Nine Months

Asher hit nine months, weighs 24 pounds and is 31 inches long.  He says mama -- usually only when I leave him in his crib and he doesn't want to be there-- and occasionally will say dada.  He yells when I am not feeding him fast enough or when he wants my attention.  Or he'll just grab my face to get me to look at him if I'm looking at something else.



Asher is still army crawling to get everywhere, he knows how to crawl on his knees, but isn't as fast so he prefers staying on his belly.  Right now Adam and Asher love to pop around corners and scare me, Asher thinks it is hilarious.



He is a ton of fun and learning and growing every day.

Eight Months Old

Asher is eight months old and getting so big.  He gave up his binky, loves eating "real" food, and is all over the place.  He especially loves electrical outlets, cords, and eating carpet fuzz.  Here's to being eight months old and cute as could be.

Another View

Six Months Old

Funny

Four Months

Asher is four months old now.  We went to the doctor today and here are his stats:

16 lbs 5 oz - 79th percentile
26.75 inches - 96th percentile

He is a big boy and has started rolling over in the past couple of weeks.  He loves to giggle and yell and is loud as could be.  Happy Four Months to Asher!

Easter 2013

At the end of March Oma hosted an Easter party at her house.  All of the young kids searched the entire yard for easter eggs with the help of parents and older cousins.  Adam had a fun time helping Fae and Ila search for eggs.

It was a beautiful day and perfect for being outside.  Asher loved finally getting some warm sunshine, even though I spent the whole day making sure that his soft tender little skin wouldn't get sun burned.

Easter was only the second week that we had taken our little guy to church.  I taught the lesson in primary (I teach the 6 year olds) on Christ's resurrection and brought apples as the treat... surprisingly the kids loved the apples as they were a nice break from all of the candy they had been getting (or so I figured).  We used the analogy of the glove as your body and your hand as the spirit where without your spirit (hand) inside your body (glove) your body can't do anything which is why resurrection is so important.  That Christ made is so we could all be resurrected and be reunited with our perfected bodies.

Then I got all sorts of questions from this darling little girl in my class.  Why is Easter called Easter? ... um, I'm not sure.  Why is Easter in the Spring? Followed by my explanation of rebirth and renewal and talking about the seasons. After I gave what I thought was a great explanation she promptly responded, "Wait, now I'm even more confused." Little girl - 1, Kristina - 0.

It was still fun to actually show my kids Asher since while I was pregnant we had so often talked about me having a baby. He looked adorable in his little outfit from Whitney and Ben's wedding.

After church we headed to my parents house for dinner.  I wanted to take some Easter pictures of Asher and you can see how well that went - not a huge fan of the Easter bunny yet.  However, once we got Shalie to be our background things went a bit better.

My mom made us all the most delicious mint chocolate truffle easter eggs with our names on them.  They were so cute and tasty, and it is times like these that I am so grateful that I have a little boy who unfortunately still can't eat anything but milk, thus leaving an extra chocolate truffle egg... dang. :)

This is the closest that we got to a smile from Asher.  It was so fun to play with him and be able to celebrate the holidays with him.  He loves to smile and its definitely contagious.  It is awesome to see how good he makes people feel when they so easily make him smile and grin.

Happy Easter!

Spring Break 2013

My siblings had spring break this year the first week of April.  Since I was still on maternity leave, I decided to tag along with my parents and siblings for a week in St. George.  It was a blast!  Unfortunately, Adam had to stay and study for finals.  It was probably for the best seeing as Asher and I are a bit of a distraction at home... :)

Asher got to try out his new swimming suit even though he didn't actually end up going in the pool.  It was much too windy and cold for his tiny little body, however he looked great nonetheless. Fae and Ila were quite the little fish and loved the kiddie pool (regardless of the number of times they slipped and got a face full of water).

Asher loved getting all of the attention from his aunts, uncles, and grandparents.  Jessica watched Asher for me so I could go mountain biking with the rest of my family - thanks Jessica!  We watched a lot of movies and got sucked into the first season of Once Upon a Time.  We thoroughly enjoyed watching my families reaction to the Little Red Riding Hood episode - so funny.

On the first day out biking we left a water bottle on the back bumper of the truck and were bummed when we forgot it.  Two days later my mom left another water bottle (her favorite blue Racer's bottle) on the bumper and once again, we drove off with it on the back bumper.  My mom was determined to find it and drove back the 15 minutes to find her bottle.  We went and searched by the trailhead and around and lo and behold - we found our water bottle from two days before.

After another few minutes of searching we decided to give up and started the drive home going over the bumpy road and cattle guard etc. and finally on to the main road.  Sure enough, laying on the side of the road about a half mile away was my mom's favorite bottle a little smashed and with tire marks, but still in relatively okay shape.  We couldn't believe it had made it that far on our back bumper.  She just told me the other day that she still uses it all the time.

Midweek we took a hike up snow canyon to the caves.  Who knew there were such awesome caves in the middle of the desert.  It was so nice to go down in the caves to get away from the hot sun.

Fae and Ila are still getting used to having Asher around.  Jessica told her girls to smile and they did their very best smiles as shown below of them trying to pose and smile for the camera... so funny.  Asher even got to share his binky with Fae and Ila a few times when they would find it laying around the condo and pop it in.

Asher was a champion sleeper and we are so grateful that he started sleeping through the night so soon. He didn't make a peep during the night, and still loves being swaddled tightly to keep from hitting himself in the face while he sleeps.

And, I had to throw in a picture of McKay on the ride home.  What a handsome fella.  Probably my favorite part was getting home to Adam and having Asher be so happy to see his dad again.

Leprechaun Lope 2013

For Adam's spring break this year we spent the week enjoying the festivities for Whitney's Wedding.  That Saturday we sported our green gear and headed up to the Utah Capitol for the annual Leprechaun Lope.  Elizabeth and I supported as Adam ran with his dad, Amanda, and Daniel all tied together by a green ribbon.  They were the first centipede team to cross the finish line!

After the race we headed to Kneaders for all you can eat french toast and then everyone fell asleep.  What a fun way to celebrate St. Patrick's Day!

the Hartshorns

Back in the good ol' days of Liberty Square I met Whitney Ricks.  I am pretty sure we cuddled on a couch during a scary movie long before Adam and I ever did.  Who knew that one day we would be sister-in-laws and become even better friends.

So, naturally I was thrilled when Whitney started to fall for such an awesome guy.  Everyone could tell that they were a perfect match and that Ben would be around for a long long time.  Sure enough, Ben proposed to Whitney in December and they set their wedding date for March, so that Amanda could be there.



March 15th turned out to be a gorgeous day.  The weather was incredible, blue skies, not windy, and the warmest day that we had had all year long.



Whitney and Ben were sealed in the Salt Lake Temple.  What I thought was so incredible was that all of Ben's and Whitney's siblings were able to be there.  I'm pretty sure that is almost unheard of - for most families between missions, younger siblings, sickness, babies, or whatever else it seems like there is almost always someone missing in one family or the other.  Luckily Ben's sister Sarah and her husband still made it even after getting hit by a drunk driver on the way to the temple... go figure.

My mom watched Asher for us so that we could go, and met us right after so that Asher could be with us at the temple for pictures.  Whitney looked stunning, I especially love her bridals!

Watching couples come out of the temple after being sealed is one of my favorite things.  Whitney and Ben looked so happy and we are so grateful to have Ben as a part of our family.

Pictures at the temple were followed by a brief stop up to Lyndon's office so that I could feed Asher before the wedding luncheon.  Finding a good place to put Asher was a bit of a challenge, but he managed to get comfy anyway.



The wedding luncheon was held at the Joseph Smith Memorial building followed by the reception at the Lion House.  Everything was elegant and beautiful - what a wonderful day.  Congrats to Ben and Whitney!