Battle Creek Falls

A couple weeks ago I posted the list of things Bill and I want to do this season before Christmas or shortly thereafter.  One of the things is go snowshoeing.  We made an effort to do that Wednesday on our first day off from school for the break.  The weather didn't cooperate with us, but we did end up doing a very pretty little hike.  I haven't been hiking since we got back to Utah.  The altitude change had quite the effect on me being pregnant, so my exercise routine severely diminished.  The weathermen predicted a blizzard of epic proportions on Tuesday and Wednesday.  Having actually experienced a blizzard or two in my youth in Colorado Springs, I was pretty skeptical that the few inches of snow forecasted would really count as a blizzard, but I was hopeful that it would happen. I love the snow!  Well, when we woke up Wednesday morning to find Utah County had been completely missed by the snow, I was rather disappointed.  Ah well.  It happens.  It snowed today, so I got my wish just a few days later.

Anyway, Bill did a service project a couple weeks ago at Battle Creek park and heard there was a pretty waterfall nearby that was worth hiking to.  It was a tiny little hike, only .6 miles up to it.  We decided to do it, hoping for some snow to snowshoe in.  There was about 1 inch of snow on the ground, so snowshoes were definitely not necessary, but we still had a great time.  I didn't know the area he was referring to as Battle Creek until we were in Pleasant Grove heading up the road to the trailhead.  It was then that I recognized where we were going and knew what waterfall he was talking about.  I'd been up there in the summertime a number of years ago and so I got really excited to see it in the snow.  We were not disappointed.  Here's a few of the shots we got on the hike and at the waterfall.  The elevation change the last few hundred yards got to me pretty good, but it was totally worth it.  The coolest part, besides the half frozen waterfall, was how the river had frozen in parts.  It was still running strong, but there was a thin layer of ice over a lot of it.  It made really cool shapes. What a great little adventure! 

Calling #3

I love my bishop.  We've had several meetings with him lately between my callings and tithing settlement.  Every time we come in, he sheepishly says they usually try to keep things pretty light for their pregnant and new mothers so they can handle everything happening in their lives.  Then he proceeds to ask me to do something new in the ward.  It makes me smile.  This happened when I got called as the music chair and it happened again last Sunday as he asked me to do something new.  I'm so excited about it though.  I got called as the Mia Maid advisor.  We only have 8 young women in our ward, so it is going to be tons of fun.  The first question I asked was if that meant I'd get to go to girl's camp.  I think it might have taken my bishop aback a bit, but I've always been excited about having young women's callings because I love the girls, but also because I love girl's camp and want to go. :)  This year I'll have a 6-month old, but that will work, right?  We shall see, but I sure hope so! 

Speaking of my 6-month old, this weekend marked my 32-week mark.  According to the little floating baby app on the side of my blog, I have 55 days left.  That would be impressive if I actually delivered on my due date, but I think at this point I can safely say I will deliver in less than 2 months.  Woot!  I can't wait to meet this little guy.  Time is starting to go super fast.  It's fantastic.  Hopefully we'll be ready by the time he makes his big debut.  Or at least have all the gear we need, that is.  I'm not sure we'll ever be ready for the changes that are coming, but they're going to be great regardless.  Here's what I look like these days.  Bill always ends up cutting off my head when he zooms in, but you just really want to see the baby anyway, right? lol  I don't actually feel that big most of the time, though when I see these pictures I'm always surprised how big I look.  

This is what we woke up to this morning.  Well, minus the shoveled path.

That's courtesy of Bill.  Our managers are out of town for Thanksgiving, so we don't know where the actual snow shovels are, but Bill's doing a great job with a normal shovel he found.  Yay Bill!

Loving the holidays

Being in school makes it so easy to totally miss the Thanksgiving and Christmas in the rush of classes, tests, work, etc.  I hate it when Christmas Break arrives and I realize I haven't even noticed until then.  So in an effort not to miss the season this year, Bill and I just made a list of some things we want to do in the next few weeks or month and maybe in January too.  It goes something like this:

-see lights on temple square
-drive around and see people's Christmas lights
-go caroling
-making homemade apple cider
-go snowshoeing
-LOTR marathon
-board games with fam and/or friends with tasty treats involved

Hopefully this list will expand as we think of other fun things to do, but I think it's a good start. 

10 weeks left or 3/4 done

 Our new glider rocker!

As of today I am 3/4 of the way done with my pregnancy.  That also means I have 10 weeks left.  Somehow 3/4 done sounds so much better than 10 weeks left.  That still seems like a long time.  But I'm a glass half full sort of girl, so I'll go with 3/4 done.  :)  Plus, it's only two weeks until Thanksgiving and I have three weeks of school  after that and then Christmas break comes and I will technically be full term on January 1st and he'll come sometime after that and it will be great. 

He's moving so much these days.  It's pretty fun minus the occasional sharp pokes.  I can feel that it's his elbow or foot now rather than just a general bump from the inside.  He's seemed more like a little alien than a baby until recently and I really like this change. 

And this is what he's making me look like these days. 

And for comparison sake, this is me at 16 weeks, the first picture I have that I looked any kind of pregnant.  It's amazing what a few months will do for you. :)  I thought I was showing a lot at this point in my pregnancy. 

The question now is how content he is to stay inside me all the way through the holidays.  Bill and I want to go to Las Vegas and Phoenix for Christmas and New Years, but we don't want to deliver a baby in either of those places.  I think we'll be able to go, but we will have to see in the next month.  Here's hoping!

Midwives Appointment

So I went to my midwives appointment today and met with a different one than I usually see.  She was nice, but way more worried about everything in general.  The one I've been to before seems to think I actually know what's going on and this one was less that way.  She did need to familiarize herself with my medical history, but she was all worried about me measuring big and made sure to totally emphasize to watch for pre-term labor and she almost ordered an ultrasound because I'm still measuring 2 almost 3 weeks ahead, but the fact that my baby measured totally on schedule at my last ultrasound despite me being big didn't seem to matter.  Oh and that I'm 5'2" tall and carrying all in front. And that I haven't had any complications my whole pregnancy.  And that my mom had the same type of pregnancy 7 times where she got big early and I've generally followed in her footsteps my whole pregnancy.  I guess none of those really matter if I have complications now, but I think things are fine.  The little guy is kicking up a storm most all the time and seems to be doing fantastic.

I did have one hiccup this week.  My glucose came back measuring high, so I have to go do the 3-hour test on Thursday morning.  That's no fun, but hopefully I'll pass it.  I would rather not have gestational diabetes, that is for sure.  We'll see in a few days!

Halloween, Talks, Callings, etc

Bill and I are on the activities committee in our ward and we had a ward trunk-or-treat last night.   It was pouring when it was supposed to happen, so we set up all the people in classrooms around the church.  I kind of killed the decorate your trunk part, but all the kids still had a great time.  There were games and food in the gym and the kids kept doing circuits through the rooms around the perimeter accumulating mass amounts of candy.  Fun times.  We had wanted to come up with some great idea for a couple costume that would incorporate my pregnant belly, but everything we thought of took more time, effort and particularly money than we cared to put into it.  Tori saved the day though.  She told me about her costume last year and said I was welcome to copy it.  So we didn't have a couple costume, but we still looked pretty good.  Bill went as a cowboy and I went as a magic 8 ball.  I even had pieces of paper in the pocket I made between the 8 and my shirt with all the responses on it, so people could come up and ask me questions.  It was fun.  I've historically not had very good Halloween costumes, and this one turned out to be a hit, so way to go Tori for saving the day. :) 

Bill and I gave talks in church today.  They went really well.  I probably shouldn't admit it, but I really like to talk in church.  I like giving lessons too.  I like to teach in general.  This semester I am teaching the lab for the class I TA for and I love it!  I get pretty good feedback from the students on my teaching abilities, so that makes me feel good too.  Way back in the day I decided not to go into teaching because I don't care too much for the lesson planning process.  I've come to find out over the years that most teachers don't like that part.  Funny how that works. :)  Who knows, maybe sometime in the future I'll be able to get to teaching.  Bill is also interested in teaching at some point in his career, so maybe we'll end up at a university together or something like that.  How cool would that be?  PhD anyone? lol, not anytime soon.  And I don't even know in what subject, to be perfectly honest.  But the thought does cross my mind when I think about how much I enjoy teaching.  I need to find an area I would love to research in too and then I would be set. 

I got a new calling today to be the ward music chairperson.  I'm pretty excited about it.  I'll still be on the activities committee, but do this also.  I always love music callings and this is one I've never had, so it should be great.  It's probably better with the little guy on the way because there's already a couple ward organists, a choir director, and a ward chorister, so my part won't involve doing one of those things every week.  Maybe I'll put together a music fireside or something like that though.  That would be so fun.

And for the standard prego picture, here's what I'm looking like these days at 28 weeks. People keep asking me when I'm due.  Either I look farther along than I am, or just so pregnant they're not afraid to ask anymore. :)  lol

Third Trimester

I'm 27 weeks tomorrow and so happy to be in my third trimester.  13 or so weeks left and I can't wait!  Bill laughed at me last night because just last week I said I was totally content being pregnant and was enjoying it.  That might have been before the 3 nights of interrupted sleep due to waking up with an ache in my side every couple hours all night long.  I've slept pretty well up to this point, but apparently I'm getting big enough now that sleep is getting harder.  Ah well.  I still do enjoy being pregnant, but I'm getting more and more excited to have my little guy here and get rid of the stomach.  Here's some of my more recent pictures for all of you who want to see how pregnancy is treating me.

This is me and most of my MPA friends at ICMA this weekend in San Jose.  It was a great conference, though I am very happy to be back home now.

We took this picture for Bill's cute aunt's birthday who gave us this adorable outfit among others.  It still seems a bit big though.  :) 

22 weeks

24 weeks

 26 weeks

 And yes, I have been the same size for like 5 weeks.  It's pretty sweet.  I'd be okay with staying the same size for awhile longer.  My back doesn't hurt this way.  It's fantastic.

Thank Goodness for Volleyball

I've noticed lately that I have a really fantastic memory of some things I learned as a teenager or right at the beginning of college, but have completely forgotten some of the intermediate things I've learned between now and then.  Like programming.  I took a couple programming classes in high school and several my first two years of college.  I haven't programmed since 2003.  This semester I'm taking an Excel Visual Basic class.  I don't remember the specific programming languages I used before, but I totally remember all the logic and the basis for programming and all that good stuff.  It's making this class both doable and really enjoyable whereas some of my friends in my program just dropped it because they didn't have a clue about programming. 

Today I was grateful for all the years I spent in middle and high school playing volleyball.  I may not have reached the goal I set at 14 to play in college at BYU, but learning to roll without hurting myself all those years ago really helped this morning in tennis class.  I was rallying back and forth with a classmate and came up to the net as part of it.  He hit a ball way to my backhand side and I twisted and lunged to get it.  I haven't really noticed a difference in my equilibrium for the most part, but I totally overbalanced and ate it on this shot.  As I was falling my thought was how to do this without smashing my stomach.  I chucked my racquet, hit my hands first, but then tucked my right shoulder and rolled over it and back up to my feet with about as small of an impact as I think possible in the circumstances.  It was awesome.  And by that I mean it was awesome that I didn't smash my stomach and hurt myself and the baby.  Like I said, thank goodness for things I learned so many years ago. 

My Talented Sister

My younger sister Tori has always been creative and in the last year or two she has turned her  talents to learning how to sew.  I know how to sew, but she has taught herself to sew really, really well and she can make some really beautiful things.  Her most recent project has been purse making.  She opened an Etsy store to sell her purses this weekend and I highly recommend heading over there and taking a look.  She has made these adorable clutch purses that can double as a wallet and small purse that you can toss into a bigger bag or just take as a clutch.  She blogged about her new store today if you want to see some more pictures.


My First Six Bags


I happen to know that she has a bunch more purses on the way in the next few days or weeks, so go back often.  

Fall Colors

There is a somewhat little known fact that Squaw Peak Road continues far past the little make out point all the teenagers go to and actually goes all the way over the mountain down into Hobble Creek Canyon.  Bill and I decided it was imperative that we drive the whole road to see the full extent of the changing of the fall colors this year.  Last year we just went a little ways up the road in my car, but this year we took the Jeep.  It was awesome.  A little bumpier, or a lot bumpier, than I we would have liked, but the colors were beautiful and if you're up for a 30+ mile 2 or 3 hour drive, I would recommend it.  Only if you have a 4-wheel drive vehicle though.  This is not for low clearance cars.  We saw some and wondered how in the world they made it.  Here's a few of the pictures we got.  Not a one of us in the bunch, just pretty colors.

Laying on my stomach

One of the things I miss on a rather frequent basis being pregnant is laying on my stomach and my back.  I used to go to sleep on my stomach but wake up on my back every morning.  Now if I wake up on my back it is accompanied by a serious lower backache.  If I lay on my stomach it just feels terrible.  Well the other night Bill built me a nest of sorts with all the pillows on our bed so that I could lay on my stomach without squishing the little guy.  It was awesome.  He's the best. 

As of today I am 22 weeks.  According to my midwife at my appointment yesterday, I am measuring 27 weeks in size.  The wee one isn't, just me.  Gotta love it.  There's no question as to my pregnant state these days.  I feel cute though.  I think it's fun to be pregnant.  There are plenty of somewhat annoying aches and pains and I'm sure by the time it comes to a close I'll be very happy to just have this baby, but I love how excited people are for me and all the fun conversations I have with friends and random strangers.  Babies just bring out happiness all around and I think it's great. 

Free Baby Clothes!

 Some people in the Marriott School put on a free kids clothing exchange every year and Bill and I went to it this morning.  It was amazing!  We came away with three bags of baby clothes that are in fantastic shape for free.  How cool is that?!  The entire gym was full of tables with clothes for every age of kids.  Apparently they spend the whole year gathering donations from people and then Kid to Kid also donates a bunch of clothes to help the student families invited to attend.  Talk about generous! 

Our favorite find of the day? Crocheted chuck taylors.  Score!

One Week Down and Halfway There

Here's to a successful completion of my first week of school.  It was busy!  Classes weren't such a big deal, but adding a TA job plus my standby transcribing one makes for some busy days and late nights.  For the most part my classes are great.  I have one I'm still trying to get into and one I would rather drop, but we'll see how that all goes.  I'm taking an intermediate tennis class and by sheer luck I have the assistant BYU men's tennis coach as the instructor.  He is awesome!  It's essentially like getting tennis lessons for free. He has already tweaked a couple things in my technique that were causing me problems and my strokes are working out so much better.  I love it!  It's a two-hour class twice a week, which seriously wipes me out by the end.  It's only for the block so hopefully I will still be able to play reasonably well by the time it finishes.  The little guy is growing like crazy so we'll see how big I get in the next two months, but I'm having a great time with it.

Our apartment is close to 1.5 miles from campus.  Bill and I decided that we would walk to campus every day.  If we have a reason to go back a second time then we can drive, but the first time walking is it.  It's really having a positive effect on our exercise habits, but with that plus my tennis class and Bill's volleyball and racquetball classes, both of us are really tired today.  We did our best to stay in shape in Las Vegas, but the hot weather definitely slowed us down.  It's definitely a fast way to get back into shape. :) 

Today is officially the halfway point of my pregnancy.  I'm so excited!  I can't wait to see this little guy.  So many things need to happen between now and then, and I have a feeling the time is going to go so fast.  I did just jump over one huge hurdle, figuring out who I want to go to for prenatal care here in Utah and how I want my delivery to go.  There is a midwives clinic attached to Orem Community Hospital that I just learned about.  They have access to everything doctors do at that hospital, but are also midwives so are very supportive of letting me make my decisions about induction, pain management, epidurals, etc.  My sister delivered at that hospital and I was really impressed with them, so I'm super happy with this information I now have about the midwives clinic.  I am going to schedule an appointment soon and I'm hoping for the best with it.  I just don't care for the idea of cookie cutter birth plans that so many of the OBs in the area have where when and how I deliver is so much more about their convenience than what I want or what is good for me and the baby.  This feels like a way better option and I've gotten great recommendations about this place. 

Purple is 18 weeks, blue is 20.  Apparently I haven't grown any these two weeks.

Ultrasound Pictures

Watch out friends, but this little boy is a cutie.  A bit alien, but we like our little alien. :)

Chilaxing with his hands behind his head and elbows poking out. I love it!

He had his thumb in his mouth right before they got this shot.  That is really cute.

He's waving at us.

Definitely a boy.  No question there.  Can I embarrass him before he is even born?

If you look close you can see his lips are the famous big Ashman lips.  I love it!

He's got his hand right next to his face.  Just posing away.

What can I say? I'm in love. :)

It's a boy!

The ultrasound was this morning.  The tech asked us if we wanted to know the gender and we said yes.  She turned the machine on and bam! there was a cute baby bum with a definite presence of boy parts for all to see.  The tech made this sound of surprise and snapped a quick shot to show us.  It was so funny. We are most definitely having a boy and apparently he did not want us to have any doubt.  It was so fun to watch him flip around as the tech got all his measurements.  He is measuring right on schedule and performing like a champ.  He was super active and just the cutest thing I have ever seen.  Now just onto coming up with a name...that is going to be interesting.

So much traveling this weekend

Bill and I drove 800+ miles in 24 hours.  It was insane.  But we got the majority of our possessions moved to Utah and got to celebrate Bill's sister's graduation from BYU while we were there.  We head back to Utah for good next Saturday.  I'm excited for it, but I will be so glad when all this driving is done.  Three trips to Utah in 4 weeks is just too much driving on the same road.

This is going to be a great week.  My ultrasound is scheduled on Thursday morning.  I can't wait to find out what I'm having!  Bill thinks it's a boy.  My old roommate has had something like 20 old roommates have babies and all but 3 were boys.  My FIL and one SIL thinks it is a girl.  And what do I think?  I have no idea.  Early on I thought it was a girl, then a boy, now I haven't a clue.  Since we don't have really any boy names in mind, that probably means that's what we're having. :)  Although today I told Bill about my many greats grandpa whose name was Absalom Wamsley Smith.  He had 5 wives and 32 children.  How about that for some posterity?  Absalom Ashman has quite the ring, right? Just kidding. Apparently Bill has a many greats grandpa with around the same number of posterity.  Oh how we love our crazy Mormon ancestors.  I'm rambling now, but I just can't wait for Thursday.  Woot!

Fun new sensation

I can feel the little nino now if I focus.  That's so awesome.

By Popular Demand

My SIL politely requested that I put some pictures up of what I'm looking like these days since she lives in California.  It's funny because until Bill took the picture last night, I didn't realize just how much bigger I've gotten in just the last couple weeks. I can still wear a lot of my clothes, though I had to say goodbye to some of my fitted dresses like two months ago.  No surprise there.  I have zero dollars I care to spend on maternity clothes at the moment, so here's hoping my rubber banded pants will last for awhile longer.  Can I just say thank heavens for the current long shirt styles?  It really helps to have so much material to cover everything. 

10 Weeks:

12 Weeks:

14 Weeks:

16 Weeks (today):

So there you have it.  I imagine I am going to get quite a lot bigger before I look like any of these pictures again. :)

Good Times in Utah

I've spent the last week in Utah at a family reunion and looking for an apartment.  The reunion was great and I found an apartment on Tuesday night, so I would call that a successful trip.  It's been so nice to be in Utah. I stayed at my sister's house and we have had tons of fun together.  We had a girl's night we my mom last night and went to a Bees game afterward with my brother and fam. Fun times!

Last night we had the sweetest thunderstorm.  It actually rained off and on while we were at the game, but not enough to be too much of a problem.  I got Bill a sweet DSLR camera for his birthday last year that we haven't put to near enough use, but last night while we were talking on the phone he talked me through how to use the remote we have with it to catch pictures of the lightning. Some of them turned out so sweet!  Here's a sampling:

I'm heading back to Las Vegas today.  Hopefully the weather will be good.  It rained and thundered all night long last night.  So sweet.