Hiking Adventure!

Eric wanted to spend some time with the kids, so he decided to take them hiking on Saturday. They hiked the Robert Louis Stevenson Trail on Mt. St Helena.  Jimmy and his two boys went with them.  They left bright and early and made it home before lunch. They had a great time!  The weather was perfect for hiking...nice and cool.  All the kids had a great time hiking, climbing rocks, throwing rocks and picking beautiful wild flowers for their mommies!  I was so thrilled when they came home with a beautiful boutique of wild flowers.  Hiking Adventure was a success I would say!!!

Memories to remember...

Open House at the school...

Brooklyn and Easton loved showing off what they have done in School this year!

 Grandmommy is here!  She's been a lifesaver, helping with Cooper, meals, and laundry. What would I do without her?  

 Cooper with his syrup on his face!  Those pancakes were so yummy!

 Daddy being goofy with the kids.

Bike Riding...Brooklyn and Easton LOVE to ride bikes. Eric scored and got this cool mountain bike for Easton for $5 at a yard sale...what a steal!  Its perfect for him.  Grandmommy has been taking Cooper everyday on a bike ride too. Cooper loves bike rides too.  

WOOD, WOOD, WOOD...we are all set for next winter I would say. Eric has been working really hard splitting, and stacking the wood.  On Saturday he did it in the pouring rain and I mean POURING rain. It was crazy. And I thought Eric was crazy for staying out there.  I'm glad it's all done for his sake!

Eric wrote about it on his facebook, this is what he wrote...

"The wood stack is finally cut, split, and stacked for this year. We returned from hiking early afternoon. I pulled out the wheel barrel and started throwing some timber. It seemed that Mother nature didn't like her trees being treated this way and tried to stop my efforts with a little precipitation. When it started my Tshirt captured a few drops. It felt refreshing, who wouldn't want a little mist to cool a sweating brow. My shirt then began to stick to my body as a would throw one log after the other. I tried to wipe away the water from my face, but by this point I could not find a dry section of shirt to wipe it with. Brooklyn and Easton helped for a while, when the sheets of rain began to fall, they bailed. I felt like Lt. Dan in Forest Gump.
"Come on! You call this a storm? Blow, you son of a b*****! Blow! It's time for a showdown! You and me! I'm right here! Come and get me!"
Cold unforgiving rain was now flowing through every crack in my body. Water would accumulate in my leather gloves and then pour down my arms as I would lift another log to stack it. It just kept coming and coming. After what seemed like hours, a ray of sunshine broke through the clouds, the rain pour turned to drizzle, then a mist. Mother Nature withdrew from the fight, gratified with the amount of infliction administered. I removed my gloves to squeegee my face to find that the die in the leather had turned my hands a pail yellow. Very similar to the yellow tint Ryder leaves for me in his diapers. Then a beautiful site appeared... it was Brooklyn, she came back to help! In her hands was a warm dry jacket for Dad. As we stacked that last log together; soaking, sore, bruised, and splintered, we arose triumphant in the battle to provide thermal protection to our family for one more cold winter season."

Daddy's Little Sidekick!

I must admit...Cooper loves his daddy more than he loves his mommy.

When Daddy comes home, Cooper doesn't leave his side. I mean he follows Eric everywhere: outside, to the bathroom, to the shop, anywhere daddy is, Cooper is right behind him.  Eric loves it.  

Eric finally has a carwashing partner!

Eric had to buy this tractor for him, he couldn't resist. He is spoiled by daddy! 

Cooper loves it. He even loves it more when Eric pushes him around the house.

Ready for church...two handsome guys! You can tell they are father/son! 

Cooper's officially nursery age...18 months!  Yippee!

18 months..What a big handsome boy!

Baby Ryder!

Ryder's first couple of weeks consisted of...

SLEEPING, EATING, POOPING and a little bit of crying.

That's about it!

First Bath..He did NOT like it.  

Being cold is not a favorite of mine either...I don't blame him.

Ryder is my little cuddle bug!  He loves to be held...almost all the time.  My mom is here for a couple of weeks helping with Cooper, which I am SO thankful for.  So I have no excuses not to hold and enjoy my little boy! He doesn't sleep as well at night, unless he is being held.  I am not one for sleeping with my babies...but in the middle of the night and because I am dead tired, I give in! He is a good eater, but a snacker. I feel like I am feeding him all the time.  If he is awake, he wants to eat.  But he only eats a little bit and then falls back to sleep.  And then an hour later, he wants more.  It drives me crazy...but I am glad he is a good nurser.

His first doctors appointment at 1 week old.  He regained his birth weight and shrunk almost an inch.  Or maybe the hospital measured wrong.  Oh well...he is healthy and perfect! 

{1 week stats: 7lbs 14 oz again!  20.25 inches long.}

 Ryder at 2 weeks old!  So precious!

18 Months=Handful!

"Trying" to take photographs of an 18 month old is almost impossible!

Fun Memories, Fun Times!

Poor Easton got his hair pulled, he got pushed off the bench and he got hit in the head.  Cooper knows how to make him mad!

Introducing....Ryder Steel Redford

RYDER STEEL REDFORD

May 13, 2012

7 lbs 14oz

21" inches

The Story...

I went to the doctor on Tuesday, May 8th.  I was 37 1/2 weeks along. (My due date was May 24) I wasn't dilated or effaced, baby was floating in water as the doctor put it.  While the doctor was leaving the room, she said "See you next week, or maybe not, you never know."  I thought..."I'll see you next week...for sure."  I am a on-time girl.  Brooklyn and Easton were 5 days early and Cooper was 1 day late.  So I knew I had a few more weeks to go.  I went on doing my normal day to day tasks and threw in some projects I wanted to get done before the baby comes.  I cleaned my bedroom and bathroom really well, I cleaned out the porch area, and yard work.  I felt good.  Saturday we went to Easton baseball game and then I did yard work for 3 hours.  I didn't feel anything..so I just kept weeding.  My back was sore that night, but that is normal for me.  I usually over do it during the day and then I am sore at night. No big deal.  I went to bed!

Sunday Morning, I woke up at 3:30am with a pain under my belly.  It felt a little different than the normal braxton hicks.  I tried to sleep.  At 4am I finally decided to get up and go to the bathroom.  The pain kept coming back. I decided to start to time them, while googling false/real contractions at the same time.  My past labors have been induced because my water has always broken...so this was a new process for me.  I timed the contractions for an hour and then called the hospital and talked to the nurse. She told me that I probably wasn't in real labor because I could talk to her so easily on the phone. She said I shouldn't be able to talk during a real contraction. She said to come in if they get to be 3-5 minutes apart.  Well they were 5-7 minutes a part for two hours.  I got up and packed up a few things just in case we really did have to go in.  I wasn't packed or ready at all.  I thought I had a few more weeks.  Washing the carseat, baby clothes, baby bed, etc was on my list to do on Monday. I was not prepared!

At 6am, I finally woke up Eric and we decided we better go in.  So then we had to call our friends to watch our kids, wake up the kids, pack up the kids.  I took a shower and Eric got the kids up and going.  He was trying to hurry but I started to feel worse. So I told him that we needed to go NOW!  We hurried!  I couldn't even sit in the van. It was so uncomfortable.  We dropped off the kids in Middletown where we met our friends. Poor Easton was sick to his stomach, I felt horrible sending a sick child with someone but I just couldn't worry about it. Eric drove like a mad man over the mountain.  For those who don't know, we had to drive over a very curvy mountain to get to the hospital.  Fun times!  Eric did his best to drive fast but not jerky.  I told Eric that if this was false labor, I wouldn't want to imagine what real labor was like. It was so uncomfortable.  And then...1/2 way there...my water broke! At this point, I know we are having our baby today! I kept telling myself that I wasn't ready or prepared...I had two more weeks!  Oh well..he was coming and there was nothing I could do about it.  

We arrived at the hospital at 8am.  We hurried up to the delivery floor and got settled.  The nurses were very nice and started all their check-in procedures.  I got in the bed, I felt like I had to push.  Eric told the nurses and they came in to check on me.  I was fully dilated and ready to have this baby...well no wonder it was so uncomfortable to sit in the van.  They hurried and called the doctor and said I would have to wait until he got there to start to push. That was hard!  He got there in about 15 minutes, luckily for me he was running near by.  I started to push...Dr. Myers asked Eric if he would like to deliver the baby.  Eric said sure. I was shocked.  And that he did!

8:56am Ryder Steel was born!  He was big...I thought I was going to have a little tiny baby because he was 2 weeks early and I already have smaller 7lb babies.  Nope..he was perfect.  7lbs 14 oz.  My biggest baby so far. The nurses said he wasn't early...he was full term.  Very wrinkly and ripe!  My original due date was May 11th.  Then when they did my ultrasound at 10 weeks, they changed it to May 24th.  I guess they shouldn't have done that...my original one was right!  If only I had known, I would have been prepared!  

The nurses said it was the best delivery...in and out so quickly!  I was in the hospital less than one hour before he was born.  It was crazy fast.  5.5 hours from the start of contractions to delivery. We cut it a little close getting to the hospital...we are lucky we didn't have him in the car! Oh...and I am so proud of myself...I did it all NATURALLY!  That is big for me!  First time! It was so quick, that I wouldn't have had time for anything anyways.  I was proud of myself!  

Ryder is perfect!  He was delivered so fast, that his head was the perfect shape.  He has my dimples. So happy about that. All the kids have been lucky to get them.  He has the same mouth and chin as Cooper and Easton.  But he has a shorter nose and his eyes are different.  They are more like my Mom's side of the family.  He has his own look, but he definitely belongs to our family!  We make pretty cute babies I must say! 

Ryder gave me the best Mother's Day Gift Ever!  I will always remember this special Mother's Day!  

Sorry...I know this is kind of gross...but I wanted to show proof that Eric delivered Ryder himself!  I think that is pretty cool.

 Let's go HOME!

Ryder meeting his siblings for the first time!

Cooper loves him...so happy about that!  Well...for now!

Welcome Baby Ryder! 

(aka "Cooper"...since that is what I call you almost 90% of the time. I'll get use to his name one of these days.)