Video of Emery!

After a long absence, we are back on our blog. Things seem to finally be falling into somewhat of a schedule and we are able to have a few minutes after Emery goes to bed to do some things we want/need to do -- like the dishes, laundry, and playing on the internet. Our early Christmas present to ourselves was a camcorder so we can catch all of our precious Emery moments. Below is some video of Emery from the other night. Enjoy!

Busy Weekend!

We have had a busy weekend here at the Ginapp house. Our friend Travis was in town for the 4th of July weekend. It's starting to become a tradition to have Travis here for the 4th. This is the second year he has come to visit and we have such a good time with him. For those of you who don't know Travis, he is also a Holyoke survivor. We went to high school together and Asa and Travis worked together during the summers for the City of Holyoke. Travis was also an usher in our wedding.

The best part about having Travis as a guest is that his is usually game for anything that we've got going on. For example, last year we had to walk in the 4th of July parade and carry a large helium balloon for the firm. Travis agreed to carry the balloon, too, and we had a great time. This year, we are obviously consumed with preparing for the arrival of little Wiggles and Travis jumped in to help out there as well. In addition to 2 rounds of golf, Asa and Travis managed to get quite a few projects done in the baby's room. Here are some of the pictures:

The first project, installing a new fan/light. This one is not only more modern looking, it also allows Asa the freedom to walk around the room without worrying about hitting his head! I'm sure he will be thanking me for spending the extra money on it when he is up in the middle of the night with Wiggles.



Second project: A new closet organizer for Wiggles.



Ruthie took it upon herself to serve as the project manager. She sat outside the room all three days and meowed orders to the boys. Whenever I would show up, she would fill me in on their progress and her criticisms. She had a lot to say!



Final project: New closet doors. We decided to go with the mirrored doors for our little diva. No doubt she will spend hours here making sure she looks perfect.

So, we are finally getting down to the last details. We still need to put up the chair rail. I think Asa, Blair and I have finally reached an accord as to what style we should go with. And we also need to find a shade/curtains for the window and put in the new door. Then we just need to load it with furniture, toys, decorations, and clothes! (sigh) Only 10 more weeks until Wiggles is due...

Officially Nesting!

Finally, after months of "planning," we have taken the big step toward decorating Wiggles' nursery! My heroes - Asa and Blair - worked diligently this week and this weekend to get the painting done. Although we purchased the No/Low VOC paint, the fumes still bother me and so I only get to pop in for a couple minutes here and there to check on the progress.

Below are two "before" pictures of the room. While the flowers and dragonflies are cute, the blue was very dingy and really sucked the light out of the room. (Editor's note: when we bought the house, this was, oddly, the only room that was actually painted a color other than white/beige -- except for a few dark brown walls in a couple bathrooms.)




Goodbye, blue! Here are my two heroes priming the room.



The real work started yesterday when Blair and Asa began the actual painting. As you can see, we chose a two-toned yellow and green theme. It looks great with the pictures from the book (Guess How Much I Love You). I can't wait to see it with the artwork.

We still need to get a new door for the room as well as a new closet organizer and new closet doors. Today we (Asa and Blair mostly) are going to purchase, paint, and potentially install the chair rail as well as paint the baseboards. We are so excited that it is finally coming together! We'll post more pics as we make progress!

4D ULTRASOUND PICTURES!!!

We had our 4D ultrasound today. It was fantastic! Here are some of our favorite pictures:

Some things we learned about our little girl: (1) she is beautiful; (2) she has very chubby cheeks (the tech said this repeatedly); (3) she is a little chunky and has a double chin (already); (4) she is a diva -- note that she likes to cover her face with her hand to prevent too many face pictures. She slept the entire time and would not open her eyes for us. She yawned a lot and we also got to see her suckling.

Asa's mom and my sister Blair got to come along. We all had a lot of fun. It was so awesome to get to see what her little face looks like! We are even more excited to meet her now!

New Baby Pictures...and Finally, An Update!

Oh my gosh! I just realized how long it has been since we posted anything! Needless to say, things have been quite busy around here! Work has been crazy. Like most law firms around here, we've had some cut-backs in staff -- no attorneys yet-- but we've all had to step it up to make sure everything is getting done. On top of that, I have 3 trials this summer. Since I've worked at H&S the past 3 1/2 years, none of my cases have actually gone all the way to trial. It figures that now that I am pregnant, 3 of them would go to trial in the 3 months before I have to give birth. On top of that, one of the other attorneys in our group fell in love and moved to Utah, so Asa and I are the most senior associates in our group, which means when things need to be stepped up, our boss is looking to us first. I have to give Asa credit, with me being in constant "trial prep" mode, he really has stepped it up and is doing a great job looking out for some of my cases that need a little TLC.

Okay, but enough of that. What about the baby??? Well, since we have been so busy at work, we have not had a lot of time to work on our baby preparations. Thank goodness for Aunt Blair. She has been diligent in reminding us that we need to make sure things are ready to go whenever Wiggles decides to make her debut. So, this weekend we are: (1) priming the nursery (it is currently a dingy baby blue with flowers) and (2) going to look a crib and changing table that we think will work well with the color scheme we have picked out. Our color scheme is based upon the children's book "Guess How Much I Love You" with pink thrown in for good measure. If you have not read this book, I highly recommend it. It is the sweetest thing! Asa and Blair are going to try their hands a recreating the illustrations to us as artwork.

New Pictures

We also had another ultrasound a couple of weeks ago. Wiggles was a little more cooperative, which I suspect is due in large part to the fact that she is running out of room to hide in there! Also, we had them double check for my mom and, Wiggles is still a girl! Here are a couple of pictures:

In all the free time we have, :) , we are also trying to schedule a 4D ultrasound that will give us a better image of what she is actually going to look like. A friend of ours had this done and it was amazing how much the 4D ultrasound image was similar to her actual appearance when she was born. Fingers crossed, that should happen within a couple of weeks and we will post what we can from that so you can all see her too!

One last picture. I know my mom has been wondering what I look like. I think it is driving her crazy with curiosity. I looked kind of nice the other day, so I had Asa take picture of me so you could see what "Kristol-going-into-her-third-trimester" looks like. I believe the best word is "large." My nice friends at work keep telling me "you still look so good," which I believe is probably followed with the inside thought of "for a whale with a huge butt!" Anyway, here is picture. Notice, I am in black-- it's slimming :) Also, please remember that this was taken after a long day of court hearings and trial prep, so I look very tired because I am very tired...and my feet are very swollen. Nevertheless, we are still very excited for Wiggle's arrival!

AND THE WINNER IS...WIGGLES!

Okay, so most you probably already have seen that Wiggles won the baby code name poll. And we have officially decided to go with Wiggles as our code name. Interestingly, after we put the poll up we learned that Wiggles is actually a family name on my (Kristol's) side. My dad told me that was the name he gave his very first puppy! So, Wiggles it is. And boy is she wiggling today!

Lulu was a surprising second as we did not actually consider that a real challenger, but you all seemed to really like it. We are already having a hard time breaking Asa's mom of the habit because she liked it so much. We also had some interesting "other suggestions." One of the most notable from our friends Amber and Kurtis was "Showgirl" or "Nomi" (the name of Elizabeth Berkley's character in Showgirls). But I put the kibosh on that. While I enjoy the Vegas reference, there are two reasons that I am against it: (1) I am already concerned about what our daughter is learning in utero given Asa's love of rap music ("Drop down and get your eagle on, girl"!?!?!) and (2) I am not among those who believe Showgirls is so bad it's good. No it's so bad, it's really, really bad. So, Wiggles it will be.

VERY CUTE THINGS...

So far, one of the best things about Wiggles being a little girl is the clothing. Asa's mom recently gave us a number of cute girl things, including the most precious sandles, a very soft and cuddly blanket, and Wiggle's first purse complete with a frog to kiss.

We also received a very cute purple and green dress and a ton of the most impossibly small diapers from Kurtis and Amber:

We lovee the dress. It is 12 month size so hopefully Wiggles will be able to wear it to her first birthday party!

MORE NESTING...

The nesting continues. Yesterday, we had a garage sale and sold a bunch of junk, which has helped with the massive storage issues we have encountered now that we are adding another person to our house. Asa's mom brought her junk over, too, and was very successful as well. I think we sold well over half of what we put out there. Once we were done, we took what was left (a good car-full) to charity and dropped it off. So, all in all, made some good cash and got a nice tax write-off. Pretty good Saturday if you ask me.

IT'S A GIRL!!

Today was a big day in the Ginapp house. We found out the sex of our baby. She's a she. A girl. My daughter. Our daughter. Kristol was right all along. I don't know how she knew, but she knew it was a girl. Kinda scary. How can I question her when she knew our daughter was our daughter when it she still looked like a deep water seahorse.

We have a picture of the goods, but we need to start trying to teach her modesty now. So, we won't be posting that picture. However, here are a couple of the new ultrasound pictures.

During the exam she moved around a lot. She refused to take her face out of Kristols back. The techs were not able to take all the measurements they needed, so we have to go back in 5 weeks. However, the baby did give us the thumbs up at one point and kicked like an Olympic swimmer a few times. She was quite lively, but seriously uncooperative. I guess Kristol's mom was right, our daughter is going to be just like Kristol...

Now we can really start coming up with a name. A proper name. A name befitting a strong Ginapp/Bradley woman. We haven't decided whether or not we are going to tell the general public yet. So we decided that we are going to use a code name for our daughter that we will use publicly (and privately) until we either decide to drop the name to the public or she is born. Therefore, we are going to create a poll and let the public -- you are faithful and loving friends, followers, and reader -- decide what we will be calling our little girl in the "meantime." Additionally, we will take suggestions for the code name and, should a new contender appear, we will have a playoff poll. However, (here is the lawyer fine print) we the parents retain the right to override the poll and choose the code name. Email the proposed code names or leave them in the comment section.

We are really both extremely excited. We have started to talk about just how we are going to decorate the nursery and looking really forward to more bright pink than a circus on acid. We hope to update more often and probably will as so much is going to be happening in the next five months.

Nesting 101

Well, yesterday we reached 16 weeks! I guess that must of have sparked something in us because we started nesting this weekend. Nothing major, but you might say we took some "baby steps" in our nesting process. Those of you who have been to our house know that we have a good size guest room which is becoming the baby's nursery. And our guest room also houses a bunch of "extras" including a bowflex which all need to be moved out. So, before we can get to the fun part of nesting -- decorating the nursery -- we have to make space in other rooms for the stuff from the guest room.

On Saturday, nesting meant fixing something that has been causing us unneeded stress in the mornings -- an unbalanced shower organizer. I know. I know. It sounds silly, but we had one of those shower organizers that hang over the shower head. Problem was that it didn't quit fit our shower and no matter how hard we tried, it never balanced. Because I take my shower in the morning long before Asa wakes up, this meant that I spent most of my time trying to avoid removing shampoo in a way that would cause the body wash to tumble out. Very stressful when you are barely awake! When it did fall, of course, Asa would wake up and think I had fallen, which in turn would stress him out. Silliness, I know. But we have solved the problem with a corner shower caddy which is supported by a tension rod between the ceiling and the floor. I cannot tell you how awesome and stress-free my shower was this morning. Glorious!

We also decided to nest on Saturday by introducing some other living things into our lives. Prior to Saturday, the only living things in our house included Asa and me and our two lovely cats. (Hopefully!) We had absolutely no living plants because I managed to kill the couple that I had shortly after we moved in a couple years ago. I have recently purchased some fun new pottery, so we decided to plan some succulents in them to liven up the place. For anyone that has a black thumb like me, I highly recommend succulents. They are like cactus in that they don't need to be watered very much, so you can ignore them and the love you for it!

Today, Asa has really kicked it into gear with the nesting. He has been a cleaning and organizing maniac! I've mostly just watched and I had to take a nap this afternoon because he made me so tired! Our main project was a storage idea Asa had this morning. Because most of the stuff in the guest room is being moved into what is going to be Asa's office, we have had to come up with some new storage solutions for the crap (sorry, that really is the best description) that we keep in the closet in Asa's office. This summer, we installed a murphy bed in the closet in my office because, it seems, when we have guests, we tend to need more than one guest bed. This has worked out very well so far. Anyway...I digress. Since we have so many beds, we have amassed a large collection of sheets and we have never had a good storage solution for them. So, Asa suggested installing shelves in the unused space above the murphy bed. They work fabulously. Here are a few pictures of Asa installing the shelves and finished product.

Now Asa is still working like crazy to organize all of the different rooms upstairs. I think he is starting to freak out a little bit. He keeps saying: "Oh my gosh, we are almost halfway to the due date!" I'm not so freaked out yet, but I'm sure it is on the way.

Sorry this second post has taken so long. Asa's been traveling for the past two weeks and I had no idea what email address and password he used to set this up. We'll try to do better in the coming weeks!

BIG NEWS!!

Obviously, from the title of the blog, you know by know we, Kristol and I, are expecting a baby to join our family in September 2009. We are very excited and have already been through two ultrasounds. The baby is 13 and a half weeks along now. We will be updating this blog regularly, or more likely, semi-regularly.

We don't really consider ourselves the blogging type, but I guess things are changing. So, we'll give this a shot! This way we can gush and dote and otherwise make asses of ourselves -- essentially being cheesey -- on a worldwide stage!! Feel free to share our joy (and our goofy awkward attempts at learning to be parents) with your friends and family. Please comment early and often. Please make special requests for blog topics and posed photos, we will do our best to fulfill. Hope to hear from you soon.


Asa & Kristol


January 26, 2009 Ultrasound

We had our first ultrasound on January 26, 2009. At this point Kristol was 7 weeks along. This is the first picture of our new baby. It was approximately .48 inches long and the baby's heart rate was 167 beats per minute. The ultrasound tech commented that it was a "strong" heart rate. That made both Kristol and I proud -- our baby, only 7 weeks old, less than half an inch tall and already getting A's.

March 4, 2009 Ultrasound

Our 2nd ultrasound was on March 4, 2009. The baby had grown to 2 and a half inches. BOO-YEAH. We are cooking an athlete up in there...not likely. We were able to see both hands, both feet, stomach, brains, nose bone, and heart beating. It was very moving. There was our kid, we could see its face, its round little head, and four little limbs. Then the tech moved to measure the baby's heart rate. The tech deftly found the tiny beating heart. The monitor lit up with the flicker of the beating and rhythmical swoosh that is our baby's life. A few beats into the measurements, the room fell silent. The once multi-peaked line went flat.

Both Kristol and I were taken aback for a very brief moment, not knowing why it stopped so suddenly. Of course we assumed the worst. Thankfully then the tech said nonchalantly, "Oh, the baby moved." It moved. Holy #*@%, this is really real now!! And sure enough, you could see the baby move its arm!! We could see the baby's legs move!! It was amazing. We are definitely looking forward to getting the 3D ultrasound. When we do, we will post the video...

If anyone wants to see more of the ultrasound pictures, just email me and I will send them to you. But, for the most part, they are essentially the same as those above. We would really love to hear from you all. Take care.