Evan's gonna to party like it's 1999

This week was full of celebrations!

Evan celebrated his 100th day of JK with a big party. The mothers in this group do an amazing job planning these events.

They decorated pencil boxes, made necklaces, got their face painted, ate cupcakes (or just the icing in my son's case), played musical chairs, went fishin' and played bean bag toss.

  

  

You try getting 50 four year olds looking the same way at the same time. Yeesh!

On Friday, we had our Friday night dates over - The Lawsons. :) We are very fortunately to have best friends who live so very close and like coming over for a super casual dinner in a messy house that contains wild, excited, over-stimulated kids. And of course, Evan loves Gemma. 

Saturday brought our little socialite, Ethan's birthday party at SkyZone. He had a blast. He jumped and jumped and jumped. I was a little jealous, to be honest. They do have an aerobics class they offer on the trampoline and you can drop your kid off the jump as well, but in the end it would cost $35. That's an expensive class (but I bet fun). More importantly, Evan overcame his fear of the foam pit! I am trying to dismiss the flu virus that must be all over those foam pieces in the spirit of my son's adventurous side...but ew.

Saturday night our friend's the Lees came over. Lyles just turned 2 and the boys had a blast with her! It was like she was a new toys. Evan took his role as the 'big kid' very seriously and was watching out after her. At one point John went to check on them and Evan was in Luke's crib, Lyles and Luke were in front of the crib. Lyles and Luke would throw a toy into the crib at Evan and Evan would throw it back. At one point they had every single toy and book in Luke's room in that crib. I will let you just guess who was the ring leader of that event.

 

This picture cracks me up. Luke is watching Lyles and Lyles is watching Evan's sucker. LOL!

On Sunday Evan's classmate and friend Lila came over while her mom and dad had some errands to run. Again, Evan was on cloud nine! Luke just loved saying her name. He has the L sound mastered. All throughout the house we'd hear Luke saying, "Liiiiilaaaa".
Evan and Lila must have been talking about their bikes at school because Lila was super excited to be able to ride bikes with Evan. Evan has been ...um... less than enthusiastic about bike riding lately because it doesn't come very easy. He's not very versed in the discipline of practicing. But a little peer pressure was just what he needed. By the end of their playdate, Evan had mastered starting (the biggest hurdle) stopping and even turning! 

From baby steps to running

We have had a low key 2013, which is GREAT by me. 2012 was so jammed packed with starting therapies, selling our house, moving, traveling...it was a world-wind. I am hoping 2013 will be boring. Just plain ole everyday blissfully boring stuff.

I will tell you 2013 has brought us a Luke who loves to chat! I feel like I can understand about 85% of what he says, and he is really trying. Just last night he said, as clear as day, "Give me dat!" John and I laughed so hard that there was no way we could correct him for being slightly rude. That's the thing about a speech delayed kid. We get so excited he is actually talking about what he wants, that manners are going to have to come secondary. All night the four of us would look at each other and shout "Give me dat!" and just laugh and laugh.

Speaking of laugh...this keeps a smile on my face all day long.

Feeding therapy is also going amazingly well. Miss 'Becca' keeps calling Luke "The Poster Child for Feeding Therapy", which you know I just love. He does much much much better during our group session than he does at home with me. We are supposed to do a feeding therapy session at home once a day. When she told me that, I almost came unglued, and uncharacteristically, I showed it. I rememeber saying, "Once a day?? At home?? You know we only have about 2.5 hours at home together as a family?? And during those 2.5 hours I am unpacking and repacking lunches, preparing dinner AND making the boys dinner (because they don't eat what we eat...which is a whole other blog post) and then after all that trying to spend some quality time just being with them. Now I have to have an entire feeding therapy session?!?!" Miss Rebecca calmly let me finish and comforted me by saying she understood the demands of a working mom and for me to do what I can. Just those few words helped me relax and realize it is going to be okay if we miss a therapy here or there.
Dinner time is still stressful and he will eat many more things during therapy than he will for me. Some things I have learned that help with eating:

1. Do not give him more than one food at a time. When I put 6 things on his plate he becomes overwhelmed and will only eat his 'comfort food'. He is 95% more likely to eat something if it is the only thing on his plate. And even if he doesn't eat it, he'll still play with it, which is a good thing.
2. Playing with your food is a good thing. We put noodles on our head. We tap oranges to our nose. We give chicken nugget kisses. We drive wheels of cheese up our arms. It's all about getting comfortable with the food no matter how silly it seems.
3. Just when I think I have this little dude figured out, he surprises me. We have been working on ham for about 6 weeks. He went from shoving his plate across the table and screaming when it appeared, to making stacks of it and pushing it over with his tongue, to shoveling it in his mouth as fast as he could. Nothing changed and actually we had taken a break at home from the ham for 2 weeks.

Luke went to his first birthday party this weekend. He had been invited to another one but because of scheduling conflicts, this was the first one he got to attend. Luke is our little introvert, which I love about him. It takes me out of my comfort zone to understand how he reacts in large settings, but I am learning. I was so excited how well he did at the party. He got right in there and played with everyone and everything!

Wedded Bliss

We were so excited about our cousin Jessica's wedding!! You know it's going to be a good night when the officiant starts the wedding with "Hot Damn!"

Jessica married Brennan on Saturday, January 12 at Hillwood at Daive's Plantation. Brennan has already been adopted into our family this just made it official!

Melissa and Jason were able to fly in from Houston for the wedding. We always are so excited to have them stay with us when they come. We just always wish they could stay longer!

There was food and fun and dancing and even a photobooth! Luke is obessed with this picture. He keeps asking for the ca'tn mar-ka picture.

Jessica and Brennan - We are so blessed to have you in our family. I wish you years and year of happiness. All our love. The Asbells

2013 Resolutions

Several people who read my blog have asked me about my 2013 resolutions. I guess people have realized New Year's Resolutions are a big deal to me. ;)

First, a couple things about resolution making I have learned over the years.
1. I can't have a 'negative' word in my resolution. I WON'T do something.... I CAN'T have something... Maybe it is the rebellious Scorpio in me but anytime someone (even myself) says I can't have something or I won't be able to do it, I find a way. That is why tradition elimination diets never worked for me.
So if I want to make a resolution where I eliminated something, I have give myself a 'cheat' time or just rewrite the entire thing to say what I need to do, not what I can't do.

2. I can't make a resolution that I have to do everyday. I fail at those every time...usually by January 5th.

3. My resolutions have to last almost the whole year. 2010 is was to survive as a mom of two. Can I be honest and say I am still working on that one?? 2011, it was the run two half marathons. I completed that resolution the first week in December. 2012 was writing my blog at least once a week. I completed that resolution on December 31. If this is truly a resolution, a determination, I don't need to meet it my February. That is more just something I want to do one time.

4. My resolutions have to be measurable.  Maybe it is the teacher in me. It has been beat in my head as an educator that expectations have to have a measurable outcome. I can't say I am going to run more. I have to say, I will run two half marathons this year. I have to set measurable outcomes to make myself feel successful.

I made half of my resolutions for 2013 back in October. I know...I am THAT person. My resolutions are very personal this year though. But I can give you a general feel of what they are.

My biggest resolution is to work on relationships. I have a lot of relationships and at this stage in my life, I need to start fostering those again. I was really moved by a sermon where the pastor spoke on building relationships...real meaningful relationships with people. At that point in my life I was still surviving being a working mother of 2, but knew that this was something that really struck a chord with me. God was putting this idea in my heart to fester and grow into a plan of action.
When my boys were smaller (yes, I know 4 and 2 are very young) it was next to impossible to put relationships outside of the house as a high priority. We were in pure basic simple survival mode. Now I don't ever want to use the excuse, "I am too busy. I am soooo busy." Honestly, that is one of my biggest pet peeves. Because everybody, from the President to little old me, has been given the exact same 24 hours in a day. I have chosen how to fill my days. I chose to have two kids pretty close together. I choose to work full time in a pretty demanding job. I choose to teach pilates part time outside of work. I choose to run 10-12 miles a week. I choose to spend 5+ hours volunteering at my church. These are all choices I make each day, week, hour. So yes, I might be busy, but I have chosen to be busy.

So in true Amanda style I have set two measurable outcomes. That is what is a little too personal for me to share on here. I will share how I met these resolutions once I meet them in December just to keep myself accountable.

I hope you were able to make some resolutions this year that are not only meaningful but things that can make you happy with this very short and blessed life we have been given. 

If you are not a resolution maker, I hope your 2013 is a rocking good year!

One is silver and the other is gold

Make new friends, but keep the old.

One is silver and the other's gold.

You know those friends who have known you for years and still love you...I've got some of those.

You know those friends who have seen you at your worst and still remain friends with you? I've got some of those.

You know those friends who support even if their political, religious, or personal belief is different? I've got those.

You know those friends who have watched you go through about 5 different life changes and they have supported each one? I have those.

You know those friends who you might not have seen in 3 or 10 years because life is just too dern hectic, but when you do finally catch up, you can close down the restaurant? Yeah, I've got those too.

You know those friends who you literally have know since second, fifth, tenth grade? I've got some of those.

You know those friends who you can tell story after story reminiscing about old times and the stories never get old? I've got those.

You know those friends who are the same age as you, but the waiter is convinced the entire table is under 28? Yup, got those too.

I am thankful the holidays let me get together with all of my OLD and NEW friends.

Make new friends, but keep the old.

One is silver and the other's gold.