Things Angel Does Not Miss About Arkansas

1) Flat land-- Really? I can see 6-10 miles in any direction. How boring

2) Water/Flooding-- When we lived on Taylor it flooded everytime it sprinkled.

3) Ugly Animals!-- Who picks a razorback for a mascot?! Haha just kidding!


Ok, in all fairness here are the things I miss

1) Community Center-- D and I lived at that thing when we lived there.

2) Wal-Mart-- the closest one to us now is 20 minutes away

3) JHDC-- I miss the resident there. I miss spending time with them! I wish everyone can be more like them in the sense of happiness! They are always happy, and laugh over the littlest thing! What Joy!

Baby steps to Happiness

Easter! Happy Belated Easter everyone! Matthew celebrated his first Easter! So Mommy is the worse ever! She did not get a good picture. Now, I got a picture, but it wasn't good. 


Doctor's Appointment-- We had our first appointment with Dr Gunter on May 5th. Why is this our first appointment you may be asking yourself. Dr Gunter has been on maternity leave, she has a baby exactly one week older than Matthew. So we have been seeing Dr. Lau. We have been throughly impressed with everyone at Huntsville Peds! Anyways... TIME FOR THE WEIGH IN: at 9weeks 2days old Matthew weighs 13.0 pounds and is 24.3 inches long. He got three shots and an oral vaccine that same day. Poor guy! :( 

"Surprise surprise surprise" (in my best Gomer-pile voice). As everyone knows, Daniel is leaving for New Zealand in a couple of days. Well, we were unable (at first) to make it to the Newberry Family reunion because was leaving on Sunday. To save money, (about $500) we decided to change the date from Sunday to Monday! As a last minute decision we decided that we would surprise everyone and make a trip to Arkansas. We did this for numerous reasons: 1) it's the first time anyone has seen Matthew 2) because I have been having nightmares about Daniel not returning to the states and finally 3) as some of you know the last time we encountered family, it didn't end well (don't worry no one went to jail. Lol). But seriously, it didn't end well. Daniel and I both have the fear that when we are standing on judgment day, we will not be ushered into Heaven as a result of not making amends. God gives us the opportunity to take steps towards full reconciliation.  How does this apply to this weekend? In short, we were not going to go mainly because of a particular falling out. Our initial thinking was, "we do not want to cause a scene and ruin the reunion."  However, after months of discussions and prayer we realized how arrogant we were. I mean, by not coming to the reunion we were actually hurting the entire clan, and punishing them for this falling out! STUPID!  Then, I realized we are depriving people of happiness. I mean there are not a lot of people who are not happy around babies.  Life is all about chances. We had no idea how the reunion was going to turn out, but what we did know is that God was going to take care of us. Sometimes the most cliche verse can hit home; I do not want anyone to prevent me from being happy, therefore why should I prevent people from being happy! 

So, needless to say we over-reacted. The reunion was GREAT from our end. Matthew was tossed around like like a lil hot potato! :) And the best part is, we made a particular person happy. We may have fired more people up, but you know what, we opened a door that was almost locked tight.

Thank you to Paragould Community Center for putting up with the Newberry Clan! It was a lot of fun and laughs!! :)

Life is truly too short to Be anything but happy!!

Be sure to check out Daniel's Blog page for updates about New Zealand! Be sure to click the follow button on his page! Also, check out our tumblr page for pictures and videos from this weekend! 

Until next time, when I'm actually at a computer and not on my phone!!

:)

Internal Links

  Daniel's New Zealand Blog

Various Pictures of the Ashby Family

Long Overdue Update..... Sorry.

Wow!  I tell you what, this whole surgery thing has really messed me up on blogging!  Ok, so let's catch up on everything that has been going on.

Short List:

1.  Deadlist Catch has started back!  We are all super excited

2.  ~~"I sure hope that was gas, son... Nope that wasn't gas....." -Daniel to Matthew~~ a recurring phrase in our household that NEVER gets old! Lol!

3.  ~~So Matthew keeps hitting himself in the face. And with each hit he cries louder and louder. Am I bad parent to sit back and watch? I mean it's HILARIOUS! Or am I bad parent for not videotaping it?

4.   Matthew's Surgical Follow-up went GREAT!  He is healing up great!

5. Bunco with the Ladies = Great time!

Long List:

Well Hello there Bright Eyes.  Matthew has officially woken up!  Thanks goodness?  lol.  Matthew has turned 1 month old, and as date of this blog, he is 7 weeks and 1 day!  He is starting to recognize voices and putting faces with voices.  He has the biggest grin!  We love it.  We changed his formula from Enfmail to Similac, and he seems to be tolerating it quite well.  Ok, so I lied... he is tolerating it AMAZING!  He has been going through a big growth spurt... How big you might ask?  Well........

White Flag Waves...  So, Matthew is tolerating his formula so well, and is going through such a growth spurt that he is starting to get hungry every 2 hours and would eat 5 ounces still wanting more!  Mommy gave in and gave him the paci.  (I will pause for the "It's about time" or "I told you so")  We were afraid that if we didn't do something to curb his appetite that he would be as big as a house.  He will lose some of that when he starts crawling, walking, etc... but he was 10lb 13 oz 4 1/2 weeks...  But the paci is working great now.  You never know how big your child is until you put them beside someone else.  For example, there is a baby girl at church (Let's call her Baby Purple, because she was wearing purple tonight) that is exactly 1 week younger than Matthew.  When you put Baby Purple beside Matthew, Matthew is twice the size of her.  Crazy uh!  Oh well.  They are both too cute. 

Thank Goodness for Quality Time.  We believe in spending quality time with people that we love.  Daniel and I have had numerous opportunities to catch a full nights rest thanks to my parents and my sister and brother-in-law.  One thing that Daniel and I hope to conitue until our dying day is date night.  We feel that just because you get married, doesn't mean date nights are thrown out the window.  

Sweet Tea Drinking, Back Porch Sittin... The weather is warming up and in my family that means:  Grilling out, Swimming Pool, back porch sittin, domino playing, sweet tea drinking, good time making.  

Mommy Update... Mommy has applied at numerous places, including a place in Franklin, Tennessee.  Yes I said it, Franklin Tennessee.  If I can get this position, then we will be moving..... again.  If I do not get this position, or the 7 other ones I applied for there, then I will be enrolling in the nursing program at Calhoun.  I recently took the TEAS exam and scored high on the overall part. 

 Daddy Update... His blog post to come.............

Blogspot FAIL!!  Ok, so apparently you can only upload so many pictures to Blogspot... Silly uh?  So, we will be uploading pictures, videos, etc at the following address:  Alabama Halo  .    Check it out now... There are some pretty amazing pictures on there.  Be sure to look at the new E-Trade baby commerical, Ashby Style!

Until next time!

New Zealand Update

Hello, everyone I normally don't do these blogs, I just tell Angel what I news I have and tell her to put it in. Well, anyways, so far this trip is coming together nicely. I have already bought my plane tickets and I will be leaving Monday May 9th, at 6:10 pm from Nashville, TN. I will have a two layovers in both Los Angles and Melbourne, Australia before I arrive in Wellington, New Zealand on May 11th (it will still be Tuesday for you guys). I have talked with the missionary over there, and we have worked out for me to teach 1 and 2 Peter and Jude at the Wednesday Night Adult Bible class that they have in New Zealand. I will also be preaching some Sundays and doing whatever the missionary needs for me to do. I then return on June 28th from Wellington, NZ to Auckland, NZ to LA to Nashville where I will reunite with my waiting wife and son and family. This will be the best birthday present ever, after being away from my family for so long.

Some, of you may be asking what I am doing to prepare myself for the trip? Well, first I have done some research that I will study while en route to New Zealand. This stuff will include material that my Dad has put together for me, and other things that I have put together myself. I am also preparing for my lessons while there in New Zealand.

I don't know of anything else to say other than I ask for everyone's prayer. I hope while I am gone that nothing goes wrong.

In the meantime, God Bless Everyone and I love yall.

Dan

Oh and BTW........

The Paci Died today.  

Matthew will not take it, so therefore we will not give it to him again!

Mommy is relieved!

Surgery Update--Post Surgery Update

Well mommy and daddy made it through Monday night with no problems.  Little man slept for most of the night all thanks to the Paci.  Tuesday morning he was taken down to Pre-Op where he was poked numerous times to get blood drawn!  OUCH! 

Me and Daddy waiting on surgery.

The surgery went great!  Matthew has a little incision right above his naval area.  We are not concerned about it because it will be first of many scars we are sure.  :)  

Once back in the room, we were able to start feeding Matthew.  We started at noon with 1/2 oz and would increase it 1/2 oz every 3 hours depending on if he kept it down.  If he did not keep 1/2 oz down then we would have to stay at 1/2 oz before moving to 1 oz.  Anyways, at the Noon and 3pm feedings, he did not keep it down.  Can you say what a blow to our already shaky emotion?  

Matthew kept down his 6, 9, midnight, and 3 am feeding!  

 My partner in Crime holding me up after the midnight feeding.

We were happy with the news from Dr. Gilbert that we were going home!  :)  We had a minor set back when the nurse didn't give pain medicine and he started hurting and threw up everything up.  But that didn't stop us from going home!  

Once home Matthew threw up a couple of times.  We were pushed over the emotional barrier!  I mean, we worked so hard to get him fixed, and it seemed like in that very moment, we failed.  We didn't give up, but pressed forward.  So I am proud to say that Matthew has not gotten sick since March 30, 2011 at 11pm.  *Knock on Wood*

We go back to see the doctor next Thursday for just a follow-up.  

~~Until Next time~~