Brynn's 9-month "photo shoot"

A few weekends ago, my favorite little birthday buddy (and her mommy and brother) came over so we could attempt to get a few 9-month pictures of her. I am by no means a professional photographer, but I like to play. Trying to keep a 9-month child still for photos is no easy task and Beth and I were sweating by the end, we got a few keepers. Here's baby Brynn:Then we attempted to bring in the crazy boys for some group shots. Fat chance!! Within about 45 seconds of sitting the babies in the chair and asking the big boys to lean "softly" on the sides, the chair went toppling backwards...along with all four kids!! Beth and I were rolling laughing, and luckily we didn't see too many tears. We didn't get any perfect shots, but LOTS to laugh about. Here you go!

Ten on Tuesday.

Well, I started it on Tuesday...close enough? I've been kinda slacking on the blog this month, so this will be a little bit of catch-up from our February photos.

1. We had the football coaching staff over for a Super Bowl party. The staff seems to be producing their own little future football team...three new boys have been added to the crew this year! Here they are...Colt, Eli and Asher.
Big brothers Carter and Wyatt.Addie was there too...she was a little outnumbered, but jumped right in with the boys.Speaking of jumping, these monkeys did a LOT of jumping on the bed during the 2nd half...their energy is endless.2. Several weeks ago when I was shopping, I picked up a 2-pack of toddler-sized boxers. When I pulled them out for Carter to wear the next day he said, "What are those?" I explained to him that they're kinda like shorts and big boys wear them for underwear sometimes. He was sold. He LOVES his new boxers and it's a very sad day after the two pairs are dirty and he's stuck wearing regular undies. We'll probably need to be looking for some more. Once we were standing in the living room and out of the blue he just dropped his drawers and announced, "I have new boxers...just like daddy!" Here he is practicing for his Calvin Klein modeling career.3. Asher is developing some intense orneriness. Mealtime is ever an adventure these days, but it's even more fun when he decides to spit his food back out at us. We stick the spoon in his mouth, he slurps it in, thinks about it for a couple seconds (you can almost hear his wheels turning) and then slowly spits it back out...running down his face. Lovely. And he's grinning the whole time. Such joy!

4. We've started referring to Asher as Captain Destruction lately. That child can destroy a room in a matter of seconds. He's very determined too...he loves to pull all of our puzzles off the shelf and just admire his big mess. So lately, I've been putting his exersaucer right in front of the shelf to block Captain D. He sees this as just another little obstacle and has learned to wiggle himself behind it and can just barely still yank the puzzles off the shelf. I think we'll be relocating the puzzles.

5. Exhibit B of Captain Destruction...he's learned where the Cheerios are!6. Exhibit C...All of those decorations used to be on the bottom shelf of that sofa table. I came around the corner to find that Captain D. had "re-arranged." He also found himself a new little seat.

7. Ash man is definitely walking now!! We let him practice taking steps between mommy and daddy each night. He's been taking 1-2 steps for the last couple weeks, but Monday night he busted out with 5!! He's still nervous and electively drops to his knees most of the time, but he's very steady when he's not thinking about it.

8. Our friends Noelle, Ethan and Elly were in town from CO last week, so we had them along with Jenny and Adyson over for a little play date. Little Elly may very well be the HAPPIEST little baby I've ever seen. That girl is all smiles!!Ethan, Elly and Carter.Asher and Elly...shortly before he tried to poke her eyes out. She just kept smiling through all the torture!!Adyson got to snuggle with baby Elly too!Big E turned 2 last Saturday...Happy Birthday Ethan!!

9. Pictures are worth a thousand words...if Asher could talk, I'm pretty sure he'd have some cuss words during this "moment."

10. Grandma and Papa surprised us for lunch this past Sunday! The boys were thrilled and loved all the extra playtime after lunch. Carter tried on Papa's specs...

...and Asher just giggled away with Grandma.Thanks for the fun surprise, Grandma and Papa!

Playhouse Disney Live!

Chris, Carter and I ventured to Topeka Saturday afternoon to make our little boy very happy. We had tickets in hand to see Playhouse Disney Live, but Carter didn't know that yet. All morning long, I'd been telling Carter that we were going to take a long car ride to pick up daddy and then we were going to see a really special "show."

"What kind of show?" he asked.
"I can't tell you yet," I replied.
"You HAVE to tell me, mom." Silly boy. The suspense was killing him.

Once we got to Topeka, we met daddy and our friend Sarah for some ice cream. We broke the news to Carter that we were going to see the "real" Mickey Mouse. He lit up like a light bulb...totally the reaction that we expected...totally worth the ticket price and more.

Off we went to the Topeka Performing Arts Center. We had great seats...about 13 rows back from the stage with an excellent view. We got there about 30 minutes early and most of that time was spent trying to distract our curious little guy from all of the very expensive souvenirs that nearly every other child was toting. Everywhere we turned we saw popcorn, slushies, light wands, cotton candy, hats, etc...nothing less than $10.
Waiting for the show to start...Carter folded up like a taco in his seat :).Here comes Mickey!!Then the Little Einsteins......and their Pat-Pat Rocket.Next up was Handy Manny and the tools...they moved by themselves--it was pretty cute!Then it was time for Tigger, Pooh and Darby--the Super Sleuths!And the Grand Finale!!
Carter was completely enthralled the entire show. Then we went out for a great dinner at Red Robin. It was nice having a special day with just our big boy, but we were happy to pick up little Asher at Grandma and Papa's that evening. Thanks for babysitting guys!!

10 months!

All About Asher:

Weight: about 21 lbs.?

Length: short

Food: He's really branching out into "people food." In addition to his formula, baby food and puffs, he's also enjoying bananas, cheese puffs, Ritz crackers, shredded cheese, and more. He loves his food, but he's not the bottomless pit that Carter was as a baby.

Misc. update: Asher's taken a couple steps, but he definitely prefers crawling. He can crawl VERY fast now and you can hear him coming by the pounds on the floor and his panting breath. He's sleeping very well (knock, knock) and always wakes up with some wild bed-head. He is quite a cuddler (much more so than Carter was) and he's still taking two naps a day (most days).

Funny boys.

Our boys make us laugh numerous times each day...I've got a good one from each of them to share from last week. Asher's is a picture...no words are necessary.

Carter's is a story that I'll have to write:

Monday evening I told Carter to go wash his hands in the bathroom. He was in there for over 10 minutes, so I finally went in to help him wrap things up. He was filling up the lid of his toothpaste with water and dumping it out (over and over). I took it from him and grabbed the tube of toothpaste to screw it back on. The brand new tube of toothpaste was empty--we had just opened it that morning!! I asked Carter "Where is all the toothpaste?" He flashed me a HUGE, PROUD smile and said "in my tummy." :) Yep, he had eaten the entire thing.

Snow fun.

Santa brought Carter a cool new sled for Christmas and he's been getting pretty bored with sledding on the carpet downstairs. After the big snowfall last week, we were determined to test out the sled on Sunday. The kids had late naps and daylight was fading fast so we bundled up quickly, shipped little bro off to Grammy's and headed for the hill.Daddy got him all situated and they counted 1...2...3...GO!He loved it!It was very cold that day, so we really thought Carter would only last 10-15 minutes...HA! We were out there for about 45 minutes and we only left because it was getting dark. Daddy and Mommy even took a ride down the hill.

Wanna try going head-first? YEAH!! Even with some snow up the gloves, he was all smiles.Then we headed to Grammy & Grandpa's and made some snow angels in the front yard. Daddy went first to demonstrate.

Then it was Carter's turn!

And with that...we were DONE. Snow down your shirt and in your hat = a cranky Carter. We headed inside for some hot chocolate!!