My How She's Grown!

Two Hours Old

Two Months Old

yes, that is the same jumper she's wearing in both pictures!

New York, New York

the city so nice they named it twice :) Yes ladies and gentlemen, i finally made it there! and you know what they say.. if you can make it there... I CAN MAKE IT ANYWHERE! :D

(disclaimer: we shared a camera so i don't really have my pics yet, what i have has been stolen from my SIL's websites :) thanks!)

My amazingly generous Mother in Law had planned a trip with her friend Tammy to celebrate their both reaching birthdays with 0's on the end, and decided to take my sister in laws and i along for a 'Girls Trip'. Yay for Kathryn!!!

It was something I've been waiting for all my life, but as it got close to time to leave it was a bitter sweet affair, because I had to leave my sweet lil girl for the first time. I was so stressed out that I almost didn't go. She wasn't taking a bottle and I just knew I was dooming her and everyone around her to a miserable few days so that I could go off and enjoy myself. Luckily the day before i was supposed to leave we decided to just do nothing but the bottle. I'd just pump so they'd have more milk, and she'd have to get used to the bottle before I was 2 time zones away. Halfway thru the day she was sucking 'em dry and not putting up a fuss about i.. so I decided to go. In the end it was definitely more traumatic for me than her. I'm not sure she even noticed I was gone. My mom came up and stayed to help Tom take care of her, and the whole extended family came up for my cousin Jessica's wedding, and everyone says Ainsley was the life of the party. I cried when the plane took off, and I cried myself to sleep that night. But the next morning our crazy trip really got under way and I didn't really have time to be sad anymore :)

Our first day we went to the MoMa, where I saw VanGough's Starry Starry Night, Monet's enormous painting Water Lilies (takes up 3 large pieces of canvas and an entire wall), a bunch of Picasso's and some beautiful photography. We saw Rockefeller center, Times Square, and we spent some time in my new favorite store H&M. We had hot dogs from a street vendor for lunch and ate dinner at this wonderful Italian restaurant, Puttenesca. That night we saw the Broadway production of Mary Poppins. It was great, most of the songs you remember from the movie, and a few new ones. The actor who played Bert was fantastic! Had 'it's a jolly holiday with Mary' stuck in my head for the next two days :) Then we met up with the rest of our group at this amazing restaurant, Isabella's where we ordered four desserts, including their famous 'Chocolate Bag' and passed them around trying them all. It was fabulous, yummmm.

Our second day we woke up to rain. It was fun walking down the streets of Manhattan with our umbrellas. We waited out the rain for a while having bagels for breakfast, but it was still coming down as we left for the Statue of Liberty. We took a ferry over to Lady Liberty's island, and it was rocking like crazy in the stormy winds. It was great to be there, but walking around the Statue we all got soaked.

After that we took the ferry to Ellis Island. There's so much history there, you can just feel it as you walk around. After going thru all 3 floors of exibits there we made it back to the house we were staying at with just enough time to change out of our soaked clothes into something fancy, then ate at the fanciest restaurant in my life (we all ordered the same thing, Steak and Lobster.. yeah, we're fancy) and then went to a Symphony at Lincoln Center.

The music was so beautiful, I especially liked the first piece which had this great clarinet solo. After that Shana and I changed into the comfy clothes we'd hidden in our bags and we met up with our fellow travelers and went to see Times Square at night. It was a lot like the Vegas Strip :) Lots of flashy lights, packed with people, and lots of locals trying to sell you things.

Saturday we designated as 'Serious Shopping Day' :) We also used this day to see the little communities we all wanted to visit, Greenwich Village, SoHo, the west end, China Town. We spent a ton of time and money that morning in China town with all the "designer"(hehe) bags, jewelry and watches they have lined up down there. Then we walked to SoHo and Greenwich, stopping as we spotted something we wanted to see. We ate at this wonderful little place for lunch called The Corner Cafe.

I had Eggs Benedict, yummm. Then we waited in a line that stretched out the store and down the street at this tiny little bakery called Magnolia's to try their cupcakes we'd heard so much about. They were quite tasty, we ate them at a little park across the street in this neighborhood we pretty much all decided we wanted to live in. :)

This part of New York was my favorite, it just had a real atmosphere, the architecture was beautiful, the trees lining the streets, the little bookstores and bakery's and cafe's all just around the next corner. It was hard to leave. But we set out to find a store called Shoegasm the waitress had recommended, before heading to the show we'd been looking forward to the most, Wicked! It definitely lived up to all expectations if not exceeding them! LOVED IT! :D Can't believe i finally made it to Broadway. After the show we went to the top of the Empire State Bldg (and no, none of us found our true love waiting there for us, lol) There were so many people there! Sardine-ville. But it was so neat to look out across the City, we could see for 25 miles! A lady we met on the top said it was the clearest night it had been in 3 weeks, so we definitely picked the right night.

The next day was my last, I flew home a day early to see my lil Ainser monkey, she was just too young for me to leave her for the whole trip. We took my last morning and went to Central Park.

On our way there we picked up some breakfast at Dean & Deluca, then we sat on park benches and enjoyed the beautiful morning, watching all the people, walking, riding bikes, walking dogs,.. it was so peaceful, there in the middle of such a big busy city. It's also right next to the Met, which i saw the outside of, but didn't get to go in.

Then it was off to the airport and
back to my little cuteness and handsome hubby. It was a good thing to have them to come home to, or I'm not sure I could have made myself leave. :)

Two Months!

Yesterday we had our two months appt for our little Ainsley. She now weighs 10lbs 15oz! and She's 23 1/2 in tall. Basically only one pound away from doubling her birth weight! She was in the 90th percentile for height and 50th for weight. She also got 4 shots which she didn't like at all. The nurse (whose name is Danielle too) called her band aids 'bling' hehe.. little baby band aid bling.. nice :) I couldn't believe how fast they gave her the shots, she got them all lined up and then BAM BAM BAM BAM, they were all done. Poor Ains, she made the nurse feel bad, cuz she was all happy and smiley and laughing at her right up until the first needle went in, the nurse said she was so sad to have to hurt such a cute happy baby.

Ainsley's Blessing

Today, (well i guess technically now it's yesterday) Ainsley Hazel was blessed at our church. Her father held her, surrounded by the men in our family that could be there, and gave her the very first blessing of her life. I am not a cry-er, but as soon as Tom began talking, tears just filled my eyes. I am so blessed. I have such a beautiful daughter, and such a great husband, and to see them standing at the front of the church just filled my heart with joy. My little family. Tom did a great job. He didn't seem nervous at all until right before they called him up there. :) It was great to have friends and family there. A lot of people couldn't make it, with the crazy summer plans going on, (which is definitely understandable), but it was really nice of those who did make it. We feel very loved :)

Ainsley wore a beautiful dress made for her by Grandma Cinda. Uncle Tad said she looked like an angel, and I definitely agree.

The Beach Report

The beach was a lot of fun :). I was so worried that such a big change would really through Ainsley for a loop, and she'd be off her routine and upset and fussy the whole time, but she was great! Probably the best she'd been to date. She slept great, had almost none of her usual night time fussiness, and was just a happy california girl :) She loved going on walks on the boardwalk with the ocean breeze cutting the heat, and taking naps on the beach.

She's also a great traveler! We took off and landed in a plane 3 times for this trip and she slept thru all 3 times! She also slept most of the drive from Cali to Vegas on the way home, even thru her upset cousin Jake's very verbal expressions of displeasure, lol. There was a huge accident on the way home and we ended up basically just sitting on the freeway for 2 hours! The kids (and the grown ups!) were beyond sick of the car. Luckily for us that part was right in the middle of the trip, so Ains woke up, ate and hung out for a bit during that part, then went back to sleep. She woke up as we pulled up to the Christensen's. :)

It was tons of fun to be on vacation and nice for Ainsley to get to spend more time with her Christensen family, and maybe for them to get to know her better. It was really nice when Tom joined us 2 days into the trip, it's fun to be together as a family without life's stresses.

Anyway, I kept meaning to write about our trip and not just post pictures, but things have been crazy since we got back, getting ready for her blessing! (see post above) :)

The Beach!