Merry Christmas

We hope everyone has a great holiday break, and we wish everybody a Merry Christmas and Happy new Year.

It's been an good year and in a couple short months, the Ballard family will be growing. Baby Fisher is doing great and on Monday he checked in at 2 pounds, 10 ounces. Here's a look at Fisher on the ultrasound:

We also got to do the 4-D ultrasound and the pictures came out great. Both Ashley and I were amazed at how much Fisher looks like Trace ... not so much when Trace was born, but Trace now. Check 'em out:

We even got to schedule Ashley's section. It was an exciting moment, and felt like a big milestone to get to pick your child's birthday. This is the day that he'll celebrate for the rest of his life. After Ashley and I threw around some dates early in March just to get a feel for how they sounded, we met with the nurse to put it down on the schedule. Turned out, it wasn't as tough a choice as we thought. We were given March 12 (Friday), March 15, 16 or 17 (Monday through Wednesday). Of course we went with the earliest date. So mark your calendar's, Baby Fisher is schedule to arrive March 12, 2010.

Since we're looking forward to what 2010 will bring, let's take a look back as this will be Trace's third Christmas. Here's Trace's Santa pictures through the years and a look at Trace and daddy topping the tree (artificial of course, my first "fake" tree):

2009

2008

2007

Daddy and Trace topping the tree:

25 Weeks

We're more than halfway through our pregnancy and it's really gone by fast this time (not sure if Ashley would say the same since she's the one with the aches and pains). Being due at the beginning of the year (March) somehow doesn't seem as far away as being due in November or even July.

We had a doctor's appointment on Monday and everything is looking good. Baby Fisher's heart rate was 166 and we go back to the doctor in three weeks. We've also started seeing maternal fetal medicine and that visit before Thanksgiving went well too. They said that we'll use the last pregnancy with Trace as a blueprint and pretty much follow everything we did for him. We go back to them in three weeks.

After our next appointments, we start going to the doctor every two weeks, then its down the home stretch.

Last time I got my oil changed, I noted that by the time I'd need another oil change, we'd be close to having the baby. So now my boss gets a kick out of saying that we're just an oil change away from another baby.