Peace Out San Fran!

They were happy when their mommies held them.   

Gramma thought it was pretty funny.   

Clayre & Hannah were a little tired of pictures. 

David F., Ken, Katie, Hannah, Emily, Hollie. Clayre, Patrick, Colleen Scott, Barbara, Ally, Stephanie, Jess, Allan, Jeni, Wendy, David B., Gramma, Papa, Jo, Rick

The Angels & Bosley

Papa, Gramma, Hollie, & Clayre

The Graduate: Ally

The Granddaughters…yes, that is Em running

The Beayre

Hannah Bug

waiting in line for a graduation we never got into… 

Ally, Jess, Stephanie, Jeni

Banana & Beayre

on the pier…

Admiring the bridge…

Our family…

Golden Gate Bridge…

Jess & Clayre

Hollie & Emmy

Clayre’s first plane ride…it went well.

There are a ton of pictures on flickr from our trip…this is just a sampling.  We had a lot of fun and hope to see everybody again soon…

Now that Clayre has the crawling thing down, she’s gone back to talking up a storm.  No surprise, one of her favorite words is Da-Da.  Makes me smile.

Clayre had several visitors this week.  Greg, Kara, Carter & Braelynn came over for a quick visit, but I can’t find the picture of them (if we took one).

John Mark came early in the week and brought his girlfriend.  She’ll be featured later on if he keeps her around.

Hollie’s friend and fellow teacher Lynn dropped in, but she’s a little camera shy.

And on Sunday, Jose, Alede and Joseph came over.  Joseph was a ball, and really helped us see that we have quite a bit of baby proofing to do before Clayre starts walking.

Mom and baby are taking a nap downstairs this afternoon.  They’re both tired from being up all night last night.  She’s got a little work to do on the whole sleeping thing, but she’ll get it, just needs some more practice.

Ok, so we’ve been home since Monday. Clayre is slowly starting to shift her time scale around from being active at night to sleeping and being active during the day. Last night she gave us nearly a 4 hour break. This made mommy a little nervous and she kept getting up to check and make sure she was still breathing. We’re getting used to sleeping when ever we can, and enjoying having a baby. She’s already growing up way to fast for me.

She'll be here soon!

We talked the nurses into playing with the ultrasound machine today.  They had a lot of fun, and we got to see our baby girl.  She’s dialated 3cm and 80% effaced.  (not sure on the spelling)

Great to see you this week Grandpa Darryl!  We can’t wait to see you again when Clayre gets here.  While he was down, I put him to work helping my install a new fan in ECW’s bedroom.

Hollie’s been having more contractions over the last few days, so we’ve decided to start tracking them.  Obviously we won’t be tracking all of them, but will hopefully do this at least once a day.  The word on the street is that when they hit 1 minute in duration at 5 minutes apart, it’s time to make our way to the hospital.

Had to remove the table because it was causing problems.

I know my wonderful wife already posted a thank you message, and is diligently crafting thank you notes to everyone, but I wanted to also express my gratitude.  I had a great time the last few weekends in Little Rock, and it was great to see everyone.  Thank you for coming out to show your love and support for our growing family.  Clayre will be here very soon, and we can’t wait to share her with all of you.

Cheers!

Hollie, Clayre and I are spending the day today and half a day tomorrow at Baylor hospital in Fort Worth. We’re here doing our childbirth class so we’ll be ready to go in 54 days. I think I know more now about the process than I ever wanted to know. Ignorance is bliss.

Hollie will be in Conway for a couple weeks in August, so if you want to see her all full of baby, that would be your best opportunity. There are a few showers scheduled and we’re looking forward to seeing everyone!

Thanks mom & dad for the beautiful crib! We picked it up today and assembly was a snap.  They should advertise it as coming with “swear free” assembly.  I managed to put the entire thing together without explicating a single time.

Went to the DR for another checkup.  Everything seems to be going great!  Quality on this video is not wonderful, but if you listen carefully, you can hear baby Clayre’s heartbeat.

Here are a few of the pictures from the ultrasound. They got a little creased, so some of them are a little hard to see. Now that we know it’s a girl, we’re working on names. It’s tough, but I think we’re getting close. We’ll tell you what we’ve decided when we’re ready, but if you want to make suggestions, leave a comment!

We went to the Doctor yesterday for her half-way ultrasound. It appears that we have a very healthy little girl growing in there. She has all her parts: head, brain, heart, fingers, toes, etc. It was cool getting to see her move around, and hear her tiny heart beat. We couldn’t be more excited.

After leaving the doctor’s office, we spent the rest of the day picking out baby stuff. It seems like it’s taking forever right now, but I know it will be here in a blink.

Stay Tuned!

We have not yet decided on a name for our first child.  In a few weeks, we will learn if it’s a boy or girl, so be checking back around May 6th for the official announcement.   Once we decide, we are open to sharing the name with the world.  That said, I would like to give anyone out there listening an opportunity to make suggestions (funny or serious).  So hit the comments section, and leave me your suggestions.  One name, or a list of names.  I’ll reply with the ones that we like the best of your suggestions.  I may even put up a poll and allow voting.  That said, we are going to withhold our personal top choices, and even if we do put up a vote, we reserve the right to decline and go with our own.

That said Hollie has already vetoed the following:

• Mohammad Zachery Batman Woodruff
• Sponge Bob Woodruff
• Kenneth Patrick Woodruff Jr.
• Carter Ashton Woodruff (Sorry Greg, I tried)
• ….and many many more….

So see if you can do better than I did, and when I know if it’s a boy or girl, I’ll throw out another post.

Cheers,

Ken

Hollie came running down stairs on Saturday night with a huge smile on her face. She felt the baby moving for the first time. We sat for quite a while with our hands on her belly. I think I felt it too. It won’t be too long, and we wont have to try very hard to feel it.

And just to be clear, our little kicks were nothing like these little kicks.