The randomness that is..... well, random.

So here is my random post for the month.. just a hodge podge of crazy photos taken by yours truly. I absolutely LOVE taking pictures of my little girl- I can't get enough of her.. even when she is asleep, I am looking through the pictures.. just to get a little more of her sunshine!!! These are some of the pictures that have put a smile on my face lately (sans bee.... keep reading.. you'll see....)

This is her.. "Get outta my way woman!! I am on a mission!!!" face.. LOVES IT!

So I figured we could both share in her mission...

We got to hang out with Grady Boy for a day.. they really had fun together!!! I love that she has a little friend she can roll around with..

They played, shared toys.. kicked each other.. puffer shared, etc.

see??? Sharing.. ain't it cute?

Ashlyn also shares with Lucy.. albeit without Lucy's approval.. but hey- who's looking?
It's Fall, and getting cold here in OK- I have decided, I love baby hats.. It's my new thing.. I appreciate a good baby hat ALMOST as much as a good stroller or diaper bag (see the "ALMOST" part.)
I also am LOVIN the baby legs.. I just keep thinking, "She's a maniac, MANIAC", via Flashdance circa 1983 and Jennifer Beals.

Ok, yes.. this was NOT a good look..(even Chris raised his brows to say "why is she wearing argyle AND polka dots??"), Looking back, I am thinking "hot mess"
This is what I wake up to most days.. I LOVE it!!! How can you NOT just pick her up and smother her with kisses???

Obviously, she pulls herself up nowadays, so we had to lower the crib, THEN, she kept pulling on the quilt from the inside of the crib, and would just end up pulling it IN the crib....
So, the quilt had to go.. but DANG! Can you GET any cuter??? Me thinks NOT.
So here is the ONE picture that does NOT put a smile on my face.. BIG, huge RAGING killer bee in my back yard. Luckily, my Jedi mind tricks forced it to death in this flat of pansies. I know it doesn't LOOK that big.. but I swear- that thing was the BIGGEST BEE I have ever seen.. EVER.

I hope everyone is having a FANTABULOUS week- I know we are enjoying all of the sunshine (and kisses, and loves and sugars OH MY!!) the good Lord gives us!

Who says you have to be 18 to vote????

So folks- yes, I know we already have a new President.. BUT, we DID vote (member?? We are behind here in the posting!)

We got out after the afternoon "rush" during lunchtime.. but there were STILL crazy lines!! Baby girl and I waited for over an hour and a half to vote on this historic day!

It was CRAZY windy (gotta love Oklahoma!!!), so baby girl was alll hooded up- she kinda looks like the uni bomber.. but whaddya gonna do?

She was REALLY good in line!! I couldn't believe she didn't put on her crabby pants (and believe me.. she has SEVERAL pair)!!! She got a little bored and a little tired, which is FINE by me.. as long as she isn't screaming! :P

It didn't take us long to vote- Here we are about to drop our ballot into the reader-machine-thinga-ma-jig.. those of you who are nosey (you KNOW who you are- quite trying to zoom and read my ballot!)

After our voting we decided to pose for a super corny "peace-man" picture (yes... it WAS windy)

This was really fun day for baby girl and I.. we got to vote! AND we got a sticker before they ran out!!!!! Hot damn! (sad what excites me now-a-days) Anywho.. off to do more posting! "peace, man".

Halloween Fun!!..mwahhhhh haaaa haaaaa!!!!!

Ahhh... Halloween.. Quite possibly one of my FAVORITE holidays!!! Despite this love an affection for all things scary this time of year.. we failed to get ALL of the Halloween decorations up this year- sad as that is.. we still managed to have a pretty fun Halloween!!!

Our day started off with big smile from baby girl! She enjoyed wearing her "My 1st Halloween" bib Nana A got for her- she was FASCINATED by all of the colors- I think she played with it all day long!

It just SO happens that the baby legs I ordered for her arrived on Halloween morning- NO- it is NOT part of a costume!! Baby legs are like little leg warmers- they keep baby girls knees from getting all gobbledy-gookey while she is crawling around the house- some say they are hideous.. I think they are super cute! (especially on baby girl!!!).. learn to love it, people.

We had to make some adjustments to Lucy's Halloween costume.. as you can CLEARLY see.. she LOVES this costume.. she is thinking about wearing it every day.

Around dinner time, I let baby girl know it was time to get into her bat costume.. she was THRILLED... or not.

Yup.. definitely thrilled

Clearly Ecstatic

Buuut.. once we were done pulling and prodding, she seemed pretty proud of herself, and dare I say "happy" to be in bat attire???

Seriously, most bats are blood sucking rodents- but this one is just plain cute.. I think we will keep her.

Even upside down!!! How can you not LOVE this???

Upside down WITH puffer (sold separately!)

The Reeder clan came over to hang with us and do a little trick-or-treating.. meet Ariel the mermaid, and Sebastian the crab (also known as Ella and Grady!). We all had good times-and I certainly can't complain about alllll the extra sugar in the house!!! :P

Falling into Fall...

Hello to all!!! Fall greetings and Autumn blessings! I have been behind on my blogging!! But in alllll fairness- my wireless has been out on the home computer for a while, and my savvy hubby returned it to working order last night!!!- So, we have been so busy.. it's crazy! We have lots to catch up on, so I won't blab on like I usually do.. (although.. in my mind, that's the best part!!)

We took baby girl to the Parkhurst pumpkin patch before Halloween.. we figured we would get some super cute pics of her crawling all over pumpkins.. what we didn't account for was A) Although the Parkhurst pumpkin patch was a really cute place (will be loads more fun when she is a lil older!).. there was no pumpkin "patch", just a tractor bed full of pumpkins.. and B) Baby girl was CRABTASTIC... we apparently interrupted naptime. Despite A & B, Chris and I enjoyed ourselves, and made complete idiots of one another trying to get baby girl to smile.... our embarrassment equals your pleasure- ENJOY!!!

The entrance to said Parkhurst Pumpkin "patch" (FIBBERS!)

Baby girl in the midst of a few rouge pumpkins

"yummmm.. pumpkin..."
"This is ONE of the smiles you get.. make your choices wisely woman!! You only have two life-lines left!"

"This is number TWO!!!"
"hummm, this doggy is bigger than Lucy..""WOOT!! Lucy NEVER lets me ride!"

"Seriously.. I can only give you a half-a-smile- I'm bushed, having fun is HARD!"

"ohhh.. can I drive?"

"Seriously.. can I??"

"Enjoy it while you can Mr. Turkey.. you will BE IN MY BELLY soon!!!"

A visit back East.....

Howdy folks- hope everyone is enjoying the beautiful fall weather that is starting to appear- this is my FAVORITE time of year!

We are doing pretty darn good here- Ashlyn is learning all sorts of new things- she has learned how to sit from her belly- and is just almost crawling! She tends to get up on all fours and rock back and forth, and takes a knee forward.. then sits. She gets around by "commando" crawling everywhere.. she moves forward on her forearms and propels herself with her feet- she gets going pretty fast, but I have a feeling that once the "real" crawling starts.... I am in for some TROUBLE!!! She has also started to pull herself up on things, and is reaching for anything she sees.. I feel like I gave birth to a little monkey most days!!! :P

As a result of my little curious monkeys activities, I have begun to childproof the house.. locks on doors, sliding outlet covers, locks on the cabinets, a table pad on the coffee table- all the goods.. but I have waited on the toilet locks.. I think my husband will protest that one... I keep thinking about a scene in the movie "Baby Mama" where Tina Fey's character has the house baby proofed (including the toilet locks), and she walks by the bathroom where Amy Poehler's character is peeing in the sink saying "There's something wrong with your toilet"... let's hope we don't reenact that one at the Smedstad house.....

This past weekend, we took a family trip to Virginia Beach with my Mother to visit Grandma and Grandpa Allen, and Uncle Drew. It was really wonderful to see family, and to introduce Ashlyn to her Great Grandma, Grandpa and Great Uncle Drew.

Here we are in the airport during our AWESOME 2 hour flight delay- all things considering, baby girl did pretty well...

"I'm ready to FLY!!!!"

Enjoying a cookie while mom and Nana ate dinner- "so tasty"... yet so messy...all the good things in life are.

"The first picture with my Great Grandma Allen, and my Nana- this must be where I get my looks from, I certainly don't get them from mommy!!"

Daddy and Great Grandpa Allen

Four Generations!!!!!

Uncle Drew, and his boy Geoffrey

Geoffrey is thinking "what do you mean I can't nibble on Ashlyn's toes???- they are snack size and everything!!!"

"Me and my Great Grandma Allen- Not too Shabby!!!"

Grandpa helping baby girl learn to walk

Some might be wondering "what the heck is that thing she is in??".. Well folks, it's a pea pod- you betcha!!!- a little travel bed that pops up just like a tent. Worked like a charm until she rolled right out of it under the bed.. then... didn't work so well... but she looks happy, right?

"Me and my Nana!"
"Great Grandpa Allen is my buddy!!!"

"Ready to go back home, Mom!!!"

humm.. I wonder if they would charge me extra to check her in at the airline counter.

We had a really, really good time. Uncle Drew was so hospitable in letting us crash at his house. It can't be easy to drive a screaming crazy baby around everywhere, plus waking up to baby tantrums at 3am, if you aren't used to it!!! We tried to make things a little easier by offering ear plugs, but no one took us up on our offer!!! :P Mom stayed with Grandma and Grandpa Allen. They had a wonderful time catching up, and I think they really enjoyed meeting Miss Ashlyn. The only thing that would have made our trip more enjoyable would have been more time! (oh!! and no flight delays, AND no lost luggage!!!- we are still waiting on ours!!)

On another completely unrelated note.. I finally decided on an umbrella stroller for the girl. Soon she will grow out of her travel system, so I had to buy a new carseat, and needed a stroller that I could just throw in the back and take with us when we go out.. and (drum roll please) here it is folks.. the Zooper Twist.

Chris thinks I should be a spokesperson for this company the way I pimp this stroller out. Everyone who comes over HAS to see it and "oooohhhh".. and "ahhhh" over it the way I do.... and if you don't, you will by the time I finish selling it to you! I seriously took like 10 pictures of this thing.. you'd think it was our second child- but I figured there was bound to be a few of you who could care less, so in honor of you (and you know who you are), I spared you the detailed summary and related pictures... no need to thank me.