Professional Pictures

I took Ashlyn in for her 6 month pictures a few weeks ago and they turned out pretty good! She was such a good girl for the photographer. I even got creative and finally made a new header for the blog :)

Mexico

Joe and I enjoyed a nice vacation in Mexico last week. We stayed at the all inclusive Adventura Spa Palace resort in Playa Del Carmen and it was wonderful!! Joe earned the trip through a seed purchase. It was interesting to be at a resort with 1,400 other farmers. We saw a lot of laid shirts and John Deere hats :). We met some other young farm couples from Ohio, Iowa and Illinois and had dinner with a few of them a couple nights. Our resort had some really good restaurants and we tried 3 out of the 5 and our favorite was the oriental restaurant Mo Mo No Hana – funny name but great food! We basically laid out by the beach every day and drank all kinds of drinks. I got a massage at the spa on our first full day there and then another one the day before we left.... it was amazing! We even made it to the disco one night and danced! We took a cab to downtown Playa and shopped. Or should I say that I shopped while Joe sat on the benches waiting for me :) The weather was a beautiful 85 degrees and sunshine everyday until the day we left when it rained. We were ready to come home by then but the rain made it even easier to leave the warm weather behind and get home to Ashlyn. We missed her so much! I had never been away from her overnight before this so it was a big change. It helped knowing that she was in good hands with both grandmas for days that we were gone. Grandma Ruth had her Wednesday night through Saturday and Grandma Deb had her Saturday night until we got home at 3am on Wednesday morning. Did I mention we had a 4 hour delay on the way home?? We sat for 3 hours in the plain on the runway in Dallas, TX waiting to get de-iced. Overall we had a great trip!

Mexico

our room

yes, that is a big hot tub in the room!

the view of the ocean from our outdoor hallway

hanging out in the ocean, the water was nice!

Joe bringing us more drinks!

view from our chairs

kayaking in the ocean

our last night out

Gauge and Ashlyn at Grandma & Grandpa Loula's

enjoying some time with Grandpa Tim

6 month check up

Well this is a little late, Dr Knudson is hard to get into sometimes! Ashlyn has been battling a cold (stuffy nose, cough) for the last couple weeks but it's nothing serious. Hopefully it will clear up in the next week or so. She is still growing like a weed! She is still not rolling, although we've seen her do it in the past, she just doesn't seem to have any interest in it. Dr Knudson said that it is pretty common for content, happy babies to not roll. They are happy on their tummy's and their happy on their back - so why roll?? I can't complain, I'm in no hurry for her to be scooting around and getting into things. As long as she's happy, the Dr's happy then I'm happy!

6 month stats:

• 27 1/4" tall (90%)
• 19lbs 10 oz (99%)

Gauge is home!

After three nights at the vet, shots, x-rays, IV's and a hefty bill... Gauge is home! We still don't know what he got into that made him so sick but he feeling much better. He has to be a special diet and he has to take a few pills every day for about a week then hopefully everything will be back to normal. Whew, he sure had us worried!

Hanging out on his bed with Bobwhite the Quail

Girlfriends!

Ashlyn has two more girlfriends! On January 13th our friends Grant & Jessica Poehler's and Travis & Sarah Otto's each had a baby girl... on the same day, in the same hospital and just hours apart! How crazy is that?? Danica Ann Poehler and Payten Jean Otto! Ashlyn and I were pretty excited about adding two more to Team Pink! Congratulations to both families!!

(I know this is a little late but we have been having some internet/computer problems and then with our dog being sick this post just didn't get published as quickly as I would have liked. Better late then never right??)

Slowly Improving!

Gauge is slowly improving. He is still staying at the vet and they said that he is close to being able to come home. He is holding down food and water but is still having some issues with his other end.... hopefully that will get better today and he can come home tomorrow morning! It sure has been different without him here. He's our guard dog and the house just doesn't feel as safe without him on the lookout :) He stays in our entry way where he has his food, water and huge bed. We even have the electric baseboard heaters on for him in the winter.... on HI - he's so spoiled! Did I mention he has about a dozen stuffed animals that he plays and sleeps with... kind of funny for our big 110lb guard dog, he's really just a big lover.

Poor Dog

Our poor dog Gauge (5yr old, yellow lab) has been really sick for the past two days. He basically has the flu really bad and can't keep anything down. This morning he was looking really sad and we could tell he was losing weight so I took him into the vet and they did some xrays but didn't find anything out of the ordinary. They decided to keep him there hooked up to an IV to get fluids back in him today and possible overnight. Hopefully he will feel better and be able to keep down his food/water.

Gauge is just the sweetest dog and it's so hard to see him sick. Here are a few pictures of him :)

6 months old

Six months!? Amazing how fast the time goes. Turning 6 months old has been very exciting. Within a few weeks Ashlyn has cut two teeth, starting sitting alone, and her newest thing is grabbing. She grabs at anything I'm holding and will open and close her fists meaning "give it to me"... soo cute! We've gotten so many compliments on what a happy and content baby she is. Just today while I was getting my oil changed I had two people ask me if she was always this good... we had to wait an hour and she just played with her toy in her car seat and stood on my lap and smiled at the other people waiting in the lounge. Granted, she does have her moments but for the most part she is a happy and content little girl (knock on wood!!).

Joe and I just love seeing her personality grow. Being parents has been more rewarding than we could have imagined. Joe is completely right when he says she's addicting. We can't seem to get enough hugs, kisses, nibbles and giggles. It can't hurt that we think she's just the cutest baby ever and that her smile can melt your heart :)

(click on picture to make it bigger)

0-6 months old

Misc Pictures

Here a just a few pictures from the past week.

Playing with her new lullaby "CD" player.

Wearing her cute piggy slippers from Great Aunt Nancy.

Showing off her new sitting skills at cousin Connor's house and checking out her two new teeth :)

Enjoying bath time.

Cousin Landon James is here!

Kristi and Dylan had their baby!!! We finally got to meet our cousin Landon James Kapolczynski last night in New Ulm. He was born January 6th, 7lbs 15oz and 21" long. I don't have any pictures of him, but he's a keeper! I got to hold him for a little bit and he's just such a little peanut. Hard to believe Ashlyn was ever that tiny. Kristi looked great and Dylan is a proud papa. Hopefully we will get to visit them at home and get some pictures to share.

Landon is the Kral family baby #6 in one year, now we're just waiting to meet baby Beranek in April :)

Sitting Alone

The past few days have been exciting. Ashlyn has been working on sitting by herself for a while and today she sat by herself for a few minutes. She still can't be left alone because she tips over when she reaches for something at her side... but this is definitely a good start!

Another Tooth!

I felt Ashlyn's 2nd lower front tooth today! She is growing up so fast! She loves her zwieback toast and arrowroot cookies. She just loves feeding herself. I also found out today that she will eat her solid food better if I feed her with my finger... apparently she has something against spoons. Lets hope she grows out of that! She gobbled down almost half of a real banana this morning and we finished off a serving of carrots this afternoon :)

Yummy!

First Tooth!

Yesterday while Ashlyn was nibbling on my finger I finally felt her first tooth!! It is her front lower right. This is so exciting!

We let her try her first Zwieback toast on Monday night and she really liked it!

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.