Merry Christmas!

Wow, time has flown by this month.  I can't believe it has been two months since I last posted.  We have been busy but have had such a fun month.  It has been so much fun getting ready for Christmas with Asher around.  

*Please excuse my picture-of-a-picture*

A few things that have been particularly fun - and some pictures, all from my phone.  Asher and I had so much fun making "gingerbread babies" together.  He was so good at cutting them out and frosting them, and he put sprinkles on them one at a time.  

I have also loved teaching him about baby jesus being born in a manger, in the stable, with Mary and Joseph, the shepherds and the wise men.  He loves telling it all back to me, and just recently started calling other babies "baby Jesus."  

We've also been talking a lot about Santa, and Asher really likes him from afar.  Whenever we've gone to see him Asher clings to me and says that he wants to go away.  He loves singing Santa Claus is Coming to Town and knows it pretty well.  

One of my favorite things is how he sees something and says, "let's ask Santa for that."  The other day at the grocery store he wanted some gummi worms.  When I told him not today, he said, "Ok, let's ask Santa for that."  His wishlist has changed over time.  At first he was asking for a fourwheeler.  That lasted a couple of weeks and then he started asking for a scooter.  Just the other day he said now he wants a tricycle.  And today he told me he wants an Ipad like dad.  Each time he says, "I know, maybe Santa can bring it to me."  It is pretty adorable.  

He was so cute when we went to the store to pick out some toys for a little boy from the angel tree.  We wandered the store and was carrying a stuffed puppy, a teddy bear and a hello kitty.  He kept saying he was getting them for a little boy.  He finally picked the teddy bear because it was like his.  He also loved picking out presents for all of his cousins and pretty much always had the final say as to what we were getting.

He was so sweet when we passed out neighbor gifts.  He kept saying they were for the neighbors and not for us.  He has loved all of the Christmas sweets.  He loves our Christmas tree and the ornaments.  He says the squirrels are his favorite.  

He loves the snow and every morning he looks out and says "Look! It's snowing!" (Even if it isn't.)  He went sledding with Marcus the other night and they stayed out for hours.  

We did Christmas kick-off with my family and cut down our Christmas trees.  We had our annual Shepherd's dinner with the Webbs and have spent lots of time with sweet new baby Sam.  My parents were so sweet and had a PJ party for all of the grandkids.  Asher was quite concerned about going to a party in his pajamas and kept insisting he needed to get dressed.  

And now it's finally here!  Merry Christmas Eve!

Happy Halloween

Everyone always says kids make holidays better.  I must say, Halloween takes the cake.  Asher was so excited to dress up and go trick or treating.  He loved it, even though he was quiet and only actually whispered "trick-or-treat" at one house.  He looked forward to it all week long, and when he woke up Thursday morning he told me it was time to go "treating".  He talked about it all day long and kept asking if it was time for "treating".

It took some coaxing to get him to wear his hood, but once we got it on he was happy to wear it all night long.  

He was kind of amazed by all of this candy he kept getting, and he loved putting it into his basket.  He didn't really even want to eat it, except for his suckers.  Suckers were his favorite this year and if he got to pick a candy, that's always what he chose.  

-Asher with my parents-

- Asher and his cute buddy Jude -                                                    -Asher and his little cousin Steven - 

- Asher and his cute friend Kylee -

We did some trick-or-treating, had my parents over for dinner, saw some of our neighborhood friends, and then headed out to Daybreak to see Marcus's family.  Marcus's mom dressed up like a clown and Asher wasn't so sure about that.  What a fun night!

- Marie, Natalie & Asher -

Happy Halloween from a pirate, black bird and zebra.

in the moment

some days I am overwhelmed by all that I should do - or all that I could do - or want to do -

the laundry

cleaning

exercising

being a wife

being a mom

crafts/decorating/having a cute house

doing my church calling

being a good friend

building our food storage and savings accounts

reading good books

properly documenting all the fun things we are doing

cooking

maintaining relationships

the list goes on and on doesn't it?  

and really, most of the time, they are things I want to do, there usually just isn't enough time.

sometimes it is easy to get caught up in it all and it's easy to feel a bit defeated I guess.  It's sad we can all feel that way, when we're all doing so much and doing our best.  

I guess it's just beautiful fall days like these that remind me of what's really important, what matters and just really make me so grateful for my simple life.  it really is simple and although sometimes I feel less significant than I used to think I wanted to be, I am reminded that I matter to this little squirt and what more could I really ask for?

a beautiful day and a beautiful boy.

also, mostly unrelated, last night was kind of the first night Asher slept in our bed with us.  I went in to tuck him in and cover him with his blanket around 11, and for some reason it woke him up.  He popped right up in his crib, sleepy eyed and looking so confused.  His little voice said "mama?" (I had ran and hid behind his door as soon as he started waking up...haha, it was my first instinct.)  I poked back in and scooped him up out of his crib.  He snuggled in, and for some reason I took him to our bed.  He just looked so sweet, so perfect and cuddly.  Marcus was surprised but made room for him in our bed.  We snuggled our little guy and commented on how sweet he looked.  He quickly fell back to sleep, and I enjoyed laying there, holding him, thinking about how lucky I am to be his mom.  And about 15 minutes later I carefully carried him back to his bed so I could enjoy a good night's sleep.  :)

Beartrap Fork Trail

So this is a little late...but I want to document it just the same.  Three weeks ago Kate and I wanted to do a final hike for the season before it got too cold.  We wanted to do something long and somewhat difficult.  We were debating between Lake Blanch and Desolation Lake...but were worried about length and snow.  Instead we found some information on the Beartrap Fork Trail, and we decided on that.  I'm not sure why, as it was 2.5 miles and the information about it said it is essentially straight up the entire time.  It was not lying.  It was a killer workout with these babies on our backs but it was one of the most gorgeous places I have ever been.  The view from the top was absolutely incredible.

These babies were so good being in our backpacks for about 4-5 hours.  We had a fun picnic at the very top, and besides the wind, the weather was beautiful.

The fall colors were amazing and added so much to the beauty.  I'm glad we did this one in the fall.

The trailhead was up Big Cottonwood Canyon and was a little hard to find.  There were no trail markers and we basically were hoping we were hiking in the right direction on the right trail for about 2.5 hours.  Finally we saw a biker as we neared the top (the trail intersects with the Great Western Trail so there were lots of bikers coming on that) and he told us we were almost there!  Once on top, we could overlook Desolation Lake on one side, and The Canyons Resort on the other.  Overall this was an incredible hike and one I would recommend to anyone who was wanting a more strenuous hike with a beautiful reward.  

Pumpkin Patch

Ok be ready for cuteness overload.  Me and Asher picked up my mom and headed to Layton to meet Katie and Stella for some pumpkin fun.  Asher looked forward to this all week and we had a blast.  Asher and Stella were the cutest together.  Asher wandered around behind Stella, following her as she climbed over the mounds of pumpkins, and watching her as she pulled the little red wagon around.  They played together and searched and searched for the perfect pumpkin.

What a perfect fall day with Granny, Stella and Katie!

Wednesday Hikes

I am pretty lucky to have some amazing and adventurous friends.  We've loved hiking this summer/fall and I hate to see it end.  I couldn't go every Wednesday, but I wanted to document a few of the hikes I've done this year.  I looked forward to every hike and was so happy to be out in nature exploring with little Asher.  He is such a happy buddy and I loved hauling him around on my back.  He sure was a good sport about it and seemed to look forward to it as much as I did.

Donut Falls

(Shalane, Rilee, Nancy & me)

Bells Canyon

(Kate, Rilee & Me)

Cecret Lake

(Shalane, Kate & Me)

Ferguson Canyon

(Kate, Nancy & Me)

Tibblefork Lake

One Wednesday we were worried it was going to rain so we drove up Provo Canyon and down American Fork Canyon.  We stopped at Tibblefork Lake for a fun little picnic.

(Kate, Cara, Nancy & Me)

(these pictures are from Nancy)

Beartrap Fork

(Kate & Me)

This was the hardest hike we did for sure and also my very favorite.  I have a lot of pictures from this hike so I'm going to do a separate post.

The Living Room

(Kate, Rilee, Nancy & Me)

Thanks girls for the adventures!

Apple Picking

Yesterday April and I took our boys out to pick apples in a cute, small orchard in Sandy.  The apple trees were recently planted and really small, but it was perfect for us since that meant lots of apples low enough for little hands to reach.

I loved watching Asher run around the orchard, chasing Camden and Turner and stopping to pick some apples.  He's grab several in his arms and back up until they popped off the branch.  He seemed fascinated by all of these apples and just thrilled that he could pick as many as he wanted.

The kids munched away on their apples as we continued to pick.

 Just being in that orchard felt like the perfect fall activity.  The sun was shining and it was so nice to be outside. 

Asher ate lots of apples, and it was so cute to watch him enjoy the experience.  He is growing up and I am always surprised by how old he seems when we do things like this.  He talked about picking apples the whole way home and said he wanted to tell dad all about it.