Asher's Blessing Weekend

Our Labor Day weekend wasn't spent celebrating the last remnants of summer in any traditional way whatsoever (i.e. camping, boating, etc.). It was more focused on the little guy I pushed out during labor two months ago. Asher received his baby blessing!

My dad came out.

My mom came out. (Larry, we missed you! Hope you're feeling better!)

And Joseph's brother, Sam, moved in with us. Sorry, no pic.

But we finally did get a picture of the five of us together. It only took two months.

Special occasions always warrant special dinners so we made gyoza and agedashi tofu. Yum! Chelsie (my brother's wife) sent down some awesome handmade presents for us all. Akiko's was a really super cute apron, which she LOVES! (Moses is holding his marshmallow gun and modeling Asher's hat. Goofy kid!)

She said to me, "I'm so glad Chelsie made this for me. It's so beautiful, I'm going to keep it forever. I'm going to give it to my little girl someday so that she can help me cook just like how I help you!"

Growing up, the rule was: if you don't help wrap gyoza, you don't get to eat any. Being five years old, Akiko is plenty old enough to wrap and, therefore, was schooled in the art of gyoza wrapping. Sam also got a lesson. He was hungry. I mean, it was Fast Sunday.

I showed her once and let her take over. She learns fast! They look great!

Look at that spread!

Yep. Joseph's at the kids' table. Akiko really wanted to sit next to Grandpa Fred.

I love gyoza! We hardly ever eat it. It's very time consuming to make and the frozen ones just gross me out. I was planning on cooking it, but my mom kind of took everything over. For that, I'm grateful because I know they turned out better than if I would have done it. Thanks Mama!

In Hebrew, Asher means "happy."  He is aptly named. He smiles and coos all the time when he is awake. He is so happy in the early morning that we take him in to wake Akiko up for school, which makes her happy (and also makes for a less stressful morning).

We waited a long time and went through a lot of stress and heartbreak before we got this little angel. He was extremely active in utero, which was comforting throughout the entire pregnancy (but a bit uncomfortable at the end). His labor was longer and harder than the other two and things got a bit scary near the end. I'm not going to go into details, but my doctor called in the NICU nurse to be on standby and I came thisclose to having an emergency c-sec. 

I thank Heavenly Father every day for giving us this wonderful little boy. 

I love all my children dearly.

Being their mother is the greatest blessing in the world!