Cute pics -

So here are some cute pics of my sweet soon to be 9 month old baby Asher...so hard for me to believe that he is that old already! He is so close to crawling, is babbling away saying "mama" and "baba" and still loves to laugh and smile, especially at his big brother. He is still a little guy, weighing in at only 16 lbs 12 oz and although he is not a huge liquids guy, he seems to love to eat. He will try almost any table food I put in front of him, although most of it still slides out his mouth and ends up on the floor. Asher still loves to be held and although he is crazy squirmy when I am holding him, he loves to cuddle right before naps and bed. I could rock him forever when he's got his head on my shoulder and I can feel his sweet breath and little eyelashes on my cheek. Here are some pictures of my happy baby. I took these the other day when Braden was still napping.

And what has this guy been up to?
...a whole lot of anything that has to do with water. Since it's so hot these days, Braden and I spend a lot of time in the baby pool, running through the sprinkler, watering, watering, watering anything and everything, playing in buckets of water, oh and painting the fences with what you ask...water of course!!! We try to get outside while Asher naps and then when it's so hot we can barely stand it, we come inside and cuddle on the couch and watch Bob the Builder. The other thing Braden spends much of his day doing is talking about his birthday. In fact if you ask him how old he is going to be next month, he gets this huge smile on his face and says, "almost six!" Ha...I love the things that come out of a 3 yr old's mouth. Every day he tells me about how it's almost his birthday and how we are going to eat chocolate cake and go to Bounce U for his party. He really cannot wait...and quite honestly, I'm pretty excited too! I love the spirit and excitement of a 3 yr old...it really is so sweet! I'll leave you with some pictures of my boys together...for the moment, they get along great...I know the dynamics are about to change once Asher starts crawling. Until that time, I'll enjoy them the way they are -

Naked hugs before bath time -
This is how I get my laundry put away -
And Braden lathering up Asher's head for the 800th time in the bathtub -
Apparently Asher likes it -

Summer

School ended the week before last so now it's me and the boys home together all summer. I'm actually really glad to have Braden home with me all summer. I mean sure there are going to be days when I'm gonna miss having some down time while he was in school and Asher was napping and I'm sure there are gonna be long days when it's way too hot to be outside and it's way too boring to be inside all day, but overall I'm so happy to have Braden home with me all summer. I'm sure there will be lots of pool days, hose days, sprinkler days, popsicle days, ice cream days, park days and who knows what else. I'm looking forward to it. In fact just the other morning while Asher was napping, Braden and I sat outside in his little play house, eating popsicles and talking about pizza, hamburgers and snakes. I mean does it get any better then that! Toward the end of our conversation, Braden came over and sat in my lap and we finished our popsicles with him sitting snuggled in my lap. I love my conversations with this little guy and I love, love, love that my nearly 3 yr old still wants to sit in my lap!!!! Braden is pretty pumped about summer too...in fact, a few mornings ago when I went in to get him up out of bed, he walked to the window, opened up his curtains, looked outside and said, "It's summer. Yeah! Now we can go to the pool!" So since now it's officially summer in Braden's mind, let the pool days begin.

Here are two pictures of Braden's first day of school. -
This was such a hard day for me back in September. Braden felt like such a little baby to me and I was sad not to spend every day with him like I had for the past two years. Mother's Day out turned out to be a wonderful experience for both of us and Braden loved his class and his friends this year. On his last day, I dressed him in the exact same outfit he started school with and it's crazy how much he grew and changed in just a few short months. Here he is this past week after school -
Here he is showing me his ceramic car he painted me at school. I love these little art projects he brings home...they are so precious to me. Now I understand why my parents never got rid of any of the artwork I did as a kid.
And here is little Asher...happy as always...ready to get this summer stuff started (although it was cold on Braden's last day of school so I had to pull out a little fall jacket for Asher).
Happy Summer!!!