Christmas Eve at Home!

We had Christmas tonight at our house before we head out to Grandma Beth's and Grandpa Ron's tomorrow. It was a great night. We went to our Christmas Eve service at ICC, had pizza, and opened gifts! Asher got some cool gifts tonight! We got him quite a few gifts, but the main two were an 'Alphabet Train' and a music learning table! He absolutely loves the music table and was jamming to it as well. He also is very curious of the Alphabet Train. We'll have to wait and see about that toy. The neat thing about the train, is that you can push it, sit on it, and play with it. Below are some pics of him and his toys!

You gotta read this!

As I was reading Jon Duey's blog he had a link to this story on ESPN's website. Click here to read about how a high school football team and parents represented Christ and inspired hope! Truly amazing!

Merry Christmas!

We would like to wish everyone a very Merry Christmas!

We are heading to Julie's side this year. It should be tons of fun as this will be Asher's first Christmas! Pray for us as we travel on Christmas Day over to Eastern Iowa. The weather does not look good.


Merry Christmas everyone!

Christmas at the Castenson's

We finally put up our Christmas tree yesterday afternoon! Late, we know, but better late than never. We decided to not put the Precious Moments ornaments on the tree, due mostly to the time it takes to put them on the tree. Asher likes looking at the tree and pushed the wall right next to the tree today to try to touch it!

We want to wish those of you reading this a Merry Christmas! We pray that you take time out of your busy schedules to remember the birth of Christ this season. HE is the reason of the season!

Merry Christmas!

My Buddy Isaac!

Twice a week, Julie watches a friend of our's son, Isaac. He is 8 weeks younger than Asher and they have fun together every week. Julie has been watching Isaac for about 5 months and Asher and him are growing in their friendship. Julie snapped these pictures of them having fun together earlier this week! We hope they grow up to be best buds!

Bailey kisses

Bailey absolutely loves to give Asher kisses (well ok, he licks him!). Sometimes he licks him so much that he won't let Asher even breath. It's not that bad, but you get the picture. Julie snapped a good picture of Bailey giving Asher a "kiss".

The Wall

You might be asking yourself, What is "The Wall?" Well... it is now the thing between the kitchen and our family room. We had been doing some research on various play-yards and came across one that we liked. We had read the reviews on this particular play-yard and one said they used it as a wall to block off an area for their child. When we bought it, we actually bought 2 of them so we could have a larger play area for Asher. Well, we opened it today and decided to make a wall out of the pieces.

Surprisingly, it works very well as a wall. Asher really likes the wall. Since he likes to stand up next to things, he really likes standing using the wall. So far we have just opened 1 of the packages. We are thinking of opening the 2nd one to make a longer wall.

We had some friends over tonight, which was very fun by the way. I miss our hang out times and hope to do more in the future.

The wall was a huge hit as well with our friends' children, especially Isaac. He played with it for awhile.

Here are just a few pictures of "The Wall."

New Car Seat

Friday was the first day that AsherMan used his new convertible car seat. He outgrew his infant car seat (due to weight and length) and now has his next car seat! We weren't sure if he was going to like it or not. We also had to try it out and go to Des Moines to see how he would do on longer trips since we will be going to Grandma Beth's and Grandpa Ron's for Christmas.

Well, he absolutely loves his new car seat. We think it is because he can see more, especially side to side. However, we can't use the base it came with because it is too long for our backseat (thanks a bunch Chevy Blazer!) . Anyway, it is working out and that makes us happy. Julie snapped these pictures of him in our family room before the car seat was installed.

Day of Firsts - Part 3 (Climbing Stairs)

It has been a busy day for Asher!! Not only has he started to get his teeth brushed and started using a sippy cup, he also started to climb the stairs! Yes, climbing the stairs!! I was fortunate enough to get a video of him doing it this afternoon! Wow, our little man is growing up!!

Day of Firsts - Part 2 (Sippy Cup)

Since Asher is now over 9 months, we figured it was time to introduce the "sippy cup." We kind of figure he was ready anyway, but decided to give it a try today. We put the cup in front of him and he immediately put the nipple in his mouth! However, he didn't tip it back so he could drink. Oh well, he will learn to tip it back to drink. It is only the first day!!

Day of Firsts - Part 1 (Teeth Brushed)

Now that Asher has 5 teeth, we decided he probably needed to have his teeth brushed. As you can see from the photos he absolutely loves to get them brushed. Hopefully he will continue to like it when he gets older!

It was a tooth!

Asher now has 5 teeth! His 5th tooth popped out today and we are very excited. It is next to top left front tooth. Way to go AsherMan!!

Another tooth?

We think that Asher might be getting another tooth, which would be #5. He hasn't been sleeping very good at all and has been clingy. He acted very similar to what he is doing now about a month ago when he got his two top teeth. I guess we will just have to wait and see.

I really hope it comes through soon so Julie and I can get some sleep!!!

Sounds of Asher

For the past week or so, Asher has been loving it when you play with his lips. Now he makes sounds when you play with his lips. It is hillarious!

The Asher Face

For the past 2 weeks, Asher has been making the "Asher Face" as we like to call it! We finally got a video of him making the face.

1st snowfall

Last night through today was the first snowfall of the season here in Indianola. We were able to get a snowsuit from one of our friends, so we decided to have Asher enjoy the snow with us. Bailey also enjoyed running around in the snow.

I love Cheerios!

Asher has been eating Cheerios now for about 10 days and he absolutely loves them. He has gotten pretty good at picking them up and putting them in his mouth! Here is a video showing him eating his Cheerios.

Pics from Thanksgiving

Here are some pictures from Thanksgiving.




Asher & Grandpa Rod





Asher & Grandma Helen





Asher & his cousins (Drew, Abby, and Lauren)





Asher & Great Grandpa Norm





Asher & Great Grandma Ginny





Asher & Great Grandpa Norm & Great Grandma Ginny

Happy Thanksgiving!

I hope you all had a great Thanksgiving!! We all had a great day in Fort Dodge!! Asher was wonderful all day! He really enjoyed his time with everyone! I am looking forward to Christmas and the joy that Asher will bring to the season!

Hope you all enjoyed Turkey and Pumpkin Pie!!

Good to be home

This past week we went to Coralville for a semi-annual meeting for my work. While we were there, Julie had a touch of the flu and I developed a bad head cold and got the flu when we left for home. Asher did pretty good and slept good, but didn't eat the best. When we got home yesterday, I sat on the couch and breathed a sigh of relief! Nothing beats being home!

crawling around

I was gone for 2 days to our high school retreat and when I came back I was shocked and excited to learn that Asher is crawling all over our house!! In fact he can craw from our entryway to our family room!! He is absolutely crawling everywhere and does not want to stay in one spot for very long. It is very neat to watch him grow up before our eyes! I am just amazed that he went from crawling a couple of feet to the whole house in just 2 days!

As promised, here is a video of him crawling to Julie! Enjoy!

Mighty to Save

This weekend I had the opportunity to go with our high school youth group to Hidden Acres. It was awesome!! God showed me some things that I need to do and need to work on. We also had great worship! One of the songs we sang is quickly becoming one of my favorite worship songs, 'Mighty to Save'. I uploaded the video! Enjoy and worship our God who is Mighty to Save!

Belly Button

Asher received a Veggie Tales CD from his Great Aunt Alice about 2 weeks ago and we were playing it tonight. As we were listening to it, we started laughing at one of the songs. It was the Belly Button song, and it is absolutely hilarious. Enjoy and try not to laugh too hard!

Fevers aren't fun

Asher developed a very high fever this past weekend (102 degrees). Wow, was he ever burning up! Since he had this fever (we think it is because he is teething) he didn't sleep very good, didn't eat very good and quite frankly was not happy! I wouldn't either if I had a fever like that. All I have to say is thank you, Lord, for Tylenol! His fever is going down and that makes us glad knowing he is getting better.

Oh by the way, Go Hawkeyes!!! Way to beat Penn State!!

3rd tooth!

Asher now has a 3rd tooth!! It is his left front tooth. It is not completely out yet, but it's out at least halfway. Surprisingly, he has not been fussy while it has been coming in. Way to be tough, Little Man!

Come crawl with me

Asher is starting to crawl!! Yesterday, Julie called me to let me know that he crawled about halfway across our living room. Needless to say she was very excited, as was I. I hope to have a good video of him crawling soon. Well... now it looks like we are going to have to 'Asher proof' our house now!!

Standing is so much fun

Asher is learning to stand up using either us or our furniture. He absolutely has a hay day when he stands up! He smiles and laughs and thinks it is the coolest thing! He is also so close to crawling, but would obviously rather stand. Lately, it has been much easier to pull himself up using the furniture (a quick learner!). Here is a video of him using our ottoman to pull himself up. He is such a joy to have around!!

Look what I did mommy!

When Julie went in to get him from his afternoon nap today, this is what Asher was doing! Good job, Asher Man! Look at him standing up like a big boy!!

Asher's Dedication

Asher was dedicated at ICC on Sunday. For those of you who don't have child dedications at your church, we believe in dedicating our child to God and having the church come along side of us and pray for Asher that he will someday come to know the Lord Jesus. We pray that someday he will commit his life to Christ and then want to be baptized (believers baptism). We had an opportunity to share a verse during the service and we chose Jeremiah 29:11. We wholeheartedly believe that God is going to do something great in and through Asher.

It was also a great day to hang out with family. Both of our parents came as well as my sister, brother-in-law, their three kids, Julie's brother, Julie's aunt Alice, and her cousins Ben and Emily. It definitely was a house full, but tons of fun!

Here are some pictures of that day and him in front of a DQ Ice Cream Cake (a must for get togethers!!)

Hemophilia Annual Conference

We had the opportunity to attend the Hemophilia of Iowa Annual Education Conference in CR this past weekend. It was a very good meeting, even though it was overwhelming! We had a great time meeting some very neat people. The stories that were shared were sad, funny, and encouraging. To know that others out there are struggling like we are was very reassuring. We met some great industry people. They didn't care if we bought their product or used their services, all they cared was that we were getting information on the illness and educating ourselves.

Even though Asher has Hemophilia, I praise God that he is my son! I would not trade him for anything! Seeing him smile everyday is the best thing ever!


Mark

Update

Wow, has it been a long time since we posted anything to the blog. We just have not gotten around to updating you all on what has been going on. Sorry. We hope to post at least a couple of times a week from now on. It has been a crazy summer and I can not wait until fall, hopefully a little slow down from our crazy summer.

Asher now has a bottom tooth!! He has been 'teething' for quite awhile and has obviously been a little stinker. (Of course I would be too if my gums hurt!) He weighs a little over 14 lbs as of July 29th. We will be posting some pics in later blogs so you can see his progress.


Mark & Julie

Tummy 2 Back

Here you can see Asher rolling over for the 1st time! This video is actually from Monday night (the 19th). He loves to be on his tummy and will be crawling before we know it!
Enjoy the video!

Welcome to the Castenson Connection

Well... our 1st post is of Asher laughing his head off!! He has been laughing now for about a few weeks, but here he is laughing at a toy and then laughs spontaneously. Today has been a very good day! He almost is rolling over and has definitely knows how to, he just has to do it now. Enjoy the video!