San Francisco...the rest of the story

So we've been back home now for a few weeks and I have yet to post pictures of the rest of our trip to San Francisco. It was an amazing trip and we are definitely adding Napa Valley to our must travel list (a list of places we must go visit once our kids are grown and we can travel regularly). Here are some pictures from the rest of our trip out west.

Our lovely fire pit -

And who can forget the smores -
Welcome to Artesa...a Spanish vineyard, still owned by one of the oldest wine families in Spain -
The wine was good, but the views from up here were amazing. The whole winery (besides the grapes and vines of course) is built underground for earthquake protection.

One of the views...from up here you had almost a 360 degree view of the Sonoma Valley. Pretty breathtaking! All around us were vineyards...they went on for miles. Supposedly there are over 400 wineries in Napa Valley. That makes for lots of wine tasting :)

We also visited an Italian winery called Viansa, however my pictures didn't turn out so cute from that winery...maybe too much wine tasting on my part. Anyway, here are some beach pictures. We went walking on the beach one morning...it was WAY too cold out there, but the beach was incredible. We both agreed that this was by far the most beautiful beach we had ever been on...love how the water crashes against the rocks in the water.

That's our hotel in the background -
Famous Pier 39 and the sea lions in the background -

The beautiful Golden Gate Bridge -

A little rest and relaxation

Austin and I headed out of town on Friday for our much anticipated trip to Half Moon Bay/San Francisco, CA....good thing considering the horrendous flooding situation in Nashville over the weekend!!! Thankfully our house missed the flooding areas...praise God! Austin was fortunate enough to have sold enough cases with Humana health care and so they sent he and I on an all expense paid trip to sunny California. We are staying at the Half Moon Bay Ritz Carlton ...an incredible resort with breathtaking views of the cliffs overlooking the Pacific Ocean...the kind of views that steal your breath and make your realize what an amazing God we have who has created such things with His very hands. Wow! Anyway, it was VERY hard to leave my little boys...I miss them so much already, but they are in great hands with their Nana and Coach this week. So thankful for good hands and kind hearts who are willing to care for my sweet boys this week while Austin and I have a little down time. More to come, but our week is filled with bike rides along the ocean coast, cooking smores over the private fire pit which sits on our balcony, a wine tasting tour of Napa Valley, a trip into San Francisco to explore the city and lots and lots of good eating and full nights of uninterrupted sleep - praise God for that! If only we could get it to warm up here...it's in the low 60's but man can it get cold here when the wind blows off of the water. Since we have been here we have been reminded many a time of Mark Twain's famous quote - "the coldest winter I ever spent was a summer in San Francisco." Could not be more true! More pictures to come later, but here are a few from our adventure today...

Practicing safe biking with lovely, fashionable bike helmets! -
Stopping for a little break to take in the views of the ocean -
And this is one of the many incredible views of the ocean from our bike trail! -

Asher's Baby Dedication

The weekend after Easter, we had Asher dedicated at church. During the dedication they spoke about the profound passage in Deuteronomy 6:7-8 where we as parents are commanded by God to "diligently" teach his Word to our children "when you sit in your house, when you lie down and when you rise up." Wow...so basically I'm supposed to be teaching/modeling/seeking/praying God's word in all moments of my day. What a huge responsibility and great privilege to me as a mother and Austin as a father! Oh how I pray that in the chaos of my days that I can slow myself down enough to teach about God's great glory, His eternal promises and His unconditional love.
Here are some pictures from that sweet day -

Okay so here we are on stage...if you notice, Braden is either a.)wallowing in the floor b.) walking all over the stage (while I pray he doesn't trip on a cord, fall down and start screaming in the middle of the dedication) c.) begging for a snack d.) giving high fives to our friends kids at the other end of the stage e.) saying for the hundredth time "I wanna go see Toach." (Austin's dad) And the answer is...f.) all of the above. Okay so I will admit, this was not Braden's shining moment, but since we were trying to maintain some sort of peace in front of the entire church, there was not much we could do except pray that the pastor talk a little faster so we could go sit down.
After the church service we invited both of our families to come over to our house for a little brunch. It was an incredibly, beautiful day, so we spent the entire afternoon outside enjoying both boys and our families. Here is my sweet daddy with all of his daughters and one of his grandsons.

Toach and Uncle Tyler -

Aunt Shannon and little Asher -
Braden, resting on Tyson after a busy afternoon of playing. Please ignore his crocs with his outfit. I asked Austin to change him and instead of putting play clothes on him, he took his dress shoes off and put on his crocs.

And here is a sweet picture of Braden playing. I love how the sunlight was hitting his face!
All in all, a great day! So thankful for all the wonderful people who are such a huge part of my children's lives.

Easter Pictures

Okay so here are some pictures from Easter and all the fun activities surrounding this special holiday. My camera's batteries were dead of course so I didn't get too many pictures, but we did manage to stay out of the mud this year unlike last year. Here is a little reminder of how Easter went last year (keep in mind I was prego and Austin was out of town). Braden just couldn't resist the temptation to wallow in the mud after church -


Here we are dying some Easter eggs at home...Braden was covered from head to toe in blue dye by the time we were finished but he thoroughly enjoyed himself...especially once he figured out that the eggs crack if you drop them -
Ta Da -
Let me just stop here and say how much I have enjoyed reliving these holidays through the eyes of a child. Everything is new and magical and fun and exciting and I am so thankful to be able to become childlike again as I experience these ordinary days with such amazing little people. Oh how I will miss these days when they are gone...

On Easter Eve we went to an Easter Egg Hunt at our friend's home. This was such a fun party as we joined all of our dear friends and all their boys (how do we all have boys) to hunt for Easter eggs and let our children run around. Here is Braden showing me the surprise in his egg -

Hunting with daddy -

Braden and I...once he discovered this car that is in his hand, his egg hunting was over -

Sweet Asher holding an Easter egg. He enjoyed the festivities in the comfort of his exersaucer -

These are the bunny cupcakes I made for the party -


Here is Asher enjoying the grass in his Easter basket -
Of course my camera died before I could get any pictures of Braden opening his Easter basket. He got lots of Veggie Tales loot this year and he was quite pleased!

Here is our family picture...so thankful for all of my boys -
Well my baby turns 7 months old tomorrow...more on that later.

Months 5 and 6

How is it that another month has past and I am just now sitting down to update my blog? I guess that is what two kids will get you. Well Asher turned 6 months old a week ago. I can hardly believe that I have known him and held him for half of a year now. As I was rocking him the other day, I got sentimental thinking that in another 6 months (the same amount of time I have known him), he will crawling or maybe even walking and I won't be able to hold him and carry him like I do now. Oh how that makes me sad. Why does time pass so quickly with kids? It's like sometimes the days seem like years, but the months seem like just a second. So here are some fun facts about Asher...
*he is officially rolling both ways. It took him a little longer to figure out, but now that he's got it, he is much more content to lay on his back and flip back and forth looking and grabbing for toys.
*he is eating solids and loves his veggies, but is not a big fan of his fruits. Interesting huh? I thought it was supposed to be the other way around.
*he is finally doing well in his car seat. I still hear an occasional whine from the back of the car, but usually I can just hand him a toy or he'll start laughing at Braden and that is enough to satisfy him.
*the guy LOVES his paci. Now Braden was not a paci man, so this whole paci thing is new to me. Asher would easily suck his paci all day long if i let him. I'm trying to make a conscious effort to only give it to him when he is fussing so that he is not totally addicted b/c I know it's not gonna be a fun thing to break.
*he still loves to be held. And since he's not a big fan of the exersaucer or the johnny jump, that means that I get to do lots of holding. Before long I won't be able to hold him, so I'm trying to enjoy these moments while they last.
*he was doing 3 naps a day during most of month five and then came down with a nasty ear infection that took two different doses of antibiotics to kill and wreaked havoc on our schedule. now that we have recovered, we are officially on two naps a day.
*love, love, love carrying this little man in the peanut sling. austin calls him a little monkey b/c he's always hanging on me in the sling. this is how we do most of our outings is with braden in the cart and asher on me in the sling. i love having him so close. once again, these moments where he will let me hold him close and stay put in the sling are drawing to a close very soon.
*still no teeth, but lots of chewing so i feel confident that they are coming soon.

Well, that's about it for the little man or "bubbies number one" as Braden calls him. Braden calls himself "bubbies number two" so I guess it is only appropriate that Asher is "bubbies number one." Here are some pictures of the littlest man...hopefully I'll get some pictures up of Easter very soon.

These moments where both boys are sitting together in one spot are very rare -
Chillin' in bed with daddy -
Sweet smile -
Braden lining up his cars...honestly, the kid will spend hours lining up his cars and driving them around. His little imagination kills me...usually you can hear him talking to his cars and telling them to drive to "Bible study" or to the "grilled cheese store" or to the "grocery."
Enjoying his exersaucer outside while Braden is playing cars -
Looking like such a little man -
First time in the swing...his little face would light up every time I pushed the swing -
Braden kissing his brother! He will do this quite a bit on his own and then he comes running up to me saying "I just gave Asher a kiss." It is very sweet how affectionate Braden is to his baby brother -
Me and my boys -

Four things about my four month old...

It is so hard for me to believe that Asher is almost five months old already. He is growing and changing so much. I realized the other day that the newborn days are long gone and I now have a happy, sweet, playful baby who is eating solids, grabbing for toys, rolling, trying to sit and talking all the time. With that said, here are four things about my four month old:

1. Asher thinks Braden is HILARIOUS. It is so funny to watch because Braden will just walk in the room or smile and Asher will start cackling and squealing in laughter. For some reason, Asher gets the most tickled when Braden is eating or when I'm getting Asher changed before his naps. There is perhaps no greater sound then a baby laughing so hard he can hardly breathe.

2. Asher loves hands...his hands, my hands, Austin's hands. It doesn't matter...the boy always has someone's hands in his mouth. If not hands, then something has to be in his mouth. He really is not content unless he has something to chew on.

3. He's not too fond of his carseat. Now this is not a fun thing when you have to be in the car various times each day. He'll sit for a few minutes (if he has something to chew on), but if the car is stopped for even a few seconds he starts fussing. In fact Braden will now tell me when I'm stopped at a stoplight, "Momma, Asher doesn't like it when the car stops." Braden eventually outgrew his hatred for the carseat so I'm hoping Asher will too.

4. This kid loves to be held. Now I'm sure I bring this upon myself some because I like to hold my kids, but still since birth, Asher has liked being held. I mean sure he'll tolerate his activity mat for like 15-20 minutes and he'll sit in the swing a bit or lay on a blanket and look at his toys (if he has something to chew on), but let's just be honest...the guy wold much rather sit on my lap then any other thing. When I find myself frustrated about this (because it is hard to hold your baby when you are trying to get stuff done), I try to remind myself that he is only little once and that soon he will be too big to hold and I will want these moments back.

Oh and here are his 4 month stats: height - 25 1/4 inches (75%), weight - 13lbs 6 oz (25%)

Little man -

Braden telling Asher how great the color yellow is and Asher not seeming to care -

Love this smile...it makes my hardest day worth it -

Why does Braden still look like a giant?
Trying solids -
This picture just makes me laugh...in case you are wondering, we don't usually just leave Asher laying on the ground for his big brother to step on -
Okay and I can't post without saying something about sweet Braden. So here are four things about my 2.5 year old:

1. He still LOVES books. I mean we probably spend a few hours a day reading. The guy has also a ridiculous memory and can pretty much pull any book off of our shelf and read it from cover to cover. One of my favorite things about reading with Braden is that he wants to snuggle so close when we read. He has always been this way and I love how affectionate my little boy is.
Speaking of affection...Braden will just out of nowhere come running up to you and say "a hug...a kiss" and wrap his little arms around you and give you big wet kisses. I love it!

2. Potty training is not going so well. Little Braden has one strong will and the potty is one thing that he has COMPLETE control over. I am trying to be patient, but at the rate we are going, I am fearful that we will be in diapers till he is 5. My pediatrician assures me that we will have more success when Braden is closer to 3, but I'm so ready for him to be out of diapers that I'm not sure I can wait that long.

3. Braden is talking in full sentences and I love it. The conversations we have everyday are hilarious. I treasure his sweet words and it's so fun to hear how the mind of a 2 yr old works.

4. Braden has a huge imagination. He spends most of his days driving cars around on the floor...the funny thing is that he makes his cars have conversations and the things he thinks of are hilarious. It's so fun to watch him play make believe with his toys.

And with that, I'll leave you with a picture of my sweet 2.5 yr old -

okay well, since I wrote this post, my computer crashed so unfortunately, I don't have pictures of Braden at the moment...but will post some once they have transferred the pictures from my old hardrive.

H1N1 has hit...

Braden and I both have H1N1...not a fun thing let me just tell you. Just praying that God will protect Asher and Austin from it.