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Kicking the year off with cuddling and cartoons!  Yes please!

Asher waits all year for our trees to drop their leaves.  And, this year the trees yielded a large loot!  Plus, Punkie was old enough to really enjoy them as well which made for extra special times.  Lots of raking and pile jumping, and leaf fights.  I love this time of the year, and how we get to experience a little Mid-west fall in our backyard.  It’s so pretty!

Speaking of trees.  Asher has claimed the largest one in our backyard.  He has the perfect little spot up there.  And, daddy upped the coolness factor by a million by adding a pulley.  He enjoys having snack time, reading books, and spying on the neighbors.  He’s met several kids from the neighborhood from his tree.  The other day I heard him shouting at his buddy and their family, “Hey, where are you guys going!?”  LOL!

We raised Asher’s bed and gave him a little fort/reading spot under there with some lights and music.  Apparently, it’s also the perfect spot for a schnoozer :).

Beck’s very first coloring sheet from Sunday School.  Sigh…this is the most sweetest, most precious-est thing ever!!!

And, so is this…

School.  Asher is totally loving and excelling at school.  He’s such a smart boy.  His teacher said he’s her top reader, and she uses him to help the other kids along which is so sweet.  His favorite is still math.  It’s the first thing he gravitates towards when we sit down to do his homework.  The one challenge he’s been working on is his writing.  And, through some conversations with him and his teacher, we discovered that he was getting completely locked up and not writing words because he knew he was spelling them incorrectly, and he didn’t want to write anything down unless he knew it was correct.  What a sweetheart.  I have so much compassion for the way his little brain works.  Once his teacher talked to him and reinforced that he only needs to spell with his sounds right now, the flood gates were opened and he’s been growing like crazy with his writing.  Since he’s reading like a mad man, he’s now doing book reports at school.  He’s pretty proud to have completed his first one here :).

Tacky Day at school!

Both of the boys were super sick about 1 1/2 months ago.  It was scary, and exhausting for them and for us.  We were doing three treatments a day on top of antibiotics and steroids, and all of their other normal daily needs…coupled with the worry.  I have a few close friends who are battling hard with this disease right now.  IV’s, hospital stays, up all hours of the night coughing hard and not eating well…there is no real rest with this disease.  There are little breaks, but even in the breaks you’re wondering when it will all hit again…because it’s a “when will it happen” type of game, not an “if it will happen”.  We don’t live our days filled with this worry…but when the boys get sick it’s definitely a reality check for us, and makes us long for a cure even more.  We love them so much.  We will fight for this cure until history is changed, and there is real rest.

We have the best nurse!  She came to our car to do cultures on the boys, so I didn’t have to expose them to more hospital germs.  She’s a real treasure.

Special times with Grandma and Grandpa Olimb.

Asher and I got to have a sweet little morning date of breakfast together while we did his homework, and followed it up with a trip to an arcade for 1/2 priced games with bumper cars!  I cherish dates like this with the one who will always be our first :).