welcome 2009

A late Merry Christmas from us. We didn't send a Christmas letter this year. Maybe I didn't have time to write, maybe I didn't feel like there was much to write. Our letter would have probably consisted of this. Asher was born in July. 'nuf said. Spencer and I stay busy taking care of Asher, our home, and our jobs, and our marriage.

The past 2 weeks have been busy. They started with a surprise snow day from school. We got an extra day of break! now, the last day of break, and I don't know where that extra day went. We were busy with celebrating Christmas. We went to Kansas City to celebrate with Spencer's mom's family. We had our small group to our house for dinner. Christmas eve we saw both families. Christmas day we celebrated with my family. Saturday after Christmas was with Spencer's family. After the Christmas celebrating, Spencer worked for 2 days and then left for Jacksonville, FL to cheer for the Huskers at the Gator bowl. It may not sound like much, but it was a busy break! I got to hang out with Asher every day!

School (work) starts again tomorrow. How many months till summer break? :)

As you can see Asher is much more interested in the tree than in smiling for the picture. :) This is our Finley Family 2009.
Asher is growing and changing so much! He'll be 6 months soon! He's laughing and experimenting with using his voice. It's even fun to see him mimick us at times!

This is Asher with all of the toys he had before Christmas. Asher and I were perfectly happy with the number of toys. They kept him entertained, and I could keep them all in a nice small basket in the corner.
This is Asher with all of the toys he recieved as Christmas gifts. Spencer I didn't buy him one toy for Christmas. Well, I take that back, I bought him a book. As you can see I didn't insist on only wooden toys. Some parents don't allow toys that light up and make noise. Should I be one of those parents? Maybe I should take a poll of my kids at school and find out if the smart kids were the ones that played with the wooden toys, and the struggling kids had light up and noise making toys. That's what the research says I'll find. I guess at this point, I'm chancing it. Maybe we can find a healthy balance. Maybe these are all of the toys we will ever need (and recieve). :) For now, Asher really enjoys them!

My weekly post....

Asher is growing SO much! The weekend has flown by. I spent friday night on the computer trying to finish a photo album that Oprah was giving to viewers for free. The Snapfish site was so busy that it took a long time to load each picture and then it took three trys through the check out to get the coupon code to work. I got it to work, and my book should be here in three weeks...we'll see. :) All I know is that I didn't have to pay for it...Thanks Oprah!

Asher will be 4 months old Monday! He's in a fun stage of smiling, playing, and exporing everything around him. He loves bath time...well, usually. :)

Taking it a day at a time.

I haven't made much time for blogging since being back to school. My days are full and busy and by the time I get home with Asher, all I do is hang out with him until he goes to sleep. Last week there were 2 days that he fell asleep for the night at 6pm. The good thing about that is that he'll sleep until the morning. The sad part about that is....I picked him up at 4:30. When I picked him up I'd hear, "he was great, he laughed, he talked, he played." yeah. but....then I got him and he was crabby and then fell asleep an hour and a half later. Not the schedule I dreamed about when I agreed to work....but like I said, we're taking it a day at a time. In conclusion....I spent this whole weekend with Asher and enjoyed every minute!

Back to the Working World

Starting Wednesday morning, I'm back to the working world. I have absolutely LOVED being at home with Asher. It took a good 2 months to adjust to life with Asher, and this past month I've been able to completely enjoy life at home. It's going to be really hard to go back to work. Asher will be spending his days with family, and having a great time. I'll be busy at school, so hopefully the days will go by quickly. I may not be updating this very often anymore, but I'll try to keep posting pictures of Asher as I have time. We'll probably see you again at Thanksgiving. :)

Well, I better get to bed. I've got to get up early for work.

It's Fall....

Asher is now 2 months old...almost 3 by now. We went to the pumpkin patch last weekend and he picked out his first pumpkin (with a little help). He seems to have a studied look on his face like he's always observing what's going on. Maybe we have a little scientist on our hands. :)
Spencer ran the Omaha Half-Marathon last weekend also. He did a great job for the amount of training he did - not much. He came in at 1 hour 42 min! We are really proud of him.
Asher is so much more alert now, and he's a big fan of the upright position. So, we invested in a walker. Just a simple one because we have lots of toys he can play with and as you can see he really likes his train and spinning monkey. I have to be honest and say that I'm really going to miss being at home with him. I will be going back to school on Oct. 15th. So, I'm dreadfully counting down the days. Asher will be in good hands, but I'll miss seeing him and playing with him during the day.

a good night of sleep

Last night Asher slept for 6 and a half hours straight! I was shocked when I woke up at four and he hadn't woken up. Spencer and I enjoyed our sleep. :) Now, let's hope we can do that again.

Also, I wanted to mention that the afternoon after I last blogged about asher not napping in his crib. He took a good 3 hour nap in the afternoon in his crib the whole time. Guess I just needed to wait out the morning.

Game Day

I find myself blogging to keep you updated, but I have a long list of things to do. Laundry waiting to be folded, piles of papers waiting to be sorted, fall decorations waiting to be put out, a number of things to be picked up and put away. This morning I tried for a long time - or what seemed to be a long time - to get Asher to fall asleep in his bouncy chair...he wouldn't. Then I put the bouncy seat on the dryer while it was running. I heard that would work....i didn't. When I picked him up he stopped crying and fell asleep. I layed him in his crib...instantly, he woke up and started crying. I picked him up, and he stopped crying and was back to sleep quickly. I got out his swing. That worked for a while...probably 15 minutes. When he started crying again, I gave in and put on the front carrier. Now he's sleeping....but it was much easier carrying him on the front when he was inside me. :) Seems like the boy has learned that he likes sleeping the most when another body is close. Looks like he and I have a goal for the next couple weeks....teach Asher to nap....while I'm not holding him.

This past weekend was busy for us. Saturday was Asher's first Husker game day! Spencer was anxious to show him the special section in the newspaper, so they started the morning reading about the huskers together. While Spencer and I went to the game, Asher went to his first wedding with his Aunt, Uncle and cousins.
Asher is really growing a lot. He loves to look around and see what's going on. He loves sitting by the window and watching the trees. For those of you who are keeping track, he will be 7 weeks this Thursday.