a year in the life

I noticed that I currently have 599 published blog posts, so I just had to do a year end post to bring us to 600 for the start of 2011! 

This has been such a big year in the Wilkinson household - easily our biggest year yet.  Over the past 365 days I've watched my tiny guy grow from a helpless newborn to a wiggling, chatty toddler.  Last New Year's Eve I watched the clock in Asher's nursery flip from 11:59 to 12:00 while rocking my sleeping precious boy.  I had no idea what the coming year would bring, but can say that it was more amazing, more joy filled, more awe inspiring, {more overwhelming!} than I ever thought possible.  

January

February

March

April

May

June

July

August

September

October

November

December

lounging through the holidays

Asher got a very exciting delivery from the FedEx man last week.  We knew that the car would be STUFFED coming home from Christmas so we decided to have his big gift from Drew's parents shipped right to the house.

Asher loves crawling all over his new bean bag chair!

I thought this 'chair' would be great for him to grow into over the next few years.  We got a simple color that should go with any boy decor throughout his childhood. 

wordless wednesday

Today we got back home from our Christmas trip - yay!  I'm squeezing this post in because it's so heartwarming I just had to share.

Yesterday morning Asher's Aunt Ali was playing with him and we suddenly heard these really loud baby giggles erupting.  Ali was playing peek-a-boo with this plastic sheet and Asher thought it was hilarious.  Seriously, it was the hardest I've ever heard him laugh.  I grabbed the video camera and started rolling.

If you need a laugh - watch along!  It would take a pretty hard person not to smile along with him.

christmas - two thousand ten

I can't believe that we just celebrated Asher's second Christmas.  I called it his first Christmas, I don't know how many times.  Last year was such a blur - A was 12 days old and I was running on a couple hours of sleep.

This Christmas was so much more memorable!  While Ash still doesn't care much about opening gifts he did love playing with things as I opened them for him!  And get gifts he did - everyone was so generous to him.

Drew, Asher and I traveled to New Jersey to spend the holiday with Drew's family this year.  We left VA on Friday morning and arrived in time to head over to Drew's Uncle Ken and Aunt Joanne's house for Christmas Eve dinner. 

The Wilkinson family all get together on Christmas Eve for dinner and gifts - we were so happy to be there this year!  After dinner Asher changed into his Christmas pajamas {I wasn't sure how long he'd last and it was waaay past his bedtime!}.  It was perfect timing because he got dressed just when Santa arrived!

 Some of Drew's cousins have little ones that are around 2 years old and they were the perfect age for Santa.  It was hilarious watching them get excited - 'It's Santa! It's Santa!!'  Love it!

 Asher was playing on the floor when Santa came in and didn't even look until Santa dug around in his sack and came up with a present for him.  When Santa called out 'Asher - is Asher here?' little A looked right around and scrambled over to him!  I picked Asher up and helped him get his present.

Yay, Santa!  Asher got a fun helicopter toy that came with a couple little plastic balls.  Asher got a hold of these blue and green ones and haven't put them down since.  Literally.  He holds them and looks at other stuff, but won't put them down.  It's funny, but kind of weird too!

On Christmas morning Asher was completely inundated with presents - his aunts, uncles, and grandparents went completely overboard!  So fun!

 
Drew and his brothers all received super sharp Shun knifes for Christmas.  Of course they wanted a photo of the knives with the baby.  Mommy was scared - but indulging.

 Asher's great grandparents and great-Uncle Bob came over for Christmas lunch.

 Ash LOVES his Uncle Bob - he's the baby whisperer. 

We had such a wonderful holiday here.  Tomorrow we head back to Virginia to get ready for a big New Years!

It's just as well - Asher is about to enter a holiday coma.

In a good sort of way.  :o)

Merry Christmas - one and all!

merry and bright

We had a wonderful Christmas yesterday.  Our holiday continues over the next few days, so you can expect a big recap once we get home, settled, and back down off the sugar high!

In the meantime, Merry Christmas, friends.

christmas miracle

Christmas is a time to believe in miracles. 

I have more reason than most to believe this year.

Some of you may remember a few weeks ago when I took Asher to his first election.  He was given an "I Voted" sticker from the nice poll workers, but it somehow disappeared on the way home.  When I went to get him out of the car it was completely gone.  I looked everywhere and finally {reluctantly} determined that he ate it??

In preparation for our Christmas vacation I was cleaning out the car yesterday.  I pulled out his car seat's Piddle Pad {that thing majorly saved us from a diaper blowout once and now we'll never travel without it!} and what, to my wondering eyes did appear...

the "I Voted" sticker!

Asher didn't eat it!

It was stuck to the bottom of this pad the whole time.

Now that's a Christmas miracle if I've ever heard of one.

Merry Christmas...every one!

wordless wednesday {rockin' rider}

Sometimes I have to be careful not to literally smother him with kisses.

He's just that cute.

spoiled rotten

Asher received so many wonderful gifts from our oh-so-generous friends and family for his birthday.  I just had to showcase some here and give them all a shout out on our little blog.

His first birthday party was in Cleveland - remember the LOUD race car?  He still loves it!  Thanks Aunt Karen and Uncle Carl!

Then Asher's Grammy and PopPop Cowell came to visit for his party and brought with them a whole slew of gifts.  Like I said - spoiled rotten.  :o)

He got a Little People Noah's Ark set and loves to clap the animals together.  Ash loves anything that come in pairs {the better to clap them!} so this was right up his ally. 

Aunt Erin helped him get it open - there were tons of zip ties and tape holding it all together.

Aunt Erin and Uncle Ryan brought him - drumroll, please - a cell phone!  Asher is obsessed with my phone and now he has one of his own.  It lights up and says all kinds of fun things.  Sadly, Mr. A has not been permanently distracted away from my phone, but it does take the edge off.

Grandma and Grandpa Wilkinson came for his party as well and brought along a very special firetruck!  It has a bell to ring and everything.  Wow!

Of course Mommy and Daddy had to give him a little something special - a ball!  Asher loves to roll balls around and now he has a couple to choose from.

We are lucky to have so many generous, loving people in our little boy's life.  Thanks to everyone who helped us celebrate a year of Asher - whether through a gift, card, phone call, email, or blog comment.  We love you all!