The Great News!

The GREAT news is . . . (drumroll please)

We are having a baby . . . 

GIRL!!!

Can you believe it? I have to admit I was a little surprised myself! So was Steve! Apparently if I have strong feelings that we are having a child of one sex, I should go against my gut instinct and tell everyone I think it is the opposite! I was sure Byron was a girl, and sure my girls were boys! Go figure! 

This pregnancy has felt much more like my pregnancy with Byron than my pregnancy with Taryn! The nausea, but no throwing up, break-outs--I'm talking Pizza Face here! (When I got pregnant with Byron I was pretty sure that whoever said pregnant women glowed was full of shiiiicken, I mean chicken! We curse animals around our house instead of four letter words, mostly cows and chickens. Try it--it is fun, breaks up the tension a bit because saying "what the cow?" or "holy chicken!" is funny!) 

I have gotten a strange side effect during each of my pregnancies too. When I was pregnant with Byron the hair on my legs stopped growing in patches and really slowed down. A beautiful thing for the shaving American woman! While pregnant with Taryn the grease producing glands on my gourd slowed down significantly, allowing me to go 4-5 days without washing my hair if I wished! Both awesome side-effects. I haven't figured out what estrogen induced side effect it will be for this little girl though, since neither of the afore mentioned side effects has returned! I would prefer the hair one this time, since she is due in June and I won't shave as much until summer anyway!

So there you have it folks! We are having a girl, and more information on my pregnancies than you ever wanted! Awesome!

Ok, everyone wants to know . . . what does Byron think about this??? Well, as I was showing him and Steve the first 8 of the 9 pictures I brought home I snuck in a couple, "here is her hand. This is a picture of her face, can you see her mouth open in this one?" Byron caught on, "did you say this baby is a girl?" I showed him the crotch shot at the end and said, "yes, this baby is a little sister."

"But I said this baby was a brother. I want it to be a boy."

"Do you see anything between her legs?"

"No."

"That makes her a girl."

Big sigh!!! "Ohhh."

Dad asked him, "are you okay?"

"No, I am a little sad!"

I'm a mean mom, and I made him tell his Baker cousins what we were having. In a monotone voice, just above a whisper he said, "I'm having a sister." (Little sigh.) Didn't say goodbye,  I love you, nothing. Just handed me back the phone and went upstairs. They thought that was kind of funny!

We decided to go out to dinner to celebrate! Byron picked In-N-Out for dinner, so we got to hang out with Aunt Brittany since she was working last night! Then I picked Dairy Queen for dessert--what pregnant woman doesn't want a cherry dipped cone? Ahhhh, delicious! (Thanks Jenna for reminding me how amazing those are!) Then we went to our favorite little spot by the airport to watch the airplanes land! Just when we had given up 9 planes lined up to land! Always a fun family night!

On the way home I asked Byron if he was excited about having a baby sister. He replied, "Yes, but still just a little bit sad!"

"Well you have to help us come up with a name for this baby girl." (A boy's name was in the bag--girl? We've got nothing! That we agree on anyway!) Byron got a bit more enthusiastic at the idea of naming his baby sister. 

"I know!" He shouts, "we can name her Cord!"

I grinned at him and asked, "isn't a cord what you use to plug in the vacuum or the toaster?"

He stuck to his guns and said, "I think Cord is a beautiful name too!"

We'll keep you posted on his other creative ideas. He was sure we should name his little brother Byron Gratteau Bradley. That would be different from his name because the middle name came after the last name! He is pretty funny that one!

So that was our Great News!!! Now if you would like the news scroll down.

P.S. So I finished this post yesterday and thought I would add a couple of the ultrasound pictures, like the cute one with her mouth open! Alas, I'm having scanning issues! So here it is anyway. Besides, she doesn't really want a crotch shot on here forever! She told me herself--modest already! What can I say? 

P.P.S. Byron still wants to name her Cord today, although he is considering Zelda as an option now too! Then we could name the brother who is coming next Link (you guessed it. . . just like on his and daddy's video game!)

The News!

So I've started receiving a few emails and facebook messages of concerned folks wondering what has happened to me? Sorry for the extended absence! I'm doing very well, and as you saw above so is the baby! Now to update you here is what you missed!

The Wednesday after Thanksgiving Dr. Roberts office called. I had done lab work the week before and my results had come in. They had me come down to the office that day! Never a great sign. One of the things they tested for was Factor V Leiden, a clotting issue that my Grandma Bev discovered she had last year. They informed her that it was hereditary and can cause problems with pregnancy so all her daughters and granddaughters should get tested. Well I'm positive for it. Because you already clot more when you are pregnant (to help with the not bleeding to death during childbirth), having factor v just compounds the clotting and can cause me to throw a clot or cause a clot to form in the placenta or umbilical cord, resulting in miscarriage. The solution to this is to do heparin (a blood thinner) injections twice a day. I've gotten to the point where I prefer to give them to myself, although Steve is always willing when I need him to. The injections are given in an insulin syringe with a very tiny needle. In the moments, at the beginning ,when I felt bad for myself I just thought of my dear friend who has diabetes and the fact that he gives himself 6+ shots a day! Two--piece of cake!

The rest of the time between then and now looked something like this:

1 week researching Factor V Leiden

1 week spent finding out that my insurance wouldn't cover enough of the Lovenox (the better, newer option to heparin) for me to use it, then research heparin (because of a recall of contaminated heparin from China), finally to fill my prescription at one of the two pharmacies in town who still had it!

1 week to help help install and paint baseboards! They are gorgeous, my brother-in-law Todd is my current BFF!

Shop for Christmas and get ready to have Steve's parents visit us!

Taryn and Grandma!

Taryn and grandpa!

Christmas festivities!

New Year's Festivities!

1-2 weeks to recover from said festivities!

Do more clotting blood work--aka thrombophilia panel (they took 34 little vials of blood!!)

1 weekend to recover from said blood work!

1 week to catch up on reading all my favorite blogs!

(Is that the right amount of weeks yet?)

1 week to vacuum/mop my floor! (Just in case I need another week, and sadly it's true, although I think I get other stuff done too! I'm just happy to clean my own floor, thanks to the amazing vacuum mop my mom helped me locate, so I can clean the floor and still follow doctor's orders to 'not over-do it!') Does it take anyone else 1 week to clean their floor?

Now I'm finally posting again! And it is good to be back. Maybe, just maybe this trend can hold up and I'll even post some pictures! Who knows!

Daddy's Girl

Byron's Birthday Bash!

Byron here to tell you all about my amazing birthday!

For starters I was the boss of all the other kids for the whole day! It was after all my birthday, and I let the kids know that is the way it works on your birthday. I was a little embarrassed when my Aunt Lara overheard me filling the kids in! That is confidential 'kid information' after all!

Anyway, I had a DINOSAUR party! 

It was pretty much the coolest party ever! My mom and dad got me a dinosaur bounce house for the whole day (even the day before for Thanksgiving) just for my birthday! When my friends arrived we decorated our treat bags and jumped in the bounce house for a long time! It was pretty rockin'! I took full advantage of the bounce house time to shoot the girls, and then they tickled me!? I thought people usually die when you shoot them. Pretend bullets have a strange effect on 5 year old girls! What is that all about? Sorry, I digress!

Here is a picture of my awesome Triceratops Bounce House!

I totally loved every minute of it!

My mom is a genius! This may just look like a pool full of shredded paper, but it is actually a 'dinosaur dig'! Buried inside was candy, dinosaurs, cars, army men and paratrooper guys! It was so awesome. My mom had to help the little kids.

The big kids were so fast though! We got lots of stuff (and paper) in our bags!

I had a moment when I nearly lost my nugget because Jack got the color of paratrooper I wanted, but I found another one 'with a little help from my friends'! So my nugget stayed in tact, mom said that was a good thing since I was the birthday boy!

Poor, cute, little Taryn! She thought the object of the game was to take the paper out of the pool! She didn't get very much candy, so I shared with her at home!

Present time! I really got into it! My friends rock! I got some awesome gifts! Hotwheels, legos, superhero walkie-talkies! So cool!

Jack and Severin were my faithful gift-unwrapping sidekicks!

My Aunt Brittany and her team of cake decorators made me the most amazing dinosaur cake ever! It had an erupting volcano, flying pterodactyl and everything!

The dinosaur carnage was my favorite part of the cake! T-Rex totally got the brontosaurus! He's dead for sure! I mean, look at the blood! No dinosaur bleeds that much and lives!

Dallin is my hero for coming up with the dinosaur carnage and death!!!

Then I blew out my candles of course, and made a wish! I can't tell you what my wish is, or you'd have to end up like the brontosaurus! Ha ha! I'm just kidding, if I told you my wish it wouldn't come true!!

Jessica, Kaia, Abby and Tyler eating birthday cake! We're missing Evelyn because she took her cake 'to go'!

Maurin and Chloe with their grub!

And me of course with my sidekicks Jack and Severin eating our goods! Don't worry about my boys, I took a turn being the sidekick on Saturday!

I put this picture in because mom said I had to! Ok, and I do think my sister is pretty stinkin' cute! I love to squeeze and tickle her! So here's my shout out to my one true homegirl!

To conclude my picture adventure I though I would throw this one in, so you knew what my dad was doing during my party! That's right, playing Rock Band! He does a pretty good jam on the guitar! Someday I'll be that good! Oh, and mom said he 'supervised' the dinosaur dig! Whatever that means.

And last but not least, here is Taryn, my mom and me! Aren't we cute? Ok, I'm a bit of a cheese. I was just so excited about my fabulous day! Birthday parties are killer sweet dude!

Thanksgiving!

I love Thanksgiving, it competes closely with Christmas for my favorite holiday! I love the food, the family, visiting and relaxing! We had a great Thanksgiving this year. My Squires Grandparents, and Aunt Marie and her 10 beautiful, fun children joined us. All in all with the missionaries my mom fed 39 people on Thursday. Grandpa Jack told me my mom is "an amazing lady" last night, and I just have to whole heartedly agree! I really enjoyed having so much family around! We hung out the whole weekend, it was great.

Here are some random pictures of all the fun! There are a lot of pictures! Enjoy! They are in no particular order. Oddly enough I don't have any pictures of food! Too bad, as usual it was amazing!

Taryn and Ava checking each other out on Nonni's lap. Ava is my cousin Mandy's little girl. These two aren't always sure what to think of each other. They are pretty funny!

Oh the intensity of Rock Band! We jammed all night! Always entertaining, especially when the little kids get into it!

Cute cousins! Mandy, Brittany, Emma, Eden and Elyssa.

I always love the Thanksgiving 'sleeping' pictures! Isn't he scrumptious when he sleeps? Sounds like I'm talking about about one of my children! Ha ha!

The Ashworth version. Didn't even flinch when I took this!

A raucous game of ping pong! Todd is crazy and competitive!

So is Jarrod, Mandy's husband. 

This one just had to make the cut. 'Nuff said!

Taryn checking out Grandma Jean. Decided she was A-0k, and hung out with her for a bit!

This may be my favorite picture of the day! The smokin' hot ladies in the kitchen making all the goodness happen! I'm just bummed my mom walked out of the shot before I took this!

Funny cousins! Hamming it up for the camera are Clayton and Brittany!

Uncle Mike, Dad and Grandpa Jack. The OG Squires men! Good looking to boot!

Fun in the bounce house! Maurin, Byron and Tyler.

Byron LOVED the bounce house!

Maurin's crazy action shot!

Taryn adopted Liberty for the weekend! She glued herself to Lib as often as possible. Sometimes we had to force Taryn to hang with someone else and give a girl a break! They were too cute!

I am grateful for FAMILY, FUN, AND FOOD!