improv

who needs drums when you have... a diaper genie. it did provide a nice beat for classics like the B-I-B-L-E (emphasis on the EEEEEE!!!) and happy birthday to you. who needs a tree house when you have... the kitchen table. the past several evenings after dinner, caleb has been pulling asher under the table with him to play. it's so cute. caleb talks asher's ear off and asher just kicks and coos away.

just for fun

such a sweetheart (notice the huge curl of hair behind his ear!) caleb in the same green chair at 3ish months old. asher can't even wear that outfit anymore, and it was roomy on caleb. brotherly love not sure which looks crazier...caleb's smile, or his hair after nap one day...

only a 2 year old...

only a 2 year old would think that this outfit looked good. it may look like he's color blind, but there is a logical (to a 2 year old) explanation for the stripe/plaid combo. for about a month, caleb has been living in his "golf" shirts, otherwise known as the various striped t-shirts that my mom got dirt cheap at kohl's for him to play in. i'm not sure why he thinks they are golf shirts because you can't get into most golf courses without a collar on your shirt, but he loves them. regarding the plaid shorts, he wore them on vacation, a.k.a. riding in the silver truck (also an obsession), and daddy has a pair very similar, so that's a no-brainer about why he has asked to wear them every day for the past week. put that reasoning together and you get this outfit when mommy asks, "what do you want to wear today?" these sunglasses he received as a party favor are looking like they may turn into his newest obsession...but i'm kinda diggin' the yellow frames.

asher at 3 months

hard to believe, but asher is already 3 months old. my, how time really does fly. i don't have any stats on him because we go to the doctor next month for a well-check. however, he is wearing 6 month clothes so it's safe to say that he is growing at a healthy rate. asher continues to be a happy baby. he is quite content to sit up and coo, babble, and chew on his fingers during his awake time, but that's not all he does. during our daily "exercise" time we roll over, sit up, and stand. he looks so proud of himself every time i pull him up into a standing position. asher still wakes up around 4/4:30 a.m. to eat, but i believe that he will stop that once he begins eating solids in a month or so. i would love to say that he takes long naps, but that would be a lie. most days, he has a solid morning nap and sleeps at some point in the afternoon, but the time and length varies. and then again, he has his days where he catnaps all day long. at least he's a pleasant little booger while he's awake! working hard during tummy time a little brotherly bonding sitting on the back porch watching big brother ride his tricycle. asher doesn't like to sit back and relax in his seats. he prefers to really be sitting up on his own. he even tries in his car seat...crazy kid. no babies were harmed during this photo shoot. it's just what happens when asher does tummy time with the boppy pillow and decides to try to crawl over it!!! he actually works the lower half of his body like he's crawling and sometimes, like this day, he moves a little bit. love that face!

our 4th anniversary

while in hilton head, tom and i celebrated our fourth anniversary by going out to dinner alone thanks to some free babysitting by nana! we went to red fish and it was most excellent. this restaurant would typically be waaaaaaaaay out of our budget, but a while back, several families in our church decided to bless each of the pastors and their wives with some date money and tom and i managed to hold on to ours until now. tom enjoyed a huge 16 oz. sirloin while i gorged myself on an equally huge pork chop with brandywine apple chutney, fresh asparagus, and mashed potatoes...yum, yum! after that, we took a short moonlight stroll on the beach (awwwwwww) before heading back to reality and a midnight feeding for asher : no lovey-dovey sentiments for this past year, just a whole bunch of thankfulness that we survived it. it was a very rough year considering we've moved twice (in the same metro area) and tom has served at two different churches (yea PBF!). however, the birth of our second happy, healthy son has been the biggest reason for thanks thus far. we're looking forward to what year #5 has in store!

hilton head 2009

since saturday, we've been in hilton head, sc with tom's mom and her girls. this makes the second year that we've had a big family vacation, and it's a tradition that tom and i hope to continue for many more years. the great weather has allowed us to enjoy the ocean and pool at our leisure--a great blessing considering how many feeding/naptimes we have to juggle these days! our attempt at a sand castle. pretty impressive considering caleb was knocking down towers as fast as tom could build them up. caleb playing in the sand. he looooooooooved the beach again this year, including the sand...a major improvement over last year when he screamed whenever the dry sand stuck to his feet, or his crocs. caleb has decided to call the ocean, "yucky water" due to the fact that it tastes yucky whenever he gets it in his mouth. despite the yuck factor, he still loved getting in the ocean. asher enjoying himself at the beach. i would have taken more than one picture, but it was the same story, different verse each day we went. guess the sound of the ocean was relaxing. check out the huge crab we found when we were setting up our canopy the first day! he was a quick little sucker, but we managed to trap him in a bucket for a few pics. and yes, we let him go. daddy and caleb mommy and caleb look, asher was awake for part of vacation! hands down, the best part of vacation for caleb was the silver truck we rented. he loved being able to drive it, hold the keys in his pocket, and just ride around the sea pines plantation in it. caleb really enjoyed the playground at harbour town. it was a nice change of pace from the ocean and the pool in the morning. caleb in the pool. daddy managed to rig him up a personal floatation device consisting of his life jacket, inner tube, and a snorkel. the snorkel was the glue that held the whole thing together. remove it, and caleb would slip down through the inner tube...crazy, but it worked.

look what i can do!!!

it's hard to tell from this picture, but asher loves to chew on his fist. frequently, he will find his thumb and is quite happy to trade it for the paci. asher is such a happy little guy. we love to make him smile.