Boy or Girl...Who guessed right?!

We (hopefully, please, please, please) find out the gender of this cute baby tomorrow!! 

 We are so so excited to finally be able to call our baby a "he" or "she" and not an "it" or "the baby".

So check back tomorrow and see if your vote was correct!

Here are the voting results from the poll:

GIRL or BOY ???
Selection		Votes
Girl	87%	26
Boy	13%	4
30 votes total

Hoover Dam/Las Vegas

The Hoover Dam is amazing! It's massive and I never realized just how cool it really is. 

Here are some facts we learned:  Between the years 1922 and 1942, the total time for construction of Hoover Dam, a total of 114 men died.

37 died from being struck by an object like a falling rock, 28 died from falling off either the dam or the steep canyon walls, 14 died from the heat (before everyone learned the importance of drinking enough water while working in the hot desert heat), 10 died from accidental explosions, 9 died in construction traffic accidents, 6 men drowned in the river, 5 men were accidentally electrocuted, 4 died in a rock slide, and one man died when a form broke and concrete spilled out.
The first and the last person drowned. they were 17 years apart. Wow, what a sacrifice these men made to build this amazing structure!

Before I get to the Dam pictures, here is us traveling trough Arizona and Nevada to get to the temple:

Arizona Canyon

Las Vegas Temple!

Lake Mead

Here's Hoover Dam:

A new bridge that's under construction

Look how huge!

Wouldn't that be scary to fall down...?

The water is so pretty, the limestone deposits makes it the tropical color

We had so much fun on this trip, next stop: California!

SAD day yesterday

I'd been looking forward to our baby appointment for about 26 days and was so excited thinking that we could finally see an ultrasound on our baby. Um, no! 

Apparently at McKay-Dee OB-GYN they only do one ultrasound the entire pregnancy, what?! 

I was in tears at the appointment and (I hate to admit) but I was rude to the nurse because I was so upset. This is my first experience with this pregnancy stuff and I was not happy that I couldn't see my baby. Everyone else seems to have all these fun ultrasound photos clearly showing a baby and I don't have one.

I WANT one. 

I was heartbroken when Vaughn and I left that appointment. I'm seriously considering switching doctors and going to another clinic. Any recommendations?  

Can't wait to get my mind off the sad day yesterday by going away for the weekend! (See post below)

So excited

to go here this weekend!

Even though I've driven through Nevada several times while going to and from California to Utah, I've only actually stayed there once when I was like 17.
I'm shooting a wedding at the Las Vegas Temple on Saturday and I'm so excited for it! Vaughn and I are not 
particularly fond of this city known for it's sin and while passing by on our honeymoon, we vowed to never go there. But in this case, we figure that we are going to the Temple and not the Vegas Strip. We are making a fun weekend trip out of it, I just love being with my husband.

I love my job.

May 20th, 2010!

Is a really, really, REALLY exciting day for Vaughn and I. This is the day we officially find out if we are having a boy or a girl! 

30 more days can't come fast enough.

I actually had it scheduled for May 24th originally but, I talked them into rescheduling to 4 days sooner. I just can't wait those 4 extra days! She was pretty adamant about me having to be as close to 20 weeks as possible for this appointment. I think I negotiated well though.

Another thing to keep me semi-occupied until then is our ultrasound appointment on Wednesday, I've been counting down for a month now. 2 days left! This is the first time we will have actually seen our baby since my last ultrasound at 6 weeks (there wasn't much of a baby to see yet)
Ooh, I'm so excited to finally see an ultrasound photo of our sweet baby!

** At 15 weeks, I'm finally starting to look pregnant!

We'll be taking a weekly photo of me and my growing belly starting this week, so check back weekly if you wanna see the progress!

Free Giveaway!

Click on the image below to enter the contest

St. George Vacation!

80 degrees and sunshine everyday

 

 On our way!

 Temple trip

Went to Benja Thai for Grandma's birthday. The yellow curry was oh so delicious!

We sat outside on the patio and the blossoms from this tree kept falling on our table. I loved that!

Some of the family (not everyone came)

My cute sis

My grandpa, grandma and cousin Justin. We hadn't seen Justin for 13 years (long story).

Look how green and beautiful

We went to Jimmy Johns for lunch on Friday and passed by a bank on the way and noticed a huge crowd eating food in the parking lot. We stopped by and sure enough, it was free! So we (Vaughn) ate again, it was awesome!

Here we are enjoying the free food. Vaughn got a hamburger and then suggested that I get a hot dog and he would eat it since I don't eat meat. That's my Vaughn!

Ancestor Square

See more pics from our trip on my photography blog

We can't wait to go back in 2 weeks!

Miracles do happen..

Facebook can be a very wonderful, useful tool when it comes to finding someone. Someone you've never met. 

My biological father (Gary) had a son, he's my half brother. His name is Adrian and that's all I knew.
Until now..

I finally decided to look him up, I wasn't sure if he had the same last name as Gary so, I just hoped. 

I had no idea what he looked like but, I found a boy that might be him,
 so I sent him a message:
"You don't know me but, my name is Ashley and I think we might be related, as crazy as that sounds! I was wondering if your dad is Gary Parke? My grandma is Janet Leile Parke and Gary is my biological father. Let me know, I'd love to hear from you!"

I got a response the next day:

"He is my dad, I think I may know u. Oh my gosh, I believe u could be my sister I have a very faint image of u so long ago and my mother saying a sister of mine whos name was Ashley."

Wow, what do you do in a situation like this? I'm so excited!

I finally saw a photo of him and there are a few similarities between us. I've never had brothers or sisters that look like me and I think Adrian is the closest I've got. He lives in Oregon, is 18 years old and has a girlfriend named Amber. This is all I know about him so far. We have been writing back and forth so I'm hoping to get to know him better. The only person I really know on my dads side of the family is my grandmother. I don't remember anyone else, although my aunts and uncle are very kind and email me once in a while. It really means a lot that they care about me. Especially my grandma Janet. She has faithfully written me my entire life, once every two months or so and a birthday card is always a guarantee from her. I'm finding myself wanting to know more and more about this whole other family that I have. I've always only been around my moms side of the family but, I have another family that has the other half of my genes. Where does my shyness come from? Definitely not from my mom, she's the most outgoing person I know! I'm sure it's from my dad. I love to cook, my mom hates to cook. I love to read, my mom would rather be dancing or talking on the phone. I love the arts (hence, my work). I just wonder where I got half of my personality from. I hope to meet this side of my family someday. I also would like my children to know them as well. Someday. Hopefully sooner than later.

Our Baby?

According to MorphThing.com, this is what our child will look like:

Girl:

Boy:

Don't pay attention to the weird hairline and the faded bangs.. Our baby should look a bit more normal!

Pretty cute though, dontcha think?