Two!

When asked how old he is, Asher has always responded with a triumphant, "Two!" Friday, for the first time, he wasn't wrong. That's right - Ash man has made it to another birthday. Please allow me to take a quick mommy moment and revisit his previous two.

Here is our baby the day he was born. Those first few hours in the world are so incredibly special.

And then our darling turned one. Here he is on his first birthday...

 Oh, that face...

 Cake coma

And here he is at two! Okay, technically these were taken last month, but it gives you an idea of how much he's grown in a year.

 Andrew and I thought we'd throw Asher a little party for his second birthday, so last weekend we had a few of his fellow two-year-olds over, along with some of his favorite adults. A special highlight of the day was Asher's grandparents driving up from western Kentucky to be here for Asher. He absolutely ADORES Joey and Kim, and it melts us to see them together.

 So anyway,  here are some pics from the day. It was a simple affair (we only spent $20), but still a lot of fun. We made things Mickey-themed due to our son's crippling Mickey Mouse Clubhouse addiction. He's spiraling out of control...but that's another story.

 

 This face says it all.

 In toddler world, icing solves all problems.

 Azelynn riding Asher's new rocking horse like a seasoned cowgirl.

So the next morning after church, our beloved Nina and Poppy had to leave us. I may have cried. But before they left, we tried to get one good picture of them with Asher. 

We got this...

 And this...

And finally, this:

 Totally blurry, but three smiles! We miss them already.

Asher, you are so, so loved! Congrats on the big 0-2!

P.S. Now, please. Please don't grow up too fast...

Love, Mom and Dad

Family Pictures

Before we left town for Christmas, our friend Noelle snapped some family pictures for us. It was very impromptu, so we were kind of a mess, but remarkably, she got some good shots! You are a total pro, Noelle!

Here are some of our favorites:

Such a happy boy!

Love the neat bridge in the background

This last one went out on our Christmas card. I think it does a great job of capturing our personalities.

So thankful for people who share their talents so we can document our family!

The Wrap Up

So Christmas break ended up ending.

We drove back east Monday night feeling a little strange...we live in Ohio? A few weeks back in our old Kentucky home and our life here seems fuzzy and foreign. But alas, here we are. We miss our families somethin' awful, but by golly, it's good to be back. There's something to be said for sleeping in your own bed.

But we mustn't forget to wrap up Christmas! We loved spending a week and a half with Andrew's family, and were able to squeeze in a lot of fun while we were there.

 The week before Christmas, we had dinner with some of Andrew's old high school friends, spent time with Andrew's extended family (including Sunday evening at Granny's and Tuesday lunch at McDonald's), I spent an afternoon baking with my mother-in-law Kim and the women in her family, Andrew and I went to see Sherlock Holmes (our first real date in months...loved it, by the way, great movie!), and we continued the annual cookie baking and decorating tradition.

Christmas morning we went to church, then Jaclyn (Andrew's older sister) and her little family arrived and we opened presents together. The most exciting moment was when she and Adam announced they were expecting baby #3 in July! We can't wait!

We had Christmas lunch with Kim's family where we ate, exchanged gifts and played games, then we headed to Andrew's Granny's to celebrate with our other tight-knit set of aunts, uncles and cousins.

 This year the nativity was put on by the great-grandchildren, and Asher (far right) made a swell shepherd, while our niece Aubrey (top center) was quite literally a perfect angel.

Ali and Bryan came in Tuesday night and we had Christmas all over again! Little Henry's first birthday was the next day and we had a blast attending his ADORABLE party - the event of the season. Ali planned a "Mustache Bash," and every detail was hand crafted and perfect!

Listen, you all - it was one of the swankiest parties I've ever been to. With the low light, expensive drinks and downtown feel...I had to remind myself it was a one-year-old's birthday party to keep from putting out the vibe.

Here are some pictures of the event borrowed from Ali, because the ones I took don't exist.

Ali and her yearling

 We love you sweet Henry boy!

 

The Ash Stache

We tore ourselves away from the party and drove up to Louisville to spend the rest of our break with my family. I'd been looking forward to this visit for SO long! Let me tell you - having 5 of us White girls together with our families under one roof was complete mayhem and so much fun. I never laugh more than when I'm with my sisters!

As usual, we took zero pictures of our time together, but I loved playing games (the game of Things, Monopoly, and a new one you should look into - Spontuneous), going out to eat, making our favorite salsa and homemade cinnamon rolls, exchanging gifts (including gags!), watching the cousins play together and staying up too late talking.

We also were able to see some old ward friends, which was big highlight. Even as we're meeting wonderful people in a new place, being away from home has made us miss the comfort of old friends.

Leaving Louisville and family was hard, but we really are glad to be home. In Ohio. Where we belong. :)

Christmas Vacation

Ahhhhhhh. Week two of our Christmas break dawns. Sitting here with Andrew watching Christmas Vacation with my back to a crackling fire. The presents are wrapped, the tree is gorgeous and Kim Jong Il is dead.  What a holiday. So grateful to have a few more years of our own Christmas Vacations to enjoy! Guess the big upside to being in school are breaks from school.

Andrew finished his last final and all the stress melted away. We started baking, shopping and and movie watching. We went out to eat Mediterranean food. We visited the science center and took Asher to see Santa (Asher LOVES Santa!). We had our Christmas morning together and marveled as our ecstatic little boy played with his new cozy coupe and trucks the rest of the day. He begged to sleep with them that night.

After a sweet few days at home together, we set out on the 15-hour drive to Oklahoma to visit my mom's side of the family. I won't burden you with details of the journey, but I will say this: it was somewhat grueling. High points: Asher being an absolute angel with the help of of a borrowed DVD player, and it not snowing. Low points: driving most of the way in heavy rain and arriving at 4:30 in the morning. Oi.

But we had a fantastic visit! Really wonderful to see everyone. We played games together, shopped, relaxed, went to Port Lugano for their change-your-life tomato basil soup, cooked like crazy people and had a formal Christmas diner, exchanged gifts, took a trip to the farm in Omega, and threw a "Patriot Christmas Party" for my mom's political group (youngest ones there or not, we actually had a really good time!).

Here's a picture of Asher with great-grandad on our last night there.

After 4 days there, we headed to Kentucky on Saturday morning to beat the storms east. Now we're in Central City with Andrew's family and majorly kicking back. No agenda, just family, food and fun, baby. This is living.

A very merry Christmas from the Steele family!

Oh, and by the way...this is our 24th post of the year. After performing a complex algorithm I discovered our blogging average is up to twice a month now. Looks like our days of annual updating might just be behind us for good. Here's to blogging 2.3 times a month in the New Year! :)

Magic

Happy December!

Would it be cliche to say, "I love this time of year!"? Well, whatever, I do. I also wish it didn't sound dumb to talk about the "magic of Christmas," because I think about it all the time lately.

Every night before Andrew comes home, I rush around the house, cleaning everything up, turning on Christmas music, lighting the tree and making sure the house smells like cinnamon. It feels so warm and festive that way, and I know he loves it. The other night, when the classic Grinch cartoon came on TV, Andrew took a little break from studying to watch it with me. We drank egg nog (diluted with milk), gazed at the sparkling tree (during limited commercial interruptions), and basked in the Christmassiness of it all.

One of our very first posts listed our top 5 Christmastime favorites (you can read it here if you want to), and I really have nothing to add. That they're unchanging is the point. It's the sameness of the season's sights, smells, tastes and sounds that bring so much.....comfort and joy.

And I love knowing what the tradition and togetherness all truly center on. How do you explain that Christmas feeling without using dumb words like "special," and "magic"?

Beats me, but I will say, I LOVE the way we celebrate our Savior's birth. It warms my soul and makes my heart grow 3 sizes.

Love and Lyrics

This is a bit of a sap trap, so be advised.

I want to document something small. For the last few years, Andrew and I have been singing an old song to each other - "I Love How You Love Me," by Bobby Vinton. You've heard it...just a simple, sweet little song. Well, all this time we've only known the lyrics to the first couple phrases, so start strong, then just ho-hum and eventually fizzle out.

Last Wednesday, I finally decided to look up the song's lyrics so I'd be prepared the next time one of us was feeling lovey-dovey and burst into song. Wait, what? Guess that confirms our loserdom. Anyway, I don't know what made me look it up. It'd been a couple weeks since we'd last sung the song, and I'd neglected hundreds and hundreds of chances to look it up on days prior, but that day I just had a whim.

Well. That night as we're putting Asher down, Andrew starts singing the song with surprising lyrical acuity. Turns out, that for no good reason, he'd looked up the lyrics earlier that day too. Soul mates?

The Bi-Polar Express

We are so in love with Asher. This stage has to be the cutest yet! He points out everything he sees ("Chool bus!" "Moon!", "Daddy's Shoes!" "Church!"), gives us hugs and kisses at random, asks to go "night night," loves to read books, says please and thank you...the boy is a dream.

This, of course, is all rosy retrospection. I wrote that paragraph last night, while Asher was sleeping; everything seemed right with the world. Yesterday he took a three and a half hour nap. Yesterday he played sweetly with other children. Yesterday he went potty on the potty chair twice.

Then there was today. This morning I took Asher to Chic-Fil-A to eat breakfast and play in the "pay pace." Everything was going well, until another mother informed me that Asher was hitting. Sure enough, there was the little culprit in my blind corner, pushing another kid who was playing in the spot he thought was his. After a good talk and a long timeout, he was back out on parole.

That lasted 5 minutes before the next incident.

I wish he had shoved someone.

Instead, to my horror, he'd vomited all over the slide. Not sick, just too many chic'n minis before going down head first. After cleaning it up as best I could and getting an employee to disinfect, I started packing him up only to discover he had one last trick. Hoping for the trifecta, he decided to have a blowout. Bravo, Asher. Well done.

We came home and he took a nap 2 hours shorter than yesterday's. While I begrudgingly made lunch, he scattered all the clean laundry from the basket onto the floor, and rearranged the DVDs. Also on the floor. He begged to play in the backyard, and anxious to buy myself time to reassemble the house, I obliged. I regretted it when he reappeared minutes later covered in mud, with tracks following him across the carpet.

Being a stay-at-home mom to a single child sounded a lot easier before I was one. My days are filled with highs and lows...one minute I feel we are the luckiest parents in the world, and the next I wonder what on earth we're doing wrong. One second he's singing a sweet little song to himself, the next, he's blowing his nose in my hair. 

Yes, it can feel like a non-stop ride on the Bi-Polar Express, but at the end of the day, you wouldn't want to trade places with anyone. Being a mom is the best job in the world.

We love that boy. Sure, he's sleeping again now, so it's easy to say, but we really do. We thank our Heavenly Father for him every day, and feel profound gratitude for all the ways sweet Asher has blessed our lives.

Last Saturday I snapped these pictures of him playing in his room. None are framers, but we take what we can get!

I may have captured two good pictures of Asher his entire life. It's a combination of an old camera with a delay, and a disinterested subject. We'll have to rely on mental pictures.

Later that same day, an overzealous Asher jumped into the tub prematurely. Here he is performing his nightly "knock everything off the bathtub shelf" ritual.

Did I mention we love that boy?