Emerick Family

Our sweet little guy!

2011-02-01T10:24:00.000-08:00

Well, I guess I never got enough motivation (or time) to post the pregnancy pictures of myself before I had our newest little guy. Yes, it was a boy, and he is amazing. To make a long story short, I prayed and prayed that God would allow me to go into labor with this pregnancy because I knew that it was my last chance. We had planned to get my tubes tied during my planned c-section with this baby. We decided not to find out what the gender of the baby was. I was scheduled for a c-section on November 4th, but to my great surprise, I went into labor on October 21st. I called my mom around 5pm and told her that I thought that "this was it". I'm sure glad that I decided to call her because I ended up going into the hospital around 8pm with contractions only 2 minutes apart and getting pretty painful, and she had an 8 hour drive in order to come see me have this little one. I had all back labor; I could feel my stomach tightening quite a bit, but I was more concentrated on the fact that my back felt like it could brake with every contraction. I was very relieved when they told me around 11pm that they were going to go ahead and continue with a c-section immediately since it was obvious that the baby was definitely coming soon. At 11:42 pm Declan Joel Emerick was born. He weighed 6 lbs, 4.5 oz., and was 20 1/2" long. My mother finally arrived at 1 am; just after I had been taken to my recovery room. It was all magical and amazing. I felt so glad that God had heard my prayer, and that He was gracious to allow me to go into labor for my final baby. That's pretty much got us all caught up, so without further ado...... here he is!
Declan is now 3 months, and getting so big. His siblings adore him. He is rarely left alone long enough to be on the floor for more than a few minutes. Now we are just working on getting his older brother Weston potty trained. Wes just turned 2 in December, and we are soooooo ready for him to be a "big boy". I'm gonna try to keep a blog updating our potty training success, but with 4 kids and all, who know's how often I'll be able to have a free moment to update. We shall see.

It's been too long!

2010-08-02T16:46:00.001-07:00

I can't believe that it has been over a year since our last update on this blog. I guess you all would like to know if we ever got our house, huh? And what we’re up to lately?

Well, we were asked to turn the house over to the bank before even making a single payment. We were trying not to be too disappointed, but felt very defeated. Just before we signed the final papers giving it all up, we received a call from the owner of the company that built our house. He offered to write off $20,000 of the money that we owed him so that the house would appraise for more than we owed. All in all, it took 8 months from the time the house was finished in February for the permanent loan to close in October, but God worked it all out. I look back and wonder if all that time what we perceived as hassle and heart ache was actually God trying to help us with that extra $20,000 that we just didn't have, and maybe teach us a little about patience.

We didn’t have the money for any landscaping, or even a sprinkler system for the house, but we were finally in it. We were going to wait until next tax year to put in a backyard, but our church family surprised Ryan with a $500 gift card to the Home Depot as a Graduation/Ordination present. Then we were blessed by one of our church members with free sod. God provided our entire backyard at no cost to us. We added some drain rock around the back of the house, and some bark all around the edges of the grass, and our yard is looking beautiful. And now we are excited to save for a fence! Hopefully that will come in the next 2 years.

Now, on to the family update. Ryan graduated from Nazarene Bible College this past May with a double major; a Bachelors in Bible and Theology, and also in Pastoral Ministry. I couldn't help but tear up as he walked across the stage; the first in his immediate family to graduate with a 4 year degree. I was so proud of all he had accomplished. He had worked as a full time pastor, husband, and father, while doing almost full time college for 6 whole years. 1 week prior to Ryan's graduation was his ordination service. He was a licensed minister, but wanted to confirm that his call to be a pastor was a lifetime call. First we stood together before the ordained elders and were asked a lot of questions. Thankfully, I only had a few to answer. Ryan, on the other hand, answered a lot of very tough questions, and did a great job defending God's call on his life. When it was all over, the group of elders agreed with us that this call on both of our lives was definitely a lifetime call. We stood in front of about 600 people and formally accepted God's call for Ryan and our family. It was an amazing experience; one we will treasure for the rest of our ministry.

Last, but not least, we were also blessed earlier this year with the news of the impending arrival of our 4th (and final) baby this coming November. We decided to be surprised on the gender because it is our last baby. We'll find out in about 12 weeks or so whether or not we'll have an even number, or if it'll be 3 against 1 for Hannah. Either way, we feel so grateful that God has blessed us with all 4 of our miracle babies.

I'm hoping to update soon with house pictures, and pictures of my expanding belly, so check back soon!

A bump in the road, er...well, mountain.

2009-06-09T20:24:00.000-07:00

So... the house is finished, and has been for the past 3 weeks. That was the good news. Now for the not so good news... we are still not cleared to move in, and have no idea of when it may be POSSIBLE. Here are some of the finished pictures to share with you all:My beautiful kitchen with gorgeous cranberry maple cabinetry, black appliances, and a black sink that looks like stone. The floor is all dusty from the construction process, but we'll clean it up...someday.

The view of the kitchen/dining/living rooms complete with carpet.

Our HUMONGOUS master bathroom. I think it's technically called a powder room, because the toilet and shower are in another room off of this one.

This is the kids' bathroom. It won't seem very big when they're older and fighting over time, but it's the perfect size now.

Some of you have been asking us when we are going to move in, and the short answer is "not sure", so I thought I'd take a moment to share the longer, more detailed answer.

There were rules made in the last 2 months that effect the speed and efficiency of the appraisal process. All homes have to appraised before the bank will loan you the money to purchase the home. The new rules specifically state that a mortgage broker can no longer contract their own appraiser, the appraiser is now chosen from a master pool of appraisers that can be located as far away as 4 hours from us here in Bend. In lieu of specific, boring details, I will say that the appraiser who was contracted failed to show up for 2 weeks in a row. After much complaining on the part of our mortgage broker, the appraiser went out last Monday to view the house so he could do the job. Finally, on Thursday our mortgage broker received the WRONG papers from the appraiser. Supposedly that was fixed and we would be getting the appraisal on Monday. Wrong! Then Today arrived with not so good news. The appraisal finally made it's way into our mortgage brokers hands, and was listed approximately $20,000 below our building cost. As of now, the bank that is supposed to give us a permanent loan to pay off our construction loan will not finance us for a house that is "worth" less than it cost us to build and we currently owe. We cannot move into our house until the permanent loan is complete and has paid off the construction loan. We are awaiting an appeal and hopefully a new appraisal before we find out if the construction loan company is going to foreclose on our house before we even get a chance to move in. We are hoping and praying that this is not the case, but there is nothing more that can be done on our part. The only bump, er... mountain in the way is the appraisal. Our mortgage broker seems to think that we have good grounds for an appeal and a new appraisal given the fact that the appraiser only used foreclosed/bank owned, and short sale properties to determine the value of our brand new home. He did not, however, compare our home to ANY non-foreclosed home sales which make up 60% of all the homes sold this month here in Bend. So now we wait.... and wait.... and probably wait some more, until we find out what to do with this problem. Either we will be denied the appeal process and the construction loan company will foreclose, or the appeal will go through and we are looking at probably another 3 weeks or more until we can sign the final papers and move in. We shall see! We could use your prayers.

Weston updates

2009-06-09T20:03:00.000-07:00

We haven't blogged new pictures of West lately, so here's just a few of his sweet little face.

Hannah was Dorothy from the Wizard of Oz last Halloween, and this day she thought it would be cute to put her Toto purse on Weston's head. She was right. It was pretty cute! I wish you could hear Hannah's laugh every time West would put his head back and knock the purse off. He would giggle and smile when his sissy laughed. What a great memory.

This is our children's pastor Cathy holding Weston. He turned 6 months on the 2nd of June. He looks so big in this picture.

In the middle of a laugh with daddy. This is one of my favorites.

I walked into the bedroom one day to see that Hannah had shared her Sophie bunny with Weston. She told me she thought that he would like to sleep with an animal too like she and Riley do. It was one of those moments where I just had to smile for a second before I explained the importance of NEVER putting anything in the bed with Weston unless she asks mom and dad first so we can make sure it's safe for him. Lesson learned and memory made; it was a good day.

Random pictures of Hannah & Riley

2009-06-09T19:17:00.000-07:00

I call this one ANNOYED!

I love this picture! Hannah looks so pleased with the job that she did on Riley's hair, while Riley does not look QUITE as pleased. I think they both wish that Hannah had a baby sister to play with. "Look mom, Riley looks pretty". Hilarious!!!

Hannah & Riley Easter 2009. Posting a little late I know, but we have been pretty busy with all the new house stuff. And speaking of the new house...

This about sums it up for Hannah & Riley for the last 4 months; watching movies while mom and dad work on the new house.

Pillars, front porch, and cabinetry

2009-05-07T22:11:00.000-07:00

Ryan's dad came over from Newport, Oregon to help him build our front porch railing. He was a big help and Ryan enjoyed being able to share one of our house projects with his dad. Overall it was a great experience and it turned out BEAUTIFUL, just as I imagined it would look. Here are a few pictures of the journey:
Framing around the columns

Using the nail gun to secure the framing

Column framing completed

Porch railing finished (picture complete with Hannah posing like a "fairy")

A very proud father and son. Good job Honey. I LOVE it!

At the same time that Ryan and Roy were working hard on our front porch, the finish carpenter was working on installing our cabinetry, baseboard molding, and doors. I did not get to take a picture of the baseboard molding or the doors, but I did get a picture of our kitchen cabinets as they were being installed. They are such a beautiful, rich color.

The estimated move-in time we have been given is the end of May. We still have quite a bit of stuff that we have agreed to do before we can get permanent occupancy. We have to putty all the nail holes in the baseboards, paint the baseboards, doors, door casings, and interior window moldings, and continue to clean up the mess from construction. We're in the home stretch now (no pun intended).

Front porch, pillars, & yard, er...well...rocks

2009-04-29T21:35:00.000-07:00

View off the front porch

close-up of the front door and porch

This is the front of the house, complete with the deck, pillars, and the dirt filled up to near the bottom of the deck. It looks a lot more normal now, instead of massively tall. We have an estimated move in date of the end of May. It's coming so fast now. We are excited.

One day this weekend while Ryan was working on the house, 5 deer wandered into the neighbors house behind our backyard and he got this shot of them.

Interior paint and kitchen floor

2009-04-29T17:20:00.001-07:00

My handsome husband using the airless paint sprayer to apply the tinted primer to the walls.

Because we had other commitments at the church during last weekend when we painted, we ended up finishing the interior paint at 2:30 in the morning. We were really exhausted and couldn't see very well with just the one shop light available, so we didn't know until the next morning if we had missed any spots. We are so glad that it is finished. It turned out just like I wanted.

The view through the front windows with the newly painted walls.

Next came the kitchen/dining room and pantry flooring. Our friend Scott came to help Ryan with this. It was an all day project starting at about 9:00am and ending around 8:00pm. Our friend Travis also came to help around 6:00pm so that sped the process up a bit with 3 people working hard to finish. The picture above is Ryan and Scott rolling out the pad before they could begin installing the wood floor.

Then they began laying the floor planks.

They had to stagger the flooring just right so that it didn't show a repeating pattern.

This is the floor when it was completed. It was already dusty from the paint dust that had settled all day from when we finished painting at 2:30 that morning. Notice that it's snowing pretty hard in the background of the dining sliding door. A few days before this it was almost 75. We have recently had very schizophrenic weather here in Bend. It snowed again today, then it dropped freezing rain. It looked like there were salt pellets all over the ground and the houses. It was very odd.

My husband was such a sweet heart and mopped the floor yesterday so that I didn't have to. We have to keep the area really clean because they are going to be installing the cabinets, doors, and trim in the next few days.

I'll update the front of the house sometime today or tomorrow. They have installed our pillars, finished our front deck, and filled more dirt up to the bottom of the deck. It is looking really nice. We just took updated pictures yesterday, so I'll post pictures of that soon.

Exterior paint

2009-04-29T16:55:00.000-07:00

Here is the exterior paint color. It is a very natural stone gray color. It matches the natural look of the area. The trim is going to be painted white, and we are going to add shutters and a few other wood details in a very dark gray-ish color to add some accent pieces to the house.

There will be more updates to come.

Update #4 on house

2009-04-11T23:00:00.000-07:00

Insulation in the living room and dining room

Master bedroom insulation

Riley & Weston's bedroom

This is the Scripture that I put in our pantry

Insulation in Hannah's room

Master bedroom drywall

Drywall in hallway

Living room drywall

Kitchen/dining room drywall

All the drywall is hung. It needs to be inspected on Monday, before they can tape and mud. We expect to paint the exterior next weekend. Stay tuned for more pictures and updates.

House update #3

2009-03-30T21:39:00.000-07:00

Here's the latest photo update of our house progress. It's been pretty hard to keep up. To save money, we are doing the cleanup. We grossly underestimated the amount of cleanup. Ryan has hauled 2,500 pounds of debris so far. That's not even counting the 700+ pounds of scrap that he decided to salvage to use for various projects.

Here are some photos...

Back of house.

Siding being put on back of house.

Dining room and kitchen view from living room.

Living room view from dining room.

View outside living room windows.

Back of house, siding completed.

Front of House with siding and roof all done. We also have a door and windows now.

The electrical should be finished by tomorrow. There will be an inspection of the electrical, heating, and plumbing on Wednesday. Then, next week, it's on to drywall.
We'll keep you posted!

House update #2

2009-03-19T20:29:00.001-07:00

Floor joists were in and it was time for heating ducts (provided by our friend Steve)

Sub floor and framing

Front door

I went through our house and put Scripture in all of the rooms to remind us that we need to fill our home with God's Word. Our project supervisor even made a comment about it. I am hoping that this will be a testimony to all the workers that step in the house in the next few months. Maybe God will will use his Word on our walls to bring someone closer to him. I sure hope so.

The crane lifting the roofing trusses

The framers securing the roofing trusses to the East side of the house

More roofing trusses being put on

Roofing trusses complete

We are in charge of cleanup during the construction process, so tonight we went out and helped clean up all of the tyvek and extra boards. Hannah and Riley are enjoying the fact that they get to be daddy's big helpers.

The sun went down, so it was time to say goodnight to our house. We'll be back for more cleanup tomorrow. We still have lots of sawdust and nails on the floor. We'll continue to update as the building progresses.

Weston Speaks...Well, sort of...

2009-03-05T16:25:00.000-08:00

Weston Smiles!

2009-02-28T17:03:00.001-08:00

Weston began smiling a few days ago. Here are some pictures...

Foundation

2009-02-28T16:37:00.001-08:00

Many of you know that we recently bought a lot to begin construction on our new house. Well, we signed the final papers and began the construction process las week. Here is the first of many "picture stories" of the process.

First, here is the bare lot.

Within a few days of signing, they were already digging out the area to level it for our foundation.

Within two days of that, they put up the forms for the footings...

...and poured the footings...

...then put up forms for the stem walls of the foundation...

...then poured the stem walls...

...and then it snowed!

It looks like the framers will start on the sub-floor by Monday. We'll keep you updated!

The car trip from you know where...

2009-02-05T11:16:00.000-08:00

We spent 6 days in California visiting family and friends over this last week. We arrived last Thursday and we were planning on leaving early on Wednesday morning (yesterday) so that we could be back in Bend for worship team practice. We went to bed Tuesday evening around 11:00 so that we would have enough rest for the 7 hour drive home.

Riley startled us all awake when he started crying around 1:00am. Ryan got out of bed to check on him when all of a sudden Riley started vomiting. He threw up all over the bedding and himself. It was so bad that I had to give him a full bath and throw all of the bedding, his jammies, and the pillows that we had borrowed from my mother into the washing machine. So now Riley was naked, cold, sick, and extremely tired. The entire time in the bath he was crying and repeating "I go bed" over and over again. I felt so bad for him. We were trying very hard to keep Riley quiet so that he wouldn't wake up Hannah, Weston, or anyone else in the house. Not an easy task for a 2 year old, as one might imagine.

So, between the hours of 1am and 4am, Riley threw up a total of 3 times. During that time Ryan and I were having to take turns helping Riley (who kept saying that he was going to throw up, but only did so 2 out of the 10 times that he told us he needed to). Weston woke up twice to eat, and since Ryan obviously can't help him with that, I had to switch back and forth between West and Riley. Ryan was a big help, but I still wasn't able to actually get to sleep until somewhere around 4:30am when Riley was practically passed out on the bedroom floor after having such a hard couple of hours. We were supposed to wake up at 6:30am so that we could get up, get dressed, and start the drive back home.

Unfortunately, after our very long night, we couldn't drag ourselves out of bed until around 7:30am. Hannah now had a fever of 102 and was looking very pale and tired. She said that she didn't have a stomach ache at all so were glad about that. We gave her Motrin and told her to try to sleep in the car on our way home. Finally, around 9:30am we began driving down highway 20 in California on our way back to Bend. At this point, by our calculations, we would arrive by 4:30pm (7 hours later), just in time for Ryan to start worship practice at 5:30.

In Redding, Ryan and I switched, and I drove so that he could rest. Haha! We made it about 20 minutes down the road when it happened...

Riley got a little fussy so I looked in the rear view mirror just in time to see a little bit of vomit on his shirt and the car seat straps. I pulled to the side of the road, Ryan hopped out and got Riley out of his seat so that he wouldn't throw up any more in the car. We sat there for a few minutes and nothing more happened so we changed his shirt, wiped off his seat straps, put him back in the car and started driving again. Not 5 minutes down the road, Riley suddenly announced that he was going to throw up. Again, I pulled off to the side, Ryan got Riley out of the car, and we waited...and waited..... and waited.... and nothing again. After a long few minutes, we put Riley back in the car, buckled his car seat, and started driving again. Sure enough, as soon as we pulled back into traffic, Riley vomited all over himself and his car seat. UGHHHHHHH!

We are now in Middle-Of-Nowhere, California with a very sick child and a very stinky car. To add to all of this, we realized that we had nowhere to wash our hands if we got vomit on them when we changed Riley and cleaned up the car. So, I came up with, what I believe to be, a genius idea of using the disposable diaper bags as make-shift gloves. It didn't work quite as well as I had imagined but it was okay and saved us from a big mess. Fortunately (catch my sarcasm), when we packed, we put the suitcases ON THE BOTTOM! We weren't about to take everything out of the back of the car just to get to the suitcase for new clothes, so we wiped Riley down THOROUGHLY and left him in just his underwear. Thankfully, Riley got potty trained 2 weeks ago, and I had put a towel in the car just in case of an "accident." We used the towel for Riley to sit on seat so that he wasn't sitting in the vomit that was already in his seat. Ryan decided that "resting" was probably not in the cards, so he took over driving again.

Because of the time that it took us to clean and change Riley the first time, and to clean him and his seat up the second time, we were now at least an hour behind schedule and realized that we would be getting into Bend a few minutes late of the 5:30pm practice time. Ryan called the church office and cancelled worship team practice and arranged for one of the choir members to get things ready for the 7:00pm choir practice so that he didn't have to spend more time after we got into town preparing choir music. Now we could breathe a little because we knew that we would be home way before 7:00 to start the practice.

To sum up the rest of this very long story, after a lot of false vomit and potty stops, and a couple of nursing stops for West, we finally pulled into Bend at 7:45pm. A 7 hour drive had now taken us 10 hours and 15 minutes. We were all exhausted and a bit overwhelmed by the drama of the day. I got the kids out of the car, gave them a bath and changed them into their jammies while Ryan took the car seat apart and threw it, and the "puke-soaked" (at this point we were done using the decent words) clothing into the washing machine. We finally put the older two kids to bed around 8:45 and by then it was time to feed West again. Whew!!! Ryan had homework that he wasn't able to finish earlier, but he decided that it would be far better to get a few less points on an assignment than be up for another 3-4 hours working on them. We crawled into our nice, warm, comfortable bed around 10:30pm and thanked God that we even made it home at all.

We had a great visit with family and friends, but boy are we glad to be home!

House plans

2009-01-22T21:52:00.000-08:00

Tonight we met with the builder to review our plans and sign contracts. It was a great experience. We really like the professionalism and courtesy of Equity Home Builders (We aren't even being paid to say this). Lord willing and the creek don't rise, we should start building with a few weeks.

This is the exterior, as evidenced by its exterior-like appearance :)

This is the interior. Feel free to look around. Mi casa es su casa! Take a look at the size of that pantry and the huge walk in closet in the master bedroom. I don't think we have enough clothes to fill that thing!

We're excited. We'll keep you updated with pictures, posts, and the like. We are hoping to snap a few shots of every phase of the building process.

Baby shower

2009-01-10T17:24:00.000-08:00

My friends and church family threw me a baby shower this last Thursday night. There was about 30 people there, not including Hannah, me and Wes of course. We had a good time and I got a lot of very cute and very special gifts. Here are a few pictures.

This cake was quite possibly the most delicious cake that I have ever eaten. One of the other pastors' wives made it. It had lemon in the middle. Oh my goodness it was good.

I love this picture! Wes is staring very intently at Tracy. She is our normal baby sitter. The kids love her, apparently Wes included.

Hannah got to come to her brother's "birthday party" as she calls it. She looked like such a big girl and she was very good the entire evening. Thank you sissy for being a good listener.

The chair of Honor. Perfect for a new mom don't you think?

This is a wall hanging that a lady made for Wes. It says, "For God Loved Weston so much that He gave His only Son so that if Weston believes in Him he shall not perish, but have eternal life." John 3:16 The Living Bible. It's going up right above his crib.

This is my friend Jennifer. She is a wonderful seamstress. She made this gorgeous quilt for Wes. It has stars quilted into the blanket. It is even more beautiful in person. It was such a special gift and you can tell she spent a lot of time on it. Thank you Jenny.

Wes' shirt says 100% Baby Boy.

It was a great night. I only wish that all of my family and friends from California could have been there to celebrate with us.

Handsome Baby...

2009-01-10T17:11:00.001-08:00

I love these little tennis shoes and this sweet little outfit. Weston looks so handsome in them.

Babies are so fun to take pictures of aren't they?

Random pictures of Wes

2009-01-10T16:47:00.000-08:00

Weston has recently learned how to grab his binky when it's in his mouth. He kind of just holds it there.

This is Wes' "I'm ready to eat" face, Phase I

This is Phase II of the "I'm ready to eat" face. Translation..."I can't hold out much longer."

Wes is such a good boy. We are blessed to have him. I'm sure there will be more cute pictures to come. In the mean time I'm going to try and get some rest.

Our little Christmas present...

2009-01-10T16:23:00.001-08:00

Hannah, Riley, and Weston in their Christmas outfits.

Our family Christmas card picture

Apparently no one informed Wes that there is no crying on Christmas.

What a perfect little Christmas present!

Ice Skating

2008-12-27T20:31:00.001-08:00

Hannah has been begging us to take her ice skating for months.

There is an outdoor ice rink at the local resort,

so we decided to go.

Uncle Josh came along too.

Hannah and Riley really loved it, but we didn't realize just how difficult it was going to be for them. Daddy and Uncle Josh had to hold on tight to them, even carrying them at times, but it was great!

Papa Roy after doing a faceplant on the ice!

Some happy, and cold faces.

One unhappy face.

Riley biffed and smacked his head on the ice.

Ice Skating Riley

WITH AUTHENTIC BATTLE DAMAGE!

Even with the bumps and bruises, it was a great evening and a wonderful memory. Although, judging by the size of that bump on Riley's head, there might not be any memory for him.

White Christmas

2008-12-27T19:11:00.001-08:00

While Ryan and Josh were building the snow princess, the kids and I decided to play in the snow. It was our very first white Christmas and it was very cold outside. We all had a blast! These are random pictures from our fun in the snow.

Riley trying to shovel the sidewalk

Can you figure out what Riley is trying to do in the picture below?

You guessed it.... he's eating snow.... face-first.

Here I was showing Riley how to pick up the snow so that he could throw it.

Hannah and I having a snow fight. The snow here is so powdery that it mainly just bursts in mid-air, but it was fun anyways.

These are the icicles on all the houses in our neighborhood. They are really pretty but can be dangerous, especially when they start to melt and fall off the houses.

Overall, Christmas was a lot of fun for our family. We can't wait till next year to make new memories.

Snow Princess...

2008-12-27T18:35:00.000-08:00

Our kids are getting old enough for us to begin Christmas traditions. We let them open one gift on Christmas Eve; a tradition passed on from Ryan's family. We also decided that, since we live in the snowy Northwest, we will build a snowman on Christmas.

The snow in the high desert is very cold, and very dry. Therefore, it does not stick together very well. So, the traditional method of rolling the snowballs until they are huge did not work. They kept crumbling into dry powder (the same powder which, by the way, made snowboarding at Mt Bachelor awesome!). Instead, we started with a small hill, and then formed it into a mountain.

Next, it was time for us to begin "carving" the snowman. There was still no hope for making the typical "3-ball-body" shaped snowman. Then, it hit us...

SNOW PRINCESS!!

The uncooperative bottom, which remained more of a cone than a ball, was made into a dress. We fashioned a torso, head, and then carved some arms. Hannah provided the finishing touches.

Give the princess her pedastal and VIOLA! (pronounced "vwallah").

A ten-minute snowman became a 2-hour snow princess.

Family Christmas photo 2008

2008-12-27T18:14:00.000-08:00

The Sequence of Events

2008-12-05T16:10:00.000-08:00

Our morning began at 4:00am. We got up, showered, and took my final belly picture.

At 5:30am we arrived at the hospital where I was given an IV, hooked up to the fetal monitors, blood was taken to confirm my blood type in case I needed a transfusion, and I was given a very sour/salty tasting liquid that was supposed to keep me from getting sick during surgery. Let's just say that it didn't work and I threw up. Luckily for me, I had already had my morphine spinal so I didn't feel the pain. It took a little longer for the doctor to deliver the baby than the last 2 c sections but finally Ryan looked over the curtain and called out, "it's a boy." Once we knew he was a boy, we pulled out our list of names, narrowed it down, and finally landed on the name Weston Jacob.

This was my first moment with our new son. I was still strapped down to the table but they let my hands out so that I could touch his cheek and comfort him. I was immediately in love, again.

He weighed in at 7 lbs, 4 oz. He was measured at 20 1/4".

Ryan was able to introduce Weston to Riley and Hannah and let them spend a few minutes with him before they wheeled me into the room. They were so excited to see their new baby brother.

Ryan and I each got a couple of minutes to ourselves with Weston.

Here is a glimpse of how big the rooms are at the Family Birthing Center at Saint Charles. They were private rooms with private bathrooms, and even a jacuzzi tub. A lot different than our rooms at Fremont, where 2 people shared a room much smaller than this one.

The private bathroom with my own shower and jazuzzi tub.

Here's some pictures we took of Weston throughout our stay.

This hat was hand knitted for our little guy by an 80 year old man who loves to bless the new babies at Saint Charles.

Look at those killer eyes! Melts my heart.

Hannah snuggling with her new little brother. She loves to rub her nose against his.

Apparently daddy was very comfortable.

Ryan took some great photos

Ryan had to do some last minute prep work for Sunday's service so I was able to spend a few hours with Wes by myself yesterday. I was marveling at all his sweet features and looking at how perfect all his toes were. I was inspired and just had to take this picture of his feet. I love the way it turned out.

This is how tiny our little man is. He left the hospital weighing 6 lbs, 14 oz. We couldn't tighten his car seat straps any more and they are still a little bit loose.

Leaving our home away from home

We had a warm welcome from the Welcoming Committee. Riley wanted to help daddy carry baby brother inside.

Complete with professional "Welcome Home" banner!

And so, snuggled with his new teddy bear from Auntie Heidi and fast asleep, Weston Jacob begins his permanent stay at the Emerick Estates. Welcome home Wes!

It's a...

2008-12-02T14:38:00.000-08:00

BOY!!

Today, our son was born. His name is Weston Jacob Emerick (we'll probaby end up calling him Wes).

He was born at 7:52 am. He is 7lbs, 4oz. He is 20 1/4" long. As you can see from the pictures, he has a head of dark hair. He looks a lot like Hannah did when she was a baby.

Holly did great! She is recovering well. She even got up and walked around at about 2:00 pm. That's pretty quick considering she had her abdominal muscles pried open and her internal organs laid up on her chest. I feel grateful and guilty to not be her.

We are truly blessed and are looking forward to getting to know this little guy.

The Big Day

2008-12-01T14:30:00.000-08:00

Well, tomorrow is the big day. We will finally be able to meet our little boy or girl, pick a name, and begin our life as a family of 5. While it's been hard these last few weeks not knowing what we are having, it's been a lot of fun too with all the anticipation. Since we (obviously) know when the baby is being born, the gender and name are the only surprises that we get. We have finally narrowed down our list to 5 boy names and 7 girl names. I know that seems like a lot but we couldn't decide on favorites and couldn't eliminate any more either. So we will go to the hospital with our little list and eliminate half of it as soon as we know the gender. I am hoping that we will look at our baby and just know that he/she looks like a ..... I think it's secretly killing our family that we won't even share the list of names with them. That kind of makes it more fun for us though :) Hannah is especially excited because we told her that she could be the one to announce (over the phone) to our family back in California what the name of her brother or sister will be. She has been instructed to keep the list of names that she heard mommy and daddy discussing to herself and not to let Grandma convince her to share any names with her. My mom is going to arrive at our house later this evening and I suspect that she may try to be sneaky and find out what Hannah knows. Hopefully Hannah can hold up to Grandma's charm. We'll see.

Please pray with us that everything goes well during my c-section and that me and the baby are healthy afterwards as well and have a very fast recovery. I am nervous with this one just as I was my last 2 c-sections so we are praying for peace too. We will try to post an updated belly picture tonight or tomorrow morning before we leave for the hospital. Be sure to check back sometime tomorrow afternoon or evening for the birth announcement with the name and all the vital information. We'll see if the 10 (55%) of you who thought it's a girl are right or if the 8 (44%) of you who voted boy are right. Sorry there's no prize to the winners but it's been a lot of fun checking up on the percentages. I hope to post some great pictures in the next 24 hours. WOW! I'm so anxious now.

New poll

2008-11-18T20:59:00.000-08:00

I just wanted to let everyone know that we added a poll to our blog. Please vote on whether you think we will have a boy or girl, and feel free to comment with name suggestions for either or both since we are having a hard time picking names.

8 and 1/2 months... and almost done.

2008-11-12T22:50:00.001-08:00

Here is the 8 and 1/2 month belly picture. I was able to stop my shots effective this morning and I am ecstatic about it. The doctor says that if I go into labor now that he will not stop it, and I will just have a c-section earlier than originally planned. I can't believe that it's only 3 weeks away. I am getting so excited.

Halloween

2008-10-31T22:12:00.000-07:00

Tonight we took the kids to a local church for a Harvest party. There were booths, a bounce house, and lots of candy. As you can see, Hannah was Dorothy, and Riley was a Ninja. At first Riley didn't like his head band, but by the end of the night, he was lovin' it. He cried when we tried to take it off for bed. We had a really good time. Here are some pictures.

Dorothy and the Ninja

Pumpkin coloring

2008-10-31T21:53:00.000-07:00

We let the kids color their pumpkins with washable markers. They really enjoyed it.

Riley's pumpkin, or as he calls it, "poongkin".

Hannah's pumpkin

Central Oregon Pumpkin Company

2008-10-27T17:29:00.000-07:00

We took a trip to our local pumpkin farm this week which is right next to Smith Rock. It was a beautiful backdrop for our day. Here are some of our most special moments.

Emerick Family as of October 2008

Me and the kids with Smith Rock in the background

Watching the Pony

Riley helping daddy feed the goats

Daddy shows 'em how it's done!

Riley Feeding the Horse

The horse almost picked Hannah up with the bucket.

The hay bale pirate ship

Ahoy mateys!

Riding the zoo train.

More fun for the kids, more work for daddy!

Riding off into the sunset

This day is just one more reminder of how blessed we really are.

Just a little reminder...

2008-10-16T17:26:00.000-07:00

With everything going on in our economy lately and people losing jobs left and right, I just wanted to take an opportunity to share something that I had read today on a forum quoting Scripture. Anyone who is feeling fearful during this turbulent economic times would do well to meditate on the words Jesus told His disciples in Matthew 6:19-33 --

"Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys, and where thieves do not break in or steal; for where your treasure is, there your heart will be also….No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to one and despise the other You cannot serve God and wealth. For this reason I say to you, do not be worried about your life, as to what you will eat or what you will drink; nor for your body, as to what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air, that they do not sow, nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not worth much more than they? And who of you by being worried can add a single hour to his life? And why are you worried about clothing? Observe how the lilies of the field grow; they do not toil nor do they spin, yet I say to you that not even Solomon in all his glory clothed himself like one of these. But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which is alive today and tomorrow is thrown into the furnace, will He not much more clothe you? You of little faith! Do not worry then, saying, 'What will we eat?' or 'What will we drink?' or 'What will we wear for clothing?' For the Gentiles eagerly seek all these things; for your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you."

I have heard this passage many times, but it is good to be reminded when feeling fearful that God has all things in our lives in His capable hands. I don't believe that God causes all things to happen, but I do firmly believe that He can turn all things around for His good as well as for ours. This verse helped me to recognize again that God sees us as precious in His sight and that His desire is to provide for our needs and for us to fully trust that He knows what we need better than we do. A hard reminder sometimes.

Snow in October?

2008-10-16T17:09:00.000-07:00

Last week it snowed over night. We woke up to about a 1/2 inch of snow fall all over our yard. All the tops of the houses were white. You would've thought that it was January. Temperatures have been dipping down below 30 degrees over night for the last week or so. Temperatures have slowly started to climb but we're told there going to drop again in the coming weeks. So apparently winter is pretty much on our doorsteps here in Bend. The snow only lasted until around lunch time but it was fun to see the kids get so excited about it.

Random pictures of our chilly days lately.

More gymnastics stuff...

2008-10-16T16:46:00.000-07:00

The Bat Hang.

Coach Rich helping Hannah do a forward flip over the bar

The Seal pose

The back flip over the bar

Hannah is doing so good in her gymnastics class and she loves it. She especially loves the bar routines. Her coaches are really good with her and I can see her growing every class. She is also getting a lot of experience in a classroom setting so she should be ready for school next year. I'ts been a lot of fun watching her.

7 and 1/2 months

2008-10-16T16:28:00.001-07:00

Sorry it's taken me so long to post an updated picture of the ever-expanding belly. Better late than never I guess. Only 7 more weeks to go until we see our new little one and get to finally pick a name. I can't wait.

First day of gymnastics

2008-09-20T22:10:00.000-07:00

Hannah started gymnastics a few weeks ago and she is doing so good. Her teaching says that he is really impressed and I am so proud that she has been doing a good job at following directions. That can sometimes be hard for her to do when all she wants to do is run around and jump and play. She is so cute to watch and she loves it. What more could I ask for?

6 and 1/2 months...

2008-09-20T22:07:00.000-07:00

Well, here I am at 6 1/2 months pregnant. I am over 7 months now so, as you can probably tell, I am a little behind lately on my posts. Hopefully I'll get my energy back soon so this won't continue to be a problem. I'll post updated pictures in about a week or so.

Riley's Birthday Party

2008-09-20T21:41:00.000-07:00

Riley's 2nd birthday was on September 1st but we did not celebrate it until the next week because of church commitments on that weekend. I am very late getting these pictures up. It was a great day. I can't he's already 2. Where has time gone?

We did a Finding Nemo theme (well, kind of). We couldn't find a Nemo pinata or balloons so we ended up just doing "Riley's favorite things". We had the Nemo cake, or as Riley calls it "Memo", a Cars pinata, and a Diego balloon. All of his favorite characters. It was cute and he was very excited. Little sly face while opening presents. He looked as though he was a little nervous about what might be inside the wrapping paper.
"Mom.... do you have to keep calling my name and taking my picture while I'm opening my presents?"
Jace, Riley, and Alexa
Riley enjoying his cupcake. Jace looks like he wants another one.

He really got the hang of opening presents this year

My sweet boy, I am so priviledged to be your mommy. I love that you are such a cuddler and that you are getting your own little personality. It almost makes me cry when you give your sister big hugs every morning without being asked. You are such a handsome boy and I can't wait to see you as continue to grow. Thank you for the blessings that you bring to our family. We love you.

Meeting Governor Mike Huckabee

2008-09-20T21:27:00.000-07:00

Many of you know how much I respected and liked Gov. Huckabee from the Presidential primaries so you can imagine how excited I was during this moment. I never thought that I would get the chance to meet him, so I jumped at the opportunity when I heard that he was the guest speaker at a Pastor's and Wives reception here in Bend. It was an amazing opportunity, one I will not soon forget. He is an even better speaker in person. It was very memorable and I came away thinking "I sincerely hope this godly man will someday be our President". He is extremely authentic and I believe he will bring honor to the office of President and respect for all life back to our nation. Overall it was an amazing experience. I was glad that I got to share it with Ryan.

Deschutes County Fair

2008-08-01T22:35:00.000-07:00

Today was "free day" at our county fair. We got in for free... that's why they call it free day.

We went on all the over-priced kiddie rides, but the kids had a blast. Here are some random pictures from our day.

Riley and Hannah showing their prizes from the fishing game... foam feet... on a stick... smiling. Yeah, your guess is as good as mine.

What we failed to capture was Hannah tumbling around in the barrel, unable to stand up. Overall, it was a good day but now we are tired and a little toasted by the sun and, frankly, ready for bed.

5 months & counting...

2008-08-01T21:29:00.000-07:00

I know it's only been 2 1/2 weeks or so since I last posted a belly picture but I thought that I should post at 5 months so that I can continue with the month to month comparisons.

5 month belly, and almost a full inch bigger.

Just to show that it really is MY belly not some other random pregnant woman.

Ryan thought it was funny to take my picture before I was ready and while I was obviously distracted by something "kid sized". I'll admit it is kind of funny.

Well, I am officially a little over 5 months pregnant and I couldn't hide it now even if I wanted. In fact, an older gentlemen at church said to our senior pastor, and I quote, "Is Holly pregnant or is something wrong?". I had to laugh when Ryan shared that with me. As if the only option for having a bigger belly is either 1) pregnancy, or 2)somethings wrong. I asked Ryan what he thought the man meant by "wrong". We aren't quite sure if he meant weight gain due to depression from being away from family or if he was talking about a tumor or some other strange type of growth. Either way it made for a good laugh.

Finally feeling the baby

2008-07-12T16:48:00.000-07:00

Well, we have passed a new milestone this pregnancy, last night I was finally able to recognize the kicks of our baby. I thought I might have been feeling the baby for the last few days or so but was unsure. Ryan actually felt them last night so I know I'm not crazy. A couple of you have asked about belly pictures so I thought that I would take a moment to post a few.

4 and 1/2 months and things are going well.

Thank you all for your prayers. Please continue to pray with us that the remainder of this pregnancy goes smoothly and that there are no complications. I'll try to post a few pictures every month so that you can all keep updated on my growing belly.

Happy Anniversary to my sweetheart

2008-06-30T11:31:00.000-07:00

Ryan,

Today marks our 7Th anniversary as a married couple and I feel privileged to have gotten the opportunity to be your partner and to raise our beautiful kids together. You are a wonderful husband and it is a gift to serve in ministry with you. Happy Anniversary! I love you.

Holly

Hi Mom & Dad!!!

2008-06-25T10:57:00.000-07:00

We had an appointment with the High Risk O.B. specialists on Monday and they did a VERY detailed ultra sound. The tech showed us a close up of the two sides of the baby's brain and the four working chambers of the heart. They were also able to tell us that the baby had a full bladder. Hannah got a kick out of it when the tech said, " Your baby has to go potty." She looked at me as if to ask.... " Is that even possible?." I was glad when she dropped it and I didn't have to explain it to her. Everything went well and the doctor seemed to think that everything should be fine. They are going to keep a close eye on me the rest of the pregnancy though, just in case. Other than the caption that Ryan added, this picture has not been touched up. It is the best close up picture of a hand that I have ever seen. Hannah said that the baby is waving to her. So sweet! We are very excited and are looking forward to seeing our little one.

Evil Eyed Baby

2008-06-11T15:44:00.000-07:00

This Baby is hilarious! You have to pause the music player below before you click on the video or you won't be able to hear the baby.

Apparently he doesn't want to share his drumstick.

Emerick Baby #3....

2008-06-09T10:04:00.000-07:00

We are happy to report that we are having another baby sometime in late November or early December. So far everything looks good and we have already seen an ultra-sound with a healthy baby that had a good heart rate. Our whole family is excited about this new little life that we have been blessed with and we are praying for a safe, healthy, and quick pregnancy so that we can hold our baby and know that he/she is ok. Because we already have a girl and a boy we have decided that we are NOT going to find out this time what we are having. I will be having another c-section so we don't get the surprise of going into labor on our own. The next best surprise is finding out if it's a boy or girl at exactly the moment of birth. We are planning on having a couple girl names and a couple boy names to choose when we see the baby's face. We are very excited but still nervous and appreciate any prayers for us and our growing family.

A really good Mother's Day

2008-05-12T09:58:00.000-07:00

The day started off with me being able to teach Hannah's Sunday school class and then on to church where I got to watch her spin all through worship. After church Ryan and the kids took me to Outback Steakhouse so that I didn't have to cook. After lunch Ryan had me go rest in our bedroom and said he would take care of the kids. He surprised me by cleaning, sweeping, and vacuuming our entire house, including the upstairs rooms. Then he took over folding and hanging the 3 to 4 loads of laundry that I had been putting off for quite some time. It was so nice to wake up to find that our house was clean and the laundry was put away so that I didn't have to do it. What a great family I have!

Ryan,
Thank you for your willingness to serve me on this Mother's Day and for showing our children what a godly father looks like. I am so blessed to have you as my husband and I hope to never take your servants heart for granted. Thank you for making me feel special and loved. I love you.

So Much Fun!

2008-03-20T09:48:00.000-07:00

The beauty of living here in Bend is that we have a bunch of snow parks within 10 minutes of our home. Last Friday we decided to take the kids to one of them and we had a blast. Here are a few pictures of our fun day.

We even took the dog! I thought Chloe would have a difficult time since she doesn't like the water but she actually laid down on the snow for a few minutes. Apparently frozen water doesn't bother her as much.

The last time we took Riley to the snow he was only 3 months old so he didn't really get to experience it. This time he really enjoyed eating the snow. I bet you couldn't tell by the red face though huh?

He also liked to ride on the sled.

Overall it was a great family experience and we hope to do it again in the next couple of weeks. Come and visit us and we'll take you too!

The Grand Tour

2008-02-25T19:24:00.001-08:00

Everyone has been asking for more pictures of the house. Here they are. Some of them are a little blurry.

And here we go...

Here's the view from the front door. You can see the kitchen in the back. The downstairs bathroom is directly to the right.

This is the living room. The staircase is right by the front door.

This is the top of the stairs and the computer niche. Hannah's room is on the right, and the hallway to the other rooms is on the left.

Here are Hannah and Riley's rooms. The walls haven't been decorated yet.

Here is the spare room and the upstairs bathroom.

Here is the laundry room equipped with space-age washer and dryer that we barely know how to use.

Two views of the master bedroom.

Two views of the master bath. His and Hers sinks!

We'll keep everyone posted as we settle in more. See ya!

Oh, and email us at rhemerick@bendbroadband.com for our new address.

We've Landed!

2008-02-21T08:11:00.000-08:00

Well, we made it. The fact that this post is appearing four days after the move should be an indicater of how crazy our week has been. It started off when I got sick at 2:30 am Sunday morning. That was tough enough. Then, the sickness lasted through the whole move. The trip up was pretty smooth. Other than my rising fever, we didn't have any issues. We made great time. We left Gridley at about 5:45 am and rolled into Bend at 1:45 pm. 7 hours ain't bad! There was a crew of people that showed up to help us.

There were only a few mishaps! Luckily, my dad and I were able to patch the wall.

And, it turns out that one of the gentlemen who helped us is a cabinet maker, so the door should be an easy fix!

The fun didn't stop there though! I got to visit St. Charles Medical Center's ER in the middle of the night with a 102 degree fever and what felt like shards of glass in my throat (illustration of course!). It was a nice place, for an ER. A couple days later and I am feeling quite a bit better. Well, I'm off to chisel the ice off my new walkway!

This has been a memorable adventure. One that I am sure I will be talllking about on the front porch when I am 80.

We'll keep you guys updated, and post more pictures of the house. Thanks for all the prayers and support!

Update

2008-01-25T09:27:00.000-08:00

Our previous trip to Bend, Oregon was more than just a family vacation. We were invited to guest lead services for Bend Church of the Nazarene. We also interviewed for the Worship Pastor position. Ryan got a call last Thursday from the pastor, and they offered us the position. We have been in prayer about this for some time now, and after being offered, we accepted. We know that God has great things in store for us through this ministry. It's a real "step out of the boat" experience. Everything is happening so fast. A few days after we accepted the position, we found a house that is right within our budget. It is a 4 bedroom, 2.5 bath. It is such a blessing because it is only $150.00 more a month than we are paying for our current 2 bedroom, 1 bath here in California. The extra room will allow our family to continue to grow. We feel so blessed. We thought we would share the pictures so that you could all see our new home.

This is obviously the front of the house.

This is the living room and kitchen. We are so excited to have a fireplace. It snows quite a bit in Bend so I'm sure that the gas fireplace will get used a lot.

These are the plans for the house. We were excited to find out that it also has a small computer niche and the washing machine and dryer are upstairs so I don't have to cart laundry up and down all the time. The garage will also be a nice change from our small carport. We don't have any storage so all our stuff is crammed into our house or into the shed and it gets very dirty. Also, Riley and Hannah will not be waking each other up at night anymore since they will each have their own room. Yay!!!!! More sleep for Ryan and I.

Overall, we feel that God has been in this from the moment that Ryan was contacted by the Bend Church of the Nazarene, and we are excited to see what God can do in and through us.

Pantry Challenge Anyone?

2008-01-16T08:55:00.000-08:00

If you don't know what a pantry challenge is I will explain it.

A pantry challenge is using your existing food stores and resources, like your pantry and refrigerator, to make all of your meals. It is a challenge to not buy anything new from the grocery store to complete dinner. A pantry challenge can be anything you want it to be. You can do the challenge by yourself or as part of a group. A group challenge can be a lot of fun. You can keep each other motivated, inspire each other and share tips and ideas. Why should you have a pantry challenge? There are a few good reasons. A pantry challenge can come in handy when the budget is running low, and it is better to make do with what you have for as long as you can. A pantry challenge can also help you use up older items in your pantry that you tend not to grab when it comes to dinner time or the left overs from a few nights ago that might otherwise spoil. Now is when it's time to get creative with the stuff in your pantry and fridge and to save the money that you would have spent on food for other things like paying off debt. The only things you can buy at the store are milk, eggs, and small amounts of fresh fruit. The goal is to not shop so that you can use that money for paying down debts and to use the stores of food that might otherwise get thrown away. I think I have enough food in my pantry and fridge for about 12 meals or so. I am up to the challenge of seeing how long I can go without shopping. Obviously, you don't want your family to starve, but you do want to use up as much food as you can from your current stores. By the way, you're also not allowed to eat out if you don't have anything in the house or it's not a REAL pantry challenge. Anyone up for this?

Day #6

2008-01-05T22:36:00.000-08:00

It snowed all night last night. When we woke up this morning there was about 2 inches of snow covering the ground and the cars.

After a morning rehearsal, we got a chance to eat an early lunch at the Westside Bakery.

Ryan chose to eat breakfast, of course, and ordered one of the biggest cinnamon rolls known to man.

The whole parking lot was covered in snow and looked very beautiful. There were even icicles hanging from the awning.

We also got a chance to visit with our old friends, Ed and Laura Moulton, who live in Hines, Oregon. We didn't get a chance to take any pictures with them though. Here are some other random pictures from today.

We won't be able to post anything tomorrow because we fly home tomorrow after church. So for those of you in Yuba City and Gridley, we'll see you all soon.

Day #5

2008-01-04T22:08:00.000-08:00

Sorry no pictures today because we had a pretty busy day. We'll try better tomorrow. Ryan was on the phone half the day trying to figure out how to get the Gridley church enough equipment to do service on Sunday. As you can imagine, that it quite a difficult task with us being in Bend and not able to be there in person to help set up another sound board. Hopefully we will get everything together by tomorrow so that we don't have to worry about whether or not the church will be ready for Sunday.

Also, it snowed today in Bend. It was just a little flurry but it was great fun. We are supposed to get snow off and on for the next couple of days so hopefully tomorrow we will be able to catch some on film. It might be hard to see on the pictures but we'll try our absolute best. Well, I think we have to sign off now. It's almost 10:30pm and we have an early day tomorrow that will also probably be a long one. We'll post more tomorrow though.

Day #4

2008-01-03T22:16:00.000-08:00

We spent the first part of today looking around Bend with Ryan's dad, who came to visit us from Newport, Oregon.

Bend has some neat communities! We have found out that the city is divided into East and West sides. The East side is more of the older part of town where mostly working class families live. The West side of town is where the more wealthy affluent people live. It has more modern housing with what are called "earth elements" to them. These are things like rocks on the outsides of the houses and shops. They also have more earthy/neutral colors. Then we ate again at Red Robin (Ryan's dad's favorite restaurant) before he had to travel the 4 hours back to Newport. Overall, it was a pretty good day.

On a more sour note... we got some horrible news tonight that the Gridley church got broken into and a bunch of equipment was stolen. Even worse, most of the stolen equipment was Ryan's. His bass guitar, some microphones, and an effects processor were all taken. The church's sound board was also taken. Ryan is trying as best he can to sort things out over the phone but it's very difficult. We would appreciate your prayers.

Bend - Day #3

2008-01-02T14:06:00.000-08:00

We made an amazing discovery today. There is a preschool here that has an attached indoor play center. For six dollars a kid (five for Riley), you can let them play while you sit in comfortable chairs. We figured that Hannah and Riley earned it for putting up with having no toys for the past 3 days. We also figured that we earned it after having to chase them around and shout "No!" for 3 days.

Happy New Year!!! and Day #2

2008-01-01T20:15:00.000-08:00

Well, we didn't really "usher in the New Year" as most people probably did. Our children were asleep and we were laying in bed praying for sleep to over take us. We had been up since 1:00am the night before and were running on "fumes." Nevertheless, we told eachother happy new year just before falling asleep shortly after 2008 officially began. Wow!!! That just feels strange to type. This past year sure went fast and was full of lots of changes.

We spent the first day of 2008 looking around the city of Bend. We are beginning to get a small sense of the layout of the city from East to West and North to South. Most of the street names have NW or SW or NE or SE before the actual name of the street. For example, our hotel is on NE 27th street. We have seen a couple of streets without the tradmark compass heading, but for the most part, the majority of the streets have it.

We went into the Old Mill District today to look around at the shops and to take the kids to the children's museum. Unfortunately for us, the children's museum is only open Wednesdays thru Sundays so we couldn't go do that today but hopefully sometime this week. Instead, we walked around the shops which are right on the banks of the Deschutes river (pronounced Deh-shoots). It had snowed a little the day before we arrived here and it has been very cold so there was still a little residual snow "dust" on the ground. It was absolutely beautiful.

Then we ate at Ryan's favorite restaurant.... Red Robin. Yes, they have one here too! This picture is of Riley inside Red Robin waiting for his corn puppies to arrive. Corn puppies are miniature corn dogs. Ryan doesn't like the idea of Riley eating anything called puppies.

Hannah got the good old Mac-N-Cheese. Our pictures of her today didn't show up very well so we will have to post more in the days to come.

The shops at the Old Mill District were very nice. They have A Children's Place, American Eagle, Bath and Body, Motherhood Maternity, REI, and others. It kind of reminded me of South Lake Tahoe's Heavenly Village shops. They also have the old smokestacks still on the top of one of the buildings. It was kind of cool. Here are some other random pictures from today. Check back tomorrow for another post and more pictures

Our trip to Bend, Oregon Day #1

2007-12-31T22:01:00.000-08:00

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

2007-11-16T09:50:00.000-08:00

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...

2007-10-15T21:44:00.000-07:00

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

2007-10-11T08:52:00.000-07:00

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

2007-10-06T21:19:00.000-07:00

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........

2007-10-03T15:17:00.000-07:00

....... 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

2007-10-02T12:42:00.000-07:00

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...

2007-09-17T21:55:00.000-07:00

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!

2007-09-01T17:22:00.000-07:00

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

2007-08-12T20:21:00.000-07:00

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

2007-07-27T22:26:00.000-07:00

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!

2007-07-23T18:41:00.000-07:00

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?

2007-07-14T21:51:00.000-07:00

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...

2007-05-21T12:52:00.000-07:00

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

2007-05-16T18:16:00.000-07:00

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!!!

2007-05-10T09:45:00.000-07:00

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!

2007-05-06T21:51:00.000-07:00

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...

2007-04-30T20:54:00.000-07:00

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.