Tales of the 'ol West: The poopin post, tornadoes and the walkin' girl

Hi there Kiddos!!!!!

Things are always interesting at the Smedstad house. Over the past couple of weeks, we have had Tornadoes, Valentines day, visitors from far away lands (known to others as Missouri :), and our baby girl has gone on a national walking tour... here we go.

First of all, many of you have asked how baby lemon is doing. My reply has to be "Good.. but baby lemon is now a baby onion".... now, I am not a HUGE fan of onions.. but I guess it will be some other vegetable next week.. so while we are all here.. lets check er out.

Meanwhile... we are enjoying an early start to Tornado season this year. I love this time of year. I have always had a secret desire to chase tornadoes- only the good ones.. otherwise you end up in God knows where, chasing a rain cloud and hoping to see a flying cow.. COULD be fun. But like most smart Okies.. I go where I need to when the sirens go off.. that's right. OUTSIDE.. to check it out of course!!! We decided to introduce Ashlyn to the sirens so she won't freak out when they go off. Now before you go calling child services on me.. the tornadoes were on the OTHER SIDE OF TOWN and NOT (REPEAT: NOT!) coming towards us. I have since been lectured by both husband AND mother.

After the excitement of tornadoes, we celebrated Valentines day with baby girl.. Daddy got her a new little musical dog, which she LOVES to jam out to:

She looks sweet and innocent now.. but looks can be deceiving, folks.. This one is a mover and shaker.. and sometimes, well... just a "stand"er. This is where the "poopin' post" comes in. See, we have discovered that Ashlyn seems to go to one location when she has to do "her business".. she hikes it on over to the stair banister, holds on for dear life, and lets gravity do the dirty work. You can always tell, because she is silent for a good minute or so and her face turns red, and the eyes water. SO FUNNY. Seriously. Ahhh.. sad what entertains us old people. :P

She LOOKS sweet.. but BEWARE!!!

What's that SMELL????? jeeeeezzzz!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Poopin' post aside, Ashlyn has surprised us ALL by showing us she can walk. Boy am I in for it. Her first few steps happened while Chris and I were cooking dinner in the kitchen the day after Valentines. She just stood up, and took 5 or 6 steps.. you could have knocked me over with a feather!!! I am so glad Chris and I both got to witness this special, beautiful event.. I had tears.. TEARS!!!!! Oh.. sooooo cute. She is sooooo proud of herself when she walks.. she puffs out her little chest, and claps as she goes.. cutest.thing.EVER.

Along with the new bi modality of it all, comes new found bravery to do things she should NOT be doing, and a series of new bruises to show for it.. The big bruise on her forehead is from falling on the bathroom floor.. the little cut above her eye is from getting stuck in between the buffet and the wall... poor kid!

You probably can guess that this did not go well.. however, we miraculously managed to escape contusion free.. and surprisingly, she doesn't do this anymore...smart move.

Ahhh.. such as life.

In other news, my good friend Karen came for visit OK from Missouri.. we haven't seen Karen since baby boy Jay was born, he is SUCH a cutie.. here are some pics from our afternoon!!!

Ashlyn and Jay

Momma Karen and baby Jay

Thank You for visiting us KBS!!! WE LOVE YOU GUYS!

And just for fun.. here is something to put a smile on your face!!!



We hope everyone has a fantastic week!!! Hugs and Kisses!!!!

The "beauty" mark, spaghetti night, and the baby lemon

Hi there folks!!!
Things have been crazy as normal around here.. we have been buzzing around and for the most part, enjoying all the good Lord throws our way.

Pregnancy is doing well, and I am feeling much better.. I am getting into the "enjoyable" part of pregnancy.. I'm not quite as tired, and I don't feel like projectile vomiting towards select stinky food items.

Here is what the baby is up to:

We have our "big" ultrasound coming up in a couple of weeks- although I don't know what is so BIG about it this time...(can't you just hear the excitement in my voice??) CHRIS and I have decided to wait to find out if baby lemon is a boy or a girl. We (CHRIS) thinks it will be a great surprise... yippee. For those of you who do NOT know me well.. I will fill you in on a little tidbit.. I am NOT good with surprises.... in fact, I am what Chris calls a "surprise ruiner".. which is pretty much true. Anyone taking bets on how long I will last??? Keep me updated on the odds.

Our non-lemon-already-here baby is doing well.. learning all kinds of things everyday, and keeping me on my toes, for SURE! But before I continue, I just have to say..

Does it get ANY cuter??? Geah.. I LOVE it!!!!

I just LOVE this clip (ignore the saw in the background.. we were having a floor put down in our attic!):

"Cindy Crawford.. move out da way!!!! Here I come!!!!"

Ashlyn is beginning to take after me in a couple of ways.. first of all.. we LOVE to blog:

We also love M&M's:

We are lovin' some spaghetti night (this was ALOT of fun to clean up..):

And we love allll the piggies!!!!!!

Chris and I took our VERY FIRST night away from Miss Ashlyn to visit some friends in Dallas. It was soooo weird not to have her there... it just felt like something was really missing!!! Nana watched her overnight, and I think they had a really good time (or at least that is what she SAID.. now, I know if I ask her to babysit again, and she is "busy" we will know things maybe didn't go so well..)

Hamp & KiAnne- the happy soon to be parents!!!!

Chris and his buddies:

And us.. sans one baby :(

In other news.. Chris and I had decided to take a "babymoon" before baby #2 arrives.. we were trying to figure out where we were headed.. when out of the blue.. it was decided for us...I'll explain..

For as long as I can remember.. I have wanted to go see Saturday Night Live (while it is still LIVE!)- seriously, it's one of my top bucket list items. But you can't buy tickets, and the studio is INCREDIBLY small.. so it's not like there are a million tickets out there floating around. You can't buy them.. they are free tickets.. but you have to enter a lottery, and just hope that you get tickets for some show.. any show. I have entered this lottery for the last 4 years, and NOTHING. I just figured I would never get to see SNL. Then.. I checked my e-mail yesterday and lo and behold.. I WON!!!!!!!! I have tickets to the March 7th show.. and I almost peed myself when I read the news!!!! So Chris and I will hit NYC for a couple of days.. I am sooooooo excited.. I can't even tell you!!!!!!!! WOHOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!

In some not so lovely news.. my phone is on the fritz.. I have a completely white screen.. I can get calls.. but I have no idea who they are from.. I can't access my phone book.. text messages.. nothin. So I am off to the AT&T store to flex some preggo muscle, and see if I can't get this bad boy fixed.. I'll let cha know how that gem of a situation turns out....

Have a GREAT week!!!!

What's new???

A whole lotta nothin. Not really much going on here. I am starting to feel a little bit better.. the morning (night) sickness is starting to go away, and I am not quite as tired. I feel like I can make it through the day without a nap (YIPPEE!- although naps are nice!)

Baby girl is sick with double ear infections... boooooooo. She has had a snotty nose for a couple of weeks, and well, it decided to visit the ears, and VOILA! Ear infection. She has been pretty good considering. I figured she had a cold of some kind, but not ear infections. I guess I was gone on the day they handed out the 'ol mom's intuition thing. (heh!)

Baby girl also now has TWO (count em!) teeth.. her two bottom ones to be exact! She loves to bite on EVERYTHING. She is cruising around the house like it's her job.. she pulls up on anything she can get her little mitts on.. she opens every door she sees.. she loves new sounds (like spoons on the tile floor, or wine glasses clinking together).. her favorite new game is to crawl at lightening speed towards the stairs and see me running after her to pick her up- good fun there (not to worry.. gates ARE on the way).. OH.. and we LOVE to unroll toilet paper...who needs toys?? Although.. that being said.. she does have two favorite toys.. one is the Stride to ride lion she got for Christmas.. the minute it was out of the box, she was off and running.. it was crazy!!! At first she would get soooo mad because she would run into the wall and get stuck, then Chris and I would have to adjust her and she would be fine.. until she hit the couch (etc., etc., etc... you can see where this goes).. since then, she has learned to maneuver it wherever she wants.. she loves that thing. The second toy she LOVES is the sing-along-stage Nana got her for Christmas.. check it out (yes... I know the outfit doesn't match.. look at it this way.. she is "unique".. oh.. and the band-aid on her leg is from her flu shot)...

Enjoy folks!!!

I am WHAT?????

So... Thanksgiving day was quite a day- busy, busy, busy. I knew I was tired when I took a bath, and fell asleep in it... I thought.. "hummph- I must REALLY be tired". And I thought.. "I'm gonna take a pregnancy test.. just for poops and giggles".. but of course, I was in a hurry to get things done.. so I forgot about it.. until later that night when everyone was sacked out.. see exhibit "A".

Exhibit "A"

So I decided to take that one, lonely pregnancy test I had hidden in the bathroom cabinet- I really had forgotten about it, and hadn't looked for it since July of last year when I found out I was pregnant with baby girl... and lo and behold.......

A BIG, FAT, GLARING POSITIVE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

My first reaction was a sweet, "put it in the baby book" response: "OH SH*T". What a surprise THIS was!!!! Most days I wonder how I manage with just ONE.. but now TWO... boy, oh boy, am I in for it... OH.. and by the way, there IS a clear pink cap on the end of that pregnancy test I am holding- c'mon people, do you really think I would hold it that way otherwise????? geah.

But.. I do look for the positives.. baby girl will have someone new to look at all day (I think she gets sick of looking at my mug all the time!!!), and they will be close in age, so I think they will be best good friends... just like Forrest and Jenny.

So, baby Smedstad #2 will be arriving to us at the end of July, so send me all of your happy thoughts and good vibes, people- this is about to get interesting.

WOW! Are we behind or WHAT???

Howdy folks!!! Well, we have been busy (isn't everyone??), and well, plain lazy about posting. Sorry bout that. But.. I will attempt to make up for it in the next few days!

First up is Thanksgiving. Ahhh, yes.. that yummy day where it's OK to unbutton the pants and sit in front of the tube all day watching football (at least that is what I have been told). We did the traditional turkey dinner at our house with family.. here are some pics for you!

Appetizers to start..yummmmm

My brother going in for the goods...

The "adult" table.. notice that I am not there... :P

Relegated to the kiddie table.. this is where all the fun is anyway.

Baby Girl getting her first taste of TURKEY!!!

And then.... the aftermath:

The tryptophan-induced coma.....