Chuck E. Cheese

Asher had his first experience with Chuck E. Cheese! He loved it all. His favorite might have been all the games with the balls - basketball, baseball, football, and skee ball. He LOVES to throw things. He also was pretty fascinated with air hockey. It had been years since Heath and I had been there and it was a fun blast from the past for us as well. Although they no longer have ball pits to jump in (probably a good thing) instead they have tubes you can crawl through. I also think the pizza is significantly better now. Asher learned a little lesson about "monies" and was disappointed when it all ran out. But he was so tired he didn't put up too much of a fight to go plus he got to "pay" with all of his tickets and get a green triangle!!

Our little Man at 2 1/2

It's hard to believe Asher is 2 1/2! It's so true that sometimes the days seem so long but the years go by SO fast. I look back at pictures of Asher just a year ago and can hardly recognize that little guy. There are so many fun things about Asher it's hard to recap them all! 1.) Asher loves anything with wheels especially his trains and cars. 2.) He really likes to narriate his life and talks all the time. 3.) He's got some pretty funny sayings, "demolititious derberby," "how get up there," "don't know," "not yet," "I was worried about you," "Uncle Broccoli" 4.) He's got lots of favorites. His favorite dinosaur is Anklyosaurus, his favorite color is yellow, his favorite vegtable is broccoli, his favorite books are "Llama Jama" and "Splat the Cat," he loves waffles or eggs for breakfast and applesauce might just be his overall favorite food. His favorite thing to do is jump and he's even got a signature jump and split move. 5.) He's far from potty-trained but he will let you know when he's got a "giant poopy" and that it smells "p-sheew" 6.) As big as he is he still couldn't possibly take a nap or go to sleep with our sleepy and his "me."

Reconnecting

I never really make New Year's resolutions because I never really keep them. However, this year I'm hoping I can make a resolution that won't be too hard to keep! I hope to "reconnect" with a whole lot of people I've missed since being out in VA - the hard part will be making sure to STAY connected with those we moved away from. With technology it's pretty easy to stay up-to-date on growing kids, changing jobs and general day-to-day happenings but nothing beats actually getting to interact in person. And now, it's not just reconnecting with old friends it's allowing our kids to connect for the first time too. Thanks, Kiley for opening up your home to five crazy kids all under the age of four and to your special powers to get them all to sit in one place long enough to take this picture (even if they all aren't looking at the camera!). (Quinn, Walker, & Merrell Smith, Adelyn & Amelia Tallman, Landon Clarkson, Henry McCullough, & Asher).

Happy New Year, 2013

Henry and Asher enjoyed New Year's Eve together at Henry's house in Michigan. While they may not have made it to midnight that didn't stop them from enjoying some of the holdiay's decor. Asher really enjoyed his trip up to see Henry especially all of his toys including the garage with the green van and purple "alligator" (elevator) and the jumping hippo!

Faces :)

Asher has a lot of different faces :) At two, it's pretty hard to catch most of them but here are a few. Just to cute for words :) Now, he not only likes to use his mama's phone to take pictures he's happy to say "cheese" for them.

Family!

It was neat to Asher start to get the idea that Christmas is a pretty special time of year to get to do some fun, different things. Asher checked out Christmas at the Zoo with his NeeNee. The reindeer weren't exactly his favorite but he LOVED going on the train and seeing the sea lions. We also went to a tree farm to cut down a live tree. Unfortunately we weren't able to actually cut our own tree down but we did get a pretty nice display tree that had already been cut down. Asher's favorite part was the straw maze and the free peanuts they had sitting out! It was also pretty impressed that we put the tree on top of NeeNee and PaPaw's car to get it home!

Over the holidays we celebrated many other traditions as well. Of course many of them revolved around food! All the boys were in Tipton for Thanksgiving and participated in sugar cookie decorated. They loved doing the "shakey shakey" of sprinkles on the cookies. And of course they all preferred eating over decorating. Asher got a second chance at decorating when he went to visit Santa as well. All previous attempts to sit on Santa's lap were not very successful. However, when cookies were involved Asher seemed to warm up a little! He never did make it on Santa's lap but he did get close enough to tell Santa he wanted a Big Red Monster Truck for Christmas (which of course he got!)

A new tradition

Our family has always been very big on traditions. Last year we started a new one that I hope continues for a long time! It began with the Turkey Trot in Lynchburg (Thanksgiving 2011) and followed up with the Holiday Hustle in Tipton over Christmas 2011. This year, we all participated in a 5K in Noblesville! The kiddos weren't thrilled about the ride but overall it was a great experience with great weather - soon Sam, Asher, Aaron and Henry will be running along beside us!

Saying goodbye to Rebecca's Rainbow

It has been far too long since I've posted and I have way too much to write about. I'm sure I'm going to miss a hundred adventures and funny stories from Asher's little life. It was incredibly hard to say good bye to all of our friends and co-workers from Lynhhburg. One of the hardest group of people to say good bye to was Asher's daycare, Rebecca's Rainbow. He had been going there since he was eight weeks old! We'll miss all his teachers and everything they did for our little guy!