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!!!

Outside fun...

We stayed home all day and played today which means I have to get a little creative in activities...thank goodness it was a beautiful day b/c most of our day was spent outside. Braden was either shooting water guns, playing in the sandbox, looking at baby birds, hunting for snakes, sitting in the tent or wrestling his little brother. Here are some pictures from wrestle mania 2010...surprisingly Asher was loving it!

And it begins with a headlock -
And then you try to body slam him -
And when that fails, always pin your partner -
Asher pausing for a smile -
Braden pausing to smile -
And when it's all said and done, they are still best buddies -
Asher attempting to wrestle Tyson -
All in all, a great day! I love these little boys so much and I love their sweet smiles. So thankful that I am privileged enough to stay home and enjoy my boys in these ordinary moments.

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 -