Carmel, CA

Michael has been working hard. He left last Thursday evening to drive to Denver, where he then flew to SLC and then San Jose so he could do a presentation on The impact of hepatitis C virus infection on glomerular filtration rate in the first year post liver transplant. Sounds pretty sweet, huh? He learned all this stuff when he did his research in Indianapolis last summer. I missed him so much--it made me realize how grateful I am to have a husband and helped me put some things in perspective. He stayed in a hotel the first night, but he didn't want to spend the extra $$ on a hotel for the second night when he'd be getting up so early in the morning anyway to catch his flight, so he slept in his rental car!! I love him for working so hard for us and sacrificing so much. He landed safely in Denver this morning, then we met up in Cheyanne for lunch at Texas Road house (thanks for the gift card dad, it was sooooo yummy) and then had Michael fitted for a new suit at Dillards. He looked soooooooooo good. :) I'm excited for it all to come together and to see him all decked out.

interview

A lot of you would probably be itnerested to know, so I'm sharing the fact that Michael got an email yesterday about his interview--its scheduled for February 18th (my due date). Steston came 2 days early, and we're hoping that since this is my second baby, she'll come sooner. Plus the fact that I'm doing aerobics will helpfully move things along a little faster. Thank you for all your advice on "home remedies." I will definitely try all of them!

Might as well blog...

So Stetson's taking a nap, and I have some cute pics to share of my cute family, so here I am. First of all, I've never been so excited about Valentine's day decorations, as that means we're really close to this pregnancy being over!! I just cannot wait to see this little girl and to have her in my arms and not so comfortably situated above my bladder, because this going 10 times in the night is getting old. All my girl clothes have been washed, folded and put away in our finished dressers (I'll post pics of those later because they're in Stetson's room and he's napping) and I'm pretty psyched about that. PLUS I had my dad bring me a few boy 0-3 sleepers JUST incase. I'm going to be ready this time. :)

Michael's on a bus trip in Colorado for a JV wrestling tournament. I'm excited for him to get home. We're still waiting for that letter to see exactly what day Micahel's interview is supposed to be. My dad was here for a couple days and it was fun having him here, as always. Stetson totally recognizes him now and affectionately calls him "papa" and pretty much has him wrapped around his finger, which is awesome, because I get a break! Here's some pics of our time together.
Of course we had to go to the rec and show dad how nice it is.

1- Where were you when you first found out you were pregnant?
Stetson: In the bathroom at our first house in Lovell
?: In the bathroom here in Laramie

2- Who was with you?
Stetson: Michael was in the bedroom just down the hall
?: same

3- How did you find out that you were pregnant?
Stetson.: Pregnancy Test
?: pregnancy test

4- What was your first reaction to finding out you were pregnant?
Stetson.: Wew hoo!
?: wew hoo!! (really happy both times)

5- Your Husbands reaction?
Steston.: really happy,
?: happy he wanted to call his mom that night

6- Who was the first person you told?
Stetson.: My Uncle Moody
?: ironically, my aunt Marguerite (I was at red apple printing off a picture of Stetson holding the ultra sound pic because we were telling our families the next day. and she was there shopping and saw the pics so i told her :)

7-Did you plan to get pregnant?
Stetson: Yes
?: yes again

8-Was everybody happy for you?
Stetson.: Of course.
?: Of course.

9- Did you go out and celebrate?
Stetson: no
?: no

10- Did you want to find out the sex?
Stetson: Yes
?: Yes, not as much as I did with Stetson (i thought a surprise would be cool) but Micchael wanted to know and I couldn't have him knowing w/out me knowing. :)

11- What was the sex?
Steston: boy
?: we'll just have to see abotu that.

12-Did anyone throw you a baby shower?
Stetson: Yes
?: No

13- If yes, who?
Kathy Bischoff

14- Did you get any outfits at the baby shower that you just knew you weren't going to put on your baby?
I don't think so, I was crazy about everything I got.

15- How much weight did you gain?
Stetson: I honestly don't now
?: I think 20 pounds so far

16- Did you loose all of the weight that you gained?
Stetson: eventually, but I didn't really try 'til he was weaned
?: we shall see :)

17- Did you get a lot of stretch marks?
Stetson: not on my stomach
?: not yet, crossing my fingers

18- What did you crave the most?
Stetson: Anything they were making on cooking shows, one time I remember craving beef stew like nobody's business and I was so mad I couldn't have it right then
?: Olive Garden

19- Did you crave anything crazy?
No

20- Who or what got on your nerves the most?
Stetson: The smell of things, being uncomfortable, having to pee all the time!!!!!!!!.
?: same

21- Were you married at the time?
Yes to both

22- Did you have any complications during your pregnancy?
no

23- Where were you when you went into labor?
Stetson: At Michael's gma Mildred's visiting family..I was sitting there and started feeling a contraction (nothing painful) and for the next hr. or so I kept track of how far apart they were with Michael's cell phoen. I WAS SOOOO EXCITED!! We went to the hospital a few hrs later.
?:

24- Did your water break?
Stetson: Yes,


26- Did you go early or late?
Stetson: 2 days early
?:hopefully before Michael's interview! (Or after)

27- Who was in the room with you when you gave birth?
Stetson: Michael, doc Ellis, a nurse I really liked and my dad
?:

28- Was it video taped?
no

29- Did you have any drugs for the pain?
yes siree

30-Did you go vaginal or have a c-section?
vaginally

31- What was your first reaction after giving birth?
Stetson: what a miracle, such an amazing moment, I cried

32- How big was the baby(s)?
Stetson: 8.11
?: hopefully smaller ;)

33- Did your Husband cry?
no, I took care of all that ;)

34- What did you name the baby(s)?
Stetson Simmons Asay
?

35-Did the name have any significance to you?
Michael met a little boy on his mission named Stetson, he \really likekd it ever since. simmons is my maiden name

36-Does the baby's name fit?
I think so

37- Did the baby(s) have any complications?
nope, everything went great,

38- How old is your baby today?
2 rs

39- When is the next one(s) coming?
Hopefully sometime in the near future

40- If you could would you do it all over again?
sure would

I hate waiting.

So a while back I decided it'd be cool to "restore" these old dressers in Stetson's room that are looking pretty hashed. So we borrowed a sander from a buddy of ours and got to work. Well it turns out there were like 4 layers of paint on that sucker, so we decided to just "Rough it up" a bit and give it a nice chocolate brown coat. Thanks to GORGEOUS weather here in Laramie so we can work outside, we've got a couple coats of brown on but I decided to add one more step. There's this stuff called crackel paste that you can get at a hardware store and you put a layer on (its looks and consisntency are comparable to marshmallow creme), let it dry then put a final coat of paint and it gives a crackeled/antique appearance. I thought it'd be pretty cool. So after lots of phone calls, questions and a lengthy conversation with some guy at Ace Hardware, I've applied my first coat of crackel paste on a very inconspicuous place on that back of one of the dressers. What I really want to do is put the paste on the whole thing and get it back in the house so it can be dried over night so I can put it back in Stetson's room and put all his clothes back in there that are strewn out all over the place, but I need to make sure it looks o.k. before I proceed. Bottom line--I HATE WAITING!

Well as if you weren't bored already, I'll tell you what went down at my dr. appt. today. I told the doc about Michael's medical school interview and how its very conveniently been scheduled the same time as baby's expected arrival, and he said inducement should be fine so long as I get a good "bishop's score" which includes a series of things (station, dilation, efacement, position and consistency of cervix)they check you for to determine if inducement can happen without increasing your chance of c-section. I'm thinking that unless they break my water or strip my membrances a week before, I'm not going to have a good "score" until right before my due date, because I didn't have Stetson until 2 days before his due date. So anyway, interesting but nerve racking. We'll see what happens I guess!

A few things...

So here's the scoop. A few weeks ago I checked out some fun story books for Stetson about "going on the potty" in hopes of preparing him to be potty trained. He seemed to like the books, but I didn't know if he was getting any of it. Then a few days ago we took the plunge and bought a potty and some pullups. Stetson was WAY excited about the potty and the pull ups, and he sat on the potty without any reservations, and will any time we ask him to, but nothing comes out (we even let him personalize it by putting stickers all over it). Here's the thing though, after having him sit on the potty about 8 times per day for the last few days, my gut tells me that he's not ready. He doesn't really get it, but everthing I've read says once you go to pull ups, not to switch back to diapers as this slows your progress. So I'm asking all moms for your expert advice!! Michael and I both think we should probably give it a rest since we're wasting our time and $$ and try again when he seems ready. What do you think? Should I keep at it hard core?? Mayve just have him sit on it in the morning and at night?
Michael & Stetson watching some T.V.
We took Stetson to the rec tonight to swim--Stetson loves the slide!
There's a little playroom at the rec with toys galore and Stetson loves it so we took him there for a few minutes before we left.

Don't forget to leave your advice!

bad timing...

After waiting for what has seemed like forever, Michael finally found out yesterday that he has an interview for the medical school in Seattle, Washington. We are SOO SO SO SO SO excited, EXCEPT for one little thing. The interview is scheduled the same week as my due date. Yikes.

For the most part I am absolutely ecstatic about having this new baby, and very much wanting the next few weeks to FLY by but then I keep thinking about Pres. Monson's talk on "finding joy in the journey" but I'm finding it very difficult to enjoy these last few weeks but I know I should because life is going to be crazy come mid-Feb. I am so ready to not be pregnant anymore, but I keep thinking I need to somehow relish this and enjoy it. The thought crossed my mind of having like tummy pictures taken. Is that relishing the moment?? Its funny how we look so forward to the insanity and then once we're living in it we wish we could take a step back to laid back life.

Having a newborn is seriously hard work--dealing with all the emotions, lack of sleep, stress, worry, etc. etc. and after I had Stetson and realized that for the first time, I really wanted to take my sweet time before adding to our family. As soon as our neighbors had a little baby girl when Stetson wasn't even 1, I started thinking about when the time would be right. I honestly have forgotten about the hard times and can only remember how absolutely wonderful it was. There's nothing like having a new baby in your house!! I think what excites me the most is when its a few days before my due date when I get to wake up every morning and wonder, "will this be the day??" waiting for those contractions, and when they finally come and we get to go to the hospital! I actually get excited every time we drive by it on our way to church. I've decdied that I'm going to do some things differently this time though. For one, I'm going to ENJOY it more because I didn't realize how much I'd miss it until Stetson grew out of that newborn stage. Anyway, I better get Stetson down for his nap and then I'm going to get ready to wash all the girl clothes (just another excuse to look through them all again. :)

I'm in love

So my sis in law Charlene is a counselor in the young women's presidency here in Laramie to this president/gourmet cook of caramel apples, and as soon as I caught wind of it, I told Charlene I had to have one because I am a CARAMEL APPLE LOVER (I was totally going to pay her for it too and I still will Aspen). Well yesterday at church I was presented with this little beauty and it has been heaven on earth. THANK YOU ASPEN!! I started into it last night and was looking forward to having more this afternoon and this time I got to share it with Stetson and he was as equally pleased as me! I'm going to finish it off tonight and I'm already looking forward to it. :-)

belly shot

Well here I am in all my fatness. :) I'm almost 8 months, so excited. I didn't realize how big I was until I looked at these pics Michael took. AND I totally didn't have an outie (belly button) when I was prego with Stetson, but I TOTALLY do with this one, if you look close enough, I'm not sure if you can see it. Michael gets his comic relief from my good 'ol outtie. Hopefully it goes back to its original "form" after delivery. Funny story--when Michael and I got back from church this evening (yeah we have 2-5 pm church) we were in the kitchen while Stetson was playing in the living room and when we came back in the living room we noticed the plant knocked over. We thought Steston had just barely done it, but when I looked at the pics barely (which we took before church,) I noticed it was knocked over then too. Anyway, apparently our poor little plant was knocked over most the day we just didn't notice.

A beautiful day in Laramie

It was a whopping 42 degrees today so we of course had to take advantage and take Stetson out to soak in some rays. We took him to the park and he LOVED it. I wish it was already Spring and days like these weren't so few and far between!


This one would have been a great pic if I'd pulled his hood back a little

Christmas, New Years, 3 birthdays and 1 anniversary later

Well I cannot believe that our Christmas break has come and gone so fast. Its unreal. Even more unreal/exciting is that we will be a family of 4 next month!! Wew hoo! We had a wonderful holiday with lots of family and FOOD. I seriously have to come up with some kind of plan of attack so that when I go home for the Holidays I don't totally abandon all self-control and eat EVERYTHING. Its so hard to resist when there's delicious food EVERYWHERE you go. I was telling Michael its really a bummer that everyone brings treats at the same time in December, because people (at least me) don't appreciate them as much because there's just way too much and its overwhelming. I told Michael that in order to spread it out there should be a rule that families with last names starting with letters A-G have to bring treats in Oct, families with last names staring with letters H-M bring treats in Nov., etc. Well besides that, we really had a great time and do have such wonerful families that do SO SO much for us and we're grateful for all they do.
Michael and I celebrated our 3rd wedding anniversary by doing what we did exactly 3 years ago, go to the temple. It was probably the highlight of our break. I wish we could go more often. Because its our anniversary I have to share what sweet things Michael did for me for Christmas. While I was in Billings with my dad, he took Steston and did his Chrsitmas shopping (doing that with a 2 year old is a lot of work by the way). He wrapped all his presents himself, 2 of which were really big and hard to wrap, and attached a handwritten note to each one explaining the present. For example, he got me one of those big body pillows that a lot of prego ladies like to use, and note on it said to: mom from: baby #2. Inside the note it said something along the lines of, "mom I know I make it hard for you to get comfortable at night, hopefully this will make your nights a little easier." I thought it was pretty sweet. Most everyone knows "our story" of how we met but I love thinking back to the days we were dating and right after he got home from his mission when my heart would skip a beat every time I'd see him and I'd get butterflies and those giddy feelings. As cheesy as it sounds, I always knew we had something special. I love you Michael, happy anniversary. Here's a poem. I wrote it in 5 minutes, so don't judge me.

Dear Dandy darling dear,
I'm writing this on my post today,
because I want you to know I love you in every way...
you are my sunshine when my days are blue,
noone can make me laugh like you do.
Thank you for being such an outstanding dad
and for being sensitive whenever I am sad.
I love you a million times you know,
and even though this poem is kind of lame,
I hope you know that more than any kind of riches or fame,
I would choose you to have with me every day,
because I love you in every way.

Well here's the pics, I won't bore you with all the details of our break, but it was fun and here's some pics to illustrate (of course after the ones of our wedding 3 years ago).



Jan and Stan the man working their magic in the kitchen.
Keeping the tradition alive of making "neeokies" for Christmas Eve dinner.
Ben helping Stetson open his presents at Gmpa Simmons'.

We got Stetson this little thing that you hammer "pegs" into and he LOVES it. My dad spent a lot of time helping Setson play with it.

Todd & Emily fixed a really yummy Christmas dinner with ham, turkey, stuffing, potatoes, this really good salad, yummy bread and other stuff I'm probably forgetting.

Stetson LOVED sitting at this little table with his cousins. I wish we had room for one in our little apt. I think Stetson would like eating at a table like this way better than in his highchair.

Carson, Jared and Stetson celebrating one of the many birthdays we celebrated over the break. Stetson thought it was his birthday every time we sang to someone. :)
Cowboy Travis sporting his new boots he got for Christmas. Michael happened to be wearing his boots, too. :)
We had a really fun time with Morgan and Fallon for the short time they got to stay.
Todd & Emily have this HUGE "Love lac" as they call it I think (its like a bean bag) that the boys like to play on.
Well that wraps up this year's Holiday Season for the Asay's. Happy New Year everyone. :) My next dr. appt. is Monday and I'm SO excited.