Asher is 5 months old! I can't believe he's only 5 months old. It feels like he's lived with us forever. At the same time, I can't believe he's 5 months old. We just had him. Time feels funny sometimes. I took him to get his check up and he's in the 96th percentile for his height! It shows because he's wearing 12 and 18 month clothes. He is definitely a big guy and he feels heavy too. He loves his brothers and smiles when they greet him in the morning. Benny especially is really good and getting him to smile and giggle. They're still rough with him but Asher takes it quite well and a lot of the time smiles when his brothers handle him in a much less than gentle manner. He has also graduated from his bassinet to a play pen now, but he still sleeps in the closet. We found out he's a stomach sleeper and loves to roll over and conk out and he loves the water. He has a big smile when he's in the tub. We're learning more and more things about him as he's growing up so fast and we can't wait to learn more about our special little Asher!

It's been snowing a ton down here in Rexburg which  I think is really fun. There are big piles of snow everywhere from the plow trucks and the boys enjoy climbing on them and then sliding down. 

It was Benny's 4th birthday! For his birthday cake, he wanted a "Dinosaur Land" theme which made it really easy because all I had to do was stick some of his plastic dinosaurs on there. Benny and Ephraim actually helped me place them. The birthday party went quite well except tensions were high after Benny opened his presents. Everybody wanted to play with his new toys, so we quickly collected the toys and tried to distract them with something else. Benny enjoyed it a lot and so did Ephraim. Benny started his preschool also and loves it. At first he didn't want to go and tried to run away but after the first day he can't wait to go back again. I love it too because it gives me some special time with Ephraim because Asher usually sleeps at this time. He's such a cute guy and it's nice to get some one on one with him. Ephraim actually fell from the bunk bed but thankfully didn't hurt anything. I had hung some Christmas stars from the ceiling in their room and Ephraim was trying to reach for one from the top bunk. He over extended and fell to the floor. Nathan and I heard the thud and ran upstairs. When we realized what happened I took Ephraim in my arms and said, "Ephraim, don't reach for the stars". I had to pause and laugh because It felt wrong telling my son not to reach for the stars but here I was telling him not to reach for the stars in a very literal way. The things you catch yourself saying sometimes.

Dinosaur Land!!!

My party boy hubby

Christmas was great. We had a Christmas miracle. We really wanted to go back to Kennewick for Christmas but we didn't really have the means to. My dad and grandma hadn't even seen Asher, not to mention all the siblings in both of our families. Just when we had pretty much reconciled ourselves to having Christmas in Rexburg, Nathan happened to bump into Brianna Titus at the health center and mentioned that her parents needed a way to transport all of their son's (Dillion) luggage and things back to Kennewick and they would pay the gas for whoever was able to do that. We totally jumped on the offer and crammed our van with Dillion's stuff. We were so happy to spend Christmas with our family and get Asher blessed by friends and family. The boys made themselves sick with all the time they got to spend playing with cousins. They were definitely ready to be back on a regular schedule and get to bed at a decent time when it was all over. We had quite an ordeal coming home though. We got a flat in Boise and had to get the spare on and drive to a shop where we replaced two tires and then we had to pull over again near twin falls because three lug nuts had snapped off and our tire was barely hanging on. We were actually quite blessed because if the tire had flown off while we were going 75 on the high way, it could of been really bad. So we got towed and thankfully the guys at the shop stayed late so they could get us back on the road. We had left at 6:30 but we didn't get home till about 10:00. It was long but somehow it didn't feel that long. The boys thought it was actually a blast, getting to wait at the tire shop and eat popcorn and then getting to ride in the tow truck. They liked it, so I'm glad they had fun and if it hadn't been for Christmas money we wouldn't have been able to pay for this emergency so all in all, it was a Christmas miracle coming home too.

When we got to Rexburg, it was a winter wonderland. Everything was white and pretty and it's been snowing continually since with only small breaks here and there. Oh, and it's also -20 degrees. I'm discovering that people in Rexburg are crazy. I've seen things that make me shudder inside, like people walking around in Flip flops.... in negative degree weather!!! Or only wearing pants and a sweater! No coat, no hat, no gloves... and then when they do wear a coat at least, they don't even zip it up! People even jog in this weather with their thin spandex jogging tights and their ankles exposed. There's a perfectly nice and cozy indoor track at the school available to everyone but no. This crazy town is home though, we love it. It felt so nice to be home again. Benny started primary for the first time and had a rocky start but the second time was better. In his own words, "It was great"!! especially since they sang happy birthday to him and gave him a little key chain that said "I am a Child of God". For his birthday on Wednesday, we're going to do a kids party with kids he knows from the ward. I'm really excited for it, I think he'll have a blast. I don't really got a game plan though. I figure they'll just want to do their own thing when they're all together but I think i'll have a couple of games planned just in case they're not sure what to do with themselves. I'm also excited for Benny to start pre-school. The school has a pre-school for part of their home and family and other related degrees, so it's really cheap. Also a new development with Ephraim has occurred, he's off his passie! Nathan wanted to do it because he thought it would help him talk more and he does talk more. People have even commented how he's a lot more vocal. He's still hard to understand but he's doing good. I think he's going through a withdrawal though because he's also a lot more clingy and he has a harder time falling asleep on his own now. Anyways that's it for now.

  Santa did a surprise visit. They were so excited. Benny asked me later, "why was grandpa pretending to be Santa"? Christmas can be very confusing for a little kid.

There is a canal by our house so we went on a hike in it and went under all the bridges and found animal tracks. We even got hiking sticks along the way.

Some friends from the ward invited us over and made us some gourmet pizza on a pizza stone and we loved it. So Nathan made us our own pizza peel from the wood lab and we got a pizza stone from my sister for Christmas. We got a good dough recipe from our friends and made our first gourmet pizza. It was great! We were so happy with the results that we invited some friends over the next day and cooked for them. The stone has forever changed our lives.

 Sledding!!

My mom gave Asher this bear suit and it has proved most invaluable in this negative degree weather.