Today was a fun day full of family and laughter, I love these kinds of days. We spent the afternoon at Brian's house. We finally got to celebrate his birthday. Julie and I made dinner. Mom and Dad are at the ocean so it was just us kids and the little kids. We had a wonderful dinner. Rex and I came home with another kiddo. Elisha is on break from school so she came to spend the night. We love having her, Ryan loves it as well. He adores her, he follows her everywhere. It is toooooo cute. The kiddos are playing in the playroom with Rexer, so I am blogging about it. I tried to get some cute pictures, but that is pretty impossible with to over tired kids. They just want to play. The first thing that Elisha did was orgnize all of the toys, she would put them one place and Rayn would move them. Elisha has quite the imagination, I love listening to her play. Right now Rexer is the mayor of a town and Elisha is the shoe maker. Ry is right in the middle chiming in every so often. Elisha is making shoes out of blocks and Rex has some kind of English-Elvis accent. Our home is filled with children laughing, I love it.

Happy Valentines Day. It is such a Hallmark holiday, but I secretly love it. As a child we always got presents. How cool is it to celebrate love, yes it is something that should be celebrated year around but to today is a little more special. Ryan was up early, I know that it is because he was so excited to wish me a Happy Valentines Day!!!!! Well that is what I am going to tell myself because it is 7 am. Well we hope that you all have a wonderful day filled with all the love and joy that one day can bring!!!!!

Fireman's Prayer

Fireman's Prayer

When I'm called to duty, God, wherever flames may rage.
Give me strength to save a life whatever be its age.
Help me to embrace a little child before it is too late
Or save an older person from the horror of that fate.
Enable me to be alert to hear the weakest shout
And quickly and efficiently to put the fire out.
I want to fill my calling and to give the best in me.
To guard my every neighbor and protect their property.
And if according to Your will I have to lose my life,
Please bless with Your protecting hand my children and my wife.

This prayer is hanging in our home along with most homes of Firefighters and in every Fire Hall. I am reminded of the prayer often. It is something that I find comfort in. I know that Rexer was made to be a firefighter and I take comfort in knowing that Jesus is with him every step of the way. Rex was home most of the afternoon, but went in for overtime about 3.30. He is working with a different shift, one that I do not trust as much as his own shift. He works a 24 on Saturday. So he will be home Sunday morning, right now Sunday seems a life time away. We celebrated Valentine's day this morning. When you are a firefighters wife or child you learn very quickly that holidays are not always celebrated on the day that the calender says. I actually just opened my card, without Rexer. I was reading it and remembering all of our previous 10 Valentines Days together. Not five minutes later Rexer called. He was so excited, he had just been on a fire nothing toooooo big but he got some good action. He and his partner where first in and did search and rescue. Well it was just a search, there was no one to rescue. As a firefighter he lives for fires and as a firefighters wife I hate them. Although I just spoke with him and he is fine, everything that could have gone wrong in that fire goes through my head. I got off the phone and cried, cried for several reasons. That is the love of my life and the father of my child what would I do without him. How could I live. For a moment I was a mess, I collected myself and put Ryan to bed. We said our prayers. At the end I always say Jesus loves you, Daddy loves you and Mommy loves you. Than I was reminded of the fireman prayer. Rex's job is a Blessing, I am able to stay home, he loves what he does and he is an amazing compassionate Firefighter Paramedic that loves Jesus. In that moment I was given peace, peace that on Sunday morning my husband will come home to us.

Cute pictures

One of our families favorite time of the day is Ryan's bath. He loves being in the water, he always has. He also seriously laughs the entire time. I get the best pictures of him in the bath. So enjoy!!!!

No look at the camera!!!

So we all know that Ryan is a pretty independent little guy, this is nothing new. But he is really testing my patients. When ever I get the camera out he will not look at me. I am not kidding, no matter what I do he will not look at me. In this picture he is looking at the dog. The funny thing is that as soon as I put the camera down he will look at me and smile. It is pretty funny but I took 49 pictures and this is the only one where his head is not turned or it is not blurry. 49 pictures for just one semi cute one, that is crazy. Thank God for digital cameras. He is getting so big, his pants are 18 months and all his shirts are 12 months. The thing is he is so long, so they are usually baggy on the sides, but the length is what I have an issue with. When I hold him or rock him he curls up on me like a froggy. His legs are tucked under him and his arm are on his chest. We are cutting back on the bottle. I feel like we get less and less snuggle time each day, so I am setting aside time to just snuggle without distractions. I know that it is more for me than him. I already miss that face to face snuggle time you get when feeding your child a bottle. I had my moms group today, Ryan cried for the first time when I dropped him off at nursery. It was totally heart breaking, but I handed him off and went and enjoyed my Mommy time.

Slobber kisses, just the way I like it!!!!

Today I was kissing Ryan, something that happens about a billion times a day. Unfortunately he already loves to push me away. Today I was getting slobber kisses, they are the best. It totally melts my heart when he lets me give him kisses. Now when we make the kissing noise he makes a noise back. It is so cute. I am not sure how he is doing it, but I love it. I need to get it on video tape. Today we had the pleasure of babysitting a good friend's baby. He is almost 4 weeks old. Ryan seems so big and independent next to the little baby. It is so funny how quickly you forget what it is like to have a newborn. Ryan was really sweet with him, so that makes me hopeful for when Ryan has a little sibling.

I love this picture of Ryan, he gives me this look a lot . I believe it is the what are you kidding me mom look. Ryan loves the remote, I actually have one in my purse so he can play with it when we are out and about running errands. I did not realize that this was weird until I was at Fred Meyer and the girl at the check out was making a huge deal about it. She kept saying how cute it is that he plays with remotes. He always likes the most inexpensive toys and the ones that I would least expect.

King or queen

This morning I woke up and our queen bed felt really small. Not only were Rex and I in bed, oh no Ryan and the dog were also in bed with us. It is so amazing that Ryan is so small, but yet takes up so much room. I am not sure when Ryan came in bed with us or when the dog jumped up on the bed, it was probably somewhere in between 4:30 and I am exhausted. Although the bed was over crowded it was so nice. I love having all of my family in the same room. One of the great debates in our home is if we should get a king bed or another queen. I usually say queen, but I think I am going to have to rethink that one. The boys all got up- even our dog is a boy, I was able to sleep for a couple more hours. I woke up to the smell of waffles. By the time I actually got out of bed the waffles were long gone and the kitchen was clean. Perfect timing, I am not a huge fan of waffles but Ryan and Rexer love them. It has become a tradition of theirs, I will sleep in and they will eat a big breakfast and play together. When Ry was a newborn Rex us to take him in the living room of our tinny house so I could sleep. He use to just watch him. Well now things look a little different. I think, no I know that this is the best part of Rex's day!

Ryan has a voice

Ryan has always been a pretty vocal kiddo, but lately I feel like he has found another set of pipes. He is getting bigger each day and so is his voice and opinions. He is starting to object when I take a toy away from him or if I tell him no. He is getting really good at throwing balls unfortunately the down side to this is that he throws everything else. I am not a huge fan of food flying at me or a ball flying at my face.

Flying Ryan and

The women in the nursery call Ryan flying Ryan because he is so active. They have called him this since we stared my moms group. That name is so true now. He is so fast. I can hardly keep up with him. Last night mom came over here to watch Ryan and when I came home she made a comment about how fast he is. He understands no no, he may not always listen but he does understand it. I am thankful for that because I at least get his attention when he is about to do something that might hurt him. He is constantly discovering new things. I figured that he would be use to the house, but I guess he just sees things form a different perspective. My favorite thing to do with him is go for walks. He looks around so much and it is fun to teach him about all the amazing things around him. We have been trying to walk everyday. It is a good outing and the fresh air does both of us some good. Rex has several classes that he is taking in the next 2 weeks, so that means when he is not on a 24 he is still at work taking classes or taking classes through another fire department.

So today we went for a wonderful walk with a good friend who just had a baby. We all were talking and she asked if Ryan has had many big falls or accidents. Rex and I both thought about it and said well a few bumps, but nothing serious. Then bath time came tonight and we now have a good story to tell. Rex was giving Ryan a bath tonight and I was down stairs enjoying sitting on the couch. I could hear my boys talking, laughing and splashing water. I was thinking how Blessed I am to have a wonderful husband who is so involved and a handsome little boy who loves his father more than anything. Than I heard Rex say, you are crazy followed by a huge crash and our son screaming. Not crying, yes screaming. I ran upstairs to see my naked little boy with a soapy mo hawk screaming in his daddy's arms. His bump already forming on his forehead. Understand I am being a bit dramatic, but it was dramatic for all three of us. Well all four of us-Bunker was there also. Ryan has been standing up in the bath tub a lot. He has already fallen several times. I guess tonight he was standing at the edge of the tub. Rex was videoing Ryan and Ryan went over the front of the tub hitting his head on the ground. Rex got the entire fall on video. Ryan is fine, I think that it just scared him, it scared me so I can imagine he would be really scared. Rex put Ryan back in the bath and we sat and watched the video. It is painful to watch, but it is hilarious. I am sure this is a video that will come out when Ryan brings his girlfriends home.

Finger prints

This morning while Ryan was napping I was getting ready to clean all the windows, mirrors and television. One of Ryan's favorite things to do is put his dirty or slobbery hands all over everything. Rex really encourages this because he thinks it is cute. So not only are there finger prints at Ryan's level, but they are at Rex's level also. Rex will hold Ryan and they will bang on the windows or mirrors together. It leaves interesting art work in each room of my home. As I was getting ready to wash my window, and honestly I was a little annoyed with the fingerprints. I stood there for a while looking at the hand prints and I realized that one day he will not be leaving fingerprints on my windows and mirrors. It was one of those moments that I believe God was telling me to slow down and appreciate Baby Ryan. Our little guy is growing up so much and each day is more and more independent. I love each new stage in his life, but I cannot help but think of when he was really little. Ry is a total joy. I am Blessed to be his mama. It just goes by so fast. I am really working on trying to enjoy every moment of Motherhood. There are good times and some hard times, but I am amazed at how much Ryan has taught me about life. While standing there staring at my dirty window I decided not to clean any of the mirrors or windows. His little fingerprints are a reminder to me to enjoy every moment!

My hot date

Last night we went to a friend's wedding, it was a blast. It was great to see some people that I have not seen in a long time. It was also fun to show off my handsome little date. Rex was smack in the middle of a shift, but I am so thankful that he was able to take a couple hours off and come to the wedding. He missed out on most of the reception, but it was wonderful to have him there for a couple of hours. My parents were also invited to the wedding, which was a big help on me with Ryan. Honestly having Ryan was like having a little Rex with me. Ryan loved the food and loved to dance, wow just like Daddy. Truly it is the funniest thing, when the music comes on Ryan starts to move!!!!

Here are some fun pictures from the past few days. If I ever have a second child I hope that I take as many pictures!!!!! Honestly I just think that Ryan changes everyday and I do not want to miss anything.

Spring is in the air

I feel like Spring is in the air, maybe that is because I have been doing some Spring cleaning and organizing. Yesterday Rexer came home from work, he said that he did not have a call all night. I heard that and put him right to work. Poor guy was so tired last night, even though he did not have a call he still woke up several times because the medic unit got several calls. He is awesome and helped me anyways. It was so nice to just do a deep clean. I still am folding laundry, but that is never ending. Ry seemed to be feeling better but he was up from 3-4:30am crying this morning. It was Rexers shift so I got to stay in bed but I was not asleep. It is so hard when you are sleep deprived and your child wakes up and is over tired and crying. I so badly want to take the easy way out and have him sleep with us all the time. I know that will not help him or us in the long run, but at 3am it is so tempting. Ry is still sleeping and Rexers is at a Firefighters for Christ meeting. He and some other firefighters have started a chapter in Pierce County. This is something that is really important to him and I am so proud of him for being involved. It is wonderful for me to have some quite time before the craziness of the day begins!!! I am starting to feel like me again. I have felt so out of balance for the past month or so it is nice to be back!!

I was right, Mr. Ryan officially barley took a nap. He slept each time for about 35 minutes. I have gotten nothing done today expect damage control. What is damage control you ask yourself???? Well in the Orcutt household it is following Ryan around so he does not make too big of a mess or hurt himself. However today he did both. Today his big thing was carrying around this Fisher Price tool bench. I swear it weighs more than him. He will stand lift it up with one hand and hang on to something with the other. He also is climbing over everything in his sight. Today he climbed up on the foot stool to the rocker, needless to say he fell and cut open his scratch on his nose. So we had not only hurt tears, but the, I am so over tired tears. We had several fun moments in the middle of all the craziness. He is getting really good at throwing balls back and fourth. Also tonight in the bath he squeezed one of his toys and squirted me with water, I jumped and we both laughed for a while. My favorite thing today was this evening, I put in his veggie tail CD that says his name and we danced. We danced like a couple of crazy people, Bunker even joined in the fun. Motherhood is a crazy journey. One moment I am feeling like I can do nothing right and than Ryan smiles at me or reaches his arms out for me and it makes it all worth it.

Snotty noses and early mornings are not a good combinations. Ryan was up this morning at 7, that is way to early considering that he did not go to bed until 10. I even need more sleep than that. The poor guy is trying to get over what seems like a never ending cold. So have been in the play room playing all morning. We did however wake up to a beautiful blanket of snow. It is still snowing. I am hoping our day is filled with long naps and lots of fun play time. Unfortunately the reality is that he will probably not sleep well because he does not feel well. That means that everything I want to so while he is sleeping will not get done. I think that is one of the hardest things now that he is so active. He can tear this house apart in a matter of minutes. He is understanding no no more, so I guess that is a good thing. I am hoping for the best today-long naps

Here are some fun pictures from our day. Today was filled with lots of laughter, running noses and lots of joy. We went my parent's house for dinner. It was nice and relaxing. Elisha and Ryan have bad colds so they both have raw noses. We still managed to be silly and have a great time. There is nothing better than all the kids playing together, Ryan has fun and loves to crawl all around the house. He loves the living room because there is only one step down, he climbs up and down it over and over. He always seems to be proud of himself. He is busy chasing his cousins and wanting to play with them.

Okay this is so funny to me that I have to blog about it, it is a little weird but hey it is only poop- everyone does it!!!! So every time I lay Ryan down for his morning nap he goes number 2. I am serious, it does not matter what time it is he always poops during his first nap. I think that he knows that I will always change him or something. Most of the time he goes to bed around 10:30-11:00 depending on what time he woke up that morning, but he always goes poop. It is like his crib is a laxative. The funniest thing is that it seems like he will not fall asleep until after he has gone. He has his own routine already. I lay him down he plays in his crib for a while, poops then I change him and usually he falls right to sleep. Weird I know but this was something that made me laugh this morning so I thought I would share.