Crunch Time

There is a good and a bad to the end of every semester.

Good: we get a much-needed break.

Bad: it is a rough ride with finals.

Austin has already been working on some of his final projects for weeks...

And let me tell you, he has been one busy man!

As for me, I only have a few online classes this semester and then I am done until I get accepted into the dental hygiene program.

The countdown to the last day of classes stands at:

8 days.

Once we are out of school we will complete this list and have so much fun doing it!

But for now, we are having a blast together, loving life, and cherishing every second we have with Ryker.

Three Weeks

People keep telling us to enjoy every moment because they grow up so fast.

We are starting to believe them.

Ryker is now three weeks old and it still seems like he should be just three days old.

Time is going by so quickly!

That is why Austin and I really do enjoy every single moment we have with our little cutie.

Austin and I are filled with so much happiness whenever we are with our son. 

He brings so much light into our lives and we cannot even imagine what life would be like without him now!

We are so grateful that we do have the opportunity to be a family forever.

We have been sealed in the Temple; meaning Ryker is sealed to us.

We take much comfort in knowing this and are forever grateful for this wonderful blessing that we are able to enjoy.

T-11 Days

My mind is on Winter break.
And I am convinced that we are going to have the best Winter break ever.
Let me explain...

1. We get to spend it as a family. This will be our first Christmas with Ryker and we are so excited to spend each and every minute with him. No school, no homework, no nothing to take our time away from family... excluding UPS of course.
2. We get to take long walks. I love taking walks. There is nothing better than strolling around the peaceful neighborhood with your husband and son by your side.
3. We [Austin and I] get to go on a date to see Harry Potter. Any of you who really know me, know my love for this series. I have been waiting forever to see this movie and we are finally going to take time to go!
4. We get to keep working on Ryker's baby book. We have had so much fun working on his book! But unfortunately, since both of us have lots of homework to do, it has been very difficult finding time to really sit down and write in it. We are finally going to have the chance to finish it this break!
5. We get the opportunity to sleep. With Austin being home from school, we can switch off taking naps! Boy, am I looking forward to this.
6. We get time to exercise more. Well, this is my goal at least! I am lucky enough to have gone back to my pre-pregnancy weight already, but that is not saying much. I am planning on starting P90X with my dad as soon!
7. We get to spend time with both of our families. We are super ready to just kick back and spend some good, quality evenings with both sides of the family.

So basically, we have eleven more days until all of this begins.
Be jealous. ;]

Happy Thanksgiving!

We hope that you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving Day filled with lots of family, food, and fun!

Austin, Ryker, and I had the privilege of spending the day with Austin's loving family.

[Grandpa sharing a story with the family before starting the meal.] 

[The girlies!] 

[Yes, that is Austin's Dad creeping behind us!] 

 [Of course, what would Thanksgiving Day be like without the boys watching football??]

[Four-generation picture! Grandpa, Papa, Austin, and Ryker.]

Austin and I are truly blessed to have so much in life and we are thankful for that each and every day.

...Especially on this Thanksgiving Day.

We would also like to give a shout-out to my amazing family who are all currently in Utah spending Thanksgiving Weekend with extended family there. 

We miss them so very much and want to say that we are very grateful for all that they do for us! 

We love you, Wray Family, and we wish that you were here with us today!

Enjoy the rest of this Turkey Day... because starting tomorrow, the CHRISTMAS celebrations begin!

To Celebrate... Or Not to Celebrate...?

Do any of you know who this man is??

...
........
...

It is Dave Elkins; the lead singer of Mae.

Austin and I celebrated our One Year Anniversary by going and watching them play!

Just before the concert, we went and grabbed a bite to eat:

Then we headed to watch and sing along to this:

They put on a fantastic show!

It is Austin's all-time favorite band and he just loved every single minute of it.

However... all we could talk about, think about, and cry about [me being the crier] was our little guy back at home.

We could not stand being away from our sweet boy!

Major separation anxieties were occurring; making us wish we had just celebrated our anniversary at home.

We will never do that again.

[Even if he was completely out of it the entire time.]

Week Two!

We cannot believe that our little guy is two weeks already!

He continues to amaze us each and every day.

<> He loves sleeping next to Daddy! [Mommy only allows this when she is in the room.]

<> He has a new fascination with hair. Whenever anyone's hair is near him, it automatically becomes tightly gripped in between his tiny fingers.

<> He finally had his first bath! And yes, he cried the entire time.

<> He smiles a bajillion times a day.

<> He will stare at a light for as long as we let him. Christmas lights are his favorite!

<> He knows that his pacifier is not milk. That is why he refuses to use one.

<> He absolutely loves 'cooing!' Mommy and Daddy adore the baby language and frequently add to it.

<> He gained back and surpassed his birth weight in two weeks!

[Born: 8 pounds, 1 ounce]

[24 hours old: 7 pounds 10 ounces]

[Two weeks old: 9 pounds!]

<> He perfectly times his bathroom urges to occur right when Mommy is in the process of changing his diaper. However, this never happens to Daddy.

We sure do "have a keeper!" [Or so that is what Ryker's pediatrician tells us during each visit.]

Austin and I are just so lucky to have this sweet little spirit in our home.

Life sure is grand.♥

One Year

Exactly one year ago, I married this man...

It was honesty the best decision I have ever made.

HAPPY ONE YEAR ANNIVERSARY SWEETHEART!♥

One Week

Little Ryker has made so much progress this last week!

He believes that he is much older than his age and this just cracks us up! 

For example:

<> He is already drinking a couple more ounces of milk than a newborn normally does.

<> He can almost roll to his side when laying on his back. Give him a couple more days and he will have it!

<> He lifts his own head and looks around when laying on his tummy. This is definitely early!

<> He started smiling when he was just four days old.

<> He loves standing and holding up his own body weight when we lift him up!

<> He can go up to five hours of sleep at night.

<> He follows your face when you move side-to-side while talking to him.

<> He recognizes Mommy and Daddy's voices and turns to look at us when we talk!

<> He lost his umbilical cord at seven days!

<> He has strong hands and clutches onto anything that comes their way.

<> He snores in his sleep... just like Daddy!

<> He is so strong that he can wiggle out of his tight blanket that we wrap around him at night. AND he manages to get it completely over his head. Very scary.

<> He knows when he does funny things. Example: During a diaper change, he decided to squirt Mommy with some poop and then smile real big afterwards. This made Daddy laugh really hard.]

<> He would rather sleep in a big person's bed than his own. He is constantly on Mommy and Daddy's bed.

[Our favorite picture... ever!]


We love this man so very much and we cherish every second that we get to be with him.
Happy one week little guy!!!

A Day We Will Never Forget.

It all began on Saturday, November 6th. Austin had to attend a school convention for most of the day, so I decided that it would be a perfect time for me to get out and do some activities to bring about labor. I was so anxious to finally have our little boy in my arms! So what did I do? I walked, and walked, and walked some more. First, I shopped and strolled around the mall with my mom and sister for four hours. Then, we went and shopped at Costco for another hour and a half. That was followed by a trip to Albertsons for another hour. I was exhausted by the time we finally got home, but made another trip to the mall an hour later to shop with my hubby.

Throughout the entire day I was having mild contractions and loving it! I wanted to keep walking all night long to make them get stronger. To our surprise, the next event happened so fast. When Austin and I were driving away from the mall that night, I lost the plug that protects the amniotic sac surrounding the baby!!! We were thrilled! This was when my contractions finally started coming on stronger and closer together. W knew that my water could break at any moment, so we went home and waited... I walked up and down the stairs for what seemed like forever, and sped-walked around the neighborhood with Austin until I couldn't anymore. I was exhausted and my feet were definitely agreeing!

I didn't have any big signs of my water breaking so we finally decided to 'go to bed.' Keep in mind that I was still having some contractions at this point that were about 10-14 minutes apart. I didn't want to go to the hospital for fear that they would tell me to wait until my water had officially broken. Austin and I were up all night long timing my contractions with hope that they would get closer together. I also thought that I was still losing my 'plug' as well due to all the bathroom runs that I was making.

By Sunday morning, my contractions were about 10 minutes apart and much worse so we decided that we better go to the hospital to see what was going on. We were taken into triage where they test to see if you can be admitted into labor and delivery. At this point, I was still worried that they would just send me back home! But when the nurses came back into the room after running my tests, they had an IV bag in their hands and told me that I was in!!! Little did I know that my water had really broken at 7:30 pm the night before and I had been in active labor all night!

Now, this is where it gets fun! I was told that my water had broken too early. We know this because my body was very far from being ready to deliver. Let's just say that it was as far from it as anyone could possibly get. I was barely dilated at all and was hardly even effaced! We were quickly informed that this would be a long labor. I did not mind. I would do anything that would give us our son.

So, to show you a summary of our Sunday, I will go by hour:

9:08 am - Arrive at Banner Gateway.
10:00 am - Officially admitted into Labor and Delivery Room 8.
10:50 am - Begin  IV Oxytocin. [This is a hormone that is used for inducing women. Since I was so far away from dilating, they began me on this right away. Mind you, this also brings on contractions much worse than doing it naturally...]
...
...
...
...
...
4:00 pm - Doctor Mikels [doctor-on-call for my regular OB/GYN] comes in to see my dilation. He unfortunately told me that nothing had changed. I was still far from delivery.
**My contractions were now about 2-3 minutes apart and very painful. But there was no way I was getting an epidural only dilated to a 1!
...
...
7:00 pm - Begin fake epidural. I was having contractions every minute, so I was given some medicine through the epidural tube that was not as strong as the real stuff.
7:30 pm - Given antibiotics through my IV. By this time, my water had been broken for 24 hours and the doctor feared infection.
...
8:26 pm - Water officially breaks! The leak had finally been broken!
9:00 pm - The nurse tests to find that I am finally dilated to a 2...
9:30 pm - Given the real epidural. Bad contractions.
...
10:40 pm - Given an oxygen mask. Every time my one-minute contractions would come, the baby's heart rate would sadly drop about 40-50 bpm below normal. He was hurting... The oxygen mask fortunately helped a lot!
10:50 pm - The doctor cut my Oxytocin in half. By this point I was at the highest dosage possible and they wanted to half-it to see if my body would start dilating on its own.
...
12:00 am - The nurse comes back in to test my dilation. She was shocked and had another nurse check to see if this miracle could really happen with me... I was dilated to a 10 and ready to push!!! Had I really gone from 2 centimeters to 10 centimeters in three hours???
12:20 am - Begin practice pushing with the nurse.
12:40 am - The doctor arrives at the hospital once more.
...
1:42 am - Baby Ryker is born!!!!!!

Ryker is a dream come true! He is perfectly healthy and we could not be more grateful. There is nothing in this world that we would not do for him.

This definitely was a day we will never forget!!!

Birthday Post = One Week Late

My precious husband gave me roses.

21 years old!

How come the only picture that is blurry is the one of Austin and I??

 The best parents in the entire world.

My cute little brother, Kevin.

My newly-pregnant sister, Kristel. Yay!

The cute couple, Kelly and Forrest. 

Happy Birthday to the baby in my tummy! Hopefully soon...

For my birthday dinner, Austin took me out to this delicious new Italian restaurant, La Calabria.

For my family birthday dinner, we ate at one of our favorites, Logan's Roadhouse.

We also had cake and ice cream with Austin's family! It sure was yummy.

I think it is safe to say that this was the best birthday I have ever had.
Thank you everyone for making it so special!