Alex's Birthday

Well, the day finally came. Alexander Jonas Hampton was born on November 20, 2007 at 9:05 PM. He weighed 6 lbs, 9 oz and was 19.5 inches long. He and Tess came home on Thanksgiving Day. He's been a real good little boy. He caught onto nursing right away and generally is calm and pleasant. He likes for us to be close to him while he sleeps. We're just so happy to have him with us and to get to introduce him to all of you.

Alexander Jonas Hampton

Kyle called me around 11:00pm MST to tell us that Tess had just given birth to a healthy baby boy. He weighed 6 lbs 9 oz. and 19 1/2" long. It sounded as if the delivery went pretty well. I'm sure that Kyle will post more about it later. He assured me that he will take plenty of pictures. Congratulations Kyle and Tess!!! I am excited about my new little nephew.

Economics

This is nothing more than old fashioned bragging, but if I can't brag to you then who else is going to listen? I just got my grade for my Managerial Economics class, and the results are...drum roll please...I made an A! I am thrilled, but it wasn't just any plain ol' A. I also made the highest grade in the class on the final, AND I was ranked first in the class of 80. You must be very proud to know someone as brilliant as me. All kidding aside this is very encouraging because I have kicked around the idea of going on to get my PhD in Economics some day. I might just have what it takes. Thanks for indulging me on this. I was thinking about reprinting our Christmas cards to include this valuable information. I think that someone might shoot that idea down (Ashley, I'm looking your way), but you might hear about this from me again. Until then...

Baby boy

Not a whole lot to report, but we saw the doctor this morning and the doctor thinks that everything is progressing along nicely. Tess has had a few Brxton-Hicks contractions, but nothing more than that. Anytime that she has one of those contractions, my knees get weak and all the blood starts rushing to my head and somehow I forget everything that we need to do to get Tess to the hospital. Whenever things start moving along towards delivery my head might explode from the adrenaline rush. Hopefully not.

This is my last full week of school. Then it's crunch-time.

Halloween

I figured since Ashley put something up here, I should follow suit.

Mostly what's going on around here has to do with the baby. We're into the last 3 weeks and so we meet with the doctor once a week. Every check-up has been good with both Tess and the baby being healthy. We're due on the 26th, so keep us in your prayers.

Any non-baby stuff has to do with school for me. We're also down to the last few weeks of school which means that finals are looming. This year has been different in a lot of ways in that I don't have a consistent group of friends in every class to study with. I study mostly on my own these days. So finals preparation is different for me in that I do so much of it on my own this time around. Luckily I've been through the drill a few times now and mostly know what to expect. Of course, with the baby due on the 26th and my first final on the 1st, who knows what could happen.

Also, on Halloween weekend we had Tess' nephew Lukas come spend the weekend with us. He's a good kid, but it's nice not to have to jump into the parenting gig with a 5-year-old.

This is me and Lukas at the ward Halloween party. As you can see, he's cheating to beat me at eating a donut off a string.

This is after Tess' baby shower that our friend, Sebrina Hall, put on for her.

Texas Trip

Andrew, Ali, and I just got back from visiting Texas last week. We had a lot of fun. Andrew got to go to Papa's barn and see the chickens. He really liked that. We mostly stayed around my parents house because my Mom is very tired a lot, and she is not feeling well. She will be going into the hospital next Monday to have more tests done. We got to see Bridget, Brian, and cute little Landon while we were there. We went to a pumpkin patch and we went on a hayride. The kids loved it. We are so glad they got to come from Austin to see us. This was the first time I got to see Landon, and the first time Bridget got to see Ali. We were glad to be there, but it was nice to come home to see Stephen. We missed him a lot. We were also suprised that he had painted the kitchen while we were gone.
We got some good news on Halloween. Andrew finally hit the 18 pound mark. We were so excited. He weighs 18 lbs. 9 oz. We are seeing a dietitian and she has us on a strict feeding schedule which seems to be working. We are also adding a lot of calories to his meals. Ali also took her first steps on Halloween. She has not been as interested in walking as she has been climbing up the stairs. She is so fast.
We are getting so excited about coming back to Texas for Christmas. We can't wait to see everyone.

We love you,
Ashley

This is Just a Test

I have been meaning to get this together for quite some time now. I'm not the best at keeping everyone posted on our comings and goings, Kim and Nicole make it seem so easy. I hope this is successful. The goal is to have regular posts from our family, to update anyone who is interested, on what we are up to. Now that we have kids you might even be interested. Any of you are welcome to post on here, but I specifically invite Kyle and Tess, Bridget and Brian (even though they aren't officially Hampton's), Leigh, and our Parents to try make regular contributions (updates and pictures). Ashley and I promise to do our best too. If all works out as planned this might end up being a very good thing. Let me know if you have any great ideas or questions. I hope to hear from you soon.