Gaschen Family Christmas

The Asmussen Family is currently on "vacation" down in The Woodlands, and hopefully I'm going to use some of this time to get caught up on a few blog posts! Last weekend, back in Lubbock, we had a great time reuniting with all of the Gaschen Family. (this is my mom's side of the family) All seven of her siblings were in town to meet up for the weekend and celebrate. We had a lot of fun attending mass together on Saturday night, followed by a good portion of the baby-less crowd going to my Uncle David's concert at the Cactus Theater. (In other words, not Mark and me.) On Sunday we met up for lunch at Orlando's and then headed to my Uncle Paul and Aunt Pam's house for an afternoon of good ol' fashion fun.

Because my hands are usually full with one baby or another, I didn't get many pictures, but shortly before the night ended, I managed to snap a few of Kolbe with his new love, Molly, and then several of Kolbe and Reagan's first experience with bunk beds. Kolbe was totally fascinated and his cousins were eager to show him how to get to the top bunk. (These are actually my cousins...children of my mom's brothers and sisters.) For photo-record's sake, we stuck Reagan up there for a few pictures too! They had so much fun!

Kolbe and Molly...they were inseparable for a while!

Rudy Clause and Brooke

Kolbe with his chief bunk bed trainer, Christopher, owner of the beloved bunk beds

One final shot of the cousins having lots of fun

The Polar Express

As I mentioned in our Thanksgiving post, while my parents (aka: Pinkie and Pa) were in town for the holiday they took Kolbe on a special trip on the Polar Express. Last year a group in Lubbock started this Christmas time activity and it has been quite successful. Kids and families get to board a real train that travels around the outskirts of Lubbock while The Polar Express is being read aloud. "Elves" join them on the train ride and assist with Christmas carol sing-a-longs and even serve hot chocolate and cookies. About half way through the trip, Santa Claus boards the train and visits each kiddo and gives them a little gift. The kids even get to wear their jammies on the train so it makes for quite the exciting evening. Kolbe had an absolute blast and even now, about a month later, he still mentions the "chain" that he saw "ant cause" on with "pe-e" and "pa"!

A little brotherly nonsense...

I was flipping through our camera and came across a few fun pics of the boys cruising in their car. It seems like yesterday that I was taking pictures of Kolbe riding around by himself. And just one year later, he has a riding companion! Reagan definitely gets a kick out of this and Kolbe loves showing him how it's done!



And I couldn't pass up on posting this one of my favorite spaghetti face! Being his mom is so much fun!

Thanksgiving 2009...a few weeks late!

I really have no excuse for not getting our Thanksgiving pictures posted sooner. Maybe I thought that I already had or something. The Asmussen House has pretty much been business as usual...just with lots of Christmas decorating, baking, and Frosty the Snowman reading and watching. (Kolbe got both the Frosty the Snowman book and DVD from Pinkie and Pa and he's obsessed...)

But a few weeks ago, we had a lot of fun celebrating Thanksgiving here in Lubbock. My parents came in on Tuesday and Pat came in on Wednesday evening. We had a great time eating and hanging out over at Abby and Andy's house. There was SO much food that it provided for about a week's worth of leftovers! Here are a few pics:

Roo-Roo flirting with Pinkie

Mom, Dave, and Andy celebrating the not-so-favorite part of Thanksgiving...dishes!

Pinkie, Pa, and their precious pumpkins!

Also, while my parents were in town for Thanksgiving, they took Kolbe on a very special trip...The Polar Express! Unfortunately I didn't send my camera with my parents so the only pics we have are on their camera. Hopefully when my mom comes for the Gaschen Family Christmas this week, I can snag them from her and get them posted. He had a blast!

Happy Birthday, Kolbe!

With the crazy year that 2009 has been, it's hard to believe that another year has passed in the life of our little Kolbe! It really does seem like yesterday that he was born, yet at the same time feels like a lifetime ago. Mark and I continue to marvel at the beautiful, unique, spirited child that he is. As we always say, he's full of personality! We are so blessed that God continues to allow us to be his parents!

After mass this past Sunday evening, we all met up with lots of family at Rudy's BBQ to celebrate. Kolbe had a blast visiting with everyone and opening presents. He gave his best effort at blowing out the candles on his cake, too! While he's still a little bit young to fully understand the birthday concept, he could definitely tell that there was something special about this day. He was full of excitement! My favorite thing is when you ask him how old he is, he now says, "TWO!" and holds up four fingers. Too cute! Here are some pictures from the fun evening!

The Birthday Boy!

Uncle Dave and Reagan...wearing the same outfit Kolb wore for his b-day last year!

Kolbe spending time with G-ma

BBQ! Yummmm!

Giving the sweet new trike from G-ma a test drive!

Kolbe and his best friend, Uncle Ben, working on a puzzle from Aunt Abby and Uncle Andy.

Kolbe got some awesome new boots from his cousin, Adan. How cute!

Back at home, Kolbe tried out the sit 'n spin from Uncle Dave.

...and spent some time playing in his tent that Pinkie and Pa gave him.

He also loves playing with his new train set too!

Uncle Pat comes to town!

This past week during his move from Mississippi to Las Vegas, my brother Pat stopped in Lubbock for a few nights to visit. Since we rarely get to see him, both of my parents came up for the visit too. It was so good to see Pat! Even though they haven't seen him in a long time, both Kolbe and Reagan took to him right away. Kolbe had a blast playing with Pat in the backyard. Hopefully we will be able to have him back in Lubbock for Thanksgiving or Christmas...or even better...both! The boys also had a blast playing with Pinkie and Pa while they were staying here. They sure do love and miss their grandbabies! Come back soon, Uncle P!

Happy Halloween!

Mark, the boys and I had a ton of fun yesterday for Halloween! First, we headed up to the hospital in the morning to visit Mark's dad. He and all the nurses in the nursery loved seeing the boys all dressed up. After lunch, we headed over to Mandi and Joe's house to watch the Tech game. Luckily, the Red Raiders were able to pull off another win! After, we picked up Mark's mom and went up to Monterey Church of Christ where the rest of Mark's family was checking out their "trunk or treat". Finally, we headed over to Abby and Andy's house to show off the boys costumes one last time. Reagan wore the Abu monkey suit that my mom made for Kolbe last year and Kolbe wore an Aladdin costume that I made for him this fall. They looked too cute together! (Although, it was nearly impossible to get a pic of them at the same time!)

Needless to say, Kolbe had his share of sugar...

Is it just me or is the pet monkey just as big as the owner???

The Asmussen Men