Christmas Part 1

We had such a great time over Christmas this year that I couldn't narrow down the pictures to just a few. It was great to spend time together and with family. The boys both did really great on the 16 hour drive. They are great travelers (thanks in a big part to a dvd player). Plus, it was a very white Christmas (tons of snow over our whole break). We loved it!

Snowman #1. We had to improvise with plastic bags over Kason's shoes before we headed to D.I. to get some boots.

Kason found this great hat in my parent's snow stuff.

Lots and lots of shoveling.

We headed to Island Park, ID to meet at a cabin with Isaac's family. It was so pretty and so fun!

Payton and Kason loved playing together. They went sledding down a pretty good sized hill together. The funny part was watching them try to get back up it.

We all got to see Levi before he goes on his mission. What good uncles!

Then we were back to my house and more snow! This is the bottom of our snowman.

I think this is the tallest snowman I've ever built.

Asher had to get used to his gloves so he was content to stay under the porch for a little while. And yes, Asher wore a bright pink snowsuit. It was the only one near his size at picked over D.I. We think he looked pretty good in it.

Another day we built an igloo, yes, we were in the snow alot.

We had a great time. I'll get the rest of the pictures up soon!

O Christmas Tree

Love this time of year!

At the faculty UO party. Neither one had any fear about sitting on his lap.

Setting up the Christmas tree. This picture reminded me of...

...this one taken 2 years ago in 2008.

Putting on the ornaments takes lots of concentration.

This was taken last year (2009)...

...this year(2010)!

2009...

...and 2010. He looks so much older to me.

After telling Asher to not take the ornaments off about 500 times the first couple days he did pretty good. He saw his reflection in them and said baby and kept giving them kisses.

We are excited for the season!

All About Asher

Asher is 18 months! I guess that since it seems like he has been really growing up lately and saying/doing new things I am feeling the need to write them down to remember.

(I just want to squeeze him in this picture he's so cute)

He is really into books lately, especially his animal one.

He loves his big brother and tries to copy him alot.

(This picture is from a Family Home Evening where we played super heroes - Kason's request. Kason LOVED running around with his cape and Asher had no idea what was going on, but thought it was so fun to run around with a cape, Kason and Mom and Dad.)

Before his first day at nursery during church. He did great and didn't even give me a backward glance. Yes!

Cheeeeeese!

He also had quite a mullet so I gave him his first haircut. I kept it pretty long though cause it curls a little at the ends and it looks so cute.

So, a little (or alot) about Asher:

-He weighs 28 lbs 9 oz (80%) and is 32 inches tall (40%). He's very stocky.

-He is a growler! He growls after he takes a drink, after standing up, in satisfaction, in annoyance, in happiness, he just growls!

- He likes to say hi/hello over and over until someone says it back.

-He can say apple, hi, hello, ball, no (in a high pitched voice), where go?, where are you?, go, u go (let's go), uh oh, azzzaaa (what's that), eye(while poking his eye out), goggie(doggie), joo(juice), and can sing the song "apple, apple a, a, a, baby, baby, b, b, b.

-He loves his dog and sleeps with it every night.

-He gets into everything! (A normal circuit includes taking all the dvd's out of their cases and scattering them, then while I'm cleaning that up he takes the silverware out, knives and all, so I run over to get those, then he goes to another drawer and gets the scissors out, I put those away and he runs to the toilet to put something in it or play in it. And yes, we've tried child locks, he just breaks them. :)

-He loves to snuggle after a nap and is a momma's boy. He calls both Isaac and I mama.

- He loves to make his animal sounds and can do bear, dog, bee, snake, duck, horse and cow.

-He could roll a ball back and forth all day.

-He likes TV WAY too much.

-He can already make a pretty good gun sound - thanks to big brother's games.

- I love his bright blue eyes and chubby smile .

-He is quite a determined guy, but so sweet too, he makes me tired, but he makes me laugh.

And now that I feel like I've totally left Kason out here's a picture of the both of them. Kason is so sweet and smart and I love them both!

The Festivities

Even though I am not a fan of Halloween we had alot of fun this year.

It started off with a fun Halloween party with our playgroup.

We also decorated pumpkins. Kason was SO excited. (I should have known better than to give Asher a marker, even for 20 seconds. Good thing it was a washable one though.)

Kason was really into getting all the guts out.

Asher, on the other hand, wasn't quite as sure about it. This is funny since it is so different from their personalities where Asher is into everything.

The finished product.

Next up was our church's Halloween party and trick or treat.

Asher was a pirate.

Kason was so so excited to be Robin Hood.

Another pirate friend for Asher.

It's been a super busy, but fun week!

Monster Mash

Being that I do live in Track Town USA and running is practically a religion here I started running awhile ago. It's free, you don't have to drive anywhere to do it, and I like it! Now, I don't love it like some people do, but I am liking it. There are so many millions of paths here through parks and trees, so it makes it fun. It also makes it easier to get out there (in the rain now) if there's a race coming up, so Saturday I ran the Monster Mash 5k. It is a fun race by Autzen stadium(Go ducks!) and along the river. Costumes are allowed and it was fun to see all the different ones. All of my creativity, though, only got me wearing orange and black - although the shirt did have a trick or treat ghost on it.

Before

The start was slightly chaotic. We had to wait to line up at the last second, 10kers were supposed to be one side and 5k ers on the other. I lined up way too far back and was stuck for awhile at the beginning.

Right before the finish

Not my most attractive face, but I did beat that girl by one second.

Some friends who also ran it.

My time was a little over 25 min and I was happy with that. I beat my last 5k time by about 45 seconds. Hopefully I can get faster though. I was 2nd in my age group and 46th of 209 overall.

46 274 Lindsey Swensen 25 F 2/22 F2529 Eugene OR 25:30 8:13

Lately...

Lately we have been keeping very busy...

...enjoying some great Oregon Ducks football!!,

...keeping up with this boy and his extreme curiosity and messes,

...reading books, books, and more books,

...doing our favorite activity to do right when Dad walks in the door - wrestle!,

...with peals of laughter,

...figuring out how to do the classic "cheese" face for the camera,

...wanting to watch TV after waking up from nap,

...helping Kason develop his photography skills,

...having a "daddy son date" in a fort,

...and loving the beautiful still SUNNY weather we have been having.