the party

For Asher's birthday last week we just had a low key family get together. We also celebrated Grace's 7th birthday which was the day before. Grace requested a chocolate cake with raspberries, and keeping with the fruit theme I made Asher a chocolate cake with strawberries. I also mixed strawberry jam into the whip cream for the icing. They were both delicious!

Jared's step-dad Mike and my Grandma Teddy meeting Miriam for the first time.

The G 7 on the cake was Grace's idea.

It was fun that Asher got to blow out his candles this year. He was quite intrigued but had some trouble blowing out the second candle and actually burned himself a little getting too close.

my beautiful (2 year old) boy

I was planning on doing a little photo shoot with Asher for his second birthday, but I ended up snapping a few photos of him on his actual birthday just for fun. These are just Asher in his diaper on the front porch but I like their simplicity. Maybe I won't do another shoot. Isn't he a beautiful boy?

one month

My pretty girl is one month old already. 

It feels more like a week than a month, but as everyone says--it goes fast!

She is spending more time during the day awake and lucky me sleeps very well at night. She usually wakes up once after midnight and then again about 6. Then its back to sleep until 8 or 9.

I adore baby feet. She loves to stretch and point her toes. Maybe she'll be a dancer like her mama?

floral friday

More of my yellow roses photographed last month during a rain shower.

happy birthday, asher!

Two years ago today I became a mother.

I made a baby from scratch and birthed that baby.

July 21, 2008

That baby grew.

January 21, 2009

And grew some more.

July 21, 2009

And more.

January 2010

And is now not so much a baby anymore.

He's a two year old.

Today

I think I love him a little more every day.

My heart just overflows when I see his grin.

Happy Birthday, Asher!

4 weeks

Miriam is four weeks old today so I made Jared snap some photos of us together. It was too dark outside to not use the flash, but I think these turned out pretty cute. I love seeing photos of her with her eyes open. She has the most gorgeous big eyes. It will be really fun to see what color they end up being. They are still a very dark blue right now but are starting to lighten up just a tad around the pupil.

PS... Her hair looks red here, but alas that is just a trick of the lighting. I think she's going to be a blondie like her brother.

moments from mimi's first days, part 3

Miriam spent her first few weeks on the yellow side so she also spent quite a bit of time sunbathing. She's looking much pinker these days thank goodness and never had to go through the torture of getting her bilirubin checked over and over like Asher did his first month. Most of the time she would sunbathe in this little serving tray setup. It was handy because we could move her around from sun patch to sun patch without disturbing her much.

In these photos she is soaking up some rays at just a day old. 

I love little bitty baby parts.

great post about extended breastfeeding

Photo by my friend Nicki Wright of Nixi Photography

Bellies and Babies has a great guest post about nursing beyond 6 months into (or beyond) toddlerhood. Reminded me of so many of the reasons why I am still nursing Asher. It's definitely worth reading even if you can't imagine nursing past a year. Check it out.

Also, the Breastfeeding Cafe is hosting a blog carnival the next couple of weeks in preparation for World Breastfeeding Week next month. Lots of great posts!

floral friday

As promised, here are more photos of the big fat poppies from last week. 

Don't they just make you smile?

Asher and Miriam

Those are some good Bible names, are they not? I didn't even know I had an affinity for Bible names until I had to name my children. Which reminds me of a kinda funny story.

A couple months ago I was at the park with Asher. There were two dads there with their little boys and all the kids were playing in the sand pit. One of the dads was chatting with me and we were exchanging names and such. When I told him Asher's name he said that they had considered naming their son that. Then he asked me what we were going to name the baby. I told him and said something like, "Yeah apparently we have a thing for Old Testament names." He said, "Oh I didn't know Asher was in the Old Testament... So what religion is the Old Testament anyway?" I replied, "Oh Jews, Muslims, and Christians all use the Old Testament." This was apparently quite surprising to him. :-)

But back to my cute kids...

Here are some pics of the first time Asher held Miriam when she was two days old. I just love these.

This one is going on my wall... love it!

And then these are all from yesterday. Can you tell Asher really loves his little sister? He loves to come up and rest his cheek on her head or face, and he's been wanting to hold her quite a bit the past few days. He also gives her great kisses.

Here I let him hold her without helping so I could take the picture. Not sure Miriam appreciated that.

And then here's a couple more of each of them just because they are cute.

This was the first time he actually smiled for the camera when I asked him to. 

That is dried strawberry jam on his face by the way.