Snow, Corn, and School Oh My!

HeLLo! I know that our blog is usually pics of our children, but they are cute, and we just don't have an overly excited life so I hope you enjoy it!

Well, we do have a few updates though. When we took this picture(below) of Geoffrey last week, he kept saying he wanted to play in the snow. I thought, or hoped, that that time would still be a little ways away, but alas it snowed this week in Rexburg! I swear that it gets earlier every year. Usually the first snow is on Halloween! But Geoffrey does love the snow. He woke us up Sunday morning saying, "Its snowing!" It was actually the most beautiful surreal snow I have ever seen. The flakes were pretty big and were falling sooooo slowly. I felt like I was in a dream.

Nathan started his first graduate school course a week ago. He is doing great. We have all had to get used to a more structured schedule, but I kind of like it! We have been busy though, putting away all of the food that we were able to harvest before the cold weather set in. I still have corn sitting in the dining room ready to be shucked, blanched and frozen. Hopefully I will get to that tomorrow! My sister-in-law and I have learned a lot about canning this year. We were able to can salsa, peaches, and apples. It has been a lot of fun, and we learn more and more as we go.

Geoffrey and Gwen continue to grow so fast! They are completely loveable and a bucket of laughs! It is so fun to see how much they love eachother. Geoffrey especially amazes me every day. He wants to do everything we do.

I have to admit. The cure to any illness, grouchiness, or selfish pity pary is to look at these precious babes, to hear their laughter, and see them smile. I LOVE IT!!

One of Geoffrey's many hilarious faces! (He does this on purpose . . . it is rare, but sooo funny.)

This is also the debut of Gwen's new Cow. We call her "cowey." Very original, I know;) I love the complete washability of TY stuffed animals. They are the best.

Summer Fun

Well, I did this post on Sunday with lots of writing and telling of our summer, but it was mostly erased ... it disappeared anyway. So, this one will be short and sweet. We have had a great summer. It has been filled with a few adventures: a new little one, a new apartment, fun times with family and friends, and potty training! We moved closer to the park and have been enjoying it while the beautiful summer weather lasts! We hope you are all doing well and enjoying times with your loved ones! Here are a few pics of our little guy and gal!

This one is a quicky. I love having fun with Geoffrey. As a father, the older he gets, the more rough and tumble fun he gets. Sometimes he likes to crawl up on the bed when I am lying there and play "horsey". Now his version of horsey is just mounting me and jumping up and down on my back. You should see the air he gets as he launches off of me back. He almost knocks the breath out of me when he lands.

Well, this time the gags on him. Mwahahahaha! I found some Disney stickers. Geoffrey likes Disney stickers. He asked me for one. So I gave him one. I put it right in the square of his back! Hahahahaha! Here is the video showing his feble attempts at removing it. It is hilarious. Erica doesn't like it when I do that. She says I am giving him a complex. I reply "Whats the fun in life without a few genuine complexes?".

2 Weeks and SO fun!

I love Sundays because I get to put really cute dresses on Gwen. I guess I could dress her up any day, but it is much more fun when you have a reason and a nice place to go. We got dressed today for church, but she and I didn't make it in the end. I thought she looked darling any way.

Here are the many faces of Gwen.

Aww . . . the sleepy pose.

Well, I think she is yawning . . . or she's asking for more food . . . nope yawning. Whew, sleepy.

Look at those big eyes! They are so dark! Betcha wouldn't believe they're blue.

Angry, frustrated, hungry . . . and still completely lovable!

A minute of happiness.

Of course, Geoffrey had to have his pose of the day too! He loves trying on Nathan's different hats and ball caps. The most recent fav is his wide brim army hat. He thinks it is a ton of fun. He looks great in it too. We caught him sneaking on to the bed military style this afternoon.

Autumn Gwen Asbell

Dear readers. We thought we would show you some pictures of the baby. This time the pictures were rather effortless to take. What really takes effort is trying to make Erica look stoned like she did in the first set of pictures we put on here. She is usually quite beautiful. Something about pushing out a 7 pound 11 ounce basketball makes your hair and eyes droop. Sheesh.

Note exhibit A. Erica looking tired after pushing out the basketball.

"Exhibit A"

Erica has earned the "Iron Mommy" award for her pregnancy. She was able to give birth without any drugs or epiderals or whatever. She had her teeth clenched so tight I thought she was going to shatter her teeth. It was crazy. I was holding her hand at the time and trying to encourage her. Luckily she bore down with her teeth instead of my hand. I would have been left with nothing but a stub. Gwen was so suprised to see her mom looking so crazy and wild she looked stunned.

<====Exhibit "B" Baby looking stunned.

On an intersting note, you can see a pink bow glued to her head by K-Y Jelly. I picked that out. The other color (purple) is in the back. That was picked out by the nurses in the nursery. They thouht that the pink and purple would look really good together. I'm a guy and have no clue about little girl babies and such. So I deferred to their choice. Erica agrees with them that the bow color choice looked good. On a serious note, I am overjoyed to have little Autumn Gwen join our family. I love her and promise to love and protect her for as long as she is in my stewardship and forever. One look into those beautiful eyes and seeing her desperately trying to suck on her hand, I turn into a puddle. She is a lovely addition to our eternal family.

Erica and I are excited to take her home tommorow. Monday is the start of a new week. Monday follows the patterns of new beginnings. We are excited and yet cautious with such a young one in our care again. We know many hard nights are ahead of us and little sleep is going to ensue. But as we see her and Geoffrey grow up over time we will look back and see what a little thing it is to give up so much of us to them.

Geoffrey already loves his little sister, though we don't think he quite understands what this new family arangement means yet. I am amazed at how much our hearts have grown for these two children that we have. One little boy, the absolute bundle of curiousity and joy, and one little girl, the tiny swaddled gift of God. How can one be hapier than we are now?

Labor and Delivery of the Woman Child Gwen.

We have just been blessed with a beautiful baby girl, and we are so full of joy and gratitude!



Autumn Gwen Asbell was born on Saturday, June 7, 2008. She was 7 pounds 11 ounces and 20 1/2 inches long. Oh, and abstolutely gorgeous, but I could be a little partial. :) It is pretty fun because she is exactly the same size as Geoffrey was in about every way, except 1/2 in longer!

Just a warning, the rest of this post is pretty detailed and a bit long - no pics.

Our adventure started at home on Saturday morning at 4am. I had just been up for a couple minutes and was going back to bed. I decided to put down a pad on my bed because I had forgotten when I first went to sleep, plus I was feeling like maybe my labor would start soon . . . I thought that was possibly wishful thinking though . . . Well, I went back to bed and almost immediately my water broke! Thank goodness I had woken up a bit earlier!



Nathan woke up almost immediately and we knew what was ahead of us. We got up and started to get ourselves ready to go to the hospital. Geoffrey woke up with all the bustle, and we eventually got him over to his Aunt Kim and Uncle Frank's house so that he could go back to sleep and have a fun vacation with them for a couple of days.



We we finally were ready to go and left for the hospital. Nathan always loves going to the hospital to have a baby because it gives him a good reason to be able to speed on the highway! Within safety's reason of course! There happens to be a lot of construction on the intersate going to Idaho Falls right now, so it wasn't exactly a quick trip, but it was exciting! We arrived at the hospital and were getting settled into our room around 5:45am. My contractions were making progress so they just let me rest as I could and started my IV. They called the doctor just before 7am and he came by and decided that I needed some pitocin to get my contractions closer together more quickly. So around 8:30am they started me on the dreaded pit. I had been really wanting to go natural with this labor because of a few things in Geoffrey's delivery, and I was afraid I possibly couldn't if I had the oxytocin. It took me a few minutes, but I finally got my attitude adjusted. I decided I would do my best and look at the situation positively instead of let it overwhelm me.



It didn't seem like I was progressing very fast because of different judgements of what I was dialated to, and I believe when Gwen's head came down it tightened things up, which is good, but it also made it seem like I wasn't dialated as far. Previously, they had been turning my pitossin levels up by 2 until my contractions were at a rate of 5 in 10 minutes, or 2 minutes apart. They stopped raising it at 10 and I thought that was fitting since 10cm was my goal.



Around 11:15am the nurse checked my cervix and decided that I was around 5cm. Then, the real fun began! The next contraction was quite a bit harder and there was not anymore dancing and laughing through "pressure waves" like there had been previously. The nurse decided at 11:45am to check my cervix again because of the pattern of labor I was having. She then had another nurse come and check to give her a second opinion on the matter. Both decided that I was at a 5-6 cm range. Then, because of my pattern and pain level they decided to call the doctor in. I was relieved to a point and amazed that they thought the rest of my dialation would go so quickly. I am thankful that they were right! By the time the doctor came in and got dressed I was ready to be finished! He let me start pushing at about 12:2opm. Some people say they like pushing. Well, it is not my favorite, but it has to be done and I made it through!:) Gwen was born at 12:27pm; she was adorable! Her coloring was great and she looked very healthy. Nathan cut the cord and they took her to clean her up for me. Then, she was ready to eat! I am very grateful that she had been a good eater so far. It has helped her to avoid some complications with our blood types, and I hope she continues to do well. She has redish blonde hair, deep blue eyes, and a button nose. She's been a really sweet baby.

P.S. This is Nathan. Erica wrote this post. I was in charge of putting up a title for it. It was going to be titled [All the "Juicy" details]. Erica thought it was a little too gross and graphic. Therefore you have the current title in place. Thank you and goodnight.

Geoffrey "The Godfather" Asbell made me an offer I couldn't refuse. He told me to get on the blog and update or else! So here I am writing to all of his adoring fans. In this picture Geoffrey was immitating one of Nathan's looks of impending doom. Today at church I taught him how to give others the fist of furry. Funny how much his personality has changed over the last few months. He is still the sweet boy we all love, but now also has quite a bit of his own quirks and charecter mixed in. He is so funny!

For an FHE we went to Mile's and Bethany's house. Miles told us that the sheep had just given birth to cute little baby lambs. He thought Geoffrey would love to see them. So we made the arrangement. First on the tour came these pregnant goats. This one was curious and approached me. And then promptly pooped little pellets of fertilizer goodness. But take a look at how pregnant this goat is.

Next we went to see all the baby lambs. Here is a baby lamb that almost looks like it is smiling. Creepy and entertaining all at the same time. Miles went in and grabbed a pair of lambs. Geoffrey ran up to them and put an arm around them. It was as if they were old friends. He really enjoyed chasing the little guys around the yard. The mama sheep kept stomping their feet trying to ward him off. But he just kept on. They realized quickly that there was no stopping him after that and they just ran out of his way.

Next Geoffrey and Miles went up into the big tractor. There was a midget sized seat right beside the driver's seat. So Geoffrey plopped right down and hung out for a while. I think Geofrey wanted to drive the thing much like how sometimes daddy lets him sit on his lap in the driveway and pretend to steer. He also likes to make vrooom vrooom noises when driving.

Afterwards Geoffrey went and saw his first mule. He grabbed it's big funny ear and tugged. Luckily the mule was really calm. The mule was so calm that on one occasion a young man who was an instructor at the lab did a backflip off of this particular mule at the end of a semester. So I wasn't too worried about him.

This horse was really quite friendly. He just wante to check out Geoffrey and see who this new addition to the herd was. So he came over. Geoffrey really enjoyed petting the horses and even reached down and gave one a kiss. The horses were really friendly and didn't mind at all. This horse in particular enjoyed having Geoffrey around.

In this movie we were inside the sheep compound. Here you can see Miles having a blast spooking the pregnant sheep. We were joking that Miles was going to put them into labor if he wasn't careful! That would have been a riot if one of those sheep had broken water and lambed on the spot!

Later on that Friday, Miles and I decided to get out and enjoy some fresh air. We packed up some backpacks and walked about two football fields off the beaten path. We dug out a fire pit and set up camp. Frank joined us out there later on and we fished for an hour or two in the Snake River. The water was too fast, murky, and unsettled. We didn't catch any fish, but we had a good time relaxing by the water. During the time we were out there I saw a beaver. It swam up and down river checking me out. He actually got quite close to me at one point. This video is of him and his antics. Then I pan to let you see how beautiful the area we were in was.


Here is a picture of Miles by the campfire. This is classic Miles. Actually I think if there was a horse in the background, this would be his theme photo for his life. He loves being out there in the great outdoors. He is cooking bacon right now. It was in the morning after we woke up. The songbirds were singing and the sound of nature was incredible. You can hear the sounds we heard when you watch the video of the beaver.

Here is a close up of Miles cooking bacon. You can tell he is a true man by the way he is flipping the bacon with his knife. We slept out under the stars in sleeping bags and on a tarp. It was such a beautiful night. The stars were bright. The moon really illuminated the whole area. When I walked Frank out to his car the night before, we didn't need any other light other than the moon to navigate in the area to get him back to his car. All night I could hear animals walking around our camp. It was one of the most beautiful things I have ever heard. I love being in the outdoors. Even though I didn't sleep the best, I felt really rested being out there in the woods.







Well that is the end of my tale for this blog update. You could say it is the honest to goodness truth. You heard it right out of the horse's mouth.

Geoffrey Is TWO OLD!

On April 12th Geoffrey turned two years old! Shortly before, March 28th - April 4th, he and I went to Missouri to visit his Grandma and Papa. Of course, we had to have a get together with the fam, so we had an early birthday party! It was a lot of fun! We had cupcakes, some with fruit punch icing, and ice cream and just enjoyed eachothers company. The fruit punch icing did have a PUNCH; Geoffrey liked it!

Geoffrey also enjoyed opening the gifts that he was given. He recieved some really fun toys! Cars and trucks of all different sizes, a bus, and an awesome quilt from his grandma with airplanes on it for his big-boy bed!

We moved him to a twin size bed recently, and he loves it! He transitioned a lot faster than we thought! Like most things with Geoffrey when he wants to do something he just does it!

To explain the TWO OLD, we taught Geoffrey to say "Two" when he was asked how old he was. Shortly after we started this, he would come into the room and say that he was "Two old!" instead of "I'm two years old." It was too cute.