Mischief Maker

Last week I thought I was just incredibly lucky that my kid was taking a 3 hour nap.

Turns out he just found a way to entertain himself quietly for a substantial period of time.

What is the shiny goop on his head you ask?  That WAS a nearly full tub of Aquaphor. 

He looks like he just burst out of his alien pod.  

I walked in and stopped dead in my tracks.  I could see white gloppy stuff over the edge of the crib closest to the door that is connected to the changing table.  And then one hand popped up and grabbed hold of the railing, followed by the other.  And this shiny little head with big glops of glop over it peered over the edge and smiled nice and big.  

My first response:  "NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!"  screamed silently in my head.

My second response:  Laughter.  It really was very comical.

My third response:  Cleaning this up is going to SUCK big time.

I took a wonderful little video of it all but it won't post since it's probably too long.  But just know that it was EVERYWHERE.  His sleeves plastered so much that they were transparent, his cute gray pants that I love soaked through, the railings were covered, his sheet and blankets smeared.  Glops on the floor, glops on the wall, glops galore.  

I am usually very aware of what is on the changing table and put it out of reach whenever he goes down to sleep.  I didn't even notice it when I left his room.  Points for me.

Catching Up...

My little baby has turned into a tiny little boy.  It blows my mind.  He has been such an adventure - I love his guts and he is the greatest thing since sliced bread!  ;)

I'll take you along on some of Asher's little adventures over the past several months.  

While perusing aisles at Wal-mart, Asher zeroed on on a little sumthin' sumthin' - I can tell I'll have a problem when he get older:

We get into ALL the drawers and pull EVERYTHING out ALL the time.  Two of his favorites would be my pick and Paul's pick and then he 'brushes' his hair with them: 

We spent a lot of time in his beloved wagon.... 

....playing with our favorite four legged friend... 

....playing Lacrosse whenever we were at Grandma Madsen's house... 

....playing in water... 

...and then some more water.

Needed some down time with Dad in between all his running around that he does.

We went to birthday parties for Quinn and Truman (this one is him at the playground at Truman's bday)... 

...we went on lots of walks to get sunshine and exercise... 

....we got bored on some of those walks... 

....we learned to do hard labor... 

...and we learned why the dog likes to lay down in the shadiest  parts of the driveway. 

We built up our muscles so we can be big and strong like Dad... 

...then we impressed the ladies with our dance moves...

...and then passed out from all the exertion.  

We picked up chicks... 

....jumped on the tramp... 

...made Mom laugh...

...and continued to build our vocabulary in sign language. 

We played pretend... 

....went fishing... 

....played Mummy to get ready for Halloween... 

...watched Dad play football...

...and did....whatever this is. 

Our handsome little guy is such a stud muffin! Almost fifteen months old, he runs as fast as his little legs can carry him, speaks what we call 'Asher Chinese', makes us laugh with every expression and keeps us on our 

toes! 

1st Grizzly Game

 See?  This is his 1st Grizzly game!  Either that or he is trying to say 'We're #1!!!!'   

Something tells me he really doesn't care about the Grizzlies though.  Jus' saying.

A few weeks ago we acquired Grizzly tickets and decided to go for something new and different to do.  Asher was fun to watch as he took in all the different sights and the loud noises.  

We were pretty close to the rink and had a lot of fun watching the players and, of course, the fights.

Family photo.  Awwww, the memories: 

When we stepped out to grab a few incredibly unhealthy choices in food, Asher found something fun to do with Dad's beard.  I love this kid!

First Hair Cut

Asher's hair was just getting too long.  It wouldn't stay combed, he always looked like he had bed head, and it just would not grow in on the outer edges all the way around his lil' head.    So I made the decision to finally cut his hair.  I had been putting it off for a long time but alas, could put it off no more.

Here is my cute little client:

All that wispy, uncontrollable hair: 

I made two little ponies to keep, I think he looks like a Samurai!:

We had fun doing this, even though he cried quite a bit.  We made him look like Curly first and then we gave him a mullet and then finally it was all shaved off. 

He hates it, obviously: 

At first I had a really hard time with it.  He just looked SO different and it made me sad in a way.  I kept looking at all his expressions and imagining how he looked with those same expressions plus his hair.  After a few days I grew to love it.  He has the perfect head for a shaved haircut and he looks like such a boy boy now, ya know?  Such a handsome little devil.  

Here is just a smidgling of my favorite pictures since Ash has turned 1. His personality is coming out more and more all the time and I'm just loving it!  Clockwise starting from the top left we have 'O' face on rocking horse, drunk face in the canyons, posing his cute little overall butt on the tramp at my parents, 'O' Face [I'm loving it!  he does it all the time now, especially when he is interested in something], having fun with dad doing yard work, crazy mad scientist hair, can't resist playing in water..even if it is the dog's, fruit Popsicle, big boy sitting on the steps and lastly, 'what do you want?' face with his Grandma Budd.

Mmmmm I Dunno - Is There A Resemblance?

At Paul's parents house last Sunday, I tried to take the opportunity to take Asher's picture right next to his dad's baby portrait.  Emphasis on tried.  He wasn't cooperating and he was being ornery to boot.  So these are the best I got...this time.  

Do they look like Father/Son??  That's a rhetorical question.  

It's a dark house with poor lighting and I had to use my flash to see anything, but as you know, that doesn't bode well for the portrait.  Don't blame me. 

1st Birthday Celebration!

Posting a buttload about my kid today, but can you blame me?  Not only is he super cute, he just turned 1!

My party throwing mode went into effect a few weeks ago and I had been spending my time plotting!  I had to hold myself back quite a bit!  Originally I had planned on doing a bunch of summer fun healthy treats, like this one:

all fruit Popsicle made with peaches, strawberries, kiwi, blueberries and watermelon puree 

 ...and a few salads and stuff.  But I asked Paul his opinion and that's probably where I went wrong. ha ha.  Only kidding.  He really wanted to grill and so I just made my popsicles and water and Asher's smash cake. Go me!!

Asher was seriously spoiled.  I wasn't expecting so many presents - it threw me for a loop!  He's just so loved and we appreciate all who came and contributed to my now cramped-for-space living room ;) 

I think we can all agree that my little guy is extremely handsome and cool in his fedora :) 

We opened the mountain of presents, and of course, he didn't really understand what was going on but there were a few things that caught his eye :) 

He had so much help opening presents which I actually thought was great :)  My nephews Aiden and Dallin, along with Quinn and Jensen helped Asher figure out what to do! 

My mom was on a search high and low for a Red Flyer wagon because we had one as little kids and kids super love wagons.  We ended up only being able to find either huge, plastic monsters of wagons or a cute little teeny plastic red wagon.  But!  she found the old school wagon she wanted only it was a John Deere which I happen to love even more.  And even better, Asher loves it.  He immediately tried climbing up in it and his Uncle Gav took him for a ride.  Two days later he still climbs up in it and waits for me to take him 'round and 'round.   

After presents we stripped him down and I grabbed his other smash cake, this one another vegan carrot cake, but slightly different AND covered in raw chocolate icing - yes really did taste yummy! :)   

He liked licking the spatula when I was making it but decided he wasn't digging it once he had free access to it.  His cousins and I helped him get a little dirtier for camera's sake :) 

And then I fed everyone the super sugary delicious not-healthy cake - ha ha ha ha suckers!!!  I lucked out and found this How To Train Your Dragon cake at Macys - how perfect my little guy??  My mom cut up the cake while I hosed Ash Man down and we had homemade strawberry  and cookies n' cream ice cream :) 

Lots of relaxation and mingling, good food, and crazy fun - at least it was for me :)   Thanks to everyone for coming and celebrating with us - we are so lucky and blessed! 

I couldn't resist.  I had to slip this one in.