big sister

It's very nice to have such a helpful big sister!

race track cake

So...as I was reading all your wonderful comments, I wanted to make a little update. My mom is here helping and she made the incredible race car cake for Ansel. I pretty much just slept while she was working away. It's so nice to have her here.

happy birthday ansel!!

Today is Ansel's birthday. It was nice with all the craziness in our lives right now to be able to have a special day focusing on Ansel. I've heard it's hard being a middle child. He was very happy with his presents and loved having cake and ice cream.

hanging out with dad

Here is Lincoln getting some nice quality time with dad.

Lincoln photo

Here is another picture, maybe you can see his face a little better.

Lincoln Tanner Ashby is finally here

I don't really have time to tell the whole story right now.....but I wanted to say: he's here! Lincoln was born November 18th at 11:15pm. He was 21.5 inches and 7 lbs 13oz. It was a VERY fast labor. (I guess it started at 9:30pm, but we weren't sure it was the real thing until 10:15pm) Our midwife was actually delivering a baby up in Park City (her second one for the day) and she came as fast as she could, but she did not make it before the baby was born. She had a back up midwife that we had contacted who was closer, but I still was not even dilated enough for a hospital to admit me! (As part of helping induce labor, I had something inserted to measure the dilation and try to help it along.....since I was more than a week past the due date.) When my water broke we thought forget about dilation, he must be almost here. So, we immediately called our back up midwife who was all ready and waiting for us to call so she could walk out the door. The only problem is that our address is a little confusing to find....1150 South is a street that is disconnected, so you can be on one end of it and not be able to get to my house. Anyway, after the baby was born she was a few blocks away and we were able to give her more directions to get here. I guess I couldn't help but tell a little bit of the story. I'm just so grateful for my beautiful, healthy baby and that everything with the birth could go so smoothly and as planned with no medical complications (except for not having a medical professional there.) And mostly I'm grateful for my amazing husband who remained so calm, supportive and helpful during this whole process of helping me through labor and actually delivering our baby. We are so truly blessed!

start date

Well, I'm excited to have something to report. No, the baby is still not here. Yes, I'm 10 days overdue. (You know due dates are just approximations.) I will see my midwife later today to make sure Lincoln and I are still looking good and healthy. Anyway, the NEWS is that Joseph will start working at Spirit on Dec 5th. That is two weeks from Friday. So, that sounds pretty good to us. He is quite anxious to get back to work. Joseph just got his start date late this morning so we should hear from the relocation company soon so we can get our house on the market and start making moving arrangements. Horray! It's nice to have a little more structure to our lives or at least a more detailed plan!

the belly shot

I figure before I have this baby, I better get a pregnant photo. From the angle I don't look super big. But if you see "the bullet" (that is what we affectionately call the big belly) in real life, you would think it's about time. Keep your fingers crossed, maybe the next post I make will actually have Lincoln in it. yayayay.

the news

Well, I bet you are expecting me to say that the baby is here! No, not yet. he he he. My babies don't like to come early. So, we've had a pretty crazy month. On Oct 7th I came home from a meeting around noon and my husband was home. Apparently, he was included in the most recent round of layoffs at his work. So, he applied for about 40 jobs that day and then about 40 more in the next two days.

We got our first "lead" that Friday, so we were excited and thought that was a great sign. He did several phone interviews and got invitations to fly out to job interviews in Denver, CO and Hartford, CT. We didn't find any substantial leads anywhere near this house that we own. (great, it's a nice time to try to sell....) We got a surprise job offer from a large company in Wichita, KS without a fly out interview. We were thinking we would probably end up in Denver, but the company in Wichita is very large and has an AMAZING moving package that looks extremely appealing to me here in the 39th week of my pregnancy. Not only will they pack and move us, but they'll pay for temporary housing and fly us out to house shop before we move out. It just sounds SO nice.

Anyway, the Denver company emailed the day after he got back and said they were going to make him an offer but someone was out of town and it would take a few days. We were shocked when they contacted us later saying that they had to tighten their finances and could NOT offer him a job. Joseph really enjoyed his trip out to Hartford and they are assembling a new composites team and wanted him to be the team supervisor (overseeing 10-12 engineers by the end of the first year). For those of you who don't know my husband very well...he would LOVE this. They offered him much more money than someone of his experience level generally receives and a big signing bonus because they really liked him and thought he would fit what they were looking for perfectly. Still we were thinking Wichita is just so much closer to our families (especially his family, who we never get to see) and housing/cost of living is SO much cheaper. Anyway, because of the 30% difference in offered salaries, Joseph asked the Wichita company if there was anything they could do to make it easier for him to take that job. Meanwhile, the Hartford company asked what it would take to get us to take that job. We really went back and forth so much and finally when the Wichita company offered a little more money and a signing bonus, we thought that's it, that's what we have to do.

I don't have any time frame yet....but as soon as this baby is born Joseph, Lincoln and I will fly out to find an apartment to rent until our house sells here. I'm kind of thinking/hoping that he'll start work on December 1st. The company is very flexible and understanding with the new baby coming and the moving arrangements. SO, that's what is going on and we are very excited. I've been going a little crazy knowing we would have to leave and not knowing where yet. So, today is a great day.