Happy Birthday Ridge!

I have been really busy so I am just barely getting around to posting about Ridge's B-day. My baby turned 1 about 2 weeks ago. I seriously can't believe my baby is already One. It really does seem like he was born yesterday. Ridge is such a good lil' guy. He is sooo independent. I will always find him off playing alone. A lot of babies his age scream the second their mom walks out of the room but Ridge just goes off finding what else he can do to get into mischief. He just knows the second I leave a bathroom door open so he can go off to play and splash in the toilet. He is such a special blessing and I am so extremely grateful he came into our family when he did. Ridge has the best smile and laugh and he is always doing one of the two. Here are just a few of the pics. I took of him during his birthday month of January. Ridge takes a couple of steps at a time but is still not full on walking yet. He will stand up in the middle of the room and stand there forever I am expecting him to take off running any day now. He is so close. Ridge's nickname is still Boo or Roo. All dressed up ready to head off to church. He obviously loved his birthday Ice Cream. Can you tell? He also is such an amazing little brother. He seriously pushes Tytan around the house all day long. You would think he would hate being the Little brother slave but o' no the look on his face says it all.

WILDLIFE WORLD ZOO

A few weeks ago we headed over to the Wildlife World Zoo to check out the new Aquarium. I had been hearing from everyone how amazing this zoo was, but I didn't realize how much I would be in love. It was amazing. The animals are so close. While we were there we feed a giraffe, deer, goats, llamas, chickens, and we got to touch sting ray and hold star fish. This Zoo was so interactive compared to the Phoenix Zoo. I will definitely be taking the boys back again. Here are just a few of the million pictures I took that day. Tytan in the petting zoo he was a little concerned when he ran out of food and the deer started eating his shirt. Feeding the llamas. I lifted Tytan over a short wall so we could pet and feed them. Good thing they didn't bite. Ridge enjoying his ride in the Bjorn. Yes he is a year old and still sits in it. Enjoying the Rhino up close. All of the animals are so close you really get to check them out. The sting rays we got to feel/feed. They were so much more slimy then I expected. All of our favorite part of the zoo was feeding the giraffes. Their tongues were enormous and their eyes looked so soft and kind. We all feel in love. Ok maybe just I did but Peter said I couldn't bring one home. The sharks! They were so cool to watch swim right by you in the tank. After a long day Ridge finally zonked out. You know you had a fun day when you can fall asleep folded in half in the back seat of a stroller.

Christmas Morning

Merry Christmas! I know Christmas was a week ago but we have been very busy. Baking, wrapping, buying,... Tytan is the age where he completely understood Christmas. We counted down the days until Santa would come to his house and he almost burst with excitement on Christmas Eve when he knew Santa was finally coming to bring him his presents. He was so funny to watch opening his presents and watch how excited he got over each one. Ridge on the other hand has not a clue why we have a huge tree in our living room and why he got to open presents. Maybe next year. Ridge still really loved having new toys. Here are a few random Christmas morning pictures. One of Peter and my favorite gifts we gave Tyt was a monkey that had a g-tube in it. We bought a Curious George Stuffed animal then cut a hole in its belly and stuffed in an extra G-Tube we had. He loved it. We just wanted him to remember what he used to have and how it worked. Now he pretends to feed George G-tube milk. Ridge will be 1 in about 2 1/2 weeks. Can you believe it? He is taking a couple steps and loves walking with his tractor walker. The pic. of him playing his Piano he is only partially dressed because I was in the middle of changing his diaper and getting him dressed when he spotted his new toy and just had to play it.

New Family Pictures

Time for our annual Christmas Pictures. This time around we turned to good ol' JC Penny to help us out. Both my Boys! I love this picture not because neither one is smiling or because Ridge looks a little stressed but because they are so real...Tytan with a black eye and Ridge with a big scratch across his check. I thought about postponing our picture appointment after Tytan still had a black eye and Ridge just got scratched. But then I thought Why? This is totally them in the Raw. They don't look perfect without a flaw on them. This is them on a normal every day and that is exactly how I wanted to remember them.Of course Tytan decided he wasn't going to give us even a tiny smile. Real surprise there. For some reason he refuses to smile when he knows I really want him to. He is such a stinker some times. Ridge ALWAYS has a smile on his face so it really was no hard task to get him to show us his toothless grin. Tytan with squinty eyes and Ridge just kicking back. Seriously that little guy is always in a good mood. I've always loved walking into people's homes and seeing a family picture of them all in white. There is just something about it that seems so Heavenly. I decided I would give an all white picture a whirl. I am pretty happy with the out come. I hate that I look like a giant hovering over my boys, but O well. We got this one in an 11 x 14 so I now have my big "Heavenly" picture of my family.

Halloween fun

The spunky Cowboy and the cutest little lion trick or treating at Daddy's school. My boys! Ridge was so hot we first took off his lion pants but by the end of the night he was down to just a diaper. Then I told everyone he was baby new year. We went to the Goodyear Halloween Festival about a week before Halloween. Tytan got to pick out a pumkin then decorate it with stickers. he loved it. Here are some random Pictures from our Halloween day.

BEST DAY EVER!

Today truly was the best day ever. Today was the day I have been looking forward to for the last year. Today was the day Tytan finally got his G-tube removed. It really is still surreal to me. I can't believe this time has finally come. We went to his G.I doctor on Monday hoping and praying that he would finally agree to let us get it out. After a lot of begging on my part he reluctantly agreed. Tytan hadn't gained as much weight as he was hoping for but at least he was back on the weight chart. So after doing a little happy dance I half ran out of the doctor's office before he could change his mind. I immediately had to call Peter at school and tell him the good news. The following day (yes I scheduled the Surgeon for the next day just in case we got lucky at the G.I.'s office) bright and early we headed over to our Surgeon's office. Tytan was beside himself with excitement the second I told him we were going to see his fav. surgeon to get his pesky G-tube removed forever. He kept repeating G-tube away forever mommy, over and over as if it couldn't be true. The procedure was surprisingly fast and simple. It took a total of 2 minutes to remove his tube. Break down of how they did it (for those of you that care) First they had to remove all the water out of the balloon in the back of the tube. Next they pulled the tube out. yes that easy. After the tube was pulled out there was a small hole that let you see into his stomach. They had to quickly seal this hole so none of his stomach contents could spill out. The Doc. took what she called spackling and filled in the hole, a.k.a. sticky glue. She placed gauze pads and a large bandage to hold it all in place. We can take the bandage off in two days. When we take it off if he has stomach leakage we just put more spackling in the hole and bandage it all up again. I know it sounds kind of gross but I am just way too excited to think about that. His G-tube is really gone. I know I sound like the G-tube was the worst thing ever but honestly without it he would have been a very sick little boy. He was so severely under weight. He completely refused to eat so in a way this annoying little tube saved his life. I always am complaining about it just because it caused Tytan so much pain. It stuck off his stomach so far that it was ALWAYS getting caught on everything. It was always bleeding and leaking stomach bile. He could never wear a light colored shirt because the goo from the g-tube would stain the shirt. So now my love/hate relationship with his g-tube is finally over. Tytan still works with a feeding therapist once a week and hopefully before long his weight will be where it needs to be and he will be the best eater. for now all I really care about is that his tube is gone for good.

Fun weekend

We had a busy but very fun weekend. Thursday night Peter's school had a Dinner Party at Salty Senioritas. Tytan had a bast playing with his best friends Peyton and Ryder. It was nice to get out of the house and get a free dinner. Friday night Peter's parents took all of their kids out to the melting pot. It was my first time going and was just as great as I've always heard. Since there were eight of us we kept switching chairs to try out the next pot. We all had a really amazing time. It was the first time I had to leave the boys with a babysitter that wasn't family. I was a little nervous but surprisingly they did awesome. Besides the fact they were still awake when we got home after nine thirty. I guess they both decided they wanted to wait up for us. Thank you so much Sandi & Curtis for a super fun night. Sunday we headed of to Gilbert for baby Graham's baby blessing. My brother Troy and his wife Emily have the cutest little man. He looked so cute in his blessing outfit and Troy gave a great blessing. After church we all headed off to their house for a little party and dinner. Thank you Emily for a great day. This was the best weekend because I didn't have to cook dinner three times this week. Sorry I didn't get any pictures of cute little graham.