Happy 1st Birthday Ryder!!!

It is hard to believe that one whole year has already gone by and that our handsome little guy has reached this milestone! We feel so blessed to have Ryder in our family and he adds so much love and laughter and entertainment...we love him so much!



Ryder at 1 year...

Ryder at 1 hour...

Steve was thrilled that he got to help deliver Ryder, father and son bonding started early!

My two favorite guys!

Kendyl and Brityn were sooooo excited to have a baby brother. They wanted to hold him and kiss him and hug him ALL the time.



He is too big and can squirm away now, so they don't generally try to hold him, but they still smother him with hugs and kisses!



I just love my little boy at just a day old here. I have to say that I was in shock for quite a while after the ultrasound confirmed his being a "boy". I was really scared to change his diaper for the first couple of weeks, but after being "showered" a few times, I got over it. And he was such a sweet baby, what is there not to love once you forget all those late night feedings. ;-)

My handsome boy now! He is still the most sweet-tempered, laid-back little guy. He is happy to go anywhere with me and is sooooo good. He's content to ride in the car, stroller, or shopping cart without much fuss. His main word is still Ma-Ma, and I love it!

Auntie Cheryl Lou and Uncle Glenn came over from Hawaii to help with the girls for Ryder's arrival and they were such a huge help! We can't thank them enough for everything they did for us--including all the work on our back yard!

They came back to celebrate Ryder's first birthday with us and brought Papa this time. The perfect way to celebrate this happy, happy birthday!

A fun birthday...

This year the kids really got into celebrating my birthday. They made all their plans and went shopping and wrapped presents and decorated and tried to be extra good and tried NOT to tell me what all of my presents were. :) Thanks for all the birthday wishes and phone calls, we actually spread out the celebrating all weekend since I had a concert on Sunday evening. I got to play my violin and harp, and if you missed it--Clair de Lune on the harp was really lovely.

So sweet...

My friend, Brooke, watched Brityn and Ryder so Steve could take me out for my birthday and when we went to pick them up...the kids had made this sweet birthday cake all by themselves! It was so cute and so nice to help the kids do this--thanks Brooke! Brityn had a great time and can't stop talking about playing at Matthew and Drew's house! :)


My sweet husband was so nice to order a new knob for the dryer that broke, now I don't have to use pliers anymore! :)


The satellite receiver in our bedroom went crazy last week and then wouldn't work, so I called direct tv to see what I should do...when they said they would need to send me out a new receiver I asked how much it would cost to upgrade. The worker came back and told me that since I was a loyal customer, they would send me the upgraded receiver free of charge! SWEET!


Since I've been playing in the stake orchestra, my violin bow has been showing some wear and tear, so for my birthday, I asked for a new violin bow...it plays so sweetly and is beautiful too!

Life has been sweet!

Ryder rockin' it out...

Ryder loves to listen to music and his little body just can't sit still when there is a beat going! He found this microphone in the toys and figured out that he could push the button and turn the music on and off. He had a big huge grin on his face that was just too cute!