Just a handful

It's the final countdown!  Only 5 weeks left until this little human of ours is supposed to make his grand entry into the world.  That's just one handful!

Although the concept of actually becoming a parent to whatever is expanding my abdomen is a little difficult to understand, we're doing our best to raise him right already.  The other day Sebasthian was playing his favorite video game, Skyrim, and our boy was kicking everywhere!  Sebasthian decided it was time to teach our son his first video game.  So he put the controller up to my belly where the little guy kept kicking and tried to get him to move the joysticks and make the character walk.  It wasn't the most successful attempt, but I guess he just isn't quite old enough to understand.  Maybe next week ;)

Sebasthian also makes sure that our diet is up to his standards. I was eating an apple awhile back and he exclaimed: Don't feed my son THAT!  He needs a cheeseburger! Oh dear, these boys are going to make me crazy ;)

We also have been having fun getting ready for him!  We registered at a few stores for baby stuff (we're not really advertising where to find the registry, we just want the coupons that the store gives you after the baby is born) and it was a blast!  At one of the stores we turned it into a game of finding the most ridiculous products and only allowed those on the registry.  After registering for baby's first bottle of Pepsi, and a personal Jacuzzi tub for the baby, Sebasthian won with this little gem:

Yes, they do look like toilets, and yes they do sing when it's time to potty.  I don't know why we all don't have one!

We have had such a great time together lately and are definitely enjoying our last few weeks as just the two of us, so that we can enjoy even more as we add on #3.  We invited a group over to play fugitive this week and it turned out GREAT.  I'm sure people had some valid questions when they saw a 35-week pregnant lady running through town in the middle of the night. haha!  I have been very blessed with good health and am still able to work around 30 hours each week at Physical Therapy.  It's funny, I get so many people commenting on my "cute baby bump" at work, I never had so many compliments on my figure until I gained these 30 pounds!  

35 weeks. 

We're still having trouble finding a name.  What's funny to me is how many people are trying to help us with it! I don't mind, but I did find it funny the other day when someone said to me: "So, what are you going to name him? Parker?" Haha I'm not sure if she was subliminally trying to tell me a name, or if she genuinely wanted to play a guessing game.  I mean, after all, there are only thousands of names...I'm sure it wouldn't take too long. ;)

Overall we are doing GREAT!  Sebasthian loves his jobs and is very happy and successful.  A few days ago he even set a company record with the longest phone call - 5 HOURS!  He won some prizes and came home a legend. :)  I sure love that guy.

A few other random happenings from the Ahumada summer...

Sebasthian's work had a giant fair!  Free sno cones! 

Silly road workers left the keys inside...it was just too much temptation for him

And I found the party hearse!  Yes, it has a barbecue grill in the casket.

Visiting the Provo temple

This July 23rd Sebasthian turned 23!  And I graduated!!  It was a wonderful day!

Our family had a little combined party for us :)

We were so grateful they could come all the way to celebrate with us!  We are lucky to have such a strong, wonderful, and outrageously good-looking family!

That's it for now!  But I'm sure we'll have some exciting news to update soon :)

I have too many things to be grateful for...and today it is stretchy pants!

So here I am, trying to control the world again.  I decided that this baby can grow like he's supposed to, as long as I can fit into my jeans until the end of the semester.  I thought it was a fair deal!  But, nope, not my son.  This baby's a low rider, and because my jeans are low riders...the two are in a constant battle.  Not only this, but my son and I officially always eat more than Sebasthian does at every meal! I am about to graduate in a health-related degree and have learned that I don't need to double my calories...just raise it by a few hundred, but tell that to this monster-ito that I'm growing!  Always hungry, this baby is definitely his daddy's.


By popular demand, I have consented to post my first baby bump picture...sheesh, I look huge!  And only halfway there, I can't imagine how "bumpy" these next few months will be!  (haha, cheesy...)

Sebasthian is doing excellent and now that he knows he his getting a boy I get whatever I want.  All I have to do is say "it's for your son!" and he immediately consents to whatever whim I am inclined.  I can only imagine how spoiled this child will be!  He found some newborn "thug shoes" of which he is very proud and is now diligently searching for a flat-brimmed baby hat so they can be posers together. haha These boys are going to take over my house!

As for this little swimmer, he is getting very active, and is a whopping 10.5 inches!  He still weighs less than a pound, but I'm sure that'll catch up quick and he'll be nice and fat when he comes to meet us!

Ultrasound pictures are difficult to understand so I'll just explain these:

Left: during the ultrasound he was playing with his feet!  cute! 

Middle:  Freaky 3D picture (these are always weird) but he has a cute little face and features!  And look how big his head is!  It's because he's a super genius.

Right:  He likes to be curled up in the most unnatural of positions..and stay there.  We could not get him to move!

I love these wonderful two boys in my life, even if I am sure they are going to be crazy together! :)  I am so excited to see my family growing!

All in all I've learned a great lesson: If you can't control the world, enjoy every minute of it! ...And invest in stretchy pants.

Look what we made!

Announcing....our new little Baby Ahumada!  Okay, so everyone knows by now but I just thought I'd record how the past couple of months have been for us :)

It's one of Sebasthian's pet peeves when couples say "we're pregnant" so we decided we could only say it if it were true!  He's been getting lots of advice from friends about his pregnancy.  I don't think he knew what he was getting into!                                                                                                                                I'm pushing out a LOT here...I really have no tummy at all yet, which is surprising since this little kid makes me eat ALL THE TIME.  Either it's a boy or a really fat girl.  Either way, I'll be super happy!!

As soon as I knew that I was "with child" I wanted to tell Sebasthian.  But how?  This isn't some little announcement for a date night, or a random holiday, this is a BIG DEAL.  Like, the only thing that would be a bigger deal for us right now is...nothing.  So, knowing I only had one day where he was at lab and I could take the car, I rushed to the store, bought a pregnancy test, balloons, cookies, and some poster board.  I quickly rushed to take my test...invalid result.  PERFECT!  I knew I was pregnant and I knew he wouldn't know how to read the test so it was as good as positive for me!

 Coming home, he found this on the door...."Elysha...?"

"Whaaaat?! Are you serious?!"  He was overjoyed and super excited!  He kept grinning and not knowing what to do, just looking at me and then the sign and then at me...then he picked me up and twirled me around and basically, I am so grateful for eternal families and that we did it right.  We are both sooo grateful to have this little one on the way and joining in our family :)

Then it came time to tell OUR families!  We were so excited to see their reactions!  I made them each countdown calendars so they can celebrate every week with us :)

And we sent them a picture of our new little human....

(Aw, cute...)

It was so fun to see their reactions when we surprised them with the news!  My family jumped up and down and started screaming in excitement!  I was so happy that they all are going to be so great at welcoming this new person into the family :)  None of them expected it and they all treated the news like it was the best they'd ever heard!  I love my family sooo much and am excited to be having my own!  

I wish I could have recorded their reaction because it was 100% perfect.  Luckily, we were able to record telling Sebasthian's family and it was such a sweet experience....

Our families are wonderful and we are so blessed to have them!! 

We look forward to many more adventures as Sebasthian, Elysha, and our little by-product! =D

Girl Power in the Gym!

I've had some pretty cool experiences while working at Physical Therapy and in my major of Exercise Physiology.  I was asked to share a few tips on what I've learned, and am happy to do so!  I was going to get into the fundamentals of activity, diet, weight loss, and basic exercise but for those who have heard it a billion times it's not going to be very beneficial.  So let's talk about something a little different - weight training.

Many women are a little leery of the "free weights" at the gym.  The thought of being surrounded by massive, grunting men IS a little intimidating, I admit. However, this can be very beneficial for any ladies in many ways:  tone up, increase bone density (reduce risk of osteoporosis), improve posture and stature, improve balance, improve immunity, improve rest and sleep, become stronger and just feel good!  So tell the boys to move over, you've got some iron to pump!

If you're on a tight schedule, don't stress about not getting in as many reps.  One repetition has actually been proven to give about 70% of the overall result (varies by type of training, I'll go into this more later).  Another helpful tip is to do multi-joint exercises.  These are exercises that cross a few major joints of the body at once such as hip, knee, and shoulder and because of this they work many muscle groups instead of just one.  Good examples of this are the squat or Olympic lifting such as the power clean or deadlifts (caution:  if you have never done Olympic lifting, it is best to work with a trainer the first few times to receive proper instruction and lower risk of injury).

Now I know, I'm a girl too, many women are afraid to lift heavy weights because they don't want to "bulk up" and become masculine.  I can tell you, do not worry!  We girls really do not have enough Testosterone in our bodies to get huge, manly muscles and so even high weights are only going to slim and tone. The women you see all greased up and massive in competitions are definitely on some major supplementation and not the result of normal training.  Lifting higher weight helps to tone faster and builds strength, rather than endurance.

Maybe you want endurance?  Here's a chart for training according to your goals, be it power, strength, hypertrophy (increased size), or endurance:

Goal	Sets	Reps	Weight	Rest period
Strength	2-6	Up to 6	Up to 85% of 1 RM	2-5 min
Hypertrophy	3-6	6-12	67-85% of 1 RM	30-90 sec
Muscular Endurance	2-3	Up to 12	Up to 67% of 1 RM	Less than 30 sec
Power (single)	3-5	1-2	80-90% of 1 RM	2-5 min
Power (multiple)	3-5	3-5	75-85% of 1 RM	2-5 min

1RM = the most weight you can do, one time.  Finding 1RM is not necessary, basically each of these should be done at a weight that with these reps you are tired and need help on the last one.  That's a pretty good guideline for which weight to choose.

When training, I do a brief warm up (3-5 min jog) and then start.  If you are too tired, your body will not perform the exercises as well.  If you want to do cardio, do it after lifting and the results of both will be better.  Also, to finish off- for everyday purposes, one of the best recovery drinks is good old chocolate milk.  It has the protein and carbohydrate that your body needs without breaking the bank on supplements.

I hope this was somewhat helpful!  Good luck!!

A New Addition to the Ahumada Family?!!!

 That's right!  You guessed it, we are now the proud owners of a car that WORKS!!  YAY!  We found this baby and it was love at first sight. It's a 2000 Toyota Camry XLE and we couldn't be happier!

See?!  Look how happy he is!  Sebasthian was the one who REALLY wanted this car and I'm so glad he found it.  He said he'll be happy to drive it as his car for years and years.  And Sebasthian loves taking care of cars so I know he'll have fun with this one.

 We almost couldn't get it, but my WONDERFUL Grandma & Grandpa T saved the day!!  Thank you SO much! We love you and look forward to driving down to see you soon :)

Friends and Fugitives

I'm playing a little catch-up since I started this blog a little bit ago so I'm jumping back to the beginning of the month.

One of our very close friends just got her GREEN CARD!  Whoa.  Big deal, I know.  She and her husband are very dear friends and we know how important this must be to them.  So of course, any excuse to throw a party and we're all over it....I was set on having a "Green card party".

We started out with some super cheesy invites on brown paper wrapped in twine to make it seem super sketchy and secret.  On it were specific instructions about each invitee's (mutual friends and her family in the area) rendezvous point for crossing the border.

Once there we played Fugitive (er, crossed the border).  In this game, the main part of the group has to get across town from point A (for us, a park) to point B (our house, about 2 miles away) without being seen by the people that drive around looking for them (Border Patrol).  The goal was to get to our house (America) without being seen and quite a few did!  Not me, though, I was caught crossing an intersection.  Guess it's a good thing I'm already an American!

We came to our house to enjoy lots of treats and played Mafia, except of course we had to stick to the theme so we changed all of the roles to have to do with immigration.  Overall it was a blast and everyone had a good time.  I'd been wanting to play Fugitive for awhile and Sebasthian never had so it was the perfect reason to get a game together and celebrate. :)  Obviously there were more white people than Hispanics there, though, 'cuz everyone arrived on time and left at a reasonable hour.  Maybe some day I'll learn how to thrown a REAL Latin party, but for now this was good enough for me!

Papi for President

Ya know, lots of people were pretty upset about the turn-out of the election, but not many could've been as unhappy as Sebasthian.  About a week before election day we decided that he would be a good candidate so we put a full-front effort into our campaign by making a sign for our yard.  Yes, just one sign. However, our trailer is directly across from a popular voting spot, so we thought he had a pretty good chance!

Well, turns out he didn't.  Not even one vote!  Then again, I didn't vote for him either...oops.  Maybe next time we'll put the sign out TWO weeks beforehand, that'll do the trick!