The Bunny

"The bunny, the bunny, whoa I love the bunny…"  Veggie Tales? Anyone??
I took Ash for his first visit to the Easter Bunny! I was a bit bummed that we missed going with our friends since we were sick.  But we made it there, nonetheless.
He did great!  He stared at the large furry creature for a while, (hey, I would too if I were him as it's kind of an odd concept) but we got a good shot. :-)

Easter

I love Easter and everything it represents!  Jesus died to save us and give us new life, and we are surrounded by the new life that springtime has to offer.  

It's a great time to be with family and friends.  

Yet, this Easter brought us an unexpected twist- in the form of a nasty stomach bug.  We were super sick on Thursday and Friday.  We felt better by Sunday and made it to church- which is great because it was an awesome service.  

(And I'm super proud of my husband who rocked his solo.) 

But my sister's family got sick by Sunday and had to miss all of the church and family time.

It was Asher's first Easter and we made the best of things.  We had a great lunch with Memaw, Great Grandpa Asher and Great Grandma Susie.  Asher got to play with his Easter basket and little plastic eggs.  He seriously loved them!  Plastic eggs- with nothing inside.  Awesome.

Checking out his Peter Rabbit toy from Memaw.

Family picture time!

We went out front to take family pictures and from the time we turned the camera (aka B's iPhone) on, and handed it to my mom, the setting got switched to video and no-one knew.  Pretty funny!  

I love listening to Asher's laugh! 

Memaw playing a peek-a-boo game can really get him going!

Hope everyone had a wonderful Easter!!

Photo Shoot Bloopers

I would imagine that many of you with young children can identify with me when I say that the road to a great photo of said child for an event or holiday can be a bumpy one.  I've never been a part of a professional photo shoot (I know, hold back your shock) but I can only imagine that there are many bad pictures mixed with a handful of good ones.  Yet, professionals have tricks I don't, so maybe not.
I sometimes feel that I (and other adults helping me) temporarily adopt some alternate personality to make the child smile or laugh to get the "perfect" photo.  When I try to get Asher's "I'm this many months" pictures, I think that sometimes it should be filmed.  While I probably wouldn't win some prize, it would definitely be good for a laugh.  I say and do all the things that have recently made him laugh- usually resulting in him just staring at me.  I make faces and put his favorite toys on my head, all the while taking shot after shot.  Oh and throw in that I want him to sit in a specific place with a silly sign that he shouldn't touch- what was mommy thinking??
I go through this same process again and again, hoping for him to finally smile and be positioned correctly (isn't that called insanity??).  By the grace of God, he smiles or laughs or is just getting tired and "delirious" as we call it.  So blah, blah, blah, all this to say, I think these out-takes are pretty funny.

Asher- 10 months old

On April 11th, Asher turned 10 months old!!

Here are some things Ash is up to:

We have been working on clapping and waving this month.  Clapping is going well, waving still needs work. :-)

Favorite foods- deli meat and cheese; man this kid can pack in the food now.  I have future visions of him eating us out of house and home.  He really likes to try new things; especially if it’s what we are eating.

Asher has reached what I call Official Wigglebug status- he just wants to move!

While still not crawling, Asher likes to maneuver himself 360 while on his belly and also while seated.  Then to move to a new location, he rolls, scoots, or pushes himself backwards.  I guess it’s something.

Asher is getting better at high 5s.

He seems to have changed his sleep pattern.  He now falls asleep between 7:30 and 8pm.  We have put a couple of stuffed animals in his bed for him to play with while getting sleepy.  It seems to be working well.

We have started “double bagging” at night. This was an awesome idea by Belinda and Nick where 2 diapers are used (the outer one is one size bigger) at night to prevent leaks.  It works better than anything we’ve done. Thanks for the idea guys!!

Asher loves to practice standing.  He kind of puffs up his chest and smiles or laughs.  He holds on to a table, the couch, his sit-to-stand toy, or our hands.  He stays up for 5-10 minutes at a time.  I still have hopes that he’ll crawl though.

He really likes standing at the coffee table.  He works his little feet apart (even if we push them back together)- almost making him do the splits!!

He has discovered many noises that he can make with his mouth and we hear them all them time now. (I still need to catch this on video.)

Ash is a super happy kid 99% of the time. Brandon can get him laughing so hard- it’s awesome!!

Loves his new Spiderman ball.

He loves peek-a-boo!  Both Memaw and Gma are great at doing this with him.

He still loves to swing. He shakes his arms and legs with excitement.  It’s so cute!!

He is making this crazy new face. It’s a cross between a super cheesy smile and almost starting to cry.  I think it’s because his mouth hurts; he’s cutting 3 more teeth.

This is almost the face.  Of course I haven't captured a great one on camera.

March 20- waved at the dogs next door and to Memaw

March 22- first baseball game (spring training)

March 22- Tooth #4

April 5- first haircut
Oh the first haircut- a memorable event for us indeed!  We went to Cool Cuts 4 Kids.  They were great!!  Yet no matter what they did, Asher still whined and fussed through the whole thing.  Baby Einstein right in front of him didn't even pacify him for long (which is really likes).  You'll see the cape goes on, and then he didn't like it, so it came right off.  All-in-all, as soon as daddy picked him up after it was finished, he was totally fine.  And he looked oh so cute!!

Other fun photos and videos:
I love his little superhero jammies!

Impromptu outside photo shoot.

Have I mentioned that I love spring??  Hope you were able to enjoy the outside before it hit 95!!

Iris in bloom

Yes, there is one tiny strawberry!!

Birthday Fun!

We spent a little time celebrating my wonderful husband's birthday!!
It was a beautiful afternoon and we enjoyed some time outside.  I also got him a corn hole set, so that added to the fun.

The cousins had a blast running around and playing.  Music to my ears. :-)

And although Asher was getting sleepy, he enjoyed himself as well.  Yay Gma time!

Yay Nolan and Memaw time!

Happy Birthday Brandon!  We love you and are so very thankful for you!!