Asher turns 1!

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!

That's it for now!

Party Time!

I threw a party for Steve on Friday. It was a beer-float themed party. We got a few different kind of beers (Blueberry beer, Guinness, an Amber and a Summerberry) and paired them up with different kinds of ice cream to make beer-float!
Steve had read about this in his Men's Health magazine last year sometime and thought it would be fun! To decide on your favorite, you mix a little bit of beer and ice cream in a shot glass to see if you like the flavors together. Once you've found your perfect combination you make a float. I heard some good things about the blueberry beer and strawberry ice cream (sounds disgusting to me) and Steve really enjoyed the Guinness mixed with some chocolate.
Of course we had soda to for the old fashioned root beer floats, and what kind of birthday party is it if you don't have a cake?

On top of all the birthday festivities we had a good weekend. Saturday we actually took a break from working on the house and instead went shopping at Home Depot for more supplies....not really what I call fun, but much better than all the manual labor we've been doing. I'm finally seeing a light at the end of the tunnel and think we should finish up our basement project in the next few weeks. It was nice to actually kind of take a day off on our only day off! Saturday night we hung out with Sarah and AJ and I was tired and probably the most boring person ever to be around.

We got a bit of painting done on Sunday and will work some more tonight....yuck! Have I mentioned lately that I cannot wait for our projects to be completed? Okay, enough whining from me. I gotta get back to my fabulous day!

My Birthday Surprise

I survived turning 30. I really hope the 30's are as great as everyone says they are, cause I'm still a little depressed about growing older.
Saturday was a day full of emotions. They day didn't start out that great when I woke up early to take my car in to get a routine oil change - only to find to find out that we need a few hundred dollars worth of work done on it, including a new radiator, thermostat, gasket and a few hoses. Let's just say I wasn't so happy to get that news and am now feeling a little nervous about driving back to St. Louis this weekend by myself since there's no way we'll have time to get it fixed before then.
I came home from CarX totally depressed and upset, but luckily Steve was in a better mood. He took me to Sophia's - my favorite breakfast place in Madison and we shared a nice little breakfast outside. We spent the rest of the afternoon running errands and finally ended up back at home.

Then, Steve gave me the birthday gift that I totally wasn't expecting - a beautifully naturally finished Warwick bass. It is so pretty and he completely surprised me (which is pretty hard to do).

My husband is truly the sweetest guy in the whole world. Without a doubt his guitars are the most important possession we own and he had traded in his Marshall Amp, amp head, a few effects pedals, an electric pickup, and his shotgun to get me this beautiful bass. I know it truly was a sacrifice for him and that made it even more special. I felt so loved that he not only got me something sweet and thoughtful but he got me the best of the best too!

Steve has actually kind of struck up a friendship with the guy from the guitar shop (it's a cute 100 year old shop not too far from our house) and so the guy threw in a whole bunch of picks, a nice Ernie Ball strap and a free guitar stand for me just as a happy birthday gift. So sweet!
I'm no rock star, but I'm looking forward to playing my new bass and Steve has already been giving me lessons. He's the REAL rockstar (with the cheesy grin included) in this family!

I just really love my husband and am constantly amazed at how good he is to me. Not a day goes by where I don't thank God at least a few times for giving me such a wonderful man to share life with.
After the excitement of the new bass settled down we had a pretty boring Sunday that consisted of grocery shopping, cleaning, laundry, and more errands. We ended the night with having Jason over for dinner.