From Asher's perspective...

Ash likes to play games on my phone. I've pretty much given in and let him play with it, even though I LOVE my phone, and even though when he gives it back the apps will be in all different orders and he's called like three people. Yesterday he even was nice enough to set an alarm for me for 6:00 am.

He also takes pictures.

Here are some examples...

A dirty knee...


My toes...


Tyson and Ellee while he's getting his hair cut...


and the best ones...
the view from the little potty...


His other favorite thing to do with my phone... listen to some music... so far the favorite is Single Ladies. Just picture him bopping his little head along to Beyonce.

Losses and Gains...

We had an odd day on Tuesday...

First of all we gained a beautiful baby niece... Lyhla (pronounced with a hard I sound).


As usual Crystal looked just as beautiful as ever afterward. I seriously don't know how she does it.

Lyhla was making all sorts of adorable baby sounds as I held her. She is amazing. Big Sis Ellee thought she was pretty cool, but she was VERY concerned about her mommy. She wanted her out of the hospital and feeling better.

Later that night we lost a grandpa. My dad's dad. I'm very sad, but I think he will find peace now and be out of pain. I will always remember him for his awesome sense of humor {I like to think I got a small portion of it}.

The hair...

So I think we might grow it out again...

We love it short, but it just doesn't seem to fit.

He is a hippie.

He is a clown.

He is a dirt herder.

None of those things fit with the current hair style.

I had been silently debating it, but then Tom blurted it out. And the reason he felt this way is that almost ALL our neighbors (and mostly the ones we don't even know) have felt the need to make sure we know, that they liked the long hair better.

My grandma even liked the long hair better.

Hmmm...

The faux hawk felt like his iconic hair style, because that is the way he was born...


but he seems to have morphed into the little hippie kid who needs the long hair. We'll grow it out a bit and see what happens.

At least he's got shoes on...

This is Ash's new favorite look:


Shorts with boots.

I don't judge. I like my uggs with some capris sometimes. Keeps my feet warm.

If I let him choose his own shoes... these are what he will pick at the moment.

He even wore them to the store one day.

And the scissors there on the lawn... he uses them to cut all the leaves and flowers off things.

I don't complain because he brings me things like a bowl full of rose leaves, or a water bottle full of the flowered shrubs stems, and says "mommy I got these for you... smell them."

I'll take flower presents over flowers in my garden any day.

Addi at 9 months...

freaking adorable...






and proof that she is part Christensen... sticking out the tongue while thinking hard:

Big boy...

Asher is getting so old! He is totally a little boy now. Sometimes I am so happy to see him learning new things, and other times I am so sad to see him grow so fast.

He has almost given up the binky. Yup... *almost*.

He only gets it at night and nap times. Every now and then he asks me so sweetly if he can have it for just two minutes (as he holds up to little fingers). I will put the timer on for two minutes and let him have it. But that is only once every few days. For the most part we are binky free and it is AMAZING!!!

We started doing this because the binky was taking over our lives. We spent half the day searching for a binky while Ash whined. I couldn't take it anymore.

We tried going off them cold turkey, but that only lasted half a night.

Then we did it in small spurts. We let Ash be the one to put it away (on top of the bookshelf... where the truck used to be {more on that in a min}). That worked really good. He replaced the binky with his backpack. He carries it everywhere. At first he also bit his wrists and shirts... but that faded after a while.

He only seems to miss it at night now. About a half hour before bed he starts asking to go to bed so he can have it. We get him diverted pretty easily.

Ohhhh... the joy of no binky. I can't wait until it's totally gone.

The other big boy thing he does now is pee in the potty. He started that first time at daycare. I tried everything to get him to go at home. After a few days he did it and the truck came down! Then... he didn't want to do it anymore. So I went to the party store and bought a bunch of cheap little fun things.

Thus began the pee pee prizes.


We let him have one every time he did it. That got things going again. Now we are at one prize for every two times.

The thing that works best... at night we take off his pants and diaper and let him roam *naked* and fancy free. He totally knows when he needs to pee, but was just lazy and did it in his diaper. Tom decided that would work after he kept looking at us and saying "I'm gonna pee in my diaper." He hasn't had any accidents and runs for the potty when he needs it.

I'm anxious to get him completely converted, but it's all done with baby steps.

a few updates

Before the hair cut (and the crazy cold weather...) we made it out to the zoo. Asher loves going there. He said his favorite was the lion (umm... they don't have a lion, but ok).


Look at this little hippie:


I barely recognize him!

We always ride the merry-go-round. Ash loves it.




Rory graduated from Pharmacy school yesterday... holy cow, time flies. Feels like just yesterday he started. I thought I was being all smart with the setting I chose on my camera, but every picture of him walking across the stage came out blurry. Oops.


I caught Tom outside playing with Asher during the speeches... and looking all handsome:


I tried to get him to smile, but he wouldn't really... except when he hid behind the tree:


And he took one of me and the boy...