Happy Halloween Playdate...

Asa is such a spoiled baby.  I am always getting volunteers to hold him.  Maybe it is because they feel sorry for him because he is always sitting in his carseat.  He is such an easy going baby.  This is our new friend Malesa she just moved into the area.  FYI she is Linda Bayles' niece. 

Malesa's daughter Pretty Pink Princess Aubrey...

 On Halloween night Malesa had a party at her home with some ward members. Our family did a theme Darin was a knight the kids dragons and I was a princess. (no pictures sadly).  Anyway I asked Aubrey what princess I should be.  She told me "you can make your own decisions." haha.

 Cute little Giraffe Carson (Stacia's).

 Scary Tiger Dawson (Stacia's) he is one of Nash's best friends.  Nash loves him because he can be a naughty mischievous little boy.  He is my favorite too, I think he looks like Jon Bon Jovi, (who I love!) he even has his hair which is AWESOME.  hehe.

 Katelyn the Cuddly Bear (Malesa's) - she is the cutest little girl ever!

 Madden the Fluffy Doggy (Stacia's) - he looks like those porcelain dolls I used to make with stuffed animals. haha.

 Tayton the Veterinarian (Stacia's) - I love this picture of Tayto.  We so did not even stage this.  He really was listening to Dawson the Tiger's heart.  haha.

 Such a fun little playdate.

 Our township had Trick or Treating on Friday, October 26th.  Which was great because Hurricane Sandy was coming on Halloween night.  We were sad that Darin was not home for Trick or Treating, he was on his way home from an interview in Kansas City. 

We had a few of Nash's friends join us for Trick or Treating and it was a lot of fun!

It's a dragon Halloween...AGAIN!

Yep Nash decided to be a dragon for the third year in a row.  I was thinking that this would be the last year that he would be a dragon as his costume is getting to small.  Lucky for Nash he has a wonderful Grandma Willardson who sent him a special Halloween package with a NEW dragon costume, that I am sure will fit him for another 2 years. (BTW the following pictures are NOT of the new costume.)

I found Asa's dragon costume on a Buy/Trade/Sell Facebook site for $5!

Some of our friends decided to take our kids to the park and have a photo-shoot in their costumes.  Nash wasn't particularly happy with getting pictures.  He wanted to run around and play.  So I have more of Asa. :)

 

  Although, Nash was excited to be able to be the scary dragon to the pretty pink princess.

This was so much fun!

Apple Picking Field Trip

A few of the classes from Nash's preschool went on an apple picking field trip to Zimmerman Apple Orchard.  This orchard is located about 40 minutes from our house.  I so wished it was closer because I would have begged to let me take family pictures there.

 They helped make apple sauce....

Talked about the pond and found caterpillars by the water....

 Learned about the different animals that lived near the orchard.  They lady holding the antlers is Mrs. Zimmerman, she is a teacher at the school as well as owns the orchard.  If you look in the top right of this next picture that is her house.  I would LOVE to live here (minus how far from a store it is.)

 The children learned about the equipment used to pick apples and then were able to climb a latter.

 Mrs. Z also taught the kids how to correctly pick an apple.  "Raise your hand. Grab the apple and pull down and say YES!"

Nash did a good job choosing and picking his apple, it was as big as a pumpkin!

It was super juicy and I was just waiting for Nash to be sick of it so I could eat it...yum, yum!

This is Nash's little Joseph.  He was in his class last year and also takes speech with Nash.

Joseph's mom offered to hold Asa while I took pictures.  He wasn't a fan of the carrier I brought for him.

 

The kids also got to sit on a tractor and explore the orchard equipment.

 Such a fun morning out.  I LOVE that Nash's teacher was willing to take the kids on a field trip.  He didn't go on any last year and I think it was such a fun experience for the kids.  I LOVE Mrs. Cowell.  Nash told me tonight that he hopes when Asa gets bigger he can have Mrs. Cowell as his teacher.  I told him we will be moving.  His response was "Maybe Mrs. Cowell can come too."  He is such a sweet little boy!

Better late then Never...

I didn't want to send out announcements until we knew when his blessing would be.  At this point I still do not know if it is Sunday or Saturday....

Darin has a conference in Denver so we are all flying out there.  Troy and Tonya live there, and the rest of our family pretty much is in driving distance. We are excited to see our families again and introduce baby Asa.

 Darin has decided to do a fellowship in Emergency Pediatrics.  So while we are there we will be traveling down to New Mexico for an interview.  I am pretty proud of Darin as he has worked so hard to get this far, and I know he will be happy with his decision to do a fellowship as he loves Pediatrics.  He has been offered a few interviews so far and we are hoping for more in the next month or so.  TIME FLIES and residency is almost OVER!

Asa is 4 months old...

 Our little Asa turned 4 months old on 19th.  He had his 4 month well check and it about did us all in.  The poor little guy got 2 shots then they wanted to check him for anemia.  I guess preemies often have a problem with that.  They poked his heel and it was 9.3 it needed to be 9.4 so he was on the border.  They redid it to make sure.  This time he was 9.2.  So they sent us to the lab to get further tests done.  This time they poked him 6 times because they could not get enough blood out for the test.  It was so sad and he was ANGRY!!!  Nash didn't like seeing his brother get poked or scream so he sat in the corner with his eyes closed and ears plugged.  :(

Asa's 4 month stats:
Weight: 12 lbs 13 oz - 5th %ile
Length: 23 1/2 inches - 5th %ile
Head Circ: 15 1/2 inches
GREAT NEWS IS HE IS ON THE GROWTH CURVE!!! YAY ASA!!!

Asa still can not hold his head up very good and has no desire to lift it during tummy time. So we have to get him re-evaluated for Early Intervention.  They do not come until the end of October so hopefully he will get some strength from now until then!

We looked at Nash's stats at this age and Asa almost a whole pound bigger then Nash but he is a bit shorter.  Click the HERE to see Nash at 4 months. I love dressing the boys in the same outfits and comparing them.  I took the above picture this morning.  The picture below is Nash at 5 months.

When I was a baby...

 Nash's #1 question this week is "What did I do when I was a baby?" or "Tell me about when I was a baby."  I think I have told him his whole life story 40 billion times.  One morning at 6am he was sitting in my bed asking me these questions.  So being the wonderful mother I am I told him to stop talking to me and I rolled over.  When that didn't work I pulled out the iPad found this blog went to the very first post and let him scroll through his life.  Pretty soon I could hear him giggling and we ended with him on my lap looking through our blog.  I am so grateful I started this not long after Nash was born and stuck with it.  I can't wait until I take the time to print it into books so that he can enjoy these pictures and stories as he grows up.

As we were scrolling through I saw this picture of Nash.  He was 3 days old (5lbs)  and 3 months old (11ish lbs).

 Then I decided to do the same with Asa.  He was 4 weeks old (4lbs) and 4 months old (12 lbs).

I am amazed at how fast they change in such a little time period.  It is crazy to me that either one of them were that small!

Friend Josh...

Betsy invited us to Chuck-e-Cheese one morning.  Nobody was there and it was so fun to play with Josh and Nash. They are such cute little friends.  Thanks Betsy!

The Future Elder Willardson

Stacia gave us this cute missionary onsie.  Asa looked so cute.  We were having the Elder's over for dinner this particular Sunday and I wanted to get a picture of Asa with them.  Sadly Asa puked all over himself right before they came.  BOO! I will have to try again.

 This next funny little outfit I bought on my mission with Sister Chidester.  I never put it on Nash as it was too hot in California.  It is pretty humid here but I thought I would let Asa have some fun Sunday clothes. He looked so cute...Darin said he looked like an oompa-loompa!