Bryce turns nine... days old!

Pictures pictures pictures. We apologize for being in a baby coma for the past week. We promise to keep up on the pictures from now on. Especially as we can already tell that he is growing by the day. We have been really busy with the little one. We have been walking everyday and trying to get out at least once a day. Bryce keeps Brandy up at night, with legitimate needs, diaper, food, etc but she secretly loves every minute she can be with him. Matt has been off work since the delivery and goes back next Monday. Brandy will miss him, so will Bryce. We cant believe how many diapers Bryce goes through!!!! He seems more alert with everyday, he is such a good boy. I am in a fog with the lack of sleep so please excuse the lack of detail and any nonsense. We wish everyone could be here with him.

HE'S HERE!!!!!

So there we were on May 23rd. We decided to go play a little FROLF to get outside and moving. We lost track of total strokes and decided to just remember how far apart we were instead. By our calculations we shot about 150 for the full 18 holes. We are not the tiger woods of FROLF. It was somewhere between hole 9 and 11 that Brandy started to feel some contractions but ummmm........it was a tie game so far so we had to finish.
At the 18th hold we were visited by a baby moose. We had to play through because well....... it was still a tie game.

Guess who won.

So after that we went home and watched movies until 2 am when we decided it was time to head to the hospital.

After 28 hours of labor the little guy finaly came intothis world. Here he is!!!

Bryce Keene Richards was born 7 pounds 13 ounces and 22 inches long just after midnight on the 25th of May (Memorial Day)Well i have to go make some lunch for me and mama. While mama is currently making lunch for baby!!! We will post more pictures when time allows. We are the two happiest parents in the world!!!!

Home Stretch!

According to science we have 4 days left until Bryce makes his debue. However, if he is anything like mom he will be fashionably late. Time has never gone by slower. Mom is tired and dad is doing everything he can to help. Yesterday at the doctor's, we were told that I am 1cm dilated and only 25% effaced, so not that far along, but something. I realize that in a few years I will laugh at my inability to wait, whats a few days? I am a kid at Christmas morning. I am including a few of our maternity shots with reneevanni.com. It was fun to get these done, expensive, but fun! She will take some of Bryce as soon as he gets here so we can share. Also one picture from Saturday. Send those positive vibes our way!

It's all fun and games until someone starts gardening!

This weeks issue is an action packed story of triumph brought to you by the fatherly component of this crazy couple. We start our story out on the side of the road where i got our trusty camera out and took some pictures of our friendly neighborhood moose.

Then it was back to the much anticipated event of...........YARD SALE-ING!!!!!!! Brandy got a whole box of candles for $1!!! How frugal!!!! Matt got a 10 gallon pressure cooker.......no just kidding. But i definitely tried to talk Brandy into it.

After that we went gardening. We rented a community plot near downtown and broke ground last weekend on what we hope was our plot. It was hard to tell the way they were labeled. If not then we did some friendly farmer a favor!

Brandy was able to push the limits as to what a 9 month pregnant woman can rake. I (Matt) did a lot of hoe-ing. We have big expectations for it.

After all was said and done we got to spend some time out in the warm sun. It's been a perfect 60-65 and really sunny for the whole last week. Hopefully this weather will stay all summer and we'll be going to the park and to the zoo with little baby man in no time.

Today we went to the BABY EXTAVAGANZA!!! It was this big baby show with all the coolest strollers, car seats, cloth diapers, and other baby paraphernalia. I still haven't found that manly baby sling i've been looking for. I'm tryig to get Brandy to make me one with little zombies on it. I think i might have to wait a while.

Hopefully this post will be the last of the pregnancy posts as my wive is R-E-A-D-Y to have this baby. Oh and a congratulations to Scott and Megan and their little bundle of joy!! Way to go!!!

Waddling through the final stretch

We just finished week 36 and couldn't be more ready to meet Bryce and be done with this pregnancy! :) This is a big week for us, last week Brandy has to work, last week of childbirth class and (hopefully) the last week Matt will have as a break-in in the command center.

My clothes are not fitting anymore and I have accepted the fact that I will have some belly coming out of the bottom of my shirt, whether the rest of AK accepts is, it is something else all together. I had numerous comments this past weekend including "you are huge!" by a check out girl with braces and frizzy hair, "I have never seen someone carry that low before!" by random ladies in store (back to back with ms. frizzy hair) and a few of "you are so adorable" thrown in there. Notice there is not a single comment with the words thin, hot, or sexy in the mix. To be expected I suppose.

We learned on Friday that Bryce is already 6.5 to 7 pounds and is expected to weigh in at 7.5 pounds at birth. Deep breath. Doctor York said that Matt was cute because he cared and was asking questions as opposed to the jackasses who go in to the appointment with their partner and play on their gameboy... he actually said guys do this!

I am down to short walks and bocce ball (to Matt's delight but Mom's shagrin). Here are a few pics of the beginning of month 9!

Bryce's Room

I am not sure if you know, but we live in a split level house right now. So there are two bedrooms, the family room and a bath downstairs and the living room, kitchen, master bedroom and bath upstairs. The reason I am bringing this up is that Bryce's "nursery"is downstairs while our master bedroom, that we really like, is upstairs. So although I am including pictures of the nursery it will probably only be used for storage and occasional naps when mom is downstairs.

The crib is thanks to Grandma and Grandpa Richards, blanket was made by Aunti Traci, I painted the letters for his name, the bedding set was from the great-aunties, the toys are from Aunti Lisa and her lovely boys. Matt found the "changing table" on craigslist, a hotel was selling a bunch of these to make way for new ones, so we bought two. The pictures are from a used children's book, put into cheap frames that I painted.

8 months and an eruption!

32 weeks are here... I cant believe I still have 8 weeks to go! Bryce has moved his way up to black belt in baby karate, sure to be an expert samurai ninja by birth! His favorite moves include kicks to mom's rib and middle-of-the-night stealth jab to the pelvis, combined with a leg cramp, its surely to wake his carrier and send her limping to the bathroom.

Mt. Redoubt has been erupting for the past week, according to the hubs it is 2.5 hours away but we got some traces of ash Saturday afternoon and decided not to go out. The ash is little slivers of glass, not good for your car or your 8 month pregnant wife.

Sleeping at week 30 was a challenge but we have finally figured out how to fit Brandy, belly, pillows and Matt (ranked in the priority that Brandy saw fit while trying to sleep) in the bed. Thankfully poor hubs has managed to stay on the team.

Speaking of the man in the myth, he has been absolutely positively amazing during this pregnancy. He listens to my aches, asks if he can do anything and is more than willing to help. I am such a lucky woman to have him. He is a quarter century old now (sounds much more dramatic than 25) and we celebrated with a week of going out to eat more than we normally do, him purchasing more zombie movies (ANNOUNCEMENT: If you ever fear a zombie attack, feel free to call us for information, I have no doubts that my husband is THE expert on zombie attacks and what to do in every scenario).

We saw the latest Nicholas Cage movie last night... I typically am a Cage fan, I thought ConAir was awesome... "Knowing" on the other hand... left me a little disapointed. The only good thing was that there wasnt a single typical Nicky Cage type one liner... I didnt think it was possible. So now you not only have read about my aches and pains but also my completely unsolicited opinions about the latest movies... hey at least I didnt tell you how it ended.

In exciting news it looks like my families are all going to make it out this summer, minus a few gems... Mom is here June 21st, Richards are here beginning of April and the Dutras make it here the end of April. I am soooo excited to see them and for them to meet the little guy.