A conversation with Asher...

Asher is becoming quite the chatter box. Her favorite things to say (or ask) are "What's that noise" and "What are you doing." The noise question comes up everytime there is something outside like a car or lawn mower. Now obviously these need a little translating to understand, but she knows what she is asking and we know what she is saying. Aidan helps translate for her sometimes. My brother did that for me and I'm sure Tiff did it for her brother Jake (which was probably her just saying what she wanted Jake to say). It is great to watch Aidan and Asher interact more and more. Unfortunately there is a lot of fighting over things due to the inability to share. They have also gotten into the habit of wrestling every once and a while. It is great fun. Asher really knows how to use her weight while Aidan tries to use his strength. It usually goes well until someone gets a 'boo-boo.'

Here are a couple of videos of Asher last night at the dinner table.

A Special Thanks To An Amazing Husband

With Matt being the more entertaining one, most blogs lately have come from him. I just wanted to carve out a little spot to tell the world (or whoever reads our blog) what an amazingly wonderful husband I have. I really feel so incredibly blessed to have a man who loves to be a daddy, is a partner in this whole parenting adventure, is a super supportive husband, and to top it all off never complains if what I cook doesn't turn out or if the house is messy. Does it get any better than that?

These past 16 weeks of you watching the kids without complaints every Tuesday night (which included baths, jammies, preparing the dish to bring to small group, and then leading our small group all while I am at my training class), some half day Saturdays which meant I trained for a few hours and then wanted to nap for a couple too, as well as getting to the race super early with a 4 year old, racing to every transition, letting me nap for several hours, and then surprising me with a massage gift certificate..... you amaze me.

Thank you for being so truly dedicated to your family, for loving me unconditionally, and for being such a rock for myself and our kids. I couldn't have done this without you!

I love you Matthew!!

The Race Around the World

I keep my promises. Here is the video clips of Tiff at the Danskin Triathlon last Sunday. It seems a little mean to take two hours of hard work and squeeze it into a minute and a half.

My Amazing Wife...

As some of you know Tiff competed in her first triathlon today. She did the Danksin Triathlon in Austin. She was a bit nervous but looked calm before she hit the water this morning. Aidan and I hoofed it to find her before she started and scrambled to all the transition areas to see her in between events. She did awesome! It was great to be able to be there and cheer her on. I know a lot of you would have been there for her too if you lived here, so we cheered for you. Aidan would yell "Go Momma Go, Go Momma Go" whenever he would see her (with the occasional "Go Tiffany Go"). He did great also considering all the running around we did. The kicker at the end was the 2 mile walk back to the car.

All and all Tiff did a great job and really enjoyed it. Her total time was 2 hours and 17 minutes which included two 5 minute transition times. I am working on a highlight reel for your viewing pleasure. It will be posted soon.

Here we are before she got in the water, so this was about 7:30 this morning. The little yellow matchbox car in Aidan's hand was his entertainment for several hours.

"What's that? Mommy's riding 12 miles on her bike? I think I'll have an ice cream cone"

Here are Tiff and Aidan at the finish line. She promised to put her medal on him when she finished.

Saturday Surprise

Last Saturday morning we woke to a surprise. Tiff saw it first as she was getting ready to go biking. We snatched Aidan out of his bed to show him and he said 'Wow.' In the field behind our house was a hot air balloon. I mean it was right there. After we showed Aidan from our bedroom window on the second floor we went outside to take a closer look. When we got outside there wasn't only the one in the field but five in all heading south to north. One balloon went by close enough that they said good morning to Aidan and I and we didn't have to yell to say good morning back to them. Here are some pictures and a video from the event.

Here is the first balloon. Objects in this picture are closer than they appear.

These three were behind the first one.

The checkered one had the people who said hello to us.

Here they are making their exit.