Aiden's Going to be a Soccer Player!

So Jessie is about 5 and a half months along now with little Aiden. We have been so blessed to have a little baby who loves to move around so much...well, I consider it a blessing. Jessie doesn't tend to see it in such a happy light at times when she is trying to fall asleep and can't because of the constant baby attacks on her spleen and baby aerobics on her bladder. I couldn't be more happy though to feel him move around. Jessie has been very nice and has been alerting me to when the baby is moving around. I always drop everything and rush over to put my hand on her ever-growing belly, just to feel one or two little kicks. She is the most beautiful soon-to-be mother!

Like I said, we are so blessed to have such a crazy little mover! Jessie has been able to feel little jabs and pokes for about three months now. Even I felt a little kick at 2 1/2 months. I had to wait for about five minutes and hold very still, which Jessie can attest to is all but impossible for me to do, but I felt my first little kick that early. Of course, when we mentioned it to the doctor I don't think he believed us. Since then the kicks have just gotten stronger and stronger, and every night, right at bed time, 11:45 on the dot, he starts doing his baby exercises. He hasn't missed a day in weeks! When we began telling people about our little Aiden's moving habits we kept getting surprised responses. Most people said that was really early for him to be moving, even at 4 or 5 months. Last week when we last went to the doctor the nurse was even surprised to hear that we could feel him now. "Some kids are just big movers," was her response. That made me curious to know if Aiden is some sort of moving anomaly or if others had had early movers, too. My mom mentioned that my brother, sisters and I all started moving really early, even as early as Jessie said she started feeling Aiden. I then saw one of my old mission buddies whose wife just had their first baby. He was surprised to hear that we were feeling the baby, too, especially since he said he and his wife didn't feel the baby move until about 6 1/2 months into the pregnancy. So, I've got to ask, when do most people start to feel the baby move around during pregnancy?

In any case, we are so happy to have such a mover for a baby. It makes things so exciting and real. He tends to move a lot when Jessie is hungry, or when Jessie eats spicy foods, and of course at 11:45 p.m.

Inspirational Thought

My sister-in-law, Cindy, posted this quote on her blog and I thought I would pass it along because I liked it so much and it made my day so much better when I read it! Thanks Cindy! The past few weeks have been really busy, especially with midterms this week and last week, and today I was facing another long day at school and work and this quote cheered me up :D

My belly is getting bigger and bigger and random people I meet on campus now comment on me being pregnant. It is fun, but kind of strange to be recognized so publicly. It is one of those things that can't help but be announced to the world! But of course, I always love talking with people about the excitement of having little Aiden soon so I don't mind that other people like to talk about it too! I can feel him moving around so much now during the day! He gets especially fidgety when I haven't eaten for a while. Next week is my next doctor's appointment and I might get to have another ultrasound so that will be exciting.

Besides baby stuff, school is going well for both Brad and I, it is just really busy. We are both excited there is only a month and a half left until the end of the semester. Chris Goodwin is coming out here to Utah next week and we are looking forward to hanging out with him and Tiffany! We might be going down to St.George for a short, little camping trip so that will be fun. The weather has been BEAUTIFUL lately so it will probably be really nice, especially down in St.George if we end up going. Since we don't get an official spring break at BYU we are trying to see if we can fit in our own spring break :D

I also cut my hair recently. I had been growing it out since Brad and I first met, but I wanted a change. I usually get in the mood for a short haircut once it starts getting warmer outside. I cut it up to my jawline and it turned out really well! I really liked Katie Holmes' recent haircuts, so that is the type of haircut I got. It has a lot of short, soft layers. So, it works perfect with my curly hair, so I can do it really quick in the morning. I will have to post some pictures of it soon!

That is all the news I have for now. We love ya'll and hope you have a great week! We can't wait to see some of you soon at Tawni's wedding!

GPS Tracking!

Ok, most won't care too much about this post, and really, I think that only Dad and Ryan Piggott will be interested in what is going on here. I was playing with my Blackberry and searching for some new applications to download. I came across an app that was based around the GPS in my phone. What it does is it tracks your position, put your path on a map and upload it to the internet. I found it this morning right before going on a bike ride, and naturally was really excited about it. So I tried it out. The thing works amazingly well! I was really surprised. It plotted my course exactly and even gives the average speed and distance travelled. The website where everything is posted is called www.GPSed.com. I'm still figuring out how others can search for my tracks on the website. As soon as I figure it out I'll let you know. I'm pretty excited about this. Keep you updated.

IT'S A BOY!

WE ARE HAVING A BOY!!!!! THE BABY IS A BOY! We are so excited to know that in just a few short months little baby Aiden Alan Griffitts will be joining us here in the world.

On Thursday Jessie had another doctors appointment to check on the baby. There was no ultrasound scheduled for the day, even though she was almost twenty weeks along. The appointment went just great. The baby's heart rate was 155 and strong, a lot stronger than the first time we heard the heart beat a month ago. After the appointment we were scheduling our next appointment as well as the ultrasound. Lucky for us there was an opening just an hour later, so we quickly agreed to come back and went out to lunch, eagerly waiting for our time to go back and find out if we would be having a little Kali or a little Aiden. The ultrasound went great and everything was good and healthy. No complications.

Ok, as soon to be parents, I must admit that we have failed in our duty to keep everyone up to date on what is going on. As a quick and brief run through, Jessie is 20 weeks and 1 day along. Brief. She's healthy and happy. The baby is a true night owl. He sleeps during the day and when Jessie and I go to bed he takes the opportunity to practice his backflips, punching, and kicks, effectively keeping Jessie awake. Only twenty more weeks Jessie! She doesn't get sick anymore and her appetite is back and strong.

Here is a profile shot of Aiden. I say he's definitely got the Griffitts nose. Jessie says I can't tell that early. I definitely see it though. We'll see here in a few months. He's still bald though. haha.

This is his left arm, shoulder on the right hand on the left. Jessie says he was waving at us. Looks like a strong arm to me. My little boy! Not too skinny. Jessie is hoping for a fat baby, or as she puts it, "a baby with a bit of chub on it."

Yep, that's a penis! MY BOY!

Jessie and her belly! Her belly has been showing more and more everyday. I love it.

Another picture of the belly.

Valentine's Day Fun

This was our very first official Valentine's Day together. Jessie, for one, was more than a little excited. She was hinting at the importance of this Valentine's for weeks beforehand. Asking what we were going to do, asking what I had planned, threatening my life if I were to forget or plan other activities. I think we may have just started dating last year during Valentine's Day but we weren't close enough to actually do anything in particular. To tell you the truth, neither of us can remember.

Jessie, was in true form in the morning, sleeping in well past ten. I woke up earlier, did some cleaning, and made her breakfast in bed. By the time I had finished and brought the food in she was still fast asleep and rather delirious as I woke her up. Most of the time, because of prior experiences, Jessie isn't allowed to eat in bed, or on the futon for that matter, but seeing as how it was Valentine's the rule was overlooked.

After going to class and the store I came home with flowers for Jessie. She got me a wonderful book outlining all the things she loves about me. It was awesome and I loved it! It was the perfect present. For dinner we went to Happy Sumo for sushi to find out that there was a two hour waiting list to be seated...and that was a SHORT time come to find out. Another restaurant next door had a three to four hour wait. Lucky for us we knew of a small little sushi place that is not very well known, but has excellent sushi. For all you women out there reading this and wondering about the sushi rule with pregnant women, don't worry. Jessie just ate cooked fish sushi, so we're all good. She got her sushi fix without breaking any rules! :)

After a lack luster attempt to make our way into a sold out theater to watch a movie, we rented a couple of our own, went to the store for some more food, and headed home for a night alone. For dessert we made chocolate covered strawberries. Grownup-like, civil behavior quickly gave way to the childish act of food fighting. I'd like to think I won, but I guarantee Jessie would disagree. In all it was a very nice night.Jessie and her flowers. She's not drunk, just rather tired.

Chocolate...

Tale of Two Cities

So, over the past few weeks we have gone through a few different weather situations. When we first got back we had a lot of new snow. Over the next week and a half to two weeks, a high pressure system sat right over us and we had the worst inversion ever seen on the Wasatch Front. Usually we can see well past Utah Lake and the mountains and everything, like the picture below. But as the days went on, the inversion got worse.

Here's a picture at about the peak of the inversion. You can only see to about halfway across the BYU campus.
Thick, gross smog. They had warnings out and were telling people not to leave their houses unless they had to.
But, things cleared up! Here's a picture of Timpanogos from campus. It is so beautiful and this is the Provo we're used to.
Here's a picture of Rock Canyon from campus. Sadly, another inversion is coming and things are getting bad again. Spring can't come fast enough.

Christmas Rundown

We haven't blogged in quite a while, so here's a quick rundown on what has happened in the past few weeks. For Christmas we went back to Coeur d'Alene to stay with my parents, along with about 10 other people. :) It was a packed house. Meagan and Brent were there with there three kids Coen, Atlas, and Emmy, as well as Mike DeMotte and his two kids, Alexis and Carter. Tawni was able to stay for a week, too. It was a packed house, but it was absolutely awesome. It was so good to be with everyone for a little while. As you can see from the pictures, there was just a little bit of snow. The first picture at the bottom of the blog was the first full day that we were there. After that, it snowed another few feet. Yeah, feet. The picture above is from before we went home. There was so much snow that we were shoveling roofs.
Christmas day was great, as always. Food, presents, family, friends. Doesn't get any better.
The back deck of the house after shoveling off the roof. Dad and I ended up jumping off the roof onto the front lawn afterwards, because it was just easier to get off that way than try to get down the ladder.
Coen, Emmy, and Atlas. It was a lot of fun spending time with them. Love those kids to death.
This is the sight we got home to. It was beautiful the entire trip.

So now we're back at school. Things are busy to say the least. I'm loving the classes I'm taking this semester. I'm taking one class on compressible fluids and supersonic flow, which is a lot of fun, and my other fun mechanical engineering class is a biomechanics class, going over how the body moves and the mechanics of the different tissues in the movement process. I'm also doing my mechanical engineering research project for Union Pacific. I'm still in charge of the wind tunnel, and things are very busy. Along with the engineering research, I'm still doing research for the Neuroscience department. Also working.

I signed up to take the MCAT on May 2, so Saturdays are filled with studying for the test, as well as a three hour lab I have in the afternoon. Poor Jessie now only gets to see me the whole day on Sundays alone. She hates it, but she is so good to let me study. I love her to death.

Jessie is a little over 4 months pregnant now. Her little belly is starting to show now. :) It's really exciting. We were able to go to the doctor a few weeks ago and got to hear the baby's heartbeat. The heartbeat was 166, which according to Mom means that it is a girl. Although Tyler's heartbeat was very high, but he came out a boy. Sorry Teej. It's all very exciting and we are having a good time getting ready for everything. In about two weeks we get to go back to the doctor, Jessie will get an ultrasound, and we get to find out what the baby is going to be! We already have names picked out. To be truthful, we've had names picked out for months and months. If it's a girl, we are going to name her Kali Jo Griffitts. If it's a boy, Aiden Alan Griffitts. Jessie keeps claiming that the baby is a girl and says she will be really surprised if it's a boy. We'll let you all know when we find out. Jessie also bought a little journal for the baby Friday. She's really excited about it. She made sure I put it in the blog. We're excited and happy. Things are going great.