Merry Christmas

So I'm a little late, but I hope everyone had a great Christmas.
We spent Christmas Eve at my parents' house with the Henning side of the family. Ryder thought it was great to show everyone all his tricks, including the newest one of fake coughing. He was a hit with everyone.
Christmas Day we spent the morning at home and then made the trip back into town to my parents' for more presents. We had dinner with the Wilson side that evening. Ryder slept through a lot of that get together. Ryder also had a very hard time understanding why we kept giving him presents to unwrap and then as soon as he got the paper off and could finally see what a cool toy he just got it got taken away to rip off more paper. I'm sure in another year that will not be an issue anymore.
Overall we had a great Christmas, were very spoiled (especially Ryder), and loved seeing so much family. Now I need to start dismantling this ginormous pile of Ryder's presents that are stacked in the great room.

We had a Christmas celebration with the Hatch side of the family last weekend. The kids had a great time (the adults did too). Ryder got a tractor from Grandma and Grandpa. He thinks it is really great. So great in fact that you cannot stop pushing him on it or he starts to cry (see photos). I can't even imagine how many highs and lows we are going to have come Christmas day! And an update on yesterday's post . . . the smiles are back and the fever is gone!

Where did the smiles go?

This has to be one of the most sad things I have ever witnessed. Ryder has a cold that has completely wiped him out. He has had a fever all afternoon and all he wants to do is sleep. We went to the doctor (yet again) and the doc says that it is a virus and he ought to be ok in a few days. But it breaks my heart to see him so sad. I miss my smiles :(

Santa Claus is Coming To Town!

Ryder and Santa had a nice visit. Who knows what he asked for.

We spent Thanksgiving in Young and had a great time. We cut down our Christmas tree while we were up there. We decorated the tree a week later and I finally got the rest of the decorations up. There are pictures from Thanksgiving and decorating the tree on our photo page.

Look Out!

Ryder is mobile!

Guess I'll lose that last bit of baby weight pretty quick now huh? We captured the action on video. Check it out here.

Happy Halloween!

Hope everyone had a very happy Halloween!

Our day started out last night at 11pm. Ryder woke up wheezing and having some serious problems trying to breathe. He was also very hoarse and coughing. After 15 minutes he seemed to be doing better and showed us by entertaining us with a chorus of blowing raspberries and showing us exactly how long his tongue is. These tricks are incredibly cute - during the day. At night time when he should be sleeping, not so much. We spent the rest of the night trying to make Ryder comfortable and get him to sleep. I ended up propping myself in a sitting position with many pillows on the futon and holding him upright since that was the only way he could breathe. At the most he got 5 hours of sleep total and I got 2.

After this episode we took Ryder to the Dr. The Dr. says he has a cold and probably had a mild attack of croup last night. And there is nothing we can do but let things run their course. I hate letting things run their course. They take so long!

Once we got home I made my Halloween costume, cleaned the suburban, decorated our "trunk" for the Trunk or Treat event with church, which made me wonder why I cleaned it in the first place since I filled it with cobwebs, and made some cornbread for the same event.

Ryder was a cow for his first Halloween, I was a "got milk" ad to go along with the cow theme of course. Jeremy was himself . . . I guess that is a lot of work to be him so he didn't have the time to be something else for an evening. We went to "Trunk or Treat" and I ran out of candy! That is so bad. I bought 3 big bags and figured we would be stuck with some extra. Anyways, after I ran out of candy I felt so bad telling the kids that we didn't have any candy I went and hid/hung out with a friend of mine whose husband was leading kids around on pony rides on their draft horses. Jeremy helped them by leading one of the horses. We had a lot of fun.

Now, Ryder is asleep in his bed (not on me) and Jeremy is asleep on the couch. And I am crazy for still being up! Good night y'all!

A hunting we will go

Ryder now has his 1st elk hunt under his belt. Not only did his grandpa get one, but so did Uncle Dave. It was a very successful hunt. We did not get one since we did not get drawn once again. Maybe next year is our year. Ryder had a great time playing outside and in his grandpa's camp trailer. He did not like sleeping in our camp trailer. Not until he kicked his dad out of his sleeping bag and had it to himself. I guess the next time we go camping we'll make sure he has his own sleeping bag and maybe he will let mom and dad get some sleep.

Ummm . . .

I guess I'm not very good at blogging. When it comes down to me actually sitting in front of the computer and writing about what has being going on I draw a blank. But, I can post pictures! So, once again - check them out. Maybe my blog should just be a picture book - everyone's favorite parts about a book were the pictures anyways, right?

A Picture is worth . . .

. . . more than a thousand words right?

I uploaded some pictures of Ryder's first haircut, a typical conversation that I have during the day and our newest tenants. Check out the new family photos link. Otherwise, I guess I don't have much to say at the moment.

Ahhh, lazy summer days

As you can see the boys have been taking it easy this summer (except of course for Jeremy). Ryder got decked out for some fun in the pool by his Great Grandparents and is enjoying splashing in the pool. And you can see how Buck spends his days!

Jeremy started working on house #2. We will not be moving into this one thank goodness. This is a spec that we hope to sell soon. It's next to our house and a very similar floor plan.

I don't have anything new going on, it seems that my days just fly by and the only thing that gets accomplished is Ryder getting fed.

We are down to 15 chickens of the original 18. But we will be down a whole lot more as they keep turning into roosters! Out of 15 chickens it looks like we will have 4 hens! Our chickens do have the most stylin' coop in the neighborhood. It is a mini barn. We aren't quite finished with it yet, but they have moved in and love their new home. Once it's done I'll have to post a picture or two.

Been Farmin' Long?

Well, we've added more to our little home out in the "country."

I planted a garden a little while after Ryder was born and we are seeing the fruits of our labor now. It is getting very full with cantaloupes, watermelons, cucumber, pumpkins, zucchini, and tomatoes. The picture of the garden in our photos is from a few weeks ago. There is a lot more green now. I picked our first zucchini today.

We also got some chicks yesterday. With any luck we will be getting fresh eggs in about 6 months from our own chickens. We don't know if we have roosters or hens yet. Hopefully we didn't get stuck with a bunch of roosters. Ryder thinks the chickens are pretty great. He stares at them and then squeals and kicks his legs. So, we are thinking that they will be his chickens and once he gets older he can sell his eggs to us and start saving some money for a rainy day.

No News . . .

. . is good news right? Well, that's what has been the case here. We have been up to the normal day to day things that take us through life.

The cows left after visiting for a day (see previous post). The owner of them was supposed to call us and repay us for feeding his cows and has not. Oh well. It made for an interesting story.

Ryder is growing and getting stronger everyday. He can lift up onto his hands when on his tummy and he rolled over from tummy to back the other day for the first time.

We spent part of Memorial Day weekend in Young celebrating the last Hatch kid high school graduation. The next "Hatch" to graduate high school will be Ryder. Crazy.

There is one thing, I need some mom advice. Ryder HATES and I am not exaggerating taking his naps. He will scream for an hour straight and not fall asleep if I let him. He falls asleep good at night and I've tried the same routine at nap time, which is not working by the way. This is resulting in a cranky baby, tired mom, and a dirty house. Any words of wisdom out there?

Until the cows come home

This is how the story goes . . .
I was in the office catching up on some email during a rare moment of Ryder quietly going down for a nap. Buck started barking like crazy out the back door. I figured it was our neighbor who frequently comes over and works her horse in our round pen, so I thought nothing of it. After I was done in the office I went into the kitchen to fix myself some lunch. I look out the window and see horses running around like crazy and this:

There was nobody around and the cows just stayed huddled in the corner behind the round pen. So we herded them into the arena and called Pinal County to see what we should do with them. As of yet we have gotten no answer so for the moment we have 24 cows hanging out in our arena. When we were herding them into the arena I so badly wanted to be a real cowgirl for just one moment and get on one of the horses and chase some cows around.



I know this is kind of a pointless blog, but seriously, how often do you have a herd of cows wander into your backyard?

Blessing

Ryder had his baby blessing today. We were so happy to have so much of our family be willing to get up early(for 9am sacrament) and drive all the way out to our church. The blessing today made me more aware of the many blessings that we have in our lives. We have a nice home that is relatively close to most of our family. We have a lot of family that loves and supports us in what we do. I am so grateful for not only our little Hatch family, but for all the branches of the family tree. Families are forever and I'm so glad they are.

We have once again followed suit of the Lil Lancaster Fam and started posting pictures on Picasa. The new link is under our photos links. Ryder's blessing pictures are on there.

New Toy

Jeremy says I'm obsessed, but I think I have good reason. Look how great his tongue works now! Both Mom and Ryder are very happy with it.

Firsts

There have been a good share of firsts around here.

First smile. Ryder has been practicing this one a lot, but until recently it was in his sleep. Now we get some good ones while he is awake and they are most frequent when getting his diaper changed. Funny since that used to be the thing that made him the most angry.

First surgery. Ryder had surgery on his tongue on April 4. It was very quick and he has healed really well. He was a little bit cranky for the next couple of days afterwards, but can you blame him? He's learning how to use his tongue now and completely re-learning how to eat. I think we are making some progress.

First Easter and First time to church (same day). We made it to church for the first time as a family and then went to Jaime and Shane's for dinner. Ryder got to spend some time with his cousins and went on his first Easter egg hunt (with Dad's help of course). He got four eggs, but Mom and Dad ate the candy.

No one told me it would be this hard

We've had a rocky start to our little family. Everything went great for delivery (except I wasn't thrilled with being in labor for 27 hours!). Ryder and I both did great while in the hospital and even got to leave earlier than the doctors had originally thought because we were doing so good. Once we got home though it got tough. Ryder was having problems eating and ended up getting dehydrated. We took him into the ER when he was only 4 days old after he didn't have any wet/dirty diapers for the day. We were then in the hospital for 3 more days while the poor little guy was hooked up to an IV.

Now we've all managed to stay home and get to life as a family. Ryder has been having more than his fair share of doctors appointments to make sure he is keeping up. His eating problem is that he is tongue tied. The part of the tongue that attaches it to the bottom of his mouth is too short and too far forward. He is scheduled for surgery on April 5th to have it corrected. Until then he is eating about every 2 hours to keep up and is wearing his poor mom out. We are praying that after the surgery he will be able to eat like a normal baby and we can move forward.

He is growing though and is getting strong. I posted some more pictures of our little guy.

He's Here!

We are so excited to say that our baby boy has finally come and joined us. Ryder Taft was born on Tuesday, February 27 at 2:27 am. So far he is adjusting to life at home and is meeting so many family and friends who love him. More pictures of Ryder are on our family photos page.

"Come out and play!"

I took that quote from our nephew Kaleb, which was his way of inviting his new baby sister to come join us when she decided to take her time arriving in the big world. Now Jeremy and I are seeing if it will work for our little guy, who seems to have decided that it is either too cold or too boring out here for him. After 3 weeks of the doctor telling me "no progress" this is getting a bit old. Good news is that no one has been pregnant forever, but I think this guy wants to see if he can make that possible. If there is no grand entrance by Wednesday the doctor said we are going to schedule an eviction (induction). So, in about a week the Hatches ought to have gone from 2 to 3. We'll keep everyone updated!

Nursery

My mom threw a wonderful baby shower for me last weekend. I received a lot of wonderful gifts and had a lot of fun with family and friends. Our little boy is definitely going to be very clean and well dressed.

A couple days following the shower, Jeremy's mom was able to help me get everything sorted and put up in the room. Now he has a room that is pretty much ready for him to move in. Now we get to wait, and wait, and wait . . . .