Father's Day Celebration...

We had a lot of fun with Father's Day this year. This is the picture that I put on Justin's card. Asher had fun trying to walk in Daddy's big shoes.
We started our father's day fun with matching Iron Man tattoos for my guys. They are so tough!
Then we wanted to eat breakfast at Kneaders, but the starter on our car had gone out. (P.S. Thanks Rex for fixing it! We're so glad that you have great car repair skills. Thanks again!!)  We didn't want that to stop us so we decided to take the bus and Trax. They look out-of-their-mind bored in this picture, but Asher really did like the ride. So, after a 4 hour bus adventure we were finally home and Asher went down for a nap. I had planned for Justin to go golfing, but he decided to stay home and take a nap with me instead. 

Then we went to dinner and stopped at the Sidewalk Chalk festival. This is Justin and Asher sharing their Ice Cream cone.

This was probably our favorite chalk drawing. It was fun to see how different they all were. Then it was bedtime for Asher and we got to hangout and watch a movie. The next morning I made Justin Breakfast in bed that was super yummy, and he made us a fantastic dinner on his new BBQ that night. It was great to spend time together! We love you Justin! You are the best Daddy ever!!

Love that face...

I just thought this picture makes him look old. 

Noodles and cheese...

Asher is great at feeding himself these days. What a cool dude! Today he was eating noodles and cheese and he did it all by himself.

But this eating by himself thing really slows down our pace because after every bite we have to clap and cheer :) Don't worry, if I forget to do it after one bite Asher will remind me.

"No Hands" is Asher's favorite trick.

And he likes to make really silly faces and laugh at himself when I show him a mirror. This was the funny face he was making today. 

Water adventures for Asher...

We had another really great adventure with Asher last night. We went and had a picnic and played at The Red Butte Gardens in the Children's Adventure Area. Asher had a tough time finishing his dinner because there was so much to see, touch and experience! So, finally when Mom and Dad were done eating we went over to play in the water fountains. 

This is right after Asher went all the way over there by himself and touched the snake fountain and then came running back to us! I was impressed at how brave he was!!

Now Dad is playing too.

I did it again Dad!!

My favorite was to watch Asher go do something fun and then run into Justin's arms like it was the "safe zone" for just a minute before he would go try something else new.

Then Justin and Asher helped a snail across the path so that no one would step on it, but of course they had to inspect it first!

Asher was being so silly while we were trying to get a family picture. Asher, we love you so much!! Thanks for being so hilarious!

A first for mommy...

Well, be glad there are no pictures to accompany this post. I've been wondering for a long time how I would handle the situation when I finally had to clean up my own child's throw up. I don't mean baby spit up. I mean real "big boy" throw up because Asher had just eaten a big boy breakfast (do you get the nasty picture?). Anyway, I remember when I was little and one of us was sick and throwing up and my mom would just take care of it. I would think to myself "Really, what are my kids going to do because I am NOT going to be able to stomach that." But, today the morning came when I was able to find out what I was made of and I'm happy to report that I did just fine. I am glad to say that Asher isn't sick anymore - he must have just had a bug or something. But he did so kindly give me an opportunity to "mom-up" to the challenge. Thanks a lot buddy but how about let's not do that again for a long time!! (Mom, I bet you are thinking "Wait until you have more than one and they are all sick at the same time!")

P.S. I cut my hair. Thanks Lisa, you always do a great job!!

Morning realizations...

This morning as I was getting Asher's favorite breakfast of oatmeal and a banana ready he was just happy and chattering, running around the kitchen in his little jammies. He started playing around my legs, twirling around them and squeezing in between them. It was kind of a funny moment as it hit me that I have a TODDLER! 

I thought some more about it and how I am going to have two kids soon and how that will change our family dynamics a bit. I'm really excited for the changes and for my new little baby. (I try to focus only on the positives of the situation - to avoid being overwhelmed!)  

Babies don't stay babies very long and I knew that going into this whole motherhood thing. I feel like I do a pretty good job at appreciating the moments and trying to focus on and preserve the important things with my son. I'm not great, but pretty good. Sometimes it takes re-reading this poem to remind me:  

"The cleaning and scrubbing will wait till tomorrow, for children grow up, as I've learned to my sorrow. So quiet down, cobwebs. Dust go to sleep. I'm rocking my baby and babies don't keep." 

That's pretty much why I blog. Stories about Asher, for Asher... someday when he will like to hear them. With an added bonus of Grandmas and other loved ones getting to see pictures of him. 

I wonder if any of you could tell that since ALL my posts are about him ;) 

Anyway, with all that said I also have been feeling a little frustrated lately because while I LOVE being a mom and wouldn't change that for the world I don't love how my thoughts and feelings have mostly all become things like "I used to do that..." "I used to enjoy this..." "Back when I..." "Once I was good at..." etc, etc, etc... My brain and free time have all been given to the fact that I have a baby and am going to have another.

But, this morning while I was thinking to myself, I realized that there is no point in being frustrated about it, instead I am now grateful that I am the one with the power to do something about it. To change if I really want to change, that's all me. I might be slow, and you probably won't see any of my changes here...(just more stories about the babies) but, this morning I remembered how happy I am that I have the power to act, that I value my time with my children and that I get to learn this same lesson as many times as it takes. I just wanted to write all that down.

Have a great day!

What do you think?

A friend of mine took some beautiful pictures of Asher and this is just one of them! Every time Cam (my brother-in-law) sees this picture he thinks he looks like he is in London. We're not sure if it's the jacket or the rainy blurred background. So, this weekend when we were talking about it we thought we should take a little Poll: 

Does Asher look like a little british boy? ....I know what Cam's answer will be ;) Leave a comment if you have an opinion.

Silly baby...

We were taking some video of Asher in the bath showing us his new skills of washing his own face and hair. He is such a happy helper! Then he got a little drop of water in his eye and the face that he makes was pretty much the funniest thing we'd ever seen. We watched this video again and again and laughed really hard after Asher went to bed. Then... this morning I was going to post the bath video so it was playing on the computer and Asher started watching it. He laughed and laughed! He liked the part where he gets water in his eye too!! 

Babies sure like to see themselves on the big screen. The above video is the bath, and the below video is Asher watching the bath. Enjoy.

I'll take them both please...

So, Asher gets to drink either Milk or Water and I usually let him pick since he can sign and say both words. Today he couldn't decide, so after going back and forth he finally hugged both sippy cups to his little body and laughed, letting me know he wanted both. Then he carried them around taking a big swig of one and then a big gulp of the other. It pretty much grossed me out because I was thinking about the taste of watery milk. But, oh well. It's fun to watch him have little preferences and opinions, as indecisive as they may be.

What do Ducks say...

We went over to Liberty Park this evening to have a picnic and show Asher the ducks. Really there were more geese then ducks, or at least the geese weren't shy, we'll just say that. We even brought some bread to share.

Asher seemed to like them and he wasn't scared or nervous at all. Me, on the other hand, had to take some deep breaths when they all swarmed me and were standing there staring at me with their black, beady little eyes to keep from freaking out (i'm not an animal person...).

We did see a few ducks and the little babies were super cute!

Good thing Asher has a great daddy to do all these fun new things with!!

The kid loves rocks...

I just thought this picture was funny. It was hot today and we were outside playing (aka Asher picks up as many rocks as his little hands can hold and mom follows him around) and when we were done we came inside. Asher walked straight to the middle of the living room and plopped right down, too tired for even one more thing.

A skill everyone should have...

This is Justin trying to teach Asher how to blow the dandelions. His method was to just shut his eyes and press his little face up against it.  So cute to watch!

He never did catch on, but I'm sure that we'll have many days of blowing the weeds, whistling with grass, and all the other fun summer tricks in our future!

The orchard was more like a jungle for my little guy.

"WOW!"

Justin showed Asher something that he was given today at a meeting. It was a little spinning fan (with soft fan blades so it was baby safe, don't worry!) thing that had lights that spelled out messages while it was turning (if that made any sense...). Let's just say that Asher was very impressed! 

Don't you just love that expression!

CHEESE...

This evening I said "Asher, say cheese!" wanting him to smile for the picture, but instead he did the baby sign language for Cheese (the food). What a smarty pants!

ASHERMAN!

We saw this cool Batman mask at the store today, and I couldn't help but put it on Asher.  He tolerated it for about 10 seconds before he pulled it off, but then started pointing at it while signing hat and touching his face so we put it back on long enough to take this picture.  Didn't know Batman could be so cute, did ya?

Ready for summer anyone?

One year of blogging...

Wow, my very first blog entry was one year ago today (first blog entry). Asher was one month old and I was struck by how much his little face had changed in just 4 weeks, so I thought this might be a fun way to record pictures and little stories about my baby. It has been fun and really helped me remember some of the sweet little moments that you think you will never forget (but I do!).

Asher's first haircut!!!

Wow, we did it! I was so nervous to cut Asher's hair. I was too sad that he was going to look like a big boy and wouldn't be my baby anymore. But as you can see his comb-over was getting a little out of control. Before picture #1.

And what can I say about the back... Before picture #2.

Yes, he cried the whole time! It was heartbreaking!! Look how sad he is...and they haven't even started yet.

Even though he was screaming the whole time he sat really still and did a great job (as long as he was touching me).

So sad!!

Still crying...

All done, but still offended that we just did that. And, of course they spiked it.

Much happier now that we left that place!

What a cute boy! After picture #1.
After picture #2.