Such a Jewel

Baya is really so fun to have around. She has been Mello... as far as babies go. We are loving her and the girls are especially enamered by her and won't leave her alone, which is a mixed blessing!!! Here are some of our recent favorite pics. She is still a sleepy little thing... and we are getting used to this now. Our other two weren't quite so quiet!

10 years ago...

The other night Bryan was acting sort of mysterious and he had asked me if I could have a gift, what it would be. I told him I'd love to have a clean car. So, that night he was out cleaning my car. It was really sweet. Then that night after a neighborhood social, he went and got a car wash and something else. I knew he was up to something. In the morning when I woke up he handed me an envelope and told me to open it. I was confused, what was this? I read it and he told me that we had met 10 years ago that day in Nyiregyhaza, Hungary... at English hour... and expressed his love etc. He is so cute! He then told me that he'd arranged for our neighbor to watch our kids and was going to take me to lunch... and I had a dozen roses waiting for me downstairs. I have a very impressive husband. So, it was 10 years ago on July 16th that I met Bryan Rasmussen. I think as first impressions go, we didn't do so great. He thought I was snobbish, I thought he was lurpy... but, as we served together for 4 months as missionaries in this eastern city of Hungary, we became friends. Later after I'd been home from my mission 4 months and he'd been home about 7, we started to hang out a bit, and somehow hit it off! I'm so glad he is such a great husband and dad, and wow... how impressive is that-- he even knows his dates!

A fun week with Baya

Besides the fact that people keep saying Baya's name like you would pronouce Maya (spelled similar), we love it. It is Bay (like a water cove) uh... like uh, sure... Anyway, the girls are just loving having their little sister around. She is sleeping a ton, but I guess we won't worry too much. She is sweet and we have enjoyed bath time, visitors, and a lot of chilling w/ our Baya.

Parachute suit!!!

Baya was diagnosed in the hospital w/ having a dislocatable hip... which basically means when they rotate their little hips, her left one can slide out of the socket. So, it is a good problem to have if you have to have a problem. We went up to Primary's the day after we were discharged and they put this cute little brace on her. The Dr. referred to it as a parchute suit... or Bryan sometimes calls her his young frankestien. Anyway... for about 3 months she'll wear this brace or one similar and hopefully that will be the end of it. She is sure sweet in it and it doesn't seem to bother her much--as you can see, she's asleep in all the pics.

Baya brings happiness

Here are a few of our favorite pics of Baya meaning Bringer of happiness. A lot of people have questioned why we chose this name. Bryan and I became a Bea (Bay-uh) fan when we served as missionaries in Hungary. Bea is short for Beatrix in Hungary or Beatrice here in the US. We decided to change up the spelling for a more phonetic reading, Baya. Ramona is in honor of Bryan's grandmother Rasmussen whom we both love and admire so much. She is 92 this year and is such a great example of unconditional love and service to her family.

Hospital Days

Thanks to so many who came and saw us at the hospital. I think I was quite the performer for some on Sunday as I was pretty drugged... Not everyone is featured, but here are a few of the many who we love so much. Nothing brings people together like a baby!!!

So Darling, So Sleepy!!!

Baya has melted our hearts... she truly is precious. We had a lot of company at the hospital and no one really was able to get her to wake up...but all agreed, she is very adorable and a keeper.

Baya Ramona Rasmussen

June 22, 2008

Baby Baya was born this morning at 8:24am. She was 8lb 6oz and 20 inches. She is a beautiful baby, and has the cutest chubby cheeks. We will post more later, but wanted everyone to see our little angel.

3 days till Baby

We are getting very excited to welcome our new baby girl into the family. She is expected to come on Sunday morning. I'm scheduled for a 7:30 a.m. c-section. We hope all will go well. We are still not 100% sure, but we are calling her Baya right now. We'll let you know how it all goes down! We've been spending our week at the pool because it keeps us out of the house, so it can remain somewhat clean and it keeps my swelling down. It's funny because everyone just looks at me like, "oh I bet you are so ready/miserable..." but, really this has been a good pregnacy for me and I feel like this cooler summer has been a blessing. My official due date is the 25th, so she will be earlier than Blakely and Abby were. We are guessing she'll be in the high 7's verses Blakely's 8-13 and Abby's 8-5. Guess we'll see soon enough!!!

54 degree water never stops a Sheppard

YUBA LAKE: May 28-30th. So this trip was mostly planned on my behalf so I could enjoy at least one water ski trip before I am a little pre-occupied. But, I'm not stupid enough to waterski at 37 weeks, just wave-run. The dry suit was quite humorous as it made you so bouyant you could do w/out the life jacket. Kelly was trooper and always a gentleman driving the boat and humoring Grandpa Don while he fished. Pretty rooster tail, Karri!

Yuba Yoga and exercise

We took a fun trip to Yuba lake and the water was a mere 54 degrees. So, we did some some alternate sports for some of the time instead of water sports. Here Bryan is really getting into Yoga... and the girls too! We took a few nice walks also. This was a change for my family who usually is not aware of how to relax on a trip. It was a nice change. We also camped out and decided that besides the hole in our air mattress, it was the most enjoyable campout we've had thus in our marriage. It's never been a real hit w/ my hubby... But, now the baby will be here in a few weeks, so camping will return to one of those horrible things I'm sure!

Tooth # 2

She wiggled and wiggled and then dad took the liberty to yank it out! After loosing # 1 tooth in the true sense of the word, we decided not to take our chances w/ this one. We hung onto it and the tooth fairy was able to take it that night for her collection. We have been reading books from the library about the tooth fairy because Blakely has had so many questions, and mom hasn't quite known all the answers.

Blakely's Preschool Graduation Program

Wow!!! Blakely has loved her preschool experiences, both this year and last. It is crazy to think she is going to be a kindergartner next year!!! She is so bright and has loved her class with Mrs. Wilkinson and all 16 classmates. She is going to miss them. Her part in the program was very impressive. She said, "This year we had fun playing games with shapes. Pizza is for triangle, table is for oval, candy bar is for rectangle, Kite is for diamond, ? is for circle, we also learned, hexagon, trapezoid, and parallelogram."