I'm a small town girl that moved to the city, traveled the word, and then eventually made my way here to Madison, WI to help plant a Vineyard Church.
I have the most amazing husband ever, and two cute little boys that we are absolutely smitten with!
I was looking at both some old and recent pictures this morning.
Can you tell which one is Asher and which one is Atley?
Yes, they definitely have some differences, but I still can't believe how much alike our boys look. I'm interested to see if those differences fade as they grow. As it is now, I don't think Asher looks at all like he did as an infant, but then again, a lot of that is due to the crooked haircut he now wears. :)
I can't believe my little boy is 1! Okay, I might be a few weeks late on the birthday post since his birthday was the 4th of July, but life has been pretty hectic here and I didn't even have a chance to download any of his birthday pictures to the computer until today.
I was feeling really dizzy and lightheaded this morning, and come to find out when I went in for my OB appointment my blood pressure was super low (82/50), so I've been ordered to sit back and take it easy this afternoon. It's easier said than done with a little one, but he's helping out by taking an extra long nap, which is nice, so I figured it was a good time to put my feet up and catch up on the ol' blog.
Here's our little guy on his big first birthday
And a family photo to celebrate the big day:
I can't believe he has grown so much and just last year he was teeny tiny! It's true that time flies once you start having kids!
Asher is now walking all over the place and I'm having a hard time keeping up with him. This kid is so independent and outgoing that it's sometimes a little scary. I'm trying to soak up every special moment that we have together now, because I know that in about 2 1/2 weeks (hopefully not any earlier than that) my attention will be divided. I think Asher senses that things are about to change to, as he's been all into needing snuggles before he goes to sleep lately.
Everything else is good on the homefront, although life's been a bit crazy. Steve was in another car accident - the second one within a month where someone has run into him. So, he's been driving a rental for the last week and a half while the Subaru is in the shop. His car was pretty messed up in the back, so we're just happy that he's safe and okay!
We finally got new exterior doors on our house and it's definitely upped the curb appeal from what we had previously. Jeff did a great job installing them! I'm so glad to have the project marked off our list.
Despite being hugely pregnant and uncomfortable, I've actually been feeling SO much better than I had been in the previous few months. Looks like some of the extra amniotic fluid has gone down, which is really good news! I've been able to back off from all of the extra testing I was doing a couple time a week and only have to go in once a week now. It's been so nice! I never imagined that I'd feel better at the end of pregnancy than I did for my second trimester and first half of the third. It's just nice to walk again without feeling like I'm going to collapse from all the horrible pain I had been feeling.
We're set to meet our latest addition on August 5th, although my doctor is convinced that I'll go early. I'm not so convinced, so at this point don't want to change the date of my c-section. I guess the worst that can happen is that my water would break and we'd still do a c-section anyway, so either way this baby is coming. I'd like to give him as much time as possible to bake in my big ol' oven!
Nadia and Justin are in town visiting and Asher is loving all this attention! He met Nadia at her wedding when he was just 4 months old, so basically it was like he was meeting her for the first time this time around and it was love at first sight! He squealed with delight like she was his long lost best friend when he saw her after he woke up from his nap yesterday. So cute!
There's nothing really significant about this picture, I just thought my boy was being extra cute this week!
No time to blog lately. Here's what we've been up to.
- Went to my friend Diana's wedding last Saturday. Her son Rafael is just 2 days younger than Asher and they're best buds, so Diana wanted us to bring Asher to the wedding rather than get a babysitter. He was great, but stayed up till 10:30 that night partying at the reception and then at 2:30 am decided he was up for the day. How exhausting! The later this kid goes to bed, the earlier he gets up. It's so strange to me. Needless to say, we've already found a babysitter for Mike & Aleesha's wedding in a couple weeks. We're not going through this again!
- I took Asher to the hospital for his swallow study on Wednesday. What an ordeal! I didn't really know what to expect as the only information I got was that the specialist was going to watch him eat. What they failed to tell me was that they were going to watch him eat while they took X-rays. For 2 hours. I was not happy that they failed to mentioned about the x-rays. It was traumatizing for me and Asher. Because of pregnancy and the radiation from the x-rays, I couldn't stay with him and feed him myself as planned, so he had all these strangers in lab coats standing around him trying to get him to eat in a dark room and they wondered why he wouldn't cooperate. I felt so bad for my little guy. It was horrible to not be able to be with him through all this and just hear him scream from down the hall. Needless to say, it was a giant waste of time as the results were inconclusive because he was so upset that he wouldn't really eat more than 2 bites and so they didn't get any good x-rays. It was a rough day for both of us.
- Today we get to go see this not so little baby growing in my tummy. I'm excited! Even with all the special targeted ultrasounds we had to have when I was pregnant with Asher, I don't believe any of them happened when I was this far along with my pregnancy. This little guy is pretty much fully developed, so I'm excited to see him and anxious to hear if he's really as huge as the doctors seem to think he is. If so, it might make feel just a little bit better about having to have another c-section. Embracing that has been a struggle for me my entire pregnancy.
Along with all this hugeness, I've become rather creative with trying to entertain Asher. My latest invention is a modified form of peekaboo. All I have to do is slouch down on the couch and I can perfectly hide my head behind my belly to play some peek-a-boo with him. It works and he thinks it's hilarious that I can hide behind my tummy. Oh the joys of looking like a whale!
- Went to the doctor last week and this baby is measuring way huge, so we had to schedule an ultrasound to see what's going on in there with all this crazy growth. I also failed my 1 hour gestational diabetes test, so had to go back on Friday for the big 3 hour test where they take my blood over 4 different intervals of time. Getting all that blood taken out of me was not so fun, but oddly enough, it was kind of nice to have a break for a few hours. Steve took some time off work to watch Asher while I sat in the waiting room of the doctors office all morning. I ended up seeing 2 other pregnant friends that were in for their appointments so got to chat with them for awhile and then caught up on a few shows on hulu. It was surprisingly rather nice! I got news yesterday that I passed this test with flying colors, so no gestational diabetes for me - yea!
- Our mini-van shopping trip was successful! I really thought I'd hate having a mini-van, but it's so roomy and convenient that I'm loving it so far.
- We had a little fun while we were in the windy city as well. Or course, we stopped by Ikea. I'm getting so much better with my shopping there, we hardly came home with anything - that's good news! We also went to Medievel Times. I had never been there, but heard from a few people that it was a lot of fun. I thought it was just okay, but Asher loved it! He was so entertained by watching the horses and the knights and was clapping his hands in delight the whole show!
- Asher had his 9 month appointment (yes, actually he's almost 10 months). He's looking good and healthy at 23 pounds! He's still having a hard time eating solid foods. I guess it must be because of the tongue thrusting issues he had early on, so we'll be sending him to a feeding specialist sometime in the near future so we can try and figure out what is going on. All along, I haven't really stressed much about these feeding issues, but I'm starting to feel the stress more now. I think just because in only 3 months we'll have another baby to care for and the thought of that is overwhelming in itself. I really hope we can get these problems resolved before the next baby gets here so that feeding Asher isn't such a source of stress for both him and me.
That's it from our neck of the woods. Exciting? I think not.
We had such a busy weekend. Steve's folks came for a visit and Asher was so excited to see them! The last time they saw him was when he was just 4 months old, so he's changed quite a bit. It was a good weekend. Steve was so, so wonderful to me. He knew that I wasn't feeling so hot, and also knows me well enough to know that when I'm feeling that way hospitality is not a strong point of mine. He took care of everything all weekend - cooking, cleaning and everything else imaginable. I felt like I was getting the royal treatment because I really didn't have to lift a finger all weekend. What an amazing husband I have, I really think I'm the luckiest girl alive!
We got Asher all decked out for Easter. We got to a casual jeans and t-shirt kind of church, but I had found this cute 3 piece suit on clearance at Macy's a couple of months back for just $4.00, so I couldn't resist to get him all dressed up! He looked so handsome! Good thing we have 2 weddings to go to in the next month, that suit is gonna be getting some wear!
Steve's parents also brought him the highlight of his weekend....a wagon! It's all pimped out to, with seatbelts, trays (you know in case you need to color while you're being escorted around),cup holders and an awning. He LOVED riding around in it....and playing with the box it came in. :)
We also spent some time at the park. Asher's new favorite past time is hanging out on the swings. It's so cute to hear him squeel with delight when we push him on the swing.
It was a good weekend, but we're all tired out. Asher especially. He's not used to having so much excitement and has been sleeping so great these last few days. Yesterday he didn't get up until 7:45. We have a busy few days and weekend in front of us, and then things should slow down for a couple days again. We're all looking forward to that!
Yep, we had to cut this kids hair yet again! I don't know all that many 9 month olds who have had their hair cut twice already, but considering that he has the combination of both Steve and I's "hair genes" I"m not surprised.
Steve cut it super short this time, partially so we didn't have to cut it for awhile again, and partially because he messed up so he had no choice but to really chop it off. It will probably look ackward for a little while, but at the rate this kids hair grows, it will be long again in no time. He looks like a completely different baby. I already miss the longer hair, because now my baby looks like a BIG BOY!
Here he is just when Steve first starting cutting his hair:
And the finished product.....
And since we're on the subject of Asher, here's another cute picture of his new annoying habit. These past few days, he's decided that it's really fun to suck his thumb while I feed him a bottle. I don't know where all of this has come from, since he's never been a thumb sucker before. Needless to say, it takes about twice as long to feed him this way. He gets mad if I pull his thumb out of his mouth, and if I let him keep it there, he just dribbles milk all over the place and it takes forever for him to drink even just a little bit. What a weirdo...but we sure do love him!
I can't believe my baby is 9 months old already! It seems like we just had him yesterday, but it also feels like he's been part of our family forever! We love our little Asher so much! He's such a fun kid - always laughing and being silly and bringing joy to everyone around him.
We couldn't love him more if we tried.
He's crawling all over the place and getting into everything he shouldn't. This kid keeps on our toes!
He's gonna be a great big brother! We love you Asher Struck!
playing with daddy's headphones and trying to be like Uncle Andy!
Well, the results are in and there's no question about it - it's a BOY! Asher is gonna have so much fun with a younger brother so close to his age! Because of the time of year that both of them will be born, it looks like they'll be going to kindergarten together to!
I'm super happy that we don't have to buy any clothes - yes, Miss Practical, I am! I kinda thought we were having a girl, but wasn't surprised at all when we heard boy. The pregnancies have just been so similar, and even though I thought it was a girl, I knew that realisically it was more likely to be a boy than girl.
It's been an up and down week around here. Most exciting moment of the last week - meeting cute little baby Teddy for the first time! He's so cute and seeing him made me SO excited to have another little teeny tiny baby of our own soon!
Tim and Amanda also came up to visit for the weekend and it was so fun to see them. Everytime we have friends from St. Louis here it makes me realize just how much we miss all of our friends back home. I'm so grateful though that we have made so many wonderful friends here in Madison, and I know that eventually one day once we move on we'll be missing all of these friends to. Such is life!
The down side of our week - our little man is working on a tooth that I can barely see. Hopefully it will just pop through some day because these last few days have been miserable for Asher and myself. I just feel so bad that he's in pain and wish there was more I could do to help. In the meantime though, the rocking chair has become my home in the middle of the night. Why is it that when babies are teething it seems to hurt them most at night? So puzzling. I don't remember the other two teeth really bothering Asher much at all except for a day or so, so this long drawn out process has been rough on us all!
Speaking of the little bugger, he's summoning me now. Gotta go!
I can't believe that this little guy has grown and changed so much in just 7 months!
Oh how the times flies! Been a busy week here. Our furnace decided to die and we spent almost 2 days hoping and praying that our pipes wouldn't burst while it got fixed, Asher started crawling and is into everything, he also got sick for the first time - complete with projectile vomitting and all, and Steve is still hanging out down at the courthouse for jury duty.
These are the days of our lives - not nearly as exciting or dramatic as the soap opera, I'm sure, but I think it might just be better that way.
Asher got his first buzz! His hair was getting so long that I started to threaten Steve that I would put barrettes in the poor guys hair to keep it out of his eyes. Steve really wanted to wait until his first birthday to cut it, but it just wouldn't work. The solution Steve had was that we could get a sweatband for him to wear to keep the hair out of his face for the next few months. Needless to say, that was definitely not flying with me! So, haircut it was! Poor little guy had started tilting his head sideways so that he could see beneath the hair that was hanging in his eyes.
Here's how he looked a few days before the big cut....
Here's during.....
And after!
He looks more like a boy than a baby now and seems so much happier! Lest the picture fool you, it really is quite crooked if his hair is not pushed to the side in the front. I can't help but snicker a little when I look at him sometimes.
It's been a busy week around here. We put up our tree - first time we've ever got it up November. We just figured with us being out a lot in these next few weeks we might as well get it taken care of. Asher loves staring at all the lights and loved watching us set it up. He's been loving this sock monkey that Steve's parents got him lately. Mostly I think he likes to chew on his arm and legs. Speaking of chewing - we have our first tooth! It hasn't broken through all the way yet, but the sharp edges are peeking out!
Asher loved watching us put up the tree. It looks kinda naked here because we hadn't put on the ornaments yet.
Other great news around here - Asher graduated from speech therapy! Yea! We had what we hope is our last visit this week. He's shown a lot of improvement with being able to take a bottle and although we'll probably delay giving him solids for a little while, the therapist thinks he should be just fine with no future problems! We'll wait in a few months and see how solids go, but if everything looks good we should be completely finished with having to do all those darn tongue exercises that take up so much time. He's also able to finish a bottle in about just 15 minutes now (as compared to 45), so we are really encouraged!
He's babbling up a storm now and has started rolling over - our little boy is getting so big!
Here's a few pics taken in the last week.
On to other new,s we're preparing for our big trip to Montana next week. I'm a little nervous about this flying with a baby business and hope it isn't to rough. After this we're looking forward to a quiet few months with no traveling and our first family Christmas together here in Madison.
Sorry for such a boring update. Such is life these days.
I can't believe our little boy is 4 months old today! It seems like the last 4 months have gone by so quickly, but it also feels like Asher's been with us forever. We are just as in love as possible with this little boy.
Lately I've just been feeling so incredibly blessed - blessed that God trusts us with this sweet little boy. I know ultimately he's really just been put on loan to us from God and I'm so thankful for the opportunity to parent him. I know that everything we have is Gods, but somehow when it comes down to the reality of it all, both the hardest and easiest thing to give up to God is our child. It's hard because our son means everything in the world to us. Our cars and house can be replaced, but this little boy is irreplaceable and to so willingly give him back to the God who has given him to us in the first place feels heartbreaking. On the other hand, it's also very easy because we know that this wonderful God that we've entrusted our entire lives to only wants what's best for us and our child and there's so much comfort in knowing that He will always take care of us and our family. It's so comforting to know that we're not alone and that we have a God to put our trust on this journey called parenting.
Our little guy is now just a little over 18 pounds. He is so much fun. Always smiling and giggling and loves to look at himself in the mirror. He sits up like a champ, but has yet to roll over. I think he's working on getting his first tooth right now. He is the sweetest and happiest little baby that I have ever laid eyes on....of course I am just a little biased though.
We celebrated twice this year - once in St. Louis and once in Madison.
We actually didn't even get a costume for Asher because we didn't think we'd be home for Halloween, but Missy happened to have 2 costumes that she bought on clearance after Halloween last year that wouldn't fit any of her kids, so we decided to dress Asher up in those and I'm so glad we did!
On Saturday he was a horse, all dressed up for the annual harvest party that our old church in St. Louis throws every year. We only stopped by for a few minutes, but the little horse looked cute!
We left early Sunday morning, very ready to get back to Madison and made it home just in time for all the trick or treaters to show up! I think this is the first year we've actually been home to hand out candy on Halloween since we've moved here, so we weren't sure exactly how many kids would stop by, but we actually had quite a few!
This time Asher was a Zebra and SOOOO cute!
sitting by the door waiting for the little trick or treaters to show up
The weekend was good around here! We started it off on Friday celebrating Steve's birthday with a beer float party. It was nice and low key with just a few of our closer friends. We spent Saturday running errands, but it was actually quite nice. Nothing real important on the agenda, I love those kinds of stress free days.
Saturday night we had another beer float party. Apparently Josh & Becca thought Steve's birthday party was on Saturday instead of Friday and showed up on our doorstep ready to party. Luckily we were home, so we all had a nice laugh over our beer floats and leftover birthday cake.
Sunday was a busy day, but not so busy that I got to take a 30 minute nap. Now that was nice! We ended the weekend by cooking dinner together and vegging in front of the tv. We also had a giggle fest with Asher. Who knew that saying "hi" could be so funny? The video seems to go on and on, and so did the laughter after I stopped recording. This kid is just so constantly happy it's unbelievable.
I took the little guy in to get another shot yesterday. I was hoping he would respond like he did last time by giggling the whole time. I didn't fare quite that well, but I can't complain. He cried for a total of maybe 3 seconds and then was completely fine and didn't seem fussy or affected at all by the shot for the rest of the day. Maybe it's just easier on him since I only take him in to get one shot at a time rather than the usual 3 that most babies get.
We'll see how it goes next month.
I did have him weighed as long as we were at the doctors office and he's now weighing in at 17.5 pounds!
He's almost ready to outgrow his infant carseat. I'm expecting that he'll be rolling over any day now. He sure has been trying hard!
I realized I haven't posted pictures of our big little guy in awhile, so here goes! He is still growing like crazy! What's amazing is that he's really started to slow down on how much he eats and is actually eating quite a bit less than what is recommended for his weight (16 pounds a few weeks ago, I haven't weighed him since). Since he's growing so quickly though, I'm not concerned.
On to other extremely exciting news, he has moved into his own room and the big boy crib! The cradle is still in our room, but will be going out to the garage to be stored sometime soon. It was almost like Amelia passed on the good sleeper torch while she was here. He not only started sleeping through the night, but also has started more of a routine with naps. He pretty much will sleep from 10 pm - 6 am now and it's so great! What's surprising is how tired I've felt! Amazingly, now that I'm getting some more solid sleep I feel almost more tired than I was when I was waking up to feed him. It's so darn weird.
Anyway, our little guy is just as cute as ever and every day I'm amazed at the new things he's learning and how quickly he's growing. Sometimes I still feel kind of in shock that I'm actually a parent! Steve and I are so in love with this kid and it's hard to look back and imagine our lives without him in it. He brings so much joy to us!
Without further ado, here's some recent pics.
He look like a little old man in this one! So cute!
My Dad and Stepmom were here visiting from Montana last weekend, so while they were here we had Asher dedicated at church on Sunday. It was so special for us as a family to be able to make a commitment in front of both our church and our family to raise Asher to know and love Jesus and have our church family pray for us to do that.
Neither Steve nor I came from a healthy family dynamic, so we are so excited to be able to change our family tree in this respect. What an honor it is for both Steve and I to be able to be a part of changing our family for the generations to come! We know that raising kids is tough work and we're bound to mess up, but hopefully those mess ups will be with the little stuff that's not quite as important. More than anything we want Asher to grow up in a stable, safe environment that models the love of Jesus. We always want him to know that he's loved and supported no matter what.
We've got a big job ahead of us, but we are so grateful to God for this opportunity to be parents to this amazing child that we are so completely in love with!
It's been a super busy week. No time for blogging. I don't know if this week will be much better.
Here are some of the highlights of last week:
I took Asher to his 2 month appointment. Our little incredible hulk now weighs a whopping 15 pounds and is 24 inches long! He's in the 97th percentile for his weight and the 91st percentile for his height. He is growing like a week!
At his appointment he also got one of his shots - the DTaP vaccine. I was so worried and stressing the whole time, but the little guy smiled before, during and after the shot. It was almost as if he didn't even feel it and the nurse was so impressed. I feel a little bit paranoid now though because this kid just seems so pain tolerant that it almost concerns me. Remember when he scratched his eyeball? He never even cried or seemed to know it, just like this shot. Am I crazy for feeling a little concerned that my son didn't cry when he got a shot?
On to other news....I got a bunch of milk containers in the mail this week. Yep, exciting stuff. Hopefully this isn't TMI, but I've been producing milk like a cow. Literally, I have more than twice the amount that Asher eats. So, when the doctor mentioned donating my milk to a milk bank at first I thought it was a little weird until I looked into it and then I got so excited. The mothers milk bank of Ohio partners with a milk bank here in Madison. They collect breast milk to help sick babies in the NICU whose mothers can't produce milk. They go through a huge screening process (I had to do an interview, fill out a multiple page application, have both my doctor and Asher's doctor fill out paperwork, and then later this week will go get 3 vials of blood drawn) and once the donor is approved they can start collecting milk. All the milk is screened and pasteurized to insure it's safe. I feel so happy that I can help little babies in need. I know if my child were in a similar situation and I couldn't give them the milk they needed I would be so grateful for the help, so I feel really happy that I can something to help others out because of my over-abundance of milk!
Another highlight...we're looking into getting new windows for our house (we desperately need them) and yesterday, when a friend from St. Louis was in town I asked his advice on what kind of windows we should look for (he's a building inspector). He then offered to take some time off work and come up to Madison and install them for us himself to save us a bit of money. We are constantly amazed by the wonderful people that are on in our life and can't believe someone would be so kind to do this for us. Doc has always been amazing to us like this. When we lived in St Louis he saved the day for us more times than we could ever count and we're so blessed to have him in our life!
This week looks like it will be a busy one! Our community group starts up again on Wednesday and on Friday my Dad and Stepmom will be here to visit for a few days. Who would have thought staying home would keep me almost as busy as when I was working full time? It sure is a whole lot more fun though! I am loving my life as a stay at home mom!
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