One down...One to go!

Conner Brandon Gartrell

March 14th proved to be a great day for the Gartrell family! Conner Brandon Gartrell decided to join the world. At 6 lbs. 12 ozs. and 20", he is perfect! Brent and I were in Prosper taking care of some house stuff when Carol, my mother-in-law, called to tell us that Brandon was bringing Aiden to them and then planning to take Mandy to the hospital. It was around 5-ish when we got the call. At 10pm, she called to say that Conner was here! He came fast. So fast, in fact, that Mandy's water never broke and the Dr. didn't make it in time. Little Conner was born in his sack and delivered by the nurse! I know what you are thinking, "Ashley, what do you mean, "in the sack"?) I mean just what I said. Conner was born in the ambilical sack! Cool, uh? And, what a story!

I think that we all expected the little guy to come quickly because Mandy delivered Aiden fairly quickly, but this was quicker than I ever expected! Which was good for Mandy, I suppose! Anyway, Brent and I could hardly sleep the night before because we were so anxious and excited to meet little Conner. Sunday morning, we got up and went to Stephenville to see him! There aren't enough words in the English vocabulary to describe the precious-ness of this baby boy! He is fantastic! I was so excited to have another nephew!

Brent and I have had so much fun with Aiden over the past 5 yrs., and we are happy to add another "little man" into our bunch! Here are a few pictures of us meeting Conner and then a few from yesterday when I got to go play with my boys!

Aiden is such a wonderful and proud big brother!

Uncle B just loves this little guy!

Here is Conner wide awake!


I love these boys!

No babies yet!

Okay, so before I start getting comments related to my lack of postings, I should start by apologizing! Life has been a whirlwind lately! It's amazing how quickly time passes these days, which is ironic, funny, and true testament of God's sense of humor considering I can remember the days of when I was younger and prayed that time would speed up!

While there are many reasons why I haven't posted lately, the reality of it all is that I am lazy! I'll explain. It would be really simple to say that I haven't posted because I have a full case load of patients at work, an hour commute to and from work, regular everyday responsibilities which are limited to the time that I am home from work, etc....etc.... But the reality of it all is that the main reason I haven't blogged lately is because our laptop fried. And, yes, I mean fried. (My angry rant about stinky HP products can be saved for another day!)

Now some of you are probably thinking, "Well, that makes sense, you didn't have a computer!" But, you see, I did! We have a desktop too, but I am so accustomed to sitting on my comfy couch and blogging, that I couldn't get inspired to walk into our study/storage room and blog from our desk. See, I told you. I am plain lazy these days, but at least I am breaking the pattern!

So, in the past 2 months, so much has happened. Brent started back to school! I am really proud of him! I know that getting a graduate degree is hard work, but doing it while working full time and commuting 1 1/2 hours to and from work 5 days a week is sometimes near the impossible. Brent has always been strong in almost every aspect of life (especially academics), so I never doubted his ability to take on such a task with flying colors!

We started house hunting....again! I keep telling myself that God will provide, and he will, but I continue to question when and how much will it cost me! We have found several opportunities, but when you have been looking as long as we have, we just can't bring ourselves to settle on something we don't love! It'll happen, God will provide!

Our 2 (yes, 2) new nephews are due any day now! Brent and I are thrilled to add 2 little nephews to the list of kids we love to spoil! To summarize, Brandon and Mandy are having Conner Brandon, and Taylor and Kelcie are having Eastin Reid! We are so excited! The past 2 months have been filled with Baby showers out the whazoo! So much fun!

On Valentines' Day, Brent and I were waiting for a table at Olive Garden for dinner (along with what seemed like the rest of Fort Worth!)! Brent had bought me a iphone several weeks prior and was playing on it as we waited. He pulled up some True or False trivia game. One of the questions was "True or False....parents will lose between 450 and 700 hours of sleep during the first year of the baby's life?" Turns out....it's true!

So, to Taylor and Kelcie and Brandon and Mandy! May you get plenty of sleep during these last few days! Lord knows you are going to need it! We love you and can't wait to spoil these babies!