Easter (for lack of a more unique title)

A week late, but here is the documentation from our Easter -

Asher looking at a picture of himself after opening his monstrous coloring book from G&G Brokke:
My brothers hid 47 eggs for Asher to find....he was in heaven!


So proud of his treasure!

Ash with Grandma and Grandpa Brokke

Our little family :)

As one of my dear friends pointed out from this picture, next year there will be 5 of us....whoa.

Well, I Wasn't Expecting That!

I was planning (and had been planning for a while) to announce yesterday that Asher is gonna be a big brother to Finzel baby #2 around September 12th....we are so excited!

However, I was not prepared for the news that we are expecting Finzel babies #2 & #3!!! Yep, crazy as it is, we are expecting TWINS! Reality has not really sunk in and we are still in a state of shock, but we are excited, scared, nervous, overwhelmed, hopeful, thankful and prayerful with this news!

Right now we are starting the process of finding a new Dr. who can deliver twins (I was using a midwife up to this point), and we are talking through all that needs to be done to prepare for two babies instead of just one. I know God will give us the strength and grace to walk this journey together and we will have support from our families and dear friends along the way. But, when you think of it, could you pray for us? Thank you! Wow.

These girls...

are amazing. Was able to spend some time with some of my best friends from college (and a couple from high school) last weekend. My dear friend Amy was in a town for a few days so we planned a girls' night at Rico's downtown. It was so special to enjoy an evening together - catch up on all that has happened over the past year, and share a little of our hearts with each other. I have been blessed with so many incredible friends and, while time, distance and life separate us, we are always able to catch back up and pick up where we left off. These women are amazing and I love them so much (we missed you Ashley, Holly and Heather)!

Kendra, Amy, Brook & Me (Mandrea, thanks for taking the picture!)

Playin' In the Snow

Ok, so here's the deal, I've decided that the pictures from Asher's birthday party and Christmas are just NOT going to make it on our blog. Just isn't gonna happen. So, I'm moving on. For the past few weeks, every time I've thought about blogging, I feel guilty for not getting those pictures up so I just don't do anything. Well, yesterday I decided that I'm gonna start fresh, skip documenting the past couple months, and start documenting from here forward. Ok? Ok.

Yesterday Mark went out to shovel our driveway and Asher wanted to help. We had bought him a little kid snow shovel a few weeks ago and here was his chance to actually use it on snow. I got him bundled up to head out and then asked him to "smile" for a picture and this is what he did -

Yep, that's his smile these days...crazy kid.

After about 5 minutes outside, the snow "shoveling" idea was abandoned and playing in the snow became much more desirable...

(Notice the discarded shovel in the background)

Silly Bubba

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!