Latest Ultrasound Pics and New Due Date!

On Friday December 14, we went for yet another doctors visit and ultrasound. After the last ultrasound Ryan had grown quite a bit and we were worried that he was going to continue on that growth track. Thankfully this visit showed that he has leveled off and not grown an extreme amount since the last time. Apparently we caught him in a growth spurt last time. Valerie was getting worried she might have to deliver a 9+ pound baby! The doctors best guess is that Ryan is over 7 pounds and will probably be close to 8 or over by delivery day. So, needless to say he's going to be a BIG boy! One of the pictures below is a shot of his feet. During the ultrasound she measured his feet and came up with approximately 8cm! He'll be wearing my shoes by the time he hits kindergarten!

After the examination the doctor said that Valerie was just about 2cm dilated but still no where near ready for delivery. We then set a date with the hospital for December 31st! We'll go in on the night of the 30th and they will start the induction medication on a very, very slow drip so that contractions will start sometime during the late morning hours of the 31st. And hopefully by the end of the day we'll have a baby!!! So...he won't be a New Year's baby, but we'll take the tax credit on this year just as easily!! ;o) Provided everything remains on track we'll stick to this schedule, but I'll be sure and let you know if anything changes. But for now, enjoy deciphering through some more ultrasound pics!

Bottom of his feet with the heels to the rear and toes to the front.

Good profile shot on the right.

This one is of the front of his face. You might have to use your imagination some to see it, but its there!

My niece and nephew, Sarah and Matthew got to meet Santa Claus this week. Certainly these are two of the cutest kids....till Ryan arrives in a few weeks!!

Veterans Day Speech

Recently my niece, Allison Ammons, was given an assignment in her 4th grade elementary class. The assignment was a writing prompt along the lines of, "Why are Veterans special?" That may not be the exact words used, but its close enough for this blog. After turning their assignments in they were graded and Allison was given the opportunity to read her speech during the school's Veterans Day celebration. In attendance that day, as a part of the Veterans program, was a representative of the Crestview Chamber of Commerce. He was so impressed he asked Allison permission to publish her speech in the local newspaper! So I figured if her speech is good enough for the paper, then its certainly good enough for this blog! When you read it, keep in mind that she had zero help from any adults, this was entirely her own words. Sometimes its refreshing to see life through the eyes of a child.

Veterans are very special people. They worked as hard as they could to give us freedom. If they had backed down when the going got tough life would be very different.

Life would be different if those men and women backed down because we wouldn't have the freedom to do anything. For example, we couldn't go to the church we wanted to go to like the pilgrims had to long ago. Or maybe we couldn't go to school because we had to work in factories all day to earn money for food. Also, we wouldn't be able to have freedom to speak what we wanted to speak about.

Did you ever think about how veterans risk their lives not only to save the lives of their friends and family, but the lives of kids and adults they don't even know? The also sacrifice their lives so the generations after us will be safe from the countries that don't want us to have freedom.

I am glad that I live in a country where fantastic men and women are willing to do anything to protect their country.

Allison Ammons

4th grade-Northwood Elementary

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