Sweet, sweet Asherboy...

We're at the point where we can actually carry on a conversation with Asher!  Everyday, I realize just how big he's getting.  My sister has always told me "this age" was always her favorite stage with Reid.

I'm pretty sure I agree.

He has been saying the funniest things lately and I need to write these down so I'll never forget.

Here are just a few instances that have happened in the last week:

Ever since Sunday afternoon, he's been asking me to go retreive one of his horses that he left in the car after church. I've unintentionally made several broken promises...thinking that I'd walk right out and get it in and the next thing I know a phone is ringing or dinner is boiling over the stove. So, FINALLY, Wednesday afternoon...Asher walks out in the livingroom, with a horse in hand and says, "I'll just go get it Mom..." as he begins to unlock the front door...my poor sweetboy...had been ever so patient with me. (Did you read what he called me? MOM! MOM!? How sad is that...I hope this phase ends quickly and I return to being referred to as Mama or even Mommy. He just thinks he's SO big calling me that three letter word!)

Asher can count to eight...well, he counts to six... skips seven...and then eight. When reading or playing with blocks or toys we'll often practice his counting. Well, do you wanna know what he counted the other day? (My "pimples"-as he so innocently refers to them!) "One pimple, two pimple, three pimples..." AWESOME. If it'd been any other fingers ever so sweetly touching each blemish, I would have slapped them. For some reason, he's just captiavated by them. PERFECT. Can't wait for the day that he points out someone else's pimples...WHAT will I say then?

My favorite things he is saying these days (which I hope to get a video to post with these soon) are "Oopsy Daisy" when he drops something or "No big deal..." if he spills something or can't quite complete a desired task.  So precious in his little bitty voice!

Asher loves to help me "mix & make" (cook.)

Probably because he often gets to taste whatever it is...

He also loves to color...outside or inside.

Here he is coloring at Great-Grandma Apel's.  (I think this was she had just been testing him on his chalk colors...the little smartypants...after she finished  he pointed to her hair and said, "White!"  She got a kick out of it...sweet Grandma!)

He's very serious about playing guitar.  Aaron Hendrick (our worship leader and good friend) is one of his most favorite people.  Anytime Asher is in the service with us during the worship music, he'll stare at Aaron (the whole time) and strum his chest right along with him.  He loves Thursday night Hope Group because JP is sweet enough to let him play with him while he plays worship music for all of us.  And he LOVES to "lead us" with his guitar during Family Worship!  He knows most of the words to Jesus, Name Above All Names, The Doxology, and My Chains are Gone.

Here he is jamming out....lefthanded.  He's lefthanded (like his dad) ONLY when it comes to guitar.

He loves playing outside. He spends MUCH time exploring...digging...climbing...jumping...driving his new truck:

I love that sweet little comedian, artist, muscian, wild man.  I can't wait to see how the Lord is going to use his gifts for His Kingdom.  

Who does she think she is?!

In just a short 8 weeks, McKlayne has gone from:

sitting up

to

planks

to

crawling

to

waving

to

pulling up.

I am so not okay with this. My baby doesn't seem like much of a baby anymore.

And she definitely doesn't look like much of a baby with all this crazy hair.

We never know what we're going to see when she wakes up in the morning.

What 8 month olds do you know that can have their hair frenchbraided?

My sister showed me this blog, so we've been trying different do's! Look through all the labels on the left. They're so cute!

This one's for you, Blaire!

Seriously, you have to sign up!

Okay, you guys may have already read about this Swagbucks thing when I posted about it a back in November and brushed it off...but don't!

 Sign up now!

I have already bought a $50 GAP giftcard and a $50 Southwest giftcard! I've earned $100 in giftcards just for using Swagbucks as my search engine rather than google...and it's powered by google!

BUT...to earn a ton of Swagbucks...I've earned a total of about 900 so far...you need to either post a referring link on your blog or send out an email to your friends and family to have the sign up under your referral. Please use my referral to sign up yourself, and then have your friends sign up under you. (I won't be getting any of their swagbucks...the chain stops at the first level of referrals.)

So, Heather, if you did this...with like all of your HUNDREDS of readers a day, you could seriously be giving away $50 giftcards for Christmas presents next year to your WHOLE family. No joke! You really wouldn't have to be doing ANY Christmas shopping with any of your own money, if you signed up for this. Once you post this on your blog, I want to know how many swagbucks you've earned in a month!

Here is our previous post:

So, there is a really cool site that you can earn gift certificates and actual prizes from your favorite stores.

Here is a re-post from the site we learned about it:

Not sure what Swagbucks is? Well, it is an online search engine, powered by Google and Ask.

But, instead of just pulling your search results back like Google or Yahoo, you have the potential to earn Swagbucks with each search. And, quite frequently I win. At least once a day, and sometimes more.

Now, I honestly can tell you, I only use Swagbucks when I am doing a search online anyway. I never use Yahoo or Google anymore, because Swagbucks gives me a chance to win while I search. I have it saved as my Homepage, so this is the first screen that comes up everytime I log onto the web.

I DON'T sit there and try to randomly search to earn extra poins...because it really doesn't work. In fact, here is the exact wording from their site.

Tip #8

Doing a TON of searches, or clicking on sponsored links, will not help you win!When searching the web, the best way to win Swag Bucks (and the only method we endorse) is to use the engine for genuine search and discovery. Our technology is designed to award users who search naturally — simply utilize our engine the way you would with other search providers.

Anway, back to how it works. Once you accumulate enough ( approx. around 50 ) you can cash in for prized. There are gift certificates, merchandise, etc.

Currently, when you win, we have all been geting 1 to 5 Swagbucks.

But, now....they have announced on their blog that they will be issuing some Mega Bucks soon. This means, you can now potentially win 10, 20, 50 and 100 Swagbucks...woo, hoo! They plan to launch the Mega Bucks this week, although I am not positive of the date. You can click here to read their announcement.

Now, that gets me excited!

In addition, when you get your free gift, if you take a picture of yourself with it and submit it to Swagbucks, they will also issue an extra 1 Swagbuck for your account. So, I plan to do this, too. Click here for all the details.

Finally, if you use Swagbucks, make sure to tell all your friends..email them your links, etc. If they sign up thru your referral, you win everytime they win. Up to 100 Swagbucks! As you can imagine, your Swagbucks will accumulate much faster.

SOURCE: moneysavingmethods.blogspot.com

So we want our Swagbucks to accumulate faster, too. So we don't care if you use this or not. HOWEVER, if you are going to try it out, please click one of the links in this post or on the side of our blog so we can 'refer' you.

Thanks!

Happy Birthday, Kirby!

Today is my amazing wife's birthday. She's 25. She believes that your body shuts down after 25. I love her.

Kirby, no matter how dramatic life gets (jeans come to mind), I love the passion that comes along with your drama. You are passionate about Jesus...

about your husband...

about your son...

about your daughter...

about our families...

about your friends...

about discipling our home...

about Her Hands and discipling other women...

about saving us money...

about Round Top...

about SO many things. You put your whole self into everything you do and every person in your life. You convict me so often by your generosity, by the thoughtfulness of every gift and how you KNOW the people in your life. I'm learning from you.

I don't know how you manage to do all the things that you do in a normal day. After having the kids for a few hours or a day, I know what a feat it is when I come home to clean house or if anything else is done outside of you three surviving. It is so important to me that you are at home and you do it with such humility, grace and eagerness.

You're the best friend a person could have. And I know they'll be many who'll echo that on this post as well. You're an amazing helper and so good to your needy husband. I love confiding in you and depending on you. I love reading with you, jean-shopping with you, Wizard-of-Ozzing with you, Round Topping with you and doing all of life with you.

Don't even get me started on how beautiful you are! None compare, Kirby.

I love you. Happy Birthday!

What's been happening 'round these parts...

As far as Asher is concerned, this first picture pretty much explains it. This kid LOVES horses. And cows. And pretty much any other animal figure that he can line up...but his obsession all started with horses around September.

On Christmas morning, the first gift from his stocking was probably his favorite. A 6-pack of cows that cost $4.99. We could have stopped there and Asher would have thought it was the best
present ever
day EVER.

As soon as the cows were out of their package, he sprawled out on his belly and began to play-completely oblivious to the rest of the living room. Cousins, aunts, and uncles tore through their gifts and were already off to their respective corners of the house, before he even looked up to realize he was the only one left with a pile of unopened gifts and trash surrounding him.

If, Charlie and I were smart, we would have taken half of the gifts and saved them for his birthday to open. Grandparents (we're thankful, but you) REALLY overdo it...we knew that would be the case, so we only bought him two gifts: a toolbench and and a children's bible to use during family worship. (And we LOVE this...this was a recommendation from the Duty's...if you're looking for a children's story bible, this one is so neat because rather than just being "moral" it gives you the "big picture" of God's sovereign plan since creation.)

The following are a bunch (sorry, this is more for the grandparents...I know that a lot of them look the same, but they don't want to miss any move this precious boy makes!) of pictures over the last month of Asher playing with all his animals:

He's so serious when he lines them up...I'm predicting a perfectionist like his Daddy.

Pleased with his alignment.

Finally caught me taking pictures.

The funny thing about all the "line up" is how each horse comes out one at a time-usually from a room on the opposite side of the house. Asher will start with a pile of horses in his room, and bring a horse into Uncle Jo's (my brother lives with us) room, line him up, and then say, "One more," as he holds up a finger and runs back to his room to retreive the next horse. This process continues until each horse is perfectly placed in his spot...everytime.

He's so busy.

One morning I noticed that his nativties were having an "unsegregated" block party...you know, two Joseph's at one nativity, some "Little People" animals at a non-Little People stable...all the same, so perfectly lined up.

(This might be my FAVORITE.) Later that afternoon, I watched as, one by one, the horses found my vintage nativities.

Each horse on his own spiritual pilgrimage to pay their respect.

I love you, SweetBoy. And love how you love those animals of yours.

I hope it never stops.

(Disclaimer: Asher just received a whole lot of attention in this post, but this cutey girl has been busy doing her own tricks, too! I will update more on those soon; for now I will leave you with a few pictures.)

Is he really ready?

Friday afternoon I was talking on the phone to my sister, when Asher (who was supposed to be napping) walked out to the living room, came right up to me and gave me a big "I'm so proud of myself" grin.

"How did you get out?"

"Climb..." he said, grabbing my hand and leading me back to his room. I put him back in his crib and, sure enough, he climbed back out with no problem.

Ugh...I am so not ready for this. My baby is about to turn two in just over a month...and he's growing up way too fast!

Charlie decided that we should convert the crib into his "big boy" bed that night. So, we did. Char explained to Asher that he'd now be sleeping in a new bed and the "consequences" if he got out.

Well, 3 bedtimes and 5 naps later, he's only gotten out once and received one spanking. We're so proud of him!

The only problem is...he sometimes falls out. His bed didn't come with any rails, so the second night he fell out (onto the pallet we set up by his bed) about five or six times. But he only really woke up once...the other times, when I went in he was already crawling back in, still asleep.

Any ideas? Should I buy one of those rails that you stick in between the mattress and the frame? Or will he eventually learn not to roll out? Come on experienced mothers of "big boy/girl sleepers" I need some help.

I'm having a crisis...

a fashion crisis, of all things.

I realized tonight that I'm officially a mom.

I thought that when I bought my first swim skirt for my tankini the summer after Asher was born that I had been initiated into motherhood.

Not so. Tonight I recognized that I had drifted in into a whole new realm of oblivion somewhere over the years...and not even known it.

I went jean shopping for the first time since fall/winter of '04-the winter before I got married! The winter after we got married I was too poor to buy any clothes and the last two winters I've been pregnant, so had no use to shop for anything non-maternity.

I've pretty much been wearing jeans that I've had since the middle of college-and, though, they're old favorites, I've slowly had to start throwing them away or designating them as "paint jeans" because I've worn them for 4+ years.

So...tonight I started out...rather excited. I was getting to go shop for myself...childless...like not having to stop to feed any babies or bribe any toddlers to keep quiet.

I began at one of my old favorites-Plato's Closet-a consignment shop that mostly only sells name brand and designer clothes from the previous season. I panicked as I hardly recognized any of the brands of jeans that I was shuffling through.

Seriously...I felt so dumb when I saw jeans that said "X2" on them and was confused. How come no one told me that some time in the last four years Express had changed their label?

But that was just the beginning...Silver, Hudson, 575, iT jeans...I needed a translator!

Actually, what I really needed was a college girl standing beside me to tell me, "Yes, go try these." or "No, not those." But I was WAY too prideful to go ask one of the sweet girls behind the counter to help...so that's where you come in...but more on that in a minute.

So, I picked up some Silver jeans and tried them on because my friend Jenn had recently just mentioned that her (super cool, rockstar's wife) sister-in-law had recommended them. I bought Silver jeans for $18...is that a good deal? Are those even still cool?

The rest of the night I spent checking out every college girl's rear that came near me at the mall...in search of "cool" jeans. I went to the Buckle and tried on a few that I liked. But I need help...are BKE jeans still "in"?

Blaire?

Emily?

Brettney?

Where are you?

I can't wait for 15 years for McKlayne to fill me in on what's appropriate to wear. I need your help.

If you're reading this blog and I don't even know you but you have jeans that you LOVE, please share...include the brand, style, and where I can purchase these, etc. please. Price doesn't matter...I just want to know your favorites! I will be getting money or gift cards for Christmas, so I plan to use them on jeans.

Ugh...this is so hard for me to do...I never thought I'd be asking for fashion advice...and especially not on the world wide web...but I'm desperate.

My favorite jeans...which, like I said, I haven't shopped for them in a good 4-5 years have been...Lucky, Citizens and jeans from Arden B. Are these still okay? Be honest.

I don't want to succumb to this and not even know it: