My Alphabet King

Ryland was recognized at school yesterday because he has mastered his letters and sounds.... WOW!! He got to wear the "sounds and letters crown" all day and all the kids were gathered for the announcement so they could yell "hip, hip, hooray!" for him. Shawn and I both went to the school to pick him up and he was beaming when we came through he door. "Look!" he said as he pointed it out to us, "I got my crown today, now I am going to get my reading badge!" He wore that thing proudly all night. We are so proud of him because he has been working hard to learn to recognize all the letters, know their sounds, and to learn all about the 5 vowels. The last few weeks have been filled with his constant chatter as he walks around the house picking out words, sounding them out, and then choosing what letter they start with. Our car rides consist of him asking what each sign means, and picking out each letter he recognizes as we pass things along the road. I have been amazed at how often he gets things right!! The next stop on his curricular journey; reading. Is that crazy or what? He's already trying to sound out the words in his books. This school has been amazing for not only his learning, but also for his confidence... When we ask him how he knew the answer to a question, Ryland now promptly answers by saying, "Because I am so smart!" Hilarious!!

One little sentence... SO proud!

So... Ryland wrote his first sentence today!! "Daddy I Love You." He can't spell anything yet (since he's not quite reading) but I told him all the letters and he carefully wrote each one until he had a long strand of letters that wound up the page. When he was finished, he looked up with such pride I felt like MY heart might burst. It was amazing to watch him write the letters all by himself. Where did my tiny little boy go? I cannot wrap my head around how fast the time goes with him. I swear he is already becoming a little man. I was laughing at myself tonight because I have been thinking all day about his one little sentence! These are the joys of motherhood!

So much to be thankful for

Christmas this year was amazing. We have officially spent our very first Xmas in our own house. It was wonderful to see Ryland wake up in his own home and see what Santa brought him and to experience Brynlee's very first Christmas. There will be so many more firsts to experience in the coming year. Shawn and I spoiled each other (I got a six session sampler at the local spa and a couple gift certificates to shop when I get my pre-baby body back... yeah!!) and I completely surprised Shawn with a new Snowboard. I was so proud of myself because I found a brand new one with custom bindings on craigslist and negotiated a screaming deal on it! I love a good bargain which makes me a bit of a Criagslist junkie. We headed up to McCall, ID (about 2 hours from our house) to spend new years at my parents cabin. We had a blast. Shawn got a couple good days of snowboarding in with my dad and brother. I only got about a half a day of skiing in while I was there, but I was grateful to even get that. Thanks to my mom, I was able to leave the littlest one home with her and head up to the mountain. We put Ryland in a full day ski school and he was not only skiing on his own, but he learned to stop himself while staying completely in control. That's a big feat for him... we are so proud! We will be spending a lot more time up at the cabin this season, so we'll have to keep all of you updated on how things go, and how good Ryland gets. I really hope he gains a life long love of it. While we were at the cabin Ryland learned to wipe himself!!! YEAH!! He will be starting preschool (2 days a week, all day) and has to be bale to do everything bathroom oriented without help, so we had good motivation to make him do it. It was much easier than I expected and I am beyond happy that I no longer have to hear him yell... "Help! I'm done!!" after which I have to brave myself before heading to the bathroom :) What a wonderful way to start the new year! Happy new year to all of you. May it be filled with many cherished memories and more blessings than you can count. We are looking forward to a new year full of things to be grateful for.

Holy Cow Daddy!!

While I was diligently working to get some last minute Christmas stuff done.... ie wrapping gifts, addressing cards, making treats,etc, Shawn had so nicely volunteered to hold the baby while he watched a Cowboy game. This is what I get for taking him up on it during game time!! I vaguely heard the baby's faint little yelps and thought that I had better check things out... as you can see I found everything but her head wiggling around outside the two couch pillows. Poor little girl had fallen in between them and couldn't do anything but kick her legs around! She's such a mellow baby that she didn't even cry. She would just let out a little whimper now and then hoping for someone to come to her rescue! Shawn happened to notice right about the same time as I did and we both got a pretty good laugh out of the whole thing. I do think Shawn felt a little bad... but not bad enough to hold her for the rest of the game (it's probably safer that he didn't)! He just propped her up more securely and went on yelling at the tv. GO COWBOYS!

Baby pics

Finally......

OK... I am finally updating my blog. After many months, it's about time, I know! Lots has happened in the last month. We got moved into our new house, which we absolutely LOVE. it is more than we imagined it would be. We have tons of space now and views to die for. The weather here in Boise is icing on the cake... and we get the most stunning sunsets out our back windows. We are technically outside of Star, Idaho so we are about 20 minutes to almost anywhere we could want to go yet we have the peace and quiet of being in the country. It was definitely a process to get all of our stuff moved in and unpacked, but we managed to get it done well before my due date. After getting settled in the new house I proceeded to do everything humanly possible to get my labor started. I was SOOOO done being pregnant!! I walked what seemed to be the length of the united states, used every essential oil known to start labor, made Shawn rub all my "acupressure" points.... and the list goes on and on. No matter what I did, she wouldn't come out of there so they induced me the day after my due date.
Shawn and I got to the hospital at 7:45am and they proceeded to hook me up to all kinds of things, take my blood, poke and prod me, and then make me eat. By the time all of that was done it was after 11am. The nurse started my pitocin at 11:30 and the doctor broke my water at noon. I thought I was good to go once that happened, but instead I had to wait till 2pm before my contractions finally kicked in and became consistent. My labor was 4 hours and 17 minutes long. It was great. In fact, I can't imagine a better experience. We named her Brynlee Teann Fernandez. She is named after my mom (a shortened version of Teresa Ann) and was 6lbs 10oz, 19 inches long. She is an absolute dream baby. So I have posted some pics for all of you to view. ENJOY! I will try my best to keep this thing updated.