Look who's here!!!

 

This is the outfit I worn to the hospital for all my deliveries. My water broke at 5:04AM and we headed out the door about an hour later, I of course needed to finish packing.

Here is our not so little new guy.  He weighed in at 8lbs and 15ozs.  Due to his projected size, previous complications and possible new bigger complications, we ended up having him by C-section at 12:14pm.

 

Proud Papa

We are very blessed to have a healthy addition to our family. The girls are very excited for us to come home and CJ is happy to find out we get to keep him forever and that he'll move with us to AZ.  He has Grandpas' Jim Ludeking and Ryan's habit of sleeping whenever they get a chance and Grandpa Jim Ryan's chin.

Kjetil Michael Ryan

12-28-08

12:14pm

8lbs 15ozs

20.5"

10 perfect fingers and toes

Look who's here!!!

 

This is the outfit I worn to the hospital for all my deliveries. My water broke at 5:04AM and we headed out the door about an hour later, I of course needed to finish packing.

Here is our not so little new guy.  He weighed in at 8lbs and 15ozs.  Due to his projected size, previous complications and possible new bigger complications, we ended up having him by C-section at 12:14pm.

 

Proud Papa

 

We are very blessed to have a healthy addition to our family. The girls are very excited for us to come home and CJ is happy to find out we get to keep him forever and that he'll move with us to AZ.  He has Grandpas' Jim Ludeking and Ryan's habit of sleeping whenever they get a chance and Grandpa Jim Ryan's chin.

Kjetil Michael Ryan

12-28-08

12:14pm

8lbs 15ozs

20.5"

10 perfect fingers and toes

Christmas

We have had a great Christmas! Many blessings. No baby ---yet. My parents arrived Sunday evening, to a cold front that we had, but by Christmas it was near 80 and sunny. The girls have loved having extra people to play with.



Christmas day, we delivered home made oatmeal bread to the base fire station and the girls got hats and CJ got to sit in the driver's seat!


Today I got my toes done, and we have been plugging away at my to do list, so we are nearly ready for the baby to come. I did get my camera back...I got the call after spending 5hrs at the hospital that it was in and I needed to pick it up within 5 days. Justin the supervisor of the geeks, got an earful on Friday when I picked it up after not having it for 8 weeks.

That is all for now. I hope you had a blessed Christmas.

200th Post and a picture

This is my 200th post and I guess that means I must average about 100 posts a year.  I'm just shy of the 2yr mark when I began this blogging adventure, I don't mind posting as long as someone keeps reading.  I also hope to use this as a resource for my lack of scrapbooking in the past 2yrs.

Today I had a check up.  I'm 36 wks and they really want the little guy to cook a bit longer.  However concerned about his size and decrease in movement, I got to spend 5 HOURS at the hospital today.  I had 3 ultra sounds done and a bunch of fetal monitoring -which I had contractions all the way through.  The break down...baby is still a boy --and proud of it-- he looks healthy and potentially big measuring at about 8lbs 7oz right now.  The girls were only 7lbs 8oz each.  The ultra sound can be off by a pound and a half either way, so I'm PRAYING that he is only at about 7lbs right now.  He was busy snoozing and had no interest in showing off his kicks, flips or punches, which is why I was monitored for so long.  I did get some pictures, and that is always fun to see your little one growing.

 

For anyone needing help, this is a face shot, his lips look similar to CJ's but I really can't say he looks any different than any other baby ultrasound picture.

Thankfully he is not in distress and appears to be very healthy.  I'm also grateful that today I found a neighbor to watch the girls, since normally they come along and love to listen to the heartbeat as much as I do.  The girls did well for Angie, I felt really bad not taking an supplies for her, I really thought I'd be gone for maybe an hour. Laurelei took a nap for her and CJ and Burke played well the whole time.

The nurse also mentioned that I should have a coke and some chocolate...that'll stimulate him...that is treatment I can handle!

This year's santa visit

Many of you may remember how last year's visit with Santa went. If not, our children scream at him. In fact, when he made a drive by in a fire truck this year and I called for CJ to come and see, she yelled back "No, I'm scared of Santa" and today when at the store and there was a display area with a chair CJ said to me, "that's were Santa sits, when is he going to be there?" I said, "Saturday, would you like to come and get your picture taken?" "No"

I'm not pushing it. But here are 2 fun videos of the girls checking in with Santa anyways.

CJ
Laurelei



****I made another lovely call today concerning my camera, I was told that my camera will NOT be expedited nor replaced, but it should be in on Dec. 22nd and that I will have it before Christmas. I said I will be in on Monday Dec. 22nd to pick up my camera or my replacements, that I will not leave the store without a camera ---of course I have no intention of paying for one and really don't plan on spending the holiday in jail either, so crossing my fingers.

Question for you

I have been looking at my stack of Christmas cards and my stack of unfinished baby announcements and have begun to wonder...should I send each one out or should I just pack away the Christmas cards for next year, and focus on the baby announcements? I am proposing the question to you. If I don't have your address or if unfortunately I had to make the cut somewhere and you don't get an Christmas/announcement card, I will be posting here some of that. The Christmas Cards will not include a family letter, because honestly it could be a book and I don't have time. It also will not include a photo of any sort. I hope to include a baby picture in the announcements. Take the poll -----> And let me know!

I also have been hassling about getting my camera back. I called yesterday and told the nice geek that I would be in today to pick up my camera. She said, um it's not here, it just got assigned yesterday. I explained how I haven't had my camera for 6 weeks and I am not waiting any longer I will be in on Wednesday, please have my camera fixed and ready or have a replacement for me. She said she'd send an email. Well I did go today, handed over my work order, the nice geek put it into the system and said confusedly, it's not ready. I explained how I called yesterday and need to pick it up. She said it is in Connecticut. She sent another email, but told me it could be 2 or 3 days before they respond. I said I wasn't happy, I didn't want to be ugly, I JUST WANT MY CAMERA.

I only have a few pictures left on my film camera, I will try and get them taken and developed as quickly as I can, maybe I got a few pictures I can share.

Thanks

Thanksgiving

Still no camera and in an effort to be cheerful this Christmas Season, I will leave it at that for now and not go into a big tirade of it being in the shop for 6 WEEKS!!!

However, thanks to my friend Toni, I do have a couple of pictures I can share.

A few days ago at the cookie exchange

Christmas

The season of Christmas is really here. I know the stores have been trying to get us in holiday mode for about 3 months now, and I'm all about preparing in advance, but NOW the season is truly here. I am excited about it. We put our tree up this weekend. WWAAAAYYYY earlier than normal for me. I like to leave it up until Epiphany, the 12 actual days of Christmas that follow Christmas day, so to put it up right after Thanksgiving, makes it a long time to have up. However, since Eric was home we did it together as a family. It may not stay up until Epiphany this season either.

This week I am participating in a cookie exchange. So I'm busy making 6 dozen cookies. The first batch did not turn out as nice as I had hoped, and I have let the girls have one each, so now I'll need to make at least 4 batches to get my 6 dozen, but CJ is a big help and it is an activity that we can do together. Currently I'm not much for actually getting on the floor and playing gymnastics and although we all love to read books, it is nice to mix up the activities.

We will have company for Christmas and Eric will be home. Although this means I have cleaning and organizing to get done, it helps with the excitement of the season. I made an Advent/Christmas countdown board (with Stampin' Up!'s exclusive home decor) and CJ loves to change out the numbers and her excitement is contagious.

In the middle of all this, we are preparing to welcome our new little one --most likely sometime between Christmas and Epiphany--and he has been a rockin' and a rollin' lately so I know he is anxious to arrive as well. Let us not forget that we are also preparing for a big move. I should be stressed and feeling like skipping Christmas, but I've made the choice to just roll with it and enjoy it with my girls. Their happiness and wonderment makes it hard to even think about the stress I could be having.

I also wanted to take this opportunity to share with you what Eric and I have decided about Christmas. He and I have loved going to church both Christmas Eve and Christmas day, if we can, and we love to just spend time together. Exchanging gifts is always fun and we love to find something special for friends and family. However, we don't buy into the commercialism that Christmas has become. We have decided that the spirit of Santa is fun, but doesn't need to be over done. CJ is already talking about what kind of underwear he'll bring her this year and she hopes he doesn't forget the orange. We're glad that we started the low key yet thoughtful Santa for our house.

As for gifts for the kids, they will each get 3 from us. Jesus, our Savior whom we are celebrating this season, received 3 gifts. The girls won't be getting gold, frankincense, or myrrh, but will be getting age appropriate items that they need or will love. Another reason for this, their birthdays are just a few weeks after Christmas, and it seems more appropriate to make them feel really special and focus on them on those days, and to take the opportunity to learn about Jesus at this time of year.

Counting our blessings, learning to love, enjoying each other, that is what makes Christmas the amazing season that it is. Stop on by, our home will be filled with cookies, fresh bread, Christmas music, and much joy.

Now, I've got to run and make supper, clean up from the first batch and start a second batch of cookies, vacuum the living room, bathe the girls and try to have them in bed by 8.