Leprechaun Announcment

Leprechaun Ashley will be a big sister!!

Happy St Patrick's Day!
Love, The O'Strauss Family
(Ryan, Kelly, Ashley and baby #2!!!!!)

Happy Birthday Ashley Bear!

So this post is 4 days late but as most of you know, Ashley Bear turned 1 year old this past week. Unbelievable how fast time has flown.

We invited a few friends and some family came into town last weekend to celebrate her birthday. Kelly slaved away in the kitchen baking cakes and cupcakes and they turned out surprisingly great. However, Miss Ashley never got to experience the taste.

We all had visions of how the first birthday party is supposed to take place. You get a small cake, put a candle on it and the baby digs in. Well, not for Ashley. She was so excited to see the cake and hear everyone singing. After we blew out the candle, she just sat there staring at it. Not sure of what to do, we stuck her finger in it and all hell broke loose. You would have thought we stuck her finger in a cup of boiling water.

Here are some pictures my mom took while in town.

Here are some of the pictures we took and are embedded below:



Here is a picture we took outside our apartment the day after her birthday:

Skiing At Holiday Valley, NY

This past weekend my family went up to Holiday Valley Ski Resort in Ellicottville, NY to go skiing. We rented a chalet about 5 minutes from the slopes and enjoyed the sunny and beautiful temperatures all weekend.

Here are some pictures my brother Lee took (link):

Snowed In

Kelly and I attempted to fly back to Chicago from Cleveland this morning but a winter storm halted us in our tracks.

Here are some pictures we took today playing in the snow (link):

2 Videos of Ashley Eating and Walking

We haven't posted many videos lately so we got some good footage over the past week of Ashley eating an apple and another of her walking in our apartment. They are embedded below:

Grandparents in Town

Kelly's parents came to town this weekend to visit us...wait, who are we kidding, to visit Ashley. :) On Saturday we walked around our neighborhood, braving the ice and somewhat colder temperatures. Ashley tried on her first pair of real shoes since she is walking now. Things changed drastically on Sunday when the bottom dropped out on the weather. We woke up to -3 degrees and -25 degree wind chill. Needless to say, we didn't do much other than hang out in our apartment.

Here are some pictures from the weekend (http://picasaweb.google.com/rstrauss/20080209RotheryGrandparentsInChicago):

Walking!!

I feel like I have been waiting for a month to write this post. After Christmas Ashley started taking a few steps here and there. She would go about five to ten steps and fall for about three weeks. Last weekend she really started walking. She now walks all around the house. It is so CUTE!! I CAN'T WAIT to get her fitted for REAL shoes.

hgiaoraaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhiiiiiiiiiiiiiiissssssssslll
(Ashley says "hi")

Steelers Playoff Game

Big game tonight, huge game in fact. Daddy dressed Ashley in her jersey this morning and you better believe she's wearing it all day, including naps!

Let's go Steelers!

Taken Earlier This Month

We've had these pictures on our camera for awhile and finally pulled them off tonight. These were taken the weekend we picked up the Christmas tree. The same tree I had to take down the week prior to Christmas before we headed out of town. Let me tell you how much of a Grinch I must have looked dragging that tree down our alley into the dumpster in mid December.

http://picasaweb.google.com/rstrauss/20071201ChristmasTree

Black and White Christmas

A rare picture of both Kelly and I with Ashley taken just a few minutes ago. Hope everyone is doing well.