Thanksgiving and Birthday Parties!

As you know, Asher's first birthday fell on Thanksgiving Day this year.  I really wanted Asher to know it was a special day even if he couldn't yet comprehend that it was his birthday.  

Sooo... I blew up an entire bag of balloons and left them in the living room for him to find when we came down in the morning...

 

And he had fun with them ALL day!  :)  

Eric's parents were here for the weekend and we had a great time talking, playing, and making Thanksgiving dinner together at our house for the first time!  (My family had Thanksgiving at our house last year, but we were in the hospital! :)  )  After a number of minor snafus we had a very successful lunch...  

Snafu #1- I went shopping for a turkey on Tuesday afternoon... umm who knew ginormous frozen turkeys needed time to defrost???... this girl sure didn't think about it!  Praise the Lord that they sell unfrozen turkeys! 

Snafu #2 - Devilled eggs.  Apparently it doesn't matter that eggs hard boil for more than the suggested 15 minutes... not even an hour and a half will overcook your eggs!  Oh the distracted life of the mother of a one year old.  :)

Snafu #3 - Halfway through cooking the turkey we realized that the heating element in Eric's parents faithful old roaster had gone out.  Thankfully???, Walmart was open on Thanksgiving day (sorry employees), 'cause we sure didn't have any pan large enough to hold a turkey in our oven, let alone room in the oven with all the sides baking!  We now are the proud owners of a roaster of our very own. :)

Snafu #4 - Dinner rolls.  For the 100th time in my life, I turned off the oven, and left the food in the oven for two more minutes without resetting the timer only to come back to them 15 minutes later burnt.  Amazingly enough they weren't burnt this time!   Just a little darker than they should have been.  

All I know is I have a lot to be thankful for, and who cares how the meal turns out.  God was still in the little things though and our meal was fantastic!  Thanks for all your help, Joey and Rhonda!  :)

Also up there on the list of fantastic things from that day was that grandma and grandpa babysat for us after we put the birthday boy to bed so Eric and I could get away on a little date to the movies to celebrate our own success of surviving our first year of parenthood. :)   Thanks again to Eric's parents! :)

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On to the Birthday Party!  Sunday, my entire family - parents, sisters, brothers-in-law, nieces, nephews, and grandmas came to join Eric and I and his parents for a grand first birthday party!  :)  

Since his first birthday fell on Thanksgiving Day this year, we had a turkey themed birthday party... a "We're so thankful for Asher" party. 

We had "turkey" food.  (a veggie tray, a pumpkin bar cake - my first wheat free baking experience, little smokies, and turkey shaped sugar cookies.) 

We had a "turkey" game.  Well just pin the feather on the turkey.  Here's the birthday boy playing. :)

"Turkey" decorations...

 

  Here's all the boys wearing their turkey party hats. :)  Unfortunately Asher hates having things on his head!  



... and the three of us!   (Who knows what I was doing... scaring Asher I guess.)  :)

I made a photo banner of Asher's life from his first ultrasound through his first twelve months. 

 

  

It's so sentimental and reminiscent, I can't bear to take it down! :) 

Then we opened gifts. 

And Asher's favorite part --- the cake!!! :)

Oops got it too close! :) 

 What do I do with this whole piece of cake, mom???

  Uhh... smash it in my face  Yeah I think that'll get it in my mouth?  :)  

We had to break it up in pieces for him, and he DEVOURED it!!! :) 

 

And finally for those of you who live near and know our son, the most amazing part was that he wasn't terrified at all by having all his cousins in his face.  He played well with them the entire day.  Think he knows they're family?!  :)    (I love how the littlest two are starring at one another in this pic! oh and the fact that his two year old cousin is making his hair stand up on end.  Boys... his daddy was just doing this to him earlier that day. :) )

 
Anyway, we're so blessed to have Asher in our lives and look forward to all the days to come!   Keep a look out for a video Eric put together for the birthday party.  We'll be posting it soon! :) 

Thanks for all your prayers and support as we journeyed through our first year of parenthood! 

#Meagan

One year of blessings!

So in light of it being Thanksgiving this week, we thought it fitting that he wear his Thanksgiving shirt for this his last weekly picture.  Asher celebrates his first birthday on Thanksgiving day.  (Eric and I will be celebrating surviving our first year of parenthood.) 

We are overwhelmingly thankful for our little guy.  But since this is just our weekly post, I'll keep it to that, and we'll get sentimental when we do his birthday post later this week(though I can't promise it'll go up on Thursday!).

Asher's had quite the week.  He finally started sleeping through the night again, not regularly, but he's done so maybe three or four nights this week!  Woohoo for progress in the sleep department! 

We were reluctant about giving Asher a pacifier when he was born, but we caved and he quickly became dependent on it for falling asleep.  He only got it at nap time/bed time but he "needed" it.  Eric and I always said that as soon as he figured out how to put it in his mouth on his own it would be over.  But I think he must have heard and understood because he still puts it in his mouth backwards. We've been all worried that it was going to be a huge ordeal to do away with it. But, anyway, long story short a few days ago he just decided he didn't want it anymore, and for the last several days has been going down without a second thought for it.  We put them away for good.  A HUGE relief that it wasn't a major issue with him.  Just got lucky, I guess!  

Asher also took his first "steps" this week.   I don't know if you can really call them steps or not, but he took 2-3 between Eric and I sitting on the floor.  But I really think it was more of a controlled fall.  :)   He walks around furniture, and even along the wall sometimes, like a pro, but he doesn't have any balance on his two feet yet, because he still can't stand independent of something to hold on to.  But suffice it to say, we're getting closer to that day. 

We're down to only one nursing a day.  Asher's doing great, and while I was at first emotional and reluctant to begin the weaning process, I am now revelling in the regained freedom to wear whatever I want without regard to how easy it is to nurse in, as well as the fact that daddy can do a whole lot more of the care if I'm otherwise occupied, to name a few!  

Hmm... there was something else... oh, yeah,  Asher started saying "daddy"!!!  No, not dada.  He's been saying that for months.  He actually calls Eric 'Dadee!  Though sometimes it sounds like daggy or even gaggy, it's Eric he's talking about morning, noon, and night!  That boy LOVES his daddy! 

So his Thanksgiving shirt is quite appropriate. :)   We're very thankful for daddy 'round these parts!  

So that's it.  Don't go through too much withdrawl next Tuesday, please.  We'll keep posting, and we may even do as our friends do and post monthly pictures in the yellow chair from here on out.   But keep your eyes out for our pics from his first birthday later this week!

See ya all soon.  And have a very merry Thanksgiving!

#Meagan

Bookworm

Well, can you tell we're getting close to one year of weekly pictures?  We keep getting things posted later and later :P  Asher is continuously active, with his most recent affinity for climbing the stairs.  Whenever he gets a moment, he loves to make a b-line straight for the stairs, so we're always on watch.  We also purchased a gate for the top of the stairs, because he loves to make a b-line for the top of the stairs too.  However, he doesn't climb down the stairs, he just makes an attempt to fly down them.  His speed is still now match for ours, but I feel much better having that gate in place.

Here's his picture for the week, with him enjoying a book.  He loves to have us read to him, and he loves to "read" to himself, though he generally ends up with the book upside down :)

Enjoy!

Birthday next week!  We're looking forward to having family around and we'll be sure to post plenty of pictures.

#Eric

Progress! :)

Hello all!  Happy Tuesday!  Time for Asher's weekly picture.  We're down to the last few as he'll be 1 in just over two weeks.  No tears now.  We'll keep posting pictures.  Maybe just on a Monday or Thursday or whatever day suits. 

Anyway... here's an update for ya.  This week Asher started trying to crawl up the stairs. Unfortunately, he also has no fear of trying to crawl right off the bed, the couch, or the TOP stair.  It rather scares me to death that he doesn't even hesitate!  Since we had a later crawler, we kind of postponed the purchasing of a baby gate, and well, now we're rather desperate, 'cause, man, is he fast!!!  Time to go shopping ASAP.

In other news, Asher's finally making some positive gains towards getting over his separation anxiety!  He's made it through three weeks in a row to date in the church nursery without my having to go get him! Yay, Asher!

Sleep is also getting better. The night before last night he was only up once for 20 minutes.  And after going in and laying him back down from standing up, he put himself back to sleep.  Last night wasn't so great, but we're getting there!  It's just good to see some success in the "no more middle of night feeding/rocking back to sleep" department.  A few pats on the back are finally doing the trick! 

Praise God for his answers to prayers and that he cares even about our little concerns.
 
Here's our little reader/drool factory.  :)

#Meagan