We feel so fortunate to have a beautiful lake home to take the boys to in the Summer.  It’s so sweet to relive old memories, and make new ones with the boys!

I’m happy to report that Asher still remembered his same cues from last year, ha!  We didn’t even bring it up, but cracked up laughing when he started tapping his head…which meant he wanted us to stop so he could tell us specifically how he wanted us to adjust our speed…and/or the wave pattern, ha!  He was so happy on that tube!

Beck also had his first ride on the tube and loved it!

Pontooning makes everyone’s hearts happy :).

One of my favorite childhood memories – picking the best lily pad and going skiing with it.  So fun to show the boys!

Jeremy and I were thrilled to have both of our families together for the 4th of July at the lake!  The weather was cold and windy, so we didn’t have much lake time, but sweet times were still made!

The boys were outside all. day. long.  Adventuring, riding bikes, digging for worms, fishing, go-karting.  They had such a blast getting dirty!

Asher learned how to skid his tires on our trip!  It’s a big boy big deal!

Asher and his go-kart.  Last year he was still a little too young to reach the peddles and navigate, but this year he was a little bigger (but still needed his pillow :)) and ready for a little more adventuring…as long as it didn’t involve bumps in the road :).

It is absolutely vital that you tell your child, when they are trying to learn how to waterski for the first time, to let go of the rope.  Or they might not want to try it again, and you’ll feel guilty for being a bad parent for not telling them…and for laughing a little at the absurdity of the entire scenario :).

Swim time with Grandma!

Snap shot memories.

Can I just say how proud I am of him digging his own worms, and catching a fish by himself :).  The man!

TURTLE RACES!  Asher got the chance to experience the Turtle Races last year, but we had to take Beck to race a little turtle for the first time.  I still cannot believe the tradition continues in this little town as it has for many years.  Beck and Grandma’s turtle almost won!  It got spooked right before the white line!  I thought for sure we had a winner!

We followed up the races with a train ride!  Oh my lands, Beck was in his happy place!  Trains are still his favorite.  He loves “Tommy”, he loves putting together his tracks, he loves saying, “Choo, choo, all baboard!”

When we mentioned the idea of going to pick Strawberries and Raspberries with Asher, he was thrilled and couldn’t wait to go!  We had four failed attempts of going to this place.  Gearing up, traveling there, excited, getting there, it’s closed.  Apparently their days of operation signs are not really helpful, you have to call their hotline every morning to see if they’re open.  The last morning we were there, I called bright and early and found out we had 15 minutes to travel 20 minutes before they closed for the day.  Momma was determined to get her boy there to have the experience he was so excited about.  I mean, seriously, could it be any more adorable that he was so excited to pick fruit from a garden?!  I’ll never forget screaming across the beautiful lake country in my parents truck with the windows down, a huge smile on Asher’s face, and my coffee sloshing all over the place.

We had a super duper Summer Vacation at the lake!  So thankful!

I feel like I need to just start throwing down random memories of the boys or I’ll be toast and never be able to catch up :).  So, in no particular order…

A typical loud, and fun car ride with the boys.

A little video of Asher playing basketball. He’s learned a lot this season about the game, and really loved playing basketball! We need to sign him up again, because he might break some records with all his assists :).  The end of the video pierces my heart a bit…but more confirmation why this sport is a great lung therapy for him.

We had a family adventure night at church, starring Daddy as “Duke Skyrunner”!  The boys loved seeing Daddy on stage!!!

This pretty much perfectly exemplifies boys being boys hanging out at home. Lots of love and rough-housin’ :).

We had a wonderful time spending the 4th in North Dakota and being with family!  Taking the boys to parks and letting them run outside, and watching all the cousins play together were definitely on our list of favorite things!

I love how you can just see Beck’s little white head :).

The 4-Wheeler is always a crowd pleaser!

We were blessed with a beautiful 4th of July night!

North Dakota will always hold a special place in our hearts.  It’s where our life together began.

I already know this is going to be a beefy post.  So many memories we don’t want to forget!

1.  Beck has such a love…board-line obsession with Thomas and his trains.  His mind exploded when we saw this Thomas hat at Target, and his joy could not be avoided :).  Building tracks and playing with his trains makes him so happy.  He loves to just walk around the house carrying one in his hand, and announcing to each of us who he is carrying at that moment.  Clarabell, Annie, Emily, Toby…he knows pretty much all of the characters by name, it’s hilarious!  Choo Choo!

2.  It’s amazing how much fun we had with this $20 pool!

3.  Asher started basketball, and is loving it!  He made a basket on his first game, and we were all stoked about it :).

4.  Punkers started using peddles :).

5.  Hanging out at home is the best.

Asher making his time machine :).

Bubbles, Beck, Baby toes.  Yes, please!

6.  Asher has been doing such a great job of working on his writing.

Asher’s Poem that he submitted for a Poetry contest in one of his magazines.  “Spiders here, Spiders there.  Spiders at day, spiders at night.  Spiders on your bed, crawling on your face and on your floor”  Asher, this is hilarious, because your daddy whole-hardheartedly hates spiders.  He tried really hard to be supportive and excited about your first poem :).

He lost two teeth one week after another.  The first one he pulled out, the second one came out on our camping trip.  He said, “I was just chewing on this stick and my tooth came out!”  LOL!  Here’s his note to the tooth fairy.  This is BEFORE he even knew he was going to get a dollar, hahaha!

“Hi Tooth Fairy.  It’s Asher Olimb and this is a thank you note for you, and thank you for all the money you’re giving to me and I got.  Thank you for that.”

7.  The moment you look at your baby, and you realize he’s getting so big.

8.  Asher loves climbing this rock!

9. Mr. Austin is giving Asher piano lessons every week, and Asher is absolutely loving it! Once he learns a song, he tries to get all fancy with it and come up with his own rendition. He loves music.

10. Beck singing our favorite worship song. Hearing his little voice sing out to God just melts me.

11.  We received a free bounce house.  We have boys.  It’s hot out.  They need exercise.  This is what happens :).

12.  This is so sweet…and quiet :).

13.  Asher (we) has been putting money away in his savings account since birth.  We felt like he was old enough now to see the benefit of saving money.  We told him he could pick out one thing to buy with his savings, and he chose a new scooter.  We had to go to a skate park to check out his new wheels.  I was standing there in disbelief.  I cannot believe he’s this old.

14.  Painting a new coffee mug and puppy for Daddy for Father’s Day.

15.  Spent the morning at this indoor trampoline place, and the boys had a total blast.  My favorite part was that Asher was the last standing in the dodgeball competition.  It’s fun watching him do anything athletic.  Sports are in his blood.

He’s graduated to 1st grade!  It seems impossible.  How is this possible?!

Whether or not to put Asher into school has been a conversation that Jeremy and I have had since we first found out Asher has Cystic Fibrosis.  It’s a scary thing to hand over your boy who has several daily needs already to fight this disease, and take the chance of him getting exposed to more life-threatening germs resulting in more medications and treatments a day…we did it though.  And, we are so glad we did.  Asher completely thrived in Kindergarten.  Not only academically, but socially…and he loves all things social…he loves being around people.  We are so thankful for the year that he had, and all the new friends that he met.

I’ve shed a lot of tears of thanksgiving for Mrs. Brown.  God picked the most perfect teacher for Asher’s first year of school.  He still talks about Mrs. Brown, and I’m pretty certain she will always be a part of our lives.  Asher picked out flowers to give to her at graduation.  He handed them to her and said, “thank you for teaching us everything you know.”  Ha!  The sweetest!

The cheering squad.  Daddy, Punkie, Auntie Lori, Mommy.

Sigh…I love how proud he is coming out, and how he waves saying hi to Punkie, and his little sentence that he kept practicing at home.  Surprisingly enough, he was pretty nervous to speak when he found out he would be using a microphone.  We were so proud of him :).

I knew I was going to shed a tear with him graduating, but I didn’t expect the complete flood of emotions.  I was so thrilled for him, because he was so happy…and I couldn’t stop thinking about the fact that 60 years ago kids with Cystic Fibrosis weren’t expected to make it to elementary school.  So thankful for all the work the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation is doing.  Our boys are benefiting from their devotion to creating new therapies to give people with CF more tomorrows.

Oh my gosh, Beck.

Auntie Lori brought balloons and gooogly-eyed glasses.  Pretty much perfection in his eyes.

We’re SO proud of you, buddy!!!  Here you come, 1st Grade!!!

We had our 2nd annual family campout with our church family at Woods Canyon Lake.  It was a beautiful time!  Lots of letting the kids run around outside adventuring and getting dirty, hanging out and visiting with old and new friends, and gathering together for a little teaching and singing worship songs together.  It was such a beautiful weekend!

Bike ride to the rim!  So pretty!

Beck and Hannah playing together was complete sweetness.

This picture cracks me up!  Could he look any less cared for, lol!  All of the campland boys found this old fallen down tree in the woods and they played on it for hours and hours.  This was the result.

Punkie stayed close by…and relatively clean :).

We’re so thankful our friends, Dave and Krista, like to camp with an RV.  They totally blessed us with an easier, cleaner, and more comfortable setting for treatments :).  A part of my heart ripped out having to tear the boys away from the fun they were having to do treatments.  Other kids were playing baseball and running around, and the RV sounded like there was a tornado going off inside with all of the machines running.  It just made me pray harder for a cure…if that’s even possible.  There’s a very clear reality to this disease…but we never want it stand in the way of our boys having fun childhood memories.  We totally believe they stored some away this weekend :).

Hanging at home and listening to worship songs.  This is currently Asher’s favorite song.  He heard it once on the radio, and now requests it all the time!  Punkie loves it too :).

It’s really amazing that we were able to get even a few photos of the boys on Easter.  Beck couldn’t hate the camera more, ha!  Major props to Jeremy for all the dancing and wrangling he did so we could capture this moment with the boys.  Here’s a behind the scenes bloopers shot!  It cracks me up!!!  He literally runs from the camera, ha!

All the hard work was worth it :).

Jealous of this bird’s view.

We took the day to drive the Apache Trail, and were in awe of the beauty that there is to see in the desert.  It’s embarrassing that we’ve lived here for 14 years and haven’t made that trek yet, but hopefully it helps that we’re planning to do it again soon to check out another lake.  The drive was spectacular, but I don’t think we picked the most beautiful lake…I think we drove past the most beautiful lake, so there will be part two of our lake adventures :).

It’s really sweet to us how much Asher loves fishing.  It’s so against his normal full-throttle speed, and I would never expect him to have the patience to try to catch a fish.  But, he’s hooked!

Sweet friends gave us their basketball hoop! The timing was beautiful because Asher was just going to start his first season of basketball, which he’s been stoked about for months! I love that he has a place to shoot hoops now :).

Running through sprinklers.

Celebrating Daddy and his new job as the Communities Pastor at our church!  It was a homemade pizza makin’, dancin’, champagne poppin’ type of night!!!

Beck making sure all of his animals have a room with a view :).

Asher promoted upstairs to his new Sunday School Classroom – 1st Grade.  He was talking about it all week.  It’s a big deal to walk upstairs now :).

As if there was any doubt that Asher was the best big brother…I look over and see that even though Asher is finished with his treatment, he climbed into Beck’s chair and sat with him as Beck finished his treatment.  True love.

I’m going to miss this view.  He’s getting so big.

We gave him a bowl of ice cream and he disappeared.  We found him outside sitting on the beach, just enjoying some quiet time :).

It warms my heart to find Asher sitting in his room reading :).

He loves to create things.

I had an almost three hour doctor’s appointment with the boys in this super tiny room.  It takes quite a bit of time talking through each of them and their different symptoms and medications.  They’ve both been complaining about stomach aches for awhile now, so we’re just trying to figure out how to help them.  Asher had chest and belly xrays, and everything looked great, so at least we know something isn’t growing or blocking that’s causing the pain.  All in all though, they are doing great, and we feel super blessed!

Stealing nurses’ hearts :).

This video.  Sigh…it’s pretty incredible.  We have two camera’s in the boys clubhouse, so I was peeping in on them, only to find that Asher clearly had things under control.  I’m thinking Beck really enjoyed playing the “I’m scared” card, because he was loving all the attention from his big brother :).  I also think Asher is the perfect big brother.  “Brother’s a big boy, I’m going to always always protect you.  I’m never going to ever let you get hurt, ok.”  Sigh…

This is such a huge step in the game of life.  Asher has officially expedited our departure time by being able to completely get dressed by himself!  It was an exciting day for all :).

I love his jammin’ out face :).  Yes, there’s usually a sticky mess afterwards, but it’s so worth it.

Lego Master at work.

Cwinkle Cwinkle Cuteness

Ms. Lorraine made us resurrection eggs for Easter. He was so excited about them! And, his reading is crazy good right now!

Oooohhhhh the amount of memories we were blessed to have on our trip to California were just what our hearts needed.  I mean, how could it not, it’s Cali baby!!!  After Easter services at church, we loaded up and headed over to one of our favorite places, thanks to some incredibly generous people who God uses to bless our family over and over again!  So thankful!

Our first day at the beach was a bit wet and wild, but super fun!  The waves and tide were pretty narly, but we all wanted in, so it didn’t phase us.  At one point a huge wave came up and shifted us all over a couple of feet!  The community of beach dwellers came to our rescue and put us back together piece by piece :).  We were handing out thank you’s left and right!

I love this picture.  Everyone is having their own deep thought.

Asher spent so much time outside riding his scooter, and playing with the two girls he befriended.  He makes friends so fast, it’s fun to watch.  The girls were soccer stars, and totally athletic, which meant they were all fast friends.  He’s starting to do tricks on his scooter now, and it makes us proud and incredibly nervous at the same time…ok, I’m just nervous…but he is wearing a helmet now :).

We enjoyed lunch on the patio overlooking the ocean in Carlsbad, and decided afterwards to walk down to the beach.  We weren’t planning on swimming or spending the day at the beach, but it was so sweet to put our feet in the sand and water…and, how can you say no to this joy!

After we brushed off, we headed over to the Carlsbad Flower Fields.  They are only open for about one month during the year, so it felt very wrong to not go and soak in this beauty.  We weren’t quite sure how the boys would feel about flowers, but Asher kept talking about how beautiful they were, and Beck…well, his opinion doesn’t really count right now, ha!  He loved running around :).  He was a little worn out from the beach at first, so he took a schnoozer for the first half…sweetness.

What makes walking around looking at beautiful flowers more perfect?  Ice cream treats.

The best was when we were walking away from this spot, Asher said, “Boy those flowers sure pop off easily.”  LOL!!!

Hayride through the Flower Fields!  Yes please!

Then Daddy decided to fly down the big hill we walked up with our baby, lol!

He’s looking at the camera!  He’s looking at the camera!!!!  Oh Punkers, you sure make me work for pictures of you :).

Asher, Beck and I took a little trip to a train park/zoo to give Daddy some quiet, ocean air work time.  Besides the fact that I took the wrong lane and blew past the tolls on one freeway, we had a great trip, ha!  So thankful that Cali allows for a window of grace for us out of towners, and we were able to pay online before a ticket!

Just hanging out at the beautiful beach house, playing games and being together as a family.

Can’t stop laughing about the “pattern”!

Sunset on the beach!!!!

Love.  I think this picture needs to be an ad for Hurley.  It will be framed in our home for sure.

Asher wanted Beck to see the sunset :).

Our last day on the beach was the best!

This is how Beck was making his sand castles.  He laid on his belly and sprinkled sand to make little hills.  Sigh…he’s adorable.

So thankful for all memories, and already want to go back for more!

BUMBLEBEE RANCH

Oh how we adore Hope Kids, and their mission to bless children with chronic illnesses with special experiences!  Daddy and Asher took a trip up to the mountains to enjoy a day filled with Humvee rides, pony rides, archery, rock wall climbing, shooting gallery…it was an all around mountain man experience!  Oh, and of course he had to have his face painted like…Mario!  So, here’s Mario riding a horse and robbing a bank, ha!

SKY KIDS

Hope Kids also blessed Asher with the opportunity to fly an airplane!  It really is the coolest experience!  All these people volunteer their time and money to make this happen for the children, and I wish I could write them all thank you notes for their sacrifice.  They even had a red carpet and cheering squad for all the co-pilots to walk up on after their flight!

And, here’s to the nicest Policeman who answered all of Asher’s deepest questions about his motorcycle and catching bad guys.  Asher is still holding fast to his desire to be a Policeman when he grows up.  This Policeman was under some serious interrogation.  “Where do you put your lunch on here?  Where do you put the bad guys?  What does this do (x 25)?  How fast can you go?  Where are your handcuffs and gun?”

FUN RUN

I have to say.  When we found out Asher had his first fun run at school, I felt really anxious about it.  He was so excited to participate, but I was nervous about the 2.2 miles, mostly because he was still dealing with a cough.  He did amazing!  He completed the 35 laps, and we were all so proud of him!  He worked hard in raising money for his school by making this video and asking his family to sponsor him :).

I got a little choked up when he came bursting out through the tunnel.  First of all, their team was “Brown’s Beautiful Butterflies” and they all came out flapping their butterfly wings.  On top of that cuteness overload, I knew how much anticipation and excitement was pumping through Asher.  The Fun Run was all we were talking about leading up to the big day, and he was just so thrilled for it to finally be here.  He was beaming!  He’s ran a mile several times before, but the double distance and nagging cough, and knowing how disappointed he would have been if he couldn’t finish, were all enough to make this mama’s heart nervous.  BUT, he said it best in the video…”I did it all!”  So thankful :).

He’s so happy and proud!  I think Daddy, Mommy and Grandma Olimb being there helped too :).

BUTTERFLY WONDERLAND

The boys loved the butterfly museum!  It was so cool to be able to see beautiful butterflies everywhere you look…but one thing is for sure, those butterfly owner people sure know how to make some money!  We’re so glad we went, but it’s definitely a pricey visit.  Sheesh.  I think we paid endangered species viewing prices, ha!

Daddy Day means I get a lot of Beck and Daddy pictures while I’m at work, and this is the sweetest thing!

We wished for you, Punkie Pie!

Sports.  He loves them all.  And, he has some serious skills.

Slugger!  And, I love how Beckers made a little cameo.  This is pretty much my whole day, “hug, hug, mommy, hug!”  He’s hard to resist :).

I cannot believe we’re nearing an end of Kindergarten for Asher.  This year has went remarkably fast.  A few months ago we had another cottage fair at his school to see all the things he’s been working on this quarter.  I had to put this video on the blog, because it’s the perfect illustration of why we love our boy’s personality so much.  His snaps and head groovin’ at the very beginning brings smiles to our faces.  We love his enthusiasm and the boy he’s growing up to be!

We visited a new park with this cool climbing rope thing.  The boys loved it!

We walked out to this pretty boring cement feature that’s used for disk golf, and when I joined the boys inside it, I looked over and saw a little owl imprinted on the wall.   Owls remind us of our sweet Paxon.  I shed a few tears thinking about our boy.  I was thankful God gave me that moment, at the park with my three boys.

Helping Grandpa Olimb outside.

Helping Mommy get the mail.

Saying “hiiiiiiiiiiiii” to the neighbors.

Having a special sleep over with Grandma and Grandpa Necas.

Making music.

Learning sports.

Doing work.

Ice Cream Dates on the couch.

Getting “all clean”.

Enjoying loads of gorgeous days and nights outside.

Cuddles with Daddy in the hammock.

Syncing up calendars with the big boy.

Oh how we love them.

Bedtime Stories.

Just a couple of 2 year old Pooh Bears :).

And of course Asher had to squeeze into the costume again :).

He’s two.  It’s hard to believe.  This little face brings loads of joy to our family, and it’s truly a treat to take care of him.  We have so many favorite things that Punkers does right now that we want to remember…

Daddy’s list of favorites: when he grabs your hand and says “mere” (come here); riding his little scooter car all around the house; the WWF wrestling fake fall (Jeremy pretends to punch him and Beck falls to the floor); how proud he gets of the lego towers he builds; instead of saying yes he says “yep, umm hmm, sure”; he always wants to take a picture together when I have my phone; his obsession with “Tommy”.

Mommy’s list of favorites –  he sleeps until about 9:00am :); I love his big “BYE!” and hand waves to everyone; when he lays on my shoulder; I love kissing his squishy little neck;  listening to him sing “Twinkle Twinkle”; how often he comes up to me through out the day and says, “hug, hug” with his arms up in the air; when he gives thumbs up, he squinches up his little nose; the way he tries to mimic everything Asher does; he’s still trying to figure out his laugh, and sometimes he tries out this cackly laugh that sounds like Goofy; when he wants his music on in the car he says, “Mommy, turn up, turn up, music.”; I love how he’s two, but he still has so much snuggly baby in him, it warms my heart; whenever we’re out in public and Asher leaves our side, he puts one hand around his mouth and starts shouting, “ASHER!!”  It’s pretty helpful actually, ha!; how if we try to pretend we’re going to drop him, or throw him in the air, he holds on tight and says, “all done, all done”; he won’t eat anything without “dip dip” which is ketchup; and I love watching him snuggle his orange bear.

Asher’s list of favorites: when he grabs my hand to show me something and says, “hand, hand”; I love that he can build towers by himself; I love when he gets scared and wants me to hold him; when he makes us laugh when he plays with his tongue; I love watching him run with his chubby, little legs; I love playing hide and seek together but he mostly follows me so he knows where I’m hiding, it’s so cute; I love playing in our clubhouse together and he always says, “winnie-a-pooh”; I love every time I hold my hand on Beck’s face and I punch it away like wrestling, he falls down on his side.

Grandmas and Grandpas and Auntie Dana were here for the auction this year, so we figured we should have a little party while they were here to celebrate this sweet face!  The look on his face here is a total crack-up!  Business time, ha!

He got a “Tommy” toothbrush, and for some reason we decided to take it away…complete monsters!

We love you so much, Punkie Bear!!!