New Year's Day 2011

Happy New Year 2011. I am so excited about this new year. I know God has a lot planned for me and my family this year. I have been feeling Him move since November and even though I don't know what He has in store I do know what His word says.

Jeremiah 29:11 "For I know the plans I have for you," declares the Lord, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future."

I know that the Lord is going to teach this little Read family just what that means this year! I have to say I am very excited to see what the Lord is going to do.

My New Year Resolutions!?!
I think I always make these although I am not sure I always keep them. I am determined to keep at least a couple this year. Here they are in no particular order:

1. Keep my blog updated. (I know this one has been on my list every year but...) I have put together a plan. The most important is to not be overwhelmed so I am not going to try and catch up. I am going to take the easy way out and make a whole bunch of shutterfly books to make up for the years I've missed (2007-2010) and then do the blurb book for what I have done up to now.

2. I received a Kindle 3 for Christmas (thank you Grandma and Grandpa Read) and I LOVE it. I have decided that I am going to turn off the TV in the evenings so I can get caught up on the books I want to read. I am going to list them here so I can hold myself accountable. ~WHEN GODLY PEOPLE DO UNGODLY THINGS, ~THE WHOLE IN OUR GOSPEL, ~BRINGING UP BOYS, ~RAISING A MODERN DAY KNIGHT, ~THE FORGOTTEN GOD, ~THE LIBERTY OF OBEDIENCE, ~THE GOOD AND BEAUTIFUL GOD. I am sure I will be adding some to this as well ;).

3. This one goes along with number one. To finish Asher's baby book and Noah's baby book. Then to make shutterfly books of different holidays for the years 2007-2010, also a special events book for those years, and a vacation book for those same years.

4. This is my last, so not to many to try and accomplish. I want to get in bed at a decent hour (10:30) so that I can get up before the little ones to spend time with God. I heard an amazing quote by Andy Stanley. He said "Doing the revealed will of God is the key to knowing the unrevealed will of God." I know that I know this but I love being reminded. My prayer for my whole family is to grow in our knowledge of God this year.

So, on a non serious note. I asked Noah what is resolutions were and he said. 1. To get to level 4 in scooby doo game. That is what Brian and him did today and Noah has already accomplished one of his resolutions. (I need to get busy;)) Aren't they cute all serious playing video games.

Noah also said he wants for some friends to come to his house. Also, he wants to play and eat popcorn with Gabe. Too funny!


Sweet Asher! He loves to play with any kind of ball. He loves to pick them up, throw them, and then crawl to get them. Brian and I hope he will pick up a few words this year so he will stop screaming when he wants something.


Today we went over to Uncle D's and Aunt ReRe's house and got to hang out with our new baby cousin Rhett. Noah is sooooo excited about baby Rhett. All he talks about is when baby Rhett gets older he can come play with me. Look at what a cute little peanut he is!

Oh my baby fever!

Grandma is staying for a little while and helping with Rhett. So we lucked out and got to go see and hang out with Grandma also. The boys had a lot of fun playing with her tonight.

One funny story from tonight that I can not forget to mention is at dinner Noah was "looking off". So I asked him what was wrong and he said he was a little sad. All of us at the table were like why are you sad. He said "b/c he did not have a double light saber or the x-wing jet from star wars!" Oh my, this kid knows how to pour it on. It was funny and sweet at the same time. Trust me we are working on getting both of those things ~ only b/c we took back one present that was broken.

Our garden and a little Zoolander

I have always wanted to have my own garden so this year (since I have not been working) I started one. It was not very hard at all and we got a really good deal on the raised bed. It has been very cool seeing Noah show people his garden and tell them what is in each square. It is too cute. We have a watermelon, a cucumber, a squash, strawberries, corn, onions, basil and cilantro. We will see how it goes ;)


Noah posing in front of his garden. He helped me plant each item and has helped me to water also.


He wanted to take a picture of me in front of the garden. I think he did a great job.


Now here is where he went all Zoolander on me. He would jump, twist, and turn and then say 'Mom is this a good pose. Take a picture of this pose.'

He would again jump, twist, and turn and pose again wanting me to take a picture.

I know we took more than just these few pictures (but I did not want to put them all on here) b/c he just kept on. It was so funny. I didn't know he was such a model.

Asher 6 months

My little Ash man is 6 months old. Look how cute he is!!!! He is just growing so much. At his doctor appointment this week he was in the 77% for length, 62% for weight and 95% for head circ. Asher is such a happy baby and only cries when tired or hungry. He has started rolling over YEA! He is also able to sit up on his own for at least a few seconds. This boy loves his feet and he is always grabbing them and trying to get them in his mouth. Funny thing is I used to do the same thing as a baby. Asher may look just like Brian but I think he is going to act like me =)



Half of the time his paci strap is in his mouth instead of the actual paci. So cute!!

Big boy. 18lbs and 7.8 oz


Noah absolutely loves his little brother. I love how he calls him Ash man. It just warms my heart to see Noah loving on Asher.

Official Easter Pics

I know these are totally late but I just figured out how to get pics off of our other camera and onto my computer. These are our offical family Easter pictures.

Easter 2010

Easter was very low key for us this year. My Mom, Ashley and David came over and we went out to eat, colored eggs, and hunted them. That was it! It was so nice to not have a crazy rushed lets get all of this done kind of day.


Noah and Asher's Easter baskets. I love getting little things like this for them.


Noah was so excited to get a Phineas and Ferb CD. The Easter Bunny didn't come in the morning time because the Easter bunny didn't know Noah was going to wake up so early.


Asher enjoyed chewing on his Easter basket. Everything you put in front of him goes to his mouth.


I finally convinced Brian it was time to color Easter eggs. If you know Brian, you know he can hardly stand this sort of thing due to the potential amount of mess. I was good and covered the table but he wanted to cover the floor or go outside. Noah did a good job and got design help from his oh so talented Aunt Ashley. She is showing him how to do the double dip egg.

All of the eggs just waiting to be colored. I think Noah liked this but like all things artsy it only lasted a few minutes then he was done. Ashley spent more time on her one egg than Noah did on all of his. I even got a "Cars" coloring kit hoping he would spend more time with it but no such luck.

Noah's lovely eggs. Notice the nasty brown one in the carton. He want to put an egg in each of the colors for a while and see what happens. Brown and not cute chocolate brown but gross brown. Boys!!!!

This is the typical face he likes to give these days when taking pictures.

He does love pink. Noah and I with our "girl" eggs.

We sat Asher up so he could watch. Happy first Easter kiddo. Noah wanted him to have a pink egg. Notice thumb in mouth, everything to his mouth.

Look how intently he is looking at this egg. I know he is thinking 'how can I get this to my mouth.'

Noah on his second egg hunt this Easter but this time it was all his. He still loved it and ran just as hard and fast as he did when there were a whole bunch of kids around.

Brian and Asher hanging out (in their Easter outfits) watching Noah hunt eggs.

Noah's Egg Hunt at School

For some reason (could be that we have a new baby) Easter snuck up on us this year. We normally go to one of the city's Easter events but we missed them. So, thankfully Noah's school did an egg hunt and we didn't have to go to one. This year was the best one yet, he actually understood was the egg hunting was all about. It was so much fun to see him run to get eggs. I even had to tell him to let the girls get some of the eggs.


Noah's Penguin class lined up and ready to hunt.

Ayden, Noah, Mason and Ryan still waiting.

Look at that face! He is so excited to go get the eggs.

He so did not want to stop to let mommy get a picture.

Braden and Noah have become great friends this year.

Asher 5 months

Look at my precious little man who is growing so much. This month has had a lot of changes for Asher. He is sitting up so much better but not on his own just yet.

He is such a happy baby and loves to be with all of us. This month we started on solid food. We started first with Rice cereal but when he didn't go to the bathroom for 10 days we switched to Oatmeal. The oatmeal was a big hit and helped in the bathroom department. After doing oatmeal for a while we moved to peas.


He does a great job eating but it does get a little messy.


He loves to eat. He gets so excited and just kicks his legs.


Asher's favorite toy. Mouth open b/c he is constantly chewing on things.


This is how I found Asher one day after Noah said 'Mommy, I played with Asher.' We had a little talk about not covering up Asher's face =).


Like I said before baby brother is growing and growing. He is already up to 17 lbs. and 1.9oz. I just love going and taking these pictures each month and seeing how much he is growing.