Asher made a mess {video}

You know there's something fishy when your almost 2 year old is quiet.  Also, I love how this video captures his new favorite word, 'no'.  

Come on Mother Nature

We are ready for this snow to melt and to ditch the show pants.  Well that's not actually a fair statement because Asher throws a major fit and refuses to put them on, but you know what I mean. We're ready for spring!

Happy 9th to a beautiful little girl...

This past Saturday, we celebrated the 9th Birthday of my beautiful niece Eryn.  Maybe I'm a little partial because she was the first born.  Maybe I'm partial because I'm her Godmother.  Maybe I'm partial because she's my only niece.  Maybe I'm partial, but she's the most wonderful 9 year old I know.

 Eryn chose to celebrate with her friends at the roller skating rink.  She was sweet enough to invite her cousin Landon.  Here she is pictured with her friends. 

Landon was a lot of talk all week.  I can't wait to go roller skating...I don't need your help Mom...I know how to do it all by myself Mom...

That is until we got inside the roller skating rink.  We walked up to grab some roller skates and he had the death grip on my hand.  I asked Landon what was wrong and all he could do was shake his head.  I asked Landon if he wanted to roller skate and all he could do was shake his head.  I should have put money on it.  When it comes to trying new things, Landon would rather watch from the sidelines.

Regardless, the fun continued.  The girls had fun skating, and Landon enjoyed watching from the side.  Landon was pleasantly surprised when a classmate of his showed up.  Landon did venture away for a bit and checked out the video games with his friend.

Eryn got a lot of fun presents from her friends.  As always, our gift is always a nice pair of shoes.  This year she got a pair of Under Armour tennis shoes.  They were grey, electric blue and hot pink.  Hopefully she liked them!

Happy Birthday Eryn, thanks for inviting us to celebrate with you!

20 {at twenty}

So I'm a smidge late, but our sweet little red haired baby boy is twenty months old.  He continues to bring such joy to our family and is showing us a bit more of his spunky personality every day.  Here's twenty things you may or may not know about Asher.

1. There's a whole lot of teeth in that mouth.  Asher just recently got his bottom two eye teeth, and is working on his top one's.  Normally, Asher sleeps really well, but this has him waking a couple times a night fussing.  Thankfully he is always able to fall back asleep on his own. 
2. Speaking of sleep...before the time change, Asher was going to bed around 7:30 p.m. and waking around 5:30 a.m.  After the time change, he's hanging on a bit longer, and going down around 8:00 p.m., but still waking at his usual time between 5 and 5:30 a.m.  Yaaaaaawwwn....
3. For the past few months, we have been rocking Asher to sleep.  This started happening when he was suffering from ear infections and we never stopped after he had tubes put in.  We decided that it was time to fix his sleeping habits and after two nights, Asher now falls asleep on his own, in his bed.  In fact, he will tug on your hand and lead you to his room when he's ready for nap or bed.  (Except in the photo below!)
4. Asher loves to boogie.  Asher loves to dance to Rhianna, Casting Crowns, Train and has even been caught busting a move to advertisements on NPR. 
5. Asher is a cuddle bug.  Every morning, he makes his rounds.  Daddy, Mommy, Landon and it even continues when he gets to daycare.  He runs in the house, Bernice picks him up and he hangs on.  Such a little cuddler.
6. Asher has the cutest little "Oh."  Slightly bent at the hips with one hand on his knee, and the other one covering his "Oh" mouth, it may be the cutest little thing he does.
7. He has become quite fond of a blanket.  It doesn't matter which blanket, but he likes to have one close by, especially when he is tired.  I secretly hope he becomes attached to a blanket because I think it's cute. 
8. Asher loves milk.  Like, a lot.  Like no child should be drinking this much milk.  As in, he would chose milk over food any day of the week.
9. Despite being called a girl quite frequently, Asher still has not gotten a haircut.
10. Asher can give a pretty mean stare down.  He's good.  I challenge you to try beating him.  He's that good.
11. Asher loves chocolate.  If you got it and he see's it, he stomps his chubby little feet up and down repeatedly.  He loves chocolate. 
    
    
12. Animal noises are a lot of fun.  Asher can moo a pretty good cow and his dog barks are rather loud.  Asher loves the animal noises app on the ipad.  The pig is his favorite, but he's a little too shy to make a pig noise.  It's pretty adorable.
13. Water - what else can I say about it.  You've seen a few pictures of him hopping in the tub with his clothes on.  If not, click here and here.
14. Asher can understand almost everything you tell him, but can't seem to put the words together to talk yet.  So far his vocabulary is still pretty limited to "Mama," "Dada," "Bro bro" for brother, "Roo roo" for Elke Ruby, "Bop bop" for Grandpa and "No" for no and snow.
15. Asher has figured out how to open doors.  Yes, that includes the doors to outside. 
16. Asher loves to 'help' in the kitchen.  He pushes a chair up to the countertop and wants to be a part of everything you're doing.  Measuring, pouring, mixing, you name it.  If there is water in the sink, the chair quickly gravitates to that and his hands are soon in the water and he could care less about what we're making.  Here's just one example. 
17. Asher is a book worm.  It's absolutely adorable to see him pointing to a picture on a page and bust out laughing.  Oh to know what's going on in that big imagination of his.
18. I have a feeling that when the weather turns nice, it is going to be real hard to get this little boy in from outside.  He loves being outside in the snow, or "No" as he likes to call it. 
19. Asher has a small fetish with shoes.  His shoes, Mommy's shoes, Daddy's shoes or shoes in a shoe store.  We were shopping for some new running shoes a few weeks ago.  Asher insisted on taking his shoes off at the shoe store because he thought he needed to try shoes on as well.  Not sure where this is going to go in the future...
20. Almost every week in church this child brings me to tears.  While it's a bit distracting to us, Asher sits with us for our entire church service.  Landon goes into his Sunday school room, but Asher throws a fit if we try to leave him in the nursery.  At the beginning of the service the band (who is absolutely ah-mazing) plays for about twenty minutes. While we stand and worship, Asher usually bounces back and forth between the arms of Jer and I.  Asher will sing his little heart out and lift his hand high in the air to praise our Father.  I don't know if he knows exactly what he's doing, but I hope he doesn't ever stop.  It absolutely melts my heart and brings tears to my eyes.

So happy 20 months Asher, can't wait to see what the next 20 brings!

Our first 5k

This past weekend, Jer and I both ran our first official 5k.  I have run plenty of 5k's over the years, but never competitively.  I have run them either on the treadmill or my driveway :)

The Cresco Brew and Stew took place last Saturday, March 16th.  The race didn't start until 5 p.m., and brrrr....was it cold!!

Jer started his training this past December.  I on the other hand, ran twice two weeks ago, and that was it.  Jer finished around 28 minutes, but thought he could have done better.  I finished around 33 minutes, and could have definitley finished better. 

Both of us now have the urge to keep going, maybe even beyone a 5k, so we'll see.  I am anxious to be back in the running game after I abandoned it about a year ago. 

I stole the bottom photo from Cresco's Fit running club.  It was taken last year, but it seems like there was more people this year.  There were approximately 730 registered walkers/runners/bikers. 

I'm over the rainbow {for you}

Our St. Patty's Day treats this year were super easy, and I think they look pretty cute too!

A day in the life {snow day}

  

Happy Birthday Dr. Seuss!

Yesterday, I joined Landon and his class for a little party honoring Dr. Seuss.  It was so much fun to see Landon interacting with his teachers and classmates.  The Party was pretty fun as well! The party began with a movie...

 And then moved to story time...

And then it was time for some cupcakes!

 

Landon was excited that I brought a special guest along...Surprise...Grandma Debbie came to the party as well!

The party ended with special treats that Landon and I made.  One fish, two fish, red fish, blue fish.  Will you have some goldfish?

 What a fun time to celebrate with Landon and his friends.  We had so much fun.  When we got home, the celebrating continued as it was someone else we know's birthday...Daddy!!  More on that later!