What we've been doing

Asher is now 9 1/2 months old! I am constantly amazed how quickly time passes and how quickly Asher develops and it it hard to believe that he is getting so big. We've been having a lot of fun seeing him learn new things and really enjoying (almost) every minute of parenthood. :) But the good far outweighs the bad.
In September when we had a long weekend we decided to fly up to New York. We spent a day in Palmyra seeing some great church sites and then spent the next day at Niagara Falls. Both days were a lot of fun and Asher is a great little traveler.

Joseph Smith Log Home

Joseph Smith Frame Home

In the Sacred Grove


We got soaking wet and it was really really windy!
The next morning we intended to have a very short one hour flight home, but due to plane problems we ended up spending a very long day at the airport at the end of which they lost Asher's car seat. Well, at least the rest of the trip was great!

My parents also came out in September for my dad's WWII bomb group reunion. It was great to have them out here and we had a lot of fun. While they were here we also drove down to the area in Virginia where the first Mathenys in America lived. They have a grave site dedicated to them and we also visited an Episcopal Church that was near the same time period.


Asher had his 9 month check up, he is a bit small for his age but still doing great. He is 10% on height, 16% on weight and 60% on head.
He is really getting into everything now and just such a sweet happy boy, we love him!

Update!

We've had a fun summer over here and have completely neglected our blog! Asher has grown so much! In the past couple of months he has learned to crawl and now can get around pretty much anywhere he wants. He is particularly attracted to cords and plastic bags, of course. He has two teeth that have come in on the bottom. And yesterday he crawled up on to David's side and then stood up!! Only for a second or two, then he fell over and started to cry. He was an early crawler and he may be an early walker too.We are constantly amazed by how quickly he picks up new skills.
Asher's name means happiness and we couldn't have named him better. He is such a happy boy and brings us a lot of happiness too.
When we were in Utah, David's sister Kristen took some nice pictures of Asher.

Baby's first trip

We decided to go to Monticello (Thomas Jefferson's house) and to Shenandoah National Park for the long weekend at the end of May. It was Asher's first night away from home and he did great.
David carried him in the baby bjorn all around Monticello until he fell asleep. :)


What is left of Thomas Jefferson's favorite tree...


Shenandoah was beautiful and we actually saw a small black bear!! Then we went to one of the Visitor's centers and on a hike to see a waterfall.



I had heard about Luray Caverns in the Shenandoah Valley for a few years and we decided to check them out. They were enormous and spectacular!

A birthday and 5 years of marriage!

David turned 29 a few weeks ago! We celebrated by going to Great Falls National Park. We've been to the Maryland side of the falls several times but this was our first time visiting from the Virginia side.




We also celebrated our 5 year anniversary on the 20th! Hard to believe that we have been married for 5 years already! We went out to eat and to visit this place called Morven Park, the home of a former Virginia governor from 1918-1922.

Solid Food!

We decided to have Asher try out some solid food this past week. Banana was always my favorite when I was little and we had him try some. You can see what he though of it in this little video. :)

Asher's blessing

Asher was blessed about a month ago. We were sad to not have any family out here but we were happy to have our good friends Gary and Barbara come out from Maryland. It was a very nice blessing and I particularly noted thoughts on the service Asher might bring to others. He is such a sweet happy baby and we just love him more and more everyday.

4 months old!

Our little baby is growing up so fast! Asher is doing great and we really enjoy seeing him develop and learn. He is laughing almost everyday and likes to be tickled. He is able to roll over from his tummy to his back, and likes to suck on his first two fingers. He has recently discovered his feet and likes to grab them. He always has a great big smile in the morning when you go to pick him up. Lately he hasn't been sleeping quite so well, sometimes waking up right after we put him down. This made for a few long nights. He has never really liked his pacifier, so that didn't help much at night. I decided to get him a new kind of pacifier and he has really taken to it. He is still waking up but if I give him the pacifier right away he will instantly go back to sleep, as opposed to having to nurse him back to sleep after only being down for a half hour.
His weight gain has slowed down even though he still eats very frequently. Current stats:
Height 24.25 in (46th %) Weight 14 lbs 15 oz (56th %) Head (70%).
The pediatrician asked me if big heads run in the family. My response: "Ummm...I never thought to ask."