OshKosh....

How is it that OshKosh denim overalls can make a baby look like a "big" kid? Whenever Asher wears his overalls, I feel like I can see him getting ready for school as though it was tomorrow. I don't want him to grow up!!!!!!!!!

"Cold"

It is Sept. 30th. In many places that means Fall has already come and is getting into full swing. A sure sign of Fall's arrival is the Pumpkin Spice Latte at Starbucks. How is it Fall though, when it was 104 on Sunday!?!?!?!??!?! I mean, seriously!!!! This morning it was "cold"! (ie, mid 50's around 8:30am) The temp. actually felt like Fall, though the surroundings don't. Something about there being no trees to change colors and only sand/dirt everywhere.....How Andrew and I long for Boston this time of year!

Anyway, trying to get into the Fall mood and since it was "chilly", I walked over to Starbucks this morning with Asher for a Pumpkin Spice Latte. Didn't taste the same as I remember and it still didn't make me feel like it was Fall, but it was a fun date with my little man!

PS. By the time I wrote this, it was already 72 degrees and supposed to get warmer! But compared to 104, it still seems down right cool!

Breakthrough...

The long awaited (and slightly dreaded by me) first tooth has finally broken through!! Asher got his first tooth last Thursday at 9months, 1 week and 3 days old! I don't think he is done though, as he continues to chew/gnaw on anything he gets his hands on. So far I have only been bitten once while nursing....praying that is the only time!!!!

Disney

Well, we are back! A little worse for the wear and we didn't actually ever enter Disney the park! Andrew had to attend a conference (SETP - Society of Experimental Test Pilots) that was at Disney. The government paid for our room and gave him a per diem, which made it an excellent budget friendly, mini-vacation. I decided Asher was too young to care about going to the Park and seeing/riding anything, so he and I hung out for 2 days with fellow TPS wives/kids by the pool. Andrew was at the conference from 8-5 Thurs. and Fri and 8-12 on Saturday. (he went to some of it, but did skip out a little for some family time!)

Our hotel was on the Disney grounds, so we still got lots of the Disney experience. It was enough for both Andrew and I! We were exhausted just watching all the parents and kids racing around everywhere and our friend's stories of 70min waits for a single ride, wall to wall people at night for the fireworks and terrified little munchkins on the "kid-friendly" rides made us VERY thankful Asher won't be ready for Disney for many more years to come!

Asher showed no fear of the Disney characters....In fact, he just wanted to chew on their giant noses!

Checking out the giant Lego Giraffe at the Lego store....I think Andy forgot for a second that Asher was actually in the stroller :)

Making new friends at the pool...........

Loving life and looking cute in his new swim trunks

Asher and I drove down on Thursday, hung out at the pool with some friends and then that night went to dinner in Newport Beach with 2 other couples. Our dinner was awesome!!! We ate at little local dive called The Crab Cooker. Everything was plastic/paper (cups, silverware, bowls, etc) delicious and cheap! It was one of those places that should be on the show Diners, Dives and Drive-In's....After dinner we walked a bit on the beach and then Andrew and I checked out the beautiful yachts.

Happy water baby.....

What a perfect place to take a nap! He slept there for over an hour!

Friday, I focused on Asher and naps! He was a total disaster Thurs, b/c he took 3 super short naps and got his first tooth. I have honestly never heard him cry so much over the course of a day or so loudly! He took a great nap in the morning, while I got to sit by the pool (yeah for baby monitors!) and then we went over to the other hotel some of our friends were staying at, for some pool time. The other hotel had a much better pool area and waitstaff to bring you drinks and food right to your lounge chair! (frozen mango margarita's - yum, yum!!) Asher got lots of water time and then proceed to take an awesome nap at the end of my lounge chair! We topped off the great day, with dinner at Rainforest Cafe with 4 other families and then walked around Downtown Disney.

Asher was fascinated by the Rainforest Cafe.......Especially the gigantic fish tank!
Saturday we slept in a bit, then checked out, got some last minute pool time and then headed home to recover! :)

Happy Birthday Baby Brother

My youngest brother Jesse turns 9 today! It seems hard to believe I have a sibling that young and at the same time, it doesn't seem like it has been 9 years since he was born. I can still remember driving home from college the day he was born to meet him!

Uncle Jesse getting to see Asher for the first time. We had to sneak him into the NICU, because kids under 12 weren't allowed on the floor unless they were siblings of the baby. Jesse and Bethany had come to visit with my Mom for my baby shower and ended up getting to be there for Asher's birth instead!Uncle Jesse and Asher really getting to meet for the "first" time at Dulles Airport in April....
Snuggling....

He is a GREAT uncle to Asher! He makes sure that I know exactly what sports Asher should play when he gets older and all the cool things I need to let him do! :) Jesse is quite the incredible soccer player, but he also likes to play ice hockey, snowboard and Wii (and is better than me at them all!). He loves to hold and snuggle Asher when we visit. Several times a week they talk on Skype.

Reading together at the beach in June

Talking on Skype to Uncle Joel and Uncle Jesse

This video was made last April on our first trip back to VA with Asher.

Happy Birthday Jesse. We love you lots and lots. We are praying for your faith to grow a lot this year and that it will be filled with fun and laughter! Come visit us soon!

We're at Disneyland....

We will be home on Saturday night and I will make sure to post lots of cute Asher photos as fast as I can :) For now, here is his smiley face from yesterday at the pool!

Seeing the Shuttle "up-close"

No chance he will remember this, but it is definitely one for the baby books...Wouldn't it be funny if he grew up and worked with the Shuttle in some way?

Putting the special "wing" on it, so it is aerodynamically correct to fly atop the 747

The shuttle gets lifted up in this and the 747 is placed under it and then it is lowered onto its back

All loaded up and ready to go back to FL.

NASA decided to let people get "close" to the shuttle the other day. Asher and I actually got our act together and got on the first bus of the day taking people to the shuttle. By the time we got back to the pick-up/drop-off place, there was a line over an hour long to get on the buses! I, of course, wish we could have gotten closer, but it was still cool to see. It is much smaller in person than you would think!

Self feeding....

I think he actually got some in his mouth, but who knows!?!? :)

I am going to eat.....

your camera, Mommy!!

Ummm....Shot Down....But it still looks so yummy....What should I do?

9 months already!?!?!

I feel like I just posted Asher's 8 month update yesterday. This month has really flown bye!

I have only a rough idea of his weight....over 16.5pds. I weighed him on the luggage scales at the airport when I was dropping my brother off and that was 2 weeks ago. (Can you believe I forgot to take a pictures of him on there?!?! It was so cute!) We haven't been to the Dr. for a checkup since June, and I am not really planning on taking him anytime soon, if I can help it. (I really don't like the Peds Dr.'s on base and we are not giving him vaccinations anytime soon!) Asher struggled with an annoying cough for several weeks this month because of the LA fires. They were so close that you could see them from parts of base and we had ash raining down on us for several days, and a smoke smell in the air for almost a week. His cough has cleared up, but it has reminded us that his lungs are still sensitive from being a preemie.

The biggest milestone this month was crawling. He has taken off! He started with the boot camp/belly crawl and he still does a combo of that and regular crawling and is much, much faster these days. If you leave flip-flops out anywhere that he can see them, he will take off for them and promptly stick them in his mouth..Grosses me out! He also adores all paper, electrical cords and the dog's chuck-it...i.e., everything germy and hazardous! He has also just begun pulling up on things. We had to lower his mattress finally, which made me sad because my back doesn't like bending over so low all the time. Time to anchor the furniture to the walls!
He continues to be incredibly social and loves to hit on (i.e., pull on their arms, chew their fingers, anything he can reach out and touch) all the other girl babies around the neighborhood! He flirts even better with the mommies! Talk sweet to him and ask him for a smile and he will grin from ear to ear! If he is at all whiny, going outside and finding someone else other than me to talk to him and he is a happy camper. Most of our friends here think he is never crabby, whiny or cries because he always looks so happy around people! And generally I must say he is an incredibly happy baby. Though last week, he threw his first "fit" over taking a nap! I was completely shocked because he goes down so easily and rarely gets really mad about anything. Thankfully it has not happened again and I hope it never happens again (wishful thinking I know!)
We go swimming almost every weekday. He starts full body happy shaking as soon as he sees the pool. Last week, we started using a kick-board with him and he can float everything but his head by himself! Future Michael Phelps??? :) We have also noticed that he seems to have an ear for music. Anytime he is upset, if you sing to him, he will calm down almost instantly. He also loves to dance with me to music and reaches out for the piano every time we go past it! I am thrilled by this, since I have almost no musical ability and really wish I did!

We have added eggplant, yellow squash, black beans, chick peas, watermelon, grapes, coconut milk and fish oil to his diet...... So far we still haven't found anything he really doesn't like. He either wants to eat or doesn't, but what he eats, he is chill about...Even fish oil...He will take it straight up no problems! (though it is citrus flavored, which helps a lot!) He continues to like nursing best and sees nothing wrong with his 2 feedings a night. I am hoping to work on that this next month!

And as this last picture shows Andrew continues to work on making him a Crossfit baby before he can even walk! :)

Budding Beethoven

I love these two!!!! My musical men!
Making a Joyful Noise unto the Lord...

Shuttle Landing

Last night we got the exciting treat of having the Space Shuttle land literally just down the street from our house. It was pretty amazing to watch and think that it, and the people inside, had just been hanging out in space! The shuttle landed on one of the seven natural lake bed runways that is here on base.

Just some of the people waiting to see the Shuttle land....People were spread out all over base at the many "best" locations

All comfy and ready to watch the show!

2 big sonic booms announced Its arrival....The white cloud stream is part of the path that the Shuttle took on its descent. It was going insanely fast as it approached. Many people say it looks like a brick falling from the sky, because it comes in at such a steep angle and so fast!

In this picture you can barely see the white blip of the Shuttle, but it is there.... Look slightly to the left of center and you will see it.

They parked the Shuttle at the end of the runway for a very short time and then moved it over to the NASA compound in prep for its ride on top of a special 747 back to Florida. A 1.7 million dollar ride across the country!

Desert Sunset

7 days with Uncle Joel!

Two Monday's ago (8/24) my 2nd to youngest brother, Joel, flew out to visit us for a week! I was really excited to see him and honestly surprised and honored that he wanted to come to the middle of nowhere and hang with his big sis...How many 14yr olds do you think would willingly do that?!?!? I wonder if I didn't have Asher if he still would have been as interested in coming though??? ;)Picking up/Dropping off Uncle Joel at LAX....Somehow Joel and I managed to miss seeing Paris Hilton, Jeremy Piven, Chris Brown and Demi Lovato while at airport....Such a bummer :) Right before Joel caught his flight home, I made sure he got to try In & Out Burger. Ironically, I took him to the same In & Out Burger that I had been to 4 years earlier when Andrew and I had come out to CA just after we started dating.
After picking up Joel, we headed to Venice Beach. Venice Beach cracks me up....it is the truly, crazy side of LA. My friend Laci had come along to help me with Asher and get off base for the day and had never been to Venice. True to form, we saw the steroid, muscle ripped, guys at Muscle Beach, the street performers and hawkers and the newly legal marijuana "Dr." offices/dispensaries! After seeing that side of town, we headed over to Santa Monica and got to see a much more beautiful and refined side of things. Joel was thrilled because we saw a Ferrari, Lamborghini and 2 Bentley's, one being a convertible! After a great lunch and running an errand to Williams-Sonoma we headed home.
On Tuesday, Joel kindly came with me to run errands around Lancaster and Palmdale (the 2 "close" towns) We picked up paint, returned things, got a stroller tire fixed and went out to lunch. It was so nice to have Joel with me, because it meant that I didn't have to take Asher in and out of the car seat for each 5min errand!! I so wish I could have him around for this all the time! Wednesday, we went bowling with some of the other wives and their kids, on base. Asher was very interested in watching for all of about 5 min. Joel bowled 3 great games....I only lasted for 1!
In the mornings, Joel and I would walk with my 2 other friends and their kids. One morning, he and I decided to walk over to Starbucks and I introduced him to my "favorite" drink (my fav non dairy/non soy drink) Shaken Iced Tea Lemonade with passion tea and 1/2 original sweetener and 1/2 raspberry sweetener...So refreshing!

Sadly, I didn't get any pictures of our afternoons in the pool and getting Tiger Blood shaved ices. (Sounds horrifying, I know, but seriously, the best flavored shaved ice ever!!!) Asher LOVED playing "boo" with U. Joel in the pool and watching him zip downs the water slides.
Friday, we headed to the "Cat House" which is this very random Big Cat preserve in Rosamond, CA. (about 20miles from our house) It isn't a rescue, but a legit breeding/zoo. (Though it did not look or feel that legit!) We got to see some cats up close, but a lot of them were inside their dens because it was about 105 out! After that, we toured base, checking out all the AF planes and NASA stuff. Later that night, our friend Laci and the 4 of us went to the Antelope Valley Fair. It was crazy! Lots and Lots of people! (I will kill my future daughter for wearing most of things I saw there, even if it was just a Halloween costume! Seriously, people! Dress better!!!!!!!!) We showed Asher the goats, cows, and llamas in the animal barn and watched an amazing diving show that had us all in awe! 80ft dive into a 9.5 ft. wide pool..Are you nuts!?!?!?

Saturday we chilled at home, unintentionally. We were going to try and go camping, which meant we had to find our camping stuff in the garage boxes. That turned into a 6 hr project of opening, organizing, and purging boxes. We found all the camp stuff, but in the process, also found out that the campsites where we wanted to go, were full. So Sunday we roadtripped to Lake Isabella about 90min away. Once there, I realized I forgot my camera! It was a great time....Joel, Asher and I swam in the lake and Boots endlessly chased his ball into water. Before we knew it, Monday was here and Joel headed home. Asher has missed having his Uncle around to make him laugh and I have missed having someone to hang out with during the day!

Thanks for coming Joel. We love you lots and lots!!! Come back again soon!

Checking out planes with Daddy

Can I crawl in there Dad?

Future Air Force Officer....?

Don't bump my head Dad.....

Dad, did you read this? This plane is sweet!

I love riding up here!