Cute cousins!

Ashley and I wanted to take some photos of our kids together to give to our parents for Christmas. It was not an easy task, to say the least. None of them were very into getting their picture taken so it's a good thing they are all so darn cute! Merry Christmas from Hunter, Asher and Brinley :)

I can never decide between color or black and white, so here's both!

6 months!

Asher turned 6 months old this past week. He is becoming more fun everyday and learning so many new things! He had his 6 month check up Thursday and it went great. He did so good with his shots and only cried for a few seconds. We found out that he definitely will not need a helmet, which made me very relieved. I was pretty sure he wouldn't but it is nice to not have to worry about it anymore. Here are his 6 month stats:

Weight: 16lbs 15 oz- 40th percentile
Height: 27.5 inches- 81st percentile
Head: 16.7 inches- 18th percentile

So he is still one tall boy! His cheeks have sure filled out but his body is still pretty thin. And he is just as handsome as ever!
He is learning new things all the time and it's so much fun. He knows and responds to his name. He has been close to sitting up alone for a long time now and pretty much mastered it today. He went from sitting up for about a minute yesterday to sitting as long as he wants today. He still loves to play with his feet. He always pulls off his socks so he can put them in his mouth. Half of the time he will have the next one off before we finish putting the other back on. In fact, the other day while I was getting him dressed he pulled his sock off, put it in his mouth and left it there. It was pretty funny. He is always doing silly things and making us laugh. He definitely has an opinion now and likes to make it known. He is pretty loud when he wants to be. He has started to play with his toys now instead of just putting them in his mouth. He is always kicking his feet. He has really started to like bath time lately and will just kick his feet the whole time and then laugh when the water splashes his face. He smiles every time he sneezes. We love our silly boy!



These pictures were actually taken about a month ago but he just looks too darn cute not to share them :)

5 months!

It's true, our little baby is not so little anymore! He is getting to such a fun age and we love it! He is growing so fast and getting so big. I know I say that every month but I'm always amazed at how fast it has gone by. He has been with us for such a short time but it feels like he has always been here. I really don't remember what it felt like to not have him with us. He just fits so well.

He is super smiley these days and is much easier to get laughs out of. He will even laugh now when we talk to him, which is pretty much the cutest thing I have ever seen! He has been rolling from tummy to back for quite a while but just rolled the other way for the first time on Saturday. He has been so close for so long but he really does not like being on his tummy so he hasn't had much motivation. I'm not sure he will be doing it all that much still but at least now we know he can! I'm sure he'll be sitting up anytime now. He is getting really close and does great with minimal support. He cannot get enough of his feet lately. He is trying to eat them all.the.time. I would even be willing to say his feet are his favorite toy. He has also found his voice in the last few weeks. He of course has been babbling and cooing for a long time but these days he likes to yell. I think he just likes to hear himself and he sure is loud! Sometimes when he wakes up in the morning or from a nap I don't go in right away because I like to listen to him through the monitor. It makes me laugh everytime to hear him in there grunting and squealing while he waits. He has also mellowed out a bit and has gotten past the fussy newborn stage. He does seem to be developing some seperation anxiety/stranger danger lately, though. As long as Tim or I are holding him he does just fine but when someone else takes him he gets a little unsure. I don't really mind it though, soon enough I'm sure he will be dying to get away from us so I'll take what I can get :)

Like I said, he cannot get enough of his feet!

How are babies this flexible? It makes me smile.

I may be biased, but I'm pretty sure I have the cutest baby in the whole world :)

Love the silly faces!

We love our handsome little man and we are so blessed to have him in our family! I ask myself everyday how I got so lucky. We love you, Asher!

Starting Solids!

On Sunday we gave Asher his first taste of solid food. We started with some rice cereal and I would say it was a success! It was really just for fun and to help him start getting used to a spoon but he did great!

First bite, he's not so sure yet...

A few bites in and he started to get a little more comfortable...

By the end he was loving it, even though half of it ended up on him instead of in his mouth!

Asher's First Halloween!

I have already decided that holidays are a lot more fun with kids, and Asher is only 4 months! It was so much fun just to dress up Asher and see how cute he looked in his costume! We didn't actually do much on Halloween. We just put Asher in his costume long enough for some pictures and then passed out candy to the few trick or treaters that came.

Here are some photos of my cute robot!

With his cute Halloween Build-a-Bear

Ha ha I love this face he is making!

We spent the night before Halloween at my dad and stepmoms house. They always have such fun activities whenever we go over for any holiday!

Asher and Grandpa Kevin

Tim and Asher

Painting my bat pumpkin

Asher and Ryan- Asher was loving his costume ;)

Like I said, holidays are way better with kids. I am excited for all of the future Halloweens with our little man when he will actually care!

Go Packers!

Last weekend Tim was able to go with his Dad to Green Bay, Wisconsin to go to a Packers game. The McDonald's are very faithful Packers fans and Tim has always wanted to take a trip to Lambeau Field. He LOVED it, and that is probably an understatement. He had a great time with his dad and has informed me that he now wants to move to Green Bay, I'm not so sure that I'm convinced yet :) Asher and I missed him at home but he had so much fun that it was worth it. My mom even came to stay with me while he was gone so we wouldn't be alone. We are very lucky to have such generous family! Tim even brought some souvenirs home for us, a shirt for me and a pennant to hang in Asher's room. I'm sure one day Asher will love the Packers as much as Tim does.

Here are a few photos from his trip. You can see they had AMAZING seats!

4 months!

That's right. My sweet boy is 4 months old! I am totally missing the newborn stage but I'm so LOVING this age! He is so much fun! He smiles for us all the time and even laughs quite a bit these days. It is pretty much the cutest thing I have ever heard. We had his 4 month check up yesterday.

These are his 4 month stats:
Weight: 14lbs 13 oz- 46%
Length: 26 inches- 88%
Head: 16.3 inches- 24%

Yes, you read that correctly. He is a whopping 26 inches! He has grown almost 6 inches since he was born! His appointment was great (except the shots, of course. He did NOT like that part). The best news of all is that he is over his torticollis!! I have to say, I'm pretty proud of us. After countless stretches and exercises for 2 months we were able to overcome it without going to physical therapy. We did meet with a physical therapist a few weeks ago for an evaluation and they gave us some stuff to do at home. We have been super diligent and it was so worth it! He still has a small flat spot because of it so we will continue to reposition his head whenever we can in hopes that it will resolve itself. He also has a condition called pectus excavatum. It means he has a sunken in chest, there is a small cavity between his ribs. It is pretty mild and will most likely not cause any problems. We really won't know for years if it's something to worry about. He could grow out of it so that is what we are hoping for! It seems like he has these weird problems but really we are very lucky that he is a healthy, growing boy!

He is rolling over all the time, tummy to back. I think it's really because he hates tummy time so he tries as hard as he can to end it. Sometimes he even gets up on his knees or toes. You can just tell he wants to be on the go already. I'm pretty sure he will be an early crawler, he already tries so hard.

We have also been doing sleep training the last week and a half. Asher had been napping in his swing everyday because that was the only place he would nap for longer than 2o minutes without being held, which is weird because he sleeps in his crib at night... We had to stop using the swing all of a sudden after going to the physical therapist because it was not good for his torticollis. So after a week of going crazy from either holding Asher for 2 hours or putting him down only to wake up after 20 minutes I decided that we needed to make some changes. He now sleeps in his crib for every nap and will stay in there for over 2 hours. I can even put him down drowsy for naps and nighttime, that never happened before. I have learned a lot through this whole process and will hopefully be able to avoid the same problems with our next child. Asher usually wakes up once a night now but will sleep all the way through every now and then. He was sleeping through the night for a while but unfortunately it didn't last. It finally seems like we may get back to that soon, yay!