Smith Family Christmas!!

What a blessing to get to be a part of my family Christmas!  I was worried that after missing Brian's family Christmas I would miss mine too.  We were a little unsure if we were going to be out of the NICU in time, but it all worked out!  I knew that our individual family Christmas could be done anytime after we got home from the hospital, but to reschedule the big family Christmas would be unrealistic.  So, we are thankful to be a part of it.  We woke up yesterday and celebrated with just our family of SIX and then loaded up the van to make it in time for the 5pm candle light service at Orchard Hill Church.  We then headed over to mom and dad's for our traditional appetizer supper and to spend the night.  Emily's family didn't stay but Jamie's did.  We were all pretty tired so we didn't stay up too late doing our usual game playing.  We mostly just sat around eating and talking!  We woke up Christmas morning and the kids were so excited of course!  Mom made an awesome breakfast and Emily's family came back right away in the morning so we could eat and get started on opening gifts!  It always feels so good to give gifts and having had Keziah's help in wrapping this year, I would say she had just as much fun giving away the gifts she helped with as she did opening gifts!  One last gift to open was Austin's from my parents...he got a really nice cross bow.  He couldn't stop grinning!!  The box it came in ended up creating much entertainment for Keziah, Adah and Ethan.  I think it was turned into many different things.  They used other boxes to tape to it and a whole lot of tape too!  Adah just liked to lay in it!  The rest of the day we were pretty lazy (except mom preparing our lunch!).  We played with toys and picked up and did a lot of eating!  Mom made an excellent lunch for us all!  We have been so blessed to have each other.  What a great way to spend Christmas!  Merry Christmas every one!

Happy Birthday Jamie!

Today my little sister Jamie turned 27 years old!  It's hard to believe!  She is growing into a wonderful mommy and wife and is going to be a mommy again the end of May!  I am very blessed to call her family and even more blessed to call her my friend!  Happy Birthday, sis!  We love you!

Rylan's First Birthday!

Rylan turned one on the 23rd. He is so sweet and so laid back. Enjoy the video of his first birthday. He did great with his cake too!

Recker Home Visit!

Aside from Keith needing to go back to work and me being worried about Jamie home alone with a 'sewn up' stomach and newborn, I just couldn't stay away. I just love that Jamie is home and I can see baby Rylan pretty much whenever I want!! So here we are again today, already. A couple of photos were from when we stopped there on Sunday after they had gotten home.

The Recker Family

Here they are...the official Recker family! I can't believe this is my little sis!

Proud to announce...

Baby BOY....
Rylan Donald Recker
Born at 9:47 am 7.23.09
7lbs. 15.5oz.
20.5 inches

Jamie went in to be induced this morning after meeting with the doctor yesterday and the doctor expressing some concerns that the baby was getting too big. Jamie and Keith were there by 6am and after starting some meds they could tell the baby wasn't going to handle the contractions well. Its heart rate would drop and then take too long to recover, plus a look at the placenta showed it was deteriorating and not supplying enough oxygen to the baby. So with all that going on, a c-section was in order. Enjoy the pictures of our newest wonder!

I have to make note how Kezzie reacted since in a few short months we will be bringing home our own bundle of joy...We walked in and there were a couple nurses present monitoring Jamie. I think that kind of scared Kezzie but mostly I think her reaction came if the baby and Jamie were in view. She was a shaking mess. I was holding her the whole time and trying to get her up close to see the baby and her whole body would shake the minute Jamie and the baby were in sight. I don't know if she didn't like seeing Jamie in the hospital bed or if she was anxious about seeing the baby, but it took her a long time to warm up. If I was standing, she would immediately start saying "chair, chair" to get me to sit back down with her and when I would sit she would then bury her head on my shoulder and just lay there. Regardless of what the reasoning was behind it, I was shocked at her reaction! I think she is over it now since ALL she is talking about is "baby, mamie (Jamie) and Keith"!

Recker Shower!

Jamie's baby shower was yesterday. We had a great time! There was a pretty good turn out of people but still so much food! We did an afternoon shower with appetizers and cake. Fruit pizza, chicken cracker dip, puppy chow and pickle/ham wraps were to name a few! The cake turned out really well. We took an invitation into target and they created it based off that! I am including a copy of the invite because I have to show off my work every once in a while and they are just too cute. I looked at Jamie's comforter she has picked out for the baby and redrew some of the characters on the computer. It's hard to come up with a theme of colors when you don't know the sex of the baby so Emily and I thought it would be safe to use the bedding Jamie picked as the theme for the shower! It all looked great! We played three games. First of all we passed around some string and every one cut off a piece that they thought might fit around Jamie's belly. The second game we did was a candy bar game. Emily went out and bought about every candy bar/candy you can think of and for each candy you got a clue (ie. Grandparents would match up with lifesavers, umbilical cord would match up with twizzlers, breastfeeding would match with milky way, etc.). I thought that game was so cute! We also played a game of memory where we placed several items on a try that Jamie would need (clippers, nasal aspirator, bib, etc.) and people would get a few seconds to look at the tray and then write down as many of the items as they could remember. The games were fun and then we were on to gifts. Jamie got a nice variety of things she still needed. Casey made an awesome scrap book baby book, she also received a baby bath and many other supplies. Not knowing what the sex of the baby was kept people from buying clothes so that was a good thing...Jamie didn't want a bunch of green and yellow outfits!! I think the shower was a success! Congratulations Jamie and Keith...we can't wait to meet the newest addition to our family!