Happy Birthday Ryan!

Can you believe that one year ago, we were meeting Ryan for the first time? I can't believe how the time has flown. When he was born he weighed in at 7 pounds and 19 3/4 inches long. Today at the doctor he weighed 22 pounds and was 30 1/2 inches. Long and lean the doctor says.

Ryan can walk, but really isn't brave enough to do it without holding on. Sometimes he does it, if we distract him enough. He is very active and is constantly into things. Anything that will fit will go into his mouth. Just in the last week we have started trying to keep the bathroom door closed so that he doesn't play in the toilet. His favorite thing to put in his mouth is the little cap that goes over the bolts on the toilet, YUCK!!!

Thank you Jesus

~Don't be weary in prayer; keep at it; watch for God's answers, and remember to be thankful when they come.
Colossians 4:2~

Some one gave us a perpetual calendar for a shower/wedding gift. We are on our 3rd trip through it, and every year on January 13th I will forever remember the first January 13th. On that day Nate and Cliff had their first official visitation with their biological dad. It was a very emotional day for them and for Josh and I. I remember standing at the kitchen sink looking out the window watching them drive away and crying my eyes out. I was heart broken. The verse on the calendar for that day was Colossians 4:2. Josh was trying to get home that morning before the boys left, but he met them on main street in the truck. When he got home, he found me and this verse. We sat on the couch together and cried and prayed. I took this verse as a promise and continued to pray, and 11 months later Greg gave us the gift of adoption.

Thank you Jesus for answering our prayers. We are so thankful that Josh was allowed to adopt the boys. You are so good! Amen

Sock Monkeys

I saw a cute tutorial about making sock monkeys and decided to make some for my kids for Christmas. Since I am rarely home without children, the twins saw my "practice" monkey and decided that their cousins needed sock monkeys too. (I had already thought of this, but wanted to see how much work it was going to be first.) Anyway, this started me on a holiday adventure of making seven monkeys. I have not taken pictures of my kids with theirs yet, but here are some of Cody, Collin, and Callie. They turned out pretty cute.

Ryan's First Gift

Ryan unwrapped his first gift at Grandma Taylor's house, but we don't have picturs of that yet, here he is giving it a whirl at Grandma Ferguson's. Hopefully he doesn't forget in the next month until his birthday. Really the box and the paper were much more fun than the cuddley Curious George. He is very soft, but you have to stop moving to cuddle. What fun would that be, besides you might fall asleep if you stop moving.

Happy Birthday Mom!

***NOTE: I am a little slow. The last time I was updating the blog, I had written the following somewhat silly post, but then it did not update, and I could not bring myself to redo it at the time. Today, over three weeks later it occurred to me that it was probably saved and I didn't have to redo it. So, here is the pics from Dena's b-day on Dec 11. ***

Dena's birthday was yesterday and Ron pulled off a surprise! While romantic is not what typically comes to mind when we think of Ron, he pulled it off with flare yesterday! I have said it a hundred times since yesterday, but I will say it again, "Great job Dad!"



So, here is the story......... :-)

Dena's original wedding ring was in the house at the ranch in Wyoming when it burned.... :'(

She had another ring that was Grandma Comstock's that she had been wearing, but Ron wanted to get her a new wedding ring/anniversary ring. He picked out a beautiful white gold ring with blue diamonds and white diamond that progress in size symbolizing their love growing through the years. (Not only did he pick it out but it fit!)

He wanted a unique way of packaging the ring, so he went to the local gift shop and found a Candy Cane teddy bear. The clerk offered to wrap it for him, so when Dena opened her present it was this bear holding this little package. (We love little packages don't we ladies?!?) The clerk told him not to forget the champagne, so he arranged for that too!

Look they match!
Happy birthday Mom!

Blogger's note....Mom didn't want her picture on the blog, because she didn't think she was fixed up enough, so if you want pictures of the birthday girl's face e-mail me! ;-)

Bath Time by Cliff

Cliff won't change a diaper, but he did give his first bath a few nights ago. We have a hard time getting Cliff to use a towel on himself, and I guess that he doesn't like towels in general, since he didn't us one on Ryan either. Ryan had fun, but when he got out with out a towel it

was c-c-c-cold!

Various Moments in our Life

Ryan's pants were slippery and he was having a hard time staying in the high chair at Grandma Taylor's



We needed a place to put Ryan to keep him out of trouble for 5 minutes......a cardboard box and a blow up light saber. Cheap entertainment!

Nice chair Nate! Can you tell we always have laundry in our living room? Anyone who likes to fold come over anytime!

Mom....hurry up in the shower, I am tired of taking care of Ryan and he is about to pull my ear off.

Can't stay awake any longer no matter how hard he tried.