Christmas Celebrations

I did a pretty bad job at documenting our Christmas this year.  We had so much fun celebrating and watching Asher enjoy the day. I would say the highlight for me was watching him be so excited and thrilled about his new fish.  He couldn't stop talking about it, and I loved it.  At first he didn't catch on too much about the actual opening of the presents.  We had to help him open the first few, but once they were open he loved his new presents.  He was definitely spoiled by his grandparents, aunts and uncles and cousins.

We spent Christmas Eve at the Webbs and had a delicious shepherds' dinner, read the nativity, sang hymns and played lots of games.  Asher stayed up late and fell asleep talking all about "ish".  It was the first thing he talked about when he woke up too.

Christmas day we headed to my parents and were able to skype with Joe.  It was so good to see him and see that he's still our cute and goofy little brother, just working harder and being more responsible than he's ever been before.   We had a delicious dinner and had so much fun all together and exchanging gifts.

Thanks to Kate for snapping these pics.

As always we had a very, very Merry Christmas.

17 Months

Time continues to fly by.  Asher seems so old lately and seems to have turned into a little boy.  Just a few things I want to remember about him right now:

-He is taking a much longer nap lately.  He'll nap around 2 hours each afternoon and sometimes even more (while other times a little less...)

-When Asher likes things, he really likes them.  He becomes slightly obsessed and is always talking about them.  Right now he is obsessed with owls, ducks, birds, and cheese.

-He will sit and play by himself so well.  He has a really long attention span and doesn't mind playing by himself.  He loves his duplos and has learned to build tall towers and then take them apart one block at a time.  His other favorite toys are his cars and race track and balls.
-He absolutely loves to dance.  Anytime he hears music he starts stomping his feet, spinning in circles, and swinging his arms like crazy.  It is quite the sight.  I'm not sure who he gets his moves from...

-He is getting less picky again and will eat lots of things we eat.  His favorite food is cheese.  

-He says lots of words, but some are a little hard to understand.  He says: dada, mom, go, hi, cheese, fish, shoes, tree, water, juice, no, yeah.

-He loves making animal sounds.  If he doesn't know what sound it makes, he usually roars.  He knows what the owl, lion, tiger, bear, monster, dog, duck, bird, and monkey say.
-He communicates by making sounds (he says "mmm" when he's hungry, wants more food, wants to feed his fish, etc.), shaking his head (shaking his head no while saying "mmm" means he's not hungry), a few signs (all done and more), and is pretty good at getting his message across.
-He definitely keeps us on our toes but he is constantly amazing us and always making us laugh.  He is such a fun, pleasant little guy.  

Introducing...

...the newest member of our family...

"ish"

asher's little goldfish.  we got it for him for christmas and he is completely in love with it.  I have to admit i kinda like it too...

oH cHrIsTmAs TrEe

Somehow it feels like Christmas was already ages ago, but I'm now getting around to posting a few pictures of our tree.  The tree is long gone, it's been on our porch since the day after Christmas.  I was ready to take it down and move on, but I sure loved it while it was up.

Please excuse the fact that I do not know how to take pretty pictures in dim lighting, obviously I am not a photographer.  These are kindof the worst lighting ever.  I guess I still like them anyway.  

I changed the whole look of our tree this year and did everything in silver and gold with a woodsy theme.  I dipped pinecones, made some felt feathers, used old gold and silver balls, and some fancy gold leaf things as well as buying a few new owls.  I ended up loving it and enjoyed having something different this year.

Asher was so sweet and loved the tree.  He is currently fascinated by owls so he constantly pointed to the owls and would say "whoo whoo".  We talked about how he wasn't allowed to touch the tree and he was pretty good about it.  He would walk up to the tree, point to it (and occasionally barely touch the branches) and say 'no no no' in his sweet little voice.  It was pretty cute and lots of fun.   

Heartbreak

I cannot imagine the heartbreak that those families in Connecticut are going through right now.  I cannot imagine having my little boy taken away from me.  Waking up with your baby boy and going to bed without him.  It breaks my heart to think about it and I am so sad for those families.  I just cannot imagine something like that happening.

I am so glad my baby boy is mine, here and safe with me for now.  I love him so much and cannot imagine my life without him.  My heart breaks for those that can't say that anymore.

My friend Christine took these beautiful pictures of Asher back in October.  He was being a little bit of a stinker and didn't want me to set him down.  That was until we distracted him and got him playing in the leaves a little bit.  Then he forgot he was sad and started laughing and laughing at those leaves.  I love this little baby boy.

Skinny

Why do we all want to be so skinny? 

Because of some things in my background (the way I grew up, my degree in exercise science, and my job as a nutrition and exercise consultant) this is something I feel very passionate about. I believe it is important to eat healthy and take good care of our bodies. I believe it is so important and everyone needs to so it. But I also think that there is a very fine line between being healthy and taking care of our bodies and obsessing over every single food that goes into our body, feeling guilt for eating, and always wanting (and talking about wanting) to be skinnier. 

I believe we should fill our bodies with whole, nutritious foods. I believe we should use our bodies how they were designed and be active on a regular basis. I love challenging my body with something physically demanding and feeling strong and proud when I succeed.  But I also believe that we are meant to enjoy life and not obsess over things.  I think we can indulge in a small treat now and then without having to feel guilt and frustration. I believe in moderation in all things. 

I have had some situations in the last few weeks that have made me really think about this and not be able to get it off my mind.  I feel like lately whenever I am with a group of women, if there is a treat or something good to eat, the women all want it.  They know they want it.  And they even usually eat it.  But they don't stop talking about how they shouldn't be eating it, or how they'll have to make up for it in the gym.  

The other setting was more serious to me.  We were in a situation where as women, there were younger girls with us, listening to us and watching us.  As the leaders of these darling girls, we are supposed to be teaching them how important they are, how much they are worth, and what really matters in the world.  I noticed that some of the women I was with were constantly making comments about "oh I really shouldn't be eating this," or "I know where I'll be tomorrow morning after eating this."  Comment after comment about how heaven forbid we eat something not good for us without working off the calories and maintaining our figures.  What message are we giving?

I would be lying if I said I never worried about my body, my size and how I looked and felt in my clothes.  I know there are moments when we all worry and want to be different or smaller.  But I also think it is more important to be happy how we are, comfortable in our own skin, confident and happy with the bodies our Heavenly Father gave us, than to obsess, stress and compare ourselves to others who are always skinnier.  

I believe we must set an example for the girls around us.  For our children, and for the girls growing up.  I think it is a confusing time.  We live in an obesity epidemic, and so much emphasis is placed on dieting and losing weight, while at the same time we are bombarded with pictures of beautiful, skinny women in the magazines who keep losing weight and "look better than ever."  We are constantly told that skinnier is always better.  I believe that is not always the truth.  Especially when it comes in place of what is most important.

And most of all, I believe that our worth, our importance, and value in this world is not determined by how fit we are, what dress size we wear, or whether we burned enough calories at the gym this morning.  There is so much more than that. I truly believe that, and I hope that someday when I have daughters of my own I can raise them to believe that too.

The Hunt

The Saturday after Thanksgiving we headed up past Preston to pick out our Christmas trees.  This year we were all getting at least one tree and between my whole family we had seven trees to pick out!  We headed up the mountain and soon all went our separate ways searching for our perfect tree.  The trees seemed a little more sparse this year (probably just due to where we started looking) and it seemed like it took a long time to find them.  But once again everyone headed home with giant, gorgeous trees.  

Oh my goodness look at these cute babies in their snow suits!

We found our tree!  We never realize how massive they are until we either look at these pictures and see that it is more than triple my height, or get it home into our house.  Marcus got to work cutting it down.

When we all had our trees, we headed back to Katie's house for our annual "Christmas Kick-off".  Katie made a delicious meal for us and we all made yummy Christmas goodies.  We had a feast of desserts.  My mom seriously outdid herself and went to so much work giving us the perfect gifts to get us in the Christmas spirit.  Each grandkid got their own package, and it included a puzzle, book, candy, bath toy, a little duck, a truck, and more.  Then each couple got their package and it was full of fun things for us for the season.  She gave us all an ornament, a Christmas book, sprinkles, muffin liners, lotion, a giftcard and consumer report for the guys, and more fun stuff.  It felt like Christmas day.  Thanks to my sweet mom for making our Christmas kick-off such a fun tradition!  

What a fun weekend and I am so lucky to have been able to spend it with all of my amazing family.  Pictures of my wonderful tree to come!