Asa-Isms.

This age is awesome! Asa keeps me laughing all day long. he is really starting to talk up a storm now and there are so many things he's said that I have been meaning to write down. My favorite phrase right now is "big meow". Big Meow is what he calls the King Fu Panda movie. The kid is totally obsessed with this show and Big Meow is the name he came up with because of Tai Lung (the bad tiger). We watch "Big Meow" twice a day if not more.
Asa has learned what the word watch means. He is constantly telling us to WATCH before he does something. Usually it precedes a bout of jumping up and down or holding up his body with his arms between the couch and the footrest.
Anytime Asa sees a toilet, whether it's ours, his, one of TV or one at the store, he will say quite loudly "I poo-poo". He has used his own little potty a few times and definitely knows what toilets are for.
Asa's favorite foods are chicken nuggets, blueberries, macaroni and cheese, waffles. He calls chicken nuggets "bawk-bawk", blueberries are "bee-bees" and macaroni and cheese is "moni cheese". Waffles are "faffles".
He has become very physically able. He runs everywhere, sits and jumps on everything, climbs on anything he can. He has also become a big fan of drawing, playing with play dough, painting (when I'm brave) and building with blocks.
Asa knows and loves the song "Itsy Bitsy Spider" and thanks to that song, spiders are now called simply "bitsy". He sees a bug that even looks like a spider and he runs around screaming "bitsy" until someone comes to see it and/or dispose of it.
Asa now understands that when Berkeley or I say "no" to him, he is being reprimanded. Now when one of us says no, he will get this really sad face and say "daddy, no, no" or "mommy, no, no". We then have to say "yes, we said no but we still love you."
Asa now sings. He sings random mumbles all the time, but now he actually sings a real song! He sings "la la la Elmo's world la la la elmo's world" all the time. Yup, he loves his Elmo's World DVD. He loves Sesame Street too. He watches old clips on youtube where the sesame street puppets talk to the little boy, John-John. He walks around talking about "john-john" all day.
Here is a little video of Asa showing off some of his Asa-isms. I pretty much think he is the sweetest little guy in the world, but I'm biased...very.

Thanksgiving 2010

As always, Thanksgiving was tons of fun. It was super nice this year because we had our Thanksgiving dinner at the church, so there was tons of room to run around and the kids could go crazy. We pulled out toys from the nursery, set up a paint station to decorate Christmas ornaments, had a projector screen with couches for movies and the wii set up too. Dinner was great and spending time with family was even better. Here's a look at our Thanksgiving through a ton of pictures!

First Snow!

Asa has been an "outside boy" his whole life! Seriously, we don't go 30 minutes inside before he is begging to go back outside. We spent most of every summer day outside. Needless to say, this transition to winter has been rough. Berkeley and I decided it would be a very good idea (for our sanity and Asa's) to invest in some good snow clothes for the little man. We had our first snowfall and Asa absolutely loved being able to go tromp around in it. We even played at the park. The only problem is that snow clothes take forever to put on, especially when your child is completely impatient and would out into the freezing cold naked if I let him. Oh well, it's worth it if I'm able to let the caged animal out from time to time.

Today We Found Out...

We are THRILLED!

He Learned How to do Push-Ups From Me.

Here's the proof.

Another First!

Yep, he was taking a bath and started climbing out. When I asked why he was getting out, he told me he told me he needed to poop. He sat on his little potty and did his business. We haven't been potty training him, but we ask him every so often if he wants to pee in his potty and he does sometimes, but this was the first time he initiated it. Hmmm...maybe potty training will come sooner than I thought.

FREE!

I don't think there is a word that makes me feel as happy inside as the word "free". Especially when the items you get for free are awesome. Well, we went by Berkeley's parent's house the other day and noticed that the neighbor had this Little Tikes castle just sitting on the curb by his garbage cans. We went over and checked it out. It was in perfect condition! We couldn't believe he was just going to throw it away, so we went and knocked on his door. Sure enough, he was just throwing it out and said we could have it if wanted it. Um, YES! That thing is like a 2 year old's dream come true! We were taking the castle apart when that same neighbor came over and said, "So, do you want a truck?" He went to his garage and rolls out this PowerWheels electric truck! Those things are like $200! Heck yes we want the truck! Thank goodness Berkeley and I happened to stop by his parent's house that day (and before the garbage man came) because we got two hot ticket kid's items for FREE. Yep, I love that word.

"Mow-Mow!"

Asa is totally obsessed with lawn mowers. He's been obsessed with them for a very long time now. If I had a nickel for every time we said "mow-mow" in a day, I might be rich. I keep waiting for this lawn mower phase to pass, but so far there is no end in sight for his total love of grass cutting machines. My mom bought this little bubble blower lawn mower for him at the beginning of the summer and it has been the best investment ever made. He would just push that mower around our yard all day if I let him. Asa also loves to watch videos on YouTube of people mowing the lawn. We can hardly get the computer out without him mauling us and demanding we find videos of "mow-mows". It is like Christmas when Berkeley mows the lawn. We get discounted rent for doing lawn work, and the lawn here is enormous! Mowing this lawn takes quite a bit of time, but Asa will mow with his little mower right along side Berkeley without a break until the job is done. I took some videos and pictures of the boys in action today.

Welcome Home Elder Ward!!

Berkeley's brother Douglas got home from his mission last week! We are all so excited to have him back. He served in the Albuquerque, New Mexico mission and did a wonderful job teaching the gospel to the people there. Here are some pictures from the welcome home party at the airport.

If I Had Time...

I am always in a battle with time. I am the mother of a super active 20 month old, wife to an awesome husband who I want to spend all my extra time with, and full time student preparing to student teach in January, oh, and I'm pregnant. I'm busy! Sometimes, like today, I sit and make lists of things I want to do when I finally have expendable time. For example, I really enjoy cooking but I usually just make the same 7 recipes because they are fast and I have them memorized. Someday, when I have time, I want to flip to a random page in my cookbook, go buy all the ingredients and make something new! Here's one I want to try...

If you have more time than I do and want to try this recipe, go here...
http://recipesbyme4you.blogspot.com/2009/02/gourmet-recipes-chicken-stew-with.html

Another thing I want to do is learn how to play some sort of instrument. My secret confession is that I want to learn to play the Ukulele so I can sing and play songs by Ingrid Michaelson and Jack Johnson all day long.

I want to write children's books. I have lots of ideas, who knows how good they are, but given time, I want to sit down and create storyboards for my ideas. Form those ideas into text, find an illustrator and get published! Dreaming big? Maybe, but maybe not.

Someday time and I will get along, but for now I am just trying to enjoy the "stuff" I currently have loaded on my plate. Thank goodness I have Berkeley and Asa to keep me happy and sane.

Oh, take a second and vote on what you think the gender of our baby is. We find out in less than three weeks!