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Pictures

2011-12-10T11:58:00.001-08:00

Our friend Kim is an amazing photographer. She was in town over thanksgiving and agreed to come take some pictures of Elli. We have only seen these 4, but are pleased with them. We are really excited to see the rest.

Instagram

2011-12-05T15:52:00.001-08:00

Picture effects compliments of the Instagram app. I think they are cool.

Rubber Ducky

2011-11-19T10:38:00.001-08:00

Thought we would share some pics and try out the blogger app. So this post is brought to you by Elli, the iPhone, and the letter B.

Elliot Mae Ford

2011-10-27T21:14:00.000-07:00

She is here! Elliot Mae Ford was born October 24, 2011 at 1:47 am. She weighed 6 lbs 14 oz and was 19 1/2 inches long.

We brought her home on Tuesday (10/25/11) in the afternoon and had a great first night at home. She ate fairly well, and actually had some good long stretches sleeping (which meant we had some good long naps).

First night in her new bed

Wednesday morning I gave Elli a bottle. Shortly after, I noticed she was blue around her mouth. I tried to strip her down to make her mad, and noticed her hands and feet were really blue as well. We somewhat readied ourselves, put her in her car seat, and headed to the ER. They checked her over, and her O2 saturation was really low. They treated her, and admitted her to the NICU for monitoring. It was really tough to see people poking and prodding at her, but we tried to hold it together as much as possible. The nurses in the NICU were really great, and she was well taken care of. Ultimately, what they saw in that 24 hours didn't give them concern. They sent us home a little more informed (and nervous) on Thursday afternoon.

Mommy and baby in the NICU

All hooked up to the equipment

Her IV

Mommy took this one and was pretty proud, so I had to share.

Grandma Julie has been here since Thursday and has been a lifesaver. We've all taken shifts in the night to make sure she keeps breathing, and so far, all is well. We've had lots of time to just hang out and cuddle and feed her and change diapers and feed her and change diapers....you get it, right?

And a few more cute ones...

Sleeping in the blanket mommy made

A proud mommy

Grandma Julie

Grandma Gerstner

Elli on Uncle Kurt's lap

Some Daddy daughter time

32 Weeks

2011-08-23T21:32:00.001-07:00

We went on a little photo shoot Sunday night down at the river walk trail. It's a fun trail down by the Logan River Golf Course. It was a double bonus because we got some fun pictures of Ashley, and we got a nice walk in too.

We had a Dr. appointment on Monday afternoon and all is well with baby Elli. We will get to see her again in ultrasound form at our next appointment in 2 weeks, so we're pretty excited. A big thanks to everyone who has helped out so far. We have received some awesome gifts and we really appreciate everyone's love and support.

A Few Pics

2011-07-10T22:12:00.000-07:00

I have always wanted to know how people make their pictures look cool and retro, and so I went to my friend Google. I searched for a tutorial and found a pretty simple one. Below are a few pics using that technique, not that it's anything fancy or great, but it's another post, so I figured that no one would mind.

We were getting ready to head to the gym on a Saturday morning when we found out Ashley was pregnant. We still managed to make it there, despite our surprise.

This was a rare sunny afternoon in the winter. It's since been edited out, but the sky was a gorgeous blue and the tree house really stood out against it.

It seems lately that every time I look at Jolie, she is giving me the stinkeye. We were lucky enough to capture it today. Despite that look, she is pretty darn cute.

The birthday boy. He was about to take a swing at his Spider pinata. He was very excited, even if he was only armed with a fly swatter.

Surprisingly this face only came out at the end of the party and was not a reaction to anything at all. This was a self portrait and I think she really caught all her best features. Great job Bec!

Updates

2011-06-30T19:01:00.000-07:00

We've had a busy year so far. Here are a few pics detailing some of the stuff we have been doing.

20 Weeks.

Still smiling at 25 weeks.

Mommy's view.

25 Weeks

I competed in a CrossFit competition...It hurt.

Ashley took this picture of me at the Dirty Dash. It was a 5K mud run obstacle course and it was a blast.

My First 5K at the Smithfield Health Days. I ran it with Mindy and my sister Kristie.

Developing Talents?

2010-12-19T17:02:00.000-08:00

We got a new camera for Christmas, but since we bought it together, and bought it early, we've been using it a little. Mostly we have been shooting random objects in the house. With the shortened days during this lovely season, there isn't much daylight to hone our new talent. In addition, I am learning to use Photoshop. I found a tutorial that showed me about 3 things to do, so I've been practicing those few skills. I have posted a few of the first edits and hopefully we will see some improvements in the future.

Nearly a year...

2010-05-22T15:23:00.000-07:00

It's been nearly a year since our last post, and there are quite a few things that have happened since. Rather than a lengthy entry detailing the mundane happenings in our lives, we created this collage on Picasa. Hopefully you enjoy catching up with us through these pictures. We'll try and do better in the future...but probably not going to happen.

You're....

2009-06-03T07:15:00.000-07:00

This is the result of Jon playing softball. He was sliding into second base. Notice how the quarter is strategically placed to help you gauge the actual size of the wound? Helpful, isn't it?

We Are Alive...Part II

2009-05-31T22:14:00.001-07:00

We went to the Smithfield Health Days celebration to support the family. Brynn was in the parade and waved like a true Princess. Mindy and Becca also had a booth where they were selling handmade hairbows. We helped out Shawn by playing with the girls. The worst part was having to play with Claire.

We went to St. George over Memorial Day weekend. Our friends, Dave and Carly, drove down with us. Zed and Alise live down there, and were kind enough to play with us.

We asked her to smile, and this was the result.

We went to Zions, an adult park (where they have wicked awesome playground equipment designed for adults), and to the lake. All in all a pretty good weekend.

Jon grew a lovely rat-tail (Yes - that is a bead). Enough said.

We Are Alive...Part I

2009-05-31T21:15:00.000-07:00

It's been a while since we've posted, so we'll just cut to the chase.

We got invited to the Jazz vs. Clippers game in April. It was Ashley's first Jazz game ever, and we had a ball. It was a blowout (the Jazz won), but it was still lots of fun!

We got to puppy sit for The Larsen's one Saturday afternoon. Ashley was pretty disappointed about it, but agreed to it anyways. Ever since then she has mentioned getting a puppy at least twice a day.

We took Bandit out to Shawn and Mindy's house to play with the kids. Turns out Claire does an excellent puppy impression.

Happy Cinco de Mayo!!!

In keeping with Mexican tradition, Ashley stabbed herself in the hand while pitting an avocado, a tradition that has been in our family for centuries. She managed to damage a nerve, resulting in some "numbness" of the finger, as well as a couple of stitches.

Though the stitches are now gone, the "numbness" is not. There is the possibility of surgery in the near future to repair the nerve, so be prepared to send/deliver avocados to her to demonstrate your love and concern.

Finally...

2009-02-05T10:54:00.000-08:00

So we finally decided to post some pictures from Christmas time. Shawn created a website (thanks), but after a few failed attempts, we gave up. Instead, we uploaded to a web album and sent out invitations to view. If it doesn't work, let me know. Also, if you want an invite let me know. Hope you like them.

Sadness all around...

2008-12-03T09:52:00.000-08:00

Does anyone else feel like they're suffering from the blues due to an overall lack of posting? Well I do, so I thought I would create a post with some suggestions for possible future posts.

This is us at Disneyland last year. We love vacations!

Remember how much fun we had shooting Kevin on Christmas last year?

We love decorating for Christmas. This is the Christmas tree in our apartment this year. It's a little cramped, but I think it was well worth it.

Happy Posting!

Gobble

2008-11-30T21:30:00.000-08:00

I know what you're thinking, and I agree. There definitely should have been two more gobbles in the title of this post. Thanksgiving has come and gone now, and we haven't posted in a while, so naturally a Thanksgiving recap is the perfect solution. Dinner was delicious, and despite Mindy's predictions, no one turned into a cat. Afterward we played Rockband, and as is to be expected: it rocked! I wouldn't be surprised if Shawn started a Police cover band. The rest of the night was spent sitting, slouching, or otherwise finding a position that would accomodate the extra mass aquired. We watched Run, Fatboy, Run and I hear there was more Rockband. All in all, a pretty good Thanksgiving.

Now for some pictures

Aren't these two just so darn cute?

We named our band Triptofann (Shawn spelled it this way as to give us more of an edgier feel), in honor of the sleep inducing chemical found in Turkey.

Boring Rhymes with Snoring

2008-10-13T10:40:00.000-07:00

Ever since we got back from Alaska, all we really do is go to school, occasionally study, and work. We'll occasionally spend some time with family, depending on what type of meals are being offered at the time. We've seen our friends, so we know they're out there. For the most part, though, we haven't done anything overly exciting. Because of our drab existence, we haven't posted. However, in honor of those with far more interesting lives than us, at least if you're measuring based on number of posts, here is a post. Now you know the lives we lead, and we'd appreciate it if you would post some comments about how much you love us and how funny we are and how you wish you could spend some more time with us.

To keep with tradition, we must include pictures.

Is anyone surprised?

Would you let this guy near your kids?

So you want to hear about our summer, eh?

2008-09-16T22:18:00.000-07:00

After much anticipation, we have officially arrived back home in Logan. Now I know what you're thinking, and yes, for once, we were the ones anticipating our arrival. We sure did miss this wonderful little valley of ours. Now that we're...um...settled???, we decided that we should share a few more of our adventures in Alaska. To do this, however, we need very few words. We have uploaded nearly 500 pictures onto a website that I will conveniently post here on our blog. All you have to do is click on it, or maybe copy and paste it, and you will be able to see the pictures. Hope you enjoy looking at some, or if you're really bored, all of them.

Also, because we think this is really cool and don't want anyone to miss it, we're posting this video of a bear doing some fishing. Hope you enjoy.

Link to pictures

Once upon a time...

2008-07-27T14:48:00.000-07:00

So here we are in Juneau. Who would have thought that after all this time, we still know how to type? We've had plenty of adventures, lots of rain, we've worked a lot, and it has rained a lot. We've seen bears, whales, and rain. All in all, we're having a pretty good time.

One of our favorite places we've been while in Juneau is the Mendenhall Glacier (the big chunk of ice in the background). The day we took this picture was one of the sunniest we've seen, not that that's hard to do, and we even got a little red in the face that day. The glacier is frequented by black bears, and we were lucky enough to wrestle some one night.
The picture above is us enjoying fireworks on the 4th of July. They do the fireworks show at midnight, because that's the only time it's dark enough to do them. They shoot the fireworks off of a boat in the channel, so it was really pretty. There's also huge mountain ranges on either side of the channel, so it sounds like someone is just firing off canons. They even had a few that didn't really put off any light, but they made a huge boom.
Last of all, this is the view from our apartment. We live in a tiny, one-bedroom apartment on the eleventh floor overlooking the Gastineau Channel. The view is great, it's not very often that you look out the window and don't see a few cruise ships in port. Sadly, however, this view is very different from our current view. We have been blessed with 28 straight days of rain. That's right, not one of those days did the sun shine for more than about ten minutes. We're still having a blast though, and more importantly for those of you who have begun to wonder, we're still alive.

We're alive...

2008-06-22T20:58:00.000-07:00

That's all.

Happy Birthday Ashley!!!!!!!!!!!!

Welcome To Juneau

2008-05-11T11:10:00.000-07:00

We arrived in Juneau last night at around 10:00. Now, 12 hours later, we're rolling out of bed. We just thought we'd share this picture from our window in our hotel room. We don't have an apartment yet, so they're putting us up in a hotel for these first few days. We're going to take in the sights today, and then we'll start work tomorrow.

Breakin' Records

2008-04-23T12:05:00.000-07:00

We, the Ford family, are breakin all sorts of records these days. The one we would like to highlight at this time is 2 posts in 24 hours. Now we know it's not much, but we're pretty happy about it. This post is actually dedicated to a few different people. First and foremost, I (Jon) would like to dedicate this post to the Andersons who made this all possible (you know who you are). Also, if anyone sees this who knows someone who has a similar addiction, my heart goes out to you. Secondly, Ashley would like to dedicate this to Tofu lovers everywhere.

Juneau Where We Are Going?

2008-04-22T21:54:00.000-07:00

As many of you already know, we recently got offered an internship in Juneau, Alaska. After giving it some thought, we accepted the opportunity. We figure that this is the only time we'll be able to just drop everything and head off on an adventure, given the fact that I'll be a college grad come December, so in 18 days we'll be boarding a plane for Alaska. For those of you who are curious about what we'll be doing, please continue reading. For those of you who aren't, please scroll down, click on the post a comment link, and dazzle us with your wit.

The internship is with a company called Del Sol. Their products all change colors when exposed to the sun. As such, their stores are located in areas that are typically visited by tourists. Juneau happens to be a popular destination in the Alaskan cruise industry. Our main responsibility will just be working in the store in Juneau. We're pretty excited about this, and we imagine that we will meet our fair share of crazies, and be able to tell lots of interesting stories. In the event that we can't, we'll simply make things up and see how gullible our family and friends are. Aside from the retailing, the managers do a lot of marketing with the cruise ships, and I hope to be able to help out in this area.

That's about all we know about the internship at this point, so we hope you'll be excited for us and wish us luck.

Ahhhhhh....Memories

2008-03-28T11:47:00.000-07:00

In honor of Kurt and Bonnie's recent wed, I thought that I would share with everyone some of the more memorable moments from their blissful day. So please, enjoy.

Here is Ashley and a relative, who's identity has been hidden for MY protection,
outside the Temple (sorry Ash)

Becca and Derek have apparently been letting James experiment with drugs

Shawn - strikin a pose
Bart - trying...

Young Love???

I think they saw something exciting...or scary?

And of course...

The End

Thank you Mr. President

2008-02-19T09:27:00.001-08:00

We'll admit, before blogging we had a hunch that people love our witty humor, and for the most part just can't get enough of us. Now that we've published our first post, that hunch has been confirmed. We just had no idea that people would be begging us to post again. So without further ado, here is a recount of our latest adventure...

In order to properly pay tribute to our past presidents, we hopped in the car with Julie and headed to the South to visit our Spanish brother San Jorge (you might know him better as St. George). We hiked, we ate, we watched movies, and we just sat around. It was as if our former president's said, "No, thank you for all you've done. We really appreciate it." It sure was nice of them. It really helped us to appreciate the true beauty of a 3-day weekend.

You'll notice that the picture of Ashley and Julie doesn't have a caption, but if it did, it would read:

Tricks that we can do and James can't

(Sorry Bec)

...so I guess it does have a caption.

The First of Many...

2008-01-31T21:09:00.000-08:00

Howwwww. Seeing how this is our first post on our first blog, we thought that we should include howwwww grateful we are for all the people/things that made this post possible. First off, we'd like to thank our new computer and the blessed internet that made it all possible. Next on the list is the children we don't have. They're our inspiration for all we do. And last but not least, in no particular order: Maceys, the Native Americans, President Bush, Hillary Clinton, the black guy, Shawn, all our former pets, The National Council for Disease Prevention in Third World Countries, our Moms, James, the IRS, evolution, the Japanese, Pffff Changs, and above all, each other. Thanks for your support and remember that a waterfall is nothing more than a bunch of drips.