2 Milestones

This last week has been a super crazy one…I have so much going on and so much to do that blogging has fallen by the wayside. But, I’m back and I have some cool things to blog about.

On Monday, Asher rolled over for the first time! After I change his diaper I lay him on his tummy. This makes me remember to give him tummy time, otherwise I would never do it! On Monday after changing his diaper and laying him on his tummy I went to throw away the diaper and wash my hands. When I came back, Asher was on his back. Now, I know Brayden didn’t do it since he was with me. So I put Asher on his tummy again and sure enough! Within a few seconds he was back on his back. He did it again after that too so I know it wasn’t just a fluke! I was pretty stoked. He’s only 3 ½ months so I wasn’t expecting it since Brayden was almost 5 months when he first rolled over. But I hear the second one usually picks up on those things faster.

The other Milestone this week is we moved B to a big bed. Well, we’re still in the process, but we’re getting there! Tuesday night we put him in the big bed in his room instead of his crib. After an hour of him escaping and us putting him back in his bed, we finally called it a night and put him in his crib. The next night the same thing happened but last night…TaDa!!! He stayed in his room. He got off of his bed and ended up falling asleep by the door but he never came out of his room! I’m pretty excited about this. He’s still so young that we normally wouldn’t worry about moving him to a big bed yet…however, we need the crib for Asher. We still are putting B in the crib during naps but we’ll attack that next week…

Also this week, Brayden had a fever we *think* due to teething. He has had a rotten attitude and been in a foul mood all week. It has been a long, exhausting, very unproductive week for us. I’m really excited for him to learn to talk to us instead of screaming and yelling at us…constantly. During one of his many nap attempts this week (he doesn’t like sleeping anymore) he somehow managed to get out of his crib. It was the weirdest thing…his screaming never changed, I never heard him quiet down or stop even for a second. I never heard a thump of him hitting the ground or the box of toys I’m surprised he didn’t hit. But all the sudden he was opening his door and coming to me. I really wish I had video of how he did it! This being another incentive to move him to a big bed…this is his second time he’s gotten out, fortunately not getting hurt either time! The mattress is at its lowest and the railing at its highest so I don’t really know what else to do besides switch him out!

Asher is such a smiley baby still. He’s so content to just chill, but when we spend any attention on him he just smiles and laughs the entire time! He is such a sweet babe. I don’t even know what else to say about him!
Brayden is talking more. His new words this week are “apple” “cracker” and “cookie.”

It’s crazy how fast kids grow!!! I’m trying to enjoy it while they’re young, but I’ll definitely be grateful when Brayden is feeling better!

I haven’t updated since my cell phone incident but I finally did get a new cell phone! Yay! It’s nothing fancy…but a new phone nonetheless. I’m excited! It’s crazy how much cell phone technology has changed in 4 years!

Brayden at his finest

Asher was sleeping on the bed and Brayden thought it would be fun to play in Asher's bouncer. Such an awesome video, I had to share. It's kinda long so don't worry about watching the entire thing. Oh, and excuse the messy room. I'd much rather be video-ing Brayden than clean :)

Conglomeration

We have had a lot of fun with the camera the last couple of days. Here are some pictures!

Playing with the camera

Isn't he a handsome boy?

Showin Asher some loves

and happy little Asher!!

Brayden's debut photo

We stuck Brayden in the big bathtub yesterday. He has so much fun with the bubbles. It helps that it's a jacuzzi tub so the bubbles never have to die :)

Playin in the bubbles

Asher being his cute self

Handsome Brayden. Isn't that $5 hoodie awesome!?

Daddy and Brayden playing

On Wednesday, the boys and I were able to go to the hospital and meet their new friend, Ronan.

Proud Parents Mark and Kelli, with Ronan...2 days old

Brayden loved holding the "bay-bee!"

Thanks for letting us visit Mark and Kelli!

Stressful!

So, I was washing Brayden's hands after lunch in the kitchen sink and my cell phone falls out of my pocket, and down the disposal. Fortunately the disposal wasn't on but my phone drowned. So yeah, I have no phone right now. We've had a bunch of bills hit us all at once and don't have the money to even pay those so it's gonna be awhile before I get a new phone. We'll see if we can find someone with a spare Sprint phone lying around that we can use in the interim.

On a happier note, I made delicious oatmeal raisin cookies today to curb my sweet tooth without chocolate. And they're still warm...yummy.

Asher in the Bible

Ever since we decided to name our 2nd son Asher, I've wondered who Asher was in the bible. We didn't name him after the biblical Asher, but I was hoping that I wasn't giving him the name of a "bad guy." Last Sunday I finally remembered while I had my scriptures in front of me to look it up. I found out that Asher is a tribe of Israel. There were quite a lot of references in the Bible Dicitonary but these were my two favorites.

In Deuteronomy 33: 24-25 it says:

24 And of Asher he (meaning Moses) said, Let Asher be blessed with children; let him be acceptable to his brethren, and let him dip his foot in oil.

25 Thy shoes shall be iron and brass; and as thy days, so shall thy strength be.

And in 1st Chronicles 7: 40 it says:

40 All these were the children of Asher, heads of their father’s house, choice and mighty men of valour, chief of the princes. And the number throughout the genealogy of them that were apt to the war and to battle was twenty and six thousand men.

In 1st Chronicles 7:30 it tells us that "The sons of Asher [are] Imnah, and Isuah, and Ishuai, and Beriah, and Serah their sister."

There were a lot more verses about Asher and his goodness but these two just stuck with me the most. I know that we didn't name our son after this Asher, but, I don't mind that they share a name :) I hope that when Asher is older, it will be exciting for him to read these verses and want to strive to be somewhat like him!

Why no chocolate?

A couple people have asked me "what!? Why no chocolate?" So I decided I'd respond on here. Chocolate is my downfall. I could eat it all day every day. I absolutely love it. Once I get started, I can't stop. Santa brought me a bag of snickers in my stocking and it was all I could do to not eat them all right then and there. I am trying to lose baby weight as well as live a healthier lifestyle (hence, the running.) My mom has gone without chocolate for a year in the past and when we started talking about our 2009 challenge, we decided that we all wanted to agree to that. This, more than anything else, is the one thing I can do to prove to myself that yes, I can do it. I have never been good at disciplining myself or saying no when it comes to food or yes when it comes to exercise. This is a brand new year. I just had a baby and it will be awhile before I get pregnant again (hopefully.) I will never again be as young as I am now and I figured I'd take advantage of it all and get into shape. If I don't say no to chocolate, all the running in the world won't help me lose this weight :). So, that's why...

Enumclaw

The car ride...there is nothing better than the sound of 2 sleeping babies...except the sound of 2 sleeping babies after they've been screaming for awhile

On the 27th Sean, Asher and I went to Rachel and Elliot Rutt's annual Christmas party complete with food, friends and a white elephant gift exchange. Thanks Rach and Elliot for inviting us! We had a blast. Oh, and next year? We definitely need to get more pics.

Melyssa and Asher...hopefully next year she has one of these! Or one on the way ;)

Yss and me

It's a tradition in our family to turn out all of the lights except the Christmas tree lights and BLAST as loud as the stereo will go our 2 favorite songs from Handel's Messiah. We all lay on the floor and just soak in the amazingness of Handel and the masterpiece he was able to create in just 22 short days. We, being the family we are, have a blast doing this. We pretend that we're "conducting" the choir, using not only our hands, but our legs too :) We do get silly, but we have a blast doing it. It is personally one of my favorite traditions!

Kayla holding Asher. She loves babies!

Tyce playing with the trains Brayden got for Christmas

I got to see my best friend Jessi while we were in Enumclaw. She has a daughter 2 1/2 weeks older than Brayden and a daughter 4 weeks younger than Asher. (We didn't plan it that way, we swear!) I didn't get to see Jessi nearly long enough and who knows when I'll get to see her again (Nebraska Jessi? Really? Come on...) but I was grateful to be able to see her at all. Anyway, this above picture is Asher and Lexi all bundled in the car.

New Year's Resolution

The girls in my family decided to do our New Year's Resolution together this year. We have a plan to keep us all motivated. Here are the rules.

1. No Chocolate

2. No Carbonation

3. No eating after 8pm

4. Drink 64 oz of water a day

5. Exercise

Every day that we succeed at each of these tasks we get a check mark. (A half hour of exercise equals 1 check mark, and this is the only area that we can receive more than 1 check mark a day.) Every week the numbers get emailed to me and I'll keep track. Once a quarter we'll have "PayDay." We haven't figured out exactly yet how this is going to work but we do know that each check mark is worth a dollar. I think it will be that if Lisa has 100 check marks and I only have 95, I will owe her $5. But then if my mom only has 90, she'll owe me $5. I'm not sure if she'd owe Lisa $5 too...we haven't really talked about it yet. We might also do it where we pay ourselves. However much money we "earn" from our teammates we pay to ourselves. So if I earned $10, I'd buy a $10 iTunes gift card, or put that money towards a jogging stroller. Another aspect to the resolution is we'll have monthly challenges. We're going to start this in a couple months just so we don't get overwhelmed, but one month, we'll see who can run 50 miles first. Another month we'll see who can work out 10 hours first. Another month we'll see who can go the longest without eating any sweets, etc. We were thinking about whoever wins the month's challenge wouldn't have to pay out any money they might have to pay for that month. However, we decided that we didn't want the challenge to affect the money so we're thinking about finding a sponsor (Dad? :) Just kidding.) and whoever wins gets a $5 gift card to Jamba Juice or something like that. We obviously still have a lot of the details to figure out, but we are up and running on the 5 rules stated above.

My mom has gone an entire year in the past without chocolate so I know it's possible...but it sounds a little torturous to me! I know that there aren't any real consequences to eating a bite of chocolate besides the check mark...however, I think it would be awesome to say I went a month, or 6 months or yes, even a year, without chocolate. I'm addicted so it will be tough, but I am planning on actually sacrificing and avoiding it for a little while at least! So, so long chocolate peanut butter milkshakes, hot chocolate, mint chocolate chip ice cream, brownies, chocolate chip cookies, and a whole bunch of other really super good desserts! See ya in a year!

Running Update

This is for my own journaling purposes. Probably boring for most of you but I'll love looking back on this later :)

I wasn't able to get out running much the last 2 weeks of December because of the massive amounts of snow and ice. (I did get a good workout pushing Sean on the sled though!) When we were up at my parents after Christmas I figured I'd take advantage of my mom's treadmill. When I go running outside, my endurance sucks. I can't run very far at all until I have to slow to a walk to catch my breath. When I was on the treadmill though, I was able to set my pace. I took it at a slower pace than I do when running outside and it was a drastic difference. I warmed up by walking 4 minutes (.2 miles.) Then I sped it up a little to a 13 minute mile pace. I was able to run (jog, I suppose) a mile, then a mile and a half, then 2 miles, all the while not even breathing heavily. This is something I'd never experienced! Never did I think that I, Kimberly, could go that far without stopping to catch my breath. Anyway, when I hit the 2 mile mark I decided that since I was doing so well, I'd go for a 5k, so 3.2 miles. I did it! I ran the ENTIRE 3.2 miles without slowing to a walk. (Is it 3.1 miles? I ran 3.2 to be safe.) Some of you are thinking "man, that's easy! I can do that in my sleep!" However, this is HUGE for me. 6 months ago (I was pregnant, so I guess 1 year ago) I NEVER would have imagined that I would on purpose, without being chased, run 5k just because I wanted to. I have always *hated* running. The thought of running just for the fun of it just did not make any sense to me. Back to my story, after I finished my 3.2 miles I walked for another 6 minutes to cool down, bringing my total workout to 50 minutes. My quads were kind of sore the next day so I only ran a mile. Then Thursday I went running outside. I wanted to take my new slower pace into my own hands instead of the treadmill's and test it out. I did 1.84 miles and again, didn't slow down. I am loving the center button on my iPod that when I touch it it tells me my pace :) because then I can know for sure when to kick it up or bring it back. I was getting bored with my usual route so I took a new route today when I went running. I wanted to go at least 2.5 miles and I went 3 miles! I cannot believe how drastic my running abilities have changed once I had the pace epiphany. Last week I was toying with the idea of *maybe* entering and running a 10k. (Meaning it wouldn't have happened.) Now, I know for sure that I want to run the Helvetia 10k on June 13th. I know I can do it. And it will keep me motivated to keep training. Anyone want to join me?

I can't say that I *love* running yet. But I can say that I do look forward to going. I do love syncing my iPod after a run and looking at the green line on nikeplus.com that illustrates my run for me. I do love that it tells me how many miles I've gone and how many workouts I've done. I do love the break I get from everything else when I go running. Don't get me wrong, I love my boys...but it's nice to leave them all at home and go do something for myself, especially if it's something healthy!

I haven't noticed any differences in my body yet. I haven't lost weight or anything (the holidays didn't help with that) but I know that with the help of new year's resolutions, I'll hopefully be able to lose the extra weight in my belly that having 2 boys gave me!