It's a... (Boy or Girl?)

Today was the big day - is it a boy blessing or a girl blessing? The discovery went something like this...

The appointment started long before we arrived - with lots and lots of water. I had to drink and hold what seemed like my weight in water hours before arriving.

Upon arrival I hopped up on the table, they rolled on the gel, looked at the screen and said, WHOA - this girl has a full bladder. They took a couple of initial measurements and then mercifully released me for a moment.

Thus, I went from here...

to here...

...then back to the table. At this point they were able to actually see the baby - instead of all my other parts squished by an enlarged bladder. Anywho...we'll stop talking about my bladder now and get back to the baby.

We once again got to hear the heartbeat and now have that on video - take a look! So exciting!



We got a more in depth look at all of baby's little parts...these are a few pictures they sent home with us:
Fist and arm

Profile - cute little open mouth and all

Feet

Skeletal Face - you look at this one sideways. Tilt your head to the left and you see the brain to the left, then eyes, nose, mouth...
Overall, we were able to see that baby is still growing and living - all great news. But let's face it - the real news we were there for is...boy or girl? So we had them seal it up in a top secret envelope - as seen below...

...took the top secret envelope to a cupcake shop...

... and then gave the top secret envelope to the super sweet baker. The baker was instructed to make us cupcakes and fill them with either blue or pink frosting (depending on the information contained in the envelope). She was MORE than happy to fill our request.

We waited ten long minutes then went back and picked up our cupcakes, top secret envelope, and newly acquired "Congratulations" note from the bakery.

We then took the cupcakes to a lovely park nearby. Carefully peeled back the paper...

...simultaneously bit into the same cupcake...

...pulled it back to see...

PINK filling!

That is correct. PINK! Which, of course means boy! Hahaha. Just kidding. It obviously means girl.

We're having a little girl blessing!

We're so excited! Can't wait to meet our little girl in April (or March if she so chooses).

Ain't life grand?

Baby

We have some of the biggest, bestest news in the world - we're going to be parents! And although many of you already know this (if not all of you) it is certainly worth documenting here.

Baby Baysinger is expected to arrive on April 2, 2012. So far, everything has been going normally and baby is growing right on schedule. We've heard the heartbeat on two occasions and have twice seen it squirming around, waving arms and kicking legs.

These are our ultrasound pictures at 10 1/2 weeks along.

Even from these little pictures we can tell our kid is going to be the cutest one ever.

In other pregnancy news, many people often wonder how mommy is doing in addition to baby. Let's just say - pregnancy is not the fun, cute experience I was expecting.

However, it is getting better. We are now 17 weeks along and I throw up maybe twice a week now - BIG improvement. Some energy is coming back. I'm definitely starting to get a baby bump and the coolest thing JUST started happening - we can feel it moving!

The initial flutters are becoming more distinct and on two occasions baby has even squirmed around enough that daddy could feel it.

We have another ultrasound this coming Wednesday and yet another in two weeks. One of those dates we hope to find out if this baby is a little boy blessing or a little girl blessing. So stay posted!

Overall, we feel so blessed. So excited. So nervous.

Life is just such an incredible, unexpected, beautiful thing.

Some Forgotten Summer Days

It sadly has been a while since we have documented the happenings of our lives - and many great big exciting things have been happening. However, before we blog about some of the more recent events, we find it necessary to record a few of the moments we managed to overlook this past summer. So, in brief -

Ammon's brother Shafer was the LEAD in Les Miserables! He did wonderfully and we were (ARE) very proud of him.


Furthermore, we finally got to make good on Ammon's birthday present from back in April. It was a fun night at a the Diamondbacks/Rockies game.

Our oldest niece turned FOUR years old - of course, we were there to not only witness but experience the fun. Let's admit - no one has more fun than four year olds (or adults playing like they're four year olds).

Also, we had a stroke of brilliance and invented a new family favorite. We call it the Panda Pizza. Little Caesar's pepperoni pizza topped with Panda Express's orange chicken. DELICIOUS.
And in one of Ammon's many romantic and thoughtful moments we went out for a SWEET date - the Melting Pot. Oh my heavenly. Definitely a splurge. Definitely worth it.

Summer Fun = Water Fun

With the arrival of endless sunshine and nearly intolerable heat is also the arrival of water fun.

For the adults this means we can do things like wash the vehicles....

...drink out of the hose as if we were kids again...

and otherwise pretend that there is natural relief from the beating sun.

For the kiddos, this means water parks. Oh yes.

Alright, who are we kidding? The water parks are for the adults too!

And while we're out, we might as well enjoy some park of the non-water variety too, right? Right.It's just so fascinating when the playground never ends...

And would it be summer for a child if we didn't make believe about a couple of hamburgers? I say no!

Gotta love summer time!

Number One

Can you believe it's been a year already? Guess time flies when you're having fun! It was over a year ago that we were getting hitched...

And it was a GREAT year. Most people talk about how the first year is the hardest and we say that if that is the case, bring it on! And in order to celebrate this blissful year together, we kept the theme going.

We went to paradise...

We went to the happiest place on earth (or at least as close as we could get in Arizona)...

We went back to the place where it all started and tried to feel a little bit of heaven...

And then we spent the rest of the weekend in our own version of paradise. In Scottsdale. Again, back where it all started (same place as the honeymoon).

Doesn't this look like wonderful? It is wonderful.

We spent a lot of time with the water. This pool was just so much fun.

How could it not be fun, when WE'RE so much fun?? (and miracle of miracles, neither of us came away from the weekend sunburned - WOW)

We created our own homemade fondue. Yummmmm......

We decided that for our anniversaries we want to try to always do something that we've never done together before. This year, we went ice skating! So much fun. ESPECIALLY since we have a June anniversary in Arizona - it feels soooo good to be cold in this summer heat.

So we've got one down and an eternity to go. We're looking forward to it.