This morning we decided to try another story time at the Southeast Regional Library.  If you’ve been there before, they have remodeled a bit and painted a great mural inside the little room, which was fun to see.  It was a typical toddler story time, lots of laughter and kids squealing with excitement and anticipation about the puppet and the story we were going to be reading, and then everything falls apart about 5 minutes  before it’s over.  It really was comical.  You could just hear the volume of the room increasing, the temperature rising, the patience levels of both kids and moms hitting a brink, and the story teller’s voice was hurried and less excited to be there, ha!  That would be my clue to cut future story times by 5 minutes, but what do I know.  Asher just swatted some kid on the butt when he walked by, and accidentally (I’m hopeful) head-butted me, so I guess we as a pair didn’t do too bad :).

The great part about going to the Southeast Library is that they have that great Riparian out back to walk around.  So we brought Asher’s peddle bike and walked around the lake.  It’s so beautiful now with everything in bloom.  And then about 5 minutes before we got to our car, Asher falls on the rocks and scuffs up his knee.  He really did scrap it up, but he kinda lost his mind, which for our tough guy isn’t really normal.  So here we are in this nice, reverent place and my child is screaming, “medicine, bandaid, medicine!!!”  I had to hold his hand the whole way home.  He’s totally fine, I guess he was just having a vulnerable moment…which, it’s kinda nice to see that side of him sometimes too.

We saved the big Easter egg hunt until Monday because I don’t think we could have squeezed anything else into Sunday, AND I registered Asher for our community Easter egg hunt a week too late.  Who has an Easter egg hunt the week BEFORE Easter?!  I guess our community does.  Anyways, I think Asher was happy to not have to throw elbows and take all the loot for himself :).

Last night we also went to Organ Stop Pizza with our friends Adam and Ashley, and their sweet girl Charlee.  The trip to the car was pretty memorable, Asher picked up a gross cigarette butt and handed it to Charlee like it was a dozen roses.  And then they kept giving each other these really sweet hugs!  So much so that we finally decided we needed to get a picture of the two lovebirds.  It was really pretty precious.

It was such a great day yesterday!  We started out the morning by singing songs of praise to Jesus outside with our evbc family.  It was beautiful, and we got to see Daddy up front singing too which was an extra treat.  When Jeremy left the stage, our Pastor Tom came up and started praying, and it’s at that moment that Asher kept asking the crowd, “Where’d Daddy go?!” at a not so quiet volume.  On the way home from church we had to swing in to McDonald’s for a Happy Meal, to really embrace the Happy Easter day.  One of the cutest things Asher has started doing is teasing us.  He will do something or say something he knows is wrong and then smile and say, “silly goose”.  Case in point, look at the picture of him putting the fry on his foot :).

After some Easter naps, we decided to head up to Fountain Hills to walk around the park and watch the really high water fountain.  We kept talking about how beautiful it was, the scenery and the weather was absolutely perfect for an Easter stroll.  Such a great time!

We had a couple of failed attempts at some nice Easter pictures, but I guess you can’t expect much when you just ask random people to snap your pic.  Oh well.  Happy Easter to all our friends and family!

Well, tonight’s the night.  He’s all tucked away in his big boy bed, but the jury is still out on whether or not we all like the big boy bed, ha!  Earlier this week we went to Target and let Asher pick out his new sheets.  Jeremy and I thought for sure he was going to pick the Toy Story set, but he passed up all of the other cartoons for Cars.  He loves that movie, but we were shocked he didn’t stay loyal to his Buzz and Woody.  He seems pretty happy with his decision though.

When he woke up from his nap today we told him we were going to take down his crib and bring in his big boy bed.  The grumpy face picture is the look we got, which was less than encouraging.  But, as soon as we finished setting his bed up, he climbed right up and said, “Yea, new bed!”

We’ll see how this all goes, I’m so nervous about it.  He’s just so curious and has no fear, so giving him the responsibility to stay in one place (even though he doesn’t HAVE to) is quite the stretch for him.  AND, we moved his monitor to where we thought would be a prime time location so we can see his whole room and if he’s breaking the rules and wandering, except that it’s too far for the monitor to pick anything up and all we see is basically static now…ugh.  We’ll see who sleeps tonight :).

We also colored some eggs today, and Asher decorated them with dinosaur sticks :).

Asher has no pancreatic function and has to take supplemental enzymes with every meal in order to be able to digest food. He currently take six pills which each meal, which we have been breaking open and serving him in applesauces since he was a month old. Yesterday…he swallowed his first set of pills on his own! Way to go, Asher!

Does it seem unreal that a 2.5 year old can click, drag, and drop?  It does to me, but the boy can navigate around a computer like nobody’s business.  Maybe it’s not that big of a deal, but I would have never guessed that he would be able to grasp the concept of the mouse, the cursor, and the click.  So, I guess now we have computer time (about 15 mins) in our house because he loves it, he’s good at it, and the computer will no doubt be a part of his future with all the treatments he has to do…oh, and the fact that he belongs to Jeremy…we may have another graphic designer, or Miyamoto (that one is for you, honey!) on our hands :).

So, I thought I would list the websites Asher likes to play games on, and see if anyone has any other suggestions of good kid websites…

http://www.fisher-price.com/us/fun/games/abczoo/default.asp

http://www.fisher-price.com/us/fun/games/colorshapes/

http://tv.disney.go.com/playhouse/index.html

http://www.starfall.com/

This weekend we had two birthday parties for two special people in our lives.  “Babeeee Owan, awwww” is how Asher says Rowan, with a head tilt and a look on his face like isn’t he the cutest.  He always has lots of hugs and kisses for his little friend.  And then we celebrated Sammie’s 4th birthday this weekend at our favorite park ever, Tumbleweed.  I have to say, Jeremy and I were kinda beaming watching Asher at Sammie’s party because he was listening to Meagan direct all the kids in telling them where to go and where to sit…he was listening.  Don’t get me wrong, he still needed a lot of reminders, but all in all he did so good waiting his turn and following instructions.  Jeremy and I were so proud :).  I’m sure it was because we weren’t the ones giving him instructions, ha!

So after two big park days and one sweaty boy we decided it was time to cut his hair shorter than it’s ever been.  Why is this so hard for me?!   We had a coupon for a free haircut at Sport Clips so we brought him in, of course with camera in tow.  Asher was hysterical when he walked in.  He was just so confident, and had such a presence when he walked in and when he was called back to his chair.  He literally high-fived all the ladies in there, and negotiated for two lollipops.  He was cracking us up.  And, now of course he looks too big for me and I already want to start growing his hair out again…sigh…

The weather seriously could not be any more perfect right now!  It’s been absolutely gorgeous, so we’ve been soaking it up and doing everything we can outside – including eating.  Our back door has been constantly open and we’ve greatly enjoyed playing and having dinners in our backyard.  We had some left over fabric for the silent auction and decided to hang it up outside on our patio, and now it feels like another living room out there.  Funny how a piece of fabric can totally transform an area :).

We went to the duck park today with our friends Ms. Natalie, Graham, and Rowan.  We got there a little early, so of course that meant a photo shoot :).  Then I told Asher that Graham was coming and he started freaking out and jumping up and down, and then of course that jumping carried over to jumping off rocks when Graham got there – which seems like a natural progression for boys.  It was a great time with friends!

Asher’s digital scrapbook has definitely taken a backseat these last few months leading up to the silent auction, so I thought I would put up a few random pictures and memories to get caught up a bit…or at least call it even and go for a fresh start :).

Asher is getting so big it’s hard to keep up with all the new things he’s able to do and say now.  He knows all the letters in the alphabet, can count to ten, knows most of the shapes (he gets hung up on the rectangle), knows all the colors, he’s talking up a storm now, loves helping out around the house, loves loves loves to be chased and “tickah tickah”, and he’s starting to have a little imagination now which has been a blast – this whole week we have been squealing and hiding under the blanket from the big dinosaur.

We spend a lot of time building train tracks and playing with his trains, which I just love.  I remember when we found out we were having a boy I got excited about one day playing trains with him – well that day is definitely here.  We play a lot of matching games now (he’s so good at this!), and one of his most favorite things are the binoculars and looking at the moon.

This is totally random.  This is what we saw looking out our front door a few weeks ago.  It literally went over our house and the whole neighborhood was out waving to the them.

He’s actually starting to be able to play video games…well, the drive kind that really only require you to push the gas, but we’re looking forward to him being able to play video games and have something else fun to do while he’s doing his treatment.  Oh, and another monumental line of blocks for the books!  Look at him, he’s so proud!  Of course he was just as proud when he demolished the line :).

Just washin’ his wheels with his new helmet :).  He wore that helmet for four hours the first day we got it, ha!

When Grandma and Grandpa Olimb were here we went to feed the ducks and let Asher scoot around on his bike.  It had rained that morning and so there were lots of puddles all over.  I just had to take a picture of his very deliberate driving path – couldn’t miss a puddle.  He’s such a boy.  We love him.

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Jeremy and I were so overwhelmed with all the love and support at the Silent Auction this year.  It was absolutely incredible.  We both left there feeling like our hearts were completely full.

There were so many things that happened throughout the planning of the auction that made Jeremy and I feel like God was directing our paths and putting all the pieces together for us.  Just a few of His blessings: we were able to use the commons, which ended up being a perfect setting for the auction with lots of grass and room for two bounce houses for the kids; the nice Staples copy man donated hundreds of copies of the letter and donation forms we were sending to local business; we received 132 donated items from businesses and some very generous family and friends who used their creative gifts; the nice Krispy Kreme manager donated 20 dozens of donuts; the printing and banner was donated by a very generous printing company; the girls on my CM team were the work horses behind all the setup and tear down and were a huge blessing; a lot of the decor was borrowed to us by our friend Lindsey from church, Jeremy and I have been able to connect with more parents who have children with cf;  everyone promoting our event with flyers and facebook announcements; Asher got sick two weeks before the event, and not the week of (the timing of this was a huge blessing!); Jeremy’s parents were able to be here to help with the event and take care of Asher the day of.

This really feels like an incomplete list.  There were so many components that came together to make the auction a success, and we are so thankful for each and every one of them.  On top of all of this we are able to give the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation $5,451.00 and put $1,677.00 into a savings account to be used for Asher’s medical expenses.  Did I mention how FULL our hearts are!!!!!!!!!

Thank you everyone for your love and support for our family!  We’re so grateful!!!!

Below is the video that Jeremy created for the event…

Jeremy + Rachel + Asher (the team leader)