Asher's birthday on the 7

Asher at 7 months old!

Today Asher Wade turns 7 months old. What a big boy! He is such a happy baby, smiling a lot. What is he doing now? He sits alone well, is not crawling per say but army crawling with his arms but at a snails pace (he does get around a room though, so we really have to watch the Polly Pockets now!), stands while holding onto something, jibber jabbers a lot (but cries very little now), signs up well and a lot, & is still a Mommy's boy. He is on a good schedule now: Sleeps 8 PM -6 or 6:30 am (just started this and I am loving it with the exception of not having any time in the morning for laundry and things before the girls get up).  He is still on the nursing schedule of 6, then 8 or 9, noon, dinner and then just before going to bed. He is nursing shorter periods of time now, though. He has starting eating foods better. He likes fruits, dislikes most vegetables and has yet to swallow any cereal no matter what I put in it. He still does not have any teeth, so we are a bit away from trying any finger foods. I have started to give him a sippy cup, but he has just managed to get his shirt wet so far. I am still on the non dairy diet for the most part. He still does not tolerate my slip ups. Asher continues to have a fear of strangers and of Mommy leaving the room, but has surprised us by allowing other people to hold him for a time.

Asher was on TV this morning for Birthdays on the 7's(It is amazing how many "birthdays" babies get). So, again Happy Birthday on the 7, Asher Wade! 

 

 

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Nature's Wrath

 

Here are just some pictures we took this morning around town. We went out to find a new park and stop by the bike store (which was closed because of lack of power). I guess we need to watch more of the news. We had no idea what was just down the street from us!! And, yes, I take our camera everywhere!

 

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Is it rain or snow?

We feel very blessed to have our roof intact after tonight's storm. No tornado's, but we had high "straight line winds" like we had never seen before. The sirens went off because the winds could have been upwards of 80 mph. Many of our neighbors are missing shingles, large sections of their roofs, & had big trees just blown over. We have minor damage in comparison (like to landscaping, the swingset and perhaps a little on our roof).The neighborhood sounded of chain saws tonight. Too much excitement for us this Friday night!

 

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What's in a name?

Asher

In the Bible, Asher was the 8th son of Jacob. In Hebrew, Asher means Happy. Asher also means fortunate, blessed, lucky. For all these reasons, we named our son Asher. It is also not a common name, so we were hoping he would be the only one in his class. Right?

A few days ago I received the Restoration Hardware Baby catalog. This is what I found:

http://www.rhbabyandchild.com/rhbc/search/search_results.jsp;jsessionid=5LOXPMHIMEBDTLAWCQKB5VVMCYKBSH54?_dyncharset=ISO-8859-1&query=asher&_D%3Aquery=+&hidden=&_D%3Ago=+&_DARGS=%2Frhbc%2Fincludes%2Fnav%2Ff_header.jsp.searchform&go.x=0&go.y=0

Um, what is up with that? There goes all the thought that went into our baby boy's name. To us, there is only ONE Asher Wade, and he is not a piece of furniture!

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I'm Free

This poem was a poem my Grandpa George left behind and I came acrossed it last week. I thought I would post it for anyone else that may need to share it with someone who loses a loved one.

I'm Free (author unknown)

Don't grieve for me, for now I'm Free

I'm following the path God has laid you see.

I took His hand when I heard his call

I turned my back and left it all.

 

I could not stay another day

To laugh, to love, to work or play

Tasks left undone must stay that way

I found the peace at the close of the day.

 

If my parting has left a void

Then fillit with remembered joys -

A friendship shared, a laugh, a kiss

Oh yes, these things I too will miss.

 

be not burdened with times of sorry.

I wish you the sunshine of tomorrow.

My life's been full, I savored much,

Good friends, good times, a loved one's touch.

 

Perhaps my time seemed all too brief -

Don't lengthen it now with undue grief.

Lift up your hearts, and peace to thee

God wanted me now; He set me free.

Weekend Fun

 

Okay, I don't know about fun. Our front landscaping was done by the previous homeowner 8 years ago. So, Chris and I really wanted to make it our own. We started reinventing it around the walkway last fall. Chris continued it in May when he tore down the layers of bricks in front of the bay window and the big, out of control bushes. After marking it out, Chris painstakingly pulled out the grass (with Alivia's help of course). This weekend, he added the rock, plants, & cobblestones (which at the price of these things - they will be moving with us to any future home! But, they match all the way around our home now). We love the clean looking results. Much better! Ahh...all in a weekend's work, or something.

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First Day of Summer

Today, June 20, marks the first day of summer. As you can see from the pictures (for those of you in our neighborhood), we celebrated a little early with our summer toys. Alivia is so much fun in the water and encourages Addison to "play with me," while Asher watches on. As the daycare buses rolled into our neighborhood park yesterday morning (um, 5 of them! Those kids were just a number & it was so sad!), I again counted my blessings, 1 for Alivia, 2 for Addison, 3 for Asher and 4 that I get to stay home with them!

Now, I have to get back to planning what fun things we will do today.

 

Asher - 6 months - chews on

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Return of the Feline

Yeah, that's right. Topher & I caved. Piper came back home last night. She warmed up right away. The girls chased her all over and continued to today. Piper was back to sleeping with Alivia this morning.

 

Meow!

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Happy Father's Day 2008

 

 

Top Pop: Daddy!!

Another year, another child to be blessed to have on this Father's Day for dear ol' Daddy! This year Topher is the Daddy of 3: Asher, 6m, Addison, 23m, & Alivia, now 4!

We saw Grandpa Bob on Saturday & was able to give him his presents since he is at the CWS today. Then Sunday morning went to the annual flight breakfast. Not a very good morning for it since it was stormy (& we got a little hail on the way there). We saw one airplane, so the kids were excited. Daddy opened his exciting presents: A nice backpack (like a fancy work pack) for when he takes his motorcycle to work, 2 polos, and a t-shirt that says " Daddy3" meaning Daddy to the 3rd power or Daddy cubed. This shirt will go into his collection of Daddy t-shirts: Real Daddy's change diapers & Daddy needs a time out. I have one more I want to get him. We topped off the morning time with a little lunch at Panera and TCBY treats (but nobody was hungry so that will be our snack - TCBY gives Daddy free treats on Father's Day).  Now, everyone is full & resting.

Happy Father's Day!

 

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Our 23-month old

That's right, Addison is now 1 month away from being a 2 year old! Oh, it is so sad to see our baby girl turn into a big girl. But, on the other hand, her little words are just so adorable! Our favorites are "peas" for "please," "I love you," "Where's Da- ee at?" and "Hi Asher." When she wakes up in the morning, she just waits quietly in her crib until I come and check on her, then asks where's Asher at or where is Daddy at if they are not with me. Who knows if she just woke up or she has been awake for a while! We are in no rush to convert her new bed. She is doing fine in her crib and seems to like it. Let's not fix what is not broken. Have a mentioned how independent she is? She often comes upstairs with me while Alivia watches one of her many princess movies in the basement with Daddy, just so she can play alone in peace. She even sneaks upstairs to read books alone. We love it when she says "cheese" and squints her eyes and smiles as big as she can. Addison loves playing with her babies, strollers, and getting stroller rides herself even if it is in a baby doll stroller! I have already mentioned the potty training thing, although I have not gotten serious about it at all. I just am not ready for that yet. Maybe in the next few weeks I will go for it, we will see. Terrible 2's? Well, she does pull Alivia's long locks and push occasionally, and she has seen the time out spot a couple times in the past few days. But, I have more patience with her for whatever reason.

Oh, my next Addison update will be when she turns 2. Oh, where did my baby girl go?

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Yeah for Addison!

For the last couple of weeks, Addison has been telling me when she goes potty in her diaper, wanting a new diaper, and even taking off her diaper. I was frequently asking her if she wanted to go potty on the potty, and she kept telling me "no" except at bath time when she would sit on the big potty (she does not like the potty chair). Tonight, at bath time, she wanted to sit on the potty. So, I sat her on the BIG potty and she had success! I could not believe it! She smiled and jumped off like she had been secretly using the potty for months. I realize this is only a start (of something I am not ready to get into yet), but we are on our way to only have 1 child in diapers!

 

Yeah for Addison!

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Summertime fun!

 

It is definitely summer. This week alone we visited our neighborhood sprinkle park, Alivia started a daily swimcamp at Swimtastic (highly recommended!), celebrated Grandma Bet's birthday, we visited the zoo, we went to family swim, played at the big park at Zorinsky with the Maiefski boys (& Heidi), we played with our new sprinkler ball & in the pink pool, & that is in addition to all the playtime at home! I, for one, am tired but having fun with the kids doing the things I always wanted to do with them but did not always have time to do. Oh, I left out the best part (with sarcasm). I wiped out on Alivia's scooter giving myself a big scraped elbow and a purple toe (and 2 little girls doting on Mommy!!). Yeah, scooters should have an age LIMIT. But, I have to admit, it was a fun ride right until I slammed into the pavement telling Chris, "I can't get up!". :)

 

 Happy Summer, & let the fun continue on (& enjoy the pictures from our week)...

 

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It's Not About Us Anymore

Okay, Chris & I did not just figure this out, but we are becoming more and more aware that our decisions are not about us anymore. This became more evident to us when we gave away Piper (the cat in which we are not trying to get back even though Chris & I do not want her). We find ourselves doing things that we may not necessarily want to do but do so for the kids. For example, we are getting Piper back because Addison will not stop asking "Where Piper at?" & Alivia has cried many nights to go and get her. Yes, we could have been dishonest and said she ran away. But, I could not do that. Next, Chris took Alivia to her first movie this week. He had one in mind, but had her pick from the trailers online. The movie she picked Chris did not want to sit through, but went anyway. They BOTH turned out to have a good time! And finally, our blog. I was, in the past, hiding our pictures to only people that were in our neighborhood. Then, I started showing more and more pictures as friends & family told us that they checked it out (& we know that we have many friends & family that discretely read the blog). I did not want them to miss out on the pictures. However, people anywhere in the world can be viewing our blog. After a recent Dateline episode, I have decided to leave the family pictures to the neighborhood. Seriously, if you want to view our pictures, joining vox is easy. You don't even have to put anything on there for us to add you to our neighborhood. Just let us know you joined and we will add you to our neighborhood so you can view photos. We are sorry to have to do this, but it is about the safety of our children and our family. But, I will continue to blog on & leave most of those postings public.

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Your Questions Answered

 

1. Are you done yet?

This is a question we get a lot. We had a garage sale last weekend and a complete stranger even asked us! So, I will address the question. We are Catholic. I did not go through several months of classes to NOT be a Catholic. So, we are leaving it in God's hands. It has worked well so far (see the next question). Now, let's just hope God does not turn us into the Dugger family (http://www.duggarfamily.com/) who have 17 with number 18 on the way! Yikes! We also hope that God does not see us having a baby when I am 45 (oh, Heaven help us). I have started selling some of the worn looking baby clothes of the girls' that I could part with because of lack of space. And, I have sold a vast majority of my maternity clothes (because I am hoping to not ever have to wear those ugly things again!). I did not feel like our family was complete after Addison. I can say that now.

So, are we done yet? Only God knows I guess.

2. How do you like staying home?

I love it! I love it! I love it! I am not changing my answer either. There is a member of our family that asks this question every time he sees me. I think he thinks I hate staying home and wants me to confess or something. If you have to ask the question, you must have just met me. Staying home with my kids is all I ever wanted to do since I became pregnant with Alivia. I did not want to miss anything! The young years of our kids' lives are just a snapshot in time that we can never get back.

Going back to putting it into God's Hands. When Alivia was born and I cried to a "friend" of mine that I wanted to stay home, she (and even her husband) told me that I just needed to stop dreaming. I remember it clearly. I felt as if her husband was trying to be sympathetic to Chris (like poor Chris because he had to put up with my whining. But, Chris wanted me to stay home too!). From that point on, I prepared to stay at home. I prayed and cried to God as Addison was born to stay at home. Then, I became pregnant with Asher and scary Judy happened. All of suddened, we were ready for me to quit. All our ducks were in a row and it happened. My prayers were answered. So, leaving it in God's Hands does work. 

3. How can you afford staying at home now?

Can I repeat myself? God has big Hands. The money just happens, it just works out. Chris kept telling me all those years I wanted to stay home - just quit. I would not listen. I quit, Chris got a raise and got promoted. Humm... We live smartly I guess. I am a budget nerd, too. It is fun for me. I should have been an accountant, but I was awful at math! I would like to get an "as needed" night nursing job for extra money, but for now have opted not to & it is not necessary(& Chris does not want me to anyway). I am busy enough. I thought as a stay at home mom I would be at home more! When I get our $ challenge video done I will clear up this answer more. 

4. Thing I can not live without?

Pizza cutter. I use it for everything! Cut pizza, crusts off, cut up pancakes, french toast, etc. Love it!

5. Do I have free time?
Little, but I take some extra every night I have energy for it. I usually run & think. Helps me to clear my head before going to bed even if it means that my laundry has to wait to get folded. Oh, and I blog as I get Asher's "milk" ready.

6. Thing I miss about working (if anything)?
Shopping. :) I rarely get out shopping now, but that probably is a good thing.

Enough said for now. Any questions I missed?

 

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Our Little Husker Fan...

...& what a smile!

Little Husker Fan

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May's Pictures

share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=8EbNmblo3bsmE

We started the month celebrating May Day with our first May Day baskets and celebrating (accidentally) Cinco de Mayo by having a picnic. Asher, 5m, started sitting alone, laughing and "talking" more, sleeping through the night consistently, and now has somewhat of a schedule! Yeah. He is eating more baby foods - but usually spits everything out. Addison turned 22 months this month and is beginning to develop those 2 year old traits. She gets frustrated and makes fists and shakes (without a word and nor sound usually). She is REALLY frustrated if she does this! She also started saying "no" a lot instead of just shaking her head. We think it is cute now, but we will probably not think so next month. Alivia ended the month turning 4! We can hardly believe it. She got a new bike and scooter for her birthday, among our things, so has fun things to play with outside for a while. May Day, Mother's Day, Alivia's birthday, & Asher's 1/2 birthday - now that is a lot of cake! Happy June!

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