Ashtyn's Blessing Day

October 9th, 2011

Have you ever seen a more beautiful baby girl?! Ashtyn's blessing day was so good. We had a huge turnout of family and friends. We had the pleasure of having Jake's brother, Travis, bless Ashtyn. This was extra special in that he was able to give Ashtyn her name, Ashtyn Arianna Lane. Travis is the father of a very special little girl that we all lost last year. We have the great honor of naming our little girl after an Angel, Arianna Lane. I will forever be grateful that Travis was willing and able to do this for us.

We had most of both of our families in attendance for her blessing. It was great. After her blessing, we invited everyone to our home and had cupcakes and juice. It was great to visit and mingle with everyone all together.

Ashtyn had a little bit of everyone in her blessing attire. Her beautiful dress was made by Jake's mom, her slip was made by my Grandma Bottema for me when I was blessed (so she had a part of me in her slip,) her booties were made by me, and she had two blessing blankets, one made by my Grandma Coates and the other made by my mom. It was amazing to have that many people contribute to such a gorgeous blessing gown and blankets. I am very appreciative to all who took the time to make such beautiful items. I know that a lot of love and patience went into each piece.

Helmet Baby!

I haven't taken the time to do a specific blog on Ashtyn's helmet. These first couple of pictures are of when we had to go have her casted for the helmet. They took a woman's nylon sock and cut a small whole for Ash's face and arms. They put that over her head and then wrapped the cast stuff around that. She did ok, until they had to hold her head completely still while the cast was hardening, which was only about two minutes total. But by the time they were done taking it off, she was VERY mad. She cried the whole time we were putting her clothes back on and then whimpered the entire way home. She doesnt even act like that when she gets her shots. We have had her helmet for just over a month now, and she is doing pretty good with it. She was doing fantastic, we were up to sleeping in it. But then she got a really bad cold that lasted 14 days, and now we have to start the transition period over. She does really good with it during the day, even taking naps. But then when it comes to sleeping during the night with it, she sweats really bad. Just now I had to go take it off of her and she was literally dripping sweat off the back of her head. The doctor told us that sleeping at night might take more adjusting to because of the sweating. Since we dont have control over the heat, our room is either hot or cold. There isnt very often an in between.

Even with the setbacks we have had with her helmet, we can totally see a difference in the shape of her head. She is starting to have a round head instead of completely flat. I am pleased with the results so far and we still have a long road ahead of us.

I love that her helmet still looks so cute on her. She definitely wears it with style. :-) I like to put bows and flowers on the side to cover up the strap that keeps the helmet tight. It gives her a little bit of bling. I also have some vinyl and I want to make some cute lettering and symbols to put on it, I just haven't done that yet.

I cant wait until she doesnt have to wear it anymore and we will have this beautiful (not that she isnt already... I think so anyways...) round little head to admire.

Mmm... Oreo Pizza

Steph, Ashtyn and I went out to lunch on Thursday and we went to Pizza Pie Cafe. As of lately, that's a favorite of mine... and obviously... for Ashtyn too! As soon as she saw the oreo pizza she was grabbing for it. She LOVED it!!

It has been so much fun to be able to give her other foods. It's really neat to see her personality come out already in things that she does and doesn't like. My mom gave Ashtyn a sippy cup and all that I put in that is water, but she knows how to drink from it already and seems to really like it! When she is taking baths we take her sippy in their with us and she drinks from it the whole time she is bathing... (we put clean, bottled water in her sippy. Not bath water :-))

Other things that we have noticed her liking is pizza crust, crackers, fruit flavored baby food, spaghetti noodles (or anything long and stringy,) Pedialyte (Jake keeps wanting to buy this for her for a TREAT, as if she would know that's what it was...)

I cant wait to see what other things she becomes interested in!

8 Months

Our little miss Ashtyn is now 8 months old. Time is FLYING by! I can't believe it! She is the light of everyday for both Jake and I. We love that little girl more than we could have ever imagined we would. She has such a special little spirit. I love her cute little coo's and giggles. She has been such a happy little girl.

Ashtyn is still catching up to her age though, ha ha. She isn't sitting on her own yet, she is barely rolling from side to side. She gets those little legs going though when she is on her tummy, she just doesn't know that she needs to pick her arms up too. She looks like she is flying when she does it.

To celebrate her 8 month birthday, Ashtyn got to have a cold, a pretty bad one. I say this and some mom's probably think "oh you have no idea...." but this is her first time being really sick, so for us this is extreme. :-)

Jake and I don't really have anything new going on in our lives that I need to catch up on. We are both pretty boring people... but shhh... Dont tell him I said that with him included! :-)

We are still living in Grandpa & Grandma's basement apartment, and it's nice to be so close to them. We have been there to help them numerous times, as they have with us. I love being close to family.

Lately I have had this addiction to Pinterest, and I have created a few "crafty organized chaos" type messes. I think that I may be pushing Jake out of every space that he could possibly have. It will be so nice when we have a bigger place where we both can have our spaces. Mine will fill up quickly!!

Jake is still working for McNeil Printing and seems to like it for the most part. He delivers paper products to their clients. He gets to do alot of driving which allows him to spend alot of time listening to his book app on his phone. I am proud of him for taking interest in a book, even if it is being read to him. He has also started school at Stevens Henegar for Computer Technology. He is going to be so good at that. He has a real talent when it comes to computers, and he loves to do it. I cant wait for the next 3 years of schooling to go by so that he can be doing something that he truly enjoys.

There isnt much else to blog about right now. I really need to get back into the groove of this. I love doing it, and I would love to be able to have enough things that I can actually have enough to print at the end of the year.

Eight month pictures are soon to come! We have a hot date set up with some amazing photographers!