lately: april through memorial day

NOTE: if the video links don’t come through – copy and paste into your browser to view.

A very. long. post. for a VERY full month and a half. You have been forewarned! But we can’t begin without a bit of LL during our mulch shoot we had to take photos for her thank you cards:

I always like to give her something to play with when we photograph, and thought it was fitting to use her ‘I love you’ wooden teether 1. because she’s becoming a rockstar at signing! (see the video below – unfortunately it’s cut short) and 2. because it was neutral! We had fun… sort of.

ok, back to the mulch session:

below she was politely letting me know that she was ‘all done’ by signing and saying ‘daauuh’?? And yes, just after she fell into the mulch, we were most definitely ‘all done’!

Speaking of the mulch (and I wish we had a photo of last year’s yard, because stating that it was overgrown is an understatement! It was truly a small forest), we decided it’d be good to nip the weeds in the bud and at the very least clean some things up by laying some mulch. So we headed to our city site and picked up a few truck-fulls of ‘less-than-great-but-it-does-the-job-FREE-mulch and laid ‘er down.

Tad has been working SUPER hard this past month both in and out of the house! (we’ll get to what’s going on INSIDE in a bit). There were just (and still are) some oddly placed and sore looking items in our yard that needed to see their final day. This bush for example:

And this tree, which is now a lovely stump:

Now that the spring perennials are gone, the back was left colorless, so thankfully this weekend, Tad’s momma came and helped bring some life – COLOR in the form of pretty flowers. And SOON there will be color! Now, if only I can keep them alive. I do have a good solution for this, believe it or not! It comes in the form of a three foot round plastic thing which will be our summer fun: the lil pool.

LL has already truly been enjoying playing in the water outside on hot days, or just being outside in general, so my plan for the flowers is to water every time I fill up her pool (just not on the jet setting – perhaps the mist or shower setting)

We’ve had fun in her new sweet swim halter from Aunt Nichole and the sun hat gma-Marty made:

 But, ya know, skinny-dipping has its perks too: (Now if I can just teach her to leave her toys inside the pool so she doesn’t try to get them and fall head first onto the concrete. sigh.) We’ve been sitting on the quilt a family friend made for her a lot already this summer, playing with leaves and sticks while momma reads.And having fun and playing with dad.And getting bit by monster skeeters resulting in lots of swelling (the middle knuckle if you couldn’t tell):

 And LOVING wagon rides!!! (thanks gpa + gma Asay) …so much so that we’ll cry when we pass by the red wagon only to find that we’re getting in the car instead:

Side note: the wagon is proving to be a wonderful walking aid for LL!

This is probably her typical posture while ‘chillin’ in her ride, though every once in a while she’ll try to prop a foot up on the side. (See the naners in the bag?? We were just heading home from the grocery store!)Speaking of rides, we’ve done a good amount of riding in the car this past month. Tad had a bit of training to do for work and was up in the twin cities for a full week, so to break up his time away, LL and I joined him for a couple of days mid week. We shopped, we walked, we ate, and we made a mess of the hotel with our O’s. Bestly though (it’s a word!), we got to see dad :)And somehow, in all of her free time, LL pick up a little somethin somethin at the mall, and when we all returned home, she presented THIS to me for momma’s day:It was full of all kinds of LUSH goodies (yes they were lush, but I don’t mean that, I mean LUSH cosmetic goodies, hand-made yummies good for my nose and well being) Because of my growing belly, the rose and argan body conditioner was probably my favorite in the package. Thanks little lady!

We also traveled over to ‘Mtown’ to visit great gramps n gram McD. Thanks for loving on us! 

Also this month (late last month?), we FINALLY had our first prenatal appointment. I guess we thought mid-way through was a good time to start care;) Actually there were a couple of reasons for the wait, but the primary reason was the month or so without insurance due to Tad’s job switch. But we’re thankful to be where we are and to have heard the babe’s heart beat beating well. Linley even got to hold the doppler! Because Tad wasn’t able to make it to the appointment with us this time, we took a video for him, so have a look if you’d like to watch. I had my blood levels tested as well and am deficient in a couple of areas (This post is becoming quite long, so we can chat about that and nutrition in the next).

It was good to hear and even more fun to have Linley so involved. I have been asking the Lord to tell me what this babe will be like. If he/she is half as goofy, tenacious, and strong-willed as his/her older sister, boy are we in for a real treat! Lately we’ve been:

finding it humorous to stuff food down the back of our shirtand sitting for Loooong lengths of time (attention undivided-the tenacious part) trying to either 1. put a lid on and off of something 2. take these mini books in and out of their case 3. put either her or your shoes on and off or her or your feet. She seems very patient! Every once in a while she’ll get frustrated that something she’s been trying for so long at isn’t working, but with some gentle encouragement she continues on and has mastered a few things! She’s just so intent on making it work!

For example, this past week, I gave her markers to explore with for the first time, she colored for just a bit, but as soon as she saw the box, there was no more coloring – she was far more interested in getting that marker back inside its case!

I suppose the above image is finally a glimpse of the finished mantel along with the rug and chase we purchased at ikea while up north a couple of months ago, so here are some more!

Yay! The mantel and bookshelf! We’re still working on the decorating – but it’s complete… for the most part (some base shoe and fresh tile and we’ll call it good!) My favorite piece in the room is that old blue milk canister, which we’re using to house our fire utensils. Garage sale find!Sofa and chairs. I should have taken a wide shot; maybe later. It really does feel more homey and ‘put together’… a good feeling to have. But there was another room in particular that did NOT feel so homey and ‘put-together’: the dreaded ‘GREEN ROOM’. Why is it dubbed the ‘green room’ you ask? Well, because it sports green carpet, green walls, when we moved in it was adorned with green laced curtains, green tile, and a green counter top to match in the attached bathroom. So we are currently in the process of carrying out PROJECT DE-GREENING THE GREEN ROOM. We’re hoping to bring some sort of functionality order and a much need aesthetic update to this VERY multi-purpose space.

Here are the before’s:

And so it began this past week/weekend

1. remove old trim

2. rip up carpet and install floor of choice – in this case, a surprise method we’ll reveal when it’s complete (but can you guess what it is?!) ps. we spaced w/ pennies!

3. create and install new casings for the windows to match the 1911 style in the rest of the house – THANKS gpa Asay for slaving away this weekend! Well, I guess we didn’t JUST slave drive you! There was some fun involved: 

YET TO COME:

4. create half wall/shelving unit/coat hook/mudroom area/laundry nook

5. fill holes, caulk, and paint!

6. furnish decorate and enjoy.

Well friends, this is becoming a bit much. The meal planning, naked babies, potty training, and photo shoots will have to wait for another day. A joyful SPRING week everyone!

Linley’s FIRST Birthday CELEBRATION

This past Saturday we celebrated Linley’s first year of life with family here at the Asayplacey, and this is how it went down:

The entry welcome banner: This is the wall of photo streamers we made to celebrate in-utero through 11 months – ‘Celebrating Linley Louise’ (two nails, twine, linen, tape, photos, card stock, markers, hole punches, needle and thread). It’s difficult to see, but the birdie in the top left was a part of her shower decor before she was born, and the little red sparkly hand print on the left about 5 photos down was made for her when she was just one month old: LL’s ‘ONE’ cake:

She thought it was the sweetest thing when we lit the candle and everyone began singing to her:I made her mini cupcakes of the same cake with a different frosting. I made whipped cream and attempted to dye it with blube juice (juice from heated frozen blueberries). It was working, but it was last minute and I didn’t make enough juice so it was more of a light purply grey. She didn’t know what she was supposed to do at first…So she said, ‘please?!’ and exploredI wasn’t prepared with a bib, so we took the cardigan off because with nearly each bite she kept signing, ‘please’, smearing cake and cream all over her chest.

*side note: thank you Lindsey Nims of Babble4Baby for making us her sweet bow! She has far more than what is currently listed on the website and makes everything custom!
Then we cleaned up sweet messy hands, everyone else had cake, and LL played with tissue paper and cards (i.e. opened birthday gifts)reading her cards:I loved her expression when holding up her new swim halter: Whenever I would take a drink from my water bottle, LL would go crazy, so for her day, she received her very own Camelbak bottle:Another please?yeah! she got the paper off:Score!

And what’s opening gifts if you can’t get some help from a couple of cousins:

And then we partied and charlared until the storm (tornados and strong winds came that night!) was closing in and family had to head home.

LL having fun playing with Great Gram Joyce’s purse (she likes mastering zippers):This is how you clap your hands, Grandpa:Miss Cori piling all available animals on LL’s lap:Hey Uncle Z:This was so sweet. I looked over, and LL was sitting on cousin Mag’s lap hangin out: Buddies
mmm fruit and cheese – thanks Grandma A and Great Gram Elaine Everyone seemed to really enjoy the balloons: Including us after everyone left!We’ll end with the best and most recent family photo we have to date (pay no mind to the finger prints). Thanks everyone for helping to celebrate LL’s birthday with us! She DEFINITELY had a great time with a full house. 

LL No. ONE! – birthday

Yaay! We celebrated Linley’s very first birthday last week. It’s been a very full year and we’re thankful!

LL and I enjoyed the day together casually as we didn’t know if Tad would be home to celebrate that night (out for work!), so in the morning we started the usual routine when I realized that I had accidentally left my bag on the floor, open to exploration. And Linley found this:

She’s learned to sign ‘please’ and so she was rubbing her tummy/chest like crazy saying please please please! and so she enjoyed a special birthday breakfast treat. If you can’t see what it is, it’s a Peter Rabbit – sweet tato, corn, and apple squeezie. They’ve been so handy when traveling or shopping!

When I brought out a muffin for my breakfast, LL just couldn’t sit still, so I asked her to say ‘please’ again, and yay she did! Persistence has paid off! We’ve been working with her to sign for the past six months *(please note again her santa jams… when we’ve got one pair that she doesn’t crawl out of and it’s April, we’re not going to go purchase another):

Tad was away from home for the first couple of days last week and didn’t know if he’d make it back to celebrate LL’s actual birthday, so here he is facetiming with the girl:

aaand here she is not knowing what to make of it:

We opened some birthday cards we had received in the mail (focusing very intently):

And then we found out that Dad WOULD be home in time to celebrate with us after all! We didn’t realize soon enough to prepare a grand meal, however, so we ventured out to one of our favorite local places, The Cafe.

Linley and I shared the Cafe mac and cheese (it’s not the typical round about mac n cheese) and she devoured every bite we’d let her have! So in order for me to have some dinner, we sat her down and gave her one of those wedges you see here:

It was already nearly an hour past her usual bedtime (6:30p!!!!) when we returned home, but we couldn’t just go to bed with out having SOME sort of a photo shoot. So I quick sewed together these pieces of fabric, took a marker to them, placed them on the mirror, and hoped she had fun. Here’s what we came up with:

Before we hit the ‘that’s all she wrote’ we had to remember momma and dad on the birthday so what’d we do? we laughed and we snuggled.

and this sleepy stare told us that was all she wrote:

The family celebration coming up next! Happy first birthday little lady!

a belated easter

“Why do you look for the living among the dead? He is not here; He is risen!” Luke 24:5-6 

My very favorite passage when celebrating Easter!

Because Easter is one of those holidays we have the liberty to celebrate all year round (and probably should) I don’t feel so bad posting this a couple of weeks belated.

This is the first year neither Tad nor I had made plans to celebrate with family. We were having everyone come to the Asayplacey to celebrate with LL for her birthday the following weekend post Easter, so we decided to stay put. But after thinking about how much more meaningful it is to celebrate with others, and how we have this oversized dining room that we don’t know what to do with yet, we decided to invite some friends over for an Easter feast… and it was joyous! So THANK YOU friends, for joining us!

I wanted it to be pretty (always!) but have lots of meaning (always) and this is what we came up with:

The three vases represent the three crosses that Jesus and the other two were being crucified on; the rocks represent the stone from the tomb Jesus’s body was laid in being rolled away; and the linen cloth beneath represents the strips of linen Jesus’s body was wrapped in for burial being for laid neatly aside in the tomb… no Jesus. And the lilacs… they’re pretty and smell just lovely. 

Luke’s account of ‘good friday’ through ‘easter sunday’. 

The Crucifixion of Jesus

²⁶ As the soldiers led him away, they seized Simon from Cyrene, who was on his way in from the country, and put the cross on him and made him carry it behind Jesus. ²⁷ A large number of people followed him, including women who mourned and wailed for him. ²⁸ Jesus turned and said to them, “Daughters of Jerusalem, do not weep for me; weep for yourselves and for your children. ²⁹ For the time will come when you will say, ‘Blessed are the childless women, the wombs that never bore and the breasts that never nursed!’ ³⁰ Then

“‘they will say to the mountains, “Fall on us!”
and to the hills, “Cover us!”’^[b]

³¹ For if people do these things when the tree is green, what will happen when it is dry?”

³² Two other men, both criminals, were also led out with him to be executed. ³³ When they came to the place called the Skull, they crucified him there, along with the criminals—one on his right, the other on his left. ³⁴ Jesus said, “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.”^[c] And they divided up his clothes by casting lots.

³⁵ The people stood watching, and the rulers even sneered at him. They said, “He saved others; let him save himself if he is God’s Messiah, the Chosen One.”

³⁶ The soldiers also came up and mocked him. They offered him wine vinegar ³⁷ and said, “If you are the king of the Jews, save yourself.”

³⁸ There was a written notice above him, which read: THIS IS THE KING OF THE JEWS.

³⁹ One of the criminals who hung there hurled insults at him: “Aren’t you the Messiah? Save yourself and us!”

⁴⁰ But the other criminal rebuked him. “Don’t you fear God,” he said, “since you are under the same sentence? ⁴¹ We are punished justly, for we are getting what our deeds deserve. But this man has done nothing wrong.”

⁴² Then he said, “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.^[d]”

⁴³ Jesus answered him, “Truly I tell you, today you will be with me in paradise.”

The Death of Jesus

⁴⁴ It was now about noon, and darkness came over the whole land until three in the afternoon, ⁴⁵ for the sun stopped shining. And the curtain of the temple was torn in two. ⁴⁶ Jesus called out with a loud voice, “Father, into your hands I commit my spirit.”^[e] When he had said this, he breathed his last.

⁴⁷ The centurion, seeing what had happened, praised God and said, “Surely this was a righteous man.” ⁴⁸ When all the people who had gathered to witness this sight saw what took place, they beat their breasts and went away. ⁴⁹ But all those who knew him, including the women who had followed him from Galilee, stood at a distance, watching these things.

The Burial of Jesus

⁵⁰ Now there was a man named Joseph, a member of the Council, a good and upright man, ⁵¹ who had not consented to their decision and action. He came from the Judean town of Arimathea, and he himself was waiting for the kingdom of God. ⁵² Going to Pilate, he asked for Jesus’ body. ⁵³ Then he took it down, wrapped it in linen cloth and placed it in a tomb cut in the rock, one in which no one had yet been laid. ⁵⁴ It was Preparation Day, and the Sabbath was about to begin.

⁵⁵ The women who had come with Jesus from Galilee followed Joseph and saw the tomb and how his body was laid in it.⁵⁶ Then they went home and prepared spices and perfumes. But they rested on the Sabbath in obedience to the commandment.

Jesus Has Risen

¹ On the first day of the week, very early in the morning, the women took the spices they had prepared and went to the tomb. ² They found the stone rolled away from the tomb, ³ but when they entered, they did not find the body of the Lord Jesus. ⁴ While they were wondering about this, suddenly two men in clothes that gleamed like lightning stood beside them. ⁵ In their fright the women bowed down with their faces to the ground, but the men said to them, “Why do you look for the living among the dead? ⁶ He is not here; he has risen! Remember how he told you, while he was still with you in Galilee: ⁷ ‘The Son of Man must be delivered over to the hands of sinners, be crucified and on the third day be raised again.’ ” ⁸ Then they remembered his words.

⁹ When they came back from the tomb, they told all these things to the Eleven and to all the others. ¹⁰ It was Mary Magdalene, Joanna, Mary the mother of James, and the others with them who told this to the apostles. ¹¹ But they did not believe the women, because their words seemed to them like nonsense. ¹² Peter, however, got up and ran to the tomb. Bending over, he saw the strips of linen lying by themselves, and he went away, wondering to himself what had happened.

one year ago

One year ago yesterday, my water broke at a wedding reception of a dear friend at exactly 41 weeks; One year ago today I labored and labored and labored some more; Until finally (38 hours later) one year ago tomorrow, we met our lovely strong-willed and sweet little lady face to face. Happy birthday sweets! We’re celebrating Saturday, but I’ll post some fun birthday images from tomorrow as well… So long as everyone is feeling well. We’ve had runny noses lately…again! Oh the weather.

This is me and LL post wedding reception at 41 weeks, one year ago!

11mo happenings

The following has become one of Linley’s very favorite things to do. Entertaining to watch; a bit embarrassing should there be anyone peeping in our windows.

As a way to be able to see and hear her as well as for her to hear me if needed, I’ll leave the washroom door ajar when necessary. She’s doing better at remaining content when I leave the room (depending on her mood at the moment and the circumstances of the day); so I’ll sometimes place her in front of her books and toy box until she’s occupied with something and do my best to sneak away to the restroom before she notices. Unfortunately, there’s a slight squeak in the door when it swings close, so I’m almost always found out, and she thinks it’s the greatest thing! This is the result:

Aside from that fun, we’re OH SO CLOSE to being finished with the bookshelf! We’re learning as we go with the cabinet doors, so aside from being hinged and knobbed, the shelves are up with books and all and it’s looking more and more complete (yes-photos to come when it’s ALL done.) Here is Tad measuring for the doors:

I had Tad bring up our totes of books from the basement this week. LL was helping me sort and found this one to take with us to get her pants changed. (not joking… this is the one she grabbed – and I am juuust ornery enough to take a picture and publish it)

On a more clean note, I should post photos of bath time every month, because they’re the best!

And thank you Grandma Marty for making LL her new summer hat! She’s been taking it off, then trying to put it back on; then taking it off and putting it back on.

Finally, LL helped me make a spring/summery wreath yesterday! Thanks girl!

oh my. Just 8 days until your birthday Little Lady!!

eleven months and sweet

We decided the days were sneaking up on us before Linley’s first ever FIRST birthday celebration would be here and thought we oughta get to snappin’ on her invites; So we picked some flowers and hung out on the back steps. This is Linley having fun with her Hyancinth:

While she was concentrating too intently to give us any belly laughs at first, we still captured some sweetness.

Then we had some fun when dad decided to tickler her with the stem:

Such an awesome evening before bed for a quick shoot

And of course, there are always snuggles with momma and dad

This is the one we chose for her invite. I had an amazingly productive day following the shoot. We edited, designed, printed, cut, addressed, stuffed and mailed all in one day… plus some dish doing and bed making. Yes! goal accomplished! Almost there! Get ready to celebrate Little Lady!