Ellie's Interview

This is my Ellie. She is 5 years old and she loves to talk. I hope you enjoy!

Riley's Interview

When I was growing up my parents would interview us kids. All we had was a tape recorder and my dad would ask us questions and we would ramble on about whatever we felt like talking about. I remember as I got older it was always fun to hear those tapes. It was so fun to hear the songs we made up or just the random topics we would discuss. I thought it would be fun to do the same with my kids. I started with Riley. Ellie and Paden were already in bed but little mister Riley was wide awake and in the mood for an interview. I will get the interviews with the other 2 kids up soon but this post is all about my youngest.

Mmmmm...Smoothies!!

Seaside, School, Surgery, Sick and Smiles!!

So we have had a lot going on in our little family and it has been awhile since I filled you all in on it. First off we made a couple of visits out to Seaside. The first time was just our little family. We went to Tillamook and then up to Seaside. We really had a great time. The second time we went was with my whole family minus Danielle and Clinton (tears). It was supposed to be raining and chilly but turned out to be an absolutely amazing day. It was perfect weather and we sat on the beach and played and played the day away.

Moo Moo Ellie and Farmer Paden at the cheese factory.This is the kiddos and me.

Kirk and the older kiddos. This is Ellie's new pose.

Kirk and the kids getting all set on the carousel.

You can see Ellie in the background there. Kirk was a little ways away from her.

Here's Paden enjoying his ride.

Cousin Ella. She is number 3 for my brother, David.

Cousin Hannah. She belongs to my brother, Derek.

Here are 3 of the moms waiting. Hannah's mom, Carrie, Me, and Ella's mom, Sara.

The day after Seaside was Ellie's first day of Kindergarten. She was soooo excited to finally go to school. It was all she could talk about the whole morning. Even though she was a concerned that she might be a little allergic to stinky feet. I love that girl!!

Here she is ready to head out the door. Kirk's family always took pictures in front of this tree on the first day of school. We couldn't break tradition.

Here she is in her classroom. I wanted a picture with her teacher but he was helping some students. Mr. Modrall is Ellie's teacher and the cool thing about him is that he was also Kirk's Kindergarten teacher. Cool, huh?

Last week Paden went in to have surgery. He was born with Hypospadias. That means that his urethra didn't make it all the way to the tip of his penis. It came out of the bottom of the penis. A couple of weeks before his 1st birthday he had the repair done. Unfortunately, the repair didn't hold and he sprung a leak. So he went in and had the repair done again. This time they closed him up with a flap. Fingers crossed it holds!! Anyway, it was supposed to be a day surgery but he was bleeding just a little more than they wanted so they put a pressure dressing on him and kept him overnight. He was such a trooper and all the nurses fell in love with him. He is doing great now. He complains a bit about it hurting but really can you blame him? It gets less and less each day.

Here he is in his bed. He didn't spend a lot of time there. He was more interested in running around the room. It was nice when they finally took the IV out. I was tired of untangling him all the time.

This is actually where he spent a lot of his time.

Ellie has been sick the last couple of days. It has been really pathetic. I hate it when they are sick because it makes me feel so helpless. I don't like that I can't just fix it. Luckily today she has been feeling a lot better and has actually started eating and keeping things down. YAY!!!

Isn't that so pathetic?

On the upside Riley has been doing fantastic!! He is such a charmer and a really sweet boy. We absolutely love having him in our lives. At his 2 month appointment he was weighing in at a hefty 13 lbs. 14 1/2 ozs. He was 25 ins. long. That puts him in the 90th percentile for weight and the 97th for height. Those are numbers we have never heard in reference to our children. The older 2 both maxed out at the 50th percentile and dropped down from there. We definitely love our chubby boy!! He never has a moment's peace either. His brother and sister are completely smitten with him. I swear Riley will end up cross eyed because they are always in his face. I have included a little Riley video just to give you an idea of how his day goes.

But through everything that has been going on here we have had a lot of smiles!!And I mean a lot of smiles.A WHOLE lot of smiles!!

I sure love these kids!

The Pear Bread

Everyone has been asking me for this recipe. It is SUPER yummy!! It is from allrecipes.com. The only thing I changed was I diced the pears instead of shredding them and I also used 3 cups instead of 2. Also bake it at 350 instead of 325. I love allrecipes.com. I hope you guys enjoy it as much as my family has.


Pear Bread I

3 cups all-purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
3/4 cup vegetable oil
3 eggs
2 cups white sugar
2 cups peeled shredded pears
1 cup chopped pecans
2 teaspoons vanilla extract


DIRECTIONS
In a large mixing bowl combine flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon. Make a well in the center of the bowl.
In a separate bowl combine the oil, eggs, sugar, grated pears, pecans, and vanilla. Blend well. Add to well of dry ingredients. Stir until just moistened. Spoon batter into 2 greased and floured 8x5x3 inch loaf pans.
Bake in a preheated 325 degree F (165 degrees C) oven for one hour and 15 minutes. Cool on wire rack before removing from the loaf pans.

It's A Boy!!

Well it finally happened and I am finally blogging about it. Better late than never though, right? On Tuesday June 30th at 5:04 am Riley James Tracy joined our little family weighing in at 8lbs 11Oz. and 20 ins. long. He has been a great addition to our family so far and we can't get enough of him. Here's how it all went down. On Monday our little family went to Clackamas Town Center to get out and walk around a little. I was having contractions but didn't think too much of it because that had happened so often before. By the time we were done at the mall the contractions were getting stronger but still I didn't get my hopes up. We got home and hung around for a little while so the kids could have some quiet time. After quiet time we decided to go for a walk around the block because it was such a nice day and I was antsy. By this time the contractions were every 15 mins or so and still pretty strong. You think I would be excited, but I was still skeptical. We got home and needed a few things from the store so I headed over to Win Co. About halfway through the store I was having to stop and breathe through contractions. This is when I started thinking it could be the real thing. I got home from the store and got most of the groceries put away before I needed to just sit down. For the rest of the evening I sat there. I really wanted to make sure it was the real thing. I had had so many fake outs that I didn't want to go to the hospital just to be sent home. By 8:30 things were really starting to hurt. I called the hospital a little after 9 and let them know I was coming in. We got there a little after 10 and I was at a 3 1/2 pushing 4. By 11pm we were admitted and I was waiting for my epidural. I am no fan of pain and wanted out of it as soon as possible. By midnight I was numbed up nicely and taking a nap. Around 4am I was at a 6 and my water broke. With Paden I went from a 5 to 10 in 5 minutes after my water broke so we were expecting the same thing this time. Riley had different plans. His head was still turned to the side a little making it difficult for him to come down all the way. After about 40 mins the nurse helped me on to my side and that was all Riley needed to come down the rest of the way. She told me to do a practice push and then instantly told me to stop because the baby was coming out. The Dr came in the room and also told me to push. He quickly told me to stop too so that he could get his gloves on. Once gloved up he told me to push again and out came the baby's head. He told me to push once more and the rest of him came out. After making me wait for so long once it was time to come out he practically fell out. It was a very easy delivery. I was very happy about that. He was healthy and strong and had the right number of everything. A bonus was that he didn't have the hypospadius like his brother. Yay!! Everything went well and has gone well since. We love our little Riley. I hope you enjoy the pictures.

Here is the belly just a couple of days before he was born.

Here I am officially admitted into the hospital. This was actually about 3am after my mom and sister got there.

Out he came. Sorry if this is too graphic for anyone. Nothing's showing. Just my leg.

He has GREAT lungs.

He cried and cried when he first came out. It was so cute.

Here we are admiring him.

Such a handsome boy. We have pictures like this with our other 2 as well. Just our little tradition. Here is big sister Ellie getting a turn holding him. It is hard to keep her away from him. And big brother Paden taking a turn. Our 3 munchkins. This is how we find them most of the time. They are never far from Riley.

I got tagged again

In this tag you are supposed to go to your 6th file and pick the 6th picture and explain it. Then you are supposed to tag people. I don't like tagging specific people so I just send this out to those of you that want to do it. It's always fun to look at pictures again.

This is Ellie's birthday cake from last year. Which reminds me that I need to put up the pictures from her birthday this year. This was also the first cake I decorated all by myself.