Christmas with the Lewis'

After spending 4 days with Brian's parents we stopped in Portland for the night before we headed out to our beach house. We didn't want to make the full trip from Pendleton to Pacific City in one day not knowing how Ashley would do, plus Grammy was dying to see her granddaughter and wouldn't have been able to go another day without seeing her so it was a perfect stopover. The weather at the beach house was cold and rainy, but work needed to be done so Brian bundled up and got all the gutters and windows clean of sand, plus a few odds and ends that needed to be done. We joke that we must love this house because we never enjoy it. Every time we go it's always work. We hope to keep it for a long time so we'll get to enjoy it eventually. We were back in Portland after only a night at the beach house. We couldn't wait to get settle into a place for a while rather than packing and unpacking so much. My parents had an open house on the 23rd where all our neighbors and friends got to meet Ashley. There were a ton of people there and Ashley got passed around to everyone. I'm so proud of how well she did, she was quite the trooper the whole vacation. We were in Portland 10 days so we got to see a lot of friends and family. Christmas Eve was spent over at our friends house for their traditional Ciopino feast (a type of seafood soup). Christmas day was spent at my parents house where my aunt, uncle and cousins came over for Prime Rib. We ate too much, drank too much, and didn't get enough sleep. It was a great vacation. New Year's will be a lot quieter.
Here is the Lewis family after mass on Christmas morning. It snowed on our way home. It was a perfect white Christmas
This may have to be our Christmas card picture for next year.
Ashley slept whenever she could because she was constantly being woken as she was passed around to everyone that wanted to hold her. Here she is on grandpa's lap Christmas night. I love how she has her little hand up by her face. She has grown so much in only the two weeks that we've been gone.
Grandpa loves his granddaughter. He got to spend a lot of time with her, even when Grammy was right at his heels waiting until it was her turn. He made sure he got some quality time in with Ashley while we were down there

Brian and I with snow in the background on Christmas morning

2007 Christmas Card

We got this idea of from a picture we saw on the bulletin board at our baby class. We thought it would be a perfect announcement picture as well as a Christmas card. Well, we got busy and she got bigger and turns out she didn't fit as easily as we thought she would. Poor girl got stuffed into the stocking for a picture we wanted everyone to see. She didn't seem to mind too much though, but we got a good laugh trying to get her in. It was like shaking a pillow into a pillow case. It took the two of us, but we got the picture and thought it turned out adorable. We wanted to share it with all of you we don't have addresses for. Hope you all had a wonderful Christmas.

Santa I was a Good Girl This Year

We took Ashley to see Santa at Washington Square in Portland. She was having a fussy night, but as soon as she got into the car to head to the mall she was out until we got to Santa's lap. I thought it was so cute how her and Santa match all the way down to the direction of the ball on the hat.
Grammy couldn't miss her first Santa visit

Christmas with the Timms

Brian finished his finals Dec 7th so we had a whole week before we left for vacation to see the family for Christmas. That week was busy, spent running errands and planning what to pack because we were going to be gone for two weeks for the first time with a little one. It took a lot of planning and a little stress but we managed and turns out we didn't forget anything! The first part of the trip was spent with Brian's parents in Pendleton. They were so excited to see Ashley and couldn't believe how much she had changed in only a month since they saw her last. We went to church with them on Sunday where they proudly showed off Ashley. Saturday night we built our traditional gingerbread houses and ate more candy than we put on the house. Stephanie planned an open house Sunday afternoon so her friends were able to come over and meet Ashley. Monday we celebrated Christmas a little early since we wouldn't see them on the 25th and Tuesday morning we packed up to head to Portland. We had a wonderful time with them and wish it could have been longer. Thanks Mom and Dad for a great visit.
Brian's mom has a million Longaberger baskets around her house so Brian thought of the idea of putting Ashley in one and sending the picture to Longaberger to see if she could get into one of their catalogues. I thought the pictures turned out so cute. We have about 10 of them, but this was my favorite.
Brian and I with our gingerbread house. I was very proud of the fence around the house that I made of tootsie rolls and licorice.
Steve and Steph with their gingerbread house
Steve was done with his contribution to the gingerbread house a little early so he could spend some quality time with his granddaughter

Finals almost Final

Brian has his last final tomorrow and I am so looking forward to having my husband back! He's done such a great job balancing school and family, but this week has been tough. He's been studying all day and night taking 2 tests a day. Ashley and I miss him! He has three weeks off though, which will be really nice. We'll get some good Daddy/Husband time in. He deserves a long break, he's worked really hard and done very well with his classes. We're going to spend the first week here at home just the three of us. We'll do our Christmas shopping and take Ashley to see Santa. Then we leave for Pendleton to see Brian's parents for a few days, then to Portland to see my family and also spend some time at the beach house. We'll be in Portland for Christmas. Pacific City got hit with a huge storm this past weekend and had power out for at least three days. In fact our property manager had to call us from Lincoln City because they didn't have phone or cell service and she wanted to tell us that our house didn't have any damage. The only thing was that our hot tub cover blew off and our house was covered in sand. They had winds up to 125+ miles an hour. We thought last year was bad, but this was worse. There are ocean front houses that just got buried under sand. We'll spend some time there cleaning the gutters and sweeping the walkway and driveway because I'm sure there is a ton of sand still to clean up.

One Month

We've decided to take pictures every month of Ashley in her carseat to compare how much she grows in just four weeks. It's amazing how little she looked in her carseat when we first brought her home from the hospital. Now it looks like she actually fits in there.
Just another picture I wanted to share. I know the grandma's can never get enough of these!

Fun with Black and White

I love cuddling with her in this position but we can never get her there until she's asleep. My mom made the little booties that she's wearing. I love them because they're the only thing that will stay on her feet. Her socks always fall off, so I had my mom make a bunch of them and they all turned out really cute.
I thought this was precious. She looks so peaceful.

Snow In Seattle

Last Saturday (Dec. 1st) it snowed in Seattle and of course with my luck and Seattle weather, I got caught in it again. I decided to walk up to the Safeway to get some groceries because I was having the girls over for brunch the next day wanted to get some exercise. They had been talking about snow all week and so far we hadn't seen any. Plus it really didn't feel that cold. I got Ashley all bundled up and we headed out the door. I got done with my shopping and was standing in line to get my coffee and glanced out the window to notice that it was snowing, not just a light snow but huge snowflakes. I laughed to myself and thought here we go again. The walk back wasn't that bad, I had enough warm clothes and I knew Ashley was warm enough, it was just that I was soaked when I got home because it was really wet snow. It ended up sticking to the ground later and ended up being really pretty. I enjoyed it a lot more sitting by my fire inside! This is our backyard about an hour after I got home. It ended up raining that night so it all melted, but did snow for an hour on Sunday before it warmed up. Weird weather.

Pooh Head

This is a hat that Grandma Timm got her and it fits her perfectly. We put it on her a few weeks ago and it kept sliding down over her eyes. She's actually outgrown more than a few of her outfits already that she used to swim in.
This is one of those outfits that was so big on her two weeks ago and just fits now. Another week and it will be too small. I'm amazed at how much she's grown in such a short period of time.

Changes

A few things to report on. Ashley has been more alert these days. She up for at least 1/2 hour- 45 minutes at a time just observing her surroundings. She doesn't need to be held all the time, although when she's fussy this always calms her down. She's happy in her swing or in her cradle. I've noticed she's really focusing on things and keeping her attention on them so I moved the mobile from her crib to the cradle. It's neat to see her making these small changes and really noticing the world she now lives in. I just wonder what she's thinking about. She's also holding her head up a lot more, a move she's been perfecting since the first week. I love talking to her and seeing her respond to my voice by turning her head. She loves story time too.