This little man

Has stolen my heart! He is so cute! We never want him to grow up!

An Epiphany

This morning I was thinking about Christmas and what gifts I wanted to buy, and how much money we should spend, ect. Then I had the thought... What if Christmas wasn't about gifts? What if we took gifts out of the equation all together. What would we do? What would Christmas be about? How would we celebrate?
As much as we all like to preach "Christmas isn't about gifts, it's about the Savior", it would seem as though our actions speak much louder then our words. We all KNOW what Christmas is about, yet what we focus on is gifts. We spend tons and tons of time thinking about what to give , what we want to get, how to package it, how to give it, etc. etc.
So I asked myself, "If I knew nothing of Christmas and how it were celebrated, only that it were a day to remember the birth of our Savior, how would I want to celebrate and remember?" Well, I may want to give gifts, and that is fine. The thought has changed the way I will look at Christmas and gift giving on the Holiday. It will no longer be about how much money I am spending, how many gifts we are giving, and being disappointed about not getting what I wanted. We will exchange gifts, but it will not be my focus anymore.
I know... These thoughts are oh so original. Haha

A little about Emma

Emma loves her "me-me" (blank-y)

 

  

 

 She would like to still be the baby and enjoys being treated like one! She has me rock her in my arms and sing her songs each night. Some favorites are "Ne-No" (Twinkle Twinkle little star). Popcorn Popping and Sun-Beam

 

 She gets into more trouble then you could ever imagine. She is SOOO busy. I try to create things for her to do, but there is a lot of hours in the day to fill! Today she ate the brownies. That pan was 100% full... until Emma found it while I was nursing Asher.

 She loves to climb and push chairs to where ever and what ever she would like to get to. She would rather sit ON the table then on her chair. I really need to do some more serious child-proofing to the house. Her latest love is markers. (pictured below) She climbs the chair to get to them. She colors on wall, and furniture and books. Some times paper.

 

Emma is by far my busiest and craziest of all my girls. She is fierce! She is not timid and shy. I love her little personality and I love that it is so opposite of my own. She makes our days fun and always keeps me on my toes. I always know if there is quiet I have to find Emma... 99% of the time I can't see her, she is into something she shouldn't be! I love it and hate it at the same time. It makes me laugh, and it makes me cry. I have probably already posted about her mischief, but since it is such a HUGE part of our lives right now, I figured we needed more pictures and proof of it ;) Because hopefully she will grow out of it soon! haha

A random story- I always cut our bananas open with a butter knife. Emma took note. As soon as I was away she climbed the chair, took out a butter knife and stabbed all of our bananas. It made me laugh, and then I was mad because our bananas were ruined!

Olivia's twins

We have some neighbor girls that are twins. I think Olivia looks so much like them they could be triplets. Their profiles are even more similar then straight on. I always think I see Olivia in the neighborhood or at church and have to take a closer look.

Funny

 The girls hopped out of the bath. Emma got the hand towel to wrap up in. LOL.

I was so inspired by some adorable sibling photos on pinterest. I decided to take some myself. You could call this a pinterest FAIL! LOL. Never as easy as it looks.. never!

Asher's Stats

Claire changes Ashers diaper quite frequently. She is such a little mother. Not in a bossy way .Claire is just very nurturing. She sympathies with her siblings when they are hurt, she wants to help with chores, she loves to cook with me, and she loves to try to soothe Asher when he cries. Nothing makes her more proud then when she gets Asher to stop crying by holding him or putting his binky in. She is such a sweet heart.

Here are his latest Growth measurement:

2 months

Weight: 10.96 lbs (12th %)

Height:23 inches (35%)

Head circumference:15.5 inches (47%)

Asher is a sweet little buddy. He still loves his binky. He sleeps at night pretty well, but has a hard time with naps during the day. He LOVES to be held by his mama and gets very upset when he is handed over to his Daddy. That is depending on his mood. If he is just fed and happy he is ok with Dad, but most of the time Asher is in a state of fussiness. He is usually either hungry, poopy, or wanting Mom to rock him to sleep. He is growing less fond of his car seat and the Ergo baby carrier every day. Only my arms will do apparently. He also has a quick temper. If i do not answer his sweet cry with in a few minutes it quickly changes to screaming. He just sounds SO mad! He is starting to smile often and it melts my heart. I LOVE baby smiles. We haven't heard him laugh yet. He has found his voice in the last week and has been talking up a storm. It is so darned cute! And have I mentioned how much he poops? EVERY 2 hours. It is ridiculous. Fastest metabolism around! Maybe that is why he is so small! Oh- and he can roll from his tummy to his back. Not ALL the time, but about 75% of the time. He has been doing it since he was 5 weeks. Really weird... the girls didn't roll until 6 months!

Halloween 2013

 we had a bumble bee... Because we always have one since we have the costume!

 A basket ball player... because it was the only thing I could find in the closet last minute.

 A mermaid and Snow white

 close up of her fish scales

and this is Claires original costume, a mermaid (minus the crown). I made Liv and Claire mermaid dresses this year because the cost of buying them was ridiculous. They were $20-$30 per costume at Wal- Mart.. Anyway- they didn't really turn out all that great and took way too much time. They look so home-made... but alas, I only spent $10 for them and that was so much cheaper!! Claire decided last minute she wanted to be snow white... I said "well then, if your going to be Snow White we will make you the best Snow White there is!" and we just let the mermaid costume be used for dress-up.

Halloween was really fun this year. It was pretty cold out but not rainy or snowy! We had a neighbor hood pot-luck in our cul-de-sac. We have some great neighbors. Then we went trick-or-treating with some of the neighbors. The girls LOVED it! Emma just loved stuffing her face with candy any time she could! At one point all the kids thought it would be fun to sing Christmas songs. So there they were yelling "Jingle Bells...." The best part was when a group of kids across the street joined in. LOL. It was so silly and random. I let the girls pick out 10 of their favorite candies to keep. Brett thought I was crazy and said "We're going to be THOSE parents!?" Yes. Yes, we are! They really didn't mind too much. I don't think they know that other kids get to keep it all. Plus, what is a parent to do with out any candy for themselves!? 

Fall 2013

 

Ashers Blessing Day

 Asher was blessed this past Sunday in church. He was having a rather fussy day, but did great during church and his blessing. Didn't make a peep! He is sick with a bad cold now, so now I know why he was so sad on Sunday. Poor little guy!

 

I thought maybe he would be a little happier in Grandmas arms for a picture. Still just a crying away though! Emma was sure to help with her special blanky though!On a side note- Emma was having a GREAT day! She was running around SO excited that there was thunder and lightening outside. She would squeal with delight every time she heard thunder!

 All the kids with their Grandparents! They sure do LOVE their Grandparents! We are really lucky to have them live just 45 minutes away.

Asher had a beautiful blessing. My dear friend wrote it all down for us, so I can record it here now! Here is what he was blessed with:
-Your body mind and spirit may grow in strength and health.
-Be an instrument in the Lords hands for good
-In time you will be able to serve a mission
-Have a respect for women.
-Have respect for your sisters, and honor, love, and obey your mother
-In time choose a righteous woman to take to the temple to be married for time and all eternity
-That you will learn to be wise in making difficult decisions, that you will learn to to Choose the right and follow the commandments
-Learn that Obedience will bring happiness and peace and that you will share that happiness with others

General Conference

 We had a great general conference weekend. We watched 3/4 conferences and for the last Sunday afternoon session decided to drive through the canyon as we listened. The girls were pretty good about sitting and listening. I do recall Claire looking stunned when we started the 3rd session saying "this again!?" I think she thought we maybe had a movie to watch. haha

I love being with my family and driving through the canyons in Utah. It is beautiful. We loved the messages we heard from the apostles and prophets too ;) My favorite talk was President Monson from the RS session. He talked about being special and being individually loved and needed by the Lord. He also reminded me how special prayer was. It felt like he was talking to me. Just what I needed to hear.

September

 Asher so obviously loves all of the kisses and love Emma gives him! As soon as Em wakes up in the morning or from her nap the first thing she says is "BABY? HI!" and will run to the bassinet to give Asher kisses. I love when she walks into the room because the minute she enters she starts saying "HI! hi.. hiiiii!" in a little sing song voice. She is just so excited to see Asher again!

 Claires first day of Pre-School. When I dropped her off, she ran over to her new teacher yelling "Hi teacher Brandee!" and gave her new teacher a big hug.

 we are really loving all the boy clothes! They are so cute and manly!

 Asher is still LOVING his binky. If it weren't for his binky he would cry... A LOT! If he's not sucking on his binky he is either asleep or nursing. He can go about 15 minutes without before he starts crying. The girls love to 'save' him and run to put his binky in the minute he starts his crying.

 On this day I was nursing Asher while Emma was in the bath. She decided bath time was over and jumped out herself. She grabbed her favorite blanky and wrapped it around herself! It was so funny to see her running around naked with her little blanky and mermaid doll.

 Snuggle time while watching TV. We watch a lot of TV when we have new babies. There is not a whole lot else we can do easily while nursing. Emma can only watch for about 5 minutes before she runs off to get into touble. She seriously loves getting into trouble. She is busy busy busy!

Naming Baby Boy

There was MUCH debate over what to name this little man! It has taken months, years really to decide on a name. Ever since we were pregnant with Olivia we have contemplated boy names (before we knew the gender). We have never come to agreement on a boy name! Some other names that were on the top of the list were Camden and Carter. There were many others that were also debated like Jacob and Zachary, but they never quite made it to the top of the list. The day Asher was born he was Mr no name. He came out, and everyone asked "what's his name!?" We just stared blankly and shrugged our shoulders saying we weren't decided yet! Claire kept telling me not to worry  that when the baby is born it comes with a name. So- we waited until he was born to see what name he came with. I guess he forgot his name tag because we just didn't know! I kept contemplating the name Camden, but I kept looking at him and it just didn't feel right. I really liked the name, but he didn't look like a Camden to me. When I looked at him the name Asher felt right, but I was hesitant about the name. It is different, and I knew a lot of people just didn't seem to fond of it. In the middle of the night around 4 am I had all but decided on the name Asher. When Brett came to visit that morning he had pretty much accepted the name Camden! That night Brett took the girls to Chinese food. Brett's fortune cookie said "happiness is right next to you. stop searching." The name Asher means "Blessed, Happy". That is when Brett knew we had found the right name! Brett is rather superstitious!

When Brett was in college he had a Chinese room mate who told him that Brett was "happiness" and gave him a little happy symbol necklace. Brett's favorite scripture is also on happiness. So, with the name Asher meaning "happy" it just seemed right. Also, we felt very blessed to have been given a boy on our last baby. So, Asher meaning "blessed" made sense too! Other reasons the name felt right was because I wanted something unique, and not too common since we have the last name Peterson, but I also wanted it to be some what traditional and normal. Asher is actually a biblical name. In the Old Testament Asher is the son of Jacob and Leah's handmaid Zilpah and one of the ancestors of the 12 tribes of Isreal. Anyway- I liked that it was tradition and a biblical name, yet not so common like the names Jacob and Zachary. When you have the last name Peterson you don't want a super common name! And since he is a boy his name will never change, so it made it that much more difficult to name him!

And that is how his name came to be! It is on his birth certificate, so there is no going back now! Quite honestly I am glad it's over! It is stressful trying to name a baby!!

Family Pictures