Merry Christmas!

I hope everybody had an awesome Christmas like we did. We spent Christmas Eve at my parents' house, where we did our annual Christmas madlib. This is always a blast because my family can get quite funny with words. Let's just say that this year both Santa's "personal funk" and his "junk" were mentioned. Also, someone in the story was wearing only an elastic waistband. The best is that Mom can never get through reading it without crying. (Because she's laughing so hard, not because she's disgusted with our word choices. I think.)

Christmas morning was fun for Asher. He came downstairs to find that Santa had set up a new train for him. We had to talk him into unwrapping the first present, but after that he was all over it. Every time he opened a present he said, "I want that!" Then he'd set it down and head for the next present.

Eventually we got our butts in gear and went to have Christmas breakfast at Korry and Teresa's. It was fun to see some of Kelly's family and hear/see what the kids had gotten for Christmas.

I've had a fun week and now I don't want to go to work on Monday. Oh well. Merry Christmas, everyone!!














Here's Asher's first look Christmas morning.














Opening presents.














Here he is putting all of his new cars on the train tracks.














He picked out this helicopter in October and totally forgot about it.














Kelly and Asher holding Korry's cat, Bella. Bella did pretty well considering how much she doesn't like people.

Fun in the snow

Today after church Asher really wanted to see Uncle Korry. He kept asking and asking, so Kelly finally called Korry. Unfortunately Korry was too busy today for visitors. Asher talked to him on the phone for a bit, but it didn't satisfy his demand. He just kept asking if we could go to Uncle Korry's. Finally we had to distract him by taking him sledding. It was Asher's first attempt at sledding. He was pretty scared. We eventually got him to go down the small hill by himself. Sadly, on his second run down by himself he totally biffed it and face planted himself in the snow. I don't know when we'll get him to go sledding again...

This is right before his first solo attempt. He thought I was getting in behind him, but then I just pushed him down alone. Was that wrong of me?


Here he is going down alone. I don't think he realized I wasn't with him until he got to the bottom.

Asher and Kelly. I love how much Asher is always watching Kelly to see what he should do.


Asher and me. Before I sent him down the hill and he got mad at me...

See how much fun he had? This was taken about two seconds before his face hit the snow. It was fun while it lasted, I guess.

Asher meets the reindeer

Asher's friend Dallin and his little brother Camden came to visit again! We took them to the dinosaur museum and then we got to meet Comet and Blitzen. Asher always has fun with Dallin and we're glad he came to visit!



Asher and Dallin in front of the reindeer.


My cute Asher.

Man these two don't hold still very often!


Their attempts at hugging goodbye kept ending in Asher being tackled. It was quite funny.

Happy Birthday, Julie!

And Korry, and Fiona, and Dustin, and Dianne, and Jaymon, and Karlie, and Grandma Hatch. . . Wow, December's a birthday month for us! I've been so busy that I haven't posted anything in a while. We had a great Thanksgiving, despite being abandoned by my parents. We invited ourselves to Kyle and Janelle's and had a blast. Literally. We went shooting with Kyle and Grandpa J. and I hit a clay pigeon on my third try! Which, by the way, was before Kelly hit one. =)

We're getting excited for Christmas as Kelly LOVES decorating for the holidays. Asher is pretty much having a Cars Christmas. He'll love it.

I'll try to get up more pictures, especially after Christmas, but for now. . .


Asher's Thanksgiving nap. Before we even ate!

Playing with Auntie Karlie's cool shades.

Julie's Birthday party. She let Asher help blow out the candles.

A punk-rocker Halloween

Since Asher had no concept of Halloween or what he wanted to be, we decided to dress him up as a punk rocker. Kelly had a blast painting all over a little leather jacket for Asher. We also painted his nails black, put black lipstick on him, and sprayed his hair blue. He looked so cool. As mentioned before, Asher did not understand Halloween. His cousins' costumes totally freaked him out and he spent the first half-hour of the evening crying and clinging to me or Kelly. But once he figured out he was getting free candy, he really started liking Halloween. After trick-or-treating, we had a fun time hanging out at Korry and Teresa's house. It was a great Halloween!

Even punk rockers get scared and want their mommies.

Wait up everybody!
Where do we go next for free candy??

Our happy little punk.

I met G. Love!!

Many of you already know that one of my favorite bands is G. Love & Special Sauce. They aren't too widely known, but they've been in my top 5 bands for more than ten years. And on
Wednesday, October 29, I met G. Love! It was so awesome. He is so freaking hot. And really nice. We got to go to this small little concert where we could ask questions and then get autographs. Right when the show ended, my friend asked him what was written all over his guitar and he came over to show us. It was a bunch of autographs and he was so excited to show us. There were autographs from Ben Harper, Slash, Jack Johnson, and tons of blues players. It was really cool. It was so fun to get to meet G. (that's what he likes to be called =)) and I'm glad Kelly didn't mind my drooling over another man.

I was dead-center second row with an empty chair in front of me! Oh it was heavenly!

Me, G., and Kelly. Kelly challenged G. to a basketball game and G. told Kelly he'd kick his butt.

G. Love with my little bro, Brendan.

Cornbelly's!

The weekend before Halloween we took Asher to Cornbelly's for some fun. He got to jump on a giant trampoline, ride a cow train, see singing chickens, play in corn and so much more...

Poor Asher

Asher has had a pretty bad week. It started with a fever Monday morning. When I took him to the pediatrician that afternoon, they said it was nothing to worry about. Tuesday afternoon he started getting a rash that looked kind of like chicken pox. So we went to the pediatrician again. The doctor was not quite sure what it was. He said it could be chicken pox. Or not. Well, it just kept getting worse and worse. When Asher woke up Thursday morning, his hands, face, and feet were really swollen. So away we went to the pediatrician yet again. So it's not chicken pox. And it's not the hives. It's some weird vascular rash. Whatever that means. But he's not contagious. He started taking some kind of steroids last night, and he's doing a lot better today. (Plus he got a blessing last night.) The swelling in his feet has gone down to the point that he can walk again. It looks like he's on the mend. My poor little guy.

Asher's new 'do

Well, I finally cut off Asher's hair. Kelly didn't want me to, but then he went out with his friends Friday night so I seized the opportunity to do it behind his back. It was Asher's first haircut that I didn't do. He did pretty well, but I can't say he loved it. I was so worried Kelly would be mad at me. But you just can't deny how cute Asher looks, so I didn't get in trouble. Asher looks more like a little boy than a baby now. It's hard to believe how fast he's growing up!


Asher's favorite part of the haircut was the sucker they gave him. Isn't he adorable??

Playing with Mazzy.

Cool dude Asher.




These were taken at Vivian Park. Asher wasn't too pleased with being the subject of so many photos.

Hanging out with Dallin

Asher's friend Dallin is visiting from Iowa for a few weeks, so we decided to take him to Farm Country at Thanksgiving Point. The boys had fun running around and completely ignoring their mothers.

Chillin' with the cows.

For some reason Asher and Dallin loved this empty wagon the best. Go figure.

Feeding the ducks with Auntie Julie and Dallin's mom, Serena.

Visiting Grandpa J

On our way back from Las Vegas, we stopped and spent the night at Kelly's dad's house. It was a nice visit and Asher had fun with Grandpa J. Asher did not, however, care for the buffalo head or the moose head that hang in Grandpa J's living room. It was quite entertaining. Eventually Asher warmed up enough to the "tatanka" to pet its nose. ("Tatanka" means "buffalo" for those of you who haven't seen Dances with Wolves a bazillion times.)
Asher and Grandpa share some popcorn. Yummy!

Asher got to go on his first 4-wheeler ride. And then his second. And then his third...
He really liked the 4-wheelers!