A Few Favorites From the Weekend

These two are such good buddies.  Asher gets SO happy and excited when Marcus gets home from work.  Even if he is being a little bit fussy, the second dad gets home he is full of smiles.  So naturally he is especially happy on the weekends.

Just finishing up some of dad's work Friday afternoon.  Asher was happy to help. :)

I love this happy little baby and his chunky little body!

3 Months Old

Asher is three months old!

At three months:

-Asher now sleeps the night.  He started this at about 11 weeks and it is so great.  He goes to bed at 9:00 now and usually sleeps somewhere between 7 and 11 hours.  Usually 8 or 9.  

-He talks and talks and talks.  He is so loud!

-He blows little raspberries all the time and therefore is constantly drooling.

-He can always break out of his swaddle when we put him to bed.

-He hates his carseat.  The second we put him in it he lets us know he is not happy and the second we get out of the car he wants OUT.

-He is still doing really well with his naps.  We put him in his crib and he may cry or fuss for a minute but he'll almost always fall asleep.

-He doesn't like to sleep anywhere really except for his crib.  He won't sleep in our arms or very well in his carseat.  He just wants to be laid down and then he'll fall asleep.

-He sucks his thumb.  

-He turns himself 90 or 180 degrees in his crib.  He also likes to roll himself onto his side and lay there.

-He loves just lying on his back, looking up at the ceiling, kicking his arms and legs and just talking.  It seems like he is happier doing this than even being held.

-Although the hair on the top of his head is slowly starting to come back in, he has continued to lose more hair and only has hair left down around the back and sides and looks more and more like a grandpa everyday.

-He is getting so interactive and just loves to smile and play.  We love him and are having so much fun with him!

see one month here and two months here.

This is Halloween

My sister Tierra loves Halloween and threw the best Halloween party this weekend.  She seriously went all out and had the place completely decked out all creepy, had so much yummy food, fun games and an awesome donut eating contest.

Tierra made all of the food so dang cute.   It was all creepy looking but tasted delicious.  My mom helped with a few things but other than that Tierra did it all, and it was incredible.   

And the yummy treats.

And it wouldn't be a Halloween party without costumes!  I finally convinced Marcus to do a themed costume with our little family.  Here we are.

Chef, Server, and the main dish -- Lobster.

Asher was really a good sport about his costume.

All of our family dressed up -- here are the costumes:

Hippie Dad and Witch Mom:

The host herself -- Tierra -- A Cheerleader.

Stokes Family -- The Situation, 80's Rocker, Rondo, Boba Fett, a Butterfly and little Bumblebee.

Lise and Mike -- The Hippie Couple.

Angel Grandma -- scary mask Grandpa unfortunately didn't get his picture taken

And one more of the baby lobster.

Thanks T for such an awesome party!  Happy Halloween.

A Day at the Pumpkin Patch

Today we headed to the Pumpkin Patch with Marcus' mom before Halloween was over.

A little too young to sit up on his own...this was the best we could do. :)

Weekend Visitors

Weekends are still the best.  I love having Marcus home with me and Asher and doing all that we do.  This weekend was a fun one.

We got to see Jamie and Adam and their darling little Millie again.  It was only for a minute but it was so good to see them.  Millie is so cute and it is so fun to see the similarities and differences between her and Asher.  Last time we saw each other was two months ago and I can't believe how much our babies have changed since then.  They have gotten so much bigger and do so much more!

Little Thumb Sucker

So in the last few weeks Asher has found his thumb.  He just loves it.  He is starting to seem less interested in his binky and will even spit it out to suck on his thumb instead.  Whenever he is tired or fussy in goes the thumb.  Sometimes when he is asleep in his crib I will hear a loud smacking noise and sure enough he is in there loudly sucking on his thumb.

A few people have told me that I need to stop the habit now, while I can, and try to either pull his thumb out or get him to take his binky instead.  And I guess I just want to know, are they serious?  Is this something I really can stop now?  Or something that I should stop now?  Obviously I am his mom and think it is adorable, but I do know that if this becomes a habit now it will probably be hard to break the older he gets.   But I guess it doesn't seem realistic that I could stop him from sucking it now.  He sleeps so many hours a day and unless I was sitting over his crib every hour he is going to suck his thumb.  Just wondering what other people think?

A Few Favorites

So for the last few years I have thought I really didn't like to cook.  I liked to bake, but only when I had the time to do it, and it didn't seem like that happened very often.  Now that I am home though I am realizing that I don't hate cooking, I just hated it when I would get home from work, tired and hungry.  Now that I am home with Asher I have been cooking a lot and these are a few of my favorites lately, all of which feel just perfect for the fall weather.

Black Bean Soup from Our Best Bites

This soup was really easy to make and tasted so good to me.  Marcus even ate the leftovers over chips with cheese, like a bean dip and nachos.  

Pumpkin Coconut Soup from Just Cook Already

This was so delicious.  Probably the best soup I have had in a really long time.  I reduced the oil and the salt and used banana squash instead of butternut squash because that is what I had.  I will definitely be making this soup again.

Whole Wheat Banana Bread from The Sisters Cafe

I used the applesauce in place of some of the butter like she suggested and it turned out great.  It tasted healthy and wheat-y but I really liked that.

There are so many fun recipes on so many blogs out there, but I always like to hear when people I know have tried them and recommend them.  So these are my most recent favorites.  What are you favorites?