May 2014

We spent Mother's Day at my parent's house with my sister and her family.

I think my mom is the greatest in the whole world.

I am so lucky to get to be the Mom to these two little boys.

 

One evening, I heard a knock, knock, knock at the back door.  I opened it to this sweet face saying, "Here, Mom, these flowers are for you!"  I couldn't help but smother his cute face in kisses.  Who cares if the "flowers" are of the noxious variety!

In May, we had our annual girls' weekend in Salt Lake with Mom, Melanie, Lauren (and Ryker).  Oddly, this is the only picture I took the entire weekend.

Then in May, Brody started T-Ball.  He's a very athletic kid with quite the arm, so we thought he would dig playing ball.  He was excited until he got to the first practice and had to do things with everyone looking at him.  Then he went into shy  mode and wasn't sure what to think of it.  As the season went on, it got a little easier for him and when he put in effort, and came out of his shyness, he did awesome!

Ryker was Brody's number one fan at practice and games.

Up to bat.  Go #6!!!

Cute little slugger.

At the beginning of each game, the first time up to bat, it usually took a little coaxing from the coach or Dad to get Brody to "run" the bases.  Some weeks it was a slow, heal-to-toe walk around the bases.  Pretty funny.

His favorite spot was on the pitcher's mound.

This was from the very first practice.  The high school team came to help work one-on-one with the kids and at the end signed a baseball for each of the kids.  I thought it was cute, and the boys loved it!

One of Brody's all time faves is building a fire and roasting dogs and marshmallows. 

Brody is pretty good about playing with his baby bro.

One weekend we met "Kourty" and Matthew at the zoo.

Our sleepy baby is now 6 months.

Playing at the park after the annual Memorial Day Jones get-together.

This happened to Ryker's eye about 3 or 4 times the first 6 months after he was born. The first time it showed up was during our girls' weekend.  We had him squealing and laughing his guts out one night at the hotel.  The next day, he woke up with broken blood vessels.  That was some serious laughing.  

Tough guy Brody with his new water gun he earned (can't remember now what he did to earn it).

Ryker loves baby food at 6 months, he also loves to spit baby food and shower me and the rest of the kitchen.

May brought weather that was finally warm enough to play outside! Yay!!

April 2014

 Since I'm extremely behind, I'm resorting to posting a month at a time.

Here are the happenings for April in a nutshell.

Brody felt the need to revert back to sleeping in a crib. . . Ryker's crib in the boys' room.  (Ryker sleeps in a crib in our room for the time being).

It only lasted a few nights though.

Our smiley, happy baby is growing at lightning speed it seems.

In April, our little super hero had to have surgery to remove his tonsils, adenoids, and take one ear tube out.  The other ear tube fell out on its own, but since the 2nd one had been in for over 2 years, the Dr. decided to take it out while Brody was under anesthesia for his tonsillectomy.

 As parents, we were more apprehensive about the surgery than Brody was- he obviously had no clue what was about to go on. He only knew he was somewhere he didn't want to be because strangers were talking to him, and touching him (not OK in Brody's book). 

Brody had GIANT tonsils-- literally huge balls that looked as if they blocked his entire throat.  He would have apnea at night-- episodes where he would stop breathing momentarily, then wake up kicking, confused, and mad.  The only remedy was to remove those suckers, no matter how much we would have rather avoided sending our child under anesthesia. 

When Brody came out of the anesthesia, he was "madder than a mashed cat."

Brent and I, were waiting in his recovery room for him to come out of the surgical suite, and could hear him crying and yelling,

"NO TOUCH ME!!!

I WANT MY DAD!  WHERE'S MY MOM?!

LET ME GO!"

He wouldn't stay in the bed to let them wheel him to his room, and he wouldn't let them carry him.

He was insistent on walking out, and didn't want any help either.  However, his little sea legs couldn't hold him up, and he was stumbling, and dizzy. 

The poor nurses finally got our distraught little guy to us, and then he got sick.

It was a real fun time.
As soon as he was safe in his dads arms, he passed out again, and continued to drift in and out while intermittently shoving his fingers up his nose.  The nurse told us the anesthesia can make your nose itch like crazy!
When we got home, the real battle began. The post-op nurses stressed the importance of not letting pain meds lapse, but Brody wanted no part of taking any pain reliever.  We tried hiding it in pudding, milkshakes, pop, his favorite foods, but he could always sniff it out, and refused it.
We tried bribing, reasoning, sympathizing, and even resorted to the "hold 'em down, and plug 'er nose."  It didn't work, the little stinker managed to spew it out like a fountain.  It was brutal for us and for him.
Strong-willed he is.  We will channel that strong will into something amazing one day. 

He had a rough few days, but was back to feeling like normal within no time.

(This photo was before he was taken back to the OR- he refused to put on the hospital gown, so they took him just like this. . .)

Brody is his dad's number one pal, and best ranch hand.  He LOVES to go with his dad to work, and frequently calls him and asks, "When you gonna come get me?"  Some days it works out for Brody to go, and other days not (depending on what kind of work Brent is doing that day).

On this day Brody had called his dad and Brent told him he'd be there in an hour or so to pick him up.

His reply was, "I'm gonna just wait for you."

And he did.

He sat on the back step, faithfully watching for his dad's pick-up to pull in.

Family date night at our favorite steak house.

Getting geared up for Easter by making a "project" . . .

I can hardy handle how they turned out!  Pretty funny in my opinion.

And of course, dyeing Easter eggs.

Easter morning.

All ready for church.

How I love these two handsome boys.

Easter dinner.

It's definitely spring time at our house-- babies galore.

Puppies and kitties!

Here is our all time FAVORITE baby,

now 4 months of age.