4 Months Old!

Time has flown by so fast! Little Scotty is already 4 months old. It actually makes me sad that he is growing up so fast. I don't have much to say, just thought I'd share a few pictures. It's been fun learning how to take care of a baby, not so much fun trying to figure out how to fit regular life in with having a baby :)

My little newborn baby :)






I just love him! He gets cuter everyday. He is now cooing, grabbing toys, and loves to stand up on your legs when you're holding him. We're making bets on whether he'll learn to walk before he crawls.

My friend Lexi is starting her own photography business and asked if she could use Scott for some newborn pictures. I looked at her blog and saw all the cute pictures she's taken of kids and jumped at the opportunity. She did such a good job! I love them! She put the pictures below on her blog, and is sending us a disc with all of the other pictures she took. I can't decide which one I like the most!

You can check out our little model on her webpage: lexiraephoto.blogspot.com

He's finally here!

Scott Royal Nattress

September 11, 2:04 pm
7 lbs. 2.8 oz, 19 inches

We found out little Scott was breech at our 36 week appointment. Our doctor told us we had a few options - we could schedule a version (where the doctor tries to force the baby to move by pushing on the outside of my stomach) and hope that he flips, schedule a c-section for him to be born during the 39th week, or just hope he flips and if he does, go through everything like normal. Jake and I decided to wait a week and see if Scott would flip, and if not we would go ahead and schedule the version.

During that 36th week I did some research online and found some ways that help to flip a breeched baby. I had a few nights of sitting at a diagonal with my hips propped up on pillows, frozen broccoli sitting on top of the top of my belly, and headphones with music playing placed on the bottom of my belly to try to get him to move. I did each one separately, and also all at once to see if that would work. I told myself not to get my hopes up that he would flip, but of course I secretly thought he had flipped.

At our 37th week appointment we had another ultrasound and saw that he was still breech. I was disappointed but Jake and I both felt good about going ahead and trying the version. We went in the next morning at 7 am to perform the flip. We sat in the hospital room for 2 hours, until the doctor came in and told us he wasn't able to perform it because too many women had come in to have their babies, and there weren't enough nurses to help with everything. We rescheduled the version for Sunday, and scheduled the c-section for right after, if the flip didn't work.

Jake and I went out for a yummy dinner Saturday night and both talked about how we felt like it was going to end up in a c-section either way, but we both felt guilty if we didn't try the version. So Sunday morning we got up and went in (good thing I packed my hospital bag just in case). The doctor came in to perform the version and it was PAINFUL. I had multiple people tell me that it would be painful, and a few other people tell me it wouldn't be painful at all. The ones that told me it wasn't painful actually had a successful version. The doctor felt around for Scott's head and feet, and then took both of his hands and started pushing. I felt like my insides were being ripped apart. I was squeezing the nurse's hand so hard and felt bad, but not bad enough to stop. The doctor tried to flip him one way, and decided it wasn't going to work, and then tried the other way. After the second try, the doctor took a break for a minute and then Jake told him we would be okay with the c-section. The doctor told us he didn't think Scott was going to flip anyways, so he went off to get everything ready for the c-section.

We were scheduled to go into the operating room at 1 pm, but it took a little longer because the anesthesiologist needed to give another woman an epidural. We probably ended up getting in there about 1:30ish, and Scott was born at 2:04. The whole process went by so fast, and was easier than I thought it would be. I was given a spinal block (basically the same thing as an epidural) and couldn't feel anything. It was the weirdest feeling! I was given the shot in my spine, and then my legs got really tingly and then all of a sudden they were dead weight. Jake and the doctor had to move my body and lay it down on the bed. The doctor then took ice and rubbed it on my stomach, asking if i could feel the coldness. I couldn't feel it! I was so glad it had worked - you hear all of those horrible stories about people being able to feel everything, but I didn't feel a thing!

The doctor went ahead and cut into me. He didn't tell me what he was doing, and I really appreciated it. The anesthesiologist and Jake both kept me preoccupied by asking questions and feeding me ice chips. The anesthesiologist told me he would give me an ice chip for every question I answered correctly. He only asked me 2 questions, then handed the cup over to Jake, but it kept me thinking about other things than the surgery.

It was an amazing experience. The doctor did an amazing job with the c-section, and I was actually able to get up and walk around the next day. We were actually able to leave the hospital after two days because we were doing so well - when a lot of people who have c-sections actually stay for 3-4 days. It has only been 6 days and I am doing really well! I haven't had much pain, and I am amazed at how quickly I have been recovering! We just love our little Scott, and are so excited he's here!

Grandma Nattress came to visit us!

Our friends had their baby boy three days before we did. Jake and Tanner with their little boys Scott and Mason.

Scott and Mason

Simple Things

Just a few...

We got a new refrigerator/freezer. I LOVE CRUSHED ICE. I seriously have about 6 or 7 glasses full of crushed ice with water everyday. I don't know how I lived so long without this. Our old fridge was fun - you could open the doors, and if things were placed right, condiments would fly off the shelves on the door - most of the arms were broken. I also love that this new one is black - it makes everything look much more up to date, and makes me want to work on my kitchen cabinets (big project I will tackle someday!)



I love having a garage door opener that works. The battery for the opener in my car was slowly dying over the course of a few weeks, but of course I was too lazy to figure out that the battery needed to be changed. Everyday for a few weeks i would pull out of the garage slowly and push the button as many times as I could to try to get the door to close. I finally got ticked when I had to get out of my car a few days to walk up to the garage and actually push the button. Talk about lazy, but its not so comfortable climbing in and out of my car lately. We got a new battery for it, and I realized how much I like it.




We have GRASS! We can walk in the backyard without shoes! I don't have razor-blade weeds stabbing my feet! We had new sprinklers and sod installed, and it is like a beautiful grassland in our backyard! Eventually we will plant trees/bushes/beautiful flowers, but for now the grass is AMAZING! I've never been so excited to see grass in my entire life.



My body is the same shape as the grinch's body. Everytime I look in the mirror and see my growing belly, I feel like I look like Jim Carrey in The Grinch...Just without all the green hair.




I miss going to the lake. I miss being able to ride my bike to a lake that was 20 minutes away. I talked to my brother today and we both talked about how we miss the lakes in Michigan. The picture is of Higgins Lake - the lake we went to all the time growing up. I miss being able to swim in nice, clean water. I miss going to the lake all day. I miss looking for seashells. I miss seeing fish swimming around your feet and ankles. I miss playing teeter-totter on a big blow up tube with my brothers. I miss spending all day at the beach and then going to church the next day and everyone would say "Oh, the Ryders went to the beach yesterday" as they look at our sunburned faces.

We only have 3 more months! I am excited, nervous and scared all at the same time. There is so much to do, and I am feeling like I'm in crunch mode. I feel like the summer is going by way too fast. He will be here before we know it.

It's Baby Time!

Yes. We are having a baby, and it's a BOY!

When is he due? We aren't exactly sure. First we were told August 27th, then we were told somewhere around September 15th - 17th. We have another ultrasound in a few weeks that should give us the exact date. I just keep telling people we are due in the middle of September.

Do I feel sick? Not anymore. I felt fine until I went to the doctor and he told me I was only 8 weeks along instead of 12. I think he drugged me or jinxed me - because that whole next week I told Jake I was only doing this once - I didn't feel like myself at all, and I had to have a plastic grocery bag with me wherever I went just in case I lost my cookies. I feel normal now, which makes me understand why people do this more than once. It isn't THAT bad...I'm just a wimp when it comes to sickness. I always cry when I'm sick - no matter what. Just ask my mom.

Have I had any weird cravings? Not really. I eat everything I ate before, I just let myself eat more of it. I like thin mints, or grasshopper cookies. ALOT. I liked them before too, but I enjoy more of them than I did before. There has only been one time when I ordered chicken enchiladas at a restaurant, and I tried one bite and stopped eating them because I thought they were disgusting (normally I LOVE chicken enchiladas). I had water for dinner - with chips and salsa.

I took the liberty of using a program online to see what our baby boy will look like:

+

=

I am praying that our little boy doesn't actually turn out to look like this.
Jake says he looks like Shrek - I laughed out loud in my office by myself when I read that text.

We are excited!

Western Caribbean Cruise!

At the beginning of February we took a cruise to the Western Caribbean on the Royal Carribean. We left from Miami, and then went to Belize City, Costa Maya, and Cozumel. It was tons of fun! I am the worst at taking pictures (both actually taking them - they are usually blurry, and remembering to even take pictures) so I took most of these from our friends that were with us.

When we booked our hotel for Miami, we made sure we got one that was able to pick us up from the Ft. Lauderdale aiport and drop us off at the port in Miami. We made our reservations for a specific hotel, just because they told us they offered these things. Of course, we land in Ft. Lauderdale and call them to come pick us up, and they say they DON'T OFFER IT. Sweet. We had to take a taxi to our hotel in Miami which was around 45 mins away. Talk about expensive. Then we get there, and we ask to see when the shuttle leaves to go to the port in the morning. THEY DON'T OFFER IT. Awesome. Basically they were idiots. It started our trip off to an awesome start. Of course I was ticked. The next day we took a taxi to the port and then waited in line to get on the ship. If you want to see angry people, just wait in line for over an hour to get on a cruise ship. There was one lady who was seriously upset. She was one of those that just yells out, rather than talking to someone individually. She felt like she could run the show better than the workers - the funny thing is that she was one of the last ones on the boat.

Belize City, Belize

Our first stop was in Belize City. We decided to do a cave tubing and zip lining adventure. It was the coolest zip lining I have ever done. (not that we've done alot). We were so high up in the forest- it was awesome. It was super hot, and I was sweating like a monster because we had to walk up stairs to some of our zip line stations. Everything was fun until I got hit in the mouth with a caribeaner. I probably deserved it after not slowing down, so the poor man had to stop me by catching my flying body.

The cave tubing was lots of fun. We put on life jackets and hard hats with lights on them and hiked a little ways to the caves. My life jacket stunk like BO, so it made the hike seem longer than it was. The caves were awesome - we saw a lot of stalactites and they would give them names according to what they looked like. It was funny because one of the guides thought this older couple in our group were our parents. It was hilarious.

On our way to the zip line we drove through the city. This is a graveyard. I guess they are at sea level, and they aren't able to bury the dead very deep. They dig three feet down, and bury the person, and then build a three foot high grave site for them. This way they are technically "6 feet under". I hope they don't ever have a tsunami or some sort of disaster that makes all these people come out of their graves.

We drove by lots of tiny little shacks. It made me really sad. It makes me sad that people have to live in one room houses and in filth. It makes me appreciate what I have even more.

Costa Maya, Mexico

(this was on our walk back to the ship)

Our second stop was Costa Maya. We heard that you could go snorkeling pretty much off the beach so we decided to just take our chances and go by ourselves, with out guides. It wasn't that awesome. We did go out and saw some rays and fish. The boys came back from snorkeling with a big conch shell, so Allie and I decided we wanted to beat their shell with our own. So we went out and found two big shells. When we picked one of them up, a squishy animal was trying to get out, so Allie shook it to try to get it out. These other people asked if they could try, and they made it go back inside. So we just took them back to our table to show the boys. A while later, the waiter told Jake and Tanner that it was illegal to take those things out of the ocean with animals still in them. They quickly returned them so we didn't go to jail :)

We sat on the beach all day and ate nachos and chips and salsa. We did a bit of snorkeling, swimming, and got massages. When I got mine, the lady asked if I wanted to be in the sun, so I said yes. I didn't realize she was going to use baby oil for my massage. I was completely burned. Everyone was burned pretty well after their massages. We decided to walk back to the ship and saw a few wild iguanas, and then we walked into a hotel's beach and they had dolphins in a little pool. We were able to see them for a little while. It was pretty fun!

Cozumel, Mexico



Our last stop was Cozumel. We decided to get guides to go snorkeling this time. It was lots of fun! We saw so many fish -even a barracuda. The guide would get a bunch of food in his hand so the fish would follow him. We saw lots of different kinds of fish. I expected it to be like Finding Nemo, with all the colorful coral and millions of fish, but we didn't really see any coral. There was a huge school of fish at the end of our trip and it was so cool to see how they moved together. It was like a huge wall of fish. I could have stayed there forever just sitting and looking at the fish - it was tons of fun!

Our guide boat had a glass bottom - Jake went under it for a picture.

We had alot of fun on the boat. We ate a TON of food. They had a soft-serve ice cream cart by the pool, so you could eat as much ice cream as you wanted. The buffet was really good, and our dinner room was the best. We had the greatest waiters. The first night our waiter asked us what we wanted to drink, and then every night after that he had the exact same drink waiting for us - and he would refill them so fast! I loved it. Every meal was SO GOOD. They even had room service that you could order any time - we got the spinach artichoke dip a few times.

They had fun shows - our friends did the newly wed game show (they did a version with a couple that was only married for a year or less, one that was married for a few years, and then the longest marriage). Our friends were the middle couple, and they won! It was really exciting to watch them do the show. We went to an "air" show that sounded really cool - the dancers were supposed to be flying around and using ribbons hanging from the ceiling and stuff. It sounded like it was going to be awesome, but it was really weird. We didn't really enjoy it.

There was an ice skating rink on our ship. We went to an ice show, and it was AMAZING. The rink was a little square - it looked really small, but the people did flips and all these crazy moves. This one girl was attached to a guy's neck by a rope thing on her neck, and she was spinning around in the air while he was going in circles. Weird explanation, but it was amazing. We also went ice skating during one of the open sessions and played tag. Of course Allie and I were the only ones who fell, and it hurt for me to walk up or down stairs for like two days because I hit my knee so hard. It was lots of fun though!


These are some of the towel animals our cleaning lady made for us:

A Monkey?

A Swan, I think.

Overall, it was tons of fun. We loved being on vacation! It was wonderful to get out of the cold weather and into the sun. I was sad that my tan only last about a week after we got back, but it was worth the burn :)

I'm Back!

I am sure whoever reads this (if anyone) is very sad that I was gone for so long. Let me tell you, I feel like my life is boring and I have nothing to talk about. Here's how my days go:

1. Wake Up (and all the morning ritual stuff - shower, eat, etc)
2. Go to work
3. Go Home and eat dinner
4. Go to bed
5. Wake up and do it again

My life sounds awesome.


I want to get back into the blogging scene, so I thought I'd just throw up a bunch of pictures i had on my phone and tell you what's going on - this will kind of sum up a little of what we've been doing lately.

Our fence is up! It was put up in the fall, but I'm finally posting one little picture of it. I love it. I especially love that I don't have to see all of our neighbor's garbage in his carport!

My parents were visiting my sister in New Mexico, and my other sister's family was there for the weekend, so I told Jake I wanted to go down and see everyone. I decided to drive myself down there and stay for a few days. I thought it would be cool to take pictures of the different state signs, but i didn't think about it until the way back. So that's why New Mexico is first.

Obviously I passed through Colorado....

Back in Utah! I think I listened to the Wicked Musical sound track 5 times both ways. I have most of the songs memorized....Jake would have wanted to strangle me if he was on this trip!

We went to Roswell. These are just a few pictures of the lovely displays they had in every window. There wasn't much to see, but it was fun! We even went to a museum. It had an entrance fee, but it shouldn't have. It was like a bad high school science project.
I remember the guy at the ticket counter asked me how old I was...my dad said "we're all adults here." I thought that was funny.

Mom enjoying a coke with the alien.

I thought this was kind of interesting. I am sparing you the picture of the plastic alien we saw wearing lingerie. We couldn't stop laughing.

I drug my friend shiloh to a thing called "so you think you're a witch". It was a competition between a bunch of ladies dressed and acting like witches. They were competing for a chance to be the best witch. The winner and her two runner-ups did the "breakfast with a witch" program for kids to eat breakfast with them. It had potential, but Shiloh and I both felt awkward.

They brought an actual llama on stage. I thought that llama was going to have a heart attack. He had to walk up a few stairs, and he was not doing so well.

In October we went to visit our fun friends Brandon and Chelsea in California. I have more pictures on the digital camera - so those will come later. We had so much fun with them. We did the grand tour of San Diego, Sea World, LDS Visitor's Center, and the Ocean. They taught us how to boogie board (i am probably not even saying the right thing). Jake of course was awesome at it, and I was suffering from salt in the eyes. I didn't think I was going to be able to see after being in the ocean.

Brandon and Jake Boogie Boarding

Jake and I were able to go to the Jazz Vs. Heat basketball game. We were VERY lucky to have AWESOME connections with some very generous family members :) I enjoyed my hot pretzel and nacho cheese. The game was also fun..

I love March. I love Shamrock Shakes. McDonalds makes me happy.

This last picture is of an awkward situation I saw at our subway. I don't like this. Its weird. That's all.

I will be back to post more things! We went on a cruise at the beginning of February, that i'll post about later. Of course I had good intentions of taking lots of pictures, but I took seriously like 5. I'll just steal some pictures from our friends so it looks like I took more.

We're also working on our basement - the bathroom is down to studs and the bedrooms are ready to be re-textured and painted! Exciting things all around!