Birthday Boy, Asher!

Today is my nephew, Asher's, 2nd birthday!  I can't believe he's already two!  It seems like just yesterday we were all waiting to hear the news of Asher's arrival.  It was a Monday, early in the morning, when he made his entrance, and he hasn't stopped since!  I wanted to share a couple of pictures of Asher this morning at Waffle House with Shana and Chad.  I stole borrowed these pictures and the video off Facebook.  He seems so shy, but looks can be deceiving!

Asher "cheezin" at Waffle House.

He loves eating!

I couldn't leave sweet Anabelle out.  Here she is at 1 month old...precious!

I also wanted to share a few pictures from his birthday party this past weekend.  He had a joint birthday with his cousin, Colby, who turned 6.  Colby is Asher's cousin on Chad's side of the family, and he's a sweet kid!

Sweet Colby ready to blow out his candle.

Asher isn't sure what to do.

Daddy's here to help!

My beautiful cousin, Hayley, and Ansley.

Nonny with baby Ananbelle.

Sweet baby Anabelle.

Uncle Ken and Ansley bonding.

Pappy with the birthday boys.

Ansley loved watching them open gifts.

Shana, Miranda and all of the birthday gifts!

Asher learning how to open gifts.

Spiderman, Colby!

Yay! A party!

Colby loves reading about animals.

Grandma, Todd, and precious Gavin

Colby got a new bike!

Asher got a new car!

Ridin'

 

Happy 9 Months!!

I realized that I haven't written a new blog in 4 weeks!  The last time I blogged was for Ansley's 8 month update, and now she's 9 months!  School started back for me on July 25th, and life has been flying by ever since.  I'll admit it was really hard for me to go back to work this year.  Ansley is at a really fun age, and I truly enjoy spending every second with her.  She makes me laugh and smile all day, and she's developed such a fun personality.  I love teaching, but I hate every minute that I'm away from her.  School had a rough start too.  I had a classroom FULL of 5th graders - 30 of them.  It was a long first two weeks with all 30 kiddos, but thankfully a new teacher has started and our numbers are down to 23.  We've also been busy with birthday parties, engagement parties, and baby showers.  Every weekend in August and September is already booked.  No sleep for the weary!

Ansley turned 9 months on the 17th.  She's definitely on the move.  She crawls everywhere, and now she can even pull herself up.  When we go in her room each morning, she's usually standing up waiting for us.  She babbles all of the time, but she can't quite say anything that we understand.  We're hoping for "mama" or "dada" soon!  Here are a few pictures of her at 9 months.  Kimberly G Photography also took her 8 month pictures two weekends ago.  I can't wait to see those.  I'll share more when I get them, but for now, I'll share the sneak-peak she posted.

Stay tuned for a post about my nephew, Asher's, 2nd birthday party.  We had a blast celebrating with Asher today! 

8 Months Old...

Where has the time gone?  8 months old..!  It seems like Ansley has learned how to do everything in the past week!  She had been trying to sit-up by herself for a while, but she was struggling with getting herself in the seated position.  While we were at the beach, she conquered that task.  She sits up great now.  In fact, now when she gets upset in her crib, she sits up to cry.  She slept in a pack-n-play in our room at the beach, and when she woke up during the night (which was frequent during that trip), she would sit straight up and stare at us!  The most exciting (and scary) thing is that she is crawling.  She has been getting on all fours for a while, and she would just rock back and forth and then fall down.  However, about a week ago, she just took off.  She's not great at it yet, but she's definitely on the move.  I'm not so sure how I feel about this.  We will be baby proofing this house asap!  She's still such a sweet baby though.  Typically she's all smiles and laughs.  She babbles all of the time, but nothing is quite understandable.  She has no teeth yet, but I don't think it will be too long because she chews on anything she can get her hands on.  Here are a few recent pictures and a video of her starting to crawl.  The video was taken the first day she showed us she could "crawl" so it's not perfect, but she's definitely moving!!

Being a ham for the camera.

I love jumping!!

Yay!  Summer is fun!

Beachin' It

We have successfully completed our first family vacation.  We spent the past week in Seacrest Beach with Nathan and Emily Greer and their sweet children, Ellis and Ross.  We loved Seacrest because you have the convenience of Destin or Panama City, without the crazy traffic.  For the most part, the weather was great.  We had a couple of rainy times, but we overall a lot of sunshine.  We were so excited for Ansley to play in the sand and ocean, and she loved every minute.  Vacation with kids is far from relaxing, but seeing their smiling faces makes everything worth it.  With 3 kids, we ate in most nights, but we did manage to go successfully go out to eat a few nights.  I promised to take more pictures than our last trip, and I definitely did!  :)  Emily has a few shots on her camera that I didn't take, so I'll post a few more when I see those too.

First time on the beach...she loved it!

She even took a cat nap.

A few other vacationers to our right...

...and left.

Mommy and Ansley having fun at the pool.

Nathan and Ellis swimming.

Me, Ellis, and Libby - their babysitter

Nate and Mitch waiting patiently outside a shop.

(I'm having a moment...(maybe lack of sleep!)...and I can't remember how to turn this photo in blogger. :)

We bought Ansley a blow-up pool for the beach....I think she likes it!

Ross and Ellis playing in the sand.

Nate and Emily

Ross and Nate

Chillin'

Happy Girl

 

All of the Greers

Sweet Ellis waiting for dinner.

Sweet Ansley waiting for dinner.

Daddy bought Ansley a new float while we were down there.

Another beach nap!

She loves the sand.  This was seconds before that handful went right in her mouth!

I had to get this picture...Nathan trying so hard to get all of their stuff in their car.  It's hard to pack for a week at the beach!!

A lot of exciting things happened while we were at the beach.  Ansley turned 8 months, and my sister had sweet baby Anabelle!  I will post about Ansley's 8 month accomplishments and our precious niece soon!