B-day & Ultrasound #4!

Last weekend was Ashley's 26th birthday weekend! Due to school and work we had to post-pone birthday celebrations until the weekend. On Saturday we woke up and had an awesome french toast breakfast at Kneader's. Then we drove the Alpine loop which had an some pretty fall colors. (We also did the loop again today and saw a moose 5ft off the road!) Here are a few pictures from our trip.

This Thursday Courtney, one of Ashley's sister's, planned a surprise visit for the weekend. We had a blast hanging out with her and pigging out at every single yummy food place in Utah including J-Dawgs, Tucanos, and Kneaders. I seriously think I gained 15 lbs this weekend. It was well worth it though.

On Friday we went to our 4th and final ultrasound. Unfortunately we didn't get any new pictures of her but according to the Dr. the baby looks great and is super active which is a good sign. She is weighing in at approx. 5 lbs, so if she keeps pace Ashley might have a good size challenge in front of her!

So we are right at 34 1/2 weeks now. At 36 weeks we start seeing the Dr. on a weekly basis. I can't believe how quickly these past 8 months have gone. Ashley is doing great, but between us I think she is getting to the point where she wants this baby out. She is having a very difficult time getting comfortable, sleeping, eating, and living. But if you're concerned if that has affected my sleep at all, no need to worry I am doing fine.

Speaking of me, school is going great. Part of the Facility Property Management program requires a certain number of Construction Management classes. So I am taking an electrical wiring class, a structural framing class, a finance class, and a marketing class, with a few others. I am learning a lot and having fun.

We hope all is well, leave us a comment (even though we don't respond, and you may see no benefit on your part to post a comment, we really enjoy hearing from all 3 of our readers).

Ultrasound #3 & Update

Yesterday Ashley, Kelsey (my sister), and I all headed to the hospital for our third ultrasound. We got the same person as our first time, and if you remember she did not think I was funny so we don't like her. First she took all the baby's measurements. Currently she weighs around 2.8 lbs. We got to see a cool view looking directly at her (which was weird it almost looked 3-D) that showed her lips and nose. The tech then checked the heart and legs and everything looks great! Our baby got a slow start and was measuring 6 days past 11/10 in the beginning but now she has caught up and is in the 50% and should be arriving as schedule, or sooner! Here are the pics we were able to take home.

This past weekend we were able to head back to Sacramento for Ashley's baby shower. We had a blast hanging out with friends and family. We got some great gifts and are excited to start putting the baby room together. Thank you for all the nice presents!

Ashley is feeling great, and is still working at the Dental office. She is starting to transition from the front office to a dental assistant to allow her to work part-time after the baby comes. I was excepted into the Facility Property Management Program at BYU and start this Fall. It should take two years for me to finish so I will graduate in April 12' (yes that is exactly 10 years since I graduated from high school, so what!?).

We have one more ultrasound scheduled for Oct. 2nd! We will keep everyone updated as we get down to the wire. Only 11 weeks left!

P.S. Vote on our new poll! Help us decide on a name (but lets be honest we are going to name her whatever we want, even if you think it's stupid). You guys didn't do so hot on the last one as 13 voted boy and 10 for girl, so I expect better results!

Ultrasound Round 2

Today Ashley and I went in for her 20 week ultrasound. And we were able to find out what we are having. So without further ado...... it's a girl!!!!!

We had a great time with the ultrasound tech. She was really nice and spent about 15 minutes showing us the baby and explaining what everything was, which was really helpfully to me because those ultrasound pics are like those blurry 3-D pics that were super popular in the 90's. You have to stare at it for awhile until your eyes adjust and finally can make out what it is.
The baby was super active and a bit camera shy. She was flipping and rolling around, and sucking her hand and running away from the camera. Here are a few of the ultrasound pics. The tech was nice and printed out 10 different shots.

The Dr. then came in and did another ultrasound to check for any abnormalities. Thankfully our baby is looking great!

Here is the confirmation that it is a girl. It is hard to tell because the shot apparently is if she was sitting on a glass table and you were looking up at her (which is kinda of weird and gross to think about). The mouse arrow is pointing to the direction of the "girl parts"

We were able to watch her drink the fluid which I am told she pees out only to re-drink it. Yummy! You can see this shot she has her mouth open drinking some nice refreshing amniotic fluid mixed with pee.


This is a shot of her foot.

For the second half of the ultrasound she was curled up in this really tight ball. Here her elbow is touching her knee. She must get her flexibility from Ashley because I come nowhere close to touching my toes when, make that if I ever stretch.


And last but not least this is the first outfit that I will buy my daughter. A seer sucker dress to match my seer sucker suit! We are so excited and can't believe we have already it the half way mark.

Please leave us comments and name suggestions! I am a very picky and have vetoed 90% of Ashley's suggestions so far. It won't be easy for us to settle on one.

Oh you can also start sending us baby presents. We also accept cash. Hahaha!

Love,

Ryan & Ashley

There is someone we would like you to meet...

So as most of you know by now Ashley is pregnant. Yes I know she finally broke me down. Depending on who you ask she is 12-13 weeks along (the Dr. says 12 but Ashley says 13). Anyway we had our first ultra-sound yesterday and it was really cool. It was at the Provo Hospital (the old building Mom so I guess your old stomping grounds).

We walked into the room and the lights were off except for two soft mood lights. The T.V. was on and I instantly made a joke about how we needed some Marvin Gaye playing softly in the background and some candles, and I got NOTHING from the Nurse... I don't even think she looked at me. So the boring, dry nurse started the ultra-sound and was just cruising along doing her thing taking weird measurements of Ashley's insides. I then made a joke about how I thought I saw the cheeseburger Ashley had for lunch, and again NOTHING!!! I mean I don't consider myself Chris Rock or anything but COMMON ON!

So after the robot nurse finished everything she needed, she then started to focus on the baby. That's when it got serious, because the possibility of Ashley being one of those women who wants a baby so bad that they force their body to create all the signs of being pregnant went out the door.

But it was way cool because we got to see some really good shots of the baby. And he/she is quiet active! It was bouncing around, kicking its legs, moving its arms, and I think I even saw a few dance moves in there. The nurse then started to get these weird views which made us see the babies skeleton and I made a comment of how our baby looked like a cyborg T2000 from Terminator after its face melted off and again NOTHING!! So that was my last attempt.


So she took a couple snap shots of the baby and printed them out for us and this is what we got to take home.





Afterwords the the Dr. came in and she was awesome. She was sarcastic, witty, and cracking jokes, so I really liked her. We also get to do a super tech ultra sound at week 20 so we should have some more cool pictures to post then. And that is when we get to find out what we are having!

I have added a new question to our blog. Please fill that out so we can see what everyone thinks we will have.

So far Ashley as been feeling pretty good and hasn't been crazy sick so that is really good. Although she sleeps like every second she isn't at work I think. But other than that we are doing great and really excited to have a Ryan Jr. soon.

Feel free to leave us comments!

BYU vs. ASU

So Ashley and I went to the BYU vs. ASU men's basketball game tonight. BYU won 81-68, but the reason for the post is afterwords I was looking on BYU's website at the box scores and saw that I was in one of the pictures taken during the game. The picture is of Jimmer Fredette (seriously that is his name) with me in the background circled in yellow. I am not sure where Ashley is though. By the way Jimmer is freaking good.

Thanksgiving in AZ!

So last week on Wednesday at 6:30 pm Andrew, Kelsey, Ashley, and I all jumped in our Civic and started making our way down to AZ for Thanksgiving. After driving ALL night we arrived in Mesa at 5:30 am and dropped Andrew and Kelsey off at my sister Jen's where my family was having Thanksgiving. Ashley and I then continued our way down to Tucson, where her family was gathered for the festivities.

We arrived around 8 am, just enough time for me to change my clothes, hop in the car with Scott and Greg and head off to their annual Turkey Bowl Football game. I am going to blame my under par performance on lack of sleep, but deep down inside I think it was due to being out of shape and getting old (which is depressing). I was however surprised to find out that I am not that bad of a punter!

We enjoyed a nice Thanksgiving dinner with Ashley's family (which was pushing 60 people and held at a church, and apparently and small gathering). We had a blast hanging out with all off Ashley's immediate and extended family. Except for when Greg (brother-in-law) turned us all into slaves and forced us to assist him in his move. Just kidding, I can't complain, I spent the majority of the morning searching for my wedding ring which I knew I left securely in the grass at the football field (for safe keeping).

On Saturday we drove back up to Mesa and celebrated my nephew's Braden's birthday party. We got to hang out with my family for the rest of the day and then headed back to freezing cold Utah Sunday morning. It is now 17 degrees outside and I hate my life. However, the semester is almost over. Just two weeks left! Wish me luck on finals!

Ashley's New Job!!!

So I have slacked off the past week and forgot to write a blog entry. However, we have had some good news since the last post. Ashley took a job at a Dentist office in Payson, which is about 20 minutes away. Normally I would not allow Ashley to work for the spawn of Satan, however due to the current job market I decided to concede. (I really don't think Dentist are so bad, but the hygienist who clean your teeth are!) She really likes her new job and the staff though. They all seem really nice. She works the front desk, and loves the Dentist and staff.

School has been going great. I am getting used to BYU and am working hard to finish up this semester over the next couple of weeks. We are exited to be heading down to Tuscon for Thanksgiving this year. We get to see a lot of family, but the 12 hour drive we have to make through the middle of the night is going to stink! Well I hope all is well if all of our friends and family! Leave a comment it would be great to hear from you.