Getting All Dressed Up

This weekend we spent time hanging out with Jason's family. His sister Jennifer and her husband James had family in town to celebrate their daughter's baptism. It was nice to get Aspen all dressed up for her cousins special day.

We got together on Saturday for lunch and dinner with Jason's family. Jennifer had dinner for everyone that night which was great to get everyone together.

Nanny, Jason and Aspen



We had to be at the church by 9:30am on Sunday morning for the baptism. Normally this wouldn't be a problem for us since Aspen is usually a early riser. However, she didn't get many naps on Saturday so she decided to sleep in til 8:15am. We were a little rushed, but we still got her in a cute outfit for the celebration.



The baptism was very nice and Jessica looked very cute in her outfit.



Jessica with the Pastor from the church.



The proud parents...



I think a lot of people at the church thought we were a pretty funny bunch with our group of babies. Trevor (Jason's sister Sarah's son) was making some pretty adorable faces.



It was a nice weekend seeing the family and Jennifer and James were great hosts to everyone.

On another note, Aspen has continued to add more and more foods to her plate. She has now tried squash, sweet potato (a favorite already), pears, banana, avocado (not the biggest fan of this one at first),peas, and rice cereal. So far I've been making it all and it's been really easy. She is eating twice a day, breakfast and dinner. Hopefully she'll keep up the big appetite as we continue to introduce more foods.

After a meal of squash and pears we had one happy girl!

What's So Funny?

I just can't help posting videos like these. Is there anything better than a baby laughing?? I think not...

Down to Two

Yesterday we had to say goodbye to another one of our chicken friends. Unfortunately earlier this week we discovered that Nala was actually a rooster. I have to say at least this time the chicken tasted a lot better or at least had more meat on it's bones. However, Jason and I were talking about how we were surprised the meat was so tough. This probably had to due with the fact of the age of the chicken and the fact that he was free range (he got a million times more exercise than the chickens you get in the store). At least he had a good life and maybe this will get the other two to start laying eggs finally!



Yesterday we also (of course!) went to Central Market and Aspen tried out sitting in the carriage instead of hanging out in the car seat. She was having a great time and would have made it through the entire trip if we didn't get stuck at the deli counter. Does anybody else have this issue in every grocery store...what's the deal deli people, get it together!! I think she was just getting hungry and she didn't even fuss that much, but just was getting bored with the activity. Hopefully she continues to love the grocery store as much as her parents do as she gets older.

What A Cutie!

Not a lot to blog about tonight, so I thought I would just share a couple of cute photos of our princess. By the way, stay tuned for another post about the chickens. Oh ya...those things! They still haven't laid any eggs and unfortunately we have ANOTHER roaster. Jason is taking care of it tomorrow and we are looking forward to some organic roast chicken tomorrow night.

Of course Aspen continues to want to hold, play, and inspect every object she can reach for, especially the including the remote and cell phones.



She also loves to play with her "car keys" her Uncle Matt got her for Christmas.



Lounging around while her parents got ready to go to the grocery store. Doesn't she looks so long with her arms spread out...



The weather has been gorgeous in Austin the past couple of days. We finally were able to swing at the park again with the nice weather and Aspen had a blast.

Go Cowboys!

Aspen is ready to cheer Tony and the boys on to kick Minnesota's
bumbum. Watch your backside Favre!

Park City, Utah

We just got back on Wednesday from our first family vacation in Park City, Utah. All in all, considering Aspen is only 5 month old, the trip went really well. We went with Jason's parents, which was fun to get to spend time with just them. It was also really great for Jason and myself to be able to go skiing and leave Aspen with the grandparents. We know this vacation wouldn't have been possible without them--thank you so much!



We arrived in Salt Lake City on Saturday afternoon. Aspen did really well on the flight. I was completely expecting her to be one of those babies that screams the whole flight (I just figured it would be my luck). So with low expectations it was a great surprise when she mostly slept on both flights! After arriving in Salt Lake City we piled into a van and had about a 30 minute drive to Park City.



We stayed at The Old Town Guest House Bed and Breakfast. It was a wonderfully little place to stay that was walking distance to the slopes and Main Street (which had all the restaurants and shops). Our innkeeper Deb was very accommodating and if you are ever in the area we highly recommend this inn! Aspen of course made friends with all the other guests and worked her charm.



Since we arrived around 3:30pm on Saturday we didn't have time to do much that afternoon. We decided to head out for an early dinner to Robert Redford's restaurant Zoom in town. While we were eating we had our very own celebrity sighting--Katherine Heigl from Grey's Anatomy. I think Jason's parents thought it was pretty funny how excited I was getting...they didn't have any clue who she was.

Sunday Jason and I headed off for our first day skiing while the grandparents hung out with Aspen. It was so much fun being out on the slopes. I think if we lived near skiing we would go all the time. It's so much fun and an amazing workout!






We took Monday off and hung out around town. In the afternoon we all headed over to the Park City Resort and rode the Alpine coaster. This was basically a roller coaster down the mountain--very, very fast. After we did it once we sent Jason's mom up to try it out. I think his parents had just as much fun doing it as we did.

Jason's dad at the end of the coaster ride.



The second time we went up I videoed the ride down...check it out (excuse my screaming):



Tuesday we spent the last day skiing all day with a quick lunch break with the grandparents and Aspen. We both did a lot better this day and were doing a lot more challenging runs. After the first couple of nights we realized Aspen wasn't adapting to going out for dinner (it just wasn't fitting into her nighttime routine), so the last two nights we had to go to dinner shifts. That was the only part that was a little disappointing, but I think everyone enjoyed their meals more.



We had such an awesome time getting to go skiing this year. Honestly once I got pregnant I thought it was going to be quite a long time before I got to go skiing again. Thanks to Papa and Nanny for watching Aspen--hopefully she wasn't to big of a handful for you!

On a quick side note...Aspen tried squash for the first time today for lunch. She definitely enjoyed the taste, hopefully this keeps up as we introduce more foods.



Also check out this short video of Aspen watching her puppy dog Bella play. I am always trying to get her to laugh, but I guess all it takes is Bella acting crazy.

Hook em

Hook em

5 months old

Yesterday Aspen turned 5 months old. Last year around this time I was trying to just get through the first trimester morning sickness and now I'm running around with this little person busy as can be...boy time flies!



This past month has been our busiest one so far with all the holidays, family, and friends. Thankfully during all these activities Aspen did great.

Some of the things she has been up to this past month...

We think she probably weighs about 15lbs. Some of her 3-6 month clothes don't fit anymore because they aren't long enough on her torso, so she is mostly wearing 6 month clothes.

One of her favorite things to do is practicing "standing" up on either your lap, in her crib, or on the changing table. It's pretty adorable watching her wobble around as she tries to find her balance.



She loves her little exercise machine that her Papa and Nanny got her and she will spend a good 30 to 45 minutes in it in the morning. This is nice so that mom has time to eat breakfast, have some coffee, and even work on a blog post!

She also has discovered her tongue and lips. This might sound weird, but lately all she does is smack her lips or lick them or stick her tongue out over and over again. It must be a very interesting sensation for her.



She has started to be very interested in everything. I was out to eat lunch with Aspen's Poppy and we had to push everything back because she was reaching for the knife, plate, water, etc. Also if she is sitting in your lap and you have your phone in your hand...forget it! She has started to demand in her own way when she wants something. The other day she sent a text message to a friend..."Wko$$$$v"...is it really already starting??

Pretty much since Aspen was 6 weeks old we haven't been able to go out to dinner as a family. She would always have her night time colic and a restaurant was no place to be when she was going through that. Then after the colic started to pass I think the two of us were honestly scared to try again (there were a couple of instances were we gave it a shot and both times we had to leave before the meal was over). However, we are headed off for our first vacation with Jason's parents on Saturday and there is no option...we have to eat out for dinner. So the three of us went out to dinner last week and it was a success. She fell asleep and let her mom and dad have a nice meal out. We were so proud of her...even if we had to go eat at 6pm (her bedtime is about 7:30pm).



Check out how much she has grown in the past 5 months...

1 month old


5 months old



We are off for our first vacation on Saturday to Park City, Utah. So...wish us luck for the airplane ride, hopefully she will be ok and we will get there with minimal issues.

Thank you so much for reading and keeping up with the blog over the past months. I honestly started this so that I could have a record of all of my pregnancy, Aspen's milestones, and all the things going on around us that I wouldn't normally have the patience to turn into photo albums or scrapbooks. It's awesome to hear that people enjoy reading!

Happy New Year!

Sorry it's late but we wanted to wish everyone a Happy New Year. Hopefully we will be as blessed this year as we were last year...although not with another child...let's wait a while for that to happen again!



We hope this year will be filled with more time spent with our family and friends and creating as many memories for Aspen as possible. Thankfully we have this blog to refer back to one day.

Aspen will be 5 months old on Tuesday, so stay tuned for an update of all the things she has been up to!