Halloween

This has been a really fun day so far. All last week I was going crazy trying to find a batman costume for Ryder but they were all expensive and all made for kids 5 and up. I finally got on Ebay on saturday and found one for a toddler and for half the price, $15 with shipping included!, I was so excited and ordered it right away but I wasn't sure I would get it by today. but I got it the following Monday! His costume didn't come with a cape, so I thought I would make him one. I had a lot of help from my mother in law and we worked on it together for a couple of hours last night and it turned out so cute. I dressed up as a physician assistant that used to work at where I work now. nobody liked him and he quit this summer, so I thought it would be fun to dress up as him. He is from the middle east and had dark skin. Check out our pictures, just click on this link
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=58912&l=df5f7&id=543406945

Yes! it's another boy for us and we are very excited. Ryder is so happy and keeps kissing my belly which i think is huge! I haven't taken any pictures of me recently. I forgot to post pictures last time I posted, I just posted some on my facebook account, I really don't want to do it again, so check them out on facebook http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=1417819&l=99e07&id=543406945

I am 21 weeks along and due March 9, 2009.

I'll try to post more often but can't promise you anything.

lots of stuff

i'm really lazy about this blog thing. well not just lazy, but i seriously have no time for it. We had a busy summer with work and a couple trips to California. We were able to take Ryder to Disneyland and visit Greg and Cory . we were there for a couple of days. Marc sold pest control with a broken leg and he did pretty good. I have been working for Dr. Watkins for a year now and it's been fun. i love my job and the people I work with, specially my sister Leech. We went to mammoth Lakes for our nephews blessing. He is so cute. We didn't bring ryder with us on this trip because we needed some time alone and a break from everyday life. Oh yeah the big news this summer is that i'm pregnant with our 2nd child!! we are very excited. I've been sick for the last 3 months, but the last 2 weeks have been a lot better. We will find out what we are having in 2 weeks. My due date is March 9, 2009. I'm hoping for another boy but don't really care. well i don'tknow when i will blog again. Here are some pictures for your entertainment.

Just like Daddy

Ryder loves everything his daddy likes, he wants to be just like him. He is obsessed with star wars and baseball. It's really cute to see how much he looks up to his dad.

Weekend

I've been having a lot of fridays off this summer, it's been really nice since i can spend some time with Ryder. This last friday was by far the best of the summer. Ryder and I got up early, had breakfast and then met my sister Elsie and her kids at Chuck e Cheese's for lunch. Ryder was so excited, he loves Chuck e cheese. We had pizza and he had a whole slice by himself, this is a miracle since he only eats the pepperoni when we get pizza, I guess he had worked up an appetite.

After that, we came home because I thought he was really tired and wanted to take a nap, he fell asleep in the car but as soon as we got home he woke up and did not want to sleep. Marc came home for lunch and wanted to do something with us. We decided to go swimming at the indoor pool since it's usually less crowded and we also have to keep Ryder out of the sun so his scar (from the surgery) doesn't go dark, we really have to watch for this so it heals and disappears faster. anyway, Ryder had so much fun, he loves playing in the water, he is not afraid of it at all, which is scary because we have to watch him all the time. He even put his head under the water a few times and i thought he would freak out but he was laughing so hard and marc taught him how to plug his nose, it was really cute. After that we went to a chinese buffet, it was really good and Ryder was such a good boy and ate a lot of food. We usually don't take him out to restaurants because he doesn't behave well and we get really frustrated, but this time he was perfect. We came home and showered and got ready to go to the cemetary to see my Grandma's headstone. She didn't have one for 4 years and my dad was finally able to get one for her. it was kind of cool since it was my gma's birthday too. We all brought her flowers and talked about the funny things she used to say. I miss her so much, she was my hero! She was a great example. She was a single mom most of her life and worked so hard. She was the most intelligent person I have ever known, She was a music teacher and knew so many languages including Latin. She was also a dancer, writer, piano player, and artist. She had so many talents, but the most important thing to her were her children and grandchildren, she always put us first. She wrote so many songs, and I know sing those songs to Ryder and he loves them. She was so humble and loved our heavenly father so much.
As you can tell, I miss her very very much. We'll be together again someday. :)

After the cemetery, my sister Leech and her hubby Cam, Marc and I decided to go see a movie, my mom was nice enough to watch Ryder for us. We saw Hancock, i really liked it , it was funny. Saturday Ryder and I woke up early again, and met up with my Mom, my sister Elsie and her kids again and went to the Salt Lake Zoo. it was so hot, but it was really fun.

We got home so late, I was so exhausted. We went to bed early and slept in this morning until 10 am! We felt bad though because we missed church. Well that about summarizes our weekend.

Elsie's cute family and baby Chloe

So I think I need to post some pictures of my sister's cute family. By the way, she had Chloe 4 weeks ago. She was born June 2, 2008 .Here are some pics.

4th of July

This year we camped out in the street so we could watch the parade in the morning. My sister Elsie and her family came along, well actually we came along. It was an interesting experience , people were out til 3 in the morning driving by and screaming and revving their engines. Ryder didn't go to sleep until 2:30 am! we all woke up at 6:30 so everyone got about 4 hours of sleep. The parade was really fun and Ryder really enjoyed it. He wanted join the marching bands he ran out to the street to dance with them, it was really funny. Here are some pictures.

Josh, Ryder, Marc, and Katie

Oh by the way, as you can see, Marc has a walking boot on finally! he can take it off at night and scratch his leg!!

Ryder trying on daddy's walking boot

Marc update

I forgot to let everyone know how Marc is doing. He unfortunately is still in a cast, this is his 3rd one. He was supposed to get a walking boot 3 weeks ago, but his leg is healing extremely slow. Poor guy, he is so frustrated. His leg has been itching so bad lately and it is starting to stink really bad. He has an appointment with the dr this thursday to take off the cast and see if he can get a walking boot. Please pray for him, I don't know if he could handle any more bad news. It's been 3 months since he broke his leg. We would have done surgery but the dr. told us his leg would heal in 6 weeks and so we decided not to do it. Well yeah, we should have done it. Oh well, you live and learn right?
He's been a trooper working for Pointe and selling pest control door to door this summer with a broken leg and 90 degree weather. Ryder is doing great as well, hasn't been sick in a month! yay! he keeps us really busy.

Yard Sales

So our IMAC computer is having problems uploading our pictures to websites or blogs! ugh! why is this happening. anyway, I am at Pointe Pest Control again today working for the next few days. Well today Marc was driving home from work and stopped at a yard sale and found 2 50 ccs dirt bikes. Of course you know how much my husband loves ATVs and bikes, so out of curiosity he asked the lady how much she was selling them for, and she told him $950 for both, 0r $450 each. He immediately called me and asked me if I wanted them (why would I want a dirt bike for my 2 yr old crazy son?) I told him it was too much money and Ryder is too young for that anyway, and I don't want him riding dirt bikes, I'm ok if he wants to ride 4-wheelers cause they're safer. He began trying to convince me by saying that he would put training wheels on it and that it came with a free helmet , boots, and other gear. He asked me if he could offer the lady $300 for one of them, so I said sure because I knew that there was no way she would say yes. Well not only did she say yes, but told him he could have both for $600! Marc and I drove over there, he wanted to show me the bikes and of course convince me to get them. Well I said ok, and now we have to little dirt bikes. I'm not sure how comfortable I am with Ryder riding dirt bikes, it's kind of scary. We are going to sell one of the bikes for $600. I guess we did get a good deal , we got so much stuff, we got 2 helmets, knee pads, boots, elbow pads, pants, gloves, chest protector thingamajiggers? lol, and even a pink riding suit and gloves for our future daughter! Why do boys like dangerous things? Here is a picture of the bikes we got

They are cute, but they are really fast, they are racing bikes! great just what we needed right? better keep our health insurance.

Well after that, I was on my way to work here and I saw another yard sale and saw Tony Little's Gazelle machine. My sister just bought one and she really likes it, they are about $200 new. The lady was asking 75 for it, but I talked her down to 50 and bought it, I've been running 2-3 miles every day and dieting so I can lose some weight, I hope this machine helps me. this is what it looks like

I will tell you how it goes, I have 10 more lbs to lose.

By the way, Ryder won't be riding the bike until he is at least 3 and it will have training wheels!

I will post pics of our family when I figure out what is wrong with my computer

It's been a while

Wow I haven't posted in over a month! I guess that happens when you're busy with a full time job and chasing after a 2 yr old! Ryder has been doing very well. His scar from the surgery is looking really good. He is on 2 different antibiotics twice a day and he will take them for at least 3 more months. Oh I should probably say that he did have that atypical mycobacterial infection in his lymph node. They've been culturing it for over a month and it looks like it was a strong one, but the Dr. thinks we have him on the right medication. He takes something called rifampin, which is mostly used for tuberculosis but they also use it for this bacteria, well anyway this med makes his bodily fluids turn red or orange. It's funny to watch him when he goes potty in the toilet and his pee comes out red, he looks at me and asks pee pee? his snot is orange sometimes too. it's kind of creepy.
I will post pictures when I get home. I am working for Pointe Pest control today with Marc, since his office manager is sick. My sister Elsie just had her third child and her name is Chloe. She is the cutest little thing. She weighed 7 lbs 13 oz which is the same her other 2 kids weighed when they were born. We were all surprised.
A lot has happened this month, I'll have to post pictures and write a little bit about each one. I hope I can do this tonight, if I have time!

Recent Pictures of Ryder

Ryder hiding under his crib eating chocolate that he stole from his dad

Ryder's new toddler bed, he loves it, he sleeps in it

but he does sneak in to our bed in the middle of

the night. Sometimes I wake up at night and find him

sleeping next to me, I never know when he jumps

in bed with us.

time out spot, j/k

Before Surgery                                                                         
 

After

Ryder and I slept in this hospital crib all night, 

not very comfortable, but it made him happy

He had a draining tube for a couple of days, it was gross.

Ryder's surgery

Ryder had his surgery 1 week ago today. We woke up early that day and arrived at the hospital at 8:00 am like they asked us to. We waited for about 45 min, they gave us a room, and we changed ryder into hospital pjs, which were really cute! Well, I guess Ryder found his sippy cup that morning and had a sip before I was able to stop him, so the Dr. said he couldn't do the surgery because of the risk of aspiration while in surgery ( he could aspirate the milk into his lungs during surgery) So he rescheduled the surgery for that same afternoon at 4pm. Ryder was to only drink clear liquids until noon and then nothing to eat or drink after that. He did pretty good until about 3 pm, my poor child brought me a bowl and started saying "pees" (please) , he was so hungry and thirsty, he cried for 20 minutes and it was so hard for both him and me. I couldn't wait until 4 so I put him in the car and drove around until he fell asleep until 4pm. They checked him in again and we changed his clothes. I thought they were going to let me go with him until they put him to sleep, but they told us we couldn't go and had to give him to a nurse, he got so sad and it broke my heart. It was really hard to let him go with a stranger while he was crying "mom! mom!' He was in surgery for 2 hours! He did very good and the Dr. told us he removed every node that was infected and even the ones that were questionable, and was able to stay away from his facial nerve and major arteries. That was such a relief. The only thing that the Dr. didn't like was that he seemed to be coming down with a cold, so he ordered for Ryder to stay at the hospital overnight to watch his oxygen level and breathing. So far all the results have come back normal, but I guess it takes a few weeks for them to find out what bacteria was in his lymph nodes. We do know that it wasn't TB or cancer! He is taking 2 different kinds of antibiotics for a few months and his scar is healing very well. Our son is a fighter. We thought he was going to be in a lot of pain after the surgery but he did great, they only had to give him lortab at the hospital once and then just regular tylenol, he also started jumping on the hospital bed the next morning and was running up and down the halls. He is acting completely normal and hasn't complained once about his neck, he is also eating so well. We are very happy with the outcome and are so proud of him for being so brave, he really made this a lot easier than we thought it would be. Thank you for all your thoughts and prayers, we couldn't have gotten through this without them. We love you all! I will post his surgery pics later.

Bad news

Well, here we go again. Ryder will probably have to have surgery this coming thursday. I noticed that his right lymph node (under his jaw) was swollen about 2 weeks ago. I thought it was only an infection and so I took him to the Dr. They did a strep test which came back negative and the Dr. seemed concerned. He said it could be a staph infection and put him on antibiotics, he told me that if the gland didn't get smaller after a few days to bring him back. I waited for a week and noticed that his lymph node had gotten bigger and harder and so I took him back to the Dr. The Dr. was really concerned now and put him on stronger antibiotics and made him an appointment with a pediatric surgeon. We saw the surgeon yesterday and he think it's an atypical bacterial infection and he cannot drain it because his node is really hard. He also said it could be tuberculosis or leukemia! yeah , scary. He told me not to worry and that he would run all kinds of tests to make sure it wasn't cancer or TB. So this Monday Ryder will have a TB test, then he will go get a CT scan of his neck, and they will have to put him out for the CT since he is so little. After that we have an appointment with an Infectious Diseases dr. and they will draw some blood. Please pray for my little boy. We are really hoping he just has that bacterial infection and nothing else. So if everything goes well, he will have surgery on thursday to remove the lymph node that's affected and that should be the end of it. This has made me realize how much I love Ryder and how special he is. He makes us laugh so much. We will keep you all posted.

Family Tradition?

So I've been really busy taking care of Marc and Ryder, unfortunately, Ryder got sick a few days after Marc broke his leg. It was extra tough for me to take care of both of them and work a full time job! I am exhausted. Last week at work my sister leech and my other co-workers were talking to me about Ryder being life flighted and now Marc being life flighted, they were telling me that it is my turn now, and well that day we had chinese food brought in by a drug rep and had fortune cookies, so while we were talking about me being next to be life flighted I opened my fortune cookie and guess what it said? You will travel by air in the near future. Coincidence? I hope so. Now I have to be really careful. I kept my fortune so I will have to scan it in and post it on our blog.
Well i thought I would share that scary experience with you, just pray for me so i don't get hurt!

I Got On The NEWS!!! And I Only Had To Break My Leg To Do It!

For about five seconds anyway. At the end of the clip it shows them taking me out of the ambulance and putting me in the Air Med helicopter. I know it was me cause I recognize the people helping me out of the ambulance and it was almost dark when they were taking me out. Plus the news anchor announced that the person had a broken leg. Just a coinsidence... I don' t think so. I finally got on TV! Wa Hoo! Check it out here is the link below ......... http://www.abc4.com/news/local/story.aspx?content_id=c5986727-751c-40ba-bbc5-9ecad843026d

Easter Weekend

Marc and I went to the sand dunes with the Rombergs for Easter. Ryder stayed home with my mom and dad. We got there thursday night very late, we slept in a trailer in subzero temperatures. It was so cold, we didn't get any sleep! Friday morning we had breakfast with the Rombergs and went riding for a little bit. We played UNO run, a game where you collect UNO cards and follow each other on the 4-wheelers through trails at the dunes. Everyone went, it was kind of fun except Brandi (kevin's wife) and i got lost for a while. After lunch we all decided to ride thru the sand dunes to sand mountain, it's about 8 miles away. There were about ten of us, 3 girls including me. I can ride 4-wheelers but i'm not a very confident rider. I was kind of scared but didn't say anything, just went along with it. Well it turns out I did very well, I kept up with all the boys, and they didn't have to wait for me and I never got stuck! Actually I was going so fast I almost fell off my quad. Marc and I were so tired, our whole bodies hurt! We got back to camp and set up our tent and started preparing our dinner, we put some potatoes in tin foil with butter , salt, and pepper. We also wrapped some whole green beans in tin foil as well, and got our ribeyes ready for the grill. I was really tired so I decided to take a nap in the tent, Marc decided to go for a last ride with Chris Van skyndall (Marc's brother's best friend) before dinner. In Marc's words this is what happened next;
First of all I just want to say that I LOVE MY LTR 450!!! It is so awesome and fast and ... Ya it rocks!!! Anyway, So I had been hitting this jump all day and off to the left of the jump was a tree stump that stood about four feet tall. Everytime i hit the jump and came back for another jump I would ride off to the side of the tree stump but for some reason I misjudged where I was after I had hit the jump for about the 50th time and I found myself headed straight for the tree. So I hit the brakes and the sand was super deep and of course the front brakes locked up and I did a sweet front flip over the handlebars and landed right in front of the stump. Before I had a chance to move the quad landed on my head pinching me to the ground and the wheely bar came down on my leg it was a good thing too cause my quad might have hit the tree and got all banged up but i blocked the quad sacrificing my body and broke my leg instead. I would take a bullet for that thing. So Chris ran down and pushed my quad off of me and he went to get help. Kevin and his wife Brandi came back to the rescue with a cardboard box and some electrical tape. Brandi rips off her shirt (easy... she had another one on underneath) and wraps it around my leg to stop the bleeding. And they made a splint to put on my leg. Shortly after a state trooper came over and pretty much did a whole lot of nothing and called for the Sand Rail ambulance with an L6 corvette engine to come pick me up. It drove me over to a real ambulance which drove me over to the air med helicopter that flew me to Utah Valley Hospital. I got surgery and now I have a cast on my leg and lots of pain pills. So that is all I have to say about that... well that and I have the world's greatest wife. She has been taking super good care of me and gets me whatever I want and gives me sponge baths :)

Little Ryder

So Ryder's bronchitis developed into pneumonia and asthma! geez, I know, poor kid, he was wheezing a lot for a couple of days and I decided to take him to an instacare( afterhours clinic) and they took xrays of his chest. The doctor said he had a little pneumonia and they gave him a breathing treatment and antibiotics to take. He is feeling a lot better, but the poor little guy had been home for 3 days and yesterday he wouldn't stop crying and saying "outside" and looking at the window, so we felt bad for him and took him miniature golfing. He was really happy, and so was I. I took 2 days off work to stay home and take care of him. Today we had to drop him off at my moms so we could go to church since we didn't go last sunday because he had bronchitis! It was kind of nice to go and not worry about him being all over the place :> Well that's it for now, I will write soon.

Nissan Patrol hill climb

Friday

Well, I finally had a friday off from work! except I spent most most of the day running errands and taking ryder to dr's appointments. He's had a bad cough this week, and something told me that he had bronchitis, I don't like to take him to see the dr cause most of the time it's just a virus and all he needs is tylenol, but my motherly instincts told me to just take him anyway. Well, Ryder has bronchitis! the dr. gave him antibiotics and cough syrup. I think he's feeling better already. I'm sick too, in fact, I have the same symptoms Ryder has, so I probably have bronchitis too, but i'll tough it out. Well after taking him to the dr. , I had to take him to American Fork Hospital for an EKG (heart test) just for his upcoming check up with his cardiologist. I had the worst memories come to my mind as soon as we walked in! This is the hospital where I took Ryder when he was sick and had to be life flighted to Primary Childrens Hospital a year and a half ago. I felt uneasy. Anyway we finally got in to get his EKG, I didn't think he would stay still because he was just off the walls all day today, but the tech that did the test was this really big guy, with a shaved head, and was very intimidating. Ryder was able to sit still for 10 seconds, which was enough to get a decent reading. I asked to look at the results because I've done EKGs on people before when I worked at a clinic a year ago, his results looked really good, so now we just have to wait for his cardiologist to read them and compare them to his last one. So anyway, it's been an exhausting day! At least I got to spend the whole day with my little guy, I really did enjoy his company, I miss hanging out with him all day :

New Haircut!

So, after having long hair and same style for 2 years or maybe even longer!, I decided to get my hair cut today, I don't know if I love it, but I like it, I still need to get used to it. My sister Alicia is finally done building her house and we are all getting together at her place tomorrow, it should be fun. This was a long week! I had to work so much and it was really stressful, hopefully next week will be better. Oh yeah, while I was getting my haircut, this guy that was next to me was getting his hair done as well, and man could he talk! I could tell the girl cutting his hair was really annoyed, specially cause he was asking her questions about her tribe (she was native-american) and how that worked, and about her reservation, and just kept going on and on and on!, i felt like telling him to shut up! Sorry but i think it's really annoying when people talk a lot when they're getting their hair done. My stylist was great, she pretty much didn't say anything, she just asked what I wanted and got the job done! that's how I like things to go.

Here are recent pictures of Ryder.