Christmas Day

Christmas day we had our first family Christmas at our house. We had fun watching Ashlyn open her presents. She enjoyed chewing on the paper the most :)

Then we went up to Joe's Grandma Fashingbauer's in St. Paul. It's always fun to get together with his mom's side of the family. Lots of people and good food. I can't wait to see all the pictures Mary took, here are just a few from that day.

My favorite from that day....

Christmas Eve

I'm finally getting around to posting some Christmas pictures... it was such a crazy week and by the time it was all over I just wanted to rest. Then I got sick but I'm feeling much better today!

Our Christmas started off at Joe's sister Christy and her husband Bryan's house in North Mankato for the Loula family Christmas with Joe's parents, it was fun as usual. Unfortunately I didn't get any pictures from that get together.

Then we went to rural Courtland for the Kral Christmas Eve celebration. Santa came and handed out presents to all the little kids. It's a tradition we've done since I was a little kid and it's so fun to watch how excited they get when Santa gets there.

Santa with all the little kids.

Almond Bark Pretzels

Ashlyn proudly posing in front of a few of the pretzels she help me make. It was a lot of work but they turned out really good!

I want some...

Little Miss Sunshine

She had a case of the giggles tonight when I was taking pictures of her in front of our tree. What a happy little girl!

Bedtime

I just thought I'd post this cute picture of Ashlyn fresh out of the bathtub. There is not a whole lot new with us... just getting ready for our many Christmas get togethers next week. I think we only have couple more gifts to buy and will hopefully do that tomorrow after ECFE. Oh yeah, our tree fell over the other day :( We have a fake tree and the plastic stand that it was in cracked --- TIMBER!!! It fell quite gracefully (I actually saw it happen) and thankfully nothing broke. Joe went to town to pick up a new stand and Ashlyn and I redecorated it... we'll be posting pictures soon.

Practicing sitting alone

5 months old

Ashlyn is 5 months old! She is growing and changing so fast. She's still working on sitting by herself and she loves to stand and have you assist her. It's a great workout for the arms! We started veggies this week. She finished her first container of sweet potatoes and seemed to enjoy them just a little tonight... she only gagged once! We put up the Christmas tree finally and she was entertained with all the lights and shinny ornaments. I'll have to get some pictures of her in front of it to post :)

At 5 months she is weighing in at 18lbs 11oz and is 26 1/4" tall.

I thought she would have grown more than 1/4" in the past month but considering the way the measure the height I'm not surprised... the first measurement was 26" and the nurse must have sensed my disappointment since that would have meant she didn't grow at all this past month. So she remeasured her and was like "wow, how did you grow a 1/4" little girl?". Not that it's a big deal, I just want to fill in her baby book for her and make sure she's thriving :)

Here is her progression in her car seat. I can hardly remember her being that small!

Ho Ho Ho

We went to visit Santa at the mall and it looks like he just told her she gets everything on her wish list since she was such a good girl this year!

No Teeth but Taking the Bottle!!

We still don't have any teeth yet but Ashlyn had been in a great mood and she's back to sleeping good too. To bed at about 8pm, up to eat around midnight, then sleeps until 7am. It's so nice, basically just like she used to sleep. The other exciting news is that she has been taking her bottle! This is HUGE... it's so nice knowing that I can leave her with someone and not be in a hurry to get back because I'm worried she's freaking out and hungry. No fun for the person watching her or her. We have won the battle!

Ashlyn is always doing something to make us smile. She has become quite the talker and enjoys telling stories. Bubble blowing is still a favorite and now she has mastered thumb/finger sucking. Her hands and sleeves are usually wet but it doesn't seem to bother her! She's also really close to sitting up by herself. As exciting as it is to see her do these thing I can't help but think that she is growing up too fast! I'm trying to savor every day and enjoy all things baby. Before we know it she'll be a toddler!

Having fun in her Jumperoo.