Udpate on the Housing Situation

Hey All! I apologize for not posting sooner, things have been a little crazy. And will probably continue to be for the next few months. Durrant and I put an offer in on a house and it was accepted. We completed the inspection on Thursday, and the appraisal should be completed by Tuesday at the latest. We are scheduled to close April 24th barring any major lending problems.

If any of you want to see the house go to google and type 569 N Kimball Drive, Layton Utah in the search box on the right hand side. It is a 4 bedroom, 2 bath split entry home in a great neighborhood and an awesome location. It will definitely need some TLC, as it was one step away from repo. But we are excited to create our home our way. Unfortunately, there just isn't enough money in the budget to add on the 2-car garage with rooms above it and tear down the wall between the kitchen and bedroom to create a large dining area with a deck out the back. At least not yet... :)

Calling all Disney lovers!!!

So D and I are going to DisneyLand in March for a conference and we want someone to come with us! The dates we will be there are March 11 through March 18, and we can get discounted tickets through my conference. As an example, a 3-day park hopper pass is $149!!! If you are interested I can also check and see if the hotels for the conference are full, if not I might be able to pull some strings there as well. Anyway, let me (jill.pettey@slcc.edu) or Durrant (dpettey@bookstore.utah.edu) know and we'll see what we can do. Seriously, who doesn't have fun at DisneyLand?!?!?!? Besides, we need someone to keep an eye on Asher while we go on the rides - baby swap passes, here we come!!!!!

Video of Asher Smiling

I still haven't figured out what is wrong with my computer, but it happens that I am at my Mom's this weekend and have downloaded a video of Asher smiling. Please ignore his mother's comments, they aren't nearly as cute. :) Other than that, please have patience with me to figure out what is wrong with our computer for any pictures in the future!

Asher's blessing, among other things

Hello All! I'm sorry for being so remiss in posting lately - it's amazing how quickly the time goes! Anyway, we are blessing Asher on Saturday, February 28th at 12:30pm. Due to the smallness of our apartment, and the number of people coming we decided it would be best to do it at our church (1400 South 1900 East, big white building on the west side of the street). We will be having a salad bar afterward, so those of you who can please bring your favorite salad for all of us to share! :)

Other news: Durrant did not get the FAA job like we were hoping. I know, bummer. However, we are still optimistic for our future. We are looking into grad school and other options. AND we are actually in the market for a house! In order to do that we will be moving out of our apartment and bunking in with Durrant's parents (thank you so much!!!!) for a few weeks until everything goes through. Those of you who can, we would love some help in moving the weekend of the blessing. If you can't, we will only hold a grudge for a little while. Okay, we probably won't notice and love you anyway!!!

The most fun part of this post is that Asher is now starting to smile socially. As soon as I figure out what is wrong with my computer I will post the video - it is really fun. Also, we had a 6-week check up today and Asher is now 22 3/4 inches long and 9 lbs 1 oz! He is finally starting to fit into his newborn clothes! He is starting to focus really well and is generally a ton of fun.

Videos

So I keep telling you that Asher has the funniest faces and I was finally able to catch them on camera. Here is the video of him and his cute faces - my favorite is at the end when he sucks in his bottom lip. Also, just for kicks, we got one of him crying. I'm holding my breath so you don't hear me laughing. :)

Best Day Ever...

The morning of January 2nd started very early as Durrant and I made our way back up to the hospital to feed Asher. As we were traveling around 6:30am we were making plans to continue our preparations for when Asher might be able to come home with us. Stop by Babies 'R Us to get the monitor and sheets. Get Christmas put up and away so we would have room for the crib. Do the dishes and the laundry. So on and so forth.

When we arrived at 2 North we met the doctor who had some good news - Asher was doing well and they needed to complete some tests and then we would be able to take Asher home that morning! We were thrilled! We were thinking later that afternoon at the earliest, and didn't come prepared with clothes or anything. Fortunately, we had the car seat in the car, and Durrant had some time to run home to get something for Asher to wear. However, when we put the clothes on him we realized Asher was a little smaller than we anticipated. They completely drowned him. So, we just left him in the receiving shirt and diaper he came in and threw on an over large stay-puffed marshmallow suit (thanks Meg!!!) and buckled him in the car seat.



We headed home with our son in the back seat and light hearts - it was really real, he was really coming home!!!! While we knew our days of freedom and independence were over, it is impossible to express the joy and relief of having our son finally be OURS. The medical personnel at the U were wonderful, and we are truly grateful for their concern and care for our son. But I must admit, we were anxious to try this whole parenthood thing out on our own (heaven help us all!!! :)

The rest of the day we tried to get our apartment ready for a child. Then as the time of the Utah game drew closer we decided to bring out the tee we knew would drown our son as much as the clothing we had a the hospital. But somehow this was different. It was a Utah shirt - size was irrelevant when it comes to the biggest game in Utah Football history. So, father and son posed for a picture, hoping that Utah would make them proud.

All their dreams came true last night as Utah made fools of Alabama, the SEC and the BCS and their high opinions of themselves. Father was in heaven as he sat watching his team do a great job with his brand new son in his arms. You would be hard pressed to find a more content man anywhere. I think it even helped him through the restless night heading his way! ;)

More Photos

I promised more current photos of Asher and these are the ones you get for now. We have a ton more, but I'm not sure how to do those cool photo collages I've seen (ps - if any of you know how let me know! :). Anyway, the first one here is of Asher with his eyes open. Sorry about the whole not in focus thing, but it was the best one of his face and I couldn't resist.






This next one again was so adorable that I had to post it. He was looking so peaceful when he was sleeping that I had to show you.








The last, and my personal favorite, makes me laugh until I cry. Durrant was holding Asher as he slept and I was playing on the internet briefly when suddenly I hear D say "uh oh." I look up alarmed to see D looking down at his shirt. It has a wet spot about 5 inches in diameter right on his belly. He looked back up to me and said, "I think we just had a blowout." Again, I laughed until I cried, and do so again and again whenever I remember it. Poor Dad... :)