Ashley is almost nine months. Wow. Even in this short time its hard to look at her and remember the little bundle that we brought home from the hospital.  This little girl, in my humble opinion, has EXACTLY the same personality as her mother. I love it.  Here are some recent pictures of, as Grady calls her, Bay-bee Ash!

So it’s not quite Christmas but the Stephens family is in full holiday mode.  Dad and I just got done wrapping up today’s dinner (ham, pea salad, scalloped potatoes, and rolls…all homemade of course).  Cody got the start of his Christmas wish with a bunch of lacrosse gear for the spring season.  Grady is torn between his Go Deigo Go Rescue Pack and the soccer goal that shouts “Score!” everytime you make a goal…it might lose the batteries soon.  Well this part of the Stephens Tribe got a new freezer, time to put in that custom order from the farm. Ashley is doing what she does best, looking like the sweetest little girl, ever.  Well we are off to have lunch and then to New Life to celebrate the birth of Christ.

2 Guys + 2 Days = New Shed

Dad and I laid out a foundation using treated wood and 2 yards of 5/8ths minus on the first day. I have to tell you, by the end of the first day you are sick of shoveling gravel. On the second day we got the whole prefab shed up. It when a lot smoother than we thought, considering the usual Stephens touch has a project hit a major roadblock about 3/4 the way through it.

The Construction Crew

I took the boys down to Tahoma National Cemetery to honor Memorial Day. It is such a beautiful place, even if it is very somber. The services were going on while we walked around the park. I was able to visit a friend of mine from high school who is buried there. Great day, I love taking my kids out to events like Memorial Day to remind them there are bigger things than themselves.

This video was shot about 10 minutes after Ashley was born.

Grady ran up to the baby swing where Ashley was and wanted her out. When Robyn got her out Grady pointed at his sister and said “hold, hold”. Here is Grady getting to hold his sister for the first time.

Give the audio about 10 seconds to get better.

This morning we added a new share feature that allows you to link-to and share any of our pages and posts on over 100 of the most popular social networking and blogging sites. You can now share our family, your family, with friends on Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, Digg and 100 other sites or portals. Just click “Share/Save” at the bottom of any post or page and click the service you want to share with your friends! You can also email the posts to a friend or save it as a bookmark in your browser. Enjoy!

With just one of the kids for the day we headed off the Saturday before Easter to the YMCA in Sammamish for a Easter Egg hunt.  Can’t figure out what the best part was…the mud….or the eggs?