We had one last shindig at our house before everyone left for CA.

West & Kapria are the best of friends:

Tave & Mila have a special little bond. She lets him give her all sorts of crazy hugs, he absolutely loves her and they like to play by each other:

The kiddos with Nonny Kare & Grandpa Dan:

and with Aunt Shar:

I hate goodbyes. Really truly do.

Goodbye to Mom/Grandma and her amazing helping hands and listening ear. Goodbye to late nights talking and sewing together.

Goodbye to Dad/Grandpa and all of his wrestling, soda sharing, and lessons.

Goodbye to my best friend and darling nieces.

Goodbye to spur of the moment dinners together and spontaneous drop ins.

Goodbye to having somewhere to go on those days when I just have to get out of the house, don't want to spend money, and look like poo.

Goodbye to gabbing away with my sister in the midst of the chaos of 5 kiddos 4 and under.

Goodbye to having another place to go that is just like home and being with people who love you no matter how many times you might fight with them (kiddos and adults alike).

We miss you all.

Animal Farm

Since the Animal Farm is always a favorite, we brought the kiddos there for a fun afternoon.

Wagon ride, pony ride, & feeding the animals - what could be better?!

Happy Days

July 29th-30th

Shar & the girls' last week was spent having tons of fun!! They were staying at Shar's friend's home and we took advantage of her awesome backyard for our last bits of family time together.

The kiddos two favorite things - Grandparents & the trampoline:

We had to get some pool time in also:

We love family!

Meeting Grandpa

The boys couldn't wait for my Dad to come in town. They are best buds and absolutely love playing with him!

Ryder thought he was pretty cool, too!

Ryder ~ newborn photo shoot

Our good friends, Josh & Jenna, took Ryder's newborn photos. They turned out great!!

Ryder did absolutely perfect and slept pretty much the entire time. So we tried to get one quick family shot at the end. All of the boys were pretty much done by then, though...but I still think it turned out pretty darn cute. :)

And of course, we are absolutely in love with this guy:

We just had to catch this on camera...even crying he is still so adorable:

When I post his announcement you'll get to see my favorite favorite shot. Oh he's a keeper!

The start of Goodbyes

Trav left for CA about a week before Shar & the girls. On his way he stopped by to say goodbye.

We don't like goodbyes and we really miss Uncle Trav.

We'll leave it at that.

Ryder's First Bath

Ryder did awesome for his first bath. He LOVES the water and absolutely loved having it poured on his head. I see a swimming star in the future...

The boys are fascinated with everything to do with him. They loved helping with his bath and snuggling up with him afterwards. Weston loves to smell his clean hair!

Here's the little man all snuggled up and clean:

Ryder ~ 1 week!

Oh how we are loving our newest little guy!

Ryder ~ 1 week

Sillies & Snuggles

The first few weeks after Ryder's birth we pretty much just stayed home and relaxed. We didn't plan a lot and as a result, West & Tave spent a lot of time just playing together.

They loved having Grandma and Dad around more to play with and also have done GREAT playing and pretending together. They are so crazy and fun. They have made the transition from two to three even better than I had hoped and constantly make us smile.

Ryder is such a sweet baby. He absolutely loves to snuggle and be held. He still sleeps pretty much all.the.time. (except at night) But we just can't get enough of him.
(1 week old)

Introducing:

Ryder Kenneth

(we love having family middle names, so this little one is named after Jeff's dad)

We are loving him to pieces!!

5 years!

Happy Anniversary to us!!!

In just 5 years we've gone from this:

to this:



and I wouldn't change a thing.

It has been an amazing 5 years with my wonderful, sweet hubby.
Here's to many many more!

Welcome Home Ryder!

We were excited to leave the hospital and head home. I was ready to be in my own bed and *try* to get sleep sans midnight pokings and stats checks. More than that, though, I was ready to be with ALL of my boys - and to begin being a family of 5, together.

This was also the day Ryder Kenneth finally had a name!

My mom and the boys welcomed us home with some gorgeous pink gerberas (my fav!)

My awesome mom also had the house nice and clean. It was wonderful!

The boys couldn't get enough of holding little Ryder. And Weston was so thrilled that the baby had the 'right' name!

Cute little Tave got a horrible cough/cold the night we had Ryder. He was heartbroken that he wasn't going to get to hold the new baby, so we told him he had to wear a mask. This was the compromise:

Visitors!

Ryder's first visitors!

Kapria and Mila were so adorable with him.

And, of course, we loved having family spend time with us.

(I got pretty bored at the hospital)

Shawn and Abby were our first official visitors post-birth. (my mom and shar attended the birth) And the next day everyone else came over! Shar even came and kept me company the morning after I spent the night alone.

We really enjoyed having some one on one time with everyone before we headed home.

We Three

Jeff and I were SO thrilled to have the boys meet their brother. We just couldn't wait to see them and to see how they would be together.

My mom brought them to the hospital the morning after Ryder was born and they were absolutely in love with him right from the beginning.

Weston was so excited to hold and kiss him and Tave just kept pointing to his eyes, nose, mouth, etc. They have been amazing big bro's from the minute they met him!

Fun story, at this point Ryder had not been named yet...we were still deciding between Ryder, Finn, and Luke (the latter two will be our options if we get a boy #4...no more searching for names for us...I'm done with that!)

Weston came into the hospital room and we asked what name he liked the best. "His name is Ryder Kenneth," was the first thing he said. Jeff and I wanted to wait and see what we thought fit him best. After a few days of calling him Finn, Luke, and Ryder...we agreed with Weston!

We like to have something special for the kids when they come to the hospital (their world is about to change drastically, after all, so we try to make the hospital visit a really good one)
They were *almost* as excited to get this as they were to meet Ryder. (I'm so glad they thought Ryder was the best part!)

Oh, having three boys is going to be cRaZy!