Pumpkin Patch Fun

The 3rd week in October Justin had class on the other side of town (which is close to where my parents live) so after Ascher got out of school on Wednesday we drove over to my parents and spent some time over there. On Thursday, Mom and I decided we would take the kids to the local pumpkin patch put on by one of the churches. It was a lot of fun and I am glad we went.

 checking out all the different colors/shapes and sizes

 posing for mom

 aww the tear kills me

 Mom & Brynn walking around the pumpkin patch

 cheese!

 insisted he take a picture with SUPERMAN!

 Mom being a mummy ( trying to convince Ascher to go do it)

 Brynn being Mummy

 They had a cool little kid section that had a water pump. At first we couldn't get it flowing but with a little muscle we were pumping water!

 cuddles

 put Brynn to sleep

 love this one of the three of us. They had a corn treasure hunt. It had little treasures in the corn you had to dig and find them.

 Once we got the water flowing

 Passed out little bitty

 Mom & Ascher after the two of us went thru the maze while Mom watched Brynn

 HAPPY boy.

 "You're my best buddy Mommy!"

This was the next day after we took Brynns professional 3 month photos (almost 4 months)- more to come of those...

Month of May Dump

The month of May we were super busy but just doing things here and there...I figured I'd do a little recap in the form a photo dump from my phone. These are just the first 2 weeks of photos- I'll do rest of May tomorrow night. ; ) 

 We finally hung some stuff in Aschers room one weekend. I was going to re-do it into a big boy room but figured I would wait until he moves into a big boy bed and do it at once instead of doing it now and then again when he moves out of crib. So these paintings were hanging in his old room. We also hung up his personalized ABC's & a "finger" painting canvas he did with his BFF, Emma when they turned one. 

Justin picked out little girls first outfit. So adorable. 

When Ascher wakes up he always wants Mommy to "lay down...cuddle mommy!" until he fully wakes up and it never fails that he climbs on top of my head- its one of my favorite times of the day

True Life: Some mornings look like this.

Big boy haircut for summer

 Popsicles outside

 water table fun

 loves to color in the bathtub

 I worked a little in the 5th bedroom. Yeah I know it looks awful but would you believe this is progress!!?!  (I unpacked boxes so what was once in a neat giant pile of boxes is now organized into math, reading, books, etc.) This is all my teacher stuff!! And my "nesting" has me wanting this room done even though its upstairs and no one sees it--- I need to be working on nursery/downstairs not up here. Even doing a little makes me feel better though. 

Cute little man shopping one night

 Our newest nephew arrived on May 10, 2014. Everett Bright. He is precious. We went and visited him on Mothers Day.

Ascher adores his cousin, Grayson. Anytime we play with any boy that is older than him he talks about "Grayson" for days. He thinks that everyone is Grayson and when he actually gets to play with Grayson all is right in the world. He is still talking about Grayson giving him a bouncy ball and it has been 3 and a half weeks since he saw him. He LOVES his cousin Grayson. So sweet. 

I'll do the rest of May tomorrow night along with our Memorial Day Weekend Recap! 

The Zoo!!

This drive me nuts all out of order but I decided I would rather have the memories written down than stress over the order of what its in. With that being said, the first weekend in May we went to the zoo. It all started on Saturday we ran up to the mall to return some stuff and we walked past the Rain Forest Cafe where they have a giant fake elephant. Well Ascher was enthralled. Didn't want to leave the elephant and for the rest of the day talked about this elephant. I had the brillant idea of asking him if he wanted to go see REAL elephants which of course was a YES!! So with a little convincing Justin and I agreed we would wake up Sunday and head to the zoo. 

Ascher has been to the Houston Zoo before when he was less than a year old as well as the Waco zoo last summer for Ella's birthday but both times he wasn't obsessed with animals (particularly the elephants) like he was this time. We got up Sunday and Justin called Daniel & Megan and asked if they wanted to come with us so we all headed to the zoo (hoping to make it in time for elephant baths- we barely missed them). Ascher had a blast! It was so fun to watch him have so much joy as he watched each animal interact with its habitat, each other, people, etc. He is at such a fun age. He did fabulous the whole time as well. No melt downs and only cried when he fell and scraped his knee but only for a second before, "I okay." and back to the animals. Here are some pictures from our day. I am so upset we didn't get a family photo (other than this selfie)

 of course we went and saw the elephants first- such joy. like pure happiness. I may or may not have cried when I saw how happy he was to see a real elephant...I'll blame pregnancy hormones ; )

My 2 Boys

 After the elephants we walked over the sea lions. Ascher was just as excited to see them swimming. However, he kept saying "Ascher hold it!" He didn't quite understand he couldn't HOLD the animals but was happy to pose with a fake sea lion. : ) 

We walked around the rest of the zoo looking at all the animals. I just love the zoo- it is so much fun and never gets old! Justin said he hadn't been to the zoo since he was in elementary school!!! We found our way to the petting zoo and let Ascher "hold" some animals. Granted the whole petting zoo is basically goats but he was okay with it and I was happy to follow him around and let him touch each and every goat before we headed to lunch. 

After lunch we walked our way back to the front stopping along the way to see a few more animals but it was nap time and we figured we should head on home before the fun of the day came to a quick close. 

We had so much fun and I am so glad we went on this spur of a moment outing. Ascher still talks about the elephants at the zoo so I'd say our fun day was a success in the eyes of our little 2 year old. 

Daddy turns 32!!

Justin and Ascher are almost exactly 30 years apart. (2 week difference) So shortly after Ascher turned TWO it was time to celebrate Daddy turning THIRTY-TWO! Quite the difference in how we celebrated though. Justin has never been big on birthdays and so after asking 900 million times what he wanted to do and his response always being, "nothing" I finally understood. He really wanted to do "nothing." He wanted to lounge around the house and watch TV and be lazy and not care. Which for Justin NEVER happens. And of course, come Saturday morning he didn't do that either. He lounged around until about 9:30 then promptly announced he was bored. So we headed outside and played outside while Justin piddled around in the yard. Before long he had come up with a project for himself so he ran to Home Depot and got some concrete squares so he could move the grill off the patio. 

Ascher was such a big helper. He loved the sand more than the concrete but regardless it was cute to watch Ascher and Daddy build something together. I can only imagine all the many more projects to come. 

After more playing and piddling around in garage and yard/flower beds we came inside and despite my pushes of going out to eat Justin refused so we ordered Chilli's To Go and I went and picked it up for us. Whatever the man wanted I suppose. After eating dinner, we had chocolate cake and sang Happy Birthday to Daddy! 

Ascher helped Daddy blow out the candles. We didn't eat any then...we waited until Ascher went to sleep and really served it up...yummy!!

It was another fabulous fun family day and I think that is Justin what Justin wanted. Fun with his little family, just being together. Sometimes those birthdays are the most special. Happy Birthday Bubby! We love you!! 

Backyard Fun

With all this pretty weather we have had (other than allergies) we have been living outside. Ascher loves it and it feels so good to get some vitamin D after being stuffed up all rainy winter. Our new backyard is smaller than our old house but Ascher doesn't seem to even notice. He loves running around, playing in his water table or with the hose, pushing his cars and trucks around the yard and his newest love is a slide. Here are some pictures of our recent adventures. 

the energy of a boy

getting his hands wet then putting his wet hands in his hair

helping Daddy with the hose (his pants are a little too large) ; )

coming to get Mommy wet

"sit down Daddy!" 

he likes to push the trucks off the patio

my heart. 

Too cute!! 

This was just one particular day I went inside and got my good camera. I realized lately that all my photos have been on my phone and while that is super convenient the quality is just not as good as when I use my good camera. Time to pull the sucker back out and start snapping away again! Here are some photos (from my phone) of some more time we have spent playing at the park/backyard since it has been pretty outside

I started writing his "One Line A Day" journal and almost EVERY day it says we spent the majority of the afternoon outside (probably why my nose has been crazy!). He loves it and I love it and we are both happy! : ) Plus, on the weekends Justin loves to putter around outside so it helps that he now has a little helper. ; )