Best buddies

Emers and his dad have a special bond. Em is Tom's little mini me and he just loves his papa. It is so cute to watch his face light up when he sees him and he'll start clapping and yelling da da!!!




I love that they are so smitten with each other. Ash and I are still best buds (unless dad will take him fishing, then he could care less if I'm involved).

I couldn't have picked a better dad for these boys. Happy fathers day love!

Thomas conversations...

This is a text convo between Tom and I after my last doctor's appointment:

Me: Doc says baby is a-ok.
Tom: What about contractions?
Me: Sit and hydrate when I get them. More than six an hour then call.
Tom: Why are you so big? Did you ask?
Me: U suck. And no.

I really should take some pictures of myself for posterity's sake. I am easily as big as I was with Ash when I delivered and I still have a whole month to go (the month the baby is supposed to just pretty much gain weight). Yikes.

Maybe I'll get my loving and supportive husband to take a few pics of my wonderful belly.

class of 2011...

Honestly... I remember four years ago looking at a sign at Tom's white coat ceremony (his induction into the Pharmacy program) that said "Class of 2011" and thinking "oh my lord that is SOOOO far away."


I didn't think the day would ever come when he'd be done with school. This was us back then... September 2007... almost three months after Ash was born:


And Tom and Asher...


Fast forward to now...


GRADUATION DAY!!!
Finally here. Holy cow.

It was so surreal to be in 2011 remembering back to that day thinking it would be so far away. I'm sure Tom has different feelings... with all the time and effort he put into school it probably felt like forever.

Oddly... the speeches at Tom's graduation also felt like forever... YIKES! It was only like 30 minutes, but throw in an active three year old and you have an eternity. He walked up and down the aisles, visiting everyone...


Took pictures with me...


Played my phone... until finally it was time to send everyone across the stage...


They called Tom's name and we all cheered...


They gave Tom his diploma and then he had to walk across the stage and shake hands with a bunch of people and get a scarf thing put around his neck.


It got a little quiet while he did this, but Asher kept up the cheering. He found his way to the steps at the back and shook his clapper the entire time. Everyone thought it was a little funny and after a minute or two a little laugh went through the audience because he just kept cheering.


Here is Tom after holding the sign Rach helped Ash make that Ash held up as Tom was walking in and out...


Tom and his family...






After graduation we went to dinner at the same place we went after the white coat ceremony.


Lots of Tom's family and friends came.



(including cutie Addi... who I adore)


I don't know who started the shots, but they were followed by a few rounds of beers... and since Tom had stopped drinking about a year ago... he was a little bit of a light weight. By the time we left... well... let's just say it was an unpleasant ride home with a few puke stops along the way. A well deserved chance to cut loose, but one that probably won't be repeated for a LONG time.

Tom told Ash that now he is graduated, Ash has to call him "Dr. Dad". Asher... being the little comedian (just like his dad) said "well, I haven't graduated and got papers, but you have to call me Dr. Son." So there. A family full of Drs apparently.

Tom was really lucky and even though his work offered to keep him there, he also was offered a job at Poison Control as a full time pharmacist. He decided with the stability and all the benefits Poison Control offered it is the best place for him to take care of his family. So you never know... please bless you never have the need to call, but if you do... rest assured there is an AMAZINGLY TALENTED pharmacist on staff to help you and your loved ones!

We are just so excited to have a pops who is around more and can enjoy more fun times with us. We are truly blessed to have him as a husband and dad. XOXO Sweetie.

Photobooth...

Soccer Sunday...

Tom and his friends switched from football to soccer about a year ago. They thought there might be less injuries in soccer than they had in football... yeah... umm... that was kind of true, but not really.

I started playing at the end of last year, but I had to stop about a month ago because my belly was getting too big. Well... really I got hit pretty hard by the ball and the bruise scared Tom into "suggesting" that it was time for me to stop.

This is just after I got hit and the purple hadn't really set in... but you can see how the ball hit so hard the grooves in the ball left a grid of broken blood vessels... not pretty:


I need to learn action photography better... most of these are blurry. There is either glass or netting between me and the game and the camera tries to focus on that.






For some reason Tom always manages to smack into the girls on the other teams... hmmm... maybe I should stay on the field after all...




He just plays at full speed. Running the entire field the whole time. I don't know how he does it. He loves soccer though.


Asher loves going to the games and watching us play... well mostly run around and eat candy... but he also enjoys the soccer:




Heather told me she signed up Dontae for soccer and I realized its time for Ashman to get in the game. He's going to start next week and he's really excited. He's got all the gear:


Hopefully he likes playing as much as he likes hanging out at our games!

Happy Father's Day

We spent Father's Day doing what we love best on a Sunday... eating a good breakfast then going to the park.

Ash loves hanging out at the park with his dad...




The Layton park is Ash's absolute favorite because it has the digger tractor things. He loves them (although the Riverdale park with the water toys is a new favorite too).




Happy Father's Day to an amazing papa who we love so much! One day hopefully we will be able to pay you back for all you do for us...

Here's one or two...

pre-birthday pictures that I'm barely getting around to putting up...

Asher and his great-grandma (Tom's grandma Beverly, who is amazing):


Asher cruising through the backyard. He is always in MOTION...


Playing with Rachie...


Dumping water on his pops...




And finally... wrestling boys:

Finally a real update...

Our life has been crazy for the last two months. Tom had to prepare for his "seminar". It's a huge massive project that they have to do during 3rd and 4th year in pharmacy school. He had to pick a clinical controversy and give an hour long seminar on it, with a powerpoint and twenty page paper. It took SO MUCH WORK. He is amazing for even knowing all this stuff... I edited his paper... and the slide show... and still couldn't understand 1/8th of what he was talking about.

It's over now. He did an amazing job. We love that he is so smart, but we are just so glad to have him back. Ash has been missing him... he so loves his daddy.

Ash and I were in charge of refreshments. All our cookies got eaten. A+ for us.

Sooo... in all that time Tom had my computer posts were pretty sparse. Here is an update on what has been happening:

lots of playing outside and bike riding:


Ash and I got to babysit Addi for a day. She is so cute!!! Ash was very helpful and fed her lunch. He kept saying cute little things to her... "your almost done," "you're doing such a good job," "you like that? want some more?" It was very sweet.


but it also meant she ended up looking like this:


Right when Christa brought her in Ash said something about "scissors and Addi's hair..." Can you imagine? Beautiful Addi missing chunks of her hair? I had to quickly remind him his scissors are only for paper. Yikes!

I tried taking some pictures of her, but she didn't want to sit still for long.


On Easter Saturday, Tyson brought Ellee and Hallee and we took the kids to an easter egg hunt. They thought rounding up the eggs was ok, but opening them and eating the candy was even better.


They had an Easter bunny and Ash was so excited, he kept running up to the bunny and talking to him. "Hey bunny... look at my candy." "Hey bunny... watch this." It was pretty funny. Ellee on the other hand wanted nothing to do with that bunny. She kept one eye on it the entire time and cuddled up right into Tyson anytime he got near her.




The easter bunny was very sweet and brought Ash exactly what he asked for... spray bottles. I also put in a special request for a new transformer, since I was not paying attention as Ash brought his old bumblebee into the tub. Oops. He doesn't talk anymore. This one (megatron) has this crazy loud voice and says awesome things like "I will rule you."


Aunt Rachie comes up with the best games for Ash to play. His favorite this winter was to spray the snow with food colored water. This has carried over into a love of just spraying water. He will spend an hour outside spraying the sidewalk or anything else that gets in his way.


This is why he loves to go to Grandma Noralyn's. Always has fun. Everyone always plays with him. Here he is playing football with Uncle Zach:


Last weekend it was finally warm again and I let Ash out to play in the backyard while I got ready. I could hear him jabbering the ENTIRE time. This is fairly normal. I just have to leave the door open and I can hear him jabbering so I know he is still there.

The neighbor next door was out working in his backyard. I'm sure he got a chuckle out of it.

After I finished getting ready I came out to find this:


He had filled the water in our slide (not hooked up yet and just laying on the ground) with mud. Carried shovels of it from the planters and dumped it into the slide. He was having a ball. Such a boy.

Football has started, and they got Ash his own shirt. If you ask him what number he is, he'll turn around in circles saying "this one". Trying to get to the back of his shirt.



After the game this saturday we stopped by to see Rachie off to prom. Rory taught Ash all about the ice cream truck...


After a long debate and some "I changed my minds," they ended up with Batman for Ash... Ninja Turtle for Rory.


and Rach looked so beautiful. I was very jealous of her prom dress. We had nothing quite that cool when I went to prom.