Ryan's 1 Year Old Pics

We had Ryan's pictures taken on March 3 at Peekaboo. Ryan was such a good boy. I was nervous since our appointment was at 3pm and he usually takes a nap around 2:30pm so he didn't get his afternoon nap. He actually did take a little cat nap on the ride to Kate's house, but I still thought he'd be ornery and not cooperate to have his pictures taken.

Anyway, the pictures turned out great. I love every picture she took. It was hard to decide which pictures to share. She also posted a few on her blog.

Ryan always pulls this face and Dan, Kate's husband, caught it on camera. It's not a cute picture per se, but it's something Ryan does all the time so I'm glad we have a picture of "the face."

Random Pics from March 2008

I love pictures and there were a few from March 2008 that I didn't post so I decided to do a picture post.

Grandma Mangelson holding Ryan when he was 1 day old

Grandpa Mangelson holding Ryan the day he was born

Grandpa Nielson holding Ryan the day he was born

Grandma Nielson holding Ryan the day he was born

My dad babysitting Ryan :)

My mom's friend Arlou came to visit Ryan after he was born

Grandma Guin came to visit after work when Ryan was 4 days old and brought him his new Army hat

Doesn't he look like a little soldier?

After Ryan's first bath, I wrapped him up in one of the blankets we made for him. I don't know how I did it, but the way I wrapped him was amazing.

Ryan's 2nd visit with Great Grandma Jackson

This was the outfit Ryan came home from the hospital in

Grandma Mangelson took this picture of Ryan sleeping on my chest one afternoon

Ryan has always loved getting in the tub. He was always so relaxed and pleasant.

Wrapped up in his hooded towel after his bath

Ryan's 1st visit with Great Grandma Jackson

Another pic with Grandma Great

Jim with Ryan when he was home on leave

Jim is a Green Bay Packers fan. I saw this beaniee at Wal-Mart (I think?) so I bought it for Ryan to wear. It was a little big when we tried it on him. I forgot about it, and the next time I tried it on him it didn't fit anymore.

It happened again

It is drill weekend again and I ended up taking Ryan to the doctor. Imagine that :) He got the chicken pox and MMR vaccinations at his 1 year check-up on March 12th. He did so well with the shots and acted fine afterwards so I thought he was fine.

On Friday, I went shopping with my mom. I had Ryan in his winter coat since it had snowed the day before and there was a cold wind. My mom thought he was getting too warm in the stores we would go in; it looked like Ryan had a bit of heat rash on his neck. We didn't think too much of it; we just took his coat off and went on our merry way.

On Saturday, I noticed red bumps on Ryan's belly. It looked like he had acne all over his stomach. I actually didn't notice them until I changed his diaper around lunch time. I called Jim and asked him what the start of chicken poxs looked like. He didn't think Ryan had chicken pox and just said he would look at them when he got home, which wouldn't be until 6 or 7pm that night. I was nervous though because Ryan had been feverish, but I thought it was because he was getting a few more teeth. I decided to call my mom for a second opinion. I was planning on going to Levan for lunch of Sunday, and if Ryan had chicken pox he shouldn't be around people. My mom said it wouldn't hurt to have him looked at.

I was able to get Ryan in to the clinic here in Spanish Fork immediately. Turns out he did have a viral rash that was caused by his vaccinations. The doctor was surprised though--he said the rash usually shows up 8-10 days after the vaccinations. It had been 16 days since Ryan had had his shots. But, the rash wasn't contagious and since he wasn't feverish at the time and hadn't been for the past day the doctor thought he would be fine. I just had to keep an eye on Ryan to make sure he didn't get feverish or start acting sick.

The rash actually moved a bit to his face and arms on Sunday, but it was completely gone by Monday. I was going to take a picture of the rash but I was always too lazy to go and get my camera when I needed it.

I seriously can't believe that Ryan had something go wrong again while Jim was at drill. I can't wait to see what pops up next month :)

My Dad, My Hero

Before Jim left, I wanted to make a book with pictures of Ryan in it for Jim to take back to Iraq with him. I didn't think of it before Jim came home on leave, and while he was home I had no time to make one. My fabulous, creative sister Amy came to my rescue and made the best book for Jim.

I put pictures in the book for Jim, but I didn't take any pictures of the finished product (I actually didn't finish putting the pictures in until the night before Jim left at like 11pm). These are the pictures Amy sent me so I could see the book before she gave it to me.

This is the cover. It says, "My Dad, My Hero"

She put a little poem in the book for Jim--I'll post the whole poem at the end. It's really cute.

The last page in the book. The embellishment says "I love you"

Amy also gave me a frame with this same poem on it. She put the picture of Jim holding Ryan at the airport for the first time. She is very thoughtful. She warned me beforehand not to read the poem unless I wanted to cry :)

Here is the poem:

When freedom needed heroes

To answer duties call,

You packed your bag and left home,

For the greater good of all.

And though I'm not a grown-up,

I still do understand,

You have an important job to do

In a distant foreign land.

You're teaching me so many things,

Even though you can't be here.

Courage, Faith, and Honor,

The message is quite clear.

So, until your job is finished,

And you're back home to stay,

Remember, Dad, I love you.

You are my hero every day.

~Beth Murphy

Jim's Leave Comes to an End

March 24, 2008:

The day before Jim left, we took one last trip to Oak City to visit Jim's parents and family. It was a nice visit. I hate saying goodbye though--Jim's mom was upset and teary eyed :( It was really hard to leave, but I'm glad we went over for one last visit.

My mom and dad were very nice to run up to Pleasant Grove and pick up Ryan's newborn pictures from Peekaboo Photography so Jim could see the pictures before he left. I wanted to get some printed for him before he went back, but I didn't get them in time to send some with him. He did get to see them though so that was good.


These are the only pictures I took on our last trip to Oak City. Jim came to the back room with me when I fed Ryan. He was always so good to take Ryan and burp him for me.

March 25, 2008:

Jim's flight left bright and early at 6:05am. In order to get there in time for him to check-in, etc. we left Levan at 3am! We made it to the airport with plenty of time (virtually no traffic at 3am, haha) but the airport was actually a little busy.

When we got there, we took Jim to check in. There was a huge line he had to wait in. Luckily it moved pretty fast.

Jim and I waiting in line for him to check in with his airline

After Jim checked in, we sat and visited for a bit. He held Ryan one last time before he left.

We took a family picture together. Don't mind me, I wasn't about to get up and get ready at 3am :)

One last goodbye before he went through security

Jim going through security

After we couldn't see Jim any more, we headed back for Levan. Ryan was a good baby and didn't get fussy at all. He hadn't eaten since we left Levan at 3am. I fed him after we got back in the car.

As we were driving home, I got a text message from Jim at 5:56am. He was so excited because the airline had bumped him to First Class for his flight to Texas. Jim called me after they made it to Texas. They had a bit of a layover so he was just waiting around. I got another text message at 4:14pm. He told me he was on his plane and instead of stopping in Georgia they were going straight to Germany. He was excited that they didn't have to stop and the plane wasn't crowded so he would have some room to stretch out. That's always a plus for an overseas flight :) P.S. I saved most of the text messages Jim sent me while he was gone for the year--that is how I know the times they were sent to me and what they said. FYI--I also saved all of our instant message chats, too. They are fun to go back and read. Especially the one where I IM'ed him and told him I was in labor. I'm glad I saved them.

It was kind of nice to have Jim's leave over with and the airport part done. Again, that sounds terrible. Like I said before, the 16 days were like a dark cloud hanging over and when every day would pass I would get more and more anxiety about him leaving. My sister Amy always told me though, as soon as they are gone time can start ticking again and the sooner they leave the sooner they'll be back again. It was nice to have someone so close to me that had gone through a deployment. She knew exactly what I was going through--she even had a baby while Jason was gone. She knew all of the emotions and what it was all like. I was thankful for all of her advice. Anyway, it was only 2 more months until Jim was home again for good, thank goodness.

P.P.S. Again, I'm sitting here bawling remembering all of this. It may be all of the pregnancy hormones, but I don't think it is. When we went to Snowbird in August for an Army retreat they played a video with pictures from the day Jim's unit left and I bawled and I wasn't pregnant then. I think it will take a while for me to be able to talk about Jim leaving (especially the day he actually left) and the deployment without crying. Right now it's too fresh :(

My Little Frankenstein

Here's a video clip of Ryan walking--looking like Frankenstein. I took the clip right before we were going to take him up and get him ready for bed so keep in mind he's a bit tired. He keeps walking more and more each day. I'm excited he's finally got the hang of it especially to go outside (he's been wearing out all of his pants crawling on the concrete). But I know he will keep me on my toes even more now by walking and eventually running.

Enjoy!

Happy Birthday Mana

Today is my mom's birthday so I just wanted to tell her Happy Birthday!! We love you so much and appreciate all that you do for us. I don't think I could have survived Jim being gone for a year and having my 1st baby without her. I'm so thankful she was willing to let me move in with them while Jim was gone and that she took such good care of me and Ryan. I hope you had a good day--even though you were travelling home from D.C.


P.S. Mana is my mom's nickname. I'm not sure if my dad gave it to her or if one of the grandkids did.

Walking

Ryan has finally decided that he likes to walk. He's been able to do it for a couple of weeks now, he just didn't care to. He preferred to crawl since he was used to crawling and could get around better and faster that way. But just yesterday and today he's been walking instead of crawling. He still crawls, but he's been walking alot more. He looks like a little Frankenstein. I'll take some video of it and post it later. I just had to post that he was starting to walk, wahoo!

Easter 2008

We spent Ryan's 1st Easter with my family since we celebrated Easter with the Nielson's the day before. Both of my parents birthday's are in March (my dad's is on March 19th and my mom's is March 24th) so we had a Easter/Birthday celebration at my sister's house in Alpine.

Jim and Ryan on Easter morning

Ryan's 1st Easter

Easter wasn't too exciting for Ryan since he was only 21 days old. He got diapers and an outfit from the Easter bunny :)

Jim snapped this picture of Ryan after his bath on Easter. His crossed eyes crack me up.

Ryan in his new Easter outfit

My mom and dad love to play Scrabble against each other. Ok, my dad loves to play, and he is really good at getting words that score HUGE on the board so he always wins. My mom doesn't really like to play with him; she actually gets really ticked when he wins, haha. We got them a Scrabble cake for their birthday. It turned out really cute.

My mom and dad by their Scrabble cake

Blowing out the candles

The Easter/Birthday celebration was really fun. I remember Ryan fell asleep in his car seat on the way home so I was nervous he was going to be up all night. He actually didn't wake up when we got home so we took him upstairs but left him in his car seat. He slept longer than he ever had that night. I was so amazed.

Jim's original leave dates made it so he was headed back to Iraq the day before Easter. I was really upset and didn't know why the Army couldn't let him stay one extra day so he could be home for Easter (not that Easter is a huge holiday that I love to celebrate, I just wanted him home). But, the way things happened--having Ryan early and Jim getting stuck in Iraq due to dust storms--made it so he was able to be here for Easter. I was so glad he was home for Ryan's 1st Easter.