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!!!