Try these on for size

Shoes, shoes, shoes. This kid loves to walk around in anyone's shoes but his own. Over the past few months, I realized I have accumulated a small collection of Asher-in-someone-else's-shoes pics. I wish I had some sound effects to complete the effect...think "clomp, clomp, shuffle, shuffle, clomp." We haven't pulled out any summer shoes yet, but I can't wait to see what he tries to pull off with a pair of flip flops. Could be interesting.

Which direction will he go next? Hard to say, judging by the shoes.



Asher sporting some sort of Alaskan Bohemian look. What a cutie.

I'm so glad we are keeping these around, seeing as how they are so frequently worn. Corey swears that cleats do in fact come in very handy...never know when you'll need em!

Happy St. Patties Day

Need I say more?

The dog ate my book

Isn't that one of those classic excuses? Well, in my case it is now true. Corey and I were sitting in bed when I heard a strange ripping sort of noise coming from the hallway. Dion was 'sleeping' in his bed, as we always let him do in the colder months. His bed is (foolishly) placed next to a bookshelf, which he has never bothered to even notice. That night, he noticed. Apparantly, his reading tastes are of the uplifting, nurturing, mothering sort.

Corey walked into the hallway to discover Dion devouring this book. Oh, and there really was no mess to clean up...no shredded pieces or anything.

He was eating it.

P.S. This book adds to the list of things he's eaten, which includes a sock (whole), a screw, various stuffed animals, a whole plate of Christmas cookies, plastic bucket, and very likely a slew of other things to which we have no knowledge of! Chewing has definitely been his vice.

Sleepy Boy

Lately, when Asher is tired, he simply tells me so. I'm not sure if this is normal behavior for a 2 year old or not, but I am impressed by how well he knows what his little body needs. Sure, they can let us when they are hungry...that one's practically in the bag from birth. But this one surprises me each time he does it, and I can't help but laugh.

I mean, come on, if your tired, just say so!

P.S. As torturous as it appears, no children were hurt, saddened or kept from a much needed nap due the filming of this video.

Give a Dog a Bone

Asher loves dogs. 'Dion' was one of his first words, and he asks about him and chants his name throughout the day. He also loves his 'puppy,' a stuffed beany-baby type dog he drags around and sleeps with sometimes. Last night Dion left his bone in his dog bed, and Asher instantly took notice of this. He made sure we brought the bone downstairs with us, and I just assumed we were taking it to Dion...it is, after all his bone. Oops, I was wrong.

I tried to have him give it to Dion, and he started crying and wailing, "puppy, puppy!" I let Asher hang on to it and he went immediately to find his puppy to give him the bone. This is a yucky, gnawed on, much-loved-by-Dion bone that gets buried almost daily. Ewww.
So, I have come to the realization that little girls have their dolls, and little boys have their puppies. Forget baby bottles; here at our house we are dealing in bones.

Ah, look how happy he is!

P.S. We visited a place called HOOTS...a kids jumper place. Asher braved the huge slide all by himself. Climb, slide, repeat a bunch of times. I went down with him a couple of times myself, and it was a very steep and fast slide...yikes! He couldn't get enough. Check out his sliding fun.


The ascent.

The thrilling ride down.

Hanging with the Williamsons

Finally, something to break up the monotony that is January! Our old friends, the Williamson's were in town for a week and we sneaked in a couple of fun visits with them. Its always fun to reminisce with these guys. Ah, the 'good old days' when Corey and Jon would torture poor Bella with their hours of Playstation Football Tournaments ( I had my reasons for the ongoing ban on all video game machines). The days when Bella was in love with Lance Bass, and knew all the Backstreet Boys' songs by heart (okay, she was only 19 or 20 at the time!!). The days when the four of us would hit the gym together after work or school. The days when Jon worked as manager of Godfather's Pizza and would hook us up with very discounted, if not free pizza...the place has since gone out of business, due to the lack of Jon's managerial expertise no doubt. We still crave our 'veggie, add ham' pizza, mmmmm. The days when none of us had a mortgage, kids or any real commitments or responsibilities. Wow, that seems like forever ago.

Jon and Bella now have 3 cute kids (Hannah, Zack, and Jake) with tons of energy and personality, and Jon is completing his podiatry residency in Detroit where they are now living in their new house. They say they are thinking about coming back here to NM to be near family when the schooling is finally finished, and we are doing our part to try to further persuade them. Yeah!

Whenever they come for a visit, we always go to Fuddrucker's...one of Corey's favorites. The ironic part is that he ALWAYS gets a chicken sandwich. He claims the honey mustard there is the best ever and that's why he loves it. Now that is an interesting draw for a burger joint.

There was a little situation. Then Zach emerged from the bathroom with a whole new look for the evening.

Some other facts about my dear husband? He can't pass up a claw machine without digging into his pockets for quarters. Okay, admittedly, he is the only person I have ever seen actually win on one of those, and more than once. Should we be seeking intervention for this passionate addiction of his? The kids sure do love it.

Showing his expertise to the young novices.

The kids all clammoring for a chance at glory.

We had them over another night to hang out and eat at our place. I guess I had forgotten a few things since they've moved away, namely, Jon's eating preferences. I made green chile stew, salad and apple pie. WHOOPS! Jon only eats meat, diet Pepsi, and chocolate. I will do better next time, promise! (Jon, we are only giving you a hard time...you did a good job eating dinner!) Honestly though, what was I thinking? How many guys are there out there that actually think soup is a meal?

Thanks for the fun visit! Hope to see you again soon!

Happy Birthday Asher!

Asher's birthday falls only a few days after Christmas, so we celebrated with the fam in Georgia. I figured this event deserved its own blog entry, especially since kids with almost Christmas birthdays often have a complex due to the non-separation of the two events. We can't have that, not even on the blog!

Corey and I have decided that kids birthday parties are the best. All the fun things you can buy to celebrate...you just pick a theme and voila! This year Asher turned 2, and he has taken to Elmo a little more lately. Actually he calls him "Melmo", which must not be too uncommon because his cousin Austin called him the same thing. So, this year it was a Melmo Party!

Everyone humored us and wore their party hats, sang and ate cake. I think Asher enjoyed his special day, and I KNOW he enjoyed his little chocolate cake. We gave him a TMX Elmo (the souped-up version of the old Tickle-Me-Elmo), and he thought it was pretty fun, but....the adults were even more impressed with the moves this guy was pulling off!

Balloons and chocolate cake. Mmmm.

Looks like he's going to blow it out, right? This was taken right before he extinguished the flame with his bare hands...much to his surprise, the fire was hot!

Check out these party animals!

And now for a performance from our party sponsor:

I can't believe my little guy is 2 years old already! The time really does seem to fly by. Happy Birthday Asher, we love you so much!