Our Future Football Star

Updates...

Most people have probably given up on reading my blog. I'm sorry and I'm embarrassed.

I'm spending this night in Denver, Colorado. I've had a pretty busy month with work travels. I was in Wisconsin, South Dakota, Iowa, Alabama, Colorado today, Nashville Tennessee on Saturday and Indiana on Tuesday of next week. (Breathe...) Then, it settles down. Just in time to spend a long weekend at the lake, celebrate Ryker's first birthday and get ready for Ryker's next surgery. Most know that we were scheduled to have our next set of procedures done on June 19th. We had an appointment yesterday with Dr. Grimmer, Ryker's ENT. Turns out, the tubes in Ryker's ears are fixing to fall out and will need to be replaced. The bright spot is, Primary's will get all of the doctors together to perform surgery at the same time so Ryker will only have to be put out once. The dark spot is all the ENT's are out of the office on the 19th so surgery will have to be posponed until July 2nd. This procedure should be a bit easier than the first. Dr. Siddiqi, the plastic surgeon will repair the soft palate, Dr. Yamashiro, the orthodontist, will remove and replace the hard palate prosthesis, and Dr. Grimmer will replace the tubes in his ears. I'm worried about his recovery, having him on pain meds last time was miserable, but this time he's eating more solid foods (or at least trying) so i'm afraid that will be tough. I'm sure it will all go well. Ryker is one tuff little man. I can't believe that he is going to be one. This past year has flown and I wouldn't trade the trials and changes this last year brought for the world, I know thanks to all of it, I've grown more than I ever imagined I could.

Let see, what else... Cazley is nearly done with school and has been dancing like C.R.A.Z.Y. the last few months. She loves dance. I'll have to figure out how to post video because she took a ballroom dance class and she and her little partner are fantastic. It's so cute, just like a mini 'Dancing with the Stars'. They have performed in a handful of competitions and won a bunch of trophies.

Scott is still working hard. We've been pretty lucky with such hard times all around us, he hasn't spent much time 'out of work'. (Knock on wood.) We've really been blessed, even the couple weeks he was home with no work from his employer, he kept pretty busy with side jobs and odds and ends. He kept pretty busy keeping the house clean too!! That was nice while it lasted. I'm happy to have him back on the job though.

Well, I guess that's all for now...

Ryker dumped the dog bowl full of water all over himself

Bath time is the BEST TIME!!

Ryker with his plastic surgeon Dr. Siddiqi

Ryker with his orthodontist Dr. Yamashiro

I feel so bad that I am so behind on my blog. I didn't really realize that so many people liked to read it, until I haven't posted for a couple months and everyone wants to tell me about it. Over the last few weeks, i've realized that it is a nice way for family so far away to maybe feel a bit closer.

The last few months have been nice. I haven't had to travel much for work so i've been able to spend a lot of time with Ryker. He is getting so big. He has 6 teeth coming in now and boy are they sharp. He is beginning to want to pull his knees under his little body and push himself forward, usually this results in his forehead being shoved across the carpet. We're working on our eating habits and Ryker loves his freeze-dried yogurt bites.

We had a consultation with our orthodontist, Dr. Yamashiro and also, our plastic surgeon, Dr. Siddiqi at Primary's a few weeks ago. They were both so happy with how Ryker's cleft repair is healing. Dr. Siddiqi asked to take pictures for his photo album. We are preparing now for our next surgery. Ryker will have his soft palate repaired and his prosthesis removed and a new one replaced on June 19th. I can't believe he will be 1. This last year has been so full of ups and downs but has gone so fast.

Ryker recently took his first airplane trip. I'll post pictures as soon as I can get them. I didn't take my camera but my mom did. My grandfather in Alabama had been sick for a while and so my mom and dad and Jyl and Ryker and I were planning to take a trip back to visit the middle of this month. We had been busy making flight reservations, hotel accommodations and everything else when my mom and dad got a call late on Thursday March, 5th that my papa jess had passed away in his sleep. It felt a little overwhelming. It wasn't necessarily unexpected but deep down I wasn't prepared. It had been almost 9 years since I had last seen him and I was really looking forward to our visit later this month. Now, all of a sudden we are packing our bags to make a quick trip for his funeral. We flew down late, late on Saturday night. Luckily, Ryker slept the whole time. We arrived in Birmingham, Alabama at around 11:00 on Sunday morning. We made a quick stop at the hotel and then at the Wal-mart to buy Ryker supplies. After that, we spent the rest of the day at papa's house. It was nice because almost all of our family was there, minus 3 cousins, it was the first time in over 20 years we were all together in the same place. Ryker was such a good boy and loved all the attention. The next day and a half were a whirlwind. Once the commotion settled down and everyone started home, we got to spend a few quiet moments at the cemetery before we came home. This was the most peaceful time. I am so lucky to know that even though I didn't get to tell him good bye, he knows that I loved him and missed him, and missed the time we didn't get to spend together, we'll be reunited again.

The flight home was late afternoon, Ryker slept the first half and then for the last two hours, he sat on my mom's lap with big earphones on, watching Madagascar 2. It was so funny. He didn't even mind the big earphones on. It was a great trip. Ryker did better than expected and the time we got to spend with our family was priceless. I hope they know how much I love them.

I swear i'm going to try to update more frequently. TRY being the keyword.

Christmas 2008 Pictures

Ryker and Santa

Cazley and her cousins Tasia and Hadley in their Christmas jammies

Ryker and his cousin Karson

Cazley, Ryker, Karson and Hadley with Santa

Happy New Year!

I am such a blogger slacker. I could blame on the holidays... or I've just been so busy with work... but in all actuality, I'm lazy. I've been so lucky to be home since the 12th of December. Christmas was wonderful! Ryker loved ripping the paper off his gifts. I was so excited for Christmas because I suprised Scott with a 60" flat-screen TV. I bought it off ShopNBC a few weeks ago and they delivered it the week before Christmas. I hid it in my office in the basement and he didn't suspect a thing!! On Christmas morning 'Santa' left some wildlife watercolors that Scott had been wanting to have framed for so long and a pair of slippers... that was it. We went to my mom and dads for our delicious Christmas breakfast then came home, shortly after that, we went to pick up Cazley and go visit grandma and grandpa Nay in Hooper... we were out there for a while and while we were gone the elves came back by our house because it seems Santa 'forgot' to leave a gift for the family. When we got home from Hooper, oh, I wish I had my camera... Cazley walked up the stairs and when she saw the TV, she just kept yelling down to the garage "Dad, are you kidding me!!" and he just smiled and said "Did Santa leave you something"... and she said "Dad, are you kidding me!!" Scott looked at me and smiled and I told him to hurry up so she could start opening her gifts. I grabbed the diaper bag out of the car and as I headed up the stairs Scott yelled down to me, "Jaym, are you kidding me??"... I laughed so hard. He was sooo suprised and excited. It made it all worth it! Christmas is sooo much fun! Scott suprised me with some diamond earrings... I wasn't expecting anything from him because I had told him that I had bought enough for both of us, so I was excited. Ryker and Cazley got bunches of clothes and toys...

It's nice to be home and be able to spend time with Ryker. He's got three little teeth coming in now, he's rolling around the floor like a tumbleweed and he's in to EVERYTHING he can get in to. It's been so fun to play with him during the day. I've started him back to daycare this week though, I was nervous that he's so used to me being home that once I took him back he'd cry... or that he'd think that I only took him to Miss Shelly's when I was leaving for days so he's spent a few hours a day for the last few days over at her house. He loves it there. He comes home absolutely exhausted! I love knowing that even when he's not at home, with me and Scott, he's happy and he's surrounded by people that love him. It makes going away so much easier.

I can't think of anything new... I hope everyone else had as good of a Christmas as we did.
Happy New Year!!

Time Flies...

I can't believe how fast time passes. My mom informed me that I needed to update my blog, it seemed as though I just had but as I look at it, I see, it's been nearly a month. This picture was taken on Ryker's 6 month birthday. I was in Rochester, MN, so my mom took it and sent it to me. I can't believe he's 6 months already. We had to go get immunizations last week... YAY us! Ryker finally hit 15 lbs, 15 lbs. 5 oz. to be exact and 25 inches long. He is growing so well. He is so smart and alert and can hardly sit still, the last few Sundays I would swear I had a two year old on my lap... up and down... back and forth... it's fun though. We've started feeding him baby food, he makes the funniest faces but with practice, he's started understanding what it means to push it back instead of out. I can't even remember what life was like before him, he has brought so much love and excitement!! Ohhh, I know what else is new... Ryker is learning to clap. It cracks me up. We say 'clap, clap, clap' and he'll spread his arms as wide as he can and swing them both in just as hard and as fast as he can... he'll clasp his little fists and get this really excited look on his face. If I can ever learn how to upload video, I'll add it.
This week finds me in Seattle, Tacoma and Portland. I was so excited to get up this way. I've never been here before. It's absolutely beautiful. I have a lot of work to do so it doesn't leave much time for sight seeing. I did see the space needle as I drove by on the freeway. I'm hoping i'll finish up a little early tomorrow and maybe i'll be brave enough to venture out. This is my first trip alone, so far, so good.
Not really much else is new... or exciting. We are trying to get ready for Christmas at our house. We took the easy way out again this year, instead of buying a tree we opted to use our little decorative trees that are in our family room all year long. I did, however, put lights on them... and decorations. They look really cute. As I said when I started this post, time flies... I feel like it was just the 4th of July. Where does the year go?? I can't believe the holidays are upon us.
I hope everyone has as wonderful of a Christmas as we will at our house. Happy Holidays!!!