Ryan's Birthday!

We were home by July 9th and even though we had cake in Utah, we of course had to celebrate on the actual day he turned 31! We started off the morning with a big breakfast in which we splurged and even had juice and chocolate milk- a rare thing around here! After that, we went over to see our home-in-progress, which is a favorite pastime of ours these days. Then, per Ryan's request, we went and looked at some stores like Lowe's and Ace Hardware... which are actually fun stores to look through when you have a house that will need stuff from them! Following that, I stocked my purse full of Ryan's favorite treats (gummi bears, skittles, and starburst) and we went to see Transformer's in 3-D (Ryan's movie choice, of course). Surprisingly, I could actually follow who was bad and who was good during the fighting scenes... something that has not been possible for me in the first two Transformers movies. That made it a little more enjoyable than I expected. After that, Ryan was craving Chipotle, so we went over there and got some burritos. The weather was so nice and the sun was setting, so we ate outside and were the only ones out there after a bit, so we ended up sitting on their patio for quite a while just talking and relaxing! We came home and ended the night by hanging out, watching some t.v., and Ryan ate some of his favorite kind of Graeter's ice cream (black raspberry chocolate chip). Perfect end to a perfect day! Happy birthday, Ry!!

Utah trip

After Vegas, we drove back to Utah with my parents and stayed there from the night of the 29th through the afternoon of July 4th. We had a lot of fun family time while we were there and were so glad we could tag this trip onto the Vegas trip. On Thursday, I went and spent the day with Lisa and kids while Ryan ran around doing things with his dad, and then we ended with a fun picnic outside at Lisa and Brandon's. (I need to get these pictures from Dad or Lisa- whoever has them!)

Friday, we spent at the Martin's house swimming, relaxing, having a BBQ, watching movies, shopping, and catching up. We also got to meet our newest little niece, Lynlee, who was so precious and only about a week old. Then, we celebrated Ryan, Craig, and Jackson's birthday with the traditional marzipan cake from Granite Bakery.

I had to include these pictures because I think the Martin's have one of the prettiest yards. Also, the weather was fabulous the whole time we were in Utah!

Saturday morning I got together with friends for breakfast at Kneaders (mmm... french toast and strawberries!), and much to my surprise, they threw me a little baby shower! It was the first baby stuff I got and made me excited for this little girlie to come! After that, I got stocked up on a ton more baby girl clothes from my s.i.l., Amy, who was getting rid of all of her baby stuff. Big thanks to all of you!!!

Terrible lighting, but I couldn't leave it out- I love these ladies! (I just realized that the pregnant lady behind me is wearing the same maternity shirt).

The rest of the day was spent swimming, hanging out, and going out to dinner at Cafe Rio for Jonathan's birthday. Of course it also included the "get thrown in the pool on your birthday" tradition... which also ends up getting many others dragged in, fully-clothed as well!

When we got Bennett out of the pool following the "throw-in," his diaper was super big since it was not a swimming one. We were all cracking up about how puffy it was, which made him really concerned and he kept trying to reassure us that "Bennett not go potty in diaper!"

Sunday, after church, we went back up to my parent's house for hanging out and a BBQ dinner. Ryan and I got spoiled with a LOT of BBQ's this trip, which we loved since we can't BBQ this summer at our apartment complex! I spent a lot of time hanging out with little Aaron-baby and I'm so glad I got to! I also had fun playing with Ashlynn, who is bursting with energy these days. We stayed a while later that night and just chatted with my parents about all sorts of things, which was fun. (Again, Lisa and/or Dad- I need some of your pictures!)

Our last day there was Monday, the fourth of July. We had a big BBQ lunch outside at the Martin's with some homemade ice cream and then headed up to the airport to go home. :(

Here's Ryan trying to win the heart of another little one by "flying" Amyah. It's obviously not working... ;)

It was so sad to leave because I was absolutely dreading coming back to our smoky apartment. Oh well. We got to see some pretty cool fireworks from the plane. Our layover was in Chicago from about 8:45-10 p.m. and it looked like the whole city was little colorful bursts of fire. It was awesome. For the first time in a long time we really weren't ready to get back home yet. But we still had such a fun trip and tried to get as much in as we could since it could be a while before we make it back to Utah.

What happens in Vegas...

Ryan attended the SHRM conference this year in Las Vegas from June 25th-29th and I tagged along to make sure someone got some use out of the nice room and pool at the hotel. :) We stayed in the Palazzo, which is the newer tower on the Venitian. I must admit, I think it is one of the nicest/classiest hotel on the strip and we loved our room that overlooked the strip and the fancy pools.

We got in on Saturday evening and then spent Sunday with Kyle and Tabitha Tibbitts and their kids, and Adam Christensen, who all live in Vegas. Then on Monday, my parents joined us and we spent the next few days touring around some of the hotels, eating good food, and swimming at the pool. On the morning of the day we headed out, we swung by the Ethel M. Chocolate factory and toured around the factory. That is the fancy part of Mars chocolate (I refer to it as the "See's Candies" of Mars). They were working on a new candy that's coming out at Christmas time and it was awesome to see how they make it, which was mostly by hand and not machine! It was such a fun trip, but it was HOT, hot, hot while we were there and we were exhausted by the end of the trip.

Little angel Aaron

After a tough three-month fight, our sweet little Aaron baby returned home to our Heavenly Father last night. He was such a trooper through all of his earthly trials and I know he is in a better place. He was blessed to have Lisa & Brandon as his parents to take care of him and Ashy-girl as his big sister to smother him with lot's of love and kisses! They are special people to have been chosen by Heavenly Father as the ones to have him. I am so grateful that families are eternal. We'll see him again.

Even though my heart aches, I feel so blessed that Aaron was able to make it through last week so that I could meet him and cuddle him and hold him and love him. Whenever I was in his presence all I wanted to do, and did do, was hold him in my arms and look down at his calm, sleeping face and smell his baby breath. The last moment I saw him, he finally flashed some big smiles my way. :) I fell in love with that little guy immediately and even though I can't physically hold him in my arms now, I am so thankful for those precious moments I got to spend with him that I can always hold in my mind and heart.

We love you, Aaron Michael Jastal!

Craig's visit

I already mentioned that Craig was here and we went to Chicago, but we did a lot after that here in Columbus. We went to German Village, Easton Town Center, Ohio State University, watched several movies, ate at Graeter's ice cream and a really good hot dog place, went through downtown and North High Street area, etc.

We were looking forward to Craig's visit for a while and had so much fun visiting with him, catching up, and doing fun things!

It's a...

GIRL!!!!!!

This baby is squished in there! That's her feet up by her head. Looks comfortable. :)

We are SO excited! I was hoping for a girl and Ryan didn't care either way, so he was just happy that I was so happy. That being said, his first words were "Well, there goes my dream team."

Today when I got home, Craig was at our apartment and I immediately asked "Craig! Are you excited to find out?!" and after a long pause, he stated, "Uhhh... to find out what team is gonna pick Jimmer in the draft tonight??" Ha, I would expect a comment like that from Ryan too.

Anyway, I haven't taken any belly pics yet, mostly because I'm totally in a chunky stage where maternity clothes don't fit and regular clothes don't fit. But, I DO want some documentation of this pregnancy, so here are some pictures of me at 19 weeks (even though I'm a week away, I like to consider it being halfway there. :) The left pic is from the morning, the right is from the evening. I am always smaller in the mornings and bigger in the evenings. In fact, most comments I get in the morning are usually along the lines of how I don't look super huge yet and the people who I see in the evening will make comments such as "wow, you're really starting to pop!" I don't know if these pictures really demonstrate that, but believe me, there is a BIG difference between the a.m. and the p.m. Also, I wore pink today so that if it was a girl I would already be celebrating... good thing!

Also, a couple of weeks ago I was talking with some coworkers and they asked what weird cravings I have been having. In all honestly, all food just sounds gross all the time.... except ketchup. That is the only food that has tasted good and there have been several times that I have made my dinner menu based around what we can have with ketchup as a condiment. So a few days later, one of the sweet ladies brought me a bottle of ketchup!

Dream team...?

I've always joked with Ryan that I only want girls. That may have been a true fact until a few years ago when I decided it would be good to have a mix... but I still joke about it.

On one particular day Ryan got a little feisty himself about that topic and replied that we were going to have 5 boys and their names would be Kobe, Lebron, Shaq, Magic, and Jimmer. And if there was a 6th man, we'd name him Bruno or Ryan. And we would call our kids the "dream team."

Well, tomorrow is the big day when we find out if it's the beginning of our dream team, or the start of something quite the opposite, and I can't wait! I'm hoping for the later, but am trying to convince myself that I will be happy either way. All of my sister-in-laws have recently stolen the family's allotment of female babies for the year, so I'm kind of convinced that our only option is a boy to balance things out. We'll see....

Little Ryan

OR.....

little Brittney (figures I've got something chocolate in my mouth)