Wish We Were There

It has been two months now since we have gotten home from Hawaii and I can't believe how time flies!  I have been looking through everyone else's pictures and remembering what a wonderful trip it was.  Here are some of my favorites from Katie:

Some group shots from my mom:

And some fun ones from Mike and Lise:

Oh I so want to go back!

Centerville Waterfall

I have been dying to go hiking and have been begging Marcus to go.  I feel like summer is going to be over before we know it and I have this fear that I haven't been taking full advantage of it.  I know that isn't true but it is still so hard for me as summer is drawing to an end.  So on Saturday night we headed to Centerville to spend some time with Mike and Elise and I convinced Elise to go on a short hike with us to a waterfall in Centerville.  I remember hiking this hike when I was a teenager but hadn't done it since.  It was short with a small waterfall at the end to play in.  Asher loved the water and kept pointing to everything around us.

Asher nibbled on leaves and sticks for entertainment on the way down.  Love these summer days!

Cousins

Asher is pretty lucky to be completely adored by his cousins.  The second we walk in the question is always "where's Asher?"  On Sunday he was asleep and the kids all seemed disappointed.  But the second he woke up, he was flooded with attention.  We went to the park and everyone wanted to take a turn carrying, playing, swinging or sliding with little Asher.

Jackson is so sweet and so responsible with Asher.  I know I can completely trust him to be gentle and take care of our little man.  I can tell Asher feels safe when he is with Jackson because he never seems nervous.  He can tell just like the rest of us what a good kid Jackson is.  When did cute Jackson get so big?

Miles was seriously cracking me up.  He wanted to do everything with Asher.  He wanted to push him in his stroller.  He wanted to hold him in the picture.  He was hauling him up all of the stairs by his armpits and running around the grass jiggling him around and making him laugh.  

Probably most importantly though Miles was teaching Asher how to trample and destroy his sand volcanoes.  Miles would build them up, and then pick Asher up and help him stomp and destroy the volcano.  He certainly wants Asher to follow in his footsteps.  :)

Little Lola is such a good mini mom.  On Sunday she played downstairs with Asher for the longest time and I felt like I had a babysitter.  She laughed and played with him and took such good care of him.  She runs around with him saying in her sweetest little voice "hey...Asher-man!"  She calls him Asher-man pretty much exclusively and it's just about the cutest thing I've ever heard.

And let's not forget little Stella.  Even though she isn't even two yet herself, she clearly knows that Asher is a baby and she isn't.  She always wants to get in on the action and hold Asher too, even though he is more than half her size.  She is just so sweet and has always loved to look at him and giggle.  This picture kills me with them linking their little arms, playing together in the sand.

Asher is one spoiled cousin and I know he just loves his cousins right back.  He lights up when he sees them and loves all the attention they give him.  Thanks Kate for these darling pictures!

The big O-N-E

Asher's party was a huge success.  We had almost all of our family here (we were missing Joe, Scott, and his fiance Julie).  Two sets of Asher's great grandparents even made it so we had quite the group here to celebrate.  I decided on an elephant theme and we did cafe rio style salads for dinner.  Here are the decorations and the desserts.

*and this was a pretty big event, so I am posting lots of pictures*

I always wish I did better at taking pictures of the guests, but everyone arrives and it gets too crazy.  So I got a few and luckily Katie did too, but I am sadly missing most people.  Next we had a fun little pinata.  Asher was spoiled with such nice gifts from everybody.  We are lucky to have such sweet families.

haha, Stella loves to hold Asher but Asher wasn't too sure about it...

My sister Katie took the rest of these pictures and I just love them.  Asher was seriously too cute with his cake.  He sat there, unsure about what to do, just looking at his cake, pointing to it, saying "ooh".  We gave him a little taste of the frosting and he decided he liked it, but he was still so timid about touching and eating the frosting.  He took little nibbles at a time of the frosting, and was happy about it but never really dug in and stayed pretty clean.  Marcus helped him get a bite of the cake and after that he did eat a little bit more.  He was calm and took little bites the whole time.  I love my little Asher man.

Happy birthday little bug!  We love you!

ONE

My baby is one year old!

On a day when I was struggling waiting for a baby of my own, If someone could have shown me the tiniest snippet of my life now, of my sweet little boy, of our little family, I probably would have died of happiness. It would have made it a lot easier to wait, knowing how good it was going to be. Knowing how perfect, sweet and beautiful my little baby boy would be. Knowing how wonderful it would be to be a mama to this little guy. Knowing how amazing it would be to see Marcus be a daddy. And now, obviously, the wait was so worth it. And even though I will never forget the pain and uncertainty (mostly the uncertainty. The question 'will I ever be a mom?' sure has a way to stir up quite a bit of anxiety.) it almost seems like that wait was so long ago.

My sweet baby boy is one! ONE!

At twelve months Asher:

Weight: 20 pounds 10 ounces (20 percentile)
Height: 29 inches (30 percentile)
Head: 18.25 inches (60 percentile)

Loves:

-all fruit.  his favorite is honeydew.

-cucumbers

-cafe rio style food

-balls, trucks, cars and blocks

-lawnmowers, garbage trucks, and other loud big trucks

-books, especially his lift the flap books

-balloons

-babbling and especially saying "ticka-ticka-ticka"

-pulling up on and walking along everything

-standing alone

-pulling everything out of cupboards

-spatulas

-putting lids on and off.  bottles, pots and pans, his hamper, and basically anything that has a lid

-to clap and is starting to give high fives

-attention

-his toothbrush, and usually brushing his teeth

Hates:

-getting his diaper and clothes changed

-When anyone takes something away from him.  he can throw the biggest fits.

-being in his highchair any longer than he has to be.  the second he is finished he wants out.

He says three and a half words:

-hi, dada, no, and mmmm (as in yum, if he eats something he likes or sees something that he wants to eat)

He also:

-has five teeth and his sixth is just about to poke through.

-sleeps from about 8:15 until 7:15.

-has taken two steps.

-is so smiley and so happy, but is getting somewhat attached to me and marcus.  at times he doesn't want anyone else to hold him.

we love this little one year old! and for his birthday we partied.  pictures will come soon!

see last month here.