It's the little things in life - can you relate?

Like I said... It's the little things ~

I see the diarrhea

What!?!? See these lovely flowers? Jamie surprised his girls with this cute bouquet of "crazy daisies" today. They have been dyed to achieve their fun colors. As I was trimming the stems to put them in the vase my fingers got all stained with the dye and I quickly told Sophia not to touch the flowers so as not to get dye on her hands or clothes. She wondered what dye was, so I did my best to explain it to her. Well, a few minutes after our conversation, she was sitting at the table eating her trail mix and looking longingly at the vase of temptation (aka, the crazy daisies) and says, totally seriously, "Mom, I see the diarrhea!" :) Jamie and I tried to hold back the laughter as we corrected her that it was "dye," not "diarrhea!"

Given by God

Sunday, October 19, 2008

Dedicating Riley to the Lord

Our awesome "Bob Revolution" stroller given to us by our families!
Thank you! We absolutely love it.

http://www.bobgear.com/

A Thousand Words

And the winner is...

#3!!! And who is number 3?? Well, I assigned each post a number, according to the order in which they were posted, i.e. whoever posted first was assigned a 1, all the way to 10, the last person who posted. I then went to random.org and inputed integers 1-10 into their randomizer thingy and after they did their random mix-up the first number was to be the winner, which happened (randomly) to be #3, which if you look at the third comment post, is Danielle!!! So, congratulations Danielle. I will be sending you a fun little package in the mail this week. Hopefully it will brighten your day a bit.

For all who may not know, I met Danielle in the 7th grade. We were "school friends" through junior high. In the Fall of our 9th grade year we attended a bonfire/hayride with the French club, and on that fateful October night, as we road around on the wagon, our friendship was forever sealed! :) We even celebrate a bit of a friendship anniversary each October, which happens to be 13 years this month! Danielle and I have remained dear friends all these years. A highlight of our friendship was spending the summer of 2000 in Estes Park, CO working at the YMCA of the Rockies and being a part of a Christian College Leadership program called College LT. Danielle and her husband Paul currently live in Colorado, and we were able to visit them just a few weeks ago during our trip to Colorado.

Thank you to everyone who posted a comment, I always love feedback! I appreciate all of you reading my blog too. Have a blessed Sunday. We are dedicating Riley to the Lord today at Church. I'll post pictures this week. Take care ~

Ruthie

Last chance!

QWERYYY



Last chance today to get in on the giveaway. All you need to do is leave a comment telling me how you found my blog on this blog post http://hedgedin.blogspot.com/2008/10/comments-anyone.html by midnight tonight (Saturday). I will then do a random, blind draw of all who left comments and the winner will receive a fun fall package in the mail next week! Thanks to all who have already commented - it's always fun to read comments!!! Have a great Saturday!

Ruthie

Remembering

Today is the National Day of Remembrance for Pregnancy and Infant Loss. You may know that I've lost four babies due to miscarriage and I also know many young women who have suffered in similar ways. These losses unite us and I hope that today can be a day full of prayer for all of us who have lost our tender children, whether in the womb or out. If you are among the many women who have lost a child (at any stage) - or if you're the dear, supportive husband, please know my prayers go out for you today. Feel free to leave a comment today with any prayer requests for yourself or another if you feel comfortable doing so. Blessings ~

Our little punkin'

We go to this great fruit market to get our produce each week, and every fall they have all sorts of pumpkins and goards and flowers. We had fun picking out some pumpkins yesterday and couldn't resist the photo-op! The adorable hat Sophia is wearing was made by my dear and talented friend, Sarah.

Comments anyone?

So, I have a challange for all of you blog readers! I am creating a little give-away and my motive is purely selfish! I am curious as to who reads my blog. I get very few comments posted, yet feel this may not be in proportion to how many are actually stopping by. So, to satisfy my curiosity and to have a little fun - here's the challange... leave me a comment on this post letting me know how you found out about my blog. At the end of the week - Saturday at midnight - I will close the challange. I will then do a random, blind draw from all who commented. The winner will be announced and will recieve a fun fall package in the mail!!! So, there it is! :) And thanks for reading.

On some family news, Sophia is getting close to her 4th birthday, has grown SO much this summer and continues to love learning/doing school. She is definitely still adjusting to our new schedule and routine now that there is a baby that seems to always have Mommy's attention. We're working on it. She loves her brother though and is always wanting to kiss him and have him hold her finger! She was thrilled when he smiled at her yesterday. Our biggest prayer for our daughter is that her heart would be softened for the Lord and that she would desire obedience.

Riley is 6 1/2 weeks old, starting to fit into 3-6 mos. clothes, outgrowing size 1 diapers, smiling!, and loves to nurse and cuddle.

I have joined our local MOPS (Mothers of Preschoolers - http://www.mops.org/) group and just love it! It meets twice a month at a church here in town. Sophia gets to play with kids her age while I get to fellowship with women in the meeting. If you are a mom of preschoolers I highly encourage you to try out a MOPS group in your area!

Jamie is working so hard at Verizon, and at all things related to fund-raising and transitioning into Navigators. This doesn't stop him from being a full-time help to me at home too. So thankful for my dear and faithful husband!

Have a blessed week and I can't wait to hear from all of you!

Ruthie

The two Rileys

For your enjoyment...

A little video I shot last night of my 3 main squeezes. :)

Flutter-byes

Danielle took us to this really neat place on Wednesday called the Butterfly Pavilion. It was so fun for Sophia, and all of us too!

Sophia petting a starfish.

Do we get a share in the profits?

The day training ended we were able to go see the Garden of the Gods park, then we drove down to Denver to see our friends, Danielle and Paul. They took us out to eat at Abrusci's Italian Restaurant!!! It was so good. We got to spend the night at their house before heading home Wednesday afternoon.

Family shot at Garden of the Gods

Beauty at Garden of the Gods

More beauty! :)

All sorts of critters

Glen Eyrie is home to all sorts of animals, many 0f which we got to see... bunnies, squirrels, big horned sheep, turkeys, deer (some with antlers!), racoons (Jamie saw one in a tree one night). Some we were more than happy not to have seen, though many people have, rattle snacks, mountain lions... one of the girls in our training did see and come very close to a bobcat! Anyways, here are some shots I got of the more tame sightings! :)

Planes, Mountains and Big horned sheep

Hi Everyone! We have had an exciting last couple of weeks. Jamie and I have been praying about a way to do full time ministry (aka: become missionaries) for the past 5 years. In recent months God has led us to apply (and graciously let us be accepted) to become collegiate missionaries for the Navigators (http://www.navigators.org/us/). The Navigators is a huge, Christian, non-profit organization that sends out missionaries all over the country and all over the world! They have many different avenues of ministry, some of which are collegiate, over seas missions, military ministry, metro, international student missions, plus many more! Jamie and I will be serving as Navigator missionaries here in Ashland at Ashland University. Because Navs is a non-profit, missionary sending organization Jamie and I will be raising our own financial and prayer support. Our goal is to be fully funded by this summer and to be working on campus, full-time, next Fall.

Well, all that to say, we just returned from a week long training/orientation in Colorado Springs. Navigator Headquarters is located here, in a beautiful location! If you are ever in Colorado Springs, you need to check out their property, which includes a castle! It is called Glen Eyrie (http://www.navigators.org/us/ministries/gleneyrie/) and is about a mile from the Garden of the Gods park.

Anywhoooo... We were required to attend this training and made the decision to take the whole family. Leading up to the trip I felt slightly crazy for this, not knowing for sure how I'd feel at 31/2 weeks post partum, etc... but I'm so glad we all went!!! I felt great and Riley and Sophia did wonderful! It was Soph's first time flying and she has so much fun!!! The Lord totally took care of us the whole time and it was just a wonderful week. We learned so much, met many great people, and left feeling greatly encouraged and totally confirmed that this is where the Lord wants us. We feel "home" so to speak.

Well, it was so beautiful where we were and we took lots of pictures. I'll be posting those now... :) Take care ~

All of these gorgeous shots were taken on the Glen Eyrie property from the parking lot of the lodge we were staying in... God is so amazing!

You've gotta watch this!

Jamie and I came across this little music video on someone else's blog. Oh my, you need to stop whatever you are doing, gather all those around you and watch this! It is hilarious!!! Have a good laugh ~ :)




http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7-NOZU2iPA8

More Pictures!

My best friend, Rachel, and her sweet boy, Eli - born exactly 3 weeks before Riley!

Pictures!

Riley James, picuted here with the two men for whom he's named; my Grandpa (Riley) and his Daddy, Jamie (really James)

He is here!

Hello everyone. I am so sorry for the long delay in writing our good news! I'll just cut to the chase... our SON (!!!) was born on August 28 @ 2:16am, weighing in at just over 9 lbs and measuring 20 1/2 in. long! - and this was at 8 days before his due date, whew, thank you Lord for bringing him early! :)

I'd love to share our birth story with you. God, and God alone, provided me the strength and ability to birth our sweet boy, and I am so thankful for HIS provision. It is truly a testiment to His grace and we are so blessed to be so loved by our Heavenly Father.

Between 37 weeks and when I really went into labor, I had about 3 false alarms, times where I really thought I was going into labor, but then all action would come to a halt and I would be dissapointed! We had really been praying that the Lord would bring our baby, at the latest, by his/her due date because of some crazy cirmcumstancial things going on in our lives. It was really the cry and desire of my heart for this to happen, and I have to admit, there were moments that I doubted God would bless us in this way - me of little faith, God answered the cries of my heart!

On Tuesday, August 26, my midwife found me to be dilated 4 cm, so I left the office feeling pretty excited and hopeful that labor might start soon. For the next 24 hrs. I had random, but increasingly intense, contractions. On Wednesday, August 27, sometime in the afternoon, I think they started to get more regular, probably 10-20 min. apart. At 6 pm I started timing them. They were totally manageable, though I couldn't talk through them very easily anymore. Jamie was still at work, not due home till around 10pm. Sophia and I watched a video to help pass the time. I got her to bed around 8pm and my contractions were still coming, but the timing was sort of random, anywhere from 3 minutes to 12 minutes apart, but they were averaging at 7-9 minutes apart.

Around 9:30pm I took a hot bath to see what would happen. This proved to make the contractions come much harder and quicker. Jamie got home as I was getting out of the bath and we started to make final preperations to leave for the hospital. After our bags were all packed, etc., I called Julie, one of my awesome midwifes, and sought her advice. We had a 45min. drive to the hospital and with this being baby #2 we didn't want to risk waiting around at home too long. Yet, my contractions still weren't super close together, but I definitely couldn't talk through them anymore. Julie adivised me to listen to my body and I decided to wait a bit longer to see what happened. (due to all the false alarms I was sort of denying I was really in labor - Jamie thought I was crazy, but didn't let on! :) )

I told Jamie I was going to lay down for a bit to see if the contractions stopped. He looked at me like I was crazy (he knew I was really in labor!) and was about to say so when I think another contraction hit me and I quickly changed me mind! :) We got Sophia up and we were on our way.

My parents were meeting us at the hospital to take Soph home with them. She was so excited and giddy in the car which helped get me through the 45 min. car ride! Jamie was speeding just a bit at first and I assured him I was fine and he didn't need to speed. So, he slowed it down, till about 15 minutes later when I looked at him and said, "You can speed a little bit now." :)

We arrived at the hospital at around 12:30am and headed up to the OB unit. Funny enough, the nurse who was to be my caregiver for labor and recovery came right in behind us a walked with us up to the unit.

Julie got there shortly after we did, as did my parents. I was 8 cm. dilated at this point and already feeling a bit like pushing. Due to me having an unmedicated delivery I only had to be confined to the bed for about 20 min. so they could do an initial check on me and the baby. After being monitered for this time I was able to get out of the bed and get into the warm pool of water that was waiting for me. Hydrotherapy is amazing when in labor - at least I have found it to be!- and it really helped me through the rest of my labor. I labored in the pool for maybe an hour. I was struggling mentally to accept that I was already at the end of this whole laboring process and that pushing and delivery was just around the corner. I just wasnt' prepared to get to the hospital and have it be "go time" so quickly. So, I was feeling a bit frantic inside as the pain intensified and I could feel the changes occuring in my body that said delivery was coming soon! Between Jamie's constant presence and support and the amazing support of Julie (she was so great and relaxing me, guiding me through the pain and calming me down) I was able to make it through the rest of labor. God of course was also my constant source of strength and knowing He created me to do this very thing helped me through it.

There came a moment where I said, "I must get out of this tub now!" I'd been pushing in the pool for awhile when my body said to do so, but it wasn't yet the real deal. But all of a sudden something changed and I knew I needed to get out because I didn't want to have the baby in the pool.

I got out, got dried off and got in to the bed. With Sophia I delivered her on my back, pushing for 2 full hours and having about 3 or so people "coaching" me through each push. Telling me when to start, when to stop, how long to hold it, etc... This time was so different, and much preferred! I knelt on the bed leaning against a big pile of pillows and no one coached me on what to do. Julie simply said to listen to my body and do what felt right. Well, this method proved to be effective because Riley was born in about 3-5 minutes!!! Holy cow, quite different than 2 hours of pushing!

I don't think anyone thought it would go so quick because nothing was ready. Julie was out in the hallway getting scrubbed and gloved up and the table of "stuff" wasn't even in place. All of a sudden I said, "Julie, I feel the head!" It was quite a flurry of activity for everyone to get in place and out our beautiful boy came. After Julie helped guide his head out Jamie got to "catch" the rest of Riley. Very cool! He also got to see and announce to everyone that it was a BOY!

So, we weren't even at the hospital for 2 hrs. before he was born and we couldn't believe how big he was. When he came out we instantly knew he looked just like his daddy. He also looked exactly like a boy version of Soph as a newborn.

He is healthy and so am I. I am feeling great (maybe a bit sleepy...) and he is nursing really well. Jamie is so in love with his boy and I love seeing them together. Sophia adores her baby brother. When she first met him later that morning she just stroked his face and gently kissed him. This morning she came up to him while I was holding him and leaned down close to his face and said, "Riley, do you know that you are the cutest baby brother in the whole world?? Because you are!" :) She is definitely still adjusting, she just takes it out on Jamie and me. :) I know we'll get there though.

Thank you for all of your prayers. We love having two kiddos and are so thankful for both of them. I'll try to keep this blog more updated now, now that we're home, feeling more settled and getting into some sort of routine.