Happy Birthday Ella-Kathryn!

Opening her birthday picture from Jack . I got and ipod!!!!!

I love Taylor Swift:)

Oh boy - my little girl turned 5 last week! And what's worse? I'm only now posting about it. We've tried to keep things status quo around here as we shuttle back and forth to the hospital to see Ryan, so her part was a definite must, even among the chaos that is our lives right now! She, of course, had a horse themed party, as she loves all things horses/horseback riding etc. In the morning she recieved a couple of gifts from her Poppy (my dad, as godsend, who has been staying with us for 2 weeks now) and from mommy, daddy, & her brothers. Poppy got her the much coveted Disney ipod and we got her a Taylor Swift CD and the promise of another trail ride, later in the fall, and when Ryan has been home safe and sound for a while. She also recieved a very sweet picture that Jack drew for her - that of Ella-Kathryn as a princess in the castle, a dragon sweeping in, and her big brother as a knight protecting her with his sword! How precious is that???? Plus he enclosed 78 cents - random yes, but very sweet.

In Ryan news - not only has he been moved to the outer sanctum of the NICU, he also tried his hand, er mouth, at a bottle today! He did great, and the speech-therapist thinks he's going to do just fine with oral feedings (although he still has his feeding tube in for now). He did have some spit up that took Jeff by surprise - the nurse thinks it was just a gas bubble that didn't get burped up, but boy howdy, Jeff was a pro, sitting Ryan upright and keeping our lil' man from choking. Way to go daddy!

Also, Jack and Ella-Kathryn finally got to see their baby brother and HOLD him for the first time. They were so excited and did a great job obeying all of the hospital (and mommy's) rules. They were both kind and sweet and very tender with Ryan. Jack and I had a moment when Ryan's stats when kind of caddywumpuss (not sure if that's how you spell that but I don't care since that is totally the best word for this) but everything settled down and Ryan seemed very relaxed.

First bottle feeding. Getting stronger every day!

Big sis and Ryan.
The nurses made Ryan a crib decoration - thanks ladies.

In other big news, we had the first day of school on Wed and it was Ella-Kathryn's first day of kindergarten. EK got the teacher she wanted, Jack's K teacher mrs. Sweeney, and Jack's 2nd grade teacher, I think, will be a great fit too. Daddy showed up in uniform for a formal escort!

Notice, my dear boygiving me bunny ears!





That's all for now - thank you for continued prayers for Ryan and please keep them up!