Happy Holidays and Technical Difficulties

Hope everyone had a Merry Christmas!

We had a wonderful holiday, and I will be sharing some of the sights and sounds..... as soon as I figure out how!

We are without our digital camera- as Jason had the diaper bag with him while I was at work the other day. I came home that night and wanted to upload some pictures and video clips of Brayden's school concert last Friday. When I asked him where the diaper bag was, he responded "in the van". I said "Ummm, no...". Upon his inspection, he also found no diaper bag. We are thinking (read: hoping and praying) that he left it at the hair salon when he and Brayden got their hair cut. The salon, of course, was closed by the time we realized this, and throughout the holiday. So we went without our camera over the weekend and Christmas.

Luckily, our camcorder takes still photos. Only problem is...... we can't figure out how to get them off of there. We can get the video clips off, but for some reason they have no sound once downloaded to the computer!! ARGH, sometimes technology stinks! Anyway, once we work out our techno-dilemma, we will have things posted.

We are traveling to see my side of the family on Friday through the New Year. If I don't get a post up before then, hope everyone has a safe and wonderful New Year 2008!!

Picture Perfect

I have been restraining myself from posting these, and now I can!! I had to keep our family's recent photo shoot, taken by my friend Hope, "top secret" until after all of our Christmas cards were sent to family and friends. I didn't want the pictures to be old news. Now that I am sure that they have made it out to various mailboxes around the country (and even over-seas), I can show off the rest of the shots :-)!

Thank you, Hope, for another set of beautiful pictures and memories!!

Since I am already showing off pictures, here some of the pictures that my friend, Donita, snapped of Rhylan at our playgroup yesterday! (To see more of her talent, click here )

We are so lucky to have such talented friends to help us preserve our memories. Thank you so much, both of you!

You Know Better Than That!!

All was quiet in our house- Rhylan was down for a nap, Brayden was quietly playing in his room, and Jason and I dozed off for a late afternoon snooze on the couch. I guess our first clue that something wasn't right in the world should have been when our, usually quite vocal Brayden, was so quiet. He seems to always be noisy, not in a naughty way, but always singing, talking, jumping, making noises, something. But today he was "working on art projects" in his room, very quietly and intently.....

Until suddenly I felt a little finger poking on my shoulder, and a little voice say "Mommy, don't I look handsome?!!? And look, I even made a watch!" As I opened my eyes to see:

Yep, that is my NAKED little Picasso- after becoming the canvas for his own masterpiece!!!

Oh, the Weather Outside....

... Is perfect for a 4 year old to play in!!!

Just a couple of shots of Brayden (and one of our neighbors) playing in the snow this morning.

I'm Dreaming of a Girlfriend's Christmas

Last night was an annual Girl's Ornament Exchange Party with some of the "Old Timers" from my Mother's Group. It was a really nice evening of drinks (mmmmm, White Christmas Martini's- Vanilla Vodka, Godiva Liqueur, and Peppermint Schnapps. A new holiday tradition indeed!!), yummy food, great conversation, and a ton of laughs. It was so nice to spend this evening with friends- many of whom I don't get to see as frequently as I would like. It especially meant a lot to me because I was unable to attend this, or many other events over the last year. It was just a wonderful reminder to me that no matter how dark things sometimes seemed this year, that I truly am so lucky. Lucky to have my life back- new and improved, lucky to be surrounded by friends- new and old, and lucky to have my beautiful family. What a perfect time of year to have such a reminder! Thank you ladies!

At this party, we do an Ornament exchange. Everyone draws a number, and then picks a wrapped ornament when it is their turn. After all of the ornaments are opened, we then go in sequential order of "swapping" ornaments. So, the first one to get to open their ornament, actually ends up with the least likelihood of keeping the ornament that they swapped. It is a lot of fun, and some really unique ornaments- from beautiful, to sentimental, to obnoxious, and everything in between, many in beautiful boxes!

Here are all of the ornaments that were exchanged this year:

I brought the glittery, red, star burst looking one at the bottom of the picture, which seemed to be a hit. The ornament that I ended up with is the red and gold one above it..... filled with Ghirardelli Chocolate!!

When we went to leave, there was a TON of snow on the ground. Truly a winter wonderland! Amy and Trish decided to be the clean up committee and cleaned cars as they were leaving.

Brotherly Love

I am sure that all families that have a second child wonder how the older one is going to react to the new addition. I know we certainly did- I wondered if Brayden would be jealous, if he would act out for attention, if he would understand, if he would be good with the baby, etc. I can honestly say that in the 5+ months of him in his "new" role in life, as big brother to Rhylan, that we have been truly doubly blessed- a perfect, healthy baby, and a wonderful big brother! The boys absolutely adore each other. Brayden will run around the house being silly, and Rhylan will just watch him with such intensity and crack up laughing. Brayden has to be near his brother all the time- "reading" him stories, playing on the floor, "teaching" him things. It truly touches my heart to see so much love between them. (Don't get me wrong, I know that my time is coming- from the back of the van "Mommmmm, he's touching me", from the bedroom "Mommmmm, he is messing with my stuff", "He's hitting me", and the like! But for now, it is just so neat to see them interact.)

Here are a couple of shots of the boys playing on the floor together the other night:

Last night they took thier first bath together. Brayden was so excited to have "Bubby" in the tub with him - Daddy was excited to only have to give one bath instead of 2!

Fine Dining

We got the high chair out of storage today, with the anticipation of just having Rhylan sit and watch us for meals and slowly just start putting cereal in front of him to see if he got interested in trying it. Well, the interest was there as soon as he saw it!! He got really excited, and opened wide right off the bat. He gobbled up the whole bowl (well- 1 tablespoon of rice cereal mixed with 3 tablespoons of breastmilk) in about 5 minutes, and was not even too messy with it.

Brayden really enjoyed watching and helping his brother eat for the first time. We aren't in any hurry to get him fully on "solids", but I think we will start slowly with cereal once a day for now, and expand a little bit at a time.

It seems like just yesterday (not almost exactly 4 years ago to the day!) that Brayden had his first cereal- and hasn't stopped eating since. I wonder if Rhylan will love food as much as his brother? It will be fun to find out!! For those of you that have never asked him, Brayden will tell you that his favorite foods are "Shrimp, Sushi, Onion Rings, Chinese, and Indian Food"- I just asked him to tell me them again, to double check, and make sure I didn't miss quote him!

Here are some pictures from today---- and some pictures from 4 years ago. There are days that I don't think the boys look much alike, and other days I see a lot of similarities- of course Rhylan being the blond-ish, blue eyed version. Looking at these shots side by side (Rhylan on the top, Brayden on the bottom), let's see what you think!

	Do you think that Brayden and Rhylan look alike at the same age?
	Not at all
	Some what
	Very much

Busy, busy, busy

The title says it all for the past week of our lives!! I apologize that I haven't had the time to update on here- despite having that fact pointed out to me by several people! This will probably be a long post, but I will try to update y'all on what we have been up to (and try not to bore you too much).

Let's see.....

Last Saturday night, we got a call that my Grandpa was in the hospital. He is 92 years old, but never been sick a day in his life, so it came as a shock. He had been taken in for breathing trouble, and was admitted. He has been diagnosed with congestive heart failure, as well as having spots on his lungs discovered. He will be going through a PET Scan this upcoming week to evaluate how far things have spread. In the meantime, I have spent many hours worrying, and on the phone with family trying to get things in order. Without boring anyone with all of the crazy details, it is quite the stressful, crazy, mess that my aunt (in California) and I are trying to handle as best as we can from long distance. I am guessing that in the relatively near future I will be heading to my hometown with the boys for a bit of time to try to tie up loose ends.

On a happier note for last Saturday, while Jason continued to work on getting the new siding put on the house, the boys and I headed to a local mall where Brayden was able to go Christmas shopping. A local charity has set up a store for kids to go shopping, with a volunteer, to buy and wrap gifts. Brayden absolutely loved it, and was so excited. He started telling me what he got all of us, but I stopped him before he could tell me the actual items. All I know is that he got Daddy something because "he likes baseball and money", got me something because I "love our family", and Rhylan got "a silly little animal that helps Santa w/ his sleigh" (hmmmmm.....). After his shopping adventure, the boys went to see Santa, and we concluded the day with lunch with friends at the Chinese restaurant at the mall.

Sunday was another busy day for us. We attended a new church, and really enjoyed it- we will be back there again this week! After church, we went to a birthday party for one of Brayden's friends, followed by a play date, then dinner at a new pizza restaurant in town with the birthday boy and his family.

The following are some pictures of Rhylan and Evan from an event that my Mom's Group does on alternating Monday's that we went to. I can't believe how quickly they are growing!

Tuesday was an annual event at my work, called Hometown Day. It is a day dedicated to providing free exams and glasses to people in need. I volunteer to work this every year, and Brayden has always enjoyed "working" with me. He is in love with the Bee- the mascot from Hometown Buffet, which caters for the event. It was a long, exhausting, day- but very rewarding, as always. We were quite tired by the end of the day, which was apparent by some very out of character behavior on Brayden's part (which was even more tiring for Mommy!). I won't go into what all happened, but lets just say that it involved disrespect for adults, lying, and biting/destroying a $200(ish) frame.... and my blood pressure the highest it has been since the Dr. told me we had to deliver Rhylan "NOW"!!! Needless to say, this was the sight in our van within minutes of leaving:

Wednesday brought Jason's annual work party. This year it was held at the same pizza restaurant we went to on Sunday. The party itself was quite enjoyable.... However, we no sooner got out of our subdivision on the way there, and Jason's cell phone rang. It was our babysitter (her first time watching our kids) saying: "Brayden hit his head, and it's bleeding". We turned around to come home and find him with a HUGE goose-egg on his head, but the bleeding had slowed down already. I grabbed an ice pack, some Tylenol, and told her to call us if he seemed confused or started throwing up. We didn't get a call, so all was well.

Fast forward to Thursday. I woke up at 3 a.m. shivering and achy... running 101.5 temp. I don't know if I had a reaction to the flu shot I got on Wednesday morning or caught something (as 2 of my co-workers apparently had the same thing that day!), but was/am miserable! Brayden has his "Book Cooks" class on Thursdays, which I forgot about the past couple of weeks. I had reminded him several times this week to remind me to remember to take him this week. So, despite how I felt, I got him to class. (I begged Jason to stay home and take him, and his loving response was: "Honey, if you survived 8 months of your pregnancy with Rhylan, you can make it through today." As much as I wanted to punch him, if I had the strength, he was right.)

This isn't the greatest picture, but you can see how much he enjoys his class. It is really cute- each week they read a book, and then make a snack that corresponds. This week they made snowmen out of rice cakes and cream cheese, with raisins, marshmallows, pretzel, and carrot accessories.

The highlight of the day was when, out of nowhere, Brayden says:

"Mommy, do geese hatch from eggs?"

"Of course they do."

Shrieking "OH NO!!!!" and then he was almost in tears.......

Turns out that he thought that he was going to be spawning a bird from the lump on his head. I couldn't help but laugh hysterically- which only further upset him until I was able to calm him with an explanation of what it means to have a "Goose Egg".

Well, I think that sums it up in a nutshell. Doesn't seem like nearly the chaotic roller coaster ride in writing, as it has been living this last week. Hopefully I will have time to catch my breath in the coming days and be in touch with everyone soon!

5 Months Already?!?!

Rhylan turned 5 months old on Thursday. I can't beleive it, and don't know where the time is going!! (It certainly didn't go this quickly when I was pregnant!) Here are a couple of pictures of our little man on his 5 month "birthday".

Here he is just hanging out in his jammies. When Daddy came home from work, he got out his saucer. He played in it for a long time, and has been spending quite a bit of time in it since.

I just can't believe how fast he is growing up- he is trying to sit, pulls himself to standing while holding on to fingers, "scoots" around from one place to another by rolling over and over, babbles and coos (thinks he is having a conversation), blows raspberries in response to having them blown at him, smiles and laughs all the time, and is quite the champion sleeper. I am not kidding on that last one- that child goes to bed about 9 and sleeps until anywhere between 10 and noon the next day, it is insane!! He is just so much fun, we can't picture our lives without him- truly our little miracle and blessing.

Happy 5 months baby boy.... now slow down a little bit, this is going too fast for Mommy!

Everyone Needs a Good Laugh

I just had to share a little snipit of Rhylan's Giggle. I think it is so infectious, I just had to share (ok, Brayden's laugh is also infectious). I hope it brings a smile to your face too......

Thanksgiving 2007

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving with Jason's family. We went down on Tuesday night and came home on Friday to get some things done around the house (huge home improvement projects in progress.... pictures to follow soon). It was a short stay, but very much enjoyable.

Brayden and I had a "date" on Wednesday, and went out to lunch, to see the "Bee Movie", and take care of a little holiday shopping while Grandma babysat Rhylan. We had a great time, although, I must say that Brayden isn't the best movie date-- he insisted on sitting at the opposite end of our row from me, rather than sitting next to me!!

After the movie, Brayden and I went and picked up Rhylan, and took off to the mall with Aunt Tera and Cousin Dylan so that the kids could visit with Santa. I must say that the Santa there might very well have been the most disgruntled Santa out there- just didn't seem too enthused to see kiddos, much less make small talk with them. Oh well, regardless, we got pictures (via my camera, since apparently the "elves" don't work at that mall except for a few weekend hours) for Grandma to have of her 3 grandsons. I am pretty sure that Brayden and Dylan had more fun playing in the little rides at the mall than they did visiting Santa!

HG in the news

Back in April, Dr. Phil did a show about Hyperemesis Gravadarum (the pregnancy disease that I had during my pregnancy with Rhylan). This was the first public "showing" of this disease and the impications that it can have. Since that time this horrible condition has been getting much more notice. This past week it made the NBC Nightly News, as well as their morning news show the next day. It isn't much, but 2 minutes of attention to such a life changing, rare, un-noticed condition, is a step in the right direction.

When I was diagnosed with HG, I had never heard of it, much less thought that I would live through it. Since that time I have made it through as a stronger person, with a stronger family, and a beautiful little miracle to show for it.

If you are reading this blog, it means that you are here because you are connected to our family in some way. I ask of you to just click the link below and join us in just a brief glimpse of the past year of our lives. Not to dwell on the bad, but to celebrate the good that has come out of it. Yes, there were times that were truly touch and go, but we are here as a wonderful, happy, family of four.... there are others out there that are not so lucky.....

Visiting Family

I took the boys to my hometown last week. My aunt, Bonnie, was visiting from California (very spur of the moment), so we went to see her, and the rest of the family. It was great timing, as my sister had 2 days off of work, so we were able to spend a lot of time together. She and I are best friends and don't get to see each other nearly as often as we would like. Brayden absolutely adores both Bethany, and her husband, Jason (aka Auntie Boo and Uncle Zerbert)... and the feelings are very much reciprocated! They are pretty much second parents for our kids- they love them, are great with them, and are the first to jump in to help with them, or even discipline.

It was wonderful to be able to visit for an entire week of family, old friends, and relaxing. I never thought that I would say this, but I wish we could move there- or at least in the vicinity. I really kind of felt a sense of sadness coming back here on Thursday. There is so much to do there- shopping, great restaurants, wonderful parks and family oriented activities, close to the city, and the biggest factor, family and true, life long friends.

Here are a few pictures from the week:

Auntie Boo getting ready to give Rhylan a bath (boy, was it nice to have a second "Mommy" giving me some time off!!).

Auntie Boo and Rhylan taking a snooze

Brayden and Rhylan hanging out

Brayden doing Karoke at one of our favorite Japanese restaurants (ok, I cheated, this was actually taken during our last visit, the week before- but it was too cute not to put in here!)

Bethany grew up as a competitive ice skater and continues to coach, part time. She is a wonderful skater, but even more wonderful with her ability to teach children in a loving and embracing way (she is a second grade teacher). Brayden has been begging for her to teach him how to ice skate for quite some time, and we finally had time for him to go during this last trip. At first he was really scared, but once we got him on the ice, he did pretty well. He didn't move too quickly, buy never fell, and by the last lap was going without holding her hand. I was quite the proud mommy as I watched him- he had a very proud great grandma and great aunt cheering him on from the side as well!!