Meet Baby!

We had our ultrasound yesterday! I was so excited all day, telling Ryan practically every five minutes, "I can't wait to meet our baby!"

I'll admit that before I had a little baby growing inside of me, other people's ultrasound pictures didn't mean a whole lot. In fact, it's possible that I thought the pictures looked a little weird and that I could never really tell what I was looking at anyway. Just possible. ;)

Nonetheless, here are our pictures of Baby!


This is the cute little profile! For a while the baby had it's mouth wide open, as if it were yawning. So cute!


And this is a picture of one of the feet.

The technician said everything looked good and healthy to her and confirmed our due date (Aug 15) as right on track. I decided that our baby didn't particularly like the prodding, because he or she was so wiggly the whole time! (Not exactly cooperating for the picture taking...Maybe we have another young Rachel on our hands!)

So in case you haven't guessed from this post, we didn't find out the baby's gender. We love talking and imagining the baby as either a boy or a girl, and I think we just didn't want to give up that suspense! If either of us had a preference, I would have wanted to find out, but we're both just so eager to welcome the baby into the family that it doesn't matter to us what it is!

And one last thing - I think my favorite part of the ultrasound was just being told exactly how the baby was positioned at that moment in my tummy. Knowing where it's head and feet were made it all feel so real!

Spring is coming...

...And I couldn't be more elated! Today, instead of going to the gym like I'd planned, Ryan and I went on a run/walk around Notre Dame's lakes. It's supposed to get up to 50 degrees today, which is jaw-dropping shocking, so we HAD to take advantage of it (especially since I think it's supposed to snow next week).

It was beautiful! After a long winter, we finally got some sun on our skin and listened to the birds chirping while we exercised. The lake is still frozen, and there is a little remaining snow, but you can still feel spring in the air.

We talked about my favorite subject most of the way--my business--and also about how grateful we are to be here at Notre Dame.

I hope everyone else is getting to enjoy some early springtime in your part of the country.

Hair and other stuff

Can you believe we only have two months left in Indiana? We sure can't! I'm sure we'll always remember our year at Notre Dame with so much fondness. We've been talking so much lately about our plans over the next few months that I feel like the move is right around the corner. Luckily we still have two months to enjoy our friends here and our wonderful apartment.

I've made a bad discovery: Shopping for furniture online is more fun than researching housing...So now I'm determined to work extra these next couple of months to save up for a couch!! (I've already picked it out!)

Anyway, since I don't have a ton to blog about, I thought I'd throw in this picture of my new(ish) haircut, for the benefit of the girls.



Have a happy Tuesday, everyone!

Baby's First Words

This little book at the Notre Dame bookstore was just too cute to pass up. We like to joke about how we can possibly make Leprechaun be our baby's first word. So next time you see us, if we're throwing the word "Leprechaun" into every sentence, you'll know why.

My dear friend Kimber sent me the cutest children's book called "Ma! There's Nothing to Do Here! A Word from Your Baby-in-Waiting" by Barbara Park. It is darling! Here are the words from one of my favorite pages:

"I'm all in a heap here.
My feet are asleep here.
I'm flat out of space. I've got knees in my face.
And I'm totally bored with this dumb bungee cord...
I'm not kidding you...
There is nothing to do!"



Anyway, we spent all of yesterday in Chicago. It was ward temple day, and we went out with some friends to get some authentic Chicago-style pizza. It was a great way to kick off Ryan's spring break! Hope everyone had a great Sunday. Love ya!

It's about time...

Can someone convince Ryan that even if our baby boy (no, we don't know for sure) didn't know he were sleeping in a girly nursery, it still matters?? Being Mr. Practical, he doesn't think it's going to make a difference either way...


And by the way, if you haven't already heard...we're having a baby! Our little cutie will be coming around August 15th, and we are elated! I'm about 15 weeks along and have been feeling great. I feel so lucky because I had the smoothest first trimester I could have hoped for.

I actually haven't indulged in too much online baby shopping yet...but today I decided it was time to get some ideas. (And I can't resist sharing my favorites with you.) Now all I have to do is convince Ryan that the baby really does need a crib and cute bedding. He's quite untraditional. (He gets it from his dad.) :)




The Chinese lunar calendar says it's going to be a girl, but the heartbeat suggests it could be a boy...Any guesses? Ryan's pretty sure it's a boy. Go figure. He likes to call the baby "Sebastian" just to bug me, I think.
Last but not least, we wanted to leave you with this quick video clip. Listen close, and enjoy!

Once upon a winter

One morning our apartment filled with snow...Well okay, maybe it was just our sliding glass door that filled with snow. Nonetheless, that answered our questions about the serious draft coming in through that door!

On the upside, we've seen the sun much more frequently in the last couple of weeks (even if is is 8 degrees out)! And I'm very grateful for that.

I'll Miss You Grandpa Mitt

I feel like Mitt Romney is my Grandpa. In fact, every time I see him speak (and believe me, I've seen just about all of his videos online), I seriously wish he were a member of my family!

If you haven't already seen his CPAC speech in which he withdraws from the race, you should definitely watch it here: http://realclearpolitics.com/video_log/

His speech is full of solutions, real ideas about how to handle the issues we face. He is brilliant, undeniably. He was valedictorian at BYU, and he graduated in the top of his class from Harvard, with both a law degree and an MBA. He founded Bain Capital, and after serving as VP of Bain & Company, he was asked to return and revive the company, which he did.

I love this statement, from his last speech: "Dependency is death to initiative, risk-taking and opportunity. Dependency is a culture-killing drug—we have got to fight it like the poison it is!"

And I love his boldness in this statement: "The attack on faith and religion is no less relentless. And tolerance for pornography—even celebration of it—and sexual promiscuity, combined with the twisted incentives of government welfare programs have led to today’s grim realities: 68% of African American children are born out-of-wedlock, 45% of Hispanic children, and 25% of White children. How much harder it is for these children to succeed in school—and in life. A nation built on the principles of the founding fathers cannot long stand when its children are raised without fathers in the home."

How many other candidates would dare to speak out against the pornography industry? He is not afraid to say what he believes, whether about pornography, the state of the family, or his religion.

One of my favorite video clips of Mitt Romney is a rather obscure one that Ryan and his brother came across one night. When a reporter asked him what the strangest thing about his religion was, he--with a dead straight face--said something this effect: "The strangest belief of my religion is that we believe that God commanded a man to build a big boat and put two of every kind of animal on it, and through this all humanity would be saved." When you think about it, Noah's ark is kind of weird(!), but all Christians believe it, so what's so crazy about modern-day prophets??

Anyway, I'm going to miss him...though I am glad to see more of my husband lately. :) The good news (and bad news since I'll lose my hubby again) is that it looks pretty likely that he'll run again in 2012. Until then, Mitt!