Ok, time for a quick update before our lives get very busy and I won’t have time to update for while. I am still pregnant, but we are getting closer. We went to the doctor on Monday and had things checked out. I am still dilated to a 1 ½ and the baby still has not dropped all the way. Also I am still have contractions about 2-3 minutes apart But the good news it that we are going to be induced on Thursday, the 2nd of November, unless she decides to come earlier, but I doubt it since she hasn’t dropped the contractions I am having are not doing anything but causing me a lot of pain. I am just hoping I can get some kind of sleep in the next couple of days so I have the energy to push. Lately I have been getting about 2-3 hours a sleep a night because if I lay down flat I can’t breathe because she is cutting off my oxygen supply and if I sleep sitting up in a chair then my back hurts all night long. So it is a lose-lose situation, but that situation is almost over. That is what I have to keep reminding myself when contractions keeping coming and coming. The one scary thing about my pregnancy is the amount of fluid that I am carrying. There is a very high possibility that we will have to have a cesarean delivery because when my water is broken the cord might come down first. Also since our baby is a very health baby (BIG) then we might have to have a cesarean because I won’t be able to delivery her, but we are putting our faith in the Lord and praying everything will come out as it should.
Mike and I are both trying to get everything ready for our little arrival. This past week I have been trying to deep clean one room at a time, with scrubbing the floor boards, shower, toilets, and shampooing carpets. Once I am done with the shampooing there will be no shoes allowed in our house. Mike is always checking on me and making sure I am not over doing it. I do take a lot of breaks during my cleaning, so I am doing ok. Really I think that all the cleaning is helping me keep my mind off the contractions and the pain I seem to have everywhere. This week Mike and I have been doing a lot of homework also. Mike has been doing homework from when he wakes up till we go to be because he is trying to finish one of his classes completely by tomorrow, so there is less stress for him as far as school goes. He will still have 4 classes to finish after this one, so he will still be busy, but hopefully not as busy.
I am also going to start working on a baby quilt for our little one. Since we still don’t know for sure what her name is going to be, I couldn’t get too ahead of myself. I have decided to make her a Curious George quilt, going off of the theme from the nursery. So tonight or tomorrow Mike and I are going to go pick our fabric for the quilt and then Ana is helping me gather pictures to trace on the fabric. I am going to embroidery bout 20 Curious George pictures to put into her quilt. We are going to get a couple of them traced and ready for me so I can work on them in the hospital. Then I will probably just work on it here and there and finish in time to give it to her for Christmas.
Ok well I think that catches everything up and the next time we write will be announcing our arrival of baby Ashton, with pictures included!

Wow, so October is almost over, it sure has gone by quickly it seems. I haven’t been very good this month with keeping the website updated, so I will just try and give everyone a quick update on what’s going on in our lives.

Last Tuesday night, the 17^th, I started having some very regular contractions, about 10 minutes apart. So Wednesday we had a doctor’s appointment already, so we deiced to let our doctor check things out first before we went into the hospital. The reason we were a little concerned is because I was only 35-36 weeks along, that’s pretty early to be having a baby, although as you have all seen I am HUGE! So in our appointment we found out I was 1 centimeter dilated and 60% effaced. The problem was that our baby girl had not dropped yet, so I wasn’t dilating past the1 so my contractions weren’t doing anything. Our doctor told us they were probably just Braxton hicks and would go away. Well that afternoon Mike and I went for a walk and the contractions got to be 5 minutes apart, but I wasn’t ready to go to the hospital. Then that night they got to 3 minutes apart, so we decided we had better go into the labor and delivery and find out if we were going to have our little girl. Well the disappointment news was there was little change. I had only dilated another ½ a centimeter and was now 70% effaced, but she still hadn’t dropped and since I wasn’t very far along, they could do anything to help the labor progress. So they decided to give me a sleeping pill and a morphine shot to help the contractions go away since everyone thought for sure I was in “false labor.” Well come to find out on the way home, I am allergic to morphine, so needless to say I was up the rest of the night throwing up along with the next day. At this point I was very sick so Mike went and had the doctor prescribe some nausea pills for me that seemed to help a lot and they told me to take it easy and not to be up and about.

So the short story I guess is, since Tuesday night I have been having contractions very regularly, about 3-4 minutes apart. On Monday, they got to be every 2 minutes, so we went into the doctor again to see if there was any change and if not, why I was having contractions. Well I measured very big for my belly that day; I had grown 2 centimeters in a couple of days, so the doctor decided to do an ultrasound. Well come to find out first I am carrying an 8 pound baby already, plus I am carrying too much fluid, so that is causing her not to be able to drop and also is causing me to dilate because my uterus is stretched to its max and is trying to contract back down to a smaller size. Also we found out that my due date was pretty far off, according to the measurements that did on Monday our new due date is October 31^st. So the good news from all of that is that if our little girl has not decided to come in the next week, then they are going to induce me on the 2^nd of November. With that news in mind, Mike and I are just doing our best to keep our minds on other things. I have been going through room by room and deep cleaning, while Mike focuses on homework. Ok, well I think that catches everyone up for the most part on our busy life. The next post will probably be when she arrives!

Another two weeks have almost past and it sure went by fast. I can't believe we are already in October! This is especially good because I thought for sure the last couple of months would drag on for me. Well not much going on in the Ashton world, but I will do my best to catch you all up on our exciting lives.
On the 23rd brought yet another BYu game which was home, so Mike got up and headed down to Provo at about 9 in the morning and got home around 7 or so. While he was gone I did my normal cleaning of the house, which takes longer now that I run out of energy a lot faster and laundry. After I got all of my normal Saturday activities done, I decided to rearrange our bedroom. Mike and I were going to do anyways to make room for the bassinet, but I decided to do it while Mike was gone s a surprise. We moved our bed to go by our bay windows and then moved the dresser to where the bed use to be. Then the bassinet fits perfectly in the corner by the bathroom. We wanted it in an area that wasn't by the door so she wouldn't be woke up by people out in the living room and also we wanted her not by the windows so she didn't get cold by a draft or something. Now that it is all moved, we both like it so much we will probably leave it that way even after the baby moves up to her own room. When we take down the bassinet, we will just get a over stuffed chair or something to go in the corner so we aren't left with a big empty space.
This lat week seemed to be a bit busy. Mike and I both had tests this week, so a lot of the evenings were spent studying for tests. Thursday night BYU played TSU, the team that one the conference last year, at TSU. So since the guys couldn't go to the game, they all made a trip to Logan it watch it at our house. Wagon got into Logan about 2 in the afternoon to spend a little time with his daughter before the game started at 4. Marc I think got there right before the game started. Craig came over about a half hour or so into the game. When I got home from work at 4:30 I just went up to the office to study and do homework while they had their bonding time. But boy can those guys get loud!! I was planning on cooking steaks and potatoes for dinner for them all, but first I didn't have enough steaks and second I was so tired after working all day and knowing I had tons a of homework to do. So needless to say the guys had Papa Johns pizza instead of a home cooked meal, but they didn't seem to mind at all. I am not a BYU fan at all, but I like to see them win because that means I have a happy husband.
Since BYU played during the week, this past weekend actually meant I had Mike the whole weekend. We didn't have any major plans for the weekend, just a couple of around the house jobs we want to get done like hang family pictures up, put a shelf up we have been meaning to do for about a month now, etc. But instead we went and helped Ana and Jonathan lay sod in their backyard. Ok well Mike went and laid sod and I babysat Addison. But I think I got just as much as a work out picking up a 20 pound child and hauling her around all day sure took a lot out of me! Jonathan had a couple of guys form work there helping, so it went pretty fast. First before we went to lay sod I had to go up to the university and take a quick test, then we went to there house. We were there until noon, then we had to go to the hospital to have our Lamaza teacher put our car seat in for us. She is a certified car seat something so she puts it in so it will pass inspection. Then it was back to Ana's for the rest of the afternoon. For being October it sure was pretty warm still, about 80 degrees. Then the guys went to General Conference and Ana and I went grocery shopping, fun huh?
Sunday was a chill day, Mike and I just watched the first session in our PJ's. Then the second session we went to Jami's and had a little luncheon with a group of people, it was a bit busy, but fun. Ok well that is all thats going on with us, I will catch you all up in a week or so!

So another week has come and gone, yet it seems not a lot has happened. Mike and I are still just working away at our classes. Mike is trying to finish up his last incomplete class from spring along with keeping up with his fall classes. We are still doing the wonderful thing classed job searching. There have been a lot of jobs that he has just recently applied for, so now it is a waiting game it seems. Mike is very excited to be done with the Herald Journal though. It has been a good job, but I think a year is enough. I am counting down the days until I am done with my job. Halloween is my last day, so that means not counting today I have 31 more days of work.

Our baby girl is growing everyday now, which means so is my stomach. Thanks to some recent shopping though, I have clothes that will fit me while we finish out this pregnancy. Saturday was my baby shower and it was a huge success. We invited a lot of people, but I knew that the majority of them wouldn’t come since they live farther away, but it’s the thought that counts, right? We had a good turn out though, not too many people because I don’t like being the center of a big crowd. Ariana and Jami threw the shower and did an awesome job. We did the introductions and then started playing games. The first one was there was a 10 different candy bars cut up on put on to plates. You had to go and look at them and write down what kind they were without smelling or touching them. Some people did pretty well, while others I think just guessed and wrote down the candy bars they could think of. Next we played Mike and Kj trivia. Mike mom and Ariana came up with 6 unforgettable memories from our childhood. Then Jami would say on out loud and you had to guess if the memory was from Mike or me. It was a lot of fun, but I could have done without some of those memories being shared with everyone. Then we played a price is right game. Ariana had printed pictures of 15 baby items off the internet and people had to guess how much the item cost without going over. Then we ate the wonderful food we had there. We had some roll-ups that’s are so good, but I couldn’t tell you what’s in them, I didn’t make them. Then we had bite size cheese cakes, fruit pizza, pasta salad, and finger sandwiches’. Then we opened presents. We received a lot of great gifts, especially a homemade quilt my visiting teacher made for us, it is beautiful. Then I showed everyone the nursery and they all loved it, which is always a good thing.

While the whole baby shower was going on, the boys, Mike, Marc, Jonathan, Craig, and Wagon were watching the BYU game. When they all got up to Craig’s to watch the game, they found out that their power was out. So after a little flipping out, they all came down to watch the game at Jami’s house until the power came back on, then they went back up to Craig’s. I think we were all hoping BYU would win, so the guys would be in good moods, but that didn’t work out exactly. I mean BYU didn’t win, they lost in double over time, but at least the guys weren’t in way bad moods, well at least not my husband. The rest of the afternoon was just a chill time. Then when all the family left, Mike and I had the fun exciting evening of homework!! Oh the joys of being in school. Mike and I went to bed pretty early that night, we were both pretty tired. Sunday was a very relaxing day. I did have one quiz to take, which only took 10 minutes. Then Mike and I just spent the day take a nap and watching movies together….it was wonderful.

Alright, now that work as slowed down a little, well at least in the mornings, I think it’s time I update the website. Well a lot has happened since the last update. School as officially started for Mike and I. Although we are both taking online classes, it still is very time consuming. We have both take 4 classes each, plus finishing up one class each from last semester. Mine is pretty much done, I just need to send in the assignments, and Mike has a couple of weeks left of assignments before he is fully caught up. We have pretty exciting lives now. When we get home from work, all we do is homework. But hey at least we can due it together, so we are still hanging out together. Mike does a lot of his homework during the day while I am at work and then the rest when I am home doing my homework. Since I don’t have a parking pass I have to come up to campus at 7 to get a parking spot. So I come and do homework for a half hour before I start work. Then I do it on my lunch hour and then anything left over I do after I get off of work. I was going to try and still might try to finish all of my classes before the baby comes. But I think working fulltime and trying to do that might prove to be too much.

Well Mike had a long fun weekend over Labor Day. On Thursday night, the 31^st of August I took him down to SLC to meet his brother, Marc to drive to Arizona. They went down for a couple of reasons. Marc is in the middle of moving from Arizona to SLC, so we was going down to set up the moving company that will come in and pack everything up and move it to SLC for them. Also the reason Mike went with them is because on the 2^nd was BYU’s opening game against Arizona. Wagon, my father-in-law, flew into Arizona on Saturday morning before the game, so the boys went to the game and had an awesome time even though they lost. It was a very long weekend for me. I was home alone from Thursday night until Monday night when he came home. I did keep myself very busy though. I decided that I would get all of the little things I have been wanting to get done around the house done with Mike was gone and surprise him. Ariana and Jonathan was a big help with getting things ready before Mike came home. We made curtains to go over the French doors going out to the deck; we hung “ASHTON” above those doors also that are painted black and look very classy. We tried to hang the shelf that goes in place of the old microwave, but we didn’t have the right screws. Then I went and got my family pictures printed and put into frames that matched the ones we have with Mike’s family pictures, but we ran out of time to hang those pictures up also. We did get curtains made for the office upstairs and the couch cover put on the couch in the front room. Also we got all of the sewing done for the baby’s room, curtains, bumper pads, crib skirt, etc. Ariana and I were in the middle of putting up the wallpaper border in the baby’s room we come to find out it wouldn’t stick the wall no matter what we did. So finally we had to glue it with Elmer’s glue and then put tape to tape it up with it dried. Well I was very frustrated and upset that I didn’t get everything I wanted to get done and the border wasn’t working it was time for me to go pick Mike up in Brigham City. I was on the verge of tears when I got into my car to back out. Well here’s a secret, don’t drive when you’re stressed out and wanting to cry. When backing out, I backed right into Ariana’s car. I was so upset; I pulled my car back into the garage and ran into the house crying very hard. Needless to say I had a panic attack, which in turn made me start having hard contractions. It was a very scary thing, especially since Mike wasn’t there and Ariana couldn’t clam me down. Jonathan had to go pick up Jonathan. When Mike got home he made everyone leave and took me to get some dinner and then we just chilled. My contractions continued throughout the night and the next day. We finally went to the doctor on my Birthday, the 6^th. Everything was ok though, the heart beat was great and I hadn’t started dilating yet. After our doctors appointment I had to go back to work for a couple of hours because I started training my replacement that day. That night, Mike took me to dinner at Chili’s and then instead of going out and buying me a gift, he took me to Michael’s to pick out decorations for our kitchen and living room. It was a wonderful birthday gift. I did go over my budget a little, but our house looks great with all the new decorations. That night when we got home my friends Kristin, Jami, and Loran came over to give me their gifts and to chill for a bit. It was a lot of fun. My mother-in-law did come on Saturday while Mike was gone to take me to dinner and clothes shopping for my birthday since I no longer really fit into any of my clothes. She spent the night Saturday night and then went to church with me Sunday. Also on Saturday Ariana, Jonathan, and I went down to SLC to see a friend who just got home from his mission. He went to lunch and then shopping at the gateway. I didn’t get anything for me, but I did buy Mike a pair of shorts and 2 shirts. Shopping for Mike is so much more fun than for me. I decided after all that happened over the weekend Mike was gone, that he wasn’t allowed to leave for that long of time anymore. There will be a lot of Saturdays I will be by myself now that football season has started, but no nights, so I think I can handle that. Jonathan’s birthday was Friday night, but he had to work, so we just called and wished him a happy birthday. Mike and I did go down to Brigham City to have dinner with his family to celebrate Craig’s birthday which was Saturday. Saturday Mike and his dad left to go to Provo for the BYU game at about 9:30 and didn’t get home until about 8:30 at night. While he was gone I did a couple of hour’s worth of homework, cleaned the house, and then ran errands with Jami and Loran. When Mike came home he was in a good mood though because BYU had won. Ok, I think that is everything for the most part that has happened over the last couple of weeks. Sorry this is so long, I need to keep it updated more often so they aren’t so long.

So I am not keeping up as well as I thought I was going to be able to with this new website, but oh well, here goes another post. It seems as if August as flown by for Mike and I. I barely believe that August is almost over. The day after our last post is when the month started flying by. On August 9th, our nephew, Ryan Steven Adams, passed away. It was such hard news to hear about and it took awhile for it to sink in for me. I just kept thinking they were talking about someone else and it wasn't our little Ryan. Ryan, who just turned 2 in June, and his family went down to Lake Powell to enjoy a yearly family vacation. On the 9th, Ryan fell victim to a drowning accident. Mike and I as soon as we heard, tried to do all we could here in Logan to get things ready for them to come home. We contacted to Bishop in their ward, but he already knew. About 20 minutes after Mike and I got to his sister's house to make phone calls people started showing up left and right. We had a whole group of sister's from their ward and their neighborhood coming over to deep clean the house so that when they got home they didn't need to worry about that. Then someone had the idea that we should try and fly them home instead of have them drive the 10 hour drive. We finally got in contact with Brother Harris, who is a very wealthy man in Logan who owes a jet. He was already going down to California to pick up family friends and agreed to stop in Arizona to pick up Mike's sister and her family. So Mike was the contact person who organized the whole thing. The jet had enough room to bring home the family plus Craig's parents who were down there because Craig's sister had just had a baby the same day Ryan died. Mike's parents, Mike and I picked the family up at the Logan air port and took them home. It was such an emotional day. I focused on Entertaining Josh,4, and Aubree, 6 (the siblings of Ryan) while Mike's parents and Mike tried to sooth Lish and Craig. The rest of the week seems like a blur. We were up at the house a lot that week. Helping them plan the funeral, and viewing. Also Ariana and Jonathan agreed to help make a memorial video for Ryan that was played at the viewing. It turned out so good, no one could watch it and not cry, whether you knew his or not. The viewing was Sunday evening from 6-8, but it really ended up going till 10:30. People were waiting in line for at least an hour, so that shows how many people love that family. After that night, we got up early the next day for the funeral. There was a viewing before and then the funeral itself went for over 2 hours, but it was wonderful. At the cemetery, after the service, they had everyone take a white balloon and then we all released them, it was a beautiful site. Since then, Mike and I have been just trying to be there for the family. We go up to play with the kids a lot because they need a lot of extra love right now. Also we just go up and take with Lish and Craig, just about anything. On Sunday night we went up and had dinner with them and with Mike's parents. We were going to play games, but it was too late. Monday brought a slap of reality for me. I had to go back to work!! After having more than a week off, it's hard to go back to working all day. It has been very busy at work though. Monday I worked 10.5 hours, Tuesday I worked 11.5 hours and yesterday I worked 10.5 hours. The reason it is so busy is because tutition deadline was Tuesday, so we had all the students that have been putting it off standing in line wanting to pay now. Monday, the 28th, marks the first day of school, so that means it will be busy in our office, for the next couple of weeks, which is fine with me, that means time will fly by, hopefully. It;s so weird to think I really only have like 2 months left of work, I will just have Sept and then October to work. Mike is still looking for jobs all the time. We have a couple that are looking pretty good, but we will have to wait and see I guess. We are both getting ready for school to start in a couple of days. We are going to sit down and map out our assignments though so we are hopefully done with everything before the baby comes so we can just enjoy her when she comes. Ana and Jami have been planning my baby shower also, so that will be fun. I am going to try and get the nursery finished before then, but we'll see. I need to order the curious geogre border and get that up. Then I need to make curtains, bumper pads, etc. Then I think it should all be ready to go. Well we sent Tasha home on the 15th, but it was a drama filled flight. Due to all the new rules at the air port, they made he throw away all of her liquid makeup, hairspray, etc. She was one upset teenager, especially since she had just barley bought all new makeup. I guess the only liquids allowed on the plane now is baby food, formula and breastmilk. Mike's brother, Marc and his Wife are kind of moved to SLC now. While they are looking for a house someone here, they are staying in a hotel, which can't be fun with a one year old. We did just find out though that Angie, Marc's wife, will be having a second little girl in Feburary, so thats exciting! Now we will just wait and find out what Ana is having, she will find out in Oct I think she said. Ok, well I think that is all that has been happening around, for the most part. If I forgot anything I will write another blog to catch everyone up again! Hope everything is going great for everyone!

Well it's been about two weeks since our last update, so I thought I better catch everyone up. Don't worry though you all haven't missed much. This past week has not been a fun one that's for sure. Mike woke up Sunday morning not feeling so well. By Monday myself and Tasha were sick also we are not sure if it was just the flu plus a head cold or what. I attempted to go to work Monday morning, but only made it about noon. Then the rest of the week was all down hill it seems. I didn't go to work at all, but I would have rather than feel like crap. On Thursday and Friday I had such a sore throat I didn't have any kind of a voice. It slowly came back on Saturday. Saturday I was feeling much better and so I worked out for about an hour in the morning. Then Mike and I decided to start organizing certain rooms. On Saturday we tackled the "junk" drawers downstairs and the office/sewing room. We decided to help the room look less cluttered we would move my sewing machine table and everything into the closet. It does fit perfectly. I have a shelf on one side of the table that has all of my fabric folded up on it, my patterns, and projects that I am working on. Then on the other side of the table is a couple of bins that has other projects I am working on, like my high school memory quilt and a monkey quilt I started making a couple of years ago. It does work out nicely, you can have the doors shut while I am not sewing and it looks very clean, then when I do want to sew I just pull up the extra computer chair and sew away. We then went through all of our school books and figured out which ones we want to keep and which ones we are going to sell. We also went and bought some selves and bookends to help organize everything. It looks great, so hopefully it stays that way when school starts and we get busy. Mike and I are both planning on taking 12 credits each. We are actually going to take two of the same classes I think. It should make it easier and fun to study together. While I was home sick from work last week I started cutting and out and sewing baby clothes. Mike jokes around and says that I must be running a sweat shop or something because I was making clothes left and right. So far I think I have made about 10 or so jumpers, all different colors. I have a couple more of those to make and then a couple of pair of overalls, dresses, and pant/shirt outfits. I also am going to make matching hair pieces for most of the outfits. I guess since I am not a girly-girl, then I will make our little girl one. I am always painting Addison's finger nails, so I am sure I will be painting our little girls from the get-go. I am getting excited for the baby to come though. I only have 3 months left of work, well actually less than that because the 31st of July marked the 3 month mark. Halloween will be the last day I will be working, unless the baby decides to come way early. I would love to be able to be done earlier because sitting all day causes a lot of extra pains for me. More exciting news for the family is that Ariana will be having a baby on the 25th of Feburary and Angie, our sister-in-law, will be having a baby on February 2nd. So our families are growing very quickly and it's so exciting. Well Tasha has been staying with us for the past week or so and it's been great fun, although I don't really see her all that much. She has been at our neighbors a lot. She has been working out with Jami, the neighbor everyday and also she has started deep cleaning her house. In turn for her cleaning, Jami is going to pay for Tasha to get a new hair color and cut. The big day for that is this Thursday, so ready or not dad, or little girl is coming home different. Mike's parents came up on Saturday to look at lots because they are moving here in a year. They didn't make it to our house until about 9:30 at night, but that's ok because Mike and I were busy cleaning and then putting in ceiling fans at Jami's house. Sunday we went to church and then did the chill Sunday thing. We did go up and have lunch with Mike's sister Lish and her family along with Mike's parents. After that we hung out with Ana, Jonathan, Addison, and Jami. We played games and then just chatted while the boys played play station. To catch you all up and the drama with the neighbor, things have gotten worse. The lady has decided that she will stand at her door and just scream at Jami calling her names and such all the time. Also she has decided that anytime Jami leaves her house she is needs to come out on her porch and watch and listen to everything. Finally Jami called the police to make a complaint. They really couldn't do anything unless the neighbor comes into her yard or her dog does. The police did talk to the neighbor and tell her to stop yelling at her and to just leave her alone. Well the lady didn't like that so she called and made a complaint about the police officer. So now the whole thing will probably end up in court. So Jami is having to get written statements from everyone stating everything they have witnesses. I hope that the lady will just move, but who knows. Jami has a feeling that she is going through Jami's mail and her garbage, so we all will be getting paper shredders soon, to help protect us. Because who knows if she is doing it to ours or not. Oh the drama, who knew things like this would happen in good old Logan, Utah. Oh before I forget the other great news is Mike's brother, Marc, who is currently living in Arizona will be moving to the Salt Lake area in the next couple of weeks to start a new job. Mike is very excited to have his brother so close, especially with football season quickly approaching.

So we have finally hit the 6 month mark, or 24 weeks! For a while it seemed like it would never get here. Only 16 more weeks, or 109 more days, not that I am counting or anything, right. Our little girl is a very active girl. She is always on the move, kicking and punching my stomach, but I don't mind at all, it is very calming me to know she is doing well. But she has decided that when she is not moving she likes to have her feet and hands in my ribs on the right side. This is something that is very painful. She use to move when I would move on her to get out of my ribs, but now she has decided that she doesn't want to move and she just kicks me and stays were she is. So only likes to me in my ribs when I am sitting it seems. Well lucky for me I am sitting at my job for 9 hours a day, 5 days a week! I try standing throughout the day, but I get light-headed if I stand too long, so it's pretty much a lose-lose situation.
Well Mike and I have decided to have my last day at work be Halloween, the 31st of October. So that means I only have 70 more working days!! That day we always have a huge party at work, watch movies while we aren't helping students, and just chill, so I thought how better to celebrate your last day, right?! Plus not that I don't like my job, but I would love to have today be my last day, but that won't happen, I guess we need something called insurance to have a baby. I am sure the 70 days will fly by, hopefully! In another week or so it will start picking up in our office since Fall semester is starting in about a month. Then we will be busy from mid August until about the end of September. Then it will kind of calm down for a couple of weeks. Then probably about the time I will be quitting it will pick up again with everyone getting their Spring semester schedules together.
Well this weekend was a busy one for Mike and I. Saturday morning we went to the temple with our neighbor, Jamie, which was wonderful since the temple has been closed for 2 weeks for cleaning. Then it was time for the normal routine for Saturday, cleaning and laundry. Once that was all done, we decided to paint our kitchen and do touch ups from our other painting jobs. Well we got one coat on the kitchen and Mike fixed a couple of tough spots, like the peak in our living room with our 20 foot walls. After that Mike decided he was done painting for the day. So we went next door and watched a movie with Jamie. Mike had to work Sunday morning, but did get to go to sacrament meeting and one of his classes. After church, it was time for our Sunday afternoon nap. Then we just bummed around, until it was time for dinner. We had a get-together at Jamies, with Ariana, Jonathan, Addison, and Tasha. After dinner we decided instead of watching movies, we would play games, since I can't seem to stay awake during movies. So we played a fun game called "Fact or Crap" and then played "Taboo" It was so much fun and with the last game it came down to the wire, but Ariana, Jonathan, and Tasha ended up winning by 1 point. We called it a night after that since we all we pretty tired. Monday morning Mike and I were going to get up at 6 to get a jump start on all the painting we wanted to get done, but Mike woke up with a Migrane, so we slept until about 7:30. We painted a primer coat of white in the baby's room and got that room all taped up. While that was drying we painted a second coat in the kitchen. Then Ariana and the gang came over to help out. Once they were there the baby's room went pretty fast. We sponged the top half bright yellow and the bottom half solid bright blue. It looks so cute and defiantly looks like a kid's room. Once we have the curious George border up, it will finish the room up. All of the white furniture looks great in the room also. Lish, my sister-in-law, was kind enough to give us her glider, so that is getting painted white to match everything else. The last thing we need to finish the nursery is a futon. Then the nursery should be set. Ariana brought over a bunch of Addison's baby clothes for our little Madison to use. There was a lot, that's for sure. I think she had a tub full of 0-3 month of, 2 tubs full of 3-6 and 1 box for 6-9. So I think that our little girl will not have to go naked, at least not until after 9 months. After all the painting, we all went to our homes to clean up and then met back up at Lish's house for a bug Pioneer Day BBQ. There were a lot of people and food there, so it was wonderful. When we went to play games, all the kids got a little loud and whinny, so we only stayed for one game. We were all tried though, so it was a good ending to a great day. To bad that meant, that we all had to get up and go to work this morning. I promise, one of these days I will put pictures on here, so you have some idea what I am talking about!

Well I guess it is time for another update for everyone on the exciting lives of the Ashton's. It is good to be home since our trip to Colorado. We love traveling, but after awhile, it is nice to be at home for awhile to get back into the groove of things. Since being back home not much as happened. I don't think either of us wanted to go to work on Wednesday morning, but so is life right?? This week is my first full week of work and I have a feeling it is going to be a long one. But the good news is I have Monday off for Pioneer Day, so that will at least make next week go by faster and then we have our next doctors appointment on the 31st, the following Monday. It seems like July is dragging on, but then again it is half way over, so maybe it's just because there isn't anymore big trips to look forward to anymore. Just so everyone knows, little Madison should be here in 116 days, if she comes on her due date. But I am definately ok with her deciding to come a little early as long as she is healthily. Mike and I have been going back and forth lately about the name of our little angel, but I think we have decided we are going to stick with Madison, unless she comes out something different. I know that if she is names Madison it will cause some confusing with Addison, but if Madison is her name, then there is no arguing there, right??
Well its been fun having Tasha with us for the past week. She has been staying with Ana because Jonathan has been in Canada getting ready to fly the new planes home that USU just recently bought. Plus our air conditioning as not been working and the room were Tasha would be staying is upstairs were it is very HOT! So we just recently had someone come out and look at it. I guess we have a broken/leaky valve that let all of the freon out. So we had to have more freon put in, 6 pounds I think. Then we are going to have someone come out in August or September to fix the valve before it gets winter. I guess that is when it leaks, so as long as we get it fixed before then we wont have any problems. All I can say is it has been very nice to have air conditioning. I must be a cold blooded person because even at 6 months pregnant I am still cold 90% of the time. So Mike has it set to were he feels comfortable and I just wear a sweatshirt. The upstairs is finally cooled down though so when Tasha does come and stay with us it should be nice for her. Speaking of Tasha, she is really being a trooper. She has decided that she is going to be committed and loose weight while she is here is Utah. My neighbor, Jamie, has started training her. Last night was their first night and I think it went good. Then just worked-out outside since the gym was already closed. They ran up a huge hill a couple of time along with walking it a bit. Then they did some abs and weight training. Tasha said that she isn't sore yet though, only her arms. I think the plan is to work-out daily except for Sundays and those days she will just take a nice walk for like 45 minutes or so just so she doesn't cramp up or anything. Along with getting her in shape we are planning on give her a makeover, with new cloths and maybe even a new hair style and color. Dad, how would you feel about black hair with caramel and red highlites??
Oh baby's room is coming along slowly. Mike thinks we are right on schedule, but I guess I am just excited and I would like to be able to do everything right now. But time and money wont really allow that. So for now, it is one project at a time. Saturday Ana and Tasha came and helped me paint a dresser white. We decided to do white furniture so everything matches. Plus I think white will look the best against the colors we have decided to decorate with. All I have left to paint as far as furniture goes is the glider, oh and a futon when we get one. The next big project will be to paint the walls. We have finally agreed on what we are doing. We will have a curious george wallpaper border that will go about 1/3 of the way up the way I think. Below the border we will paint a bold, bright blue and then on top of the border we are going to sponge bold, bright yellow. We are looking at getting a bright red rug to go in the middle of the room. Then we will decorate with red and green as accents. I think I will probably make the bumper pads and skirt for the crib, the glider cover, the futon cover, and curtains out of some cute bright green fabric. I will take some pictures of what we have so far, just so you can at least see the furniture we have in there. But once again I need to have Ana come and show me how to post pictures to the website. Maybe that will be this weekend, or sometime this week. Ok, well I will end this now and will be updating you all soon!

Ok, well from the looks of it, I will be the first to comment on our trip to Colorado trip. We all got home I think last night between 6 and 8 pm. This is because we all left at different times. My dad, Melia, and Garth headed out at around 7am so they would be home at a good time. Plus my dad is an early riser, so why not start on the drive home early. Thayne, Sarah, and Audrey headed out about 8am. Then Ana, Jonathan, Mike, Tasha, Addison, and I stayed to clean the cabins and get checked out. I think we were checked out about 8:45 am even though we had until 11 am. On the drive out it took us a little longer because we stopped every 2 hours. This was because I had to go to the bathroom all the time and Addison didn't like being in her car seat for long periods of time. On the trip home though we only stopped twice to get gas and eat.
The vacation went well and was very relaxing for everyone I think. We all got to the cabin about 5 or so and got checked in and unpacked. Dad, Melia, and Garth got a late start since Garth had to work late. Then to had salt to a sore it poured rain and they closed the interstate in Denver, so they had to go through downtown. So needless to say they didn't get into town until about midnight or so. Sunday we all got up early and drove into town, about a 30 minute drive, to go to church. We got a lot of looks since we took up a whole row at church and made up like a fourth of their ward. We had a lot of people tell us Colorado Springs was a great place to live and we should think about moving. It was a great place to go for vacation, but I am happy with living in Logan. Sunday was spent just hanging out and planning the activities for the next day. Monday we all got up early and drive into town to walk through a park called the "Garden of the Gods" I think it was good exercise we all needed and it was fun. We took a lot of fun pictures that I will have to get posted, as soon as I learn how. After the walk, we all went and had ice cream and then headed back to our cabins. The rest of the day we played games and watched movies. Of course the whole weekend the boys: Jonathan, Garth, Thayne, and Mike played in the fire whether we were cooking something or not. It did rain a lot of the time, but it was ok because it was mostly in the evenings when we were in side and it usually cleared up in time for us to go have a roasting party around the bond fire. The bad thing about the rain is we found out our cabin leaked. We had it leak around the front door, in a corner in the bedroom and around the windows up in the loft. We just had to put towels in those areas to soak up the rain so Addison wouldn't fall again in the water. One exciting thing that happened was we had a little visitor at our cabin, a fox! Tasha had thrown a sucker off the porch earlier that day and I guess that is what the fox was wanting. Jonathan took a picture of it actually eating the suck right next to our cabin. Thayne said it would have come into the cabin if he hadn't shut the door. Tasha thinks it would have been really cool if it would have come into the cabin, we all think she wouldn't think that after it got in there and started attacking people. Well to sum it all up it was a great get-a-way and we have already started planning our next vacation next year. We are planning on taking one at the end of May so Garth will be able to be there before he goes on his mission in June.
Life here is Logan while we were gone seemed to go on like normal. We still are dealing with a very mentally unstable neighbor that just wont listen to anyone. She only moved in a couple of months ago and Mike and I went and introduced our selves and she had already met the other neighbor, Jamie. Well I guess she really just doesn't like any of us and really dislikes Jamie's dog. So a couple of weeks ago she decided to put a pile of dog poop on Jamie's front door to send a message about her dog. The whole issue is that she thinks Jamie's dog goes in her yard and she is a afraid Jamie's dog will hurt her dog or something. But the think is that her dog is always chained up so it can go into Jamie's yard. Or it "Runs" out of the house and ends up in our yard, in Jamie's house, or another neighbors house. So when we confronted her about this she got very angry at us and said she didn't do it, but Jamie better not let her dog step into her yard again or else. Well I guess while we were in Colorado Jamie was over in our yard playing with her dog, which is fine with us. Well the neighbor I guess thought she would try and teach her another lesson, so she called the animal control on her saying her dog was running loose in the neighbor and couldn't be controlled. Jamie talked to them and explained the situation and they understood. So I don't know what will happen from here. We have been advised not to confront the neighbor anymore and if she makes anymore threats to call the police. Oh the drama, right?? That is just another reason why we will not ever be getting a dog.

Well we were going to try and wait and tell people what we were having until we were at Colorado, but we were too excited, so our little bundle of joy is going to be a little girl!! We are very excited and of course I cried when I found out what it was. I know I would have cried either way; being pregnant tends to do that to you. She is a health little girl though, growing perfectly. They measured every part of her I think. It was neat to see all of her different parts though. After all the measuring they said she weighs 1 pound exactly and is around 8-10 inches. We definitely have a modest little girl though. She refused to uncross her legs for the doctor. After a lot of pushing on my stomach they finally got her to uncross them for about a minute, just long enough to see she was a girl then she crossed them right back. They said they are 100% positive that she is a little girl. And the most exciting news besides finding out that she is a girl is that my new due date is November 11th instead of the 16th. Even though it is only 5 days, I am way excited. I am just excited because then it gives me a bigger time period between the day she is due and the day when all of the family comes out to celebrate Thanksgiving. The name we are planning on calling our little girl is Madison; that is unless she comes out and is not a Madison. I think we surprised a lot of people with our news because everyone thought for sure we were going to have a little boy. The most excited about us having a little girl I think is our niece, Aubrey. She really wanted a girl and when we called to tell them you could hear her in the background yelling and jumping around. Once I figure out how to post pictures on this I will up load a couple of the pictures of her.
Ok on to a different subject, Bear Lake. Mike and I went up Friday night and spent the weekend with his family in a condo there. It was a nice vacation. On Saturday we spent the whole day on the beach. I think we were out there for a totally of 8-9 hours. They rented a jet ski and everyone took turns on it except the two pregnant ladies, myself and my sister-in-law, Angie. She is due about the same time Ana is, in February, so they are just starting on the long 9 month path. Then later in the day everyone went out for a boat ride, but I knew I would throw up, so I just stayed behind and kept watch on the camp site. Really I ended up taking a nap, but oh well. I put SPF 30 on twice, but I guess I totally forgot about my feet because they were fried. Come Saturday evening when we were all back chilling in the condo, my feet swelled up to 2 or 3 times there normal size. I took it really easier on Sunday making sure to ice them often. They are still pretty swollen, but at least they aren't burnt anymore. Monday I woke up not being able to walk at all in the morning without my feet turning purple from lack of blood, so I didn't go into work that day. The 4th of July started pretty early for our neighbor Jamie and myself. We had a ward breakfast and were asked to come and help. So we showed up at 7 am and cut up watermelon. We had bought everything the day before; 15 bags of ice and 8 30 pound watermelon and a kiddy pool. They set up the pool and put ice and water in them and then kept the watermelon and drinks in it to keep everything cool. The breakfast went from 8:30-10:30, but we left at 9:30. Then we packed up the car and headed up to Idaho Falls for the 4th. Jamie came with Mike and I. When we got there it took a while to figure out what the plans were, but once we got that figured out it was a fun day. We all went to see the movie Superman Returns...Very long!! Then the boys went golfing( surprise, surprise) and Jamie and I went shopping. We bought Mike some new shorts and shoes which he needed greatly. Then we came back and had a BBQ and then went and watched fireworks. There was about 85,000 people there watching them so we parked about 20 minutes away and walked. It was quit a walk, but I think we all needed to exercise. After the show we power-walked back to the car and finally were on the road about 11:30 pm. I think we ended up getting home right and unpacked about 2 am. All I can say is 6 am came really early and I was dragging myself through the day, but I perked up a lot when we got to the doctor. Well as numerous people have already stated, we are having a little Wright family reunion this weekend in Colorado, so that will be fun to see everyone again and this will probably be the last time until Thanksgiving when everyone comes out here. Tasha will be riding back to Utah with us and spending sometime here though with us and Ana and Jonathan so that will be fun. Ok, well I think I will end this exciting novel. We will probably update everyone once we get back from Colorado.

Well not a lot has happened since the last update I gave everyone, but today does mark an important day! Today is our half way mark! I am finally 20 weeks. That means only 20 more weeks of being pregnant and 20 more weeks of work!! Don't get me wrong I love my job and the people I work with, but I am very excited to just be at home. Mike is still job hunting. He was hoping to get a job from Hyclone, where Ariana works because it is such a great company but one of the jobs was filled and the other one we found out he is unable to get. Since that job is in the same office as Ana, they didn't think it would be a good idea having family so closely related working in the same office. Ana said she would keep her eye open for other openings in other departments there and just around Logan. Although somedays we are discouraged about not having a new job yet, we know that something will work out in the end, we just have to keep our hopes up. Mike is doing well at his job right now. The biggest push is making sure he gets enough sales every month. We just barley made it last month because the Herald Journal counts the last of the month on the 26th. So last night he went out to get a head start on next month's sales. He took a crew of young boys that go sale the paper from 5 - 10 last night. Needless to say I was a sleep when he got home last night, but he did get half of his sales for the month in one night, so that helps take a lot of stress off him so he will be able to enjoy our vacations coming up.
Although things are slow right now, the next couple of weeks will be busier and a lot of fun. Mike's brother, Marc and his family fly into Salt Lake tonight. We haven't seen the whole family since Christmas so it will be fun to see them. They will be staying with us tonight and then head up to Bear Lake for the weekend. Since Mike and I have to work tomorrow we wont be going up to Bear Lake until Saturday. Then we will have to come back Saturday night since I have to teach a lesson in church on Sunday. Then we will go back up for the afternoon and evening. Then I think the plan is to head up to Idaho Falls for the 4th of July. I think we are going to have Ana, Jonathan, and Addison come along with our neighbor Jamie. Pretty much everyone we would hang out with in Logan, we will just all go to Idaho Falls to watch the wonderful fireworks. Then we have our trip with my family to Colorado the next weekend. I love having little trips throughout the summer. For me it helps me not focus on how slow this pregnancy is going sometimes. But I know that I will have this child before me know it. OH yeah and the fun appointment were we find out what we are having is less than a week away, next Wednesday!! I hope everyone has a fun and safe 4th of July.

Almost Half Way There...
Yesterday was on 3rd doctors appointment and everything went well. We didn't have our appointment with our regular doctor because she just recently had a baby herself a couple of weeks ago, so we went to a new one just for this visit. She works in the same office, just one floor up. First thing we found out is that I found out I gained 3 pounds in the past 4 weeks, which isn't bad at all when they are saying I am suppose to gain about a pound a week now. So far during pregnancy I have gained about 10 pounds. I am sure since I am maintaining my weight so well now that I will balloon out in the last month or something, but who knows. The doctors appointment wasn't too involved; the doctor gave some guide lines to follow about staying hydrated and wearing my seat belt below my belly. Then we got to listen to the baby's heart beat. I am always relieved when I hear the heart beat to know all is well. I guess I should know everything is fine since I feel the baby moving every 5 minutes it seems like. I guess there is an old saying that if the heart rate is fast then its more likely a girl and if it's slower than its more likely a boy. Well according to the heart rates and if the doctor had to guess, we will be having a boy. But Mike and I are still not guessing which we are having, we will just wait until the 5th of July to find out for sure. We asked if they had anything sooner, but their next appointment wasn't until the 12th of July so we decided to stick with the 5th. Mike was really hoping that someone could do one yesterday, but oh well.
I am still working up at the University full-time. The hours I work starting this week until summer is over will be 7:45 to 3:45. I use to take an hour lunch and then work until 4:45, but I figure I might as well eat lunch at my desk and get off an hour earlier so I have some energy to make dinner at night. Plus who doesn't like getting off early. Before I would go home for lunch, and then I never wanted to go back to work, so this will probably be better. Plus then I only have to walk up and down the hill once a day instead of twice. Mike is still with the Herald Journal, but is faithfully looking for a new job. The Herald Journal has been good for us, but I know he is very much ready for a change and an increase in pay so there will be less stress when I stay home with the baby.
Mike and I have been looking into different ways to decorate the nursery. We know we want to do the Curious George theme, but it is a matter of finding the right items and the money to get everything. We finally found some cheap wallpaper borders of curious George, thanks to Wagon, online so I think we are going to hang that up. Now its just a matter of picking out the color of paint for the walls, the fabric for the curtains, rocking chair cover, and the crib bedding. We are going to try to do a neutral color, so we wont have to change everything if the next baby is a different sex than this one is. We going to decorate with bright primary colors: red, blue, yellow, and green. So if anyone has any ideas for decorating, let us know. I think we are planning on painting and stuff while Natasha, my sister, is here for a couple of weeks in July. It will be nice to have the help, plus I think she is excited to help.

Hi all, we are going to try this blog trend. I think it will be easier to up keep, plus then all of our past post will be saved which will be nice. I guess this will act as our community journal. Well not a lot has happened since the last time I updated our website. We are currently in our 18th week, but 19 weeks will be on Thursday.
Father's day weekend was nice. Mike and I went down to Idaho Falls Friday evening to spent the weekend with Mike's parents. Friday night we went and got ice cream with them at Cold Stone. I guess that is the happening place for Idaho Falls because I think we waited in line for 30 minutes. Then I made the mistake of ordering a fruit smoothie instead of ice cream. The employee turned to me and said, umm I don't think we make those. I said well its on your menu. Come to find out it was the guys first day and it was the first fruit smoothie every made in that store, so they had to find the instructions for it. But it tasted good, just took a long time to get. Mike decided to stay up until midnight watching old BYU football games with his dad, so on Saturday he was dragging. We got up and went on a walk with his parents for about half an hour. Then Wagon (my father-in-law's nickname) took us out to breakfast; he is very good to us. Then we ran errands with his parents to Target and other stores in hopes to find the right stroller and car seat, but no luck. Then we went furniture shopping for Mike's parents and we actually helped them pick out a couch that they later brought home that day for their front room. After stopping at home for a quick bite to eat, Mike and Wagon went golfing and Peggy(my mother-in-law) and I went shopping to look for Curious George fabric for the nursery. I think we went to 20 stores in the 2 hours we were gone and didn't find anything. Oh well, that's the way life goes. The rest of the time spent there was just chill time. On Sunday I called my dad, brother, and brother-in-law for father's day. My dad had an excited father's day; he got to sit in a hotel room because we was out of town for work. He still has one more week to go. Then he will be home until our Colorado trip on the 8th. Mike and I were planning on leaving around 7 or 8 so we didnt get home too late, but it ended up being about 9 when we left so we didn't get home until 11:30 or so. We were both tired, so I think we ended up sleeping until like 9 in the morning Monday. I took the day off of work yesterday to catch up on sleep and to just take a chill day. Mike and I unpacked everything and then went shopping for new swimming suits since none of mine fit, at least not the way you would need them to to go in public. I found a cute one that is a tankini on the top that almost covers my belly and then the bottom has a skirt attached to it, so it covers a lot. Mike's brother Marc will be coming to Utah on the 29th of June and we all will be heading to Bear Lake for the weekend, so I needed a new swimming suit, since all I can do is play in the water and lay out. I don't think jet skiing would work out for me and the baby. It will be a nice relaxing weekend though.