Christmas Fun!!!

We hope all of you had as fabulous a Christmas as we did. We had the great surprise of getting to share Christmas Morning with Grandpa and Grandma McCracken and Tino. They were on their way to spend the holiday with one of our cousins, but since the whole Pacific Northwest got pounded with weather-front after weather-front, they got stuck at our home, hooray! (We told them later that we had been praying for a White Christmas, and boy did we get it.) The morning started bright and early with lots of presents and candy. Mommy and Daddy actually surprised each other with getting each other presents that they really wanted and didn't expect to get. Daddy even got Mommy something so amazing that she started crying. We had so much fun that we can't wait until next Christmas.

Remember When

By: Michelle

Two years ago today was an incredibly eventful day in our family. I came home for the very first time. I say that because, after I was born, Mom and Dad spent three months visiting me everyday in the hospital and having to go home by themselves everynight. The first day home will never be forgotten. We practically brought home the entire Pediatric I.C.U. with us. But who cares, I was finally home!

Getting ready to make that momentous first drive home.

And me today!
How did I decide to celebrate this occasion, I started WALKING by myself today.

4 Weeks

So as the title of our blog indicates, Ryker and I have decided to completely take over our family blog. My parents keep complaining about being so tired and busy now (I don't know why, we both sleep well and don't seem too busy to enjoy our favorite games), so we have decided that it is up to us to keep the world updated on our adventures. Besides, how many people look at this blog to see what new project my mom is doing (totally boring) or how well my dad is doing in school (again, snoozer). People just want to see the latest cute and funny thing WE have done. However, in our discussion with "those other two people" we came to an agreement that they can stay on staff as guest writers every now and then. So here is Ryker's first post.

Well, today at 7:59 am, I officially turned 4 weeks old. Pretty neat since I wasn't due until two days ago, November 9th. My mom weighed and measured me to see how big I might have been had I chosen to stay in the oven the full nine months. I was 7lbs 12oz and 20 inches long. Cool, because I lost half a pound before I ever came home from the hospital. But what can I say, I am a boy and I like to eat. I still mostly just lay around and grunt and groan for my parents, and of course since I am a boy-I do a whole lot of tooting. But everyone once in a while just to remind them of how handsome I am, I flash them a full face cheesy grin. My totally awesome older sister is great. She helps with all my diaper changes during the day, but told me to forget about the night ones since needs her beauty sleep. She also tries to feed me whenever I cry. She sits next to mom while I eat and pats my feet or head, whichever is closest. I guess we have come to a truce since I came home. She is no longer trying to post ads on craig's list or e-bay to get rid of me and I no longer kick her while she naps (but it is whole lot easier for me since I am no longer in mom's belly and being squished between them while they nap on the couch together). Life is good.

Since my grandma has gone home, I am going to allow my mom to add a bunch of pictures our fabulous neighbor across the street took. I have to admit though, I look amazing.

Happy BOO to You!!!

It was a year ago today that our family started this blogging adventure. So I decided that I needed to be on the ball and post our Halloween pictures pronto. Our not so little anymore Michelle was Fancy Nancy, one of our all time favorite children's books. Our little man was a little Ghosty, thanks to Tammy once again saving the day and getting a super cute Ghosty onesie for him.

Happy Halloween!

The Last Two Weeks

Two weeks ago our handsome little boy, Ryker, entered this crazy world. Thankfully my wonderful sister-in-law, Tammy, posted immediately for me letting everyone know about and see our wonderful new addition to our family. Thank you sooooooooooo much Tammy. Well, I am now finally feeling like I am surfacing from the craziness of a new baby and will just post a bunch of pictures from the last two weeks with brief summaries. And when I said a bunch of pictures, I mean a bunch. So sorry if it gets really long, we are just trying to catch up with a really eventful two weeks.

Here he is in his birthday suit-literally.

I think my doctor is completely amazing and one of the many many many reasons I think so is that he saw Tory trying to get a ton of pictures so he then voluteered to take this first family photo. What a great man.

The two most handsome men in the world, especially to me.

One of the first pictures of mommy and son. And yes, that is me being the NICU nurse giving my son blow by oxygen because he was grunting and I was not about to have them send him to the NICU. So I had my labor nurse get the oxygen so we could get him over that little hump. Hooray, no NICU stay this time.

Pictures of the two of us with our two kids. We have yet to have a picture of the four of us together, we will work on that in the near future.

Each of us with our little man on the day that BOTH he and I got to come home. What a change to come home together. We kept joking with the nurse about what perscriptions or medical equipment were they going to send us home with. She would laugh and say that we would get to take home a baby and carseat. Hooray!!!

The going home outfit. That's our little Buckaroo.

Coming home with Mommy and Daddy!!!

The Grandma that helped mommy out so much and thus helped little Ryker stay in the oven until he was more ready to come to this world.

The Grandpa who had to give up grandma to help out mommy. By the way, I think that my siblings and I all have a picture with my dad and ourselves in this very same pose. What better way to take a nap.

He ended up getting jaundice so the first two days home he had this special phototherapy bed. Why we asked ourselves? Just because we wouldn't know what to do if we didn't have some sort of medical equipment.

Here is the first bath at home. Michelle is such a super sister and great helper.

Grandpa and Grandma doing what grandparents do best, loving on a cute grandbaby.

Like I said before a busy two weeks. The pictures above Tory just happened to take as Michelle took her first independent steps from Grandma to Grandpa. Then her happy high five to Daddy.

I found Michelle like this one morning when I got out of the shower. She has decided that Ryker is cute enough to keep now.

It still amazes me that we have been so blessed to get two completely beautiful children in our lives. We love them so much and can't wait to see the amazing things they will do in the future.

Once upon a pregnancy

Less than a week before Ryker was born, my very awesome neighbor and friend across the street, volunteered to take these pictures for me. This is something I did when I was expecting Michelle and loved. But since I was on bedrest 2 1/2 months before I was due and was scared that our little boy would come any day and way too early, that I didn't even think about it this time. I am so glad that she asked to do them, otherwise I wouldn't have any pictures of this last pregnancy.

And of course some super cute pictures of Michelle.

Thank you so much Angie for taking these fabulous pictures.

Ryker Douglas Thornton

He's here!!! This is Tammy (Tory and Elizabeth's sister-in-law). Just wanted to post photos and let you know all about the new baby.

Ryker Douglas Thornton

October 14, 2008

7:59 am

6 lbs even

19 1/2 inches long

They went into the hospital last night around 2am. She was dilated to a 4 1/2. Around 4:30 she was able to get her epidural (yea!) and then at 7:40 she started to push and ONLY 20 minutes later, baby Ryker was here! She was able to have a normal delivery (no c-section!!!) and everyone is doing well and are happy. He has lots of hair and long fingernails. He's super cute and was wide awake when we went to visit. Very sweet baby. Congrats Tory and Elizabeth and Michelle!! Tiny Ryker. He scratched his face a few times because his nails are so long! Silly boy.
Sweet baby boy.
He's so tiny! Wearing the cute onsie that his favorite aunt got him. :) :)
Sweet little toes. :)

Cute twin brothers holding their favorite boys. Toby and Dallas, Tory and Ryker. Look at how big Dallas is compared to his new cousin! Dallas--4 1/2 months, Ryker--14 hours old.