camping is his ultimate happy place.  He loves riding his bicycle and exploring the woods!

Our first trip was with the Cagle family to Cunningham falls.  We took Ashton's buddy Nathan who had never been camping before.  Ashton and Nathan were quite adventurous climbing up Cunningham falls and throwing sticks into the water.  They also found a dead copperhead snake....ugh grossness!





Our second trip with was with our small group bible study to Gettysburg.  It was a cool damp weekend, but the kids had a blast!   The boys played in the "expanded" creek and even got in the heated pool when it was 54 degrees outside.  Even at 80 degrees they were shivering!  They rode "bikes", and Ashton and Ariana even played together!



The stream was the biggest hit even with the chilly air temperature

54 degrees outside, 80 degrees in the pool, Kids:  Crazy!




Last weekend we went to Killen's Pond with the Henry family.  Ashton and Charlotte were little adventurers, exploring all the hiking and biking trails they could!




Ready to kayak




In school Ashton continues to excel.  He really seems to have an aptitude for math.  Recently he learned how to tell time.  He is really proud of himself!  I think he even moved up reading groups!  One proud mama!

Lastly, every day Ashton's topic of conversation revolves around his next birthday celebration.  One day, he wants a party, another day he wants a big gift like a video game system, one day he wants a party, another day he wants a basketball hoop and so on...

Thursday, May 3, 2018

Childhood aspirations

Ashton's childhood aspiration is to be a you tube star, so he can get lots of companies to sponsor him!!!  Dream big little guy!

Wednesday, April 25, 2018

7th birthday party!

This weekend we celebrated Ashton's 7th birthday party at Stratosphere Trampoline Park.  He had fun playing dodgeball and jumping on the trampolines with all his friends.


He also received his first full report card from being at Lisbon.  He is doing fantastic.  I could not of been more pleased!  He is really growing in skill in math and in reading!  His confidence is soaring!

This week, something else happened that made me realize Lisbon is the perfect place for Ashton.  On Tuesday night, Ashton accidentally sprayed window cleaner directly in his left eye.  Long story short, after multiple flushing treatments at both home and at the pediatrician's office, his eye looked like he had been in a heavy weight boxing fight!  The next morning we went into Lisbon to tell both the school nurse and Ms. Shields.  Ms. Miller the nurse was so kind and compassionate to Ashton.   When Ms Shields saw him, he climbed up on her lap and just let her cuddle him.  He obviously felt safe and loved.  My heart melted.  I thought to myself, "this is why Lisbon".

Friday, April 13, 2018

Branching out

Ashton is branching out and thriving academically.  Today was crazy hair day.  Usually Ashton is not a group activity partaker.  He usually refuses to participate in special school days like pajama day, color day etc... however today without any prompting from me he decided he wanted to style his hair for crazy hair day.  He had trouble getting it up in a mohawk, but was able to give his hair a little style with a little water and gel.  Also his teacher told me today that he has made huge gains in reading this quarter.  He started out in January on an E level and he just passed the G level.  She was super impressed and she is going to move him up to a higher reading group.  So proud.  Also Ashton had his artwork featured in the Lisbon Elementary Art Show Panel at the Columbia Mall.  Again super proud of his accomplishments!  The PE teacher confided in me recently that she absolutely adores Ashton,  he is one of her favorites!  She even got him to square dance and apparently he was even smiling and laughing!

Ashton's donut 2nd from right on bottom

Check out his crazy hair!


His birthday was this week and it was rather quiet.  He didn't really want it acknowledged at school.  We will have a birthday party for him next weekend at a trampoline park in Eldersburg.

Last weekend we had an informal Easter egg hunt with Kodi and Aly.  I think Ashton had a really good time!