love this.

Just one of the many amazing pictures my sister-in-law, Cambria, took over Christmas. I'm trying to sort through them all and narrow down which ones to post!

A Fresh Start

I just haven't been motivated to use the computer lately. Maybe that's cause I got on iphone for Christmas (yay!) and it's easier to check my phone instead of getting on the computer. But, it also may be because our old computer was ANCIENT and you couldn't unplug it for more than 5 minutes without the battery dying. Plus, it was SO slow and, overall, just a pain to use. But, all that's changed now! My amazing husband got me a new Netbook computer as an early birthday present (double yay!) and today is my first day playing with it. I'm looking forward to actually wanting to blog now and staying up-to-date on what's happening in our lives. I'm working on a couple posts - one from Asher's little birthday party and one (or two) from Christmas. Tons of pictures to sort through so it may take some time, but I promise it's coming. I will get back on this blogging wagon. I will.

To get started, here are a couple more pictures from Asher's actual birthday night....

Asher loves to help "clean" when I'm cleaning and we looked everywhere for a kids' broom/dustpan set and could not find it anywhere (any suggestions??). We ended up finding a Dirt Devil toy vacuum that he loves. Anytime we're vacuuming, he runs over & gets his to help!

My mom got him a bubble gun and he is a little obsessed with it. The fact that he can make tons of bubbles all by himself is almost too much. His face in this picture shows his pride.:)

Uncle Dustin was being silly and making him laugh....love it!

Ok, that's all for now but I promise more soon!

2 Years

Two years ago today, our lives changed forever. God blessed us with our sweet little Asher man. At the time, we couldn't begin to imagine how much he would shape our family, impact our lives, and fill our home with incredible joy and laughter. He has such a sweet, tender, caring spirit....one that makes him so easy to love! The past two years have truly challenged us, grown us and shaped us to be more like Christ...what an incredible journey parenthood is! Today, we celebrate our precious bubba boy and thank the Lord for entrusting him to us while here on earth!
One of the first pictures of our sweet baby - two years ago today:
Getting ready for his birthday breakfast today....look at that smile.:)

His new shopping cart!
(Mark is concerned that it's too girly but it's blue, green and grey - that makes it manly, right?!)

My sweet, sweet birthday boy.
(Please don't judge my exhausted morning face and bedhead!)

We love you with all our hearts, Asher! Happy 2nd Birthday!

Thanksgiving

Spent Thanksgiving weekend this year with Mark's family up in Denver. It was nice to get away for a few days and relax up at their house. They are always so generous and hospitable and Asher, of course, has a great time being with them!

Asher on the drive up to Denver....this was what he did when i asked him to smile. Ha! At least he did what i asked. :)

The whole fam

We spent the actual Thanksgiving meal time at Mike and Jackie Eubank's home - they are long-time family friends of the Finzels and more like extended family than friends. Asher loved playing with this football at their house -

He also fell in love with their new little puppy, Bentley. He was a little, tiny Cocker Spaniel and was SO cute! Almost made me want a dog for a second...but just a second.

The only decent family picture we got - boo that it's blurry though. oh well.

Asher always had one of our cell phones he was carrying around with him - I'm pretty sure he's convinced they're HIS cell phones and we just use them from time to time.
Oh boy.

Back at Grandpa and Grandma's house, Asher had lots of fun....
playing the piano with Uncle Andrew and Daddy,

lounging on the couch,

making waffles with Grandpa (notice the egg he dropped on the floor),

and working in the shop with Grandpa!

Such a fun weekend with family. We are blessed beyond measure and our hearts overflow with thanks at God's goodness and faithfulness in our lives! He truly is the giver of all good gifts.

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!