The Ashley Expansion Plan: Holiday Happenings

Goodbye 2010 and hello 2011! I sit here trying to grasp all that has happened last year and try to fathom all that we can expect, and not expect to happen in 2011. One thing is for sure my heart swells when I think of all of the blessings we have received as a family and how joyous these last couple of months have been.

Finding Joy

Shawn and I were super excited to get on the road and head to Memphis for Christmas but we had to handle one little thing first. On December 23rd we awoke with a fun sense of anxiousness. We showered and dressed in silence not speaking about what we were both thinking.....boy or girl! We hopped in the car and swung through those big yellow arches for a quick bacon, egg and cheese biscuit (breakfast of champions...well...pregnant champions at least). In the room with the ultrasound tech we both were grinning at each other, not only was this the gender reveal moment it was also the "your baby is normal" moment. The tech got started on our still sound asleep baby, quickly snapping pictures and taking measurements. At one point she stopped and turned to look at Shawn...."hmmm, well that makes sense". I laughed and inquired about the odd comment, she stated that our baby's legs and feet were really long.....a week longer to be exact than the rest of the body. Maybe baby will be tall like daddy! Once she was done taking measurements and letting us know that from what she saw our baby looked uneventfully normal I asked the question, " Can we tell if it is a boy or girl?" She smiled and said that first we would need to wake our sleeping giant; after a couple coughs from me and a little belly shaking from the tech baby Ashley awoke....and was kicking mad! Of course the good part about kicking is that you can't do it with your legs crossed and so reveals baby's secret......

It's hard to see but that's about as girl as it gets :)

Oh what a priceless face when the tech pointed to the screen and told Shawn to get his pocket book ready! We can't wait to meet little Miss Avery, I'm sure she is going to be the most beautiful baby in the world ( no bias of course ).

Road Trip

With the news of a baby girl still ringing in our ears we loaded down our car with Christmas presents and dog gear and hit the road. The wonderful Martins put us up for the night in Texarkana which was such a treat! Melissa was waiting with cookies and presents in blue and pink, anxiously awaiting the big news. Zuruck helped me tell her by running into the backyard sporting a pink bandanna. Needless to say I think she was a tad bit excited to hear we were having a girl! After a good nights rest and sneaking some hugs and kisses from Tyler we jumped back in the car and headed for Memphis.

Catching some air in the car

After about 30 minutes of catching air he found that taking a nap was a better use of his road trip time ....yes he is drooling on my pillow

Zuruck enjoyed spreading the news about Avery

Holiday Fun

We had a great time in Memphis it was such a blessing that we were able to celebrate with my whole family! Monday night we even caught up with my dearest friend Julie and her husband David for dinner, what a joy to find that we would also be meeting up with Keith, Whitney, Natalie, Mellissa W. and Catherine! After some more vegging out and some serious x-boxing by the boys Shawn and I jumped back in the car for the last leg of our trip, Jackson. We spent a couple days visiting with college friends Steven and his wife Kristin, Jonathan and Heather and caught a quick lunch with my beautiful friend Erica. It was a whirlwind of a trip and was lots of fun but man was I sure glad to lay my pregnant butt down in our bed when we got home!