Merry Christmas!

As imaginative and creative as Brody is "Big Dog" is the best name he could come up with!  Merry Christmas Brody, Darling!   

Caleb got a Leapster this Christmas!  Thank you Nana and Papa for his Wall-E game:) 

Christmas Eve!  A gift for each boy from Great Grandpa George!

Caleb's Roller Blades!

Brody and Caleb each got skates and hockey sticks from Daddy / Santa!  

Brody LOVES his Larry Mobile!  And so does Caleb.  It was the biggest hit this Christmas!

Thank you Great Grandpa!

Merry First Christ-mas Asher!

And Merry Christ-mas Brody and Caleb!  

This Christmas was a rainy one, so most of the day (Okay, most of the WEEK!) was spent in doors!

Christmas morning was wonderful!  Asher's push buggy was under the tree right there along with Brody's "Big Dog!"

Caleb was so pleased to give it to him!   It was fun watching our fun-loving little blond come down the stairs with sleepy eyes and try to process his Enormous, fury gift.  What sweet memories.  

Asher is now 9 months old and nearly 22 pounds.  Nothing as big as Brody was, but a hair heavier than Caleb.  On his nine month birthday he started getting himself to a seated position AND then proceeded to crawl (army style!)  A few days later is started pulling himself to a standing position in his crib.  Unfortunately once he is up he has no idea how to get back down.  He locks up and freaks out.  Even now he is crying in his crib... I'm killing time at the computer trying to give him the opportunity to fall onto his bum and figure this thing out.

Here's the other messy side of my favorite blond!  

The day seemed a HUGE Success!!!  The boys were (near) Angels, everyone napped for a couple of hours (including me,)  Caleb and I had some fun "school time" this morning,  Asher's cold seemed to have cleared up, and Brody stayed dry in his underwear ALL DAY LONG!  

Then tonight as I was attempting to put Asher down, Brody was downstairs POOPING ALL OVER THE FLOOR!  Now we live in a pretty big house and when I say "ALL OVER," I mean ALL OVER...  

Here's a recent picture of our potty training little monster-child.   AS I took this pic he was making up his own words to the melody of B-I-N-G-O that went "I don't want to go, Poopoo, I don't want to go, Poopoo,I don't want to go, I don't want to GO-O!"

ASHER BEAU BRUNNER

Turned 6 months old on our vacation last week.

Here's his first time sitting up on his own.

He also has two teeth, loves to eat, 

and continues to be the happiest,

easiest baby EVER.

CALEB'S first time on the ICE happened last week in McCAll.  

He went one hour and 40 minutes straight!  He was an animal!  

On lookers couldn't believe it was his first time.  

He held onto a bucket and RAN on the ice with his little skates.

If you ask Brody what he wants to be when he grows up, he'll tell you... "WATER."

Here he is at "Grandma's Condo" in McCall, Idaho.

Caleb had many big boy adventures last week  

including a trip up the mountain on a ski lift. 

This was only trumped by the ice skating...

Oh, and finding specks of fool's gold floating in the lake!

While we didn't see any bears this year, it was a wonderful family vacation.

Brody is enjoying Caleb's week at ZOO CAMP.  He's getting tons of my attention, including yesterday morning at the zoo.  Today we played puzzles all morning and then walked to the park with Asher.  Tomorrow we'll picnic at Balboa Park and ride the train and Carousel until Caleb get's out of camp.  It's amazing how two little kids can feel like a vacation after you get used to three.

Caleb prepares to mount "Butterscotch"

Here is Caleb heading off for his first horse riding lesson.  

He worked with Ms. Meg in the ring for about 15 minutes 

and then went on a trail ride together.  His favorite part was 

giving his horse a little "tap tap" with his heal to make her go.  

ASHER CAN ROLL OVER!

He did this once a month and a half ago, and then two times yesterday.  

Today he turns five months old.  

What a dreamy little teething angel!  

We had a great time at my Dad's lake house 

in Northern California this past week.  

A few highlights were water skiing (from the shore), 

playing in the pool, learning "go fish" with Gramita, 

and visiting a Buffalo Ranch.  

We're happy to be settling in at home again, 

and everyone is almost totally healthy 

(Brody's bug bites turned Staff Infection 

& Caleb's ear infection 

turned swimmer's ear turned ear infection 

are both healing beautifully.)  

Amazingly Asher has stayed healthy through it all.  

And at today's four month check in he weighed in at 18 lbs, 3 oz.  

KAUAI 2008 -- ASHER -- 4 months old

We took Asher to Hanalei Bay on Kauai, where Matt and I Honeymooned 7 years ago.  Goodness, three boys in seven years!

Asher and Matt in Kauai, June 2008.  

Caleb and Brody stayed with Grandma and Grandpa in Long Beach and had a blast swimming in their enormous blow-up kiddie pool.  Matt spent much of his time working at the International Oncology Lung Conference, while I napped, played, read and enjoyed lots of one on one time with our little Hawaiian babe.

ASHER turned FOUR MONTHS OLD on the Island of Kauai.  We thought it would be fun to offer him his firs meal of rice cereal bedecked in a hawaiian bid, over looking the crystal blue ocean.  

He accepted a taste or two but wasn't as gung-ho as his big Brother Brody was on his first meal.

But maybe he was just a little too preoccupied with all the scents and sounds of Hawaii!

HAPPY 93rd BIRTHDAY to a 

SUPER-GREAT-GRANDPA!

The boys and I traveled down to Irvine today to celebrate Great Grandpa George's birthday super-hero style.  Brody was Spiderman, Caleb Superman and Asher was simply my super-baby.  And we had a super great time.  

Brody is very creative.  He uses lots of colors and likes to fill the canvas. 

Notice the two pain brushes at once.  

And every piece of artwork is entitled "PIG."

Hi everybody!  Now that I am four my mom is teaching me how to use the computer.  I love to play games! Check out Super Why on pbskids.org to see my favorite games.

Oh, and I really like making funny faces in the photo booth.

In her last post my mom mentioned a shot of me "airborn" on the slip and slide, but unfortunately that picture included Brody sporting the full monty!  But come visit us here at our home and my mom will get out my slip and slide and put some clothes on my brother and I'll show you some cool moves!

Summer seems to have arrived early this year with lots of hot days and water play.  Brody's light skin turned brown as a berry on his first day with their new "Hip 'n Hide" (slip and slide.) 
I love the shot of Caleb totally airborn.  We have also been enjoying lots of painting and even took Asher for his first trip to the BEACH!  
Check out Brody's favorite way to play in the sand!  Gross!
Mouth open wide he purposefully face-plants!  Sand in his mouth, up his nose, in his eyes.  I guess one of the results of having an incredibly high pain thresh-hold is you get to play games that involves getting sand in your eyes.

ASHER at 11 Weeks

ASHER IS HAPPY!  Asher is the Hebrew word for Happy... and that he is!  And now that he plays in his vibrating seat and his floor gym, he is TRULY a happy little Tiger!  He is no longer our newborn.  At 11 weeks he is our fun loving, happy go lucky, BIG baby!

The chalice has been passed!  Sir Caleb of Cali and his young Squire Brody are undergoing Knight Training with their seasoned, Castle playing Daddy.

Here they are together with Matt's childhood set.

Caleb and Matt went on their first "BIG BOY (two night) CAMPING TRIP!"  with about 10 other families from our Sunday School class.  When asked what his favorite parts were he answered, "Playing with my new friends and hunting for wild turkeys* with my dad."  (*no wild turkeys were actually harmed in the making of these memories!)

The other shot is of Matt's (finally finished and ready to sell) 1960 Lincoln.  Caleb and Brody, Asher and I were taken on a fun family drive to La Jolla to see the Seals a few weeks ago.  And last week we went to a car show with friends the Rogers.  No slowing down just because we've had a baby!  Asher's a great baby and keeps up just fine!

We just got back from a weekend in Texas. Here is Matt after finding some of his childhood toys in his mom's garage.  In her attic he found many more!  Tonight we are having a "CASTLE PARTY" where Matt will bequeath his playmobile castle and knights to the next generation of Brunner Squires!  

Here are a couple of pics of the big guys!  Oh, how they love one another.  Caleb is a dynamite big Brother.  We actually just pulled him out of preschool last week because he wants so badly to be home with Brody and Asher.  Goodness, he'll have plenty of years of school... let the brothers play!  

Asher, Matt and I just got home from our Aspen vacation, just the three of us.  Matt skied and the Babe and I rested.  That said, I don't want to sound like the typical, sleep-deprived mama sine I'm about to boast that ASHER SLEPT THROUGH THE NIGHT FOR THE FIRST TIME LAST NIGHT!  From 10pm - 6:30am!  He didn't do this on the vacation, but he was a wonderful travel companion for me.  He smiles often and even started to make a laughing little coo sound when he's happy.

I missed the big boys terribly, I confess, but was so blessed to have our friend Amy here with them for the first three days, and my mom with them for the following two.  When we arrived home the boys were happy to see us, then went immediately back to Grandma for some more play!   

Now were home and ready for some good family time.  The top picture is one of our first family shots taken on April 5th (my birthday) when we went to Sea World!  (Thank you for the tickets, Patrick!)  The next big event Caleb is looking forward to is his big boy camping trip with Dad in two weeks!  I am reminded that we are not raising little boys, we are raising little boys to become men!  I love watching our first born grow into a little man these days and camping with Dad will help, I've no doubt.

He is Risen... indeed!  

Tomorrow is actually Easter Sunday, but we did some celebrating tonight.  Here is a picture of Matt reading an Easter story to the boys and opening their "Resurrection Eggs."  

Today, however, is Asher's 1 month birthday.  Unbelievable.  But I know that time has passed because he's already getting nice and chunky.  I'm sure I'll have some pictures of him in his Easter duds tomorrow, so check back in to see all of his chins.

God Bless Grandma!  I prayed that the boys wouldn't experience too much grief over my divided attention, and God answered my prayer by sending "Grandma!"  The boys shout for joy when she arrives, they cry when she leaves, and then they long for her when she's gone.  (Sometimes I'll find Brody looking forlorn and ask him what is wrong.  He ALWAYS ANSWERS THIS QUESTION with, "I miss Nama.")   When she is with us she gives them all of her love and attention.  As a matter of fact, I think that this shot of her with Asher (giving him his first bottle yesterday) is one of only a handful of times she's held him.  She's always busy playing horses, dinosaurs, cars....  or cleaning up my kitchen.  Oh, if only she could live with us until the boys all go to COLLEGE!

Aunt Cherrie came to visit baby Asher this past weekend and wiggled his first smiles out of him.  The boys had a marvelous time playing with their cousin, Rachel!

Here's our clean little Asher after his Daddy gave him his first (sponge) bath!  He is so alert and eager to be interacted with.  His brother's love getting in his little face.

Here is a picture of Asher in his Grandpa G's arms.  Grandpa G and Gramita came to visit our newest addition when he was only four days old.  

Today, however, we are on day 10 of Asher's life and he is spending the majority of it SLEEPING!  Caleb is outside riding his big wheel as Matt washes the cars.  Brody and Asher are both napping and I just woke up from a cat-nap myself.  

I loved the first week of our littlest boy's life and can't believe that it is over.  Matt returns to work tomorrow and I will be on my own with our brood.  Yes, feel free to pray for me!  Our new neighborhood friends and the church family we've been adopted into have been a tremendous blessing to us.  We've received an outpouring of meals, gifts, and love like I hadn't imagined we would given our new arrival to town.  And then there has been my mom, coming as often as possible and loving on our two eldest.  It's possible that they love her best right now, and that is okay by me... for she is loving THEM the best while we are learning how to take care of our three.

                                                          BEFORE....  AND ASHER