So it's been a while!

 It's been FOREVER since I've updated the blog.  We aren't the most exciting people on earth, but we've kept busy!  

Ry is EXTREMELY busy with school.  It's the hardest semester he's had BY FAR.  The poor man spends the first half of his day in classes, then the rest of the day is spent doing homework and studying.  We're still just crossing our fingers, hoping that he passes all of his classes so that he graduate this May (I know he can do it, he's just stressed out which makes him worried.  I tell him what I always tell Aiden "You can do hard things!!").  Otherwise, he's doing well! 

I will officially be a stay at home mom by mid/end of March!  We'll be down in Utah County for the majority of April (possibly more) spending time with family.  Then in May/beginning of June, we hope to be back down there for an internship for Ryan while he looks for a job - or gets ready for grad school - whichever works out!  I am SO excited for this next chapter of life!  I'm looking forward to spending more time with my children and with family and friends focusing on building those relationship stronger and focusing on the most important things in life.  I've been asked a lot if this is the right decision to make financially (since I'm the only one working right now) and while, frankly, I don't think it's people's business what my finances are, the answer is yes for anyone who is just dying to know! :)  We are probably some of the most frugal (maybe even cheap) people I know, and we're smart with money, so I'm not worried.  I think after a conversation that happened last week, I will be officially known as "Hippie Heather" due to my homemade cleaning, laundry, hair, crafty projects to my co-workers and friends.  I'll post some of those things another time for those who have asked me for them.

Now, on to why most people read this blog!!  The Boys!  They are so fun!  Asher is getting so big!  He turned 10 months old on the 21st (I cannot believe it!) and he is quite the character!  He loves music, hates to read, loves all baby food, crackers, biscuits, bread, rice cereal and trying to drink our of sippy cups.  He especially loves music by Florence + the Machine, Iron and Wine, Sia, and then anything that's "different" (enya, "Fireflies", etc).  He doesn't say any specific words (he says mama and dada but I don't think he if referring to us) but he does gibber A LOT!  He loves play food, remote controls, and any of his brother's toys (even though he has an insane amount of toys and books e could be playing with).  He sleeps MOST of the night, but always wakes up at least once to eat.  He does go to bed at 7 or 7:30 pm EVERY night though, so I'll take the once a night wake ups.  He is wide awake between 6:30 and 7 every morning, but that's a good 12 hours in his room!  He's so funny, when he wakes up at night, he's never FULLY awake...he's usually standing in his crib, eyes closed, crying.  Then he eats (with his eyes closed), then falls right back asleep.  He is already a tantrum thrower!  He absolutely HATES the word no!  He knows exactly what it means, and as soon as you say it, he'll look out of the corner of his eye to see if you're talking to him, then whine a little and keep doing what he's not supposed to be doing.  You say no again, and he full on throws himself on the floor and cries!  I try not to laugh...but it's pretty funny!  He does throw himself BACKWARD on a regular basis (as in 3 to 5 times a day AT LEAST).  When he throws a tantrum sitting up, he throws himself straight back.  I always try to catch him, but sometimes he smacks himself right into the floor...it's very sad.  And when you hold him - he throws himself backward, just because he thinks it's fun.  One of these days someone is going to drop him and it will be TRAGIC!!  He has 4 teeth and chews on EVERYTHING.  His crib has bite marks all over the inside (he's a little beaver I swear!)  He gives the sweetest, most slobbery kisses ever and I LOVE THEM!  He loves to be tickles by daddy's beard and momma's hair.  He LOVES his big brother and always wants to be where he is.  He's the busiest little boy ever and his such a fun personality! 

Aiden is basically awesome as he would say.  He loves Indiana Jones, Sonic the Hedgehog, ALL music (except the newest hiphop/rap music), dancing, soccer, catch/baseball, cleaning, reading, video games, cooking and school work.  He is by far the busiest boy I've ever seen!  He can run for days and not even be phased!  He loves to dress up and play pretend.  Love little legos, guns (oh dear - y'all know my major dislike of weapons, but I was blessed with TWO boys), and the outdoors.  He is insanely smart!  He can count pass 100 (he always stops around 130 or so, but he can count by 100's up to 900, then it's 10 hundred and so on as he says).  He knows his money and "how much they are".  He can tell you how many pennies are in each one, but we haven't moved on to doing much more then that.  He know his addition to items up to 20 and his subtraction with numbers under 10.  He's learning about cells (which we've compared to a beehive), and is always asking questions about outdoors and other science things.  He's learning about the days, months and seasons with our daily chart and he is writing pretty well.  He is now learning to read and is doing SO well!  He is still the same stubborn little man I've ever met, but he really is such an amazing little boy.  He always gives me hugs and kisses through out the day and says "I love you Aiden's mom" all the time (yes...he still talks in 3rd person on a regular basis...usually because he's decided to be Indiana Jones or Sonic the Hedgehog haha).  He also LOVES his little brother and is always wanting to include him (even when mom says no)...he'll always say "mom, I picked up all my little legos, can't he play in my room?" and when I give in I find random situations like, Aiden playing with little legos and Asher eating crayons.  He just loves having Asher around and it warms my heart that they'll be good friends!  What a blessing Aiden is to our little family!  He truly is a joy!!

Now be ready to be bombarded with pictures (if you haven't already skipped ahead haha)

 

Aiden jumping on the bed.  Remember that book "10 Little Monkeys"? Well...

 This little monkey experienced it first hand!  He was jumping on our bed and knocked the dresser over (which has our tv on it)!!  We are SO lucky that we live in the worlds SMALLEST apartment and the tv fell on the bed and all he got was the scratch next to his eye and a scratch on his forehead.  Now he walks around saying "don't jump on the bed, you could die"

 Aiden got this art station for Christmas.  He uses it on a regular basis!  He's written many things like "Boo Tebow" (We LOVED Tebow...when he was winning haha)...I think you can figure out when that phrase was written...and Sezr (Caesar - from the new "Planet of the Apes" because he never wanted to forget him), etc.  He writes a lot of things and they are usually phonetically correct!  Smart boy!

 Just because how cute is he?!

 Aiden wears long sleeves and SHORT on a regular basis.  Even when it's freezing outside, he's wearing shorts. 

 BOTH of my boys LOVE bath time!  Asher will scream and cry when you take him out!  Aiden makes "poison" to keep the spiders and snakes away (which we haven't seen a single spider or snake in our apartment...so I don't know where he gets that from)...which consists of water and different colors of foam soap (or shaving cream).  I love Aiden's mischievous face in this picture!

 Super Bowl Sunday Aiden decided to cut his hair.  Ry was super sweet and let me sleep in before the festivities began.  I walk in the kitchen and there is a HUGE chunk of hair in a bowl on the table.  I asked Aiden if he cut his hair and he said "yep. and now I can see better!"

 hahaha he was REALLY sad when we had to cute his hair though.  He cried...because now he won't have long beautiful hair like Rapunzel!  If you've seen the movie Tangled you'll know that once you cut your hair - it looses the magic.  I had to convince Aiden that it would grow back and be like hers again haha

 See this chunk?!  That's a lot!!  Here's the pile of hair that we cut off.  It filled and ENTIRE dust pan!

 I cannot believe how much older he looks!  It like a hair cut and he's a grown little man!  He is gonna be quite the charmer!!

 Asher loves looking at himself in the mirror!  He gives himself "kisses" all the time!  It's so darn cute!

 And this is why my house is NEVER clean!  I left the basket of FOLDED laundry on the floor to grab the clothes from the dryer. 

 He had quite a ball!

 And he is so proud of himself (see all those darling little teeth?!  I LOVE them!)

 Aiden walking with Asher around the house

 Asher LOVES the Johnny Jump Up! (thanks Lisa!!)  He spends time in it whenever I need him out of the way to clean, etc. and he has a BLAST!  He jumps pretty high in it too!  I'll try to post a video soon!

 Action shot (see the elephant!)

 Asher enjoying his biscuit.  Ry bought some at the store and set all the bags on the kitchen floor.  Asher crawled right over to the bags and pulled the box of biscuits right out.  Kid knows what he likes!

 Asher is also a climber.  I hate it!  This house is IMPOSSIBLE to truly baby proof.  I wanted to tv hung up so that he couldn't get to it...but we have cinder block walls.  We are SO crammed in this apartment that there are plenty of little "traps" around.  We have it as baby proofed as we can, but I still hate it!  So we put this soft, metal framed toy box in front of the entertainment center to keep him out of all the games and cords....

 Yeah...he figured out how to get around that real fast!

Here Aiden is with the very first book he read ALL BY HIMSELF!!!  He is so proud of himself and he found out just how much he really can do!  Since, he has read to other books by himself, as well as learned a lot of different sight words we've been working on!

Wow...lots of stuff!  I hope everyone is doing well and I'll TRY to update more often!!