carvnival

every year, casey and i host a pumpkin carving party at our house (we are going on the long history of five years). each year has been in a new place, which keeps it interesting, and each year the guest list gets a little bit longer. on saturday we had much family and a few friends to help celebrate this year's 5th annual carvnival. our little pumpkin was awake for about 30 minutes, and then slept the entire party. i was a little disappointed that we couldn't show him off, but at least we were establishing good habits - sleeping through loud noises. casey once again carved the nicest looking pumpkin, as well as the pumpkin to welcome our guests for the party. this year's design - our address. having people in your home always seems to establish it as just that, home. all are invited to next year's event... perhaps then we will have more than a few people that actually carve.

in order: dad snuggling with asher before the party; my sister in law, annie, with her niece, johanna; our house lit up and full of people; long time family friend, serena, with our nephew, cade.

so many things - hello and goodbye

i feel as if there are a slew of things that need to be posted to the blog - our final appointment with our midwives, casey completing the patio, tummy time, our fifth annual pumpkin carvnival. in order to catch up, i am going to attempt to make several posts, contingent upon a cooperative certain someone.

we had our final appointment last week thursday with our midwives. what a bittersweet moment. to some extent, i feel like we are saying goodbye to family. pamela, kate, and stephanie invested in our lives so heavily for the last 11 months, providing support, wisdom, care and concern. it was so much more than just appointments when we would see them; it was a relationship. with final goodbyes being said and hugs given, i am so glad they are not far away and maintain a very open door policy. many many thanks and much love to all three of you.

and, through the encouragement of one of our midwives, asher had his first tummy time the other evening. as you can see, he thoroughly enjoyed it. and, i think daddy did too.

Sesame Street - Buffy Nurses Cody

oh my goodness, this is just amazing. thanks, jenny, for passing this on. it is just nice.
enjoy!!

here's looking at you

there is a reason casey takes video and i do not. the camera continues to get closer and closer to asher's face, but, at least you get to see some smiles.

smiles

this is the attempt at capturing asher's smile. he definitely enjoys giving mama smiles these days.

and, casey and i's favorite thing to say: "what a sweet boy."

distracted

let me start by saying that it is winter here. casey would categorize it as fall, but to my constantly frigid feet and hands, it is winter. today, asher and i made an outing to a bead store. remember that we live in portland, and bead stores are filled with creative and interesting people, of which i sometimes desperately try to be a part of. while trying to look like i belonged in this place, in walks a man with quite the interesting get up. it was while i was scrutinizing his sweater, shorts, extremely puffy socks, and teva sandals, and thinking to myself "bad choice.... socks with sandals," that i looked down at my own feet. teal wool socks, brown flip flops. you see, we have wood floors in our house, and in order to try and combat the chill, i "sometimes" slip on flip flops over my socks. perhaps socks and flip flops is my attempt at being creative. needless to say, between fully equipped diaper bags, a small, and growing chubby, little boy, cell phone, keys, and sanity, i occasionally get distracted. good thing motherhood is increasing my sense of humor.

moving on... we spent the weekend in sunnyside, washington, where casey's parents live. it was his grandpa's 85th birthday, so the large schilperoort clan assembled to celebrate. it was really fun to hang out with casey's aunts, uncles and cousins, show asher off, and, meet some of grandpa's siblings. i just love the history of big families, and coming from a small family, eat up the schilperoort heritage. i just love it! following are some pictures from the weekend. in order: my nephew cade, and my niece, leah, pretending to be farmers; auntie abbe reading with nephew, callum; asher taking a snooze in grandma's wagon at the big schilperoort lunch; asher giving auntie annie a typical schilperoort lopsided smirk.

random

on sunday, kevin and annie, and cade and callum, came over and had dinner with us. it was soo fun to spend time with them and catch up a little bit. we had such a good time watching cade and callum interact with asher, and to get a glimpse into a day in the life of having boys. we just enjoy the boys so much, and cannot wait (although, i am sure i will recant this statement in the future at some time or other) when asher is older and up and running. if you want to see more pictures, go to kevin and annie's site... she is sooo much better at taking and posting pictures than i.

ah, bath time. asher just loves it. we bathe him in the kitchen sink, and he will just lie there and look up at you contentedly. it is really cute when he gets his legs going.