like father, like son

19 months old

As of Sunday, my baby is 19 months old. I didn't even realize it until that night when I got online for a minute. I totally hadn't realized the date until then. February is flying by! This cute boy is getting harder to take portraits of because he wants to play with my camera. If I have Jared to help distract him, it works better, but I did manage to snap this picture of him today all by myself. It was the ONLY one where he smiled and looked at the camera. I had to put a stuffed animal on my head to get it. His smile melts my heart.

more of my hazel-eyed boy

Asher has really cool eyes. They have always been really dark and over the 18 months of his life have gone from newborn blue to navy blue to blue with a touch of goldish brown to their current hazel mixture of brown and gray-blue. Most people think they are brown when they just glance at him because his eyes are so dark, but I assure you the gray-blue is still there on the outside. And then in true hazel fashion, sometimes they look quite green. I keep thinking the brown is going to take over completely, but it hasn't happened yet. We shall see. They've pretty much stayed as is for awhile now.

How precious is this face?

Not that I'm biased or anything.

18 months--my how time flies!

Check out my adorable little boy! He's not a baby anymore I'm afraid.

I recently was looking at some photos of him from last winter and realized how much he's grown up. He's not the chubby little baby anymore. He's a running, babbling toddler.

Oh man, do we love him!

the belly makes it's blog debut

I'm now almost 17 weeks pregnant and loving life in the second trimester. I'm not nauseous anymore. I have more of an appetite. I'm finally beginning to look slightly more pregnant and less like I just got fat. I figured it was time to start documenting the growing belly, so I had Jared snap a pic real quick in front of my new Ikea curtains. (I need to find somewhere with better lighting to take my belly pics though.)

My belly seems different to me this time around. For one I got a pooch much quicker this time. Also, I feel like my organs high tailed it north at the first sign of uterine growth. So although I'm pretty sure my baby is still pretty low, the belly seems biggest up higher where my innards are now residing. I can still wear and zip up my normal jeans which is convenient. Gotta love the low rise pants these days. I feel like by this time with Asher I was already using the elastic trick on my pants. Probably because I was working and wearing dress pants all the time.

Speaking of Asher, he hasn't been getting as much face time around here as usual. Here's a cute one of him from this morning. This plastic dome is from a toy of Isaac's that Asher has pretty much adopted. He plays with it a lot and then loves to put this on his head and run around. We think he's pretty funny.

sign of a real man

willing to wear his baby in the moby wrap

this photo is a couple months old
i stumbled upon it the other day

i love these two

15 months old (yesterday)

Our boy is 15 months old and each day he seems less a baby and more a little boy. He is walking but not full-time yet. Each day the ratio of walking to crawling leans more towards the walking, but he's not totally sure about it yet. He can crawl like lightening so when he wants to go fast that is his method of choice.

He loves coloring, eating with a fork, chocolate, helping us cook, putting things in containers, being outside, sharing food with Mommy, giving the most wonderful hugs, playing with his big brother and sisters and nursing of course. He still nurses quite a bit. And despite my attempts at teaching him the sign for "milk" to use when he wants to nurse, he usually just crawls on my lap and pulls on my shirt. Not very discreet I'm afraid. He's also extremely loud and vocal although he doesn't say real words very often.

Every day we seriously love him more. He is such a delightful little chap and makes our lives such a joy.

child labor

We like to start early around here.

grandparent love

I adore this picture of Asher my dad took. So darling.


And I love this picture even more. Asher was so happy to be with his Grandpa. It makes my heart go all mushy to see them together.

taos and chimayo

Greetings from New Mexico! This weekend we've had a nice time lounging around and watching conference. Friday we drove up to Taos and walked around the old town and did some shopping. I got the kids a little trinket and Asher got some cozy moccasin boots. They will keep his toes toasty all winter. And my dad bought me a print from a Santa Fe artist. I'll post about once I have it home and framed.

The only pictures I took were of Asher.
He did not want to get off this thing.



He was listening to a street musician here and very interested.



Then we drove the long way home through Chimayo and stopped at El Santuario do Chimayo. Every year people walk from hundreds of miles away to pilgrimage here.







One thing about New Mexico is that everything is very spread out, so you end up doing a lot of driving. Asher was actually quite good in the car though and took his naps in the carseat on Friday. Here he is with Grandpa.


Other things on the agenda for this week:
Taking photos of my dad at the hospital
Taking photos of the Hansen family
Going to Santa Fe
Going to lunch with my dad's office manager
Hiking
Eating yummy New Mexican food
Spending lots of time with Grandma, Grandpa, and Uncle Nick (who Asher adores)

flying alone with a one year old

On Thursday Asher and I are flying to New Mexico to see my parents. I'm feeling a bit nervous. Asher has flown several times but it was all before he was mobile and I always had Jared with me. Luckily we have a direct flight and it's only an hour and a half. But.... I'm still nervous.

What tips do you have? What trick should I have up my sleeve to keep him happy and not crawling as fast as he can down the aisle?

farewell fair mullet

Sunday night we decided the mullet had grown long enough.

It was just too long and fluffy, and the curls I was hoping would appear, never really did.


So we cut off the ceremonial baby hair lock and then pulled out the clippers and daddy had a go at it.
Don't look too closely though, Asher was super wiggly so its not very even, but he doesn't have much hair anyway so its hard to tell.

Hopefully now it will all grow out more evenly.

He's not much of a baby anymore these days. :-(
Next time I think he wants to cut it himself.

14 months

My happy baby is 14 months old!




He sure is a hoot. He still won't walk, but he does love to stand and sit and stand and sit over and over again. And if there is music playing he dances. Its adorable.


I love this boy.

liberty park again

Asher and I had a fun morning at Liberty Park again... this time with Amy and Sam. The boys had fun playing, while the mamas had fun chatting. It's SO great to talk with another mom who makes similar parenting and lifestyle choices. Amy is such an inspiration! If you haven't read her blog, her should.

And here are a few quick pics of the boys playing. Sam was loving on this little stone bunny. So of course Asher had to check it out too.



And the trip wouldn't be complete without playing in the water. Asher got soaked. And Sam tried to drink the water. I just love little boys!