Retail Therapy and A New Day

When Mark got home from work yesterday he lovingly asked if he could watch Asher so I could get out of the house and have a break from the bubba. He didn't even have to finish the sentence before I answered "Yes" and headed for my car! What a great husband I have!

Headed out shopping with my best friend and ended up buying these. So fun. They make me happy every time I see them. Yes, I know I shouldn't emotionally shop but that's a whole other blog post!

When I came home Mark was making dinner (again, an amazing hubby) and Asher was in a little better mood....Praise the Lord! After Ash went to bed I needed to unwind so I made these. They are my absolute favorite in the world. Delightful. After a few cookies and PLENTY of dough, I felt even better. What a perfect way to end a hard day!:) Again, I know that emotional eating is not healthy but this isn't a counseling session, right?

Asher woke up so much happier today. Still have some attitude and disobedience issues to work on but I can at least catch glimpses of my sweet little boy in there. Yay!

Reminder for Today

"God knows better than any of us do what furthers our salvation. Our true happiness is to be realized precisely through his refusals, which are always mercies. His choice is flawlessly contrived to give the deepest kind of joy as soon as it is embraced"
-Elizabeth Elliot, Keep a Quiet Heart


Struggling with Asher and his attitude, defiance, disobedience a lot lately. Really frustrated and discouraged. Reminded today that my salvation is being worked out through parenting him....and through God's "refusals" to have him obey immediately. :) Even though I don't understand all of His reasons, I do see that my selfishness, impatience, anger, weaknesses are rising to the surface and (hopefully) being refined through these struggles. I choose joy and I choose to embrace whatever God wants to reveal. Lord, give me grace!

A long week with a sick little puppy

Plain and simple, this week was a bad week. A really frustrating, discouraging, and LONG week for us.

I got some sort of flu bug last Sunday and was sick all day Monday and still recovering some on Tuesday. Got up enough energy to go grocery shopping on Tuesday afternoon and then Asher started acting weird and running a fever Tuesday night. Wednesday-Friday he had a consistently high fever of 104-105 without medicine (along with a cough, runny nose, congestion, etc.). Finally, yesterday it went down to around 100-101 and I started to see some recovery and progress in him. Today, I can confidently say he's on the mend and finally starting to regain energy and act like himself. It was bad. And, I have to confess, I was grumpy because I didn't really leave the house for 3 days straight. Plus, we missed out on all the Halloween festivities because of him being sick. Boo. Being a parent is hard and it means sacrificing for your child when you don't want to. That's easy to say but a lot harder to live out with joy in the midst of the sacrifice. I failed a lot this week - as a parent and as a wife and as a person who loves Jesus - I gave into complaining and feeling sorry for myself. But, I also experienced Jesus meeting me in my frustration and exhaustion and worries. He was there with me even when I didn't "feel" Him. I'm so thankful that He's faithful to us even when we fail him....His mercies are new every morning!

Alright, enough with the venting/journaling session...didn't expect to write that much!:)
Even though we couldn't go trick-or-treating with our friends last night, we did put Asher's costume on to show how cute he would have looked if we could have gone out! He wasn't super thrilled about the ordeal but at least we got a few smiles out him...

We ended up buying some candy yesterday since we were gonna be home and would have trick-0r-treater's. Asher saw us handing out candy to all the kids that came by and he kept saying, "bite, bite!" It was very sad. Finally, I gave in and let him have a candy bar before going to bed. Poor kid, that's as much Halloween candy as he's gonna get this year! He. loved. it.

Oh, and one more thing, I don't know how I would have survived this week without my best friend, Brook. She literally was a lifesaver! Because of the snow this week, she didn't have school Wed-Fri so she came by everyday. She brought me Starbucks, rented movies for us, ordered pizza and just helped entertain Asher for hours. Which, by the way, he LOVES her SO much. It's ridiculous how grumpy he can be with me but the minute he sees her he starts laughing and finds newfound energy. :) Thanks so much for all your help and for being an incredible friend, Brook. I love you!

When you Wish Upon a Star....Farms

We headed to Wishing Star Farms this past weekend to celebrate Fall and pick out pumpkins for carving. It was super fun and the perfect day for it!

Asher had tons of fun feeding the animals in the petting zoo...

He rode on this "train" with his friend Scarlett -

It made me a little nervous when, on the first ride, I look out to them way across the field and see Asher standing up in his cart. Apparently the "seatbelts" they had didn't contain my child very well. So, what did I do?

Yep! I rode with him the next time around. Over protective parent?? Nah. :)

He learned how to pump water - obviously something every 1 year old needs to know!

Pet a VERY large Hog. Seriously, it was huge.

Saw a camel...a common sight on the plains of Colorado.

Rode down this big slide with dad

And, of course, picked out his own pumpkin...

Auntie "Booooot" (Brook) came along too!

Asher and Scarlett had fun together!

Oh Breck, how I love you!

Earlier this month we headed to Breckenridge for a week as a late anniversary trip. It was perfect! We left Asher with Mark's parents for part of the week and then had him and our dear friends, Robby and Joanna, join us for the second half of the week. It was such a good balance of having time alone (and sleeping in!) and being together as a family and with people we love. Plus, going to Breck during the off season is the way to go because all the fun restaurants offer incredible discounts and it's not too crowded! Here's some documentation of our time there -
Love 'em!

We went to Lake Dillon one day and Asher had a great time playing on the super cool playground:

Loving the slide...

Such a goof (check out his eyes)

The views are absolutely breathtaking!

A little self-family portrait

Of course you can't be near a lake and not throw rocks in it, right?

This is the town square in Breck - yeah, I could live there.

Yay for good times with wonderful friends!

Catching Up

So, I'm not gonna lie and claim I haven't fallen off the wagon with this whole blogging thing. It's become one of the last priorities on my to-do list and something that feels more like an obligation than fun to me during this season of life. But, since I want to use my blog as a sort of "scrapbook" of our life, I want to try and do better...I NEED to do better. Can't make any promises but I'll try. :)

There's so much that's happened since I last blogged and many, many, many pictures to post. Gonna take it one day at a time and hopefully get caught up soon! To start, here's some pictures from the end of Summer/beginning of Fall (yes, it's been THAT long).

Asher hung out with his Uncle Drew and Uncle Derek before they headed back to school. They are such fun uncles and he loves them!

We hit up America the Beautiful Park a few times this summer - this was our last time there before they shut off the fountain for the Fall. Such a fun, free place to play!

You can't live in Colorado Springs and not hit up the Balloon Glow in Memorial Park over Labor Day Weekend!

Asher was enthralled by all the balloons -

My BFF Brook moved here during the Summer and it's been so fun to have her tag along with us on our outings. She really is like part of our family and Asher adores her SO much!

We celebrated our 4-Year Anniversary on September 3rd with dinner at the Melting Pot..mmm.
Heading out for dinner -

Awkward pictures in front of the restaurant because no one was around to take them for us :)

Dessert there is incredible!

My Grandpa Harold passed away in mid-September and we headed up to Minnesota for the funeral. It was a sad, but special time of remembering his incredible life and ministry. He was such a man of God and devoted his whole life to serving the Lord and others. It is comforting to know he is in Heaven with the Jesus he loved so much!
While we were in MN we had a BBQ at our good friends' Jason and Lisa Rovenstine's house. It was the perfect way to end an emotional weekend.

Asher had a great time jumping on the trampoline with Uncle Derek

And he especially loved riding this Jeep around in a huge field with his cousin Azura. She showed him how it's done...

Just a boy and his Jeep!

It was a mini-reunion in MN as I saw dear friends that I haven't seen in years. These girls were pretty much like my big sisters growing up and I've known them since I was a baby. So fun to get all our families together and catch up!

There you go, a long update! Hoping to post pictures from our trip to Breckenridge and the Pumpkin Patch later this week...

A Great Loss

My Grandpa Harold went to be with Jesus last night. He was an incredible man of God who impacted so many lives through his life and ministry. I'm so thankful that we got to see him and spend some time with him in August. My grandma and he just celebrated their 60th wedding anniversary a week ago today...what a beautiful marriage they had. We will miss him dearly but know He is with his precious Savior in Heaven and I look forward to seeing him again someday. I love you, Grandpa!