Merry Christmas!

Abby, Mo and I had a wonderful Christmas! Hammy Shan (Brad's Mom) came and stayed at our house on Christmas Eve and opened presents with us on Christmas morning. We had a wonderful Christmas Eve dinner and a delicious Christmas morning breakfast.

In the afternoon, we went to Abby's parents for a fun dinner, to open gifts and to play games with her family. We had a great time with them.

As you can see in the picture, Abby looks great! Most people can't believe that she's over 8 months pregnant! She still works out several times a week...I think that I've gained more weight during her pregnancy than she has! :)

We had a wonderful Christmas with many of our family members and friends! Here in Utah, it even snowed most of the morning and evening to make it a very White Christmas. We feel very blessed to have so many great friends and family members. Those of you who weren't here with us, we missed you, but we were thinking of you. We hope that all of you had a very Merry Christmas with your families!

Love, Brad, Abby & Mo

Mo Update: Officially "Full Term"

Mo's official due date is Jan 19; however, all three ultrasounds have shown a due date of Jan 16. If we go off of the ultrasound, today is the end of the 37th week, which means Mo is officially full term!

Mo's big day appears to be rapidly approaching. We found out at the ultrasound on Dec 17 that little Mo has a full head of hair and was up to about 6 lbs! At Abby's last appointment on Monday, Dec 22, she was dilated to a 3 and 75% effaced. (I know that means something to all of you women out there...it didn't mean much to me until Abby explained it to me.) :) The doctor told Abby that it may be a matter of days or a matter of weeks...there really isn't any way to know.

So that you can cast your vote as to when you think Mo will join us, we've added a poll to the right column of the blog . We know that many of you check the blog regularly (even though we've been slackers at keeping it up to date), so we'll do our best to keep it updated so that you'll know when the baby is born.



Here is a picture of Mo's cute little bassinet that Hammy Shan gave her for Christmas. As you can see, it's all ready for her to join us any day now.

By the way, many of you keep asking if we've selected a name for her. We haven't yet...we've narrowed it down to a few that we really like, but we probably won't have an official name until we see her. One thing is for certain--we're going to have a hard time not calling her "Mo"! :)

Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving to all of our friends and family! We hope that all of you had a wonderful holiday. Abby did a great job cooking a turkey and making a wonderful Thanksgiving dinner for her parents and many of my family members.

We are grateful for our friendship and relationship with each one of you. We look forward to having our little "Mo" join our family early next year. We are grateful to live in a country where we are free and have been blessed so abundantly. May the good Lord bless each of you!

Love,

Brad, Abby & Mo

Happy Halloween!

Congratulations to Abby, the two-time defending TOSH Costume Contest Champion!!! (TOSH is where Abby works, for those of you who may not know.) Abby and Mo were a big hit!

Abby worked very hard making her costume from a cardboard box. Her oven even had a little oven door so that you could open it up and see the "bun." She wore the oven around the front of her most of the day at work. If you look closely at the clock, you'll notice that it even says, "1:19," which is Mo's due date. While we love Abby's costume this year, we can't take credit for the idea--one of my coworkers gave us the idea last year.





Abby had a great time handing out candy to all the trick-or-treaters tonight in her costume. You can see two of our pumpkins. I tried to carve the one closest to Abby to look like "Two Face" from Batman since the pumpkin was half green and half orange.

We had a fun Halloween, but we're even more excited for next Halloween because we'll have little Mo next year. I have no doubt that she'll be cute like her Mom in her little costume next year!

We hope that you all had a safe and Happy Halloween!

Love,

Abby & Brad

Mo's New Bows

According to the pregnancy counter, we only have 100 days left until Mo is born! She received one of her first presents in the mail yesterday. My sister-in-law, Jami, and her little ones sent Mo a set of beautiful new bows! Doesn't she look cute wearing her new little bows? :)

Thanks, Jami, Syd, Stock, Sami and Hadyn! We miss you!

My cute little pregnant Abby...

Mo Update - October

Abby and Mo went to the doctor again this week. Both mother and baby are doing great! Mo is now weighing about 2 lbs and is approx 14 inches long! We still don't have a name, but we're working on it.

Mo went with us on Thursday night to her first-ever Utah game. It was an exciting game...we were all happy to see they pulled it out in the end. Every time someone scored a TD, Mo kept asking if it was time to sing, "Ra ra ra ra ra... Go COUGARS!!!"

Blogger Abby...

Abby has been in charge of updating the blog the past few weeks... We hope that you've enjoyed the updates! :)

"Rise and Shout..."

Abby and Mo both attended their first ever BYU football game in Provo on Saturday. I'm trying to teach Mo to choose the right before she is even born. :)

The Cougars put on a great show for Mo, dominating UCLA 59-0! It was such a blowout that we actually got bored and headed for the exits before the end of the 3rd Quarter. The win moved BYU up to 11 in one poll and 14 in another.

Oh ya, that other team up the road also won this weekend. They moved up to #20 in both polls, but you probably don't care about them. :)

By the way, our condolences to all of you Buckeye fans out there; however, the Cougars wait with open arms to receive you!

It's A Girl!!!

Abby and I just got back from the doctor's office... we found out that we are having a little girl! Even though I've been predicting a little boy all along, we couldn't be happier to be having a little girl. Although, I must admit, sitting there in the Dr's office, the first thoughts that ran through my mind were our little girl being a teenager, dating, etc. Scary, huh? :)

Proof for any doubters

The ultrasound shows that the baby looks very healthy. As you can see in the ultrasound pictures, you can see her little profile. We were able to watch the baby move her little head, arms and legs around while they were doing the ultrasound. It was really cool to watch and see a little person moving around inside of Abby.

Profile of the baby

So far, the only one we know of that is disappointed is my nephew, Stockton. He has been praying hard for a little boy. His reaction was really cute when I told him. He gruntingly said, "OUOUH!!! I wanted a BOY!" Don't worry, Stockton... we'll try again at some point!

On a side note, we want to wish a very special and Happy Birthday to our cute nieces, Sydney and Hadyn, who share the same birthday today. Sydney is 7 and just started 1st grade, and Hadyn is celebrating her very first birthday. Happy Birthday, Girls!!! (You can follow the "Four Little Buckeyes" link on the right of our page to see their blog.)

Thanks for all your support and interest! We'll have to have another poll soon for the name or something.

Mo & Golf

Abby, Mo and I went golfing tonight. Now that Abby is 18 weeks pregnant, I thought that I finally had a chance of beating her. Unfortunately, I was wrong... We played neck and neck until the last few holes until she and Mo pulled away and beat me easily. Pathetic, isn't it? Oh well, maybe I'll finally be able to beat her when she's 8 months pregnant. This was Mo's second time golfing... based on how well he's doing as a fetus, we think that he has real potential to be the next Tiger!

While we're talking about Mo, Abby is finally able to feel him now. Every now and again she'll feel a fluttering when she is just sitting there. She's very excited to finally be able to feel a little baby moving inside her. (We'll see if she still feels that way in another 20 weeks when she's awakened by a swift kick inside of her.)

(Since we didn't have a camera with us to take any pictures tonight, I've attached a couple shots from the archives of Abby showing off her golfing prowess.)

Mo Update - Week 16

Abby had her 16 week appointment yesterday--both she and Mo are doing great! The next appointment is set for Sept 4, at which time we'll find out if the baby is a "Mo" or a "Mo-lly." (We figure that Sept 4 a fitting day to find out since it's Sydney's and Hadyn's birthdays.)

We're thrilled to see all the activity on the poll. We didn't know that so many people actually looked at our blog! So far, it looks like the vote between boy and girl is neck and neck, with "puppy" a disappointing and distant third. Once we find out the results of the ultrasound, we'll post the results on the blog so that you can see if you chose wisely. We're continually asked if we want a boy or a girl... all we hope for is a healthy, happy baby!

Thanks for all your comments on our blog! We always look forward to reading them.

"Mo" - New photos and 15 week update

We went to the doctor again today and had another ultrasound--the baby looks great. It's amazing that the baby is so well developed already. Apparently, Mo is now a whopping 5 inches! It was really cool to see the baby's little head, arms, legs, feet and hands. You can clearly see them in the accompanying ultrasound pics (click on the picture to the left to see the labels). Unfortunately, we were just a week or two early to be able to determine who guessed correctly in our poll.

The nurse told us that Mo's heartrate is right where it's supposed to be - 151 beats per minute. Based on the measurements that weretaken today, they moved the due date up 3 days to Jan 16; however, I'm not putting much stock in that, especially since one of the key measurements is the size of the head!

NY Trip

As most of you know, Abby and I recently returned from the Savage Leadership Conference in New York City, NY. We had a great time. It was Abby's first time and my second time to NY. We both loved it, especially since someone else was paying for most of it! :)

While we were there, we jogged through Central Park, cruised the harbor while we ate dinner and saw the Statue of Liberty, attended the Broadway showing of Wicked, ate dinner atop Rockefeller Center, visited Chinatown and Little Italy, and attended a Yankees-Reds game in this, the final, year of Yankees Stadium. It was an incredible trip! We've posted a few of our favorite pictures from the trip.

"Mo" Update

Today is the completion of Abby's 14th week. Apparently, Mo is a whopping 4.1-4.5 inches from crown to rump, and is supposedly starting to grow hair. He/she may even be sucking a thumb right now!

We are down to six weeks before we find out the baby's gender. Once we find out if the baby is a boy or a girl, we will start a more serious name selection process. Until then, we'll just stick with "Mo."

If you'd like to follow along with the baby's progress, you can check out the following links:
http://www.webmd.com/solutions/sc/pregnancy-week-by-week/weeks13-16#Week15
http://pregnancy.about.com/od/pregnancycalendar/p/week15.htm