Friday Funnies

Asher seems to be apologizing for a lot around here these days. It's always for things that he is truly sorry for. Sometimes, it's for sweet things like, "I'm sorry. I did not mean to step on your foot, Momma."

Other times it's for things like:

"I'm sorry that you have pimples back there, Momma" (referring to the tiny bumps on the back of my arm that I've loathed my entire life) "You're too pretty for that..."

Or like when McKlayne pooped in the bath tub, (for the 6th time in the last month) "I'm sorry that you pooped in the tub, Nayne. I forgive you."

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During Baking Day this week, Asher grabs the camera off the counter and starts taking pictures, while I'm busily at work mixing up some brown bread. A few minutes later he says, "I took a picture of your bottom, Momma. It's a cute one."

Friday Funnies

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Last Saturday night I was talking to my brother, Jordan, on the phone. I was asking him if he'd spend the night so that we could leave to go run (we had an 11 miler to do...we're training for the Austin marathon) the next morning while Asher and McKlayne were still sleeping. While talking to him, I said, "You can just take Asher's bed." (as in to sleep in...we put Asher in another portable bed in McKlayne's room.)

When I got off the phone, Asher was very upset...and he told me, "No, I don't want Jo to take my bed away. I won't have anywhere to sleep. How will I sleep without a bed? I want him to leave my bed here in my room."

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Proof that living in this town has brain-washed our child:

While we're driving around the mall parking lot, Asher points up towards this sign, and says,

"Look, Mommy, that mouse is saying Gig' em, Aggies!"

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We were jumping on the trampoline earlier this week, I double-bounced Asher and sent him flying, which knocked him down pretty hard. As I went over to help him up, he told me in a serious voice, "Hey, you better settle down, Mister!"

He left a boy and came back a MAN...

...Asher, that is. (Kirby is crying while I write this post.)

ASHER AND HIS SHOVEL

I had always thought about how fun it would be to take my son(s) camping someday. So when our new friends Joe and Isaac said they were going, Asher and I jumped at the chance. I had wondered when Asher was going to be old enough to sleep outside for a night. Isaac is almost a year younger than Asher. So I thought if they were willing to try it, we were definitely going.

For our first experimental camping trip, Joe and I decided that keeping it relatively close to home would be preferred. We ended up going to Hilltop Lakes just outside of Normangee. I wouldn't say that they were the nicest campgrounds that I've ever seen, but they were definitely adequate for the men. (And the community is pretty interesting with an airstrip, golf course, motel, restaurant, and small lakes.) I would recommend it.

We got there in the evening with enough time to let the boys run off some energy while we got a fire going for dinner. Here is Asher's fire. If you've read some of our recent posts, he has cultivated quite the imagination. While we were prepping the campfire, he kept asking me to come see his fire as he would throw sticks into this hole.

ASHER'S FIRE

Asher was a natural camper. When we would go on walks, I expected my "I don't like my hands dirty" boy to stick close and on the main trail. No way. He would just walk straight through the woods making his own trail. If he'd had a machete and backpack, I would never have seen him again. I honestly couldn't keep up as it was. The holes/trails he could fit through were about a quarter of the size that I could. And I found my self sprinting around a different way to head him off or pushing through all the brush.

Asher and Isaac played well. All they needed were a couple of shovels and the great outdoors and they were totally content. Asher repeatedly told me throughout the trip, "Daddy. Isaac is my friend."

As the Apels were in charge of the meals for the trip, I quickly realized how much I equate camping with eating junk food — smores, powdered donuts, etc. I think the healthiest thing we ate were the nitrate-free hot dogs. (Sorry, Terry-men. I'm pretty sure we'll rethink this next time.)

Isaac was a champ at tent-sleeping. Joe put him down and we never heard from him until the next morning. Asher was a little harder to convince. But I think it was a little more due to the excitement of a new adventure than being afraid or uncomfortable. (If we tell him that he's going to Seaworld or somewhere exciting the night before the trip, we can hear him talking in his room extremely late that night. We've all been there.)

JOE AND ISAAC

DADDY AND ASHER

We had a really great time camping and spending time with Joe and Isaac. We will definitely be doing this again. Who's coming with us?

Freezer Cooking Day

For the last 6 months, I've been designating (about) every other Monday as my "Baking Day." I'll bake enough muffins, quick breads or cereal bars to put in the freezer that will last us around 2-3 weeks. (recipes at the bottom of this post...since I'm always up for trying new recipes) This has been really helpful to me for snacks or a hurried breakfast (if we're trying to get out the door quickly for some reason) or even just a lazy-day breakfast when I don't want to scrub the eggs off my (used-to-be) non-stick pan. (This is absolutely the WORST part of making breakfast to me...does anybody else hate this?)

Anyway, Asher loves to help with this, while McKlayne pretty much just likes to taste-test.

Our church has a HUGE fellowship meal after our service on Sunday evenings...which is something that I LOVE but most Sundays it has stressed me out, trying to make a meal, plus a side dish or dessert, and get everyone dressed, ready, bags packed and out the door in time. So, about a month ago, my wise husband told me that he'd like for me to find a way to make Sundays more restful.

My solution?

Several weeks ago, Crystal, from MoneySavingMom inspired me to have a freezer cooking day...she is also who inspired me to have my very first baking day 6 months ago...and I am sharing this, in hopes, that maybe it will inspire you to make meal preparation easier on days that are busy or difficult!

Read up on how to package and freeze meals properly here. (This had been what kept me from attempting something like this in the past, but this lady gives great, easy-to-follow instructions!)

**Secret Ingredient to a successful Baking Day: If you have kids (and you live in a college town), get yourself a cute college girl, who wants to learn how to cook but can also step in to help with babies when needed.**

Madeline (my cute college girl)

Then, get all of your ingredients for each meal, along with the recipes (even if you have it memorized because when you have several different meals going at a time and if you're trying to double/triple recipes-it just gets CRAZY!) and group them (along with the pans or bags that you're freezing them in) together like so:

Then get to work...leaving your once clean kitchen, very messy...and rejoice as you think about all the hours that you're about to redeem since you're getting that kitchen REALLY messy ONE time rather than FOURTEEN!

In about 6-7 hours, we made 14 meals (not all pictured here):

-3 meals of Spaghetti Bake

-2 pans of Lasagna

-3 pans of King Ranch Chicken
-2 meals of Baked Ziti
-2 meals of Angie's Fideo
-1 meal of Sloppy Joe's (meat mixture)
-1 chicken pot pie

This has worked SO well for our family that I will probably do this every month. In two weeks, we've already eaten 4 of these meals, I'd designated 4 of these meals as New Life (our church) meals (2 of these down and 2 to go) and two families from our church have needed meals and I took them each one of these. So we've only got 4 left...but it's been such a blessing to be able to run to the freezer in the morning (or at about 4:00 in the afternoon in desperation) and pull out one of these ready-made meals. A stress free wife/Mommy=a MUCH less cranky and irritable wife/Mommy.

What I will do differently next time:

-Ask a friend or two if I can borrow at least one (maybe two) extra large pot(s) and several large bowls for mixing so that I can have several things going at once...this will speed up the process.

-Possibly brown the turkey/beef/sausage and boil the chicken the night before.

-Figure out a new way to cook the Baked Ziti. The noodles in the spaghetti and the lasagna (though, those were not cooked before I froze them) tasted fine! But, the penne pasta in the Ziti was a little too mushy. Suggestions? Would you barely cook them next time, since they'll freeze, thaw, and be cooked in the oven again?

-Experiment with different recipes to see how they freeze.

And if you only browse my blog to see my cute kids and you don't care what I have to say, I don't want to disappoint:

Asher grabs "his" apron every time we bake.

Guess what? As I was typing this post, I realized that Crystal is having a Two Day Freezer Cooking/Baking Day...starting today!

And if you have any tips or recipes that you know freeze well, PLEASE share! I'd love to hear!

Oh, yes, the recipes that I promised from Baking Days. I usually choose a couple from these depending on what ingredients I have:

Banana Bread (my sister gave me this recipe...I love this because it uses minimal ingredients, is simple and delicious!)

3/4 c. unsweet applesauce
1 c. sugar
2 eggs
1 3/4 c. flour
1 tsp. salt
3/4 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. cinnamon
1 c. grated carrots (optional)
1 c. mashed bananas (about 3)
*I sometimes I'll add choc. chips. (Just eyeball it.)

Preheat to 350. Spray 9 x 5 loaf pan w/ cooking spray.
In one bowl combine applesauce, sugar, and eggs; beat until light and fluffy.
In a separate bowl combine flour, salt, soda, powder, and cinnamon. Add to batter and blend well.
Fold carrots and bananas (and choc. chips) into batter.
Pour batter into pan(s).Bake for 60-65 minutes, or until toothpick comes clean.

Brown Bread (This is what my Baking Day will consist of today...I plan on making MANY loaves..this is my kids all time favorite snack/breakfast bread...this recipe is an old family favorite.)

With my recipe, I bake them in a can in the oven. Just save an old, tall (family size) soup can or spaghetti sauce can and a big fat shorter can like what a can of whole tomatoes would come in. Two of either (or I use one of each) size will be enough for the recipe:
-Boil 1 and 1/2 cups water, put in 1 and 3/4 cups raisins, once it boils, remove from burner and let stand for 15 minutes. Put 2 teaspoons of baking soda in raisin mix.

-Beat together 1 1/2 cups sugar and 1 egg. Then add raisin and water mixture. Add 3 cups flour.
-Pour batter into greased cans and stand them up in your oven. Bake at 350 for 1 hour.

Stonyfield Farm Strawberry Muffins (from the Stonyfield Farm yogurt carton)

Ingredients

1 cup all-purpose flour 1 cup whole wheat flour 1/2 cup sugar 1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda 2 eggs 1 cup Stoynfield lowfat plain yogurt (I've used vanilla yogurt and omitted the tsp. of vanilla and did not taste the difference) 1/4 cup butter, room temperature 1 teaspoon vanilla 1 cup chopped strawberries

Directions

Preheat oven to 375°F. Grease a 12 muffin tin or line it with paper baking cups. In a large bowl, sift together flour, sugar andbaking soda. In another bowl, stir together eggs, yogurt, melted butter and vanilla until blended. Toss the strawberries with the flour mixture. Pour the egg mixture into the flour mixture and stir until the flour is just moistened. The batter will be lumpy. Spoon the batter into the muffin cups. Bake for 20 – 25 minutes, or until the tops are golden brown. Yields 12 muffins. Jason's Deli's Gingerbread Muffins (Asher loves these!) I just googled it and tried this recipe one day...these are pretty close to the real thing! Cereal Bars I googled these, too, and got this recipe.

Remember this?

McKlayne would like me to note...

that she is not the only one who wakes up with beadhead in this house...

Yup. That's going to be a doozy to tame.

(And. Yes. He is long overdue for a haircut, too.)

Happy Halloween!

We love Halloween. See how much fun we had?

One little...

Two little...

Cute little indian...

Boy.

The Eagle that he was so proud of.

Precious.

First stop: Jin & Jisook's

How.

The Ash's

Aunt Ash.

Second stop: MammyOu's & Dane's

She caught on to trick-or-treating quite quickly...and L.O.V.E.D. it! She would walk all the way up to the door toting her bucket and either lift it up to the treater or set the bucket down at their feet and then just look up at them as if to say, "Now, it's your turn."

She had SO MUCH candy that she could barely carry her bucket. But, she did. And would not let it go.

Asher loved running from house to house.

And would say, "I'm a pirate indian!" or "I'm a ninja indian!" whenever he would see another child dressed up as a pirate or ninja and so on...

American Gothic throws a mad party.

Cute Black-Eyed-Peas.

Has-Been Hulk & The REAL Dr.'s Wife

The Flintstones.

Friday Funnies and more...

One afternoon, Asher had asked me to pull his desk out from the wall, into the middle of his room so that he could play it like a piano. (It's been so fun to pretend with him lately as he's beginning to use his imagination.)

A little while later I heard:

A: "No, no McKlayne! Get off the stage! McKlayne, NOOOOOOO!"

M: "What is going on in here?"

A: "I was playing the piano on my stage, and Mr. Aaron was right there playing guitar, and McKlayne came up on the stage and knocked over that lady* that was singing on the microphone."

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See this Great Dane? Looks harmless, doesn't he?

A couple weeks ago, we visited my mom and one morning I woke up to some terribly alarming screaming.** I ran down stairs to see Asher clinging to my mom's leg and trembling as he begged Fezzik, "Don't eat me. Please don't eat me, Fezzik."

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*Later that night as I tucked Asher in to bed, I asked him who "that lady" was that McKlayne knocked down.

"Umm...it was T-Bear's Mommy and McKlayne made her sad."

**When we go visit my mom, it's mostly like a vacation for me. I get to sleep in while Asher is up an hour earlier than normal because he's so excited that we're at Mimi's. (Thanks, Mom!)

We've missed the last couple Friday Funnies, because we've either been out of town visiting my mom and sister or because we were at a fun Fall Party at our friend's ranch.

Here are pictures from both:

Cami, Brynn, Asher, McKlayne and Chase

Double Trouble.

Blankie Buddies.

Camdyn trying to escape.

All 7 of the cousins.

Now, they're all still.

More...

Poor Reid is still smiling, trying to get a good pic.

Mimi

From SeaWorld:

Yikes-ugly pumpkin!

Asher was finally tall enough to ride the Shamu Express-that was his favorite since it was a "real roller coaster." We rode it three times!

His favorite show is still the Clyde and Seamore show, and his favorite part is when Uncle Max, the walrus "exercises":

The Fall Party was so much fun! I could stay out at the ranch forever. Melissa had all kinds of neat things planned for us: pumpkin paintings, leaf rubs, decorating cookies, and if all that wasn't enough she made us a yummy lunch and sent us home with goody bags!

Painting pumpkins.

Asher was very serious the whole time he painted.

Hayden.

Ashton was very proud of his pumpkin.

And McKlayne was content with just cheetos.

Megan and cute Sawyer.

How cute is he?

Jisook painting her pumpkin for Jin.

More of serious Asher...

Look at Hayden's painting.

The tots.

Us with Melissa and Isaac. We love them.

Between five families, we had14 kids: 12 boys and 2 girls...What do you get with all those boys?

Some curiosity.

A little mischief.

Competition.

Lots of cuteness.

So much fun.

Popcorn for Breakfast

When the kids wake up at 8 and Mommy is still working on the church newsletter...

Daddy is in charge. And this is what it looks like:



When I asked Asher what he thought of Daddy being in charge and providing a popcorn breakfast, he said, "It's a treat!"

Indeed, it is.

Such a treat having you as the Daddy in this house.

We love you.

Proof of Non-Junkfood Couponing

I went to Target for a few items today...

and left with everything that you see in the picture above for...

76 cents!

7 boxes of Kashi cereal (Charlie will eat this for the next 2-3 months)

5 boxes of Kashi cereal bars...between Asher and McKlayne these high-fructose corn syrup-FREE bars will be gone in no time!

1 box of shout color catchers

1 bottle of Zout

2 dish towels to make another dress for McKlayne b/c her's shrunk (so be careful washing them!)

ALL FOR FREE

This small (unplanned) trip to Target would more than reimburse you for what you would pay to come to a coupon class. I was in Target for the last 3 items on that list and "happened upon" this fabulous sale combined with Target coupon peelie's on the cereal boxes and the Vocalpoint mailer cereal coupons. (If you've been to any of our coupon classes, you should know what I'm talking about.)

See. This is why I never leave home without my coupon box. Kashi paid for the other items that I was already going to buy from Target. I did buy a pack of gum because I would have felt really silly leaving with 5 bags of groceries without paying Target anything...so that's where part of that 76 cents went...towards a pack of gum.

Want to come to a class? We're trying to plan another local one soon! And, we're teaching one in the Dallas area on Nov. 21!

Apel of My Eye

I love this woman. I love sharing with her. Life. Moments. Milkshakes.

This is a picture from our wedding day (I would say night as it was after 11pm here, but that just makes it awkward). Yep. We went to Whataburger. We were starving. (ADVICE: Either make it a point to eat at your wedding and ignore some guests OR just eat after the reception.)

We were so hungry that we decided that it would be satisfying and probably even a little cool to go into Whataburger in wedding dress and tux and get some world famous breakfast taquitos. And it was. The cashier, a little caught off guard, even gave us our meal for free after confirming that we had actually just gotten married. (ADVICE: If you do decide to just eat after the reception, go in full wedding attire to your favorate spot and see what happens... could be free and you'll get a lot of looks!)

Fortunately for us, God sovereignly brought Kirby's uncle to the same Whataburger wielding a couple cousins and A CAMERA. I feel like we sort of ruined the magic for boys, though. I mean we had just left minutes ago, running through sparklers, driving a highly decorated Escalade, off to Honeymoonland only to be sited at the local Whataburger. I'm sure it was like seeing the man formerly known as Mickey Mouse, mouse head detached, taking a smoke break at the Happiest Place on Earth.

But these are some of my favorite pics from that day. These are some of my favorite moments in life. The ordinary. There are so many exciting times and special days in our life, but at the end of it all, I love my wife. I love my kids. I love my family. I love my church. I love the God who gave us all of these perfect gifts.

To enjoy.

To share.

Friday Funnies

Asher has been awfully bossy round these parts, lately. So much so that we call him Mister Bossy Man....a title that he loves. He proudly walks around saying, "I'm Mister Bossssssssy Maaaaaaaan" as if that's his superhero name. McKlayne has started getting swats on her hand for fit-throwing and Asher is constantly on her, "No, ma'am! We don't act like that." Then to me, "Momma, you need to give her a spanking. She's acting ugly. Tell her, 'No Ma'am.' "

Well...that was just background...onto the Friday Funnies.

McKlayne had to get a shot on Monday. Before we left the house I told Asher to pick out some books and pack a few supplies so that he could color, as I explained to him that we wouldn't be playing with Dr. Rusty's toys because a lot of kids have been sick...since...you know...it's flu season...and that the toys might be "yucky." When we got to the office and walked into our room, McKlayne started walking toward the basket of toys.

A: "No, McKlayne. We can't play with Dr. Rusty's toys. They feel sick today. Maybe we can play with them next time, when they feel better."

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While buckling McKlayne into her carseat, I hear a moaning behind me. Asher was standing in the front yard.

M: What's wrong?

A: more moaning....

M: Are you okay? (I was thinking...maybe he's standing in a pile of ants....so I turned around in a panic..)

A: The wind...(he continues to whine as the wind blows his hair...he tucks his head down with his arms over his head)

M: Doesn't it feel so nice? I love this wind!

A: No, the wind...it's trying to steal my pretty blonde hair!

M: (trying not to laugh) Why would it do that?

A: Because the wind likes my blonde hair and wants to trade. It's trying to steal my pretty blonde hair!

Apparently all the swooning over his "pretty blonde hair" has gone to his head!

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And, I'll leave you with this pic:

This Pottery Barn Kids magazine has been his requested potty reading material this week. Seriously. EVERY time he's sat down on the potty this week, he's asked for it. That's my boy. I'm trying to convince Charlie that it's just all the Halloween costumes that he likes to peruse.

Little Punkin...

Hurry! Go make one of these from the dishtowels in the Target Dollar Spot...such a festive, easy little dress.

(It's getting harder and harder to take pics of her these days...she won't stay still and is not quite the camera ham that her brother was and still is...is that because my second child hasn't seen as much as the camera?)

I've made all 3 of my nieces and my neighbor's little girl one....they took me like 10-15 minutes each to make...so easy! (Hope that Stella gets to wear hers before October is over :)

Houston Coupon Class

Heather and I have taught two local coupon classes...and this weekend we're going to Houston to teach one! We have a few spots left if you'd like to come and learn how to save hundreds off of your grocery bill each month. So, if you live in the Houston area and have a Kroger nearby and are interested, go here.

Go check out what Heather got this week....she feeds 5 boys each week plus a ton of other people and spends way less than what she used to.

Think couponing is for junk food only eaters? Go read this post.

Hope to see some of you there!

Friday Funnies

Charlie's Edition of Asher's Friday Funnies:

Disclaimer: we really don't want to offend anyone with the following material, we mean to express this in the most innocent, non-hateful way:

Proof that we need to be more careful about the conversations we have around Asher since he is absorbing everything he hears:

A couple was coming to look at our house, which is for sale by owner, and before they came we realized that they were Jewish, due to the yarmulke the guy was wearing. This spurred numerous questions about the Jewish culture past, present and future in our home for about an hour before they came...mainly all these questions were from Kirby.

"I've heard Jews are rich, is that true?"

"Are those who are Jews today, the same peope who were the Israelites from the Bible?"

"Will all the Jews be saved? Or how does this work, if God protects the Jews, who are his chosen people, but still reject Jesus as their King?"

And there were several more.

Asher loves to watch out the windows for people who are coming over to our house. A few minutes before they arrived, we told him that people were coming to look at our house, and he headed straight for his post. After a few seconds of waiting, he said, "When are they coming?" "In just a few minutes," we said. He then said, "Momma, when they get here, do we need to get them some juice?"

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As Asher and I were playing in the yard the other day, Asher says, "I see Mary." "Dada, look. Is that Mary?" I couldn't think of any Marys that we knew and was a little confused I looked up to see a middle eastern woman from our neighborhood walking down our street with a head scarf.

Friday Funnies

I have been meaning to start this for a while now. But, like most things I plan to do, this has taken weeks to months to actually materialize. It is my hope to collect conversations (or pieces of conversations) from these two tiny people who are always making us laugh by posting funny or sweet comments the kids make each week on Friday's.

For the most part, until McKlayne can contribute, these will be from Asher.

Several funny conversations that I can recall over the last couple months:

I made my niece, Brynn, a pillowcase dress for her birthday in July. Asher was my model since they're pretty much the same size. Throughout the project I would try it on him to see what needed to be taken in, etc. The final time I tried it on him, he looked down at himself, took in a deep breath and said, "Oh, Momma, I'm an angel!!" while twirling around in circles. Now, anytime that McKlayne or I am wearing a skirt or dress he tells us that we look like angels. He is really the angel.

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Since Heather has completely freaked me out of feeding my kids hot dogs, every time Asher asks to eat a hot dog, (other than at Jason's Deli, since ALL the meat there is nitrate free) I tell him, "No, hot dogs will make you sick." One morning I made pigs in a blanket. When Asher climbed up into his chair and saw what was on his plate, he looked at me, his nose wrinkled in total disgust, "Momma, will this hot dog make me sick?"

M: "No, those are different from the other hot dogs."

A: Very relieved, "Oh, good. Will it make me better?"

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About a month or so ago, I had been having a bad day. I was irritable at the kids. Charlie. Everyone. It was a tense day in the Apel home. I was especially irritable at Asher. I had been impatient with him and my tone towards him had been ugly. I had to stop several times throughout the day to apologize to him for "speaking to him in an ugly way." Even after all that, I still hadn't learned. Right before dinner, I was short with Charlie when he asked me a question. Being the wise man that he is, Charlie asked me to pray before dinner (knowing that I needed to examine my heart before I could offer a prayer of thanks to God.) So I started, "Lord, I'm sorry that I've just been ugly to everyone today..." then I hear this tiny little, "Meeeeeeeee!!" I look at Asher and he has one of his hands up in the air as high as he could reach, while his head was still bowed reverently, eyes shut tight. I guess he thought God needed some help in figuring out who I had been ugly to that day. I didn't know whether to laugh or cry at this point...I think I did both.

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A couple weeks ago, I was in the bathroom getting ready.

A: "Whatcha doing, Momma?"

M: "Fixing my hair."

A: "Oh, it's broken?"

A few of her favorite things...

McKlayne loves...okay, maybe it's more accurate to say that she's pretty much obsessed...with the new purse I made her two days ago. She will not go anywhere without it...outside, her highchair, church, to sleep, (though, this is where I draw the line) the library...nowhere...even when I try to sneak her off without it, she'll catch me, moan and dive toward it.

At Life Group last week, McKlayne started carrying around Riley's purse...and would get VERY upset if anyone tried to take it from her. Since she didn't have a purse or bag of her own, I figured it was time we fixed that.

One of the sweet college girls that frequents our house wanted to having a sewing date last weekend. She worked on a book bag while I worked on the same thing about 1/4 the size of hers for McKlayne.

Here's the entire photo shoot we took today with her new obsession:

What does she carry in her purse, you ask? Her blankie, paci and an occasional play cell phone or set of keys. It cracks me up that she knows to put them in there.

I "heart" this pocket on the front. It's my favorite detail of the purse, but I especially love how her chubby little hands dilligently try to put her paci in that front pocket, but can't quite manage to do it by themselves yet.

I also love how she prissily poises her wrists up in the air...reminds me of my college roommate, Kristen.

Whew. Pooped after all that prancing around for the pictures.

This is so that I don't forget those squishy, chubby rolls or chunky arms that I love to squeeze. They too quickly left your brother, despite how I begged for them to stay. Oh, how I will miss them once they're gone!

What else does she love?

Him.

Actually she adores him. But who wouldn't love someone who greeted you with, "Hi, Pretty!" the moment that he saw you every morning? Or how about, "Hey, Nayney! How was your nap? Did you have a good nap, sweet girl?" each time I retrieve her from her crib. I love how his inflection matches mine when he repeats things that I frequently say. (I often hear my echoed phrases throughout this house. Sometimes they're sweet and sometimes I cringe as I'm reminded of how much he's observing and soaking up everything he sees...eager to imitate. This role of motherhood regularly reminds me of the gospel-my sinfulness, the grace I've received and how much retraining I still need!)

How silly it was of me when I initially felt sad for Asher when I first found out I was pregnant with her! I felt guilty that he'd soon be replaced as "my baby". Why do we doubt God's sovereignty sometimes? He would not be the same sweet boy without her. Nor would she be the same prissy princess that we love so much, without him.

Sitting in chairs. There's hardly a Nayney-sized chair that she'll pass up without trying it out. She thinks she's so big and you can tell how proud she is each time she ever so carefully climbs into one.

Straws. She prefers straws over sippy cups because she learned how to drink from my Sonic Lime waters LONG ago. I guess you could call her a straw snob.

She looks like one here.

Her shopping cart. Both my children love this birthday gift that Honey gave her. Both of them will push it up and down the hall, loading it with groceries, dolls, animals or blocks.

Her Fun Flow Sink from Grumpy and Grammy. This is another thing that Asher and her could play with for HOURS! They usually need a bath immediately afterward since our front yard is dirt right now, but it's one of the only things they can do for a long time outside since it's just so hot!

Shoes. I loved these Riley Roos that my mom got her from MamaBargains. They're canvas and leather... so comfy and they go with everything. McKlayne would like some more, please, Mimi.

My sister got her a pair of Mary Jane Crocs for her birthday that are PRECIOUS. They are brown and match mine. She walks over to the shoebox under our bench and retrieves them when I tell her that she needs shoes before she can go outside.

Most days before I have a chance to put her shoes on, she'll go pick out a pair from the shoebox and bring them to me. What have I done? She already loves purses and shoes. Sorry, Honey...you have some expensive habits to train out of us...I mean...her.

Utensils. Yes, yet another thing to reinforce how quickly she's growing.

And these last pictures are for Natalie...did you ever think she'd be big enough to wear this? I didn't.

Can't wait to see you this weekend, Nat!

Look who's walking...

McKlayne just started walking today!

She's been taking a couple steps here and there the last few days, but today it "clicked".

Here's a video:

(You can hear big brother in the backround...who's actually on the potty...saying, "I'm ready to walk" and "Good boy, Nayne." ALWAYS has to bevinvovled, that boy!)

Sweet Girls!

To my sweet girls:

Nayne, Klayney-bop, Princess, Sister,

I'm sorry if you're a little confused about what your real name is. There are just so many things that we love about you. It doesn't seem like it's been a year already, but it's seems like you've been here the whole time. You have grown up so much. I love how much you love Asher. How you look for him when you wake up. How you squeal when you see him. And how you try to do everything that he does. You are so sweet, yet so sassy. You can definitely hold your own and have earned your Princess title. We pray that you grow to be a strong, yet gentle, pure woman of God. That you delight yourself in Jesus and love people so deeply. We see this at work already.

Happy Birthday, Sweet McKlayne!




Princess, Momma, Sweetheart,

Four years! It's been crazy. Crazy fun. Crazy fast. Crazy tough. Crazy good. I'm so thankful for a friend like you. No one knows me like you. And I've told you how that's the biggest blessing to me. I love that we're so different. You challenge me so much. I know that I wouldn't be the same man without you and you without me. God is so sovereign and merciful and good to these two wretches. I praise Him that He working so hard on us and brings so much peace in the midst of the craziness. I'm so glad I get to go through all of this with you. None compare. Thank you for loving me, serving me and pouring yourself out for our family. I love you, Princess.

Happy Anniversay, Kirby!

Missed us so much that you're blue?

As always, we have lots of good excuses for being gone.

We've been learning our colors. (Asher pretty much already knew his colors, but Heather had told me some fun things that she used to do with her boys, so having different color days really helped him perfect them.) For each "color" day, we ate, drank, wore, crafted with and played with all things "blue", "red" or whatever color day it was.

These are from red day:

This was also the first time McKlayne had spaghetti...it was a fun, messy night for all of us!

(Don't be fooled...these pics were taken on March 18...I'm only 3 months behind in editing pics and blogging...as Asher would say, "No big deal.")



Proof that Asher already knew his colors before this whole things started: the morning of the first color day (which was red) I was so excited to show Asher his red pancakes.

me: Asher, what color are these pancakes?

Asher: Umm...pink! (he was really impressed)

me: My mouth wide open, annoyed that my son was so smart.

Charlie: (saving the day) Well, you're riiiiiiight...but this is red day and pink is a shade of red. Cool pancakes, huh?

The little smartie pants with his pink pancakes and milk.

Blue Day...this was the most fun of all.

We painted ourselves blue and went to eat at Blue Baker to celebrate Blue Day!
(You get free food depending on how "blue" you are.)


Asher loved looking at his blue-self.

Some of our sweet friends met us there.

The Apel girls...minus one...but that will be another post...umm...soon! Promise.
(I'm not pregnant...I just gained a sister-in-law.)

Our Sweet Em...she's one of the precious college girls (and babysitters among other things...) that's always at our house. Asher loves her.

We also potty trained the big guy at the end of April! 3 days. That's all it took. I was prepared for a whole week worth of staying in the house, constantly next to my two year old pal. Nope. The 3 Day Potty Training REALLY works, people! I was a skeptic.

My sis used this method on Brynn. I thought maybe since she was a GIRL it worked for her, but wouldn't work for my Asherboy. I was wrong. He had 9 accidents the first day, 5 the second day and 2 on the third. For the second two days he was just holding himself or dancing around like crazy, holding it in. But by 7 p.m. the night of the third day, he was telling us he had to go...I think he went about 4 times between 7 and 9 that night and was super proud when he went poop in the potty.

When he does have to "go"...like really go...he tells us (while pointing), "Go out there! Shut the door!" (I'd like to add that I don't know where he learned this...because I sure don't get any privacy when I have to "go".)

And he likes to read while he "goes".

We've also been busy working on the house...Charlie sprayed the brick.

Then a group of precious college students came out for Big Event and painted all the white trim on our house! We adore them. They saved us many weekends of having to do this just the two of us. Remember what it used to look like? It's really come a LONG way...inside and out!

You don't have to have any socioeconomic need or disability...we used to think you did until last year when we noticed that like 10 houses (several of which were young families like us) in our neighborhood had groups come out. It's basically just a big community workday were 10,000+ students get together with groups of friends or their student organizations and go serve in the community for about 4 hours. The last several years Big Event has actually needed MORE jobs! So, remember to sign up next Jan/Feb at BigEvent.tamu.edu if you live in B/CS. You'll get free work done on your home and be able to build relationships with college students.

And, I'll leave you with this of our sweet little kiss-blower:

Are you thinking, "Does this kid ALWAYS have a clip in her hair?" Pretty much...otherwise she can't see. When she wakes up most mornings and I haven't clipped her hair back right away...I often hear this, "Uh-oh, Naney Bop...need a bow?" Her big bro is always watching out for her.

Out of the mouths of babes...

Psalm 8:1&2:

O LORD, our Lord, 

       how majestic is your name in all the earth! 

       You have set your glory 

       above the heavens.

You have taught children and infants

      to tell of your strength,

   silencing your enemies

      and all who oppose you.

Last night after tucking Asher into bed late after HOPE Group we heard him singing this...

"Be lifted higher, be lifted higher, be lifted higher..."* (each "higher" his voice got higher.)

...alternating with this...

"We're singing for the glory of the Risen King! Jesus, shine your light and let the whole world see!"*

over and over...

until we finally walked in his room and knelt beside his bed to worship with him.

*These words come from two Apel family favorites that we sing often around here: 

Stronger

and

Mighty to Save

both by Hillsong.

Asher recommends that you buy them and put them on your ipod.

5 Years Ago

Five years ago today, I asked Kirby to go out on a (double) date with me (and two other people...obviously). This is not a picture of that day or that date. Just the closest one I could find to that time in my limited resources.

Anyways...
After seeing and talking with her at Island Party that weekend, it takes me almost three days and plenty of encouragement from friends to get the guts to make a phone call that went a little something like this:

K: (Hmm. I've never seen this number before.) Hello?

C: Kirby?

K: Yes?

C: Hey! It's Charlie.

K: Hiii, Charrliee...(Charlie who?)

C: Hey, I was wondering, if maybe sometime, that you and Cate might like to go out on a double-date with Ryan (Thompson) and me? You know...you being my date and Cate being Ryan's. (This was obvious. Ryan and Cate had been dating. Doof...real smooth and can you just taste the confidence...a real man!)

K: Sure, that be great! (WHOOOO HOOOO! I GET TO GO ON A DOUBLE-DATE WITH CATE!!!! I should really find out who Charlie is.)

C: Well, I will talk with Ryan and we'll get back to you on a date and what we're doing. OK?

K: OK...that sounds great.

C: OK, well...I guess I'll talk to you later. (Get off the phone before she changes her mind.)

K: OK, bye!

C: Bye! (My heart is beating too fast...I'm going to puke.)

And that was it. Cate cheated for Kirby and invited me over for some pre-date studying a few days before our scheduled date. And as they read and took notes (business school type studying), I hammered stuff together for one of my projects on their front porch (architecture school type studying). Again, real smooth.

I can't tell you how thankful I am that those days are over — for so many reasons. I do like reminiscing about how 'in love' or infatuated we were with each other. However, I much prefer this deeper love (which still includes quite a bit, if not more, infatuation) that has developed and matured through our relationships with Jesus and the trials and immense blessings that we have been through together over the years.

Another reason is that Kirby and I have learned so much in the past five years about dating and relationships that we would have done this so differently knowing what we know now. We love sharing what we have learned with our younger siblings and family members and with the college students that attend our Hope Group. The college students are probably the ones who have taught us the most, or, at least, given us hard questions that we've had to seek biblical answers for. And we're so thankful for the mentoring relationships that we've had with Aaron and Heather and others in our church. The Hendricks tend to help us with the answers to the bulk of these questions. They are so much further along in both dating research and their marriage.

So...our advice?

Love Jesus first.

Be involved in your church.

Have mentor/discipleship relationships (this is older than you, farther along that you, same-sex people that you see doing things very right) in place during 'dating' that both challenge you to holiness and accountability and protect you in the same manner.

Happy Day-Charlie-Asked-Kirby-Out-for-Their-First-Date Day!

Sweet, sweet Asherboy...

We're at the point where we can actually carry on a conversation with Asher!  Everyday, I realize just how big he's getting.  My sister has always told me "this age" was always her favorite stage with Reid.

I'm pretty sure I agree.

He has been saying the funniest things lately and I need to write these down so I'll never forget.

Here are just a few instances that have happened in the last week:

Ever since Sunday afternoon, he's been asking me to go retreive one of his horses that he left in the car after church. I've unintentionally made several broken promises...thinking that I'd walk right out and get it in and the next thing I know a phone is ringing or dinner is boiling over the stove. So, FINALLY, Wednesday afternoon...Asher walks out in the livingroom, with a horse in hand and says, "I'll just go get it Mom..." as he begins to unlock the front door...my poor sweetboy...had been ever so patient with me. (Did you read what he called me? MOM! MOM!? How sad is that...I hope this phase ends quickly and I return to being referred to as Mama or even Mommy. He just thinks he's SO big calling me that three letter word!)

Asher can count to eight...well, he counts to six... skips seven...and then eight. When reading or playing with blocks or toys we'll often practice his counting. Well, do you wanna know what he counted the other day? (My "pimples"-as he so innocently refers to them!) "One pimple, two pimple, three pimples..." AWESOME. If it'd been any other fingers ever so sweetly touching each blemish, I would have slapped them. For some reason, he's just captiavated by them. PERFECT. Can't wait for the day that he points out someone else's pimples...WHAT will I say then?

My favorite things he is saying these days (which I hope to get a video to post with these soon) are "Oopsy Daisy" when he drops something or "No big deal..." if he spills something or can't quite complete a desired task.  So precious in his little bitty voice!

Asher loves to help me "mix & make" (cook.)

Probably because he often gets to taste whatever it is...

He also loves to color...outside or inside.

Here he is coloring at Great-Grandma Apel's.  (I think this was she had just been testing him on his chalk colors...the little smartypants...after she finished  he pointed to her hair and said, "White!"  She got a kick out of it...sweet Grandma!)

He's very serious about playing guitar.  Aaron Hendrick (our worship leader and good friend) is one of his most favorite people.  Anytime Asher is in the service with us during the worship music, he'll stare at Aaron (the whole time) and strum his chest right along with him.  He loves Thursday night Hope Group because JP is sweet enough to let him play with him while he plays worship music for all of us.  And he LOVES to "lead us" with his guitar during Family Worship!  He knows most of the words to Jesus, Name Above All Names, The Doxology, and My Chains are Gone.

Here he is jamming out....lefthanded.  He's lefthanded (like his dad) ONLY when it comes to guitar.

He loves playing outside. He spends MUCH time exploring...digging...climbing...jumping...driving his new truck:

I love that sweet little comedian, artist, muscian, wild man.  I can't wait to see how the Lord is going to use his gifts for His Kingdom.  

Who does she think she is?!

In just a short 8 weeks, McKlayne has gone from:

sitting up

to

planks

to

crawling

to

waving

to

pulling up.

I am so not okay with this. My baby doesn't seem like much of a baby anymore.

And she definitely doesn't look like much of a baby with all this crazy hair.

We never know what we're going to see when she wakes up in the morning.

What 8 month olds do you know that can have their hair frenchbraided?

My sister showed me this blog, so we've been trying different do's! Look through all the labels on the left. They're so cute!

This one's for you, Blaire!

Seriously, you have to sign up!

Okay, you guys may have already read about this Swagbucks thing when I posted about it a back in November and brushed it off...but don't!

 Sign up now!

I have already bought a $50 GAP giftcard and a $50 Southwest giftcard! I've earned $100 in giftcards just for using Swagbucks as my search engine rather than google...and it's powered by google!

BUT...to earn a ton of Swagbucks...I've earned a total of about 900 so far...you need to either post a referring link on your blog or send out an email to your friends and family to have the sign up under your referral. Please use my referral to sign up yourself, and then have your friends sign up under you. (I won't be getting any of their swagbucks...the chain stops at the first level of referrals.)

So, Heather, if you did this...with like all of your HUNDREDS of readers a day, you could seriously be giving away $50 giftcards for Christmas presents next year to your WHOLE family. No joke! You really wouldn't have to be doing ANY Christmas shopping with any of your own money, if you signed up for this. Once you post this on your blog, I want to know how many swagbucks you've earned in a month!

Here is our previous post:

So, there is a really cool site that you can earn gift certificates and actual prizes from your favorite stores.

Here is a re-post from the site we learned about it:

Not sure what Swagbucks is? Well, it is an online search engine, powered by Google and Ask.

But, instead of just pulling your search results back like Google or Yahoo, you have the potential to earn Swagbucks with each search. And, quite frequently I win. At least once a day, and sometimes more.

Now, I honestly can tell you, I only use Swagbucks when I am doing a search online anyway. I never use Yahoo or Google anymore, because Swagbucks gives me a chance to win while I search. I have it saved as my Homepage, so this is the first screen that comes up everytime I log onto the web.

I DON'T sit there and try to randomly search to earn extra poins...because it really doesn't work. In fact, here is the exact wording from their site.

Tip #8

Doing a TON of searches, or clicking on sponsored links, will not help you win!When searching the web, the best way to win Swag Bucks (and the only method we endorse) is to use the engine for genuine search and discovery. Our technology is designed to award users who search naturally — simply utilize our engine the way you would with other search providers.

Anway, back to how it works. Once you accumulate enough ( approx. around 50 ) you can cash in for prized. There are gift certificates, merchandise, etc.

Currently, when you win, we have all been geting 1 to 5 Swagbucks.

But, now....they have announced on their blog that they will be issuing some Mega Bucks soon. This means, you can now potentially win 10, 20, 50 and 100 Swagbucks...woo, hoo! They plan to launch the Mega Bucks this week, although I am not positive of the date. You can click here to read their announcement.

Now, that gets me excited!

In addition, when you get your free gift, if you take a picture of yourself with it and submit it to Swagbucks, they will also issue an extra 1 Swagbuck for your account. So, I plan to do this, too. Click here for all the details.

Finally, if you use Swagbucks, make sure to tell all your friends..email them your links, etc. If they sign up thru your referral, you win everytime they win. Up to 100 Swagbucks! As you can imagine, your Swagbucks will accumulate much faster.

SOURCE: moneysavingmethods.blogspot.com

So we want our Swagbucks to accumulate faster, too. So we don't care if you use this or not. HOWEVER, if you are going to try it out, please click one of the links in this post or on the side of our blog so we can 'refer' you.

Thanks!

Happy Birthday, Kirby!

Today is my amazing wife's birthday. She's 25. She believes that your body shuts down after 25. I love her.

Kirby, no matter how dramatic life gets (jeans come to mind), I love the passion that comes along with your drama. You are passionate about Jesus...

about your husband...

about your son...

about your daughter...

about our families...

about your friends...

about discipling our home...

about Her Hands and discipling other women...

about saving us money...

about Round Top...

about SO many things. You put your whole self into everything you do and every person in your life. You convict me so often by your generosity, by the thoughtfulness of every gift and how you KNOW the people in your life. I'm learning from you.

I don't know how you manage to do all the things that you do in a normal day. After having the kids for a few hours or a day, I know what a feat it is when I come home to clean house or if anything else is done outside of you three surviving. It is so important to me that you are at home and you do it with such humility, grace and eagerness.

You're the best friend a person could have. And I know they'll be many who'll echo that on this post as well. You're an amazing helper and so good to your needy husband. I love confiding in you and depending on you. I love reading with you, jean-shopping with you, Wizard-of-Ozzing with you, Round Topping with you and doing all of life with you.

Don't even get me started on how beautiful you are! None compare, Kirby.

I love you. Happy Birthday!

What's been happening 'round these parts...

As far as Asher is concerned, this first picture pretty much explains it. This kid LOVES horses. And cows. And pretty much any other animal figure that he can line up...but his obsession all started with horses around September.

On Christmas morning, the first gift from his stocking was probably his favorite. A 6-pack of cows that cost $4.99. We could have stopped there and Asher would have thought it was the best present ever day EVER.

As soon as the cows were out of their package, he sprawled out on his belly and began to play-completely oblivious to the rest of the living room. Cousins, aunts, and uncles tore through their gifts and were already off to their respective corners of the house, before he even looked up to realize he was the only one left with a pile of unopened gifts and trash surrounding him.

If, Charlie and I were smart, we would have taken half of the gifts and saved them for his birthday to open. Grandparents (we're thankful, but you) REALLY overdo it...we knew that would be the case, so we only bought him two gifts: a toolbench and and a children's bible to use during family worship. (And we LOVE this...this was a recommendation from the Duty's...if you're looking for a children's story bible, this one is so neat because rather than just being "moral" it gives you the "big picture" of God's sovereign plan since creation.)

The following are a bunch (sorry, this is more for the grandparents...I know that a lot of them look the same, but they don't want to miss any move this precious boy makes!) of pictures over the last month of Asher playing with all his animals:

He's so serious when he lines them up...I'm predicting a perfectionist like his Daddy.

Pleased with his alignment.

Finally caught me taking pictures.

The funny thing about all the "line up" is how each horse comes out one at a time-usually from a room on the opposite side of the house. Asher will start with a pile of horses in his room, and bring a horse into Uncle Jo's (my brother lives with us) room, line him up, and then say, "One more," as he holds up a finger and runs back to his room to retreive the next horse. This process continues until each horse is perfectly placed in his spot...everytime.

He's so busy.

One morning I noticed that his nativties were having an "unsegregated" block party...you know, two Joseph's at one nativity, some "Little People" animals at a non-Little People stable...all the same, so perfectly lined up.

(This might be my FAVORITE.) Later that afternoon, I watched as, one by one, the horses found my vintage nativities.

Each horse on his own spiritual pilgrimage to pay their respect.

I love you, SweetBoy. And love how you love those animals of yours.

I hope it never stops.

(Disclaimer: Asher just received a whole lot of attention in this post, but this cutey girl has been busy doing her own tricks, too! I will update more on those soon; for now I will leave you with a few pictures.)

Is he really ready?

Friday afternoon I was talking on the phone to my sister, when Asher (who was supposed to be napping) walked out to the living room, came right up to me and gave me a big "I'm so proud of myself" grin.

"How did you get out?"

"Climb..." he said, grabbing my hand and leading me back to his room. I put him back in his crib and, sure enough, he climbed back out with no problem.

Ugh...I am so not ready for this. My baby is about to turn two in just over a month...and he's growing up way too fast!

Charlie decided that we should convert the crib into his "big boy" bed that night. So, we did. Char explained to Asher that he'd now be sleeping in a new bed and the "consequences" if he got out.

Well, 3 bedtimes and 5 naps later, he's only gotten out once and received one spanking. We're so proud of him!

The only problem is...he sometimes falls out. His bed didn't come with any rails, so the second night he fell out (onto the pallet we set up by his bed) about five or six times. But he only really woke up once...the other times, when I went in he was already crawling back in, still asleep.

Any ideas? Should I buy one of those rails that you stick in between the mattress and the frame? Or will he eventually learn not to roll out? Come on experienced mothers of "big boy/girl sleepers" I need some help.

I'm having a crisis...

a fashion crisis, of all things.

I realized tonight that I'm officially a mom.

I thought that when I bought my first swim skirt for my tankini the summer after Asher was born that I had been initiated into motherhood.

Not so. Tonight I recognized that I had drifted in into a whole new realm of oblivion somewhere over the years...and not even known it.

I went jean shopping for the first time since fall/winter of '04-the winter before I got married! The winter after we got married I was too poor to buy any clothes and the last two winters I've been pregnant, so had no use to shop for anything non-maternity.

I've pretty much been wearing jeans that I've had since the middle of college-and, though, they're old favorites, I've slowly had to start throwing them away or designating them as "paint jeans" because I've worn them for 4+ years.

So...tonight I started out...rather excited. I was getting to go shop for myself...childless...like not having to stop to feed any babies or bribe any toddlers to keep quiet.

I began at one of my old favorites-Plato's Closet-a consignment shop that mostly only sells name brand and designer clothes from the previous season. I panicked as I hardly recognized any of the brands of jeans that I was shuffling through.

Seriously...I felt so dumb when I saw jeans that said "X2" on them and was confused. How come no one told me that some time in the last four years Express had changed their label?

But that was just the beginning...Silver, Hudson, 575, iT jeans...I needed a translator!

Actually, what I really needed was a college girl standing beside me to tell me, "Yes, go try these." or "No, not those." But I was WAY too prideful to go ask one of the sweet girls behind the counter to help...so that's where you come in...but more on that in a minute.

So, I picked up some Silver jeans and tried them on because my friend Jenn had recently just mentioned that her (super cool, rockstar's wife) sister-in-law had recommended them. I bought Silver jeans for $18...is that a good deal? Are those even still cool?

The rest of the night I spent checking out every college girl's rear that came near me at the mall...in search of "cool" jeans. I went to the Buckle and tried on a few that I liked. But I need help...are BKE jeans still "in"?

Blaire?

Emily?

Brettney?

Where are you?

I can't wait for 15 years for McKlayne to fill me in on what's appropriate to wear. I need your help.

If you're reading this blog and I don't even know you but you have jeans that you LOVE, please share...include the brand, style, and where I can purchase these, etc. please. Price doesn't matter...I just want to know your favorites! I will be getting money or gift cards for Christmas, so I plan to use them on jeans.

Ugh...this is so hard for me to do...I never thought I'd be asking for fashion advice...and especially not on the world wide web...but I'm desperate.

My favorite jeans...which, like I said, I haven't shopped for them in a good 4-5 years have been...Lucky, Citizens and jeans from Arden B. Are these still okay? Be honest.

I don't want to succumb to this and not even know it:

SwagBucks

So, there is a really cool site that you can earn gift certificates and actual prizes from your favorite stores.

Here is a re-post from the site we learned about it:

Not sure what Swagbucks is? Well, it is an online search engine, powered by Google and Ask.

But, instead of just pulling your search results back like Google or Yahoo, you have the potential to earn Swagbucks with each search. And, quite frequently I win. At least once a day, and sometimes more.

Now, I honestly can tell you, I only use Swagbucks when I am doing a search online anyway. I never use Yahoo or Google anymore, because Swagbucks gives me a chance to win while I search. I have it saved as my Homepage, so this is the first screen that comes up everytime I log onto the web.

I DON'T sit there and try to randomly search to earn extra poins...because it really doesn't work. In fact, here is the exact wording from their site.

Tip #8

Doing a TON of searches, or clicking on sponsored links, will not help you win!When searching the web, the best way to win Swag Bucks (and the only method we endorse) is to use the engine for genuine search and discovery. Our technology is designed to award users who search naturally — simply utilize our engine the way you would with other search providers.

Anway, back to how it works. Once you accumulate enough ( approx. around 50 ) you can cash in for prized. There are gift certificates, merchandise, etc.

Currently, when you win, we have all been geting 1 to 5 Swagbucks.

But, now....they have announced on their blog that they will be issuing some Mega Bucks soon. This means, you can now potentially win 10, 20, 50 and 100 Swagbucks...woo, hoo! They plan to launch the Mega Bucks this week, although I am not positive of the date. You can click here to read their announcement.

Now, that gets me excited!

In addition, when you get your free gift, if you take a picture of yourself with it and submit it to Swagbucks, they will also issue an extra 1 Swagbuck for your account. So, I plan to do this, too. Click here for all the details.

Finally, if you use Swagbucks, make sure to tell all your friends..email them your links, etc. If they sign up thru your referral, you win everytime they win. Up to 100 Swagbucks! As you can imagine, your Swagbucks will accumulate much faster.

SOURCE: moneysavingmethods.blogspot.com

So we want our Swagbucks to accumulate faster, too. So we don't care if you use this or not. HOWEVER, if you are going to try it out, please click one of the links in this post or on the side of our blog so we can 'refer' you.

Thanks!

Happy Four Months, Chubbers!

The past four months have flown by with my Sweet Girly-Girl!

When I took her to Rusty yesterday for her well-check she weighed 16lbs 2 oz. (95 percentile) measured in at 25 1/4 inches. (75 percentile) We're so proud of our chubby girl!

Here are some updated pics:

McKlayne rolls around like crazy and is so strong. She's so squirmy that I wonder if she's still going to be a snuggler when she gets older...I hope so!

Now that she is (pretty much) over her reflux, she is so laid back and sweet....she just kind of goes with the flow. Then again, I guess she has to.

Fast asleep with her Blankie Bunny.

She loves her brother. He is always making her laugh and squeal.

Having a girl has really changed me. I thought that I'd be a mom of all boys and was okay with it. Now, I can't imagine not having this sweet little prissy angel. I've even surrendered my title of "Princess" to her.

I adore all those rolls.

This one is from a while ago...it's crazy how much she's already changed!

How cute is my hubby?

Oz Bunch Multiplies

We had so much fun on Halloween! Asher sat so still as Charlie painted his face...I'm still not sure which of my boys liked dressing up for Halloween more.

You can't tell in this picture, but Asher was quite the opposite of the Cowardly Lion as he ran out to show off his costume and painted face to Uncle Jordan. He was so proud of himself and his "roarrrrrrr" that he'd been practicing.

McKlayne had no idea what was going on as we painted her face..she kind of just smiled as the paint tickled her nose, but she definitely didn't like having her "ears" put up. She screamed as I put the rubberbands in her hair...this was her first time to have pigtails, but I've heard that girls get used to this, so we shall see!

She's got him wrapped around her little finger already!

I still can't believe how quickly we've doubled! If you would have told me when Charlie and I were first Dorothy and the Scarecrow (before we were even engaged!) that in just four, short years we'd be dressing up again as the Oz bunch with two children of our own, I would have laughed in your face! It's amazing to me what the Lord can do in such a short amount of time! We're so thankful for where He's brought us!

My little Toto.

He had so much fun running from house to house and often helped himself to the candy...we'll have to work on that next year!

Of course, we had to stop by the CS Grandparent's so they could see our little ones, where we met Tara and cute little, Kitty-Cat Karis. (This sidenote is completely unrelated to Halloween, but I wanted to be able to remember this for years to come: You know Asher loves his "Mammy-ou" whenever he sees "Dane" passing out worship guides at church and immediately starts asking for her. I can't believe he can already put them together...he's way smarter than I give him credit for!)

Then we made our way to the Hendrick's to Trick or Treat and hang out with the rest of our friends.

He sure loves his sister!

Asher has made such a great transition to McKlayne. He's always wanting to give her a kiss on the lips or on the top of her head...and lately he's been in to giving her long "movie" kisses where he says "muaahhhhhhh" and moves his head back and forth...I honestly don't know where he learned that!

Second to asking for his bottle of milk each morning when he wakes up, the first person he asks for is "Nayne" (which is what he calls McKlayne.) He wants to check out where she is and give her his first kiss of the day.

He's also always wanting to hold her. He's so proud of himself when we let him hold her because he's thinks he's so big.

In addition to all the holding and kisses, he loves to help! He likes to help "burp" his sister as he pats her back and says, "burp, burp, burp", he likes to suck her nose with the blue bulbed "sucker", and he likes to help wipe her hiney when I change her on the floor. His favorite thing to do after I change her for the morning is throw away diapers and take her dirty clothes to the hamper...it's a great help to me!

But, sometimes he loves his little sis a little too much and it gets him in trouble! No heights can keep him from her.

(I was looking at the other pics I'd taken on the viewer and I look up to find this...don't worry, I stopped him before he crushed her!)

He pushed this toy over so he could climb up and get a good peek at her...and, again, was so proud of himself!!

And so it begins...

Tonight as I unloaded the dishwasher, I found THIS little guy.


I almost peed myself. And so begins life with a little boy and his creepy creatures.

Mini-Vacation

Several weeks ago, my sisters and I took my mom on a much-needed vacation to the Hyatt Resort in Lost Pines outside of Bastrop.

We pretty much just hung out by the pool all day...is there really a better way to spend vacation?

Here are some pics from the trip:

Cousin Pic (From the left: Brynn, Camdyn,

Reid, Asher, McKlayne, & Stella)

The Newbies: McKlayne & Camdyn

The Fam.

The Tots.

Stella Bella.

The Little Fish...this kid thinks he's about 3 years old when he's in the pool!

Little Miss Drama.

Mimi with the two big girls.

Our second favorite thing to do while on vacation.

How cute (and old-he's a 2nd grader!) is he?

Reid, Brynn, & Asher rode horses! They LOVED it!

They were not happy about having to wait their turn.

Still anticipating the pony ride.

Finally.

He was so serious...he kept saying, "Neigh, neigh," before he got on his pony, Buddy, but once he was on, it was ALL business. He held on tight and enjoyed the ride.

The End.

Asher's first hair cut

On our trip to Arlington, McKlayne met a bunch of Charlie's family for the first time. We stayed with Grandma Apel and went to Aunt Jan's for the afternoon to visit with Charlie's Mom's side of the family.

She loved her (Great) Grandma Apel, who had a way of putting her to sleep within about 3 minutes. I wanted to bring Grandma back to College Station with us.

Asher had a first, too...he got his haircut! (Don't worry...just a trim...most of you have seen him since and haven't even noticed.)

Charlie's Aunt Sharon is a hairdresser; we wanted her to cut his hair since we trusted her not to cut off all his beautiful curls.

She trimmed it up nicely, so it wasn't so scraggly anymore. (I didn't realize just how long it had gotten until I looked at these pics!)

Asher didn't even realize he was getting his haircut. He sat very still on my lap and enjoyed his Popsicle the whole time.

Thanks, Aunt Sharon! We'll be coming back to you for the big cut!

Here are some other pictures from our trip:

Sweet (Great) Grandpa Overman...he couldn't wait to hold her!

And Great Grandma Jo...the baby-machine!

Grammy with her two grandchildren!

Asher wouldn't let Aunt Kathy put him down! He loved her!

Uncle Mark

Aunt Jan

...and Uncle Fred!

Bowhead

About a month ago, I was packing up a suitcase for a quick trip to Arlington. I noticed that one by one, McKlayne's bows (since I, of course, had to pack one to go with every outfit, she'd be wearing on the trip) were slowly disappearing from the mesh netting that I had clipped them to.

I followed the culprit as he made his way over to the swing she was sleeping in. And this is what I found:



And, of course, he wanted a picture with a bow in his hair, too. This kid loves headbands and bows! It must be all that pretty hair!

McKlayne's Newborn Pics

My good friend, Lynsey, took these almost 6 weeks ago (when McKlayne was 2 weeks old) but I didn't want to post these until I has sent out her birth announcements! Well, I designed them about a month ago and didn't like them once they were printed...then life got crazy busy again and I still haven't re-designed them!

So, here are just some of my favs...I just couldn't contain them any longer...maybe I'll get to them sometime this week and you'll have one to hang on your fridge soon! You can look at them all here. (I just want to add that the pink "M" in some of these pics is only 6 inches tall...just to give you an idea of how tiny she was!)

Isn't Lynsey amazing? She's so precious to our family.

I have TWO kids now!

Sorry it's been so long since an update...and I'm sorry that I still haven't returned some of your phonecalls or emails. Chances are, I've started to and somehow been interrupted by one of my two darling children.

Life with two kids has been hectic, but wonderful! These last four crazy weeks have been filled with family, visitors, and less sleep then I've been used to for a little while! My mom was here the first few days we were home from the hospital, and Charlie was off the rest of the week. Then my sisters and their kids came the next week...overlapping one night...6 kids in our house was a little chaotic, but I'm so glad they were all here. It was really fun. Thanks, Mom, Kyle and Ave, for cooking, cleaning and serving us...we love you and don't know how we would have made it (or at least eaten) these first couple weeks without you.

A week ago was my first day alone with just the two of them...two on one. It's been difficult...nobody told me just how hard the transition from one to two would be! Two kiddos under two are definitely different than one energetic 18 month old! There have been times when I've been a bit overwhelmed...and there have been many tears, but we're adjusting.

This week I'm trying to get McKlayne on a consistent schedule. Poor baby...I haven't paid as much attention to her eat, wake, sleep cycle like I did for Asher and we're both starting to feel the effects! I had a stopwatch and timed Asher's every feeding, wake, and sleep period for the first six weeks of his life...with McKlayne sometimes she'll sleep for 4 1/2 hours during the day before I realize it's been that long...then I pay for it at night. So, this week we're concentrating on setting her little internal clock. I'm not super rigid with the whole schedule thing, but can definitely attest to the benefit of it! By this time when Asher was a baby, he was predictable...and I could schedule my day around his feedings...with her, sometimes she goes over four hours without eating and sometimes it's barely been two!

Here are some of my favorite pics over the last four weeks:

How pretty is she?

Our little Eskimo baby.

I love that spikey hair.

McKlayne & Mimi.

Asher with his Mimi.

My boys.

Pop came to visit, too.

Her crooked little nose did straighten out!

Uncle Jo with the nephews & nieces minus the newborns.

Oh, how they love the bath!

Camdyn is 8 weeks older than McKlayne.

Reid, Stella, Asher, & McKlayne.

Family Pics

The proud big brother...

McKlayne Eliana

Psalm 13:5&6:
I trust in your unfailing love.
I will rejoice because you have rescued me.
I will sing to the Lord
because he is good to me.

Thanksgiving...that's what we're overwhelmed with right now.

Thankful hearts to the Lord for He has been so good to us...in so many ways...our beautiful, healthy baby girl was born at 6:02 this evening...McKlayne's labor and delivery was oh, so different compared to Asher's...the Lord protected and healed me of any complications I had been having again since Asher's birth...we know so many of you have been praying and He's been faithful to answer those precious prayers...thank you. We love you all.

My 4 hour labor compared to my 20 hours with Asher was AMAZING! I could have 8 babies if all my labor & deliveries went like this one! And she is TINY compared to our big ol' boy. She weighs 6 lbs 14oz. and is 20 inches long. As difficult as it was to wait these past several days, it was worth it for such a short labor! Our little girl is eating like a champ and we haven't heard but about one peep from her since she's been born

She looks so much like Asher did when he was born...just with more (and darker) hair! Here's are a few pics of her right after delivery.

Here's Asher, just a few minutes old:

Other things I am grateful for:

My sonic water with lime and extra ice...they changed the policy and now allow mothers to drink while laboring! How amazing is that? It made all the difference for me.

Epidurals, my anesthesiologist, my lovely nurse, Tawnya, and amazing doctor. They ordered me an epidural even before my contractions were super intense...I definitely experienced some, but nothing to complain about! Dr. Davis was performing a c-section and was going to come break my water afterwards andwanted me to get my epidural before he broke my water. Here I am shortly after my epidural talking on the phone and attempting to watch 24.

We didn't end up watching any 24 episodes, because I opted to take a nap instead...did you just read that? There was no napping involved in my labor with Asher...but I napped for an hour! This is when I transitioned from a 4 to a 7 and then from a 7 to a 9, twenty minutes later.

My sweet new family of four...we don't have a pic of the four of us yet, but we'll get one today! She's a Daddy's Girl already!

Here's the video of Asher meeting his new baby sister. He loves her so much! Check out how he honks her nose (his initiation into the family...either that or he's trying to straighten out her crooked little nose.)

s

A little bird updated me...

We're posting updates of Kirby and McKlayne's progress via Twitter. Look on the right side over there labelled "Twitter Updates" and know what's going when right when it happens.

Countdown...and a Contest!

I've been pretty bad about updating on anything pregnancy related for a while...we've been very busy with more home improvements, getting ready for this little girl, and chasing after a VERY active 17 month old!

We're converting our garage into a "multi-purpose" room for a laundry closet, computer room/play area, and an extra place to sleep.

Here's some proof of the boys hard at work:



He loves "helping" Daddy.



What would a girl do without a couple of "handymen" like these?



How does this brilliant man know how to do everything?



And this little mister is going to learn it all from his Daddy...what a happy wife he'll have one day!


Most of you know what the plan is for McKlayne's birth, but for those of you who don't, my due date is July 7th. Due to my complications with delivering Asher, Dr. Davis didn't want her to get "too big" (he didn't want me to have another 8 lb baby) so he scheduled my induction for July 3rd...the ONLY day we were hoping that she wouldn't come!

July 3rd is our 3rd Anniversary and, selfishly, we're not too excited about having to share it! When we were picking a wedding date, we chose this one, so that we would always have the 4th off to be able to go away for the evening of our anniversary if we wanted. But, that's all that Dr. Davis' and the hospital's schedule would allow. So, we're keeping this date and praying that she comes before then!

Which is very possible! I went in today and was 75% effaced and almost a full 3 cm. dilated! He said she "looked to be" about 6 1/2-7 lbs...but how much can they really tell from poking around on your belly? Dr. Davis said he'd "probably see me this weekend" since he's on call and would be surpised if I lasted until next Thursday.

Isn't that what every pregnant lady wants to hear? We shall see! I could sit like this for another week!


(Pic taken tonight, in my 39th Week!)

On to the fun part...leave a comment with your guess to when you think McKlayne will be born (the date...even if you don't think she's coming until the 3rd) and her measurements (height & weight.)

My guess is Saturday, June 28th; 7 lbs 4 oz; 20 inches long.
Charlie's is Sunday, June 29th; 7 lbs 8 oz.; 19 1/2 inches long.

No matter what, a week from today I will have a baby girl...this is still so hard to believe! I can't wait to meet this crazy girl who's been kicking around in me so much lately!

Cutest Lil' Ag

If you happen to be at the mall, go to Aggieland Outfitter's (by Macy's) and vote for the Cutest Little Aggie. Asher is #43. You can vote until the end of June.

Happy Father's Day, Char!

Asher adores you.

It's obvious by the way he tries to imitate all your silly sounds or expressions.

It's apparent every afternoon just after 5 when you get home from work by his giddy squeal. No one can make him laugh all the different ways you do.

It's clear by the way he tries to please you and the thrill he gets when you encourage or cheer him on.

And I adore you.

I love that Asher is imitating you...watching you so intently because he sees what a man who loves the Lord with all his heart looks like...he's watching the way you honor me and how you treat him with gentleness and grace...and he'll oneday become a man who leads his family according to the Word because he's witnessed his Daddy doing it his whole life.

I love that there is joyful noise in our home at the peak times of 5:00 and 7:00 every evening. He loves his Daddy-time when you first get home...and you selflessly give him all your love, energy, and attention...even though somedays I know you're exhausted from a long day at the office. When I give him a bath, the giggles are just not the same...he loves the time after dinner the two of you wild boys share, splashing and squirting each other. Thank you for building him up...he's so secure in your love.

I love that he fears you...and is beginning to fear you more as you continue to discipline him. Thank you for training him in this at such a young age...it's amazing to me what this 16 month old understands because of your patient training...there will be much peace in our home because of this. I love to watch him repeat a behavior like throwing his dirty diaper in the trash over and over again, because he knows he is doing something to please you...he craves your affirmation. It makes my job much easier as I enforce these rewards and disciplines throughout the day. Thank you for training our son up in a way that will teach him the fear of the Lord.

You boys are so precious to me. I'm thankful for the man I get to learn from everyday in our home...and the little man that longs to be just like his Daddy. Happy Father's Day, Char! I'm so proud of you and love you with all my heart!

A few of his Favorite Things...

I have been meaning to post these for several months now...I seem to have an ongoing list of Asher's "favorite" things and the more he learns and gets into stuff, the more he is starting to LOVE many things! So my next couple posts will probably be pics or videos of him doing his favorite things.

As you can see, I've been working on pics with Lightroom...and I am in love with this program! Lyns and Larra, I welcome any tips that you may have! (I would like to know why the coloring looks a little different when I post these pics on my blog compared to what I see in Lightroom or even just in the plain viewer from the files...does that make sense? When I upload them to blogger for some reason the color is a little more dull or grayish.)

Anyways...back to Asher! In this set of pics, I have captured several of his favorite things...and one of mine! First, he loves, loves, LOVES to be outside...he could stay outside for hours if I would let him.

Secondly, he loves hats...probably because it's something that he always sees his Daddy in. He loves to wear hats...but his favorite hats are Daddy's hats. Everytime he walk by Charlie's open closet, he says "hat, hat" and points at the hats hanging on the wall and signs, "please." How precious is this hat that Brettney and Key gave him?

Another thing he loves is playing with Daddy.

Almost everyday, we wait outside for Daddy to get home and as soon as Asher sees his Daddy riding (on his bike) or driving up, his face lights up and he flaps his arms up and down excitedly. Playtime after work with Daddy, is probably one of his most favorite times of the day...and it's mine, too! I love watching my boys run around and chase or tackle each other and love hearing their laughter and squealing.

Another story about Daddy and hats: We recently got satelite (No more watching Baby Einstein over and over and over! Mommy is very excited about our new selection of entertainment!) and the other day I turned "Handy Manny" on for the first time for Asher. A couple minutes later, I heard "Hi, Dada!" and he was waving at the TV. I looked up and saw Manny...who totally looks like an animated version of his Daddy in a red and white hat just like Charlie wears! But especially, since he's always carrying tools around to fix stuff! Who says TV isn't educational?

And one of the things that his Mommy loves...her baby boy in just his diaper! I love that chunky, adorable little body! Need I say more?

Our Little Dipper

Asher loves to dip...

Queso

French Onion Dip

Guacamole

Ketchup

Anything he sees us dipping...but especially SALSA...probably because we eat it so often!

Salsa is definitely among his top 3 favorite foods...probably because it was pretty much a staple when I was pregnant with him, even though it gave me very bad reflux...some things are just worth the burning throat...(I'm feeling it yet again this pregnancy)...and homemade salsa is one of them!

The heat doesn't bother him, in fact, it usually just makes him eat it faster...maybe because he realizes that if he just keeps eating, he won't notice how much his tongue is burning.

When he's just about done, he knows how to get every last drop, just like he sees Mommy and Daddy doing when they drink out of their cereal bowls each morning.

Finally...an Apel Update

I know, I know...it's been forever--OVER two months since our last post and I never kept my promise about posting videos of Asher or pics from his first Christmas or birthday...but Adobe Lightroom (the best photo editor around!) is on it's way to me in the mail right now. It is going to make my job editing and documenting our family so much easier! So, as I work on them, I will post them! PROMISE!

Here is what Asher has been up to lately:

He loves playing outside...it is far better than any "toy" to him. He loves to climb, dig, explore, and, of course, play in the water.

We got him this babypool and it has been the best entertainment...he loves to splash around and play with his shovels and buckets in the water.

He loves going to the park behind our house...we go there just about everyday, but last month the Splashpad opened and since it's been warmer the last few weeks we've finally gotten to go! He loves it so much, we usually stay there about an hour or longer. Here are a few more pics of him at the Splashpad:

About two weeks ago, Charlie taught him showed him how to pick flowers for Mommy. Now, everytime he sees a flower he picks it, holds it up to his nose, says, "Mmmmm," and runs over to me with the sweetest grin on his face, to give me the flower. How I love my sweet boys! They're so good to me!

A lot has been going on around the Apel house, as well. Charlie closed in a doorway from the garage to the kitchen, which will soon be our converted laundry room/tv/playroom, where we'll put another bed since the guestroom will soon be McKlayne's nursery.

He closed in this wall right here. This man amazes me with his "handiness". At the beginning of each new task I always skeptically ask him, "And how do you know how to do this?" or "How do you know that this is going to work?" Most of the time he shrugs his shoulders and says, " I don't know...I just do." Sometimes, I get a, "I don't, but I'll figure it out." I don't know how I ended up with such a handy husband, but I'm so thankful that I did! He's brilliant!

We also made a few great purchases in Roundtop on Antique Weekend at the beginning of April! This farm table was our favorite find! We needed a long, skinny table, so that we could fit at least 8 people around it! It's been wonderful the couple weeks that we've had it for our HOPE Group!

And listen to this...it's the best part of this find: we bought five of chairs (all that we could find that day!) and figured we could try to either find three other matching ones later that week when I went back or just mix and match a few others...but when I went back I couldn't rind any of them. The next night, we were at the Hendrick's and they had four chairs-the same style we had gotten and I said, "Hey! Did you get these from Roundtop? I need three more of these!" (thinking that Heather had bought my other chairs) and she said, "No, Aaron's parents gave us these...actually seven of them! Three of them are sitting in our attic right now...you want 'em?" So, we went home with three more chairs to complete our set of eight! We love those people.

(Also, notice my antique stained-glass window...I got that in Roundtop, too..it was a steal compared to how much they normally are! It's from somewhere in England--where did the guy say he was from, Kyle?)

We've also refinished some furniture and I've been doing quite a bit of spring cleaning-going through closets and drawers- giving stuff away, organizing, and selling the "valuable junk" on Ebay! There is so much still to be done before our Baby Girl gets here in a short 10 weeks! Here is the before pic of an old hutch that had been in my parents garage for years!

It's amazing what a vision, a lot of cleaning, some sanding, and some stain can do! We still have to find some hardware to put on it...I loved the original but a few were broken and one was missing!

Last week, I was in HEB and 3 people commented on how "beautiful" my "little girl" was...I just smiled. This pic was from the same day...he was dressed in blue...with a lizard on his shirt. Is he just too pretty? Or is his hair too long? I am not ready to cut it...he wouldn't look like the same kid without all that beautiful curly hair!!

And, lastly here's my belly at 22 weeks:


And again at 26...here I have gained a total of 14 pounds. I gained 50 lbs with Asher! Yikes! At this point in my last pregnancy, I'd probably already gained 30-35lbs:

I am now a full 30 weeks. I'll have to get Char to take a pic of my belly today, so you can see how much I've grown!

Family Pics

Our amazing photographer friend, Lynsey, (we loved her before we knew she took great pics!) took some family pictures of us at the park behind our house last Sunday.

Here they are!

I love them all, but I especially love the one of my two precious boys with Asher's hands on Charlie's face. I will treasure that one forever because she captured a memory that I see quite often...Asher adoring his Daddy.

We can't thank you enough, Lyns! She is incredible to work around a very active 13 month old and still get such great pics!

We're thinking PINK!!

It's official...I'm wearing Maternity! I was changing from running shorts to go to dinner and was awfully uncomfortable trying to fit into most of my regular jeans! I decided...since we were about to go eat Pancakes at IHOP that it was NOT worth the discomfort of trying to squeeze into my regular jeans...Baby Girl would have no room for pancakes!

So, I tried on a pair of real-waist maternity jeans that my sis had handed down to me...and they felt so great! Though, they were a bit big and super annoying that I had to keep pulling them up in back, they beat trying to suck in and button up my new bulge! (Why is it that you ALWAYS have to pull up maternity pants--even when they do fit! I feel like I have enough going on trying to hold one baby, and keep my tummy covered without needing to make sure my backside isn't showing! Somebody really needs to do something about this...it'd be the next great Pregnancy invention.)

I will probably be able to still wear a few of my "fat" jeans for the next week or so, but I'm glad to finally be able to start wearing Maternity soon!! It's been annoying because all season I've only bought two shirts (since I was pregnant last winter and had cleaned out my regular winter wardrobe pretty well then) and have basically been rotating between a total of 5 shirts because I thought that I'd be wearing maternity anyday and that it would be a waste of money to buy anything new!
(Heather, I may try to squeeze into my favorite jeans for the next week, but they'll be yours soon!)

On another note: yesterday, going into our sonogram, Charlie and I were both thinking boy, but only because we've been so fickle and had no real "feeling" either way this entire pregnancy....this poor baby, we haven't thought much about her, we've been so distracted with Asher! For the last several months, we've been thinking girl, but a few days ago, all of a sudden...we both switched to boy.

As the sonographer was taking different pictures of the baby, I kept seeing her pass by the bottom of her legs. I said, "I don't see anything between the baby's legs...does that mean it's a girl?" (When we had gone with Asher it was so obvious that he was a boy once we knew what to look for!) And she said, "That's what I'm thinking, we need to get a few more shots to make sure." Well, sure enough we never found anything between the legs and did, indeed, see her "girl parts".

Charlie was grinning from ear to ear as soon as she told us, "Yup, it's a girl!" I didn't quite no what to think other than, "Oh my gosh, I've never really thought of having a girl...all I know is boys...what am I going to do with a girl other than dress her and decorate her room?"

We're getting very excited, though, and can't wait to see what a little Apel girl is going to be like!

The Results Are In!

All of them. As of the time that we found out what we were having, the official poll results were 2/3 GIRL and 1/3 BOY.




But the real results are that we are having a...

GIRL!



We are extremely excited and can't wait to see our little girl. We'll be going through names and getting her room ready and I'm sure a lot of other things. Just check back for more!

I hope you've registered!!

It's time to vote! Do you think that our new baby is a boy or a girl?

Use the poll below to vote, but, also, leave a comment with what you voted for so we know how you voted.

We are finding out this Monday, the 11th, so check back soon!

Also, look for a long post about: Asher's First Christmas, Asher's First Steps, Asher's First Time in Snow, and Asher's First Birthday!! (We are waiting to add the video footage for these.)

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are we having a boy or a girl?

Boy
Girl



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Belly Shots

No, not those belly shots.



This is Kirby's first picture at 5 weeks.



Here is the 15 weeks belly pic of Kirby. Yes, she's at 18 weeks, but there hasn't been drastic change. Kirby will be taking another picture in 2 weeks for the halfway mark.

Stupid for Christ

This morning as I was praying during my Watchman Prayer Hour, (if you're a member of LH, we need more prayer warriors...this is just a little commercial for it...but, consider becoming one in 2008--it will change the way you approach God in prayer!) the Lord brought me to Isaiah 29:13.

"These people come near to me with their mouth
and honor me with their lips,
but their hearts are far from me.
Their worship of me
is made up only of rules taught by men."

I am praying against this attitude this Christmas for my church family, but also for my own family, so that one day when Charlie and I teach Asher the real meaning of Christmas, his heart would draw near to the Lord in true worship. But it's got to start now for us, if we want it to be genuinely modeled before Asher.

I like how The Message translates this:

"These people make a big show of saying the right thing,
but their hearts aren't in it.
Because they act like they're worshiping me but don't mean it."

Charlie and I put up our Christmas tree Thanksgiving weekend, in preperation of making a big show...to act like we worship the Christ child of Christmas, but I fear that, at least for me, it's been out of habit and tradition rather than out of reflection of what this season truly means.

I've made a big stink about making sure that I say, "Merry CHRISTmas!" to the store clerks that have been checking me out rather than, "Happy Holidays", but am I just saying the right thing?

I look at all the presents that are sitting under my tree right now--all the time that it took to pick out those "perfect" gifts for people and am humbled. Have I spent that much time preparing my heart to celebrate the greatest gift?

Lord, would you draw my heart to you first this season?...always, but especially this week. I pray that as we sing Christmas carols to praise you for sending your son into this world, that it would not be out of reciting the songs that we've memorized, but that it would be out of true adoration because you reign in our hearts. Prepare our hearts now, Lord. Draw us near to you.

As I continued to read on in verse 14, I prayed that we would become stupid, idiots for Christ this Christmas. If you're traveling this weekend, go download Butch's sermon from last week...then you'll know what I'm talking about.

1/4 of the way there!

10 weeks down, only 30 to go! Honestly, I have not even felt pregnant other than the nausea and the need for a nap every afternoon.

I'm hesitant to even say this, but most of the time I don't even think about being pregnant unless someone asks me how I'm feeling. I'm just really distracted with Asher as he is all over the place and still constantly changing and learning new things. (I have soooooo MANY videos that I need to post of him signing, walking with the walker, and doing his "favorite" trick.)

In the last two weeks I've gotten to see a sonogram of our newest baby twice. Even though I've been through all this before--(a year ago I was 8 months preggo) it was incredible! To see the tiny heartbeat, and with my most recent sono, the arms and legs moving around is mind blowing. I looked at the screen and then looked up at Asher, as I marveled about the gift of life and our Creator. It's incredible to me that we will have another one of these most precious gifts to lay eyes on at the beginning of July.

What a privilege.

What a joy.

How blessed we are!

I've decided that I am going to be better about documenting my growing belly this time around. And be proud of it! Every 5 weeks I will take a new belly pic so that we can really see the progress.

Here is my pic from 5 weeks pregnant...I had just found out!



And here is from today...a whole 10 weeks.



Though it doesn't look like it's changed much, my pants are getting tighter around the waist! It really does happen so much quicker the second time around! I am sure that in another 5 weeks I will not disappoint you with some growth (though, that may just be due to the holidays and a few birthday cakes!)

Phase I complete, Phase II begins!

Phase I Apel Remodeling has officially ended and Phase II started this morning. Phase II will not be so extensive...just a wall being punched out, a couple doors being added, and a wall that needs to be closed in! Isn't my husband amazing?

In celebration of Phase I being complete, I wanted to post these pics of all Charlie's hard work!

This was the kitchen BEFORE we moved in (notice all the wasted cabinet space on the left):





During construction...look at all that cabinet and countertop space we gained! We closed in one of the doors, took out a wall and a closet behind it (to open our living room up) and put in a window bar and widened the other entry to the kitchen:



Look at my BEAUTIFUL red kitchen:



More Before and After views:

Our little Turkey + a little surprise

Asher was dressed for his 1st Halloween all day long. From the moment he woke up in his jammies...


...to his "Baby's First Halloween" onsie that was handed down to us from my cousin's son...isn't it so cute?


And, of course, we had to carry on the "Seewald Baby's 1st Halloween" tradition that Reid started 6 years ago...poor baby didn't like sitting in that slimey pumpkin.


He's such a texture boy. He doesn't like to touch anything that's gooey or slimey. His favorite food is a banana, but if I cut it up, put it down infront of him, and let him feed himself...this is how he eats it. He will find a way to eat it without touching the icky stuff.


Finally, he warmed up to the pumpkin...but quickly held his hands up after we got a few pics and was ready for us to take him out.


On Sunday night, we were sitting at the Brieger's and didn't know what we were going to dress up as for Halloween, when Duane gave us the idea to be a pilgrim, indian, and turkey. It was so much fun! (Thanks to Larra and Emily for helping me make my costume...ha!)


So, for those of you who have been hanging with me this whole post waiting for the surprise...we have another little turkey baking in the oven! We just found out last week so I'm only about 5 weeks along. And will be due right around our third anniversary! The new baby and Asher will be 18 months apart!


Some other shots of our darling little turkey!


Enjoy!

We love these two people...

...so much that the couple lines in the last post does just NOT do them justice. And even more than to publically praise them, I just want to share with you what Charlie and I learned from living with them.



The Brieger's (Duane & Marylou) or, as Asher knows them, as his "College Station Grandparents", Dr. Duane & Mammy--Ou, were selfless enough to let us live with them from July 20-Sept 23. What started out as what us, rookie home renovators, thought would be just a couple weeks turned into over 2 months!



The entire time we lived there--they served us, loved us, showed us what it meant to live out hospitality and did it with joy the entire 1,560 hours we lived with them! Not kidding. There was never a moment that we felt like they didn't want us there or like we were getting on their nerves. And that doesn't mean that we weren't! They genuinely lived out 1 Peter 4 before us.

Most important of all, continue to show deep love for each other...Cheerfully share your home with those who need a meal or a place to stay. God has given each of you a gift from his great variety of spiritual gifts. Use them well to serve one another...Do it with all the strength and energy that God supplies. Then everything you do will bring glory to God through Jesus Christ. All glory and power to him forever and ever! Amen. 1 Peter 4:8-11

You know how the Bible says that nothing is really our own...that it all belongs to Him? Duane and Marylou actually live this way! When we lived with them they did not let us pay for ANYthing!

Nothing.

We ate their food, did many loads of laundry there, drove their cars, and they babysat Asher often. We basically took over their house and were treated like honored guests the entire two months we stayed with them.

After a couple of weeks of living with them, we asked how we could help out...if we could pay rent, pay for our groceries, do some chores around the house--something! They said no. They just told us to pass it on.

Never again will I be annoyed when someone pours themself some of my organic milk and doesn't finish it. Seriously, I would calculate in my head that it was about a good $0.75 that someone had literally just poured down my drain. How selfish I am!

Living with the Brieger's has blessed us more than just materially. We've learned invaluable lessons of love, selflessness, service, hospitality and joy. Nothing belongs to us, anyway...God's given us everything we posess...so how come it's such a surprise when people act the way that God tells us we're supposed to be living?

Apel July/August/September Update

Alright! You can all rest easy. We are still alive. A lot has happened since our last post....so hang in here while we fill you in.

First, on July 25th, Kirby had surgery to correct some complications brought on by Asher's delivery. Most of you know the details, but for the sake of having a public blog, I will keep it pretty vague. She was kept in the hospital for 3 days. And for the first 40 hours, she had no pain medication!! Her wounds and pain were that or worse of having a baby--and yet no pain medication. She is the strongest person in the world. The nurse had made a mistake and 4 nurses after her had missed it...but then she got Demoral for the next 36 so it made up for it!

We were released that Saturday night and able to catch some of Kirby's family reunion. Kirby has been healing really well ever since. She had one follow up appointment almost two weeks later and the doctor said that she was ahead of schedule -- normal Kirby.

The next major thing was our house. On August 2nd we closed on our first home (see "We Buy Ugly Houses" below). It was a complicated, but exciting process. It's been a ride the last two months with this house. It's over 50 years old and had never been updated so we decided to do some renovating before we moved in. We knew it would never get done if we waited until after we moved in. And if we were going to put some money into it for the sake of 'resale value', we would prefer to get to live in those updates.




A couple from our church, Duane & Marylou Breiger, were gracious enough to let us stay with them for a few weeks -- which turned into about seven -- while our house was being finished. Words cannot express our gratitude to you guys. We love you. We're so thankful for the friendship we share. Thank you, thank you, thank you for all that you have done for us over the last 2 months.

Lance and Blake Czajkowski did a lot of the remodeling and were awesome (if you need anything done let us know and we'll get you Lance's digits). They took out walls, added ceiling joists, created custom cabinets, and dealt with all of our requests and changes.

And Mike Garratt knows a lot more than just chicken -- this guys is a machine and knows a ton about remodeling! And I cannot get away without mentioning the faithfulness and hard work of Tommy Clements and Jonathan Houston and their wives for letting us have them for many nights into the wee hours of the morning.



Thanks also to my brother, Cary, for all that you did and Aaron for helping tile our countertops.



My Dad also made many late-night trips to help us with the tile, sink, gas problems and a lot of other things. We love and are so thankful to you ALL!



Shipley Wedding

A month ago, on September 2, our best friend, Cate married Ryan Out-of-Shapley. (Sorry Ryan Helena Boy spirit never dies.) It was the most beautiful wedding EVER (says Kirby)! The entire family was so honored to be in the wedding: Kirby was the Matron of Honor, I was an Usher and Asher was a "ringbearer" who was pulled down the aisle in a wagon--he did great!

He was the cutest thing and smiled at everyone the whole way down.

Pretty soon you can check out all of the wedding pics here.

We were so happy to welcome Ryan into the family, since Kirby is like the sister that Cate's never had. I could go on and on and never quite capture how we value her our friendship with these two...here was Kirby's toast at their Rehearsal Dinner:

Ryan, you know how much of a gift this girl truly is. I don't have to tell you that. She has been the best friend a girl could have--and how much more she will be for you as she was created to specifically be your helper! You will have the most loyal friend and devoted wife a man can find.

For several years everywhere we went we were known as, "Cate and Kirby"...actually we didn't go many places without each other. We were pretty much inseperable.

Then two years ago, when I got married and it became "Charlie and Kirby", Cate graciously stepped down from the title of my best "best" friend, to my best "girl" friend. Tomorrow night at 7:30, I look forward to doing the same.

I've often told Cate how easy Charlie makes my job. I can't help but desire to do anything but love him by the way that he loves and honors me. When someone is constantly considering you better then himself-truly modeling Christ in your home by putting your needs and desires before their own-you can't help but love them and constantly try to out bless them in return.

I know that you will treat her the same. I've seen you treat her this way. And because of this, I have great peace and much thankfulness in passing on my title. I'm confident that now Cate has her "Charlie" (as he's been her standard since I met him.)

I realize that I keep comparing you to my husband, but this is the biggest compliment I can pay anyone. How thankful I am that she's never settled for anything less than an equivelant to Charlie.

Ryan, I love you. For the way you love our Cate and the way you love our Lord.

You have my word that you will never have to worry about Cate bad mouthing you to me. I can't imagine her ever doing that now. But years down the road, I want you to know that I will forever do all that I can to encourage and build up your marriage with my actions and words, and everything in my power to encourage her to love and submit to you like she loves Jesus.

I want all of the rest of you here tonight to know-if you don't already-just how much the Lord really is the author of this marriage-I can testify to that.

I'm so thankful to the Lord for Ryan. As we've been praying for Cate's "future husband" over the last several years-long before he even came around-He's been shaping Ryan into the man that will love and lead Cate under Christ's leadership. The very qualities that we've been praying for, the Lord has given Ryan.

We've prayed for someone who would be gentle yet bold in dealing with Cate, someone who would be careful with their words, and cautious in their decision making, someone who would be strong enough in their convictions that they would honor the Lord before seeking to please Cate. I've seen all of these displayed through Ryan...and yet none of these are truly just from Ryan, but what the Lord has done in him.

Ryan and Cate, I can't wait to see how God uses your marriage and your family to show others that Christ's love is still real and relevant today.

I'm passing on my title of "Cate's best best friend" to you, Ryan. I know that you will fill this role with much care and much more completion as the two of you become one. As you grow together in your love for Jesus you truly will be inseperable.

We're soooo IN

Last weekend, Kirby's family came in to help us get the house "move-in" ready.

The MVP goes to her mom, who did all the dirty work. Bathrooms.(I wish we had before and after pics b/c you had to see it to believe the magic that she worked.) Windows. Screens. And after all that-she mowed the lawn!

Both her brothers moved boxes and furniture to their various rooms. Todd completely transformed out landscape with all the cutting, trimming, and tidying up he did with the yard and trees. Thank you, Todd! It looks GREAT! Jordan also helped Todd with some yard work and swept off the roof.

Kyle and Kirby were able to finish setting up the kitchen and Asher's room so that we could finally spend the night in our new home the next evening. We're so thankful you were here to help us get going.

Thank you to Kirby's family for getting us in! We appreciate you all so much!

As of last Sunday, we have been living in our house over a week now!

It's good to be home.

Thank you to all of our many friends and family who helped us in so many ways and stayed up long hours, working really hard.

Asher has been doing so much and growing up right before our eyes, but he will get his own post. SOON...

Asher's Eating Like a BIG Boy!!

Kind of...we started him on rice cereal about 3 weeks ago. So far Asher's had rice cereal, oatmeal, applesauce mixed into the each of the cereals, and last night he just tried mashed bananas for the first time and he LOVED them! He ate a whole banana! This morning we had all things stinky going on in the Apel home. That nanner cleared him out...and I could see the banana remains in his diaper! How come I wasn't ready for this?

He'd only been eating solids at dinner each night, but this morning he ate breakfast, so we're beginning to phase him into two meals. By the way, Asher is still "drinking" plenty of breast milk. (I had some hilarious inquiries from Hayden and Ashton about feeding Asher the other night. And I stand corrected, Asher does not eat--he drinks my milk. And when he wants a meal-he's not hungry-he's thirsty. Thanks, precious boys, for setting me straight!)

A video of Asher taking his first bites of cereal. We didn't want yall to miss it!


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For those of you who can't watch videos...here are some pics of the big event:



Quite the little helper we have.



So pleased with his first "real meal".




Asher holding his own bottle while Daddy watched him one morning! Since he doesn't take bottles very often I was SO shocked when I first learned that he could do this about a month ago!



Other moms have told me this would happen. He's growing up WAY too fast! Our lives truly are but a vapor.

We Buy Ugly Houses

The rejection of the first house ended up being such a blessing...we are buying a house 5 houses down from that first one that we put an offer on.

Get this: this home is a little bit bigger, is on the same size lot (just under 1/2 an acre--this is the thing we loved about the first home), has one more toilet than the other one (which makes Charlie very happy), beautiful refinished hardwood floors, and is $35,000 less!

Our ugly duckling definitely needs some work, but we are so excited about our little fixer-upper...we love to do this kind of stuff! And with my husband-the brilliant artist, ex-architect, and handy-dandy carpenter-pretty much anything is possible.

The sellers accepted our contract last week, the inspection went really well yesterday, and we close August 1st! With a lot of paint and a few updates this home is going to be perfect for us. So, if any of you like to paint let me know-we close a week after my surgery, so we'll take all the painting and moving help that we can get!

We're still playing with color options but look at what my husband did with just a few minutes in Photoshop. A little paint plus one amazing man can completely transform a house!

Asher's First Trip to Rockport

Two weeks ago we went to the beach with my entire family. It was so fun! We've got tons of pictures and videos to share. Here are a few pics, but you can see the rest of the album here.
This wasn't his first time in the pool...but he had a lot of fun kicking around on that kickboard.



I think he's going to be a little swimmer like his Daddy.


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This was on the way to the beach...



His first time to feel the ocean...



But this is what most his trip to the beach consisted of...



But the beach got better...on the way home he tried some peach snowcone.


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Asher had lots of fun playing with his Daddy...especially when Daddy blew bubbles.


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He also really loved playing with his cousins...we tried to get a photoshoot of all 4 of them...but that didn't last long.



Just the boys:



And the babies:




Talking to his cousin, Stella. It's a rough life stuck between two girl cousins.


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Rejected...

Well...we got rejected on our initial offer, but the seller invited us to bid again, so we bid the highest the we would pay for the house (it is WAY overpriced!) and they said NO again. That was good enough for us...we know the Lord has a house for us somewhere and maybe he was protecting us from making an unwise investment. So for now, as of July 31 we are homeless. There is nothing else that we have seen on the market right now that we would want to buy. So tonight we go looking, I guess. Looking for houses for lease or houses to buy that we haven't yet seen-I guess a house listed for sale by owner, since I check BCS Realtor everyday. If you know of anything let us know...ideally we would like to stay close to campus! Thanks!

Changes for the Apel's

This has been a crazy busy, yet exciting week for us. Charlie started his new job at Texas A&M on Monday and is loving it! His first four days as the new graphic desiger for the Engineering Communications department has been filled with a lot of paperwork and computer set-up, but he's already been assigned 5 projects. He is excited about the opportunity to continue to develop as a print designer. It will be a change from designing mostly websites, that he is looking forward to!

For those of you who don't know, about 5 months ago Charlie knew that the Lord was calling him to get a new job. His last company, Vantegis (who is based out of Boerne-where I'm from), was wonderful. His hours were flexible-as long as he worked 40 hour weeks; he worked remotely from home, so somedays he would go to work in his Pj's; and it allowed us to travel easily and go to Boerne often, so that I could visit my family! On top of all that, the men he worked for are generous men, with much integrity, who love Jesus...it was such a blessing for Charlie to get to work with these guys and grow as a designer during his time at Vantegis. But he knew that God was telling him to get a job where he would be outside of the home, and in contact and relationships with people other than just Asher and me.

I'm so proud of Charlie. This has been a long four months of waiting on the Lord. Charlie interviewed for this position back in March and the department has undergone a lot of changes since then, which delayed the hiring process...and sometimes made us (mainly me) question where he really was supposed to be. Charlie had peace about this the entire time, trusting that God had another job for him...I'm so glad that I am under his leadership! Thank you to all of you who have been praying...we are continually reminded that God is so faithful to answer prayers. (If you need another reminder this is just a commercial to what God has done in our Neighbor's lives!)

Charlie will continue doing contract work for Vantegis until they find a new graphic designer. So, for a while he will still be pretty busy working a fulltime job with A&M plus anything else Vantegis needs him to do.

And the next exciting new thing is we are in the process of seriously looking at a house to buy! We have to be out of our house by July 31...yikes! There is a home that we really love that we put a contract on last night! I can't believe I just typed that sentence. This is such a major commitment! So, you can be praying for us through this process as well...we are pretty much asking for a miracle! More on this later...

The Best NEW Daddy

Asher, you have the best Daddy that I have ever known. I am so proud of him. He loves the two of us so much. He serves us with all that he is. We truly are his favorite things. And above all this...He loves Jesus through all that he does. That's what makes him such a good Daddy to you and husband to me.

I love him even more now that he is your Daddy...I didn't know that would happen when I had you, but I love him in ways that I never even knew that I could before you came.

And I love to watch you look at your Daddy. When he walks into the room and starts talking, you look around, searching the room until you find your Daddy...his voice is one of your favorite sounds.

When you smile at Daddy, your eyes light up and you smile with your eyes as well as with your sweet face...and sometimes even your eyes tear up.

No one could take your Daddy's place. You know what I love when I watch you adore that Daddy of yours? The sweet reminder of this beautiful picture. Just the way you look at that Daddy...with all that love and all the trust-is how we're supposed to be looking at our Heavenly Daddy. Maybe that's one of the reasons God gave us Daddy.

I'm so thankful that he is your Daddy. I can't imagine trying to do this parenting thing with anyone else. You're going to be the most incredible man, husband, and father one day, because of the way that you see your Daddy love me. And I know that because your Daddy loves the Lord so much...one day He will be your first love, too. And that's the most important thing a Daddy could ever do for his son.

My Sweet Boys

So, it's been a while...a long, long, long while since the Apel's have been regularly blogging. Well, maybe we were never really "regular" bloggers, but we used to use this to update everyone on my pregnancy and to post occasional shots of my growing belly. But that was almost a whole year ago!

I am going to promise to try to be better. Not just because I feel guilty because people have called us blog losers. But because I want to be able to share with everyone how proud I am of my husband, how quickly our sweet little boy is growing, and just how blessed I am to be the wife of and mother to such precious boys! I also want to be able to document sweet moments like the ones below...life is passing by way quicker than I ever thought it could, so this will be an attempt to help me slow down and cherish these gifts. For they truly are such gifts.


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Here's Asher laughing...he has been laughing for about 2 months now, but constantly is cracking himself and us up. He loves to be tickled on those chunky little legs of his.


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He loves his jumperoo. He could spend hours in his jumperoo if I would let him. Thanks Aunt Shel, Jennifer, & Aunt Mary...this gift is a hit!

Click here to visit Asher's latest photo album.

ADVANCED! That's All I Have to Say...

What?! Really, when is he supposed to be rolling over? This was the most exciting thing when he did it last night. I wasn't ready and I think Kirby and I just about freaked him out when he did it the first time. This was the 3rd time. The first was out of nowhere. The second was so mom could see and we could make sure it wasn't a fluke. Then he did it a fourth time this morning. It's for real! (Another video below == Easter Pics)


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ALL Smiles!!!

Hey here is the first of many videos to come! This is what we get to see every morning. Aren't we the most blessed, fortunate, and luckiest people EVER??


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Asher's First Easter

Go check out the new pics!
We will hopefully have videos up of our smiley little guy in the next week, so check back soon!

Things Have Been Busy...

So, I am sorry that we haven't given you any more pictures in a while...but here are Asher's 3-6 weeks of life! Boy, has he changed in looks!! He keeps getting cuter and cuter!!

Pics From Asher's First 10 Days

Click here to see some more pics that we've taken of our little guy!

More Pictures

Here you go! By popular demand, more pictures of Asher after his first day. Here are a few to get your mouth watering then go to this site for all that we have:

Click here for Asher's whole gallery of pictures. You will have to sign up for a name and password if you don't have one already.

Asher and his little hospital companion (Yes, it's a dog.)


Asher's most excited cousin ever!! (That's his real excited smile--he's not just a camera ham.)


Asher's first bath.


His favorite way to just crash.


Cutest kid ever!!

This is the day!!

"This is the day the Lord has made, let us rejoice and be glad in it!!" (Well, not today, but yesterday...but I'm still rejoicing.) I've seen so many miracles and am completely blown away by the last 48 hours. We are now all home and safe and very healthy. Kirby is fairly sore, but would clean the whole house, cook me a meal, and care for her new son if needed. I've seen like never before how amazing my wife is. As much as I am a 'proud new daddy'...I am so much more a 'proud new husband'. Here are a few pics to chew on until we can get some more up. We love you all. Through our families, close friends, and church family we are more than covered on needs for awhile. Feel free to come see us soon, but, please, call first and see how we're doing. Now, to the good stuff...

Asher immediately after birth -- 7:50am, January 19th, 2007


Asher immediately after birth


The Grandmothers and the Grandson


Our Amazing Nurse, and new best friend--Jaime


Weighing In -- 8 lbs. 0.6 ozs, 20.5 in.

The New Do

You may wondering about the new look?! We have changed the look of our blog to a little more 'printer friendly' model. We were going to print off our blog for Kirby's grandmother and I realized that it would have used so much black in trying to print it out. And that's that.

TAGGED!!

So, I got tagged. Tagged by what?? Another 'blogger'--Aaron Hendrick to be more specific. Supposedly, I'm suppose to give everyone 5 things they don't know about me and then tag 5 other people. This would then invade the internet with 25 more new things about people that others don't know about them--eventually, causing a worldwide transparency and vulnerability. I think some Christian in Amway married some Christian in Arbonne and decided this might "speed Christ's coming". So, that I may do my part in spreading the Gospel...

1) I am a freak about expiration dates. It has taken me years of therapy and jeering by loved ones to acutally drink the milk on the same day that is marked on the bottle. This is of course is preceeded with numerous sniffs of the bottle and at least one second opinion. If I am at anyone else's house, you can probably tack on another 2 days for a buffer. This also includes things like yogurt and juices. If there is or has ever been a speck of mold on a block/bag of cheese and I know it, it takes everything in my power and whatever power God allows to down that meal--and a couple of days to forget about it.

2) Something that use to embarass me to death when I was younger, but now I think is very funny: I slept with a Skipper doll when I was like 9ish. This wasn't a frequent or reoccuring deal, but it did happen more than once. (Who knew I'd eventually end up with Fiesta Barbie, Skipper's older, Spanish sister?!) My sister and I are two years apart and we would be among company I was trying to impress in highschool and all of a sudden this would launch out of her mouth -- "Charlie used to sleep with a Skipper doll!" We fought a lot in highschool.

3) I love non-manly movies. Some of my very favorite movies are musicals. I grew up watching "Newsies" when I was younger. I can sing you every song. I think they should make more musicals today. Movies like "Mulan Rouge" and "Chicago" don't count because musicals use to be very clean. Some movies aren't musicals that I enjoy as well, but just girly. Here are a few of my favorites: Sound of Music, Anne of Green Gables, Pollyanna, and The Notebook. Sorry, I still like them.

4) I truly believe my spiritual gift might be singing like children's TV character's. I can sing & talk like Barney. It's actually better than the fraud they have doing his voice these days. Just reporting the facts. Also, I can sing the "Rubber Ducky Song" like Ernie from Sesame Street. What character will I pick up next? Only God knows.

5) I actually work an 8 or more hour day, Monday through Friday with only normal holidays. My work is pretty flex, but it's not as flexible as some of you take it. I frequently get the comments "Oh, you have to work tomorrow?", "What are you doing tomorrow...oh, yeah.", "Hey are you going to go shopping with us all day on Tuesday?" and many others like them. Yes, I am very flexible at work, but I still have to put in a good 40+ hors every week. Please, call me though if you ever need any help for an hour or two in the middle of the day while all the other suckers are stuck in the office.

Well, there you have it. I'm actually feeling quite free. Now to tag so that the world might be a better place. I'm tagging Cody Groves, Hayden Hendrick, Charley Hart, Matt Palermo, and Michelle McClure so that I will find my true love holding a $100 tomorrow at 12:34pm.

Pregnoween

The last several years we have made a big deal out of Halloween for our church's Trunk or Treat. Two years ago we dressed up as Dorothy & the Scarecrow from Wizard of Oz, and last year we were Jesse & Woody from ToyStory 2.

However, Trunk or Treat had gotten so big that there was no other place in the area(besides Reed Arena, where the Aggies play basketball, and that was WAY too expensive) to house our Halloween festivities.

So, that left us without anything to do this year...leave it up to my brilliant husband to come up with a fun project. He decided we needed to dress Asher up, since it was his first Halloween even in utero...so he decided on a Jack-o-Fetus.

Here' my little artist at work...

Look at his amazing attention to detail!
I was expecting him to pull out orange and black paint...
but no, he pulls out the red and yellow for the shadowing effects!!

And finally, the masterpiece!

Proudest Aunt EVER!!

Go check out this little cutie... bath time & nap time...I look forward to these with our little guy!!

I am so in love!!

New Belly Pic

I don't have much news on Asher since the last post...but since so many people have requested updated belly pics...there ya go--it may not be the best, this was a pic we took after the A&M game on Saturday...it's getting BIGGER!!

I started my 3rd trimester on Saturday...and the little wiggleworm weighs 2 lbs and is now 15 inches long! That's pretty big...in the next couple months he'll only grow about 5-6 inches more and put on 5 pounds or so...I hope not much more!

Oh...and here's an updated pic of Asher's cousin, Brynn, since the last time most of you saw a pic of her she was all "cheesey". Isn't she precious? We love our new little niece...it's my favorite thing to watch her from the webcam on instant messenger. She's already got a little personality.

Kirby's Big Cut...

Yesterday, I got 14 inches cut off my hair! Yikes! It was a big step in preparing to be a mom!

I have been talking about this for months and finally decided that I was sick of my hair, and that if it took me too long to fix it now, I definitely won't have time to fix it once I have a new baby to take care of....not to mention, I really didn't want it pulled on or in Asher's face every time I bent over to pick him up.

So, here are the pics...this emotional pregnant lady has not even cried yet about all of her hair being gone!!



At this point in the process, I was awfully nervous...he had just cut off 14 inches of my ponytail...there was no going back!



14 inches...that's longer than the hair left on my head! I donated to Locks of Love, an organization that provides hairpieces to financially disadvantaged children under age 18 suffering from long-term medical hair loss.

Did you know that it takes 3 donations to make one wig? Hair must be pulled back in a pony-tail and must be a minimum of 10 inches...once they recieve 3 donations, they cut, dye and weave the hair into a hairpeice...if you're gonna get a big cut, donate--you're saving people $1600 from buying a hairpiece!!

Asher's last checkup...

A little over a week ago I started my 6th month of pregnancy. Last Thursday we went to Dr. Benson's office for the "official" sonogram. They did all kinds of measurements that we didn't have done at Hope. He was sleeping this time, so he was not as active and kicking around like he had been at the last two. His heartrate was the lowest we'd seen it yet, at 142 bpm, since he was sleeping.

Overall, Asher is measuring large for his due date by a few days. So, we'll see if Dr. Benson moves up my due date at the next appointment...which will be fine with me! The sooner we get to see his sweet face the better...but, honestly, I mean does it really even matter for first time mom's if my due date is moved up a few days? I will probably be late anyway, right?

He's getting to be such a big boy! He weighed a whopping 1lb 2 oz and is about a foot long...we're so proud of our 1 pounder!! And when the sonographer measured his femur, it measured a few WEEKS ahead of schedule...guess he has his daddy's long legs!! We will have to post the pics from the sonogram soon, but it looks as if he has my pointy chin! It's so amazing to see that he really has mine and Charlie's genetics--that he came from us!!

Weeks 24-28 are supposed to be his most active during pregnancy. I have been feeling him move around like crazy for the last 3 weeks...and Charlie felt him kick for the first time about 2 weeks ago. Everytime he feels him moving, he looks at me and says, "Wow! There really is a BABY-a little person-in there...that's crazy!"

Asher can now kick, cry, and hiccup. (We felt him hiccuping after I ate some salsa today at lunch...poor thing.) Most loud noises and when I laugh really hard make him very still. Hopefully, he will get used to these soon...it makes me feel bad, as if I'm scaring him.

This whole pregnancy is making me more and more in awe of our Awesome Creator...how could anyone not believe in creation? Our bodies are WAY too amazing to have evolved, so fully functional, on their own.