Lately

My babies are growing up so fast. It seems like every day they surprise me with something new. Rose especially is developing such a cute little personality. Her vocabulary has expanded to included "da da", "ma" (which can mean either Mom, more or milk-- actually I think in her mind they are all the same word), "dog", "Aaaa (Asher)", "uh-oh", and two days ago during family prayer she surprised us when she said "Amen".

She loves jewelry and in Relief Society she travels around collecting every one's necklaces. It is also cute to see how she loves to be dressed up and admired. The other day we went to The Children's Place and I had her try on the cutest little fur coat. She loved it and ran around the store looking at herself in the mirror and didn't want to take it off. I think this is a bad sign of things to come! I wish the coat hadn't been so expensive. It was adorable.

She has also turned into such a little stinker. She knows EXACTLY what buttons to push to make her brother mad and she loves to push them. There isn't anything she loves more in this world that stealing one of Asher's favorite toys, making a mad dash away, while giggling the whole time. Asher and Rose have started to play together lately and it melts my heart. The other day they were being super quiet while I was making dinner and when I went in to check on them I found Asher looking at his books and Rose sitting next to him looking through her book. Those are the pay day moments of motherhood.

Asher is really turning to a little boy. He is speaking so well and other people can actually understand him most of the time now. He has been super possessive of his toys and has latched on to a few that he has to carry around with him all the time. Jon gave him one of his old tool bags to put some of his toy tools in and Asher keeps adding stuff to it. It is getting so heavy now that he can hardly tote it around. Still, it goes EVERYWHERE with us. It seems like every two seconds I hear "Mom, where is my tool baggy!" My life is a constant search for it.

He also has a "dumpin the dirt" (a front end loader) truck that is fused to his hand and has to go to bed with him. He also puts the phrase "I will" at the end of everything he says. Like " Asher have a cookie, I will." "Asher go to the D.I, (he loves the D.I.) I will." "I be mad, I will."

Last Sunday he wanted to wear a tie to church so that he could be like his Daddy. He was the proudest little boy you've ever seen. He strutted into church and even grabbed a program for the greeter. He told everyone at church that he was big like his Daddy. We might need to get him a tie that actually matches his shirt one of these days.

Our community does an annual "Pumpkin Walk" at one of the local parks and we went for the first time this year. It was wonderful. I was so impressed with all the scenes people were able to create out of pumpkins. I think my favorite was this Charlie Brown one.

Do you notice Asher's open mouth? That is how he smiles when you ask him to smile for the camera. He's been doing it since he was little. I'm not quite sure why, but is kind of hilarious.

I also loved this one with the mother pig and her babies. So creative!

This was my favorite cut-out. I especially love how Rose's face is squashed!

Jon's dad came up a few days ago and took Asher fishing at the reservoir up the road from our house. Asher was super excited about "catchin a fisky" but his interest didn't last too long. After a few casts he informed grandpa that "I don't see no fiskies, they seeping" but he loved spending time with his grandpa.

I love this picture. What a cute little boy I have. It breaks my heart to see how big he is getting. I wish I could slow him down just a little bit. I used to laugh when my parents said I'd grown up too fast, but now I understand-- 18 is going to come way too soon for me.