Coming soon

Pictures of little Rue's birthday celebration are coming soon.  I still want to spend more time on that post. So in the meantime, look at what we found in our front yard a few days ago.

It is a Robins nest with 2 baby birds.  It is nestled on the vine that climbs the post to our upstairs deck.

Since we found the nest, Ryan and Rue have spent quite sometime out front looking at it while I cook dinner. They even saw the Mommy bird catch a moth and feed it to the babies.

It has been so facinating to watch this process. I am just glad she is too young to notice that one of the birds just died yesterday. So sad.  It either fell, or got pushed out of the nest. 

A tender heart

On Sunday evening we were gathered together as a family to have a prayer and read the scriptures for a few minutes.  We reminded Jace that the next day was Gracie's birthday.  We told him that she was not going to be 1 years old anymore but 2 years old instead. His little voice started to crack and the tears started.  Surprised at his reaction we asked him what was wrong. He said he was really sad that tomorrow Gracie wasn't going to be a baby anymore and he was going to miss her being a baby.

Inquiring further, we learned that he thought she was going to wake up all grown up the next morning.  But we reassured him that she would look the same when she woke up .

And sure enough she did.  He was so relieved - and thrilled!  He chose to stay home from preschool and play with her all day.  He was so cute with her. He built her towers to knock over, and he tried everything silly he could think of to make her laugh.

That evening, when Ryan got home from work, the two of us snuck out of the house  to go shopping for her party supplies.  He was so exhausted from entertaining her all day, that he fell fast asleep.

I laid him in the shopping cart still asleep, but I was able to rally him at the cake counter.  He picked her out a darling pink cake.  I never thought I would be the Mom that bought pre-made birthday cake, but here we are-happily putting a cake in our cart!

On the way home he wanted to know how I was going to tell everyone in Iowa that it was Gracie's birthday. I told him I couldn't tell everyone, but the people who knew and loved her were thinking about her on her special day.  He was mostly OK with that, but a little disappointed.

What a sweet brother he is.  He wanted so much for her day to be perfect. 

Rue is Two

My lil darlin'- with her chocolate eyes, and in this picture- chocolate covered face, turns two years old today at 11:38AM  EST.

I remember the day she was born almost like it was yesterday. 

After three hours and 38 minutes of intense and anesthetic free labor, the most gorgeous baby girl I have ever seen was put on my chest. 

She weighed 8lbs. and 5oz. and was 20.75 inches long.

I had my kind and nurturing husband at my side during her entire labor and delivery.

She came on a Friday, just like her brother, and was delivered by the same doctor, Dr. Shannon Weatherford.

This is us a few days before she was born at one of Ryan's award banquets. Grace was born on the last day of dental school.  It was not fun attending these events weighing 49 lbs heavier than normal!  But I was really proud of Ryan and all his accomplishments.

Here we are on Friday morning around 8:00AM just after we arrived at the hospital. I had been in labor since 6:30 AM.  We ran into my OB in the hall, and she was surprised to see me.  She had not received the page that I was in labor.  I knew she was off at noon that day, so I told her I would deliver Grace before noon, so she could go home on time. And she did!

In this picture I am still lying in bed, the really hard labor had not started yet. 

But that quickly changed so Ryan kept me entertained with his jokes during contractions.

But when transition started his jokes weren't helping anymore, so I went to the shower. Ryan was then hard at work helping me through each contraction for the next 60-70 LONG minutes.

This is my favorite picture of Grace's birth. It was taken by our doula Amber.  It beautifully captures Ryan's emotion just as Grace was born. It shows tears in his eyes, he is looking at me, with his hand on my forehead.

Here we are looking at her for the first time and just savoring the moment of bringing this precious life into the world.

I remember Ryan  lifting the blanket and showing my baby to me the first time I saw her. He pointed out her features and told me how beautiful she was.  He was so proud and so happy to tell me that she was so pink and had lots of dark hair.

This moment, and the moment right after Jace's birth, are the most glorious moments I have lived as a wife and mother.  It gives me so much joy and fulfillment to make and deliver these beautiful babies.

Here is my red, chubby little girl

with darling black hair.

Ryan was smitten the moment he laid eyes on her.

Here she is looking at me for the first time.

I knew Jace was excited about having a sister, and I could hardly wait to have them meet each other, so I was thrilled when he finally burst though my hospital door with his Grammy Jill. I loved having him climb all over me on the bed, although my tailbone was KILLING.

We were both so in love.

Here is our beloved Grammy Jill.  She was Christopher Robin's sidekick for almost 4 weeks after this picture.   We didn't get her home to Utah until the 11th of June!  And then we missed her terribly.

Here is my sweet Jenny Ramsey, whom I consider to me my little sister, and whom I affectionately call Frances after Frances Monson.  She brought me dinner that evening.  It was her signature white chicken chili and the BEST chocolate strawberry trifle I have EVER had!

This is our sweet neighbor Pat Gill, she came to visit and brought Jace a present she knew he would love-cars. She was a very close friend to Christopher Robin. He spent many memorable hours with her.

On this day, 2 years ago, I felt so blessed to be given a beautiful, healthy, daughter, and I felt so grateful that my body is like my mother's -it labors quickly. I felt so happy being surrounded by so many people that I love.

Happy Birthday to my sweet Grace, she has blessed our family immeasurably.

My prized possession

Today after preschool, Jace presented me with this paper that he made with the help of his teacher Miss Erin. 

I love it so much.  I didn't know that something so simple, could be so dear to my heart.

I love the heart that he colored at the top over and over again with his favorite color lighter-blue.

I love how proud he was to give it to me when I showed up to get him.

I love that he recognizes just how smart I am. I even know when ice cream is melting!!

I love the last sentence that he told Miss Erin to write, "Mom, I'm done cleaning up!"  Ryan and I have been chuckling about it all day.

Because Christopher Robin worked his little heart out on this piece of paper, I have decided to scrap all my plans for Saturday cleaning tomorrow.  I think for Mother's Day, we should all be done cleaning up!!

A little more of St. George

Another surprise Jace received from his Uncle Jabe was this Optimus Prime kite.  I was pretty impressed that Jabe somehow knew that Jace was in love with Opitmus Prime.

Jace had never flown a kite before and loved helping Jabe put it together.  When it was all ready, they went out my Mom's back door and walked over to Heritage park, a block away, to give it a try!

I wanted to go with them, but Grace was napping and due to wake up soon, so I sent my camera with Jabe to take some pictures for me.  He took these of them in the park.

 It looks like they were able to get it up in the air.

Grace and I met them at this little Bistro north of the park. 

It was getting cloudy and cold, but as we were walking home we strolled through this part of Heritage park.  I love this water feature.  Usually it is filled with tons of children having a great time, but today it was cold and empty. Don't you love the beautiful Tabernacle in the background?  My pioneer ancestors helped build it.

The water was too cold for Gracie Rue.

But Jace could not resist rolling the stroller wheels through the water.

 It was getting colder and darker, so we reluctantly headed back home.

Jace loves having Grace as his captive audience.

So on the way home he did not disappoint her. He gave her a crazy ride filled with bumps and quick turns -

the best part - his wet pants would not stay up around his waist, so he would run a few feet then stop to pull up his trousers .  He thought it was hysterically funny.  So did me and Jabe - because it was.

We made it home pants and all before the thunder rolled in.  It was a great day!

Our weekend

Friday, I awoke with a sudden start to silence.  Usually the familiar hum of the bathroom fan is running in the background.  I got up and discovered that the violent thunderstorm from the night before had left us without power.   I was thrilled as you can imagine. It was early so I talked myself into going back to bed, hoping that the power would be on soon.

When I woke up about an hour later, the bathroom fan was running!  But I soon learned that only the upstairs bathroom and Jace's bedroom had power. The rest of our house was dark and powerless. It was really odd. So I did what anyone else would do, I rounded up a flashlight and went to my garage to switch all my breakers.  Still nothing.  Next, I found my cell phone and called Century Link, they informed me that I needed to call my power company, not my phone company, if I didn't have power.  I felt a little stupid- oops, wrong people.  So after being on hold again for another 15 minutes, this time with my power company, I was finally able to report that I had partial power.  A little while later there was a truck outside my house with two men digging a hole. I was told some equipment needed repair.

So I let Jace eat breakfast in the window sill of my bedroom window while he watched the men at work. 

Saturday morning brought a scout fundraiser pancake breakfast that Jace and Ryan went to while I stayed home and taught a violin lesson.  Grace slept in.  Friday night, we had watched some of our friend's kids while they went to Nauvoo  to attend the temple, so she got to bed at midnight.

When she woke up at 11:30AM, she discovered a warm, beautiful, day. Ryan filled the pool for the kids.  I watched them play while I did laundry.

Swimming for Jace, meant his dump trucks swam too.

 I think they enjoyed the cool dip in the pool.

I know Rue did.

Jace taught Grace how to run and jump right in.

But she is shorter and had a little trouble clearing the pool edge.

Sunday was great.  Ryan is assigned to work every Sunday this month, but he got done with all his work and his chief told him to go home! So of course he did- and just in time for church. It was such a relief for me to have him home in time to help me get the kids ready and in the car.

That evening we went on a Sunday drive and discovered a place near the lake called Fossil Gorge.  It has tons of fossils and we hunted for them in the riverbed.  Jace was  enthralled.  I was dying because I didn't bring our camera, but Ryan said I should calm down because we don't need every minute of our lives documented!  I disagreed!! But the most exciting part was the discovery of tadpoles in the pockets of stagnant water along the riverbed.  And we now have a jar with 9 tadpoles in it on our kitchen counter.  We are hoping they will grow some legs this week before we take them back home on Saturday. 

And now it is Monday night, so good night!