Finally...an Apel Update

I know, I know...it's been forever--OVER two months since our last post and I never kept my promise about posting videos of Asher or pics from his first Christmas or birthday...but Adobe Lightroom (the best photo editor around!) is on it's way to me in the mail right now. It is going to make my job editing and documenting our family so much easier! So, as I work on them, I will post them! PROMISE!

Here is what Asher has been up to lately:

He loves playing outside...it is far better than any "toy" to him. He loves to climb, dig, explore, and, of course, play in the water.

We got him this babypool and it has been the best entertainment...he loves to splash around and play with his shovels and buckets in the water.

He loves going to the park behind our house...we go there just about everyday, but last month the Splashpad opened and since it's been warmer the last few weeks we've finally gotten to go! He loves it so much, we usually stay there about an hour or longer. Here are a few more pics of him at the Splashpad:

About two weeks ago, Charlie taught him showed him how to pick flowers for Mommy. Now, everytime he sees a flower he picks it, holds it up to his nose, says, "Mmmmm," and runs over to me with the sweetest grin on his face, to give me the flower. How I love my sweet boys! They're so good to me!

A lot has been going on around the Apel house, as well. Charlie closed in a doorway from the garage to the kitchen, which will soon be our converted laundry room/tv/playroom, where we'll put another bed since the guestroom will soon be McKlayne's nursery.

He closed in this wall right here. This man amazes me with his "handiness". At the beginning of each new task I always skeptically ask him, "And how do you know how to do this?" or "How do you know that this is going to work?" Most of the time he shrugs his shoulders and says, " I don't know...I just do." Sometimes, I get a, "I don't, but I'll figure it out." I don't know how I ended up with such a handy husband, but I'm so thankful that I did! He's brilliant!

We also made a few great purchases in Roundtop on Antique Weekend at the beginning of April! This farm table was our favorite find! We needed a long, skinny table, so that we could fit at least 8 people around it! It's been wonderful the couple weeks that we've had it for our HOPE Group!

And listen to this...it's the best part of this find: we bought five of chairs (all that we could find that day!) and figured we could try to either find three other matching ones later that week when I went back or just mix and match a few others...but when I went back I couldn't rind any of them. The next night, we were at the Hendrick's and they had four chairs-the same style we had gotten and I said, "Hey! Did you get these from Roundtop? I need three more of these!" (thinking that Heather had bought my other chairs) and she said, "No, Aaron's parents gave us these...actually seven of them! Three of them are sitting in our attic right now...you want 'em?" So, we went home with three more chairs to complete our set of eight! We love those people.

(Also, notice my antique stained-glass window...I got that in Roundtop, too..it was a steal compared to how much they normally are! It's from somewhere in England--where did the guy say he was from, Kyle?)

We've also refinished some furniture and I've been doing quite a bit of spring cleaning-going through closets and drawers- giving stuff away, organizing, and selling the "valuable junk" on Ebay! There is so much still to be done before our Baby Girl gets here in a short 10 weeks! Here is the before pic of an old hutch that had been in my parents garage for years!

It's amazing what a vision, a lot of cleaning, some sanding, and some stain can do! We still have to find some hardware to put on it...I loved the original but a few were broken and one was missing!

Last week, I was in HEB and 3 people commented on how "beautiful" my "little girl" was...I just smiled. This pic was from the same day...he was dressed in blue...with a lizard on his shirt. Is he just too pretty? Or is his hair too long? I am not ready to cut it...he wouldn't look like the same kid without all that beautiful curly hair!!

And, lastly here's my belly at 22 weeks:


And again at 26...here I have gained a total of 14 pounds. I gained 50 lbs with Asher! Yikes! At this point in my last pregnancy, I'd probably already gained 30-35lbs:

I am now a full 30 weeks. I'll have to get Char to take a pic of my belly today, so you can see how much I've grown!