One big happy family

When L-E (not the real spelling) was first born we took a picture of her in her car seat. She was 7 pounds and was 20 inches long.


Now L-E is over 10 pounds and 22 inches. She doesn't look much bigger but she sure has gotten quite a bit thicker. Just think if you were to gain about half of your body weight in five weeks. For me that would be 90 lbs (yeah, I'm not ashamed of my weight). That is crazy nuts. She still can't touch her arms over her head because her noggin is so big, and she has cute little stubby arms.


Ba gets pretty tired still, but she is slowly recovering. Sometimes we like to take whole family naps. Both of the girls sleep with their hands by their faces...tender... hopefully L-E doesn't learn how to roll too soon or the couch naps will have to stop.


This is a flume. It measures water through a canal, and is what Ry did his thesis on. He just turned it in to his professors, and we are all happy that he just has to work on editing now. School is basically finished for him, so now it is time to hunt for a job.


Ry was here while Ba was being an engineer widow, but that is over now. YEAH

Whose Baby is this?

Many people think they can tell where a child gets their physical attributes from, Mom or Dad. Let us know what you think, and participate in a poll near the bottom.

When I look back on pictures as a kid, I didn't know how to smile very well, so I decided making faces was better then smiling poorly. Obviously this complex has transferred. Funny Face...Dad. Sticking long tongue out...Mom.

No eyebrows or eyelashes...Mom for sure. I think she has my eyes...Dad, but Ba thinks it is a little too early to tell. The nose, who knows, ski jump (Mom) or flared nostrils (Dad).


Well she doesn't look Elvish or Vulcan, so that's a good sign. The ears are also a toss up.


Brown hair belongs to...Dad. The good/bad part is Ba thinks there are some blond hairs growing in the back. Hair might go to...Mom, after a few months.


The hitch hiker big toe...Mom. A phantom-tuck-under pinky toe...Dad.

I must admit this one is a little personal for a blog, but Ba is an Innie, and Ry is a half and half. It is looking like an Outie for now, but will it last. Let me know what you think.

Going to the bathroom all the time...Definitely Mom in her previous pregnant state. I think it comes from toting that famous water bottle around.

Spring Break Hotel - Baby

On Thursday, March 18 Ba started to feel some more consistent contractions. This may have something to do with the hills we climbed on a 3+ mile walk, but I really think it was the buzzer-beaters and upsets the first day of the NCAA tournament that really got her going. We checked into the Logan newborn center for our great adventure.

Ba looks pretty good still because we are just waiting. Contractions were pretty close together, but not close enough, so we had our doctor (Captain Kirk)(actually Kirkman) break the water.

The top red line is the babies heart beat, and the bottom blue line are contractions. From the pamphlet we received I would classify the high points every two minutes as an "angry face" level of intensity.

Not having her name changed yet, Blueberry is about 2min old at this time, and she is getting measured. Completely average on size, she weighted 7 oz, and was 20 inches long. She had a bit of a rough go with the chord around her throat, but she is doing just fine.

Check out those big beautiful eyes, moderately sized nose and one super long tongue. I guess she really got the best of both worlds. I hate to see some of our kids that will get the worst of both worlds.

Mega close-up shot. I was told to take lots of pictures, so I had to get a little creative to spice things up a bit.

First family photo with Capt Kirk. Talk about a dream team...everyone lived. Photo was taken around 9:30 PM just after birth. Ba doesn't even look like she was ever pregnant.

Blueberry really didn't like all the things the nurses were doing to her like take prints. At the very end they did give her a nice warm bath, and she really liked that. They also put her under a heat lamp for a bit, and she was totally spread out basking in the goodness... she gets it from her mother.

I hate to see how she looks as two year old when she is really unhappy... she probably gets that from her mother too.

I think I will go into some sort of Asian cuisine profession because I sure am excellent at the egg roll wrap. (also know as the Mexican burrito)

For scale effects, I let her hold my ring. Okay, so I mostly just put my ring on her hand, but they are pretty close to the same size.


Ba passed out a few times that night, but she still looks pretty good. What a trooper. As long as she has baby with her, she is totally content.

We decided to name her L-E (spelling has been hidden to protect the innocent). We just like the name, it is completely a coincidence that it is also her great grandmothers name. The German spelling was just to make it impossible for her to learn the "e before i" rules of grammar.


She really likes to be in her burrito, and if you take her out you are bound to get some good looks. We left the hospital Sunday afternoon and are really excited to start our family. It is so amazing how well everything works with a new little person. The way baby starts to breath and function, to grow and start developing, it really is a miracle. Yet another testimony that there is a supreme being that loves us and it looking out for us. Brianna had several complications, and our stay at the hospital was long, but all are doing very well and we get along great...until I have to do diapers. The first one I changed I had to do four times because she kept on pooping. I guess she really knows who her daddy is!!

USU Basketball

Ba says the final point that made her decide to go to USU was when she attended a basketball game. If you have ever been in the Spectrum, it is loud, and sometimes crosses over the line to inappropriate. This was the last home game that we went to as students and it was a hoot. Ry is holding up one of about 3,000 Jared Qualle masks that were printed and left in the student section to taunt the opposing team.

Everybody puts their hands up for a foul shot. These crazed fans have hand signals for every player, and little chants too. Don't feel bad for the other team though. We are students and are really good at studying. Some of the students publish the Refraction, which is a pamphlet about all the bad things the other team has done like arrests, citations, and anything about their personal life. To be honest, how they find out the information my not be entirely legal.
Usually storming the court rarely happens. It has to be a killer come back, beating BYU or Utah. In this case they were declared the outright WAC champions for the third year in a row.
The players get a chance to cut the net down, and do a little crowd surfing.

After having been to USU, it is wonderful to see this song called the Scottsman. The lyrics are super lame, but for some reason gets the whole crowd really excited. I still haven't figured it out. Enjoy.

Babies are Popular

Tons of people that are close to us are having kids or are pregnant. Three people on both sides of our family are expecting making the count to 7 immediate relatives. What a hoot. Everybody is doing it I guess. To get ready we have been working on a few projects. The first project was growing the baby.

This is Ba and a good friend Lina at Christmas time which was just starting Ba's third trimester. It took us forever to convince them to allow us to take this picture.

This is Ba just within the last weeks aka 9 months pregnant. Doesn't she just look so cute with that little Blueberry bump. (Blueberry is what we are currently naming the child, but that is likely to change for her birthday!)

Over Christmas Ry worked on building Blueberry's crib. It is super sturdy, so I guess he learned something in all of those engineering classes. He designed and built it on his own. If you are wondering, the stain color is Ipswitch which we have never heard of before.

Ry liked working on a mill to make the corners. It was like an etch-a-sketch with a drill attached. As you turned 5 different knobs the wood could move up/down, right/left, forward/backward get clamped down and rotate on the axis. What a dream come true.

Sweet Ride

The above is our car named Kelly the Pecan because of different license plate letters. We racked up the miles (203,000) and took it places where people were afraid to drive their trucks. It has been really good to us.

Obviously we aren't too torn up about it because we traded it in for this 2008 Elantra that only had 10,000 miles on it. Happy Birthday to ME. It feels like it is brand new. It is a stick shift so you can drive conservatively or pretend like you are on the Autobahn, and rumble right along. It is a little smaller than our Camry, but we don't have to use it as a closet, so it should work out nicely.
Doesn't it look rugged with all the snow. The only downfall to the car is that with Kelly we had an automatic oil changing system. All we had to do was fill it up every 3 months. I am sure our landlords will like not having oil in the driveway.

Life update

Quick Update: We have decided to start blobbing again. As for now, Ry is starting his last semester of his Civil Engineering Masters, and Ba is "great with child" (due March 14) and loves teaching school. Christmas was a nice break. More to come...