Pay It Forward!

So, here's how this game works-the first 3 people to leave a comment on this post will receive, at some point during the year, a handmade gift from me. What it will be and when it will arrive is a total surprise! The catch is that you must participate as well. Before you leave your comment, write up a pay it forward post on your blog to keep the fun going (or be lazy and copy and paste like I did). Then come back, let me know you're going to play and sit back and anticipate the arrival of your gift!
Send me an email with your address, emthornton@gmail.com Remember, only the first three get a gift, so you have to be super fast!

Valentines Day (Anniversary Day)

Happy Valentines Day everyone!!!

This is a very important day in my life it is when Elizabeth and I were MARRIED forever. I just thought I would let everyone know that day I was the happiest man alive! I am still the happiest man alive. It has been six wonderful years with my best friend at my side. We have been through quite an adventure and have tried to always keep a positive attitude. I just have to say I LOVE YOU ELIZABETH and you will always be the love of my life. We once mentioned that we would always be around to push or pull the other and help them accomplish the goals and happiness in life. I feel like you are the one who is always doing the work at pushing and pulling. Well I have to say my post is pretty cheesy but it's me. HAPPY ANNIVERSARY ELIZABETH! I love you.

LOVE Tory.

It Takes Heart

Today is another really important day. We all celebrate birthdays, and there are anniversaries for everything from first kiss to first home. But today is not one of those. True it is an anniversary, but not one that many people celebrate. It is the 2nd anniversary of my mended heart. Mommy told the whole story last year, and if you are want to remember or are in need of a good cry (Mommy sure did as she just reread it) just link on my HEART.



It is fun to look back and see all that has happened this last year. I have learned so many words. Traveling has become a favorite past time. Walking and running is my new favorite sport. Becoming Mommy number 2 for little Ryker. But something even more important is that I continue to grow stronger and healthier. Whenever Mommy and Daddy talk about the doctors fixing my broken heart, they always end with how I put their heart back together. And now that Ryker is here to play, Mommy and Daddy tell us how they love both of us so much, that the two of us together just make their hearts grow bigger and stronger.

I have to admit that it is old school to go see doctors or have tests done, but I have noticed that if it comes to my little heart, Mommy and Daddy are still very nervous and anxious. And so I must say that I am so thankful to have had so many miracles in my life, and can't wait to see what miracles this next year has to offer.

Gaseous Anomaly

Hi, My name is Ryker, I am a Myliconaholic.

Since I was just a few weeks old, I have had issues with flatulence. Poor Mommy first assumed it had something to do with the testosterone running through my system. But when it started making me less than happy and was greatly impeding anyone in the house from sleeping, she decided it must be something more. So then she tried taking everything out of her diet that might irritate my little gastrointestinal system. Nope, still stinky and cranky. A great relief to us all since Mommy is not the most happiest herself when you take away her chocolate and spicy yummy foods. Well Mommy and Daddy gave in and tried Mylicon, aka Gas Drops. I have to admit, I have been addicted from that very first tasty. I slurped it right up. Well the package said that they could give it to me after I eat up to 12 times a day. So there we go. I have to have it after each feeding, and it works like a miracle. Well, it makes me feel better, but I kinda still stink when I let one rip.

But this last week, Mommy tried to cut me off thinking I might have outgrown this need. Once again, she assumed wrong. I let her know that for me to be happy I have to have my fix. I mean look at that cute face below, would any of you deny him the one thing that truly makes him happy, i didn't think so.

No Longer Mother of Year!

I love my Mommy very much, don't get me wrong, but she really needs some help. Like this morning. So Mommy was not paying any attention to me because she was trying to clean up and vacuum, why I am not sure because destruction was what filled my agenda for the day. So I decided to do something totally amazing to catch her attention. I stood up at the couch and started running to her. She realized that something amazing was happening and grabbed the camera to video me. Well you can watch the video of super cute me walking all around.

Well she tried to get another video of me walking all over the house by myself. Well I am still learning this whole walk by myself thing and I was walking around the kitchen table and lost my balance and fell and hit my head really hard on one of the feet of the table. Now that REALLY got her attention. It hurt really bad and I have this gigantic deep purple goose egg on my head. The picture does not do it justice, believe me. Personally I am rather excited to have this war wound to show off, but don't let Mommy know.

2008: Year in Review

Wow, 2009 has already been going for a while and we haven't blogged yet. We have been having way too much fun with Mommy and Daddy this last little while, we have been forgetting to keep things updated. We decided that we should start again by reviewing over the year 2008. So many great things and fun adventures filled this last year. Sorry Ryker that some of these adventures you didn't get to really enjoy since you spent most of the year baking in Mommy's belly.

So here we go-

January we started off by traveling to both Grandparents house to see the new Rexburg LDS temple. It was so beautiful. We also went sledding and skiing with my aunt and uncle who live close to my Grandparents. I love traveling. I also started off the year by standing by myself (which is totally old stuff now, but made Mommy and Daddy cry when it happened).

February is the month we celebrate the Heart. Lots of big anniversaries for our family. Mommy and Daddy celebrated their 5th wedding anniversary and thanks to Tammy and Toby and Dan and Angela, Daddy was able to give Mommy lots of surprises. We also celebrated one year from my last heart surgery, when all the love and prayers from family and friends and even people we don't know fixed my broken heart.

March I learned the joy of Easter and the yummy things the Easter Bunny brings.

April I played my first April's Fools joke on the world. I announced to the whole world I was no longer an only child and that I was going to have a sibling.

May was a month of one really big adventure. I had my first really big road trip to go see my uncle race a 24 hour mountain bike race and then watch my youngest aunt graduate from High School. I was expecting something more musical after seeing the movie, but I guess real life is like that.

June was one adventure after another. I went on two more road trips. One was to the McCracken family reunion which was sooooooo fun. All the cousins together causing all sorts of chaos and confusion. The second to a vacation home where we met up with Landon, Shellie, Ella, and Tino. Ella taught me lots of girly things like how to be fancy. In between adventures though, Mommy had one scary night she started having lots of contractions and had to go to labor and delivery and check on our little baby. And then later that month we found out my little sibling was going to be my little Ryker.

July we went on another exciting adventure. We went to the Thornton family reunion. Again lots of cousins to cause all sorts of chaos and confusion. It was fabulous.

August was ever so important because I turned 2 years old. What a great Birthday! But that is not all, I gave up the Num Num. I had been biting the ends off since my teeth were coming in with a vengeance so Mommy and Daddy told me that if I kept biting the ends off they would just throw them away. I couldn't help myself and so away went the Num Num, and I haven't looked back.

September was a crazy, busy, worrying month. Daddy started school again, the last year of Grad School. But then Mommy ended up on bedrest. Ryker decided that we were obviously having too much fun with all our adventures and he couldn't wait any longer to be apart of it all. So on the couch Mommy went with her glass of Gatorade and yucky medicine (but the best part is Grandma came and stayed with us so that Mommy wouldn't have to worry about taking care of me-it was great).

October was a very busy month. It started with excitement from me of course. I figured out that it was pretty cool to walk by myself with my walker out on the driveway. Ryker came into the world early one morning and began adding lots of excitement of his own. Then we had Halloween to end it all, and of course that is super fun! But woh, what a month.

November was month full of sleepless nights and lots of adjusting for Mommy and Daddy. But for us there were lots of first words and first steps.

December was just as exciting as the rest of the year. Mostly spent just playing and enjoying being a family.

What a year it was, full of adventures and fun.

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.