One Year Ago Today

We are celebrating Ryder's Hospital Birthday today. He finally came home from the hospital after 28 days in the NICU. Looking back I am in awe as to what he went through and survived. Today he is a healthy, active one year old. These pictures are from the day he was born until he came home.

Finally, home at last. Being held by Aunt Janelle and sound asleep. In his car seat all snuggled down and asleep.
Big sister Rylee finally getting to hold him and cuddle with him. Could that smile get any bigger?

My first picture...Where are my clothes?

Sleeping so peaceful, except for the darn feeding tube.
This is the most expensive bed he will ever sleep in. Just the rental per day was $30,000. They named this bed the Cadillac Bed. He was in this for 4 days.

Wow!! what is happening to me. I don't feel good. This was a day after having his chest tube removed. He was still fighting the infections and sleeping most of the time.

The infections were gone and he was starting to feel better. The final hurdle was eating on his own for 24 hours. They diagnosed his reflux and gave him prevacide. He then started right in with the bottle. It would wear him out after about 5 minutes and he wanted to sleep.

He started eating on his own and came home 9 days later. It took him 30 minutes to eat half ounce and we repeated this every 2 hours.

I am so thankful that he is healthy and strong today. We had amazing doctors and nurses that took care of him during his stay. The stories they told me about promptings they received during those first two weeks. Ryder was truly protected and blessed.

IT IS SO COLD !!!!!!

I love the watching the weather. It is constantly changing and yesterday was no different. Except it started out cold and ended cold. We had sunshine and cold in the morning. In the afternoon clouds and cold. Then early evening it started to rain and it got even colder. We went from being in the low 90's on Friday to the low 50's today.

So everyone bundled up for soccer. Rylee dress in shorts and a t-shirt. I sent her outside to see if she would be warm enough. She quickly changed in to long pants, shoes, socks, and a jacket. Ryder we tried to dress warm with long pants, jacket, and socks. He wasn't so sure of the socks and kept pulling them off. So today one of our many errands would be to buy him some shoes. Reganne we dressed in layers and she didn't complain at all that she was cold.

In fact she played better than ever in the game. She loves kicking the ball and she wanted to be the one to kick it in all the time. Taking turns is not her thing right now. She also found the sand and was dumping sand in the coaches sandles. Boy! I'm glad that he is patient because he just laughed it off as he was dumping out his shoes. She disappeared at one point and everyone was calling her name. She was up by the goal and was waving to everyone. She was so excited that we had treats for the end of the game. She planned Cheese Sticks, Capri Sun (Sun Juice), and Fruit Rollups. I couldn't disappoint her.

The wind started to blow and everyone bundled up the best that they could. Rylee was so cold she ended up in the car and watching the game from there.

Reganne and Ryder loved being out there and didn't complain about the cold. In fact Dave decided it was to cold for Ryder to be out there and put him in the car. He was not happy about that.

After the soccer game the girls had a birthday party for a friend from day care. They were so excited to go there was going to be a clown and swimming. They were doing face painting when we arrived. Both girls had flowers painted on their cheeks. Rylee's was pink and Reganne's was white.
There was no peace until they went swimming. I love this pool they have life jackets for the kids that can't swim. So I could watch them from the side and let them play.
I am so lucky they like to play together. They were chasing each other down the slides and around the splash pad.
Reganne & Robin love playing together as well. They also think they are as big as the older girls. So they took off to the middle of the pool. When we tried to yell at them to come back they would only giggle and turn away from us. We sent the older girls out to get them and then they were all out in the middle playing. Finally, a lifeguard blew his whistle at them and told them to get back to the splash pad. Finally, they listened and came back. They played in the shallow end until another mom decided to get in and take as many as wanted to go down the slide. It turned out to be only Reganne & Robin. They were both smiles when they reached the bottom.

Wow!!! what a fun and busy day...they should sleep in....NOT!!!

Happy Birthday Reganne

Happy 4th Birthday Reganne!!! The day finally arrived and she was so excited to finally have her birthday. It is conference weekend so Grandma JeanAnn, Grandpa Chris, Uncle Randy, Aunt Janelle, Brinton, Holland, and Uncle Bryan joined us. The day started off rainy and cold. It rained most of the day. It was so rainy there was no soccer and no picnic. A quick change of plans we went out to eat and then had a birthday party.

This was all about her favorites....Pink is her favorite color and she dressed for the occasion with all her pink accessories. Her favorite princess this week is Ariel and she loves ponies. Her cake was supposed to be pink with purple frosting. Thank goodness for our local Harmon's Grocery Store. I was able to order a white cake with pink filling and purple flowers. Pink & Purple balloons rounded out the decorations.


She was so excited that the presents were for her this time and not Ryder. She loved all the ponies, and Ariel toys. She couldn't decide which to play with first. She had her dad open everything and sat down in the middle to play with everything. She thought it was cool that these were her toys and she didn't have to share.
Get Ready...Set...Blow.... it took a group of us to blow out her candles. They must be defective. The crown was courtsey of her teachers at A Child's World.
Wow...Reganne's cake was much better than mine. He ate the whole piece and wanted more.
The day continued with playing outside. Finally, the rain stopped. Reganne & Brinton talked Grandma into going outside to swing them. They took a wrong turn and instead got her on the trampoline. She was a good sport and jumped with them.

Ryder was also a busy little boy. He figured out how to climb in and onto anything he could find. He loved playing with Brinton and finally figured out that boy toys are alot of fun. I turned around from loading the dishwasher and there he was right in the middle of it. Little black hand & foot prints all over inside. The picture I missed was him standing up holdin onto the top rack.

Next came emptying my cupboards and making a mess where ever he went. He is giving Reganne a run for her money on being busy.

Still Summer.....

Summer is still hanging in there. Our temperatures have been daily in high 90's. We finally had our quiet weekend and were trying to find something for the girls to do Friday night. The town movie was "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid". We knew they wouldn't sit still for that one. So instead we all headed to the splash pad to play in the water. They loved it!!!!

Ryder decided he wanted to be in there with them. So off he crawled. He did really well until the water splashed in his face. It was cold and so he would quickly crawl back to me.
Then he decided it was ok and started to play along with the girls.
Being one is hard work. He fell asleep eating a peanut butter cookie that he stole from me. I put him here to eat so I could start dinner. Before I could finish he was sound asleep. All week he came home and slept for about 1/2 hour and then was good to go until bedtime.
Soccer this week was a little better no flower or feathers. When Reganne is ready to play. She is ready now. If we wait she loses interest and wants to drink her water. She loves to kick the ball. Our team is doing really well. I have to hand it to the coach in rotating the girls in and out of the game. The older girls score and dominate the game. Then he puts the younger girls in and it evens out. Everyone plays.

Happy Birthday Ryder

It is hard to believe one year has gone by already. Ryder turned one year old on Thursday, September 18th. It is amazing to me how fast he has grown and changed over the past year. He also had his one-year checkup the next day. Here are his official stats. He is finally on the charts .

Weight: 16 Pounds 4 Ounces
Length: 28 1/4 inches (he grew 2 1/4 inches since his nine month checkup)
Head Size: 44.5 cm

For his birthday we had a few friends over to celebrate. The he wasn't sure of what presents were for until he discovered the toys inside. We then took them away so he could open the next one. He didn't think that was to cool. The girls also tried to get in on the action, but he just watched them instead.

Finally, Dad stepped in and showed him how it was done. The fun began....
This was his favorite toy of all. Could this smile get any bigger. The problem with this one is that the girls think they can ride it also and so they fight over who's turn it is.
"Cars" was his theme for the night. The girls picked this out and made sure everything matched. This was his main cake and then there was a smash cake just for him. He wasn't sure of what to do with the cake. He touched it with one finger. Dad put both hands on it and he then played with his dirty hands. We were all surprised that he didn't destroy it.

He was finished. When the party was over he was ready for bed and slept all night. That was the best present for Mom.

Soccer Saturday yesterday and Reganne started really playing and getting into the game. To bad they played longer than 5 minutes at a time. She was then off playing in the dirt, finding feathers, and rolling around on the grass. She wanted drinks constantly. Her team did really well.

He really does love to eat. Here he is eating a chocolate doughnut. Maybe instead of the cake we should have done doughnuts or cookies.

We love him.

Happy Birthday Big Boy!!!!

Busy Weekend!!!

We have had a busy weekend full of activities. I am not sure why they can't be spread out over a couple of weekends. They all seem to pile up on one. To start the weekend off with a bang. We went to the Movie on the Square on Friday Night. They were showing "Horton Hears a Who" The kids loved it and the adults did too. The new family tradition is to bring homemade caramel popcorn and play in the water before the movie. Then everyone has their own blankets and when it is dark curl up in the blankets. This week we saw many friends and everyone was excited to see the movie. It was a good movie and the kids keep asking if we can buy it not borrow it.
Rylee posing with her new school t-shirt.
Rylee & Reganne enjoying the caramel popcorn. They were fighting over who ate the most and who had the bowl closest to them. Do I look like I am teething. Two new teeth this afternoon decided to make their appearance. He was in the stroller to keep him out of the popcorn. He only made it through 1/2 of the movie before he was asleep.
Saturday was game number 2 for Reganne. She did really great this weekend. She was out running and trying to catch the ball. She didn't have to hold anyone's hand this time.
Here they are getting ready for kick off. This week not as many goals were scored they kept missing it by inches. Reganne decided she would be the ball and climbed inside the goal net and kept the other team from making a goal. She would rather hang back from the group and wait for the ball to come to her. She might make a good goalie when she grows up.

Soccer Season Begins

I never imagined that I would say those words. Surprise!!! I officially am a soccer mom as of Wednesday. Reganne started playing soccer on a little girl's team. A friend at work wanted to started coaching a little girl's team with his daughter. He invited Reganne to join. The first practice she was very confused and not at all sure she wanted to play. The second practice she was having fun. Then came game day and she finally got to wear her "Unicorn" (Uniform). Game time arrived and she was so overwhelmed by the number of people playing that all she did was walk around the field and hold her coaches hand. She did kick the ball a couple of times. Luckily there were others to play when she was finished. We look forward to a long season and hopefully she will have fun.

Reganne in her Unicorn / Uniform.

Reganne kicking off to start the quarter.
The Heartbreakers
Practicing before the game. The uniforms are so big on all of them. It was over 100 degrees today with no shade. They did amazingly well for being so hot.