Happy Birthdays

Ronan was born just one day before my birthday. We celebrated my birthday in the hospital. The girls thought that I needed a party when we got home. This week has been an adjustment but things are going really well. I am feeling good if we all get dressed, showered, and eat our meals. Ronan is a really good baby. I feel so lucky to have a family of three and just love watching the girls play with the baby.

Welcome Baby Ronan

Ronan Finn Ratchford was born on March 20th at 9:15 in the morning. He was 7 pounds 12 ounces and 20 inches long. I was just waking up at 6am when I noticed something that might be a contraction. For the next hour they continued so I figured I was still in labor and got Dave and left for the hospital. On the drive there which is about twenty minutes the contractions were 2 minutes apart and painful. Once we got into the hospital I was in amazing amounts of pain. So much that the nurse checked to see how dialated I was. There was a look of panic on her face as she realized I was a 7 and about to have a baby. Then the room was rushed full of nurses about 6 of them. They quickly took me to another room and the anastesiologist ran in to give me an epidural. At that point I was already a 10 but my doctor was still twenty minutes away. Thank goodness for fast acting pain medicine is all I can say. I never believed that I would be one of those women mouning in pain but I was. The doctor arrived shortly and with three contractions of pushing there arrived our baby. He slightly reminded us of Grandda Ratchford with his wrinkled face. Once we got him home I realized that their must be a genetic gene in the Ratchford family for hungry boys. He has been eating 2-3 ounces every 2 hours since he got home. The girls absolutely love him, especially Leah. Eva is a little jealous but ajusting well. They follow me all over the house watching what we are doing with the baby. Leah holds him all the time and feeds him bottles. Eva is especially interested in the breast pump. We are so happy to have our little boy here and are doing great.

Ronan Finn Ratchford

I know this picture looks a little creepy, but this is a 3-D image of baby Ronan in Rachels belly. He will be born around March 26th, so in this image he is around 20 weeks old in the womb.

Leah and Eva are great. They always give Rachels tummy (Ronan) a kiss goodnight. Rachel is doing great, no real sickness, just a little tired.

Our Trip to Ireland, May 2006

Last May, Rachel and I were able to go to Ireland for Stephen and Ciara's baby christening. We stayed in Stephens house in Glasnevin and had a great time. Erin and Garreth brought Liam and Grace with them and Ma Ratchford came. We went all over Dublin, Wicklow, Tralee and Killarney.

The family gathering at a pub in Finglas after the Christening

Rachel and Davy horse back riding in the Ring of Kerry. Davy's hips and bum will never be the same. We had some German Nazi of a women telling us to "trot away" every few minutes. It was torture.

Garreth, Stephen (with baby Murren) and Davy outside of the church in Finglas.

Rachel, Breen, Grace, Liam and Saorcia getting a flake 99 from the ice-cream man outside Stephens house in Glasnevin.

Ma, Grace, Breen, Liam, Saorcia, Rachel, Garreth and Erin on the top of a double Decker bus in Dublin.

Some other Ratchfords

Here is Garreth, Erin, Grace and Liam Ratchford. Little Sam Ratchford is not in this picture. These guys live in Price, UT, which is a small town about 2 hours from Salt Lake City. Garreth works for Conoco Phillips as a big shot Health and Safety guy doing stuff that no one can understand. Erin is a stay at home mom who is an avid reader and expert scrapbooker. Grace is 6 years old and is smart as a whip. She just lost one of her front teeth. Liam is a 4 year old bruiser who will grow up to be a tank commander, you wait and see! Sam is their little Latin blooded son. He is 18 months old and has the biggest smile you've ever seen. He also has man sized hands and will grow up to be an expert gymnast, especially on the rings.

Halloween 2006

This year Leah dressed up as a horse and Eva dressed up as a pink poodle. We went out and got a ton of candy. The pictures below are of when we got home and looked over our large candy haul. Eva dug right in and started eating it, wrapper and all. Leah was amazed that people would just give her free candy. She declared that Halloween is her favorite holiday.

Our Trip to McCall, Idaho

Da Ratchford and Merrilee own a cabin up in McCall, Idaho and they invited us up to spend the weekend with them in September. It was a beautiful area and we had a great time. Garreth and Erin brought Grace, Liam, Sam and Mikey up with them and we all stayed nice and cozy. There is this gorgeous lake up there and the kids loved playing in the water and burying uncle Garreth in the sand. We went to the high-end shops in McCall where the sold beaver skins and shotgun casings, it was so posh. The place really is lovely and we are excited to go up again, minus the long drive...

Da and Eva

Davy and a filthy Eva

Rachel, Davy, Leah and Eva at the lake.

Leah

The Actress. Leah is one of the most talented manipulators around. She has her daddy wrapped all around her finger. She is a master communicator and has been since she was a little girl (it was those bloody Signing Time videos and their freakish commercialized deaf kids). Leah is the consummate big sister and is a big help to Rachel around the house.

After her daddy told Leah that he wasn't going to spend more money on a new movie for her, she grabbed her daddies face and told him "it's okay, you can only do so much...." She got the movie...

Leah is currently in gymnastics where she recently won the distinction of being the best listener in the class. She enjoys going to church and saying prayers, even though she accuses Jesus of stealing things, "that Jesus is a taker", she recently told us after a toy went missing. She will be turning four in July and wants to be a cowgirl when she grows up. She is still in love with her best friend Logan who has moved to Alabama. Leah is a very special girl and is destined to do something amazing in her life.

Eva

This one is a little crazy. We took this picture of her in the summer. She is 20 months old now and has an appetite for destruction. She is into everything. Rachel does a great job keeping this one under control. Don't let her beautiful little face deceive you, this child was the mastermind behind our latest arson attack.

Eva loves to read books with her daddy, play with her big sister and hold onto mommy's leg all day long. Whateven she decides to do in life, Eva will be in control. Her personality of independance is already evident and she is so fun to talk to and to cuddle. I know that she will break a lot of hearts when she gets older.

Our Little Arsons

Last week I walked into the kitchen to discover flames shooting out of the microwave. The look in the kids faces that something was amiss in the house didn't happen until I pulled the extinguisher out and commenced to put out the blaze. The house quickly filled with thick smoke. I ran the children out to the van in the parking lot. And headed back into the house to open windows and start a fan. When interrogated by Davy, Leah admitted that her and Eva had decided to cook. Found inside the microwave were 2 sippy cups, a pretend hotdog, a doll, and 2 bouncy balls. Leah is very nervous that other fires are going to start but was most concerned that her toy hot dog was gone. She now knows that if there is a fire she does 2 things, yells fire then grabs her sister and runs outside.