The Asmussen Family: TTT: Season 3, Episode 1

1.Welcome to the new year and a new season of Three Thought Thursday! We're finally back to the Asmussen Abode and in major recovery mode. This time last week we were frantically packing for our Christmas trip to Lubbock. And today it's much of the opposite. Staring at piles of clothes that need to be returned to their rightful places, attempting to find new homes for oodles of Christmas presents we brought back, realizing the whole house is still decked out for Christmas, and too tired to want to mess with any of it. Is it just me or is it so much fun to decorate for Christmas and no fun at all to take it all down!?! Just about the only part I enjoy is making notes of what I'd like to add or change next year. And while we were gone my little business had quite a boom. Not that I'm complaining, just that I'm also staring at that to-do list and kind of wanting to curl up in the fetal position and suck my thumb until it all just goes away. Ha! Really, I'm thankful for it all. The business, the decorations, the un-packing, the gifts...it all adds up to wonderful memories, feelings and more for our whole family. Let's just hope that this time next week I'll be proudly exclaiming that it all got completed and not that I'm still staring at a fully lit Christmas tree.

2. On the good stuff...
Our trip to Lubbock was fantastic! In a story that's too long tell, we ended up flying up Lubbock and driving back. (My parents took our van up a few days earlier for my niece's baptism and flew back.) We were slightly apprehensive about flying with all three but it went so well. The only bad part was waking up at 3:30am in order to get to the airport that's an hour away and catch our super early flight. That aside, the boys did great and we arrived in Lubbock early enough to actually enjoy the day! That evening we spent time with Hefferly clan, as it was the last day my brother Mike's family would be in town. We were so excited to meet our one and only niece, Kennedy for the first time! And we had a blast spending time with everyone else as well. The only one missing was my dad. Saturday and Sunday were filled with lots of time with G-ma and Papa Jeep, Uncle Brian and Aunt Cristi, and the rest of the local Asmussen/Ramirez family. We also had several chances to see our Lubbock friends, eat lots of good food, and even sneak in a few naps. Of course the boys had a blast! It's always fun at G-ma's! And no trip would be complete without a visit to their favorite "castle park." Of course crazy sleep patterns and lots of traveling have gotten us all out of whack, but we'd all quickly admit that it's totally worth it to get to escape the real world for a few days and spend time with people that we love. It was a perfect end to our Christmas season and we definitely look forward to our next trip to Lubbock.

3. Apparently little Grant just needed one chaotic week of traveling to debut some of his new skills. Seriously, just in this past week he's managed to start eating solid food and develop a modified crawling motion as well. I mentioned last week that he was chomping at the bit to start crawling...while we were in Lubbock he finally figured out how to get that big belly off the floor and get his knees under him. He rocks back and forth and then eventually just dives for it. So cute! And in just the past few days, he's managed to figure out the legs and is just waiting for those arms to get the message to move forward. For now it's just a series of dives, but he still manages to get across the room when he wants to! He also started productively eating real food this week. He's been very intrigued by it for a while and would even grab things off of our plate or reach for things headed to our mouths while we're eating. But every time we'd let him try a dab of something on his tongue, he'd totally spaz out, gag several times, and end up barfing. I guess he was totally thrown off by the texture. He managed to make a spectacle of himself at G-ma's when I let him try a little dab of my sweet potatoes. But all of a sudden, he's seemed to figure it out. And he's even very active in the process. He wants to hold the spoon or try to put the food in his mouth. Granted, his eating motion is still a work in progress (he's still attempting to suck instead of chew, thus leaving quite the messy bib!) he's definitely taking a liking to eating. (as if we'd ever doubted that he'd eventually love food! Kid doesn't miss a meal!) Is it just me, or is this baby growing up way too fast!?!

Here's one of our first little clips of his attempts at crawling. He's gotten much better since!

Mmmmm...oatmeal!

And here are some shots from the rest of our week:

Our plane had to stop in Dallas and they made an announcement that it would be about twenty minutes before they loaded the remaining passengers (a flight running early!?! Rare!!!) To avoid getting stir crazy, we let the boys roam around the empty plane and had a little fun with our carry-on luggage, Grant.