The Holidays, 2012

We had an AWESOME holiday season this year.  We alternate our holidays with our families.  Thanksgiving with one side, Christmas with the other.  It's more of a formality as we still see the other side for the holiday it's just not on the actual day.  It started with...

...a very full Thanksgiving.  This Thanksgiving was with the Joneses and McCanns.  This meant that Austin's aunt, uncle and three cousins from Colorado came to stay with my in-laws and we got to celebrate with them TONS!  As cheesy as it sounds, it was just really fun.  The cousins have grown up so much in the last few years and this was also their first time to meet Asher.  We ate, played games, laughed and then ate some more.  Asher LOVED being around everyone and still asks about the McCann clan often.




...Christmas was long but in a good way.  It started on (Friday) the 21st for me this year.  Austin and I went on a double date with the Newtons, to which we attended concert called Yuletide.  Let me just tell you, the group Folk Angel has changed my life.  I thought I loved Christmas music before but MAN I love what they've done with all the old songs!  That night made my heart sing. (Pun intended.)

That weekend we were set to spend a bunch of time with my side of the family, including my grandparents who were in from Arizona.  Unfortunately, everyone came down with the stomach bug.  First my dad and grandpa, then my mom and grandma.  So, suddenly our weekend was open.  While we were sad to miss out on visiting with family, snuggling in with our own little unit was the sweetest gift.

Christmas eve we attended service at our church.  Asher love every minute of the music and wanted to go up and see each of the instruments.  He kept saying "That's a lot a instruments!" We came home, had Pasta Bolognese, cookies and then put Asher to bed.  Immediately following, Austin assemble Asher's first Christmas morning present.  A toddler motorcycle.  It's plastic, without a motor or batteries.  It was perfect.

On Christmas morning we I woke up before it was light.  I was so dang excited.  Thank goodness Asher started to stir shortly after.  We scooped him up and brought him out to the living room where he immediately spotted his stocking and the motorcycle.  We opened stockings, had breakfast, then opened presents, then had cinnamon rolls.  It was a precious morning spent together and I can't wait to do it all over again next year!

After all the excitement we headed to my parents' house.  We packed a "just in case" bag because the weather report said snow.  My dad laughed.  Then ate crow 'cause IT SNOWED!!!  A few inches in fact.  Northerners, don't laugh.  That's a lot for us Texans.  It made it a white Christmas and I felt like a kid.  We celebrated all afternoon and evening and ended up staying the night just to avoid the icy roads.  It was so nice to spend the time with the family and especially to see my grandparents with Asher.  It's a luxury to have the relationship I have with them and huge privilege for our son to know them.

I say it all the time but I never get tired of it, we are blessed.  The Lord has blessed us in so many ways and this holiday season was such a beautiful reminder of what He has given us.

It's been too long

So much has happened since I last wrote.  Enough to keep me from writing because the thought of digging in becomes immediately overwhelming.  But if I don't, then I'm cheating my daughter of the possibility of understanding what life was like.  Before she was born, when she was born, and how she grew.  So it's time to get back on that horse...

I leave this post to bridge the gap from the last entry.  Last time I wrote, Asher was a year and half, we were in our old house and we were headed into the holidays.  Austin and I took a quick trip to Florida at the beginning of December for a wedding.  It was a sweet getaway, time spent just the two of us.  Four weeks or so later we found out...well, you'll see.  But first I'll publish this and the other two posts that have been hanging out, waiting.

The Big ONE

It's been over a month since our last post and it's been over two months since Asher's actual birthday party and I'm just now sitting down to post about it.  The bigger Asher gets the more I want to soak up every moment because it's going by so fast.  Things like blog posts and laundry wait a little longer these days.

On Saturday, January 28th at 4pm, we celebrated Asher's first birthday with a house full of friends and family.  I spent hours the month before preparing and planning and loved every minute of it.  It was a great excuse to be creative with Callie (my BFF :)) and an awesome way to reflect over the last year.

The theme was flight, including airplanes, transforming our house into an airport and a plane themed birthday cake to boot - made by the one and only, Auntie Shana.

*Most of the paper decor, compliments of CallieB Designs.

I took a picture of Asher each month, on the same blanket to watch him grow!

Goody bags for the guest, collected at baggage claim.

Bomber jacket, compliments of Great Aunt Patti and Uncle Steve,  shades compliments of the Newtons.
Ready to fly!

Our tiniest party-goer, Ms. Quinn!

Asher was walking a couple weeks before his birthday and here he is, showing off his skills!

Singing Happy Birthday! 

YUM!

These three babies were all born within a week of each other!  Good friends (babies and mommies :))

And Nolan and Asher are almost exact three months apart.  True buds.

We had close to 40 people in our little house and while there was some debate as to whether hosting that large of a crowd was the best idea, I have to say the chaos was amazing.  If you go back up to the picture of Austin and I giving Asher his cake, there's something missing from that shot.  Our point of view.  From where we sat, picture more than 30 people huddled in our kitchen, singing Happy Birthday to our little man.  Our hearts were full and we are blessed.  It was a pretty cool moment.

While the decorations were a blast to create and I loved making some of the snacks, my favorite part of all the prep was taping pictures to our empty dining room wall.  There were over two hundred and I smiled each time I pressed one into place.  I left them up for a month after the party, until they started falling down on their own.  To see Asher grow before my eyes absolutely took my breath away.  Reliving moments of his first year through photographs is something I will cherish forever.

Asher, at one year you surprise us every day with your growth.  Walking is no longer enough, you must run wherever you go.  Your list of words multiplies each morning you wake up.  You have become our buddy, that likes to go where we go and do what we're doing and I can't tell you how much we enjoy every minute of it.  We love you, Boo Boo.

Pumpkins, a Skunk and a Turkey Leg

Fall is my FAVORITE.  I love cold weather, I love the changing colors and to me it's the gateway to the most wonderful time of the year, Christmas!  So when September rolls around and football is in full swing, you'll find me giddy.

Being that this was Asher's first fall, we had to make sure that he got the full experience.  Pumpkins, a costume, family and friends and TURKEY.

First we visited the Pumpkin Patch with some dear friends, Nolan and Ghirin:

Following that we attended a playdate where all the kids dressed up.  This year, Asher was a skunk.  Quite appropriate for a crawling nine month old, if you ask me.

Then we had the family over the day before Halloween (as Halloween fell on a Monday this year) for some food and fun so we could show off the costume.

On Halloween, Asher and daddy ventured out to knock on a few doors and wave to the neighbors.  Mr.Man even scored a Kit Kat!

Our last stop of the season was Thanksgiving.  This year was a bit off-kilter.  Disaster struck Austin's parents house and they were dealing with renovation realities and my mom had to leave town unexpectedly the Sunday prior to Turkey Day because my dear Grandma Donna was not doing well.  She passed later that day in fact so Gigi was not coming home for the holiday.

The original plan was to have Thanksgiving at my parent's house as my grandparents on my dad's side were in town.  We kept that plan and Shana (my sister) and I helped pulled dinner together and Asher got his first turkey leg.

We then got to see the other half of the family on Saturday and enjoyed some yummy lasagna at Lauren and Dave's.

While this season wrapped up with a loss and things still in limbo it has been a reminder to be thankful, more now than ever, for what you do have and to spend time with the ones you love.  Living life to the fullest will leave you with little regret and a full heart.  Something we hope to continue to teach Asher.

12 Days on the Road

We just got back from a trip to the good ole Northwest and holy cow was it a TRIP!  I'll provide some background but then tell the tale through pictures.

Austin was recently offered a job with Microsoft, to which he accepted and started in August.  This is great news for multiple reasons.  Some of these include:

1. A great career move for Austin
2. Benefits are amazing - which is important with a family
3. Microsoft's headquarters is located in SEATTLE!!!  My all-time, most favorite city in the whole world.

Why I love Seattle: I spent my childhood there and have family roots, that date back over a century in central Washington state.  Most of my family still lives there.

So you can only imagine the mixed emotions I had when Austin said "Babe, I have two weeks of training for work in Seattle, in October and they want me to stay over the weekend."  Big sad face when I thought about 14 days without him.  But thanks to airline miles I had accrued through my own business travel, some wonderful family and a very understanding husband - Asher and I tagged along!!

We flew out early Saturday morning but then parted ways once we got our luggage.

Asher and mommy's first stop: Yakima!  We stayed almost a full week and got to visit lots of family.

Great Granparents, Don and Donna Schmitt.

Aunt Theresa Hoff

Aunt Patti and Uncle Steve (Alegria)

Cousins Jon, Joy, Anthony and Kate Alegria - Stayed with them four nights.

Cousins Brian, Buffy, Bella, Olivia and Diana Alegria - Got to stay with them two nights.

Then, we headed back to Seattle to crash with Austin in his hotel room.  We spent Saturday and Sunday in the city and with some family.

Visiting the first Starbucks.

Lunch and playing at the park with Aunt Polly, Uncle Don, Anna and Holton Schmitt.

We also got a chance to visit daddy at work, which is pretty cool if you think about it because most days he's working from home!  We met him on one of the Microsoft campus' and had a little lunch.

And here are our new friends - Sushma and Kaustubh Giri.  Kaustubh is a co-worker of Austin's and he and his wife are the sweetest people.  Sushma and Asher became fast friends as the three of us got a chance to hang out quite a bit while the boys were at work.

It was a wonderful trip full of memories and experiences we'll cherish always.  While traveling with the little one wasn't a cake walk (time change, climate change, always on the road, semi-mobile baby, sharing a hotel room - keeping in mind he goes to bed at 7:30!) I would do it all over again in a heartbeat.