Brothers in the Bath!

Because little Reagan started sitting up on his own several weeks ago, he recently graduated from his sponge bath to a chair that fits in the tub so he can bathe with Kolbe. After pulling him out of his chair to give him a good scrubbin' last night, we decided to let him sit beside Kolbe out in the "open waters" to see how he'd do. Mark stood in and played life guard! From where he usually sits in his chair, he's unable to reach the water very well with his hands; however, while sitting down beside his big brother, it was all fun and games as Reagan figured out the art of splashing. As you'll see at the end of the video, it was a good thing Mark was on stand-by...his splashing gets so aggressive that he knocks himself over! He's doing pretty darn good for a 6-month-old though! And Kolbe certainly got a kick out of it!

Note: No babies were harmed (or even reduced to tears) in the filming of this video!

One Last Summer Vacation

With just a one week break between Mark's white coat ceremony and the start of his first clinical rotation, we took the opportunity to make one last trip to Houston to visit my parents and finish out the summer. Oh yeah, and there were the ever ellusive tickets to an Astros game that called our names too! We had a fantastic time! It was one of our best trips ever! Very relaxing, lots of fun, plenty of good times and good food...what more could we ask for!?! Here are plenty of pics from the five days we were there:

Kolbe at the watering hole

Too cute!

Feeding the ducks at the lake by Pinkie and Pa's house...these ducks were not afraid to get up in our faces to get some bread!

Feeding the ducks!...directly beside the sign that said "Please do not feed the ducks" !!!

Kolbe's first carousel ride. I wish we had a better shot of the prized pig he was riding!

As you can see, he loved it!

Pa and Reagan at the mall.

Kolbe, Reagan, Pinkie and Pa

The indoor playground that they have at the Woodlands Mall is much bigger than the one in Lubbock. Kolbe had a blast climbing on everything.

Our seats at the ball game were a few rows down from where this picture was taken. They were AWESOME seats!!! We could see everything!

Yes, slap my wrist, my 21 month old son has a passie in his mouth. He's only allowed to have it when he's in bed but this game was directly during the middle of his nap time and we were just trying to keep him and the people sitting around us happy! You can tell his grandparents definitely are!

Kolb loved the giant baseballs!

At the end of the game...Kolbe is literally about to pass out in Mark's arms!

A lovely greasy plate of ball park nachos!

Kolbe catching the foul ball! (*wink wink*)

The Asmussen Fam hanging out in the dugout with Craig Biggio and Carlos Lee : )

As you can see, the boys were spent at the end of their awesome vacation!!!

Three Years Ago Today...

...I managed to snag the most wonderful man in the world!

Then....

And now!

(celebrating our anniversary at the Cheesecake Factory in The Woodlands last week)

Welcome Home, Daddy!

Hallelujah, Daddy is home for good! As of Friday, August 7th, Mark has officially completed his didactic portion (classroom portion) of PA School and is now in Lubbock for the rest of the program. Kolbe, Reagan, and I travelled down to Midland for Mark's white coat ceremony which officially transitioned him and his classmates to their clerkship year. Mark's mom and dad also drove down to join us for the occasion. We spent most of the day cleaning out Mark's little apartment and then after the ceremony we had a wonderful steak dinner with the grandparents. It was a wonderful day! And best of all, we are SOOOO glad that we no longer have to send "Gaggy" off to Midland every week!!!

It has certainly been a LONG 15 months...a whole pregnancy, Kolbe's second surgery, a new baby...WAY more than we (in our infinite wisdom!) planned on experiencing during this trying time apart! God was definitely with us every step of the way and His help is the only way we could have ever gotten through it! And thank God it's over!

Here are some pictures from the White Coat Ceremony:

So what's up next for our crew??? Mark began his clerkship rotations this morning. He will spend six weeks at a time working in eight different fields of medicine here in Lubbock. He started today with psychiatry. Exactly one year from now he will have another White Coat Ceremony and get his long coat (that signifies that he's not a student any more) and will finally be DONE! Kolbe, Reagan, and I will continue on with our crazy life at home...just with Daddy home EVERY night!!! Yea!!! Here is Mark off for his first day! (Yes, I'm already turning in to the mom who has to take a million pictures on the first day of school!)

Boys, Boys, Boys!

A few days ago Kolbe was having a blast rolling around on the floor with Reagan. When it was just Kolbe, it was so easy to grab the camera and get shot after shot. Now that I'm trying to manage (protect) both of them (often from each other), it's much harder to get good pictures! But alas, I did catch a few during their early evening escapades and thought you might enjoy seeing what I referee on a daily basis.

Reagan is still trying to grow out of the deer-in-the-headlights look.

Strike a pose there, son! (check out the sweet eyelashes! Wish I had some like that!)

Please Ma!?! Pretty please!?!?!

How blessed are Mark and I to get to see these precious boys grow up together!?!

Unfortunately, they are already plotting against us!

And my personal favorite...I like to call this one "Dang Ma! Go put on some make-up and brush your hair! You're scaring us!"

Brian and Cristi's Wedding

This past Saturday, Mark's brother Brian finally wed his beautiful bride, Cristi! We have been anticipating this wedding for several years now so it was wonderful to see it finally come to fruition. To say that it was a beautiful wedding would be an understatement! And to say that we had a good time would be one too! It was honestly one of the funnest receptions I have ever been to! Pretty much all of Cristi's family is from Mexico so there was a little bit of a language barrier, but you would have never guessed it by the amount of fun, happiness, and excitement that was going on amongst everyone. It was so good to see family and old friends all come together for such a wonderful event. We are SO happy that Brian has found such a perfect soul mate in Cristi and are so excited to have her as the final link (other than more kiddos, of course!) in the Asmussen family. Here are a few pics from the special day:

Such a pretty bride and groom!

Wait.

The Asmussen Boys and Brides

Kolbe in his tux with the beautiful mother-of-the-groom

Thank God my mother came up from Houston to serve as my assistant! Kolbe was the ring bearer for the wedding and Mark was the best man which meant that I somehow had to manage Kolbe and all his "duties" as well as Reagan...AND read the prayers of the faithful during the mass somewhere in the middle of all of this! Having my mom there helped out SO much! And by the way, Kolbe did a phenomenal job walking down the aisle all by himself! If you would have asked me a year ago (when he was just learning to walk), I'd say a 20-month-old would never be able to do such a thing! He was adorable!

And Reagan was pretty cute, too!

Kolbe may be my male twin, but not Reagan.

Kolbe partied literally until about 11:30pm before he finally couldn't take any more and my mom took him home. But not before snagging a balloon from the parking lot. He wouldn't let go all the way home and then wouldn't let go when my mom put him in bed either! He just wasn't ready to let go of such a wonderful evening! He was a total dancing machine, by the way! His "uncle" Jared put some videos of him on youtube at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vCYM72W6iSk