Disturb us, Lord!

I found this poem the other day and wanted to share it with you because I thought it was so moving. I have meditated on it and let the words convict my heart and hope that you will do the same.

Disturb us, Lord, when
We are too well pleased with ourselves,
When our dreams have come true
Because we have dreamed too little,
When we arrived safely
Because we sailed too close to the shore.

Disturb us, Lord, when
With the abundance of things we possess
We have lost our thirst
For the waters of life;
Having fallen in love with life,
We have ceased to dream of eternity
And in our efforts to build a new earth,
We have allowed our vision
Of the new Heaven to dim.

Disturb us, Lord, to dare more boldly,
To venture on wider seas
Where storms will show your mastery;
Where losing sight of land,
We shall find the stars.
We ask You to push back
The horizons of our hopes;
And to push into the future
In strength, courage, hope, and love.
[Sir Francis Drake]

10 months!!

Well Asher was 10 months on the third!! So crazy--I can't believe we will be celebrating his first birthday soon! Not a whole lot of changes this time. We have two more teeth--making it a total of 6 teeth!! Go buddy!! These past two were tough ones! He had a runny nose, was a picky eater, fussy and had interrupted sleep--yuck! But now that they are through--he is much better! He is working on two more--hopefully they will be through soon. He's not walking yet, but he is into everything! He pulls up and walks from couch, to the coffee table to the other couch, etc. while holding on to everything. When he wants more of something he will say "ma, ma" and sign please. He is so sweet and loving and loves to give hugs and kisses. He is a very good baby! and we are so so blessed to have him as our own!

New Toy!

While we were in Birmingham, we made a stop at Toys-R-Us and Target. It has been sooo long since we bought Asher any new toys--we decided it was time to upgrade to some big boy toys. We got him this walk behind-riding toy thing that you can see below. He LOVES it. He walks behind it so well--we'll post a video soon. He can sit on it to ride it, but his little legs don't quite touch the ground yet.--he's a short little guy:) He had a lot of fun in the toy store. He was so excited. When we were in Target, we bought him a toy truck for him to push on the ground. When we picked it up--he got so excited. He had to have his hands on it at ALL times and when we walked to the front of the store to pay for it, he was hugging it. It was so funny! Here are some pictures of the new toys!

walking!



helping Daddy put his truck together
Such a sweet smile!--so happy to be home:)
" Thanks Mommy and Daddy for the new toy!!"

(zoo post below)

First trip to the zoo!

Can I just say what a blessing it is to have a three day weekend!! Zack, Asher and I so enjoyed our labor day holiday!! We had a wonderful fun-filled weekend! Zack and I decided that we would take Asher to the zoo for the first time this past Monday since Zack didn't have school. So we got up Monday morning, packed up the car and headed to Birmingham. Asher, of course did wonderfully in the car--he always does. When we got to the zoo, as you can see in the pictures, he was a little underwhelmed. We were so so excited to take him and we just knew he was going to go wild over the animals.....not so. He wasn't scared, he was just very, very calm. We walked all over the zoo, looking at monkeys, exotic birds, kangaroos, alligators, etc....and nothing, not even a smile. This kid was hilarious (so much like his Daddy--playing it cool). While I will say this, the animals were pretty boring. They weren't doing much but laying around--all of the monkeys except for one exhibit were all asleep. So maybe that's why he wasn't more interested. The one thing he did seem to like were the tigers. He would stick his face up to the glass and just growl at them. It was so cute! He has this roar he does--it is such a little boy thing--we think it's adorable. (We have a video of him growling at Daphne we will post for you later). Anyway, here is an annoyingly large amount of pictures from our day at the zoo. Hope you enjoy!!

That was the big white tiger. He was trying to get out of my arms to get down there to look at it!
ENORMOUS!

What a serious face--hah

Family picture at our picnic lunch
Waving to everyone on the train ride
Riding the train
Mouth full of cheerios
Again--so serious
After the zoo, we went to guitar center, which from my previous post-you know how much Asher loves guitars! It was torture for him to be in this big store with guitars all over the place that Mommy wouldn't let him touch. We eventually had to leave because he was getting so excited and trying to climb out of his stroller to get to the instruments. I will say he probably had more fun at Guitar Center than at the zoo-- future musician maybe? It was a fun day! I love spending time with my precious family! What a blessing!

When we got home from the zoo, Asher went nuts! He was crawling all over the place, laughing and talking and chasing Daphne--he was so excited to be home. Who knows, maybe we just have a homebody on our hands :)

Favorite Thing

We keep one of Zack's guitars in our guest bedroom and somehow Asher always finds his way in there and he would play there for hours if I would let him! He LOVES the guitar. He loves music in general. Whenever music starts to play, he just bobs his head up and down and dances. It is so cute. Here are a few pictures of his favorite thing!

funny face

9 month check up

We went last week for our nine month check up! Dr Ebba said Asher was the picture of health! We're not proud or anything...haha. He weighed 19 pounds 12 ounces and was 27 3/4 inches long. He has grown so much. I thought he would weigh more because he is getting very heavy to carry around. He is growing up so fast and I can't believe in less than 3 months he will be a year old. Is it okay that this makes me sad? My baby is growing too fast!!! Some new things he can do since last month:

-He waves bye-bye and hello.

-He shakes his head whenever you say no, no. It started out being cute, but I am worried about when he starts to actually say no to us---uhoh!

-He pulls up on EVERYTHING!! He will let go and stand on his own, but only for a few seconds. No steps yet or anything. Maybe soon :) He did fall and bust his lip last week. It bled a little bit and he cried pretty hard, but only for a few minutes. He's a tough guy.

-He is eating table food and he loves it. There are some things he doesn't like to eat. He will spit them out of his mouth. He just learned to do that this past week. For the most part, he is a very good eater.

-He signs 'please' and will say 'ma ma ma' when he wants more. He says mama for a lot of things though..haha

-He loves, loves, loves Daphne. He giggles and screams at her whenever he sees her. Daphne doesn't love that so much. They will play together and it is so cute. You can tell Asher to get Daphne's toy and he will find her stuffed toy and hold it up for her to come get. It is too cute!

He started Day care this past week. He will only be going on Tuesdays and Wednesdays while I work. It was very sad for me. He has never been away from me for more than 24 hours. So I was a wreck when I dropped him off. I think I cried more than he did. He really seems to like it. I know he will love playing with his friends and it will be good for him to be in a social setting with other children. I just miss him while I'm at work. He is doing great, learning and growing and changing more and more every day. We are crazy about this little guy!! I'll post pictures soon!

Water Park!!

Last week Zack, Asher and I went to Laguna Beach with our students for camp. We did the music for camp and also chaperoned the trip. We had a great time!! While we were there we got to go to Shipwreck Island. It was Asher's first trip to a water park. He LOVED it. There was a kiddie area and he had a great time playing in the water. Asher did wonderfully on the drive. Because we were caravanning with a bus and 3 vans and two cars, it took us about 9 hours to get there, what normally only takes 6 hours. He slept most of the way and when he was awake he played and was very happy. He does so great in the car! It probably also helped that we got a new car seat--yay! He has a lot more room now and he seems really comfy! Anyways--here are some picutres from the water park.

He LOVED this tunnel with the water dripping out of it. He kept trying to catch the water. He would have stayed here for hours! He had so much fun!

Sliding with Daddy!!