Our trip to Bend, Oregon Day #1

Well, we've almost finished day #1 of our 6 day trip to Bend. We had to leave for the Sacramento airport at 2:30 am. Our flight was at 6:00 am, so we had to check in at 4:00 am. Other than the unbelievable amount of "stuff" we had to put through the security check (cell phones, keys, wallets, diaper bag, the stroller, and two guitars!), check-in was pretty smooth.

It was Riley's first time flying, so we weren't sure how well he was going to handle it. He did really well. Other than a few fits before takeoff and after the landing (the boy hates to sit still), he either slept, or just played with whatever we gave him.

Bend is super cold and super beautiful. We couldn't have custom ordered a better day as far as weather goes. We are going to look around for the next few days so there will be many more photos to post. Thank you all for your prayers for safety. God truly blessed our travels today!

Our Sweet little girl

Since Hannah was only 2 (almost 2 years ago), we have tried to stress the importance of giving our toys that we don't play with to children who don't have any toys. She struggled with the fact that there are children out there who don't have the things that she has. She would begin to list her toys one by one and ask if the kids had this or that. It was hard to explain to her but I think that she is finally getting it. How do I know this? Well, because each night when we pray, we ask her what she wants to pray for and last night I got a bit teary eyed with her answer. She prayed in her own little voice for God to give toys to the boys and girls that don't have any and then she asked us if we could also share our food with the kids who don't get to eat. I was so touched. We promised that she could go with mommy to the grocery store before Thanksgiving or Christmas and help me pick out some canned food that we would donate to families who don't have food like us. It saddens me to think that in the uncertainty and the busyness of our lives we almost missed an opportunity to teach our daughter that God wants us to bless others just as He has blessed us.

Dear God,
Thank You for the heart that you have given Hannah. Thank You that she is so aware of all the things around her that need Your help. Please remind Ryan and I that we need to take every opportunity given to us to teach her how to hurt for those who hurt and to give to those in need and to bless others with the same measure to which You have blessed us. Please help our hearts to be broken by the things that break Your heart. Don't let us miss out on the opportunity to be used by You to bless others and to bring the message of Your son to hurting hearts.
Amen

A trip to the Farm...

We took our annual trip to Bishop's Pumpkin Farm this last week with the kids and we had a wonderful time. Hannah was finally old enough to go on "the big slide".

They added a new food area since last year and it looks beautiful. Now the only thing they need is real bathrooms. I had a hard time convincing Hannah that the "potty" didn't flush. It took her a little bit to be "ok" with the thought of actually using it, but eventually she gave in.
Altogether, it was a great day. We had a lot of fun petting the goats and seeing all the brand new baby pigs, but the best part of the day was the hayride and the search for our pumpkins. Riley wasn't so sure about the hay though.

Going to a farm and looking for pumpkins doesn't seem like a very exciting family outing. However, for us it was a special time where we built memories like watching our kids holding hands, walking through the pumpkin patch, or seeing the look on Riley's face as we went through the dark tunnel while on the train.

As expected, this day was one of the highlights of our year together as a family.

One that we won't soon forget.

A Reminder

We just went through our seventh miscarriage (3 before Hannah, 3 before Riley, and this one). On one hand, we are used to this. We know the drill, and we are hoping that the process moves quickly so we can be on our way; so to speak. Still, there is that part of us that is mourning both the loss of the baby, and the seemingly fruitless pursuit of the ever-illusive solution to our problem. It's a tough time for us right now. However, God is good! How do I know this? Because last night I had the honor of watching my wife and my daughter go through a preschool activity book. On the surface, that doesn't sound like much. However, for me, the great thing about sitting there watching them was that I was able to see a bigger picture. My daughter is growing up. Yeah, I know that she's just coloring an apple in a book (by coloring an "apple" I mean coloring the entire page including the apple!), but she's learning. I get to watch her daily explore, discover, and figure out how this whole "life" thing really works. Tell me that isn't an amazing thing!

Lord, thank You for the reminder that life is about more than our tragedies. Let these moments give me strength and encouragement. Let me cherish them and, as I do, let me give You the honor. Amen.

~Ryan

Difficult news

After our repeat ultra sound today we were again told that there was a gestational sac but no heart rate or even a baby that they could see. We were told to stop all my medications and wait to miscarry the baby which should happen within a week or so. This news was difficult to hear. Each time we feel like we may have solved the "miscarriage" problem, it seems like a new one arises. Please pray with us that God gives us the strength and healing to make it through these next few days and weeks and that He gives us the courage to try again.

Well........

....... We have received what could be bad news after our ultra sound today. The doctor is dating this pregnancy at much smaller than it should be. We saw a "gestational sac" but no "fetal pole" or heartbeat. The doctor said that he was concerned that this pregnancy is not progressing and scheduled us to go back again on Saturday morning for another ultra sound. So of course I am crushed to hear this news and very nervous about Saturday. Please pray with us that everything turns out right or, if not, that God holds us close. We'll update later when we have more information.

Our first ultra sound tomorrow

We have an appointment scheduled for tomorrow in Roseville for our first ultra sound and I have to admit that I am excited but very nervous! We get to see our baby's heart beat and make sure that he or she is growing properly and I just hope that everything is fine. I lay awake for a couple of hours last night worrying about what might happen or imagining something bad and then I was reminded that God doesn't want us to have anxiety and that I should give my thoughts to Him.

God,
It says in Your Word that You do not want us to worry or have anxiety about anything but that we should instead pray to You about everything and tell You what we need, so here I am! Please help me to have peace about my appointment tomorrow, help me sleep tonight and help everything to turn out fine. Help our baby to have a strong heartbeat and measure exactly as he or she should. But God if we do get bad news please be with me. Help me to surrender control to You and trust that Your plans are much bigger than ours. Help me to trust.

And Then There Were Three...

Guess what? We're PREGNANT! Well...Holly's pregnant. I am not, as you may have guessed. We have been visiting ye olde fertility clinic again, and after a couple failed attempts (don't worry, no miscarriages, just no pregnancies), we finally got a positive result. We just found out for certain today, which is pretty cool. You see, it's Holly's birthday today. So...HAPPY BIRTHDAY HOLLY! This is a great birthday gift from God. It kind of makes my rotary cutter gift seem dumb. But C'MON! How do I compete with that?? I guess I don't. I just sit and enjoy God's grace and provision, and the new glow around my wife's face. And YOU thought she couldn't possibly get any more beautiful!

Happy Birthday Honey!

S.H.M.I.L.Y.

~Ryan

Happy Birthday Riley!

Today our son turned 1 year old. This last year has gone by so fast. I found myself getting a little weepy this morning when I woke up and was reminded that exactly 1 year ago today we were waiting for me to go into surgery so that we could meet our new little man. We had both families over today for a little party to help us celebrate Riley's birthday. He was so excited about getting to eat a cupcake all by himself that he literally dove head first into it. LOOK MOM, NO HANDS!

I can't imagine what our family would be like without him! We have had so much fun with him this last year and he has been a perfect reminder of the amazingly undeserved gifts that our Heavenly Father blesses us with on a daily basis. We are looking forward to celebrating many more birthdays to come.

Thank You God for giving us our son, Riley. Even though we constantly prove that we don't deserve it, You always shower us with gifts and we are eternally grateful. Please help us to be godly parents that model the life and message of Your Son, Jesus, to both of our children.

New blog for my business

I just wanted to let you all know that I have created a new blog specifically for my business. The address is mybabyloveonline.blogspot.com. If you are interested in any of my products or looking for more information please check out my blog and then contact me at mybabyloveonline@yahoo.com.

Business Information

I have gotten several comments now about the personalized burpies, the bibs, and some of the other baby items that I have made lately and how people can get a hold of me to place an order. I don't have a website up and running right now but I do have an email address that I check regularly and that I use to send invoices so that customers can pay using their check cards, credit cards, or their paypal account if they wish. The best way to get a hold of me is to email me at mybabyloveonline@yahoo.com. If this doesn't help those of you who are wanting to get a hold of me then leave me a comment with your email address and I will email you with all the information that you are requesting, including my home phone number. Thank you all for your interest and I cherish the opportunity to make a special item for your little one.

Congratulations Joe, Sarah, and Baby Ezekiel!

Our good friends Joe and Sarah Proudfoot welcomed a very special baby boy into their lives on Friday, July 20th. Ezekiel Jonathan Proudfoot was born at 11:25am, weighing in at 7 lbs, 13 oz. and was 19 inches long. He is very handsome and quite a blessing to his proud parents and to everyone who knows and loves them. He seems to be a perfect blend of both Joe and Sarah with blonde hair to match. GOD IS GOOD! We are so excited for you Joe & Sarah. And to little Ezekiel, you may not know right now but in time you will realize that you couldn't have asked God for better parents. There aren't any out there as good as the ones that God chose for you. Congratulations on your new family! We couldn't be any happier for the 3 of you. We love and appreciate you guys more than you know.

Ever wish life could be more simple?

I am at this point in my life where I feel the constant need to simplify things. I havn't slept well now for about 2 weeks. I lay awake half the night with thousands of problems, ideas, and memories running through my mind. I can't turn it off! I have recently gone through all my clothes, my kids' clothes, the medicine cabinet, the toy box, and just about everything else you can mention just trying to get rid of the "clutter" in our lives. Everytime I complain about how little space we have in our house with our kids having to share a small room with one very small closet, I feel God reminding me that houses used to be even more cramped with smaller living and sleeping spaces and more kids to add to it. I have come to the conclusion that what I long for is CONTENTMENT. What is contentment? I havn't figured that out yet. I'm just praying that God will help me find that which I need to eliminate from my life so that this feeling of DISCONTENTMENT will leave me alone and let me sleep.

Spring is a Time for Growing...

We decided this year to finally commit to doing a garden in our backyard and we are running full steam ahead. We kept saying that we wanted to do it but we just couldn't make that final plunge. Well, this year we did it!!!
We planted Cucumber, Bell Peppers, Cantaloupe, Rosemary, Parsley, Green Beans, Carrots, Onions, Tomatoes, and Marigolds. The Marigolds are to ward off pests from our tomato plant (I don't know why, I was just told that it works). Ryan did a wonderful job building a garden box in which I could plant, and Hannah had a lot of fun helping me dig (as evidenced by the dirty face)!

We also have a cherry tree in full harvest right now. We only picked one small branch of cherries and filled four gallon ziploc bags. We are "bursting at the seams" with cherries so hopefully this year I will be able to make a couple of fresh cherry pies. Oh, and we decided that we wanted fresh eggs this year so we are raising 8 baby chicks. They were so adorable and so fluffy at first, just like the chicks you see around Easter. But in just 3 weeks time they have changed so dramatically that they look like normal chickens, just a little bit smaller and with a few less feathers. They should hopefully be fully feathered in the next few weeks so we can send them outside to the chicken coupe. I can't wait! They are being kept in our laundry room in a brooder box which is cleaned at least once a week but they still manage to smell up the place. Within the next 3 months or so they will begin to lay about an egg a day. We are looking at having a lot of fresh eggs so some of you may be getting eggs for birthday or Christmas gifts.

Hopefully our ventures will provide us with fresh eggs, tasty fruits and vegetables, and good memories for our family. I will try to post pictures every so often to show the progress of the garden and the chickens.

Some pictures from my business

For anyone who does not know about my business that I recently started up I thought that I would post some pictures of recent "baby necessities" that I have created for others. The name of my business is My Baby Love. I make baby items of all kinds as well as nursing covers for new and veteran moms alike.

These are pictures of personalized boutique style "burpies" made this week.



And this is one of the Nursing Covers that I have made.


This is a reversible bib that I made for Riley. The picture on the top is the front of the bib and the one below it is the back of the bib, modeled of course by my sweet little Riley. He seemed to like it.



And lastly, this is a Diaper Cake that I made for a recent baby shower. It is made of 80 (size 2) luvs diapers.


I will continue posting pictures of my finished products so that everyone can see my newest creations.
Since I am just starting this business I was hoping that I could get some feedback from others about the items so let me know what you think! Thanks a bunch.

Sick, Sick, Sick!!!

Well, the title to this post is perfect! Riley and Hannah first started getting congested on Monday and then by Monday night I came down with different symptoms and thought that I was going to die. Luckily the kids just got sinus infections. I, unfortunately, got the flu along with congestion and a minor ear ache. Yuck! I went to bed on Monday evening with a really bad headache and a little bit of nausea but when Riley woke up, around 1:30am, I literally couldn't get out of bed. Every muscle in my body ached. I felt like I couldn't even walk. My legs were all shaky and I had to have Ryan deal with both crying kids all night long. I felt so bad because I get to stay home everyday but Ryan has to go to work and this time on about 2 hours of sleep. All around it was just a really difficult night for everyone. Thankfully by later Tuesday evening I was already feeling so much better. The muscle aches went away, the headache went away, and I felt like I could be a mommy again. Thank God that it's mostly over with. Now on to bigger and better things, like teaching Riley to walk. OK, maybe not quite yet. I would like him to stay little just a bit longer. They already grow up so fast as it is. I don't want to rush life and miss out on the most important times with my family.

Riley Is Officially Mobile!

Well, our little boy is officially crawling. He started really trying on the 23rd of April and sure enough by the 25th was crawling like a pro. And boy does he get around too. I soon discovered that I can't put him down on the living room rug now and walk out of the room for a second because he follows me. And Hannah thinks it is the most hilarious thing. She says, "here comes Bubba", as she giggles every time she hears his little knees on the hardwood floors. And Riley adores Hannah. When she talks to him in this cute little high pitched voice he just laughs and laughs. Not a little baby laugh either, it is this cute little "belly laugh". You know the kind where it's extremely contagious and by the end of the session my stomach hurts from laughing at the two of them who are laughing at eachother. Oh, and the very evening that Riley got the whole crawling thing down pat, I walk into their room to comfort his crying and am surpised to find him standing, yes I said standing, in his crib. He was holding onto the crib bars, but standing none the less. I was instantly reminded that he is only a few months away from being 1. I've got to stop blinking so much!

Life So Far...

Ryan and I were high school sweethearts and have been married for 6 years this June.

8 months into our marriage we found out that we were expecting a baby. Unfortunately we lost the baby at around 8 weeks pregnant and over the next 2 years we had 2 more miscarriages. We were then placed under the care of U.C. Davis infertility clinic and after 6 months of testing, with no explanation for our losses, we again found out that we were expecting a baby. In February 2004 we were blessed with a beautiful little girl, which we named Hannah, "The Grace of God".

How fitting that God would impress this name so strongly on our hearts.
Hannah's birth was one of two big changes in our lives in February of 2004. The day that Hannah was born was the day that Ryan received an invitation to go on full-time pastoral staff for the Gridley Nazarene Church. His first day was March 1 and things havn't been the same since. Almost exactly a year after Ryan was brought on staff we sold our home, packed up our belongings, and moved to a smaller home in Gridley. God really stretched our faith. We were faced with the thoughts that we might not ever buy another home again but we were confident that God knew better than we did about what He had in store for us. Once we settled in, we decided that it was time to try to give Hannah a little brother or sister. We were excited and nervous to find that we were pregnant less than a month later. Once again we were faced with a devastating miscarriage, then another, then yet again another. Not knowing how much more we could take, we asked our O.B. to send us to another infertility clinic who would hopefully find our problem. Our first appointment was in October 2005 and within a few short weeks we were told that one of my blood tests had come out abnormal. The doctor explained to us that I had an inhibitor in my blood that could result in microscopic blood clots. These clots could have been what had caused the 6 previous miscarriages. I was placed on a regular dose of baby aspirin and two shots of heparin in the stomach every day. We got pregnant right away again and were surprised to find out at 6 weeks that we were having twins. We soon discovered that we had lost one of the babies. We were terrified that we were going to lose the other baby, but after 10 painful, scary months and a c-section, on September 1, 2006 we were holding our son, Riley, in our arms.

Although our journey has not been an easy one, God has undeniably blessed us in more ways than we could begin to count.