Baptism and 1 Month Old

Saturday Ashley turned 1 month old already!

She is such a wonderful baby! She continues to sleep quite a bit during the day and the night time sleeping's are still going pretty well too. I'm getting her to bed around midnight and she will sleep until sometime in the 4:00 hour. Then all she needs is a quick bottle and she's right back to sleep. And to make it even better, I can usually get Mike to wake up and do that feeding :-)

I have given up on the breastfeeding. She just never seemed to get enough from me anymore. So then after feeding her, I'd spend time pumping and then I'd still have to give her a bottle. I just don't have that much time to spend on feeding her. So I am attempting to pump but we'll see how that goes. She's been having about 7 bottles a day and it seems I'm only able to pump for her about 3 of those 7. Oh well at least it's something I guess.

Also in the past week we have gotten our first real smiles out of her. I keep trying to get pictures of these but the best I was able to do tonight was little smirks (they are still pretty cute though if I do say so).

(She has curly hair when it's wet)

Today was her baptism. Her sponsors were Kristen & David. The baptism gown that she wore is a gown that has been passed around in moms side of the family. Ashley is the 22nd person to wear it! (Bennett was the 20th). After the church service we had a brunch at our house for those that were able to make it which was lots of fun. This is the first big family event that we've had at our house since our gift opening for our wedding. And it was even better this time because we had so much more room for everyone to spread out. (p.s. - stay tuned, pictures of our new basement will be coming in the next few days)

(thanks Christina for borrowing us this cute dress - I put it on her today for her party)

Day With Uncle Jon

Today I took Bennett to spend the day with Uncle Jon while I did some cleaning and organizing to get ready for baptism at our house this weekend. I tried this yesterday and for every one thing that I got cleaned, Bennett made two messes. Jon took lots of pictures of everything they did today. They sure were busy. And, notice that one of Bennett's newest things is waving "hi" in pictures. So almost every one he is waving and saying Hi.

Pictures

Here are just a few cute pictures of my little kiddos.

Ashley 3 Week Update

Tomorrow Ashley is already 3 weeks old. I had to take her in for a weight check at the clinic today. At her 1 week appointment she was 7.10 oz and today she was 8.5oz.! Yeah it looks like so far nursing seems to be working. But, she also seems to be eating a lot more these days. When I pump and feed her by bottle, she is up to 4 ounces already. So, I don't know if I'll be able to keep up with her if this is the case. (Any tips on how to increase the milk supply are welcome)

She still is such a good baby. She only cries if she is hungry. Otherwise she still just sleeps alot during the day. And she is still doing awesome sleeping at night. Most nights she is sleeping from about 1:00-8:00 in the morning. We've also noticed how she's becoming stronger with her neck and legs. She's stretching herself out more making her look longer and bigger already. She has a few newborn outfits that already look like they are getting alittle snug on her. Bennett loves Ashley so much. He is constantly wanting to give her kisses and hugs. He likes to hold her, help hold her bottle when we give her one, burp her, watch me change her and give her a bath. I found out yesterday though that he loves her a little too much. He was smothering her while she was in her bouncy seat trying to give her kisses. Next thing I know, she's laying on the floor! He tipped over the bouncy seat and she just rolled out and laid on the floor like it was no big deal. She's gonna be one tough little cookie! This little purple sweater was made my my cousin Gina. So Cute!

Birthday Party

We had my family over Saturday night for Bennett's birthday. Here are a few pictures from his fun night. The very first present he opened was a tractor and farm animals set. He liked this so much that he didn't want to open anymore. We finally convinced him to open a second present which was a bobcat. Well after opening those two, he was done and we had to practically force him to open the rest. He also got a Curious George movie, Toy Story 3 movie, new pj's, Matchbox Cars, an Elmo color & sticker book and a Toy Story tent & tunnel. Awesome gifts - thanks everyone! (And as you can see from the pictures below, David & Josh had just as much fun with the toys as he did)

Kristen gave him a bath after the cake and had some fun with his hair.

Bennett is 2!

Yesterday the 12th was Bennett's 2nd Birthday! To celebrate, we had Jon come over to watch Ashley and Mike and I took Bennett to Underwater Adventures at the Mall of America. He loves fish so we hoped he would really enjoy this big aquarium. He did seem to like it - especially the turtles for some reason - maybe because he's probably never seen them before. We wanted to take him somewhere and do something special for him since he's been so good during these past two weeks with Ashley. Then as an added treat, we got McDonald's on the way home. I know it's bad but he really really loves their fries and nuggets. Then in the afternoon when we got home, we got a visit from Grandma Leann, Randy & Aunt Nichol which he also loved.

I can't believe he's two already! It seems like just a few months ago that I was letting him have his 1st Birthday cake and he was learning to walk. Love You Bennett!

Brother & Sister

Brother & Sister - I think so! I was going to post this earlier today in my last blog but forgot. We all thought right away that Ashley looked soooo similar to Bennett as a newborn. Kristen put these pictures together which really confirms what we thought. Ashley is on the left and Bennett is on the right.