Big and Small

I don't know how else to put this, so I'll just come out and say it: Asher is crazy.

I, of course, mean that in the best of ways - the sweet child is extraordinarily active. He climbs, he runs (I mean RUNS), he dances. He investigates everything, which is really just my nice way of saying he gets into every drawer, container, closet, and cabinet, empties its contents, then moves on in search of old food bits that have fallen to the floor.  I'll admit, it frazzles me sometimes.

His absolute favorite thing to do is play outside - looking for rocks, throwing balls, scaling the riding lawn mower, playing around inside the cars. He frequently crawls in the stroller and looks at me expectantly until I push him around the block. I don't mind, because he is actually holding still in one place.

 At Great- Granny's house wishing he could play ball with the big boys

Last Tuesday, Asher took a fall down the stairs. It was horrible. When the poor little guy finally calmed down and we ascertained he was bump and scrape free, we put him down to walk. To our dismay, he started collapsing when he put weight on his right foot. It wasn't swollen, but he continued to limp around on it. All of a sudden, I was desperate to have our wild, active toddler back.

Long story short, nothing was broken.  He'd just twisted his ankle, so we wrapped it and released him back into the wild. The limp only lasted for a day or two. Suddenly, it was a huge blessing to see him back to his old, busy self. What a good lesson in gratitude and perspective.

We're so thankful to our Heavenly Father who constantly teaches us, and watches over all of his children, big and small.

And we're extra grateful for our crazy Asher.

Sweet crip

 

Of course it's real

Brand New Baby

We're missing our baby boy.

Well, it's mostly me missing, but Andrew does too. We've come to realize each stage has its own challenges and rewards, and while 16-month-old Asher has gotten increasingly fun and we love him more each day, nothing beats the cuddly sweetness of a newborn.

....Is this what convinces people to try for another?

Well, until we're officially ready, we'll just have to reminisce. Here's a little look back at our family when Asher was still brand new.




* I prefer to watch this with the sound off so I can focus on how precious baby Asher is without being annoyed by the sound of my own voice. Try it that way.

The Mini

Last Saturday I ran my first mini marathon. What an experience! At 13.1 miles, it was the farthest I've ever run in my life. It was hard, but felt really good to accomplish.

The back story is this: Not too long ago I caught myself eating ice cream while reading Women's Health. I realized my love of fitness is hard to reconcile with my even greater love of food. It's a tough balance to achieve.

 

Thanks for the visual, internet clip art

I enjoy exercising, but my efforts have usually been fairly casual. I wanted to push myself. I have a few friends who had done or were doing the half marathon, so in January I made a goal to run it, signed up and started training. Still too casually, but training, nonetheless.

The night before the race I was too nervous and keyed up to sleep. I had come down with a cold and worried about breathing through my nose the next day. I felt unprepared. My goal had been to finish the course in 4 hours, but I was scared I wouldn't finish at all. I said a series of very serious prayers. When morning finally came, I had a bowl of oatmeal, chugged a Gatorade,  donned my 7-year-old Nike's and anxiously headed out. 

I told you it was hard, and it was. But as I ran, I found myself really enjoying the experience. Imagine - the sun shining, people on all sides cheering you, drum lines playing, and 15,000 sets of shoes pounding the pavement. We ran through downtown Louisville and all the way to Churchill Downs where we were able to run around the infield. I kept myself jogging at an easy pace most of the way, but really started to feel it around mile 10. Mile 13 went on forever. Finally I saw the finish line and sprinted down the last leg. What an incredible feeling!

I finished at 2:36, and want to try for 2:15 next time. If this is what accomplishing a goal feels like, I need to set more and get to work!

Downtown Louisville. We ended the race there on the Great Lawn

The face of a true champion.

Just kidding.

No Stress in the Nest

So here we are, coming to you from rural Kentucky where we're living in my husband's parents basement. It's a glamorous life, but we try to stay grounded.

Aaactually, we love it here and are having a ball. Outside of the whole "we're living with my husband's parents" stigma, this whole arrangement has really been ideal! It's great to spend time with Ali and Bryan (who are also here this summer before going to dental school this fall), along with the other members of Andrew's extended family. I love not having a whole house to clean or being solely responsible for grocery shopping, meal planning or preparation. Asher is LOVING being around his grandparents. It's sweet to see, although I admit I sometimes miss being one of his two favorite people.

Andrew and I have both been able to work during the day (he works at Wing Supply and I substitute teach) while my saint of a sister-in-law watches Asher along with baby Henry. We get together with Andrew's extended family once or twice a week, attend institute Tuesdays and choir practice Wednesdays. Nights at home are usually spent playing games or watching something together, and honestly, I just love it. No stress in the nest. I know it's only temporary, but sometimes I wish it wasn't.

Here are a few pictures from Easter weekend:

All the Grandkids - Asher, Henry, Parker and Aubrey

Asher propositions Henry

Henry rejects

The whole family

Springtime on Geneva Way

As the weather has gotten nice, Asher has grown increasingly fond of the outdoors. He'll tell me "Bye!" and then scamper off to attempt forcing the back door open. It's cute. I've tried to accommodate his new love, although spending any amount of time outside leaves that earthy smell on us (you know that smell? Sort of a mix between plants and pollution?), and then we both need baths. Have I mentioned I'm a little neurotic?

At any rate, now that he's walking, I've taken to removing his shoes (seems counter intuitive, but this way he doesn't fall as much), and letting him toddle around the yard and in the driveway. This was enough to satisfy his nature fix until our neighbors across the street let their Yorkies out. Just like that, our boy was on to harder drugs.

Now anytime we leave the house, Asher yells "Doggy!" and beelines for the beloved terriers. We are blessed to have nice neighbors - Gayle and Debbie,  a mother/daughter pair who are always sweet, welcoming, and tolerant of our antics.

Here are a few pictures from our most recent excursion. Daddy had just come home from work and was able to join in the fun (aka, help wrangle Asher).

He's so happy!

...until we tell him it's time to go home.

The view from across the street. I love how the trees are just beginning to wake up.

It's been a lovely three years. We're going to miss this house and our street!

Don't Turn Around

The title of this post was designed to implant an Ace of Base song in your head, but it also refers to an important lesson Asher teaches me every day. Here are just a couple examples of what happens when I turn my back on our little man, even for a minute.

We were depending on those to keep us full and focused, but Asher had other plans.

Asher's brush with e coli. Keep playing with it baby, Mommy's gonna take a picture.

He seriously loves trying to find where I hid the toilet brush! It's sort of an unsanitary little game we like to play.

The face he makes when you try to take it away.

And here's for old time's sake:

Dream Vacation

So the contractor came and ripped out a wall. As it turns out, there's no mold, just mildew. I'm glad. It sounds a lot less scary. But I suppose Andrew has a bad mildew allergy, because being in the basement still gives him trouble. Medicine and sleeping upstairs have helped, however, and we are looking forward to the basement being cleared out, cleaned up and back to normal. In the meantime, we're still moving.

While all this was going on, we decided to take a trip to Columbus to get out of the house, use Andrew's paid time off, and find a place to live. Maybe a little trip to Ohio doesn't sound like a big deal, but we were excited! We realized this would be the first real trip we've ever taken alone together as a family. I kept imagining us splashing around in the pool together, relaxing in the hot tub, gorging ourselves on continental breakfasts, and jumping on the king size bed in slow motion.

Seriously.

We headed out last Saturday, and on the way, stopped by Lebanon to visit Andrew's cousin Josh, his wife Chelsea, and their 3 adorable little ones. It was a lot of fun! The kids played, we grilled out, made a trip to Jungle Jim's (a huge, AMAZING international food store) in Cincinnati, made some Brazilian cheese bread, relaxed and went to bed. It was a quick visit, but we loved seeing them.

The next morning we headed out early to make it to church in Columbus. I was a little nervous to go to the ward we'd likely be members of the next four years (please don't let these people be weird!), but we were blown away by how incredibly welcoming and friendly everyone was. We had planned to stay in our car and eat trail mix until check-in, but that afternoon found us eating lunch with strangers who seemed like friends. They even let Asher take a nap and filled us in on tons of housing info. Burke and Julia, if you're out there, know we are grateful for your kindness! We want to send you a fruit basket.

We spent the rest of the day hopping around town looking at lots of places with members, having dinner with more stranger friends, and checking into our hotel. We thought we would end the day with a little dip, so we pulled on our swim gear and headed to the pool like giddy school children.

The door was locked. Closed for maintenance.

Vacation dreams partially shattered, I pouted for at least an hour. Thanks for nothing, Comfort Inn. We came here because we wanted the best. If we'd have wanted some dumpy hotel with no pool we could have booked a Microtel.

Okay, just kidding. The pool really was closed, but it opened the next day so all was forgiven. Monday we saw several more places and stopped by Chic-Fil-A for lunch, where Asher had his first Play Place experience. It was so cute to watch him play with all the other kids!

Wild delight. Sorry for the blurry phone picture.

Plum tuckered out after all his running around

We headed back to Louisville Tuesday afternoon, only to leave again Wednesday for Central City. Andrew had the whole week off, so we figured it would be fun to spend Conference weekend with his family. Have I ever told you how much I love those sweet people? They really are wonderful.

We spent the next four days talking, relaxing, playing games, eating too much, and hearing from inspired leaders. Kind of a perfect weekend. 

Saturday morning in bed with Daddy. Still mesmerised by the iPhone. No, Asher doesn't sleep with us, and yes, he wears clothes.

Our sweet boy enjoying the beautiful weather

The End