Our Sweet girl is ONE!

Howdy to all!!!

I hope everyone is having a fantastic week, and enjoying everything life has to offer!!!

Sorry for the delay in posting about baby girls birthday, but I am pretty sure I sucked in some nasty germs somewhere that turned into the flu- I say "pretty sure" because the flu they tested me for was type A and B- they only ones they CAN treat, and lucky me.. I didn't have either of those.. so I just suffered (not so silently, just ask my husband) in bed for about a week, and I am FINALLY feeling much better- and I don't sound like a toad... all I can say is a sounded a lot better than I actually looked (again.. just ask my husband- bless his heart.)

OK.. enough with the sickies.

Ashlyns party was just too, too fun. I love this baby girl, and I absolutely cannot believe she is ONE.. ALREADY. We had her one year well baby visit with her pediatrician, she is 30 1/2 inches in length (90% for height!!) and just a tad shy of 19 lbs (10-25% for weight).. so she is a waify supermodel. How THAT happened, dunno. Doc advised us on making big girl transitions, like giving up the bottle.. which shouldn't be too hard- as it is, she only gets two bottles a day, and quite frankly, she's not all that interested in them.. so I don't think that will be a difficult transition.. we will also move her over to whole milk.. but of course we have a gallon sized tin to get rid of first, so I figure another month of formula isn't going to kill her.

Big girl!!!!

She is cutting teeth right now (all four of her top teeth), two have popped through, so we have been a little cranky, but not too bad. We are always on schedule, and she is still sleeping through the night, despite the whole teething bit. We really are blessed that we have such a wonderful baby... funny considering I knew NOTHING about babies when she was born, and I thought she was super "needy".. looking back.... funny, funny, funny. She's an independent little girl, but for the most part, she is super adaptable, and all too lovable. I can't imagine not being able to hold and cuddle with her.. I can't imagine her getting older, dating, driving... going away to college.. sigh... ignore the hormonal preggo...

Back to my BABY....

The actual birthday party "DAY" went off without a hitch- Couldn't have gone better. My dear husband, his mother (NANA A!) and my mother (NANA C!!) were super helpful in the preparations, helping prepare food and hanging decorations- everyone arrived just in time to see the birthday girl show off her brand new tutu.. and can I just say.. precious. LOVE IT!!! In typical girl fashion, she was a little unsure of herself when she first got the tutu on.. but after a few minutes of us oooh-ing and ahhhh-ing over how cute she was, she definitely got with the program, and man can that girl POSE!!! She definitely knows when the camera is around!!! Hummm... wonder where she got that.....

Birthday party decor!!!

The cake.... (a BIG thank-you to Nesli for the cake recommendation!!!)

Baby girls very own smash cake...

Birthday party hat and bib...

Love that Tutu!!!

Birthday BLOOMERS!!!

Our little family

... and some of our very favorite people!!!

Nana C

Nana A
Uncle Brian

Auntie Heidi
Papa Jim and Liz

Auntie Heidi and Cousin Ella Jane

Cousin Grady

After some lunch and spreading the joy and love around the bit, it was time for CAKE!!! Ah, yes.. we LOVE cake here around the Smedstad house.. Chris loves the icing, and I love anything with sugar.. so everyone was happy.. including baby girl. At first she wasn't so sure what to do with this big white mountain in front of her.. but once she tasted the sugar.. it was MANIA... ha!!! She giggled and laughed, and waved at EVERYONE.. it was sooooo cute.. seriously one of the cutest moments by far in her life (and there are MANY).....

Happy Birthday, baby!!!!!

But... what IS it???

Hummm.. how does it taste???

"I LIKE it!!!!".. and the waving begins...

The TWO Nana's!!!!

More waving....

See what I mean???

...aaaannnddd........ the sugar rush.....

Ok.. so it's not cake.. but tasty none-the-less...

Oh!! and don't forget all of the goodies!!! Baby girl had a blast opening all of her gifts....

With a little help from Daddy...

And a few friends....

The animal crackers were a big hit!!!

It was super hard to choose just a few pics from the event.. but I hope I did the party justice.. ENJOY!!!!

Hugs and Kisses!!!

Babies, SNL and One Naked Cowboy...

Gosh! It's been a while since we have posted.. but I wanted to include pics of all the good stuff we have had going on!!!

First of all, baby-in-utero is growing!!! All I can say is WOW!- Cantaloupe this week- impressive!

We had the "BIG" ultrasound last week.. baby looks good and healthy and is measuring ahead of his/her due date. As most of you know.. my dear husband thinks we should wait until the baby is born to find out if it's a boy or girl- those of you who know me well, know that I am super impatient.. so this is KILLING me....Chris says "there are only so few surprises left in life".. barf. But I guess I will let him have his way. According to the Chinese predictor calender, we will have a girl.. according to the Russian cab driver we had in NYC, also- girl.. So we will see.

Here are a few pics from the ultrasound.. $100 goes to the first one who can tell me if it's a boy or a girl!!!

Ashlyn is doing so well- and pretty darn cute, wouldn't you say??

and.. no..nothing matches and she is wearing a headband.. I figured I would show this at her wedding...

We are about to come up on the BIG FIRST BIRTHDAY!!!! I absolutely cannot wait!!! It's not anything big, just family, but I cannot believe my sweet baby girl is going to be ONE!!! Time flies by so fast, **sigh**...

This is her first birthday tutu.. pretty sure it doesn't go there.. buuut.. I could be wrong...

Ok.. so over the weekend, Chris and I had our big "babymoon" trip to NYC!!! All I can say is WOW!! We had fun and got to do LOTS of fun and interesting things. We started on Friday night by checking out the musical 'Chicago'- it was a pretty good show and well worth the money!!! I love Broadway!! I think I might have liked to be an actor on Broadway- if only my voice didn't make people run so very fast in the opposite direction....oh well.

We did the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island on Saturday after noon- which was really pretty interesting.. we had skipped it all last time we were in NYC due to the incredibly CRAZY long lines and tourists.. but this time of year, it was perfect.

On the ferry to the Statue of Liberty...very.. very Windy.

There she is folks...

Ellis Island (well, not the ISLAND.. but in the building ON the island..)

Saturday evening was.... AWESOME!!!!!!! So one of my number one things to do in life (sad, I know!!!) was to get to see Saturday Night LIVE, well, LIVE!!! Not ONLY did we get to see SNL.. but we got to sit on the FLOOR of the studio (well, not THE floor, but the MAIN floor) . This is where all the magic happens.. all of the actors were racing by us, the cameras were overhead, all of the sets moving everywhere.. it was a TRIP!!! There are only 38 seats TOTAL on the studio floor, the rest of the audience sits up above the stage, looking down on the production. The guest host was Dwayne Johnson ("The Rock") and the musical guest was Ray LaMontagne (who was AWESOME by the way).. not only THAT, but Justin Timberlake AND Jessica Biel BOTH made surprise cameos. Every actor was close enough to touch (don't worry.. I am not that kind of stalker.. but it was so surreal!)- all of the skits were pretty much RIGHT in front of us!!!

I have NO idea how we got so lucky.. When they were checking us in, they told us to go into one of two lines.. our line was the shortest (obviously), and we were the third couple in line- all I can think of is that they thought we weren't too ugly- I dunno, maybe they wanted a good sampling of the American population, and they thought a preggo and her hot husband couldn't hurt?? All I know is I didn't see any fatties or dudes in cut off tees. (ha!)

Unfortunately, they did not allow any photography in the studio.. and we were afraid we were going to be sent back with the masses, so we didn't even try it. But it was such a NEAT experience!!!! Thank you LORD!

After thinking that NOTHING could top Saturday night....

That's right folks, it's the NAKED COWBOY...right there in Time Square.. in all of his glory (ah-hem- undies). Now this is no way TOPS SNL, but it's definitely the cherry on top.. Never in a MILLION years did I EVER even THINK I would run into the Naked Cowboy, much less jump in and take a picture with him.. I am sure he loved it... because everyone loves a preggo hugging a guy in his tighty-whities. Needless to say, my lovely husband was NOT amused.

And by the WAY- I did NOT put my hand there- HE did...(seriously).

After our awesome weekend.. it was time to go home, but not before a visit to Radio City Music Hall and a quick pic with a Rockett.. it was a neat tour, but unfortunately, they put the kabosh on me EVER becoming a Rockett (I'm sure it's just the height.. could also be the bump.. I will never know.. **le sigh**)- but Chris seemed to fit right in!!

Chris's audition

So we flew home Monday night, tired and worn out from an awesome weekend. The flight was delayed a bit, so I grabbed a book, 'Twilight' to read, and read it cover to cover- it was GOOD!!! I love reading and haven't gotten much of a chance since baby girl was born, so it was nice to be immersed in a novel again.. it was so good, I ordered the other three books in the series, and hope to make it a little something special I do from time to time!

I was so happy to see baby girl when Chris brought her home from Brian and Heidi's- I just almost BURST! I have never been away from Ashlyn for more than about 24 hours- so this was a toughy!! But I know she was in good hands, and had lots and lots of fun with Nana first and then with Brian, Heidi and cousins Grady and Ella!! I couldn't ask for anything more! Thanks so much to all of you!!!! We love you ALL!!

Kisses from us both!!!

We hope everyone has a FANTASTIC week!!!!

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!!!!