We're off!

well, we're off for london in the morning... i should be sleeping right now! we're so excited to see scott and maggie and to meet marli! wahoo!! i'll update from there as well, so watch for cool photos and summaries of our adventures. check out this cool website i found: http://www.elephantart.com it's really amazing what animals are capable of. i love them! hope to visit these elephants sometime in our travels. love to all, MK

Asher assorted swimming videos

i realized today that i don't have any videos of asher "jumping" in the pool on the blog, so here are a few. asher is in his second session of swimming lessons. we did one in october when he was six months old (i would recommend this to people because he is very comfortable in the water because of it) and one this month. the sessions last 4 weeks with lessons on tuesday and thursday. his last one is this thursday and i'm sad that it's over. he really loves the water and has such a great time! but we'll be up at my mom's a lot this summer i'm sure. she sets up a pool in her backyard and it's really nice to cool off in the heat of the summer. asher loved it last year (i'll include some photos of him last summer). i hope i'm not overloading people with blogs, but this is really fun and so easy to do that it's hard not to share with others. i know my family appreciates it (especially heidi!). enjoy!

Zeus visit

we visited our puppy-to-be, Zeus, yesterday and oh my, is he cute!! he's already so big and i just wanted to bring him home! he came to me when i called him (i told the sellers what i'm naming him, so they've been calling him zeus for me.), and played around with me. he is the biggest of all the puppies (yea!) and he's very gentle. he played with asher... no biting, no climbing, no scratching. he just nudged his bum and played with him gently. then he proceeded to climb into my lap and fall asleep! it was very precious and we (ie. me) are very excited to bring him home. he'll be huge by the time we get him. he was born march 11th (that's my dad's birthday... it's a sign) so he'll be 2 months old when we pick him up on may 12th. here are some photos and videos of him. hope you enjoy! love, MK Jeff and Asher

Asher's First Birthday

Yea! Asher is one year old! we had a great time at the party. i had a jewelry show that morning... bad timing! so i didn't get home until about 2:30 and the party was scheduled to start at 4. thank heaven, my mom and my sister lisa and her husband pedro helped out lots and we got most things done at a reasonable time. i made a teddy bear cake for asher and it was a nightmare to frost! i had a special frosting tip to look like hair and it wasn't as easy at the picture made it look... surprise, surprise! but it turned out okay. we actually had sunshine and warmth, finally, so we set up outside and enjoyed the afternoon sun. asher didn't feel like taking his afternoon nap... bad timing again. so he was a bit ornery some of the time, but considering the circumstances, he was great as usual. as long as he had his favorite toy (an old orange hammer of my mom's), he was okay. you'll notice it in lots of the photos. he wouldn't even put it down to drink his water! we dressed him up in his designer duds (kenneth cole) and took some photos while he opened presents... okay, okay, i did most of the opening.
everyone brought such nice gifts and he'll love them all. he got a sandbox from daddy and some sandbox toys from mommy including his first tonka trucks. and also a small push-along 4-wheeler from both of us. baba gave him some clothes and a cool shape-sorter truck. heidi and tony had given his gift when we went to washington... seattle seahawks and seattle sonics track suits and a cute birthday crown. scott and maggie sent some cute clothes... thank you! lisa and pedro gave him some great clothes too. pedro picked out an oufit with a surfing print and he will be asher's surfing uncle. mat and rachel's family planned on coming, but samara was sick and rachel wasn't feeling well either, so we'll celebrate with them later. mat's birthday is april 13th and india's is the 15th so we'll celebrate them too!
Jeff's family gave nice gifts as well... Darcey and Gregg gave him a great Levi's outfit, some scooby-doo slippers and some money for his savings account. Grandma and Grandpa Hansen sent a cool jacket. Brandy and Navie gave him a safari bus that sings and came with a lion and tiger. and kiley and amy gave him a bat and ball for us all to play with. my friend heidi feser came too and she brought some cool books. one is a "petting book" with animals and another is shaped like a bumblebee and has a handle. awesome!
thank you so much everyone! you made it a really special day for us and we appreciate your support. we got photos of our puppy too, so i'll post them as well. i may be biased, but i think he's soooo.... cute! can't wait to pick him up and bring him home. asher loves animals and "kisses" (usually bites) his stuffed animals. i think he's going to have a blast with Zeus! take care and keep in touch. love to you all, MK (and Jeff and Asher)
p.s. i'm attaching some photos of Asher's latest swimming lesson too. he sits on the edge and falls to me and goes underwater. he loves to swim! i'll get some videos on youtube soon as well.

April 9, 2008

Here is our first attempt at a blog! How exciting... hopefully I'll be better at updating this than I am at sending photos through e-mail! Here is the e-mail I sent out earlier today for a quick post:
my mom, asher and i took a trip to Washington state the first part of March to visit family. we had a great time! we saw my sister Heidi and her husband Tony and his daughter Savannah in Kirkland, headed up to Mt. Vernon and saw my grandmother, her friend Sparky and Shamora, then headed to Wenatchee to see the Bakers. We went back to Heidi's the next weekend and then home. lot's of driving, but lots of fun too! here are photos of that trip, asher playing with his daddy when we got home (they were inseparable for days!) and also some of Easter and a day we played in the snow.

asher is growing up so quickly! he'll be one year old on saturday... can't believe it!!! he's so much fun. he has two teeth now and is very close to walking. he pulls himself up on everything and can stand by himself for quite awhile without holding onto anything. he has a walker toy from jeff's mom Darcey that he pushes around too. he loves us to chase him or he'll chase us and he laughs!! when jeff comes home from work, asher and i hide around the corner and 'scare' him when he comes in the door. that's one of his favorite games. he giggles while we're hiding and i have to tell him to be really quiet so we can scare jeff! he loves animals... my mom's cat gracie is his favorite. he'll crawl up to her and 'head butt' her and pet her. he chased lisa's cat prince all over lisa's house the other day... poor prince! and when he sees dogs or cats he makes little squeaks and reaches out or points at them.

so we have an announcement... we're getting a puppy!!!!!!! WAHOO!!! can you tell i'm excited?! it's been 3 years since my dog zeta died and i've been begging for a puppy ever since. we're getting a male golden retriever. jeff finally caved in and zeus will come home on may 12th (the day we get back from london). we're going to london to visit my brother scott, his wife maggie and their little girl marli (who we haven't met yet). lisa, pedro, my mom and our family are all going to visit. we're going to take a trip to scotland for a few days and tour london and the area as well. people told us that it was good that we traveled before we had kids since we won't be able to do it now... well, we've done more this year than we ever had before we had asher! we've been to yellowstone twice, puerto rico, new orleans, washington, and now london. as well as small trips around utah, to rexburg, etc. he's not slowing us down! we love being parents... more than we could ever have imagined. asher brings us so much happiness... his name is fitting, it means happiness. thank you all for your friendship and support. we are living the high life here in mendon. we are so thankful for all of our blessings and you all are included in those! love to everyone and i'll try to keep up better (do i say that everytime?), MK