My Newest Niece!

Peyton Michelle was born to my sister Kristi on September 8, 2009. Last Sunday was her baby blessing. Besides taking up three (Yep, three) whole benches during sacrament meeting, my family was also able to hear my sister speak and then invade her home for a yummy luncheon.

Before eating I was able to snatch pictures of the family and baby Peyton in her beautiful blessing dress that my mother made. Here is what I was able to capture.

Kristi's family at it's finest.
(their tradition is to take a funny picture after a formal picture...to keep the kids sane)


My wonderful parents and Peyton.
(look at that dress...wow!!)
I think my parents look awfully cute together.


A very brief, private session with mother and daughter.


Proud mamma and her beautiful baby girl.

So cute!!

It was really fun taking photos of this little one. She really is a beautiful baby girl (but I could be a little partial)!

All the Best!!

Hatches.Heart.U2

Here is the awesome U2 concert (10/20/09) in pictures (these were taken with our point-and-shoot camera so no judging):

Bart and I anxiously awaiting the start of the concert.


The ridiculously gigantic stage that took 4 days to put together.
(and cost the same ridiculously gigantic amount of money to build)


Will.i.am!!!
Surprisingly the Black Eyed Peas were really good live.
Best song they sang: I've Got a Feelin'.


Bono!!
And (if you can believe it) I saw him without glasses on for two minutes!


The Edge!!!
Lead guitarist for U2.


One of the many things the magical stage did in order to entertain us. It was pretty awesome!

One funny story about the concert before I end this post. Unfortunately I had to go to the bathroom multiple times during the concert (Pregnancy called). The first time I really had to go...bad...and I couldn't find a bathroom. I finally spotted a talk black guy with an earpiece in and thought, 'he must know where a bathroom is'. I guess as I was walking up my hand was on my belly (like it almost always is) and when I was about to ask him frantically where the ladies room was he looked at me with a concerned face and asked if I was 'OK'. I quickly assured him I was great, just need the restroom, if he could please point it out to me. He then proceeded to do so when I quickly thanked him and rushed off. As I was half walking/running to get to my much needed destination he yelled, "Don't go having that baby on my now, ya hear?"
Bahaha, I nearly lost it right there. :)

Lastly, a million 'thank you's to John Peterson for taking Bart and I to the concert. I've never seen Bart so happy in my life...except for when we got married...and when we found out I was pregnant. :)

All the Best.

Made of Money

I am blowing through clothes like it's loose change! I have never been this big before and I'm growing out of clothes that used to fit perfect a couple of weeks ago. Yikes! How am I gonna feel when I'm eight months preggo (and where am I gonna find more clothes to wear without spending a fortune)?

Posts to come:

• Black Eyed Peas and U2 concert.

• Carving pumpkins with Andy & Brittany.

Here's a sneak peak of our pumpkin...it's pretty awesome!

Craving of the Day: Toasted Turkey sandwich (Yum!)

All the Best!

Patience

A virtue I'm desparately trying to acquire.

Every time I think I've grasped it, I drop it...and then I'm left picking up the pieces of a concept I once thought I knew. Is it bad to say I'm being impatient about my lack of being patient?

Just another thing I have to work on I guess.

(baby steps Ashlee, baby steps).

Craving of the day: Blue cheese (weird, I know).

All the Best.

Ready to Rock.

I have felt a huge increase in movement from baby Jack-Jack this week. The best part is that Bart was finally able to feel him moving too!

Ever since our last ultrasound Bart has been trying almost every day to feel our baby boy moving but with no luck. I hated seeing his sad face everytime he would put his hand on my belly and feel nothing. So when yesterday morning (10/18) came around, it seemed like it would be yet another sad day for Bart, except after his disappointment he put his head on my belly to see what kind of reaction he would get. Well, that did it!! The extra pressure made Jack go crazy and he started kicking Bart in the head. :) Bart was so excited he kept laughing everytime he felt him kick or squirm.

After that it seems like Jack hasn't stopped moving! It feels great to know that my baby seems to be doing well. I think this is a preview to how active he is gonna be when he's finally out of my tummy and ready to rock.

Speaking of rocking, Bart and I are going to see U2 in concert tomorrow. Bart is completely stoked (since U2 is quite possibly his "favorite band of all time") and I am excited to see how happy he is going to be when we are there. :) I hear their concerts are awesome.

Lastly, my cravings have definitely not stopped even though my nausea has. This week's craving that I can't seem to get enough of:

Doughnuts!

All the Best.

My New Favorite Shoes.

Yep, I got them...and I'm totally stoked. For those of you not in the loop, read this. And don't you worry, I definitely thanked Mr. Taylor as I walked out of Journeys.
(Oh, and don't mind the belly in the photo...it comes with the territory.)

Sorry to cut the post so short, but I gotta go pick out my outfit for tomorrow. And you better believe it's gonna revolve around these beauties. :)

All the Best.

Our Baby's Story

We had our second ultrasound on October 1, 2009. We had been waiting 30 painfully long days for this ultrasound...because on this day, we would find out the gender of our baby. I was so sure our baby was going to be a girl. One of my sister's just gave birth to a little girl in September, and my other sister (who happens to be due 10 days before me) is also having a baby girl, so I figured our little bundle was destined to have double X chromosomes. (Side note: for those of you who don't know, I have 22 nieces and nephews...soon to be 23 with my pregnant sister's baby. Out of the 23 grandkids my parents were blessed with, 16 are granddaughters and 7 are grandsons. Needless to say we are not lacking in females in the Kitchen line).

So when the ultrasound tech placed the camera on my belly and I could immediately tell this little baby was a boy, I was a little shocked. So shocked in fact that I looked over at my husband to see if he saw the same thing. The look of shock and triumph I found on his face confirmed my suspicion. Now at this point in the game our tech was not giving us any hints as to the gender of our baby...she was getting the important stuff out of the way first (which I was very grateful for, being an already worried mother). She checked the baby's heart, brain, and spine while making sure I was progressing and developing the way I should. Thankfully, all is well and our baby was right on schedule (being a little bigger than average as we came to find out later).

So after all the vital measurements were done, she turned to Bart and I and asked if we wanted to know the gender. We pretty much already knew, since our baby was sitting on the camera when we first saw him, but we both muttered a breathless "yes" as we plastered our eyes to the T.V. screen one more time. So she introduced us to our little one through different camera angles and pictures she was able to take. She immediately said our baby was not shy, since he was posing so beautifully for the camera. I told her our baby definitely got that from his Daddy. Bart is not a shy guy. Here is what she showed us (Another side note: I have never used our scanner before, so please excuse the scanning job...I'll do better next time I'm sure):

Our baby's profile: you can see his cute little button nose, his mouth (which was moving at the time), and strong chin. His hand is right by his face.

This is our little boy staring straight at the camera, hence the small skull you see in the upper left part of the picture. He's getting ready for Halloween a little early. :)

A nice shot of our baby's foot. It looks like he has all five toes (what a relief!!). After this picture our little guy quickly moved his foot away from the camera. The tech laughed saying he had ticklish feet. Now that trait he inherited from me. :)

And last but not least here is one out of three pictures she was able to take confirming that yes indeed, our baby was a boy. In the first picture he had his ankles crossed, which was a little bit of a challenge for her to determine. Then, after the first picture was taken he uncrossed his ankles, giving us a picture perfect view of the thing between his legs (Please see the above picture: the view is him sitting on the camera...again). She then proceeded to take one more picture confirming our baby was a boy (like we really needed the proof after the above picture) and wished us both "Congratulations" as she flipped on the lights and handed us our pictures.

As I took the pictures from our ultrasound tech, I stared at Bart with tears in my eyes, grateful that I was blessed with a wonderful baby boy. He, having a huge smile on his face, gave me a big hug and we both laughed together until we finally found our way to the door. We went back out into the waiting room (since I had my monthly check up right after) and Bart immediately went outside to call both sets of parents, siblings, and close friends to give them the good news. I was fortunate enough to stay in the waiting room and contemplate over the greatness of our little boy while I stared at his pictures. I'm still trying to wrap my head around the fact that I am pregnant and we will have another person joining our family in four very short months.

So that is the story I give to you, introducing our oldest son, Jack Wayne (or so his name is now) into the world.

All the best.

Pregnancy Update Preview

I have now come to the conclusion that there is nothing hotter than a pregnant woman wearing elastic-waisted pants in search for chocolate...which is why my husband is so attracted to me right now. :)

I have many updates to post, but they include pictures that are not ready yet (ie: ultrasound pictures that I need to scan, and a belly picture I need to prepare for). But I figured I would let everyone know that Bart and I are now part of the "in" crowd when it comes to baby genders.

We're having a boy!!!

It seems like everyone who is pregnant right now (at least the ladies that I know) are having boys, which is great because that means our little bundle will have friends to play with. My next post will be all about our ultrasound, and how Bart and I came to find out that the little human inside my belly is just like his daddy...in more ways than one. :) I can't wait to share his story with you. It's a great one.

All the Best.