Happy 34th Birthday Daddy!!!!

Today is Ryan's birthday, and I wish him the best year yet! It's going to be pretty hard to top being that we got RB in his 33rd year, but who really know's what this year has in store for him! When I look back to us trying to start a family, I am very grateful now that it all turned out the way it did. All of the heartache, stress, tears were so worth where we are today-and if anyone would have told me or Ryan that back 3 years ago I would have told them to get lost....maybe i did-who knows :) When Ryan and I got married, there were some that thought we weren't ready, boy I think we proved them wrong....that was the smartest move we've ever made, look where we are today! Here are just a few things i love about this man!

* This man is like Forrest Gump, he can run and run and run!

* When he makes his cereal in the morning, he has to do a few things to let it get soggy before he eats it (no joke)

* Sunday Ticket (Fantasy Football): I swear this is his favorite day of the year, he has 9 TV's all labled with which games are going to be on to prove it!

* After Ryan's done getting ready, and he feels he's lookin pretty good-he'll look at me with the biggest grin on his face, he never thinks he gives it away-you do!

* This guy is the BIGGEST sports nut, him and my brothers could do trivia for hours!!! Miss ya Jake, but am I ever glad you're in California :)

* He's got a wicked sense of humor, and he thinks i never think he's funny...usually i think he's funny, i just dont want to encourage :)

* Ryan is honestly the best daddy in the whole world, when I see him and RB playing together, it totally melts my heart!

A lot of people who know Ryan and I see me as the stronger personality. Outwardly that is probably true. I'm more confrontational, and perhaps the term "emotional" applies...(most definitly) But, with the addition of all that we've been through and bringing Rylee into our home Ryan has become an incredibly strong man. There have been moments when I have felt weak and incapable of moving forward. Every time he has stepped in and moved forward for the both of us. He makes us feel so secure in life, and we are so blessed to have him! Happy Birthday sweets!

I am a child [of God]

On October 26, 2008 RB officially became a child of God and was baptized! It was a really special day for all of us. He didnt mind the water on his head one bit-he does LOVE his baths so we didn't really think it'd be much of an issue, though he was holding onto Ryan's shirt looking up at him like "what is going on here?!" We had a celebration with all of our family and a few of our closest friends. We thank you ALL for sharing in such a special day, and for all of the gifts that you brought for him-what a blessed little boy he is, as are we!

Fall fun.....

Absolutly my favorite time of year, and here is our lil RB making it even better! We've had such an amazing 2 months with him (WOW-almost been home that long?!) He is going to be a Kangaroo this year, and as you can see in one of the pics he's not too sure about it. I mean, would you be ok with it? :) He's so close to crawling-it's gonna be anyday now-he actually took like 3 lil' "crawls"(?) yesterday. He's pointing at EVERYTHING now, and is working on his 4th tooth! Big October for RB! And on top of all that, he's getting baptized on Sunday! What an amazing day that's going to be!

Happy Birthday Zaela Rose

And I know that Im late on this, it so just snuk up on me! We were so blessed to meet such wonderful people (as i have said before) while in Ethiopia! We have grown especially close to a couple of the families. Zaela who is about 2 months older than RB turned one over the weekend! Happy Birthday sweet Z! Can't wait to see you guys!

Happy Birthday Camden.....

Now that we have a child of our own, my mind is sliiiiiiping fast, and it's only one-I think that's tellin me something about more children :) Yesterday was our nephew Camdens 3rd birthday! Love you buddy!!!!


Rylee and Cousin Cam

Happy Birthday Grammy

Happy Birthday Grammy! Love, Rylee B

Happy Anniversary to us (a day late) : )

Since last Thursday RB has had a cold, getting better now but for the first few days....ICK! I didnt think substances like that could come out of a nose! We had a really good weekend aside from that though, and of course it really didn't affect his mood one bit! Uncle Jody and Auntie Beth watched him for us on Saturday so we could go out for our 6 year anniversary. He did well, which i wasn't surprised. Thanks again guys-we so grateful for such great family! I don't love leaving him, so I really question whether or not doing what we're doing is that important...I believe that Ryan and I spending "us" time is especially important after such a whirlwind of a year-and I love him more today than the day that I married him! He's an amazing daddy, husband and friend....love you daddy!

RB's first college football game.....

RB went to his first college football game, and as most of you know-not the first place I would have chosen, but all in all it was a good game and a good time with the fam'! Ryan has season tickets to MSU and RB looooooved his first game. It was almost as if he knew exactly what was going on, he was so intense watching it and even cheered (squealed) when everyone else got excited! He slept through the whole 3rd quarter, and woke up just in time to see the finish. The weather was beautiful, it really was a fun day! On our way to the game The things I do for our lil' man Him and I are stickin' together

A little of this, a little of that......

This past week has been pretty eventful....
I will have to say the coolest part of the week was that Extreme Makeover Home Edition was building a family a house in a city nearby, so we were able to go and watch the house as it was being built. It's soooo amazing what they can get done in 106 hours. It was beautiful and we were even able to see the designers Michael and Page.
We went to the pumkin patch to get pumpkins and he thought that was pretty cool. It wasn't such a good day for it-once we got there it started raining, so it was a short and sweet trip-
We went to a high school football game friday night, and Saturday we took RB to his first college football game....(I took one for the team, as did RB and yes, it was an MSU game)...more to come on that, i'll do a post with the pics of that shortly.
RB continues to be an amazing baby! He's scootin around and rollin' all over the place and we know it's only a matter of time before he's full blow crawling! (Watch out) something tells me once he gets on the move he will be craaaaaaaazy baby :) In the first 6 weeks that we've been home he's gotten 3 teeth, 2 on the bottom, 1 on the top. He hasn't been too cranky with them, just a little at night-but really he took it like a champ! :)


He got to visit the Extreme Makeover House



His first trip to the pumpkin patch





Havin' lunch with Mia


Extreme Makeover House

Michael and Page

Word of the day......Amanuel

So you guys are never gonna believe what call we got today. Rylees birth mom is giving up his older brother now, his name is Amanuel (dont have the details as to why right now) and CCI called us to ask if we'd be interested.
There are so many variables to this. The number one thing being we simply dont have anymore money right now for this (how sad that that has to be the number one thing right?) I have to believe that if this was something that was meant to be, that God would some how make it work. It's something that would definitly be a challenge, but to think that God is trying to bring Rylees brother to him, to have his biological sibling in his same family is something that would be so amazing. It breaks my heart to think that we have this opportunity and there isnt anything we can do about it. It's pretty emotional, and I am really having a tough time knowing this information. Please pray for Amanuel and us, while we try to wrap our brain around why this opportunity is being presented to us right now.
I will post more about what we've been up to when I get some time....