Mom of Three

What a blessing to be the mom of three beautiful kids. Life is busy and hectic and oh remind me again why I ever try to take them to the store at the same time. But I try to remember that these years go fast so to cherish all the moments. I try to not worry about my house being a wreck all the time. And not worry about the fact that I cant get out of the house before 4 o'clock ever. They are so cute and love each other so much. I love this picture of the girls hugging. They are best friends. That makes all the crazyness of having kids 20 months apart so worth it.

Eva 2 Years Old

Eva Jane... what a character. She is definitely sweet looking but a terrorist in disguise. Leah knows to be scared of her and when she gets mad runs away crying. On the other side she always cuddles up to me and says, I love you mommy. Do you love me? She is very athletic and can climb anything. I took her to the park the other day. The very first thing she did was climb all the way to the top of the tallest ladder in the park. Talk about a heart attack I went running over to the ladder to catch her just as she was falling off the top rung. We have a laugh every night when we put her to bed. She doesn't like to sleep in normal places. We usually find her on the floor cuddled up with her blankets.

Leah Marie Almost 4

My beautiful, energetic, talkitive girl. She is so into pretend play. We are always dogs or cats, sharptooths, or Logan (her friend that moved away). She has been adjusting to the neighborhood we moved into really well. There are so many kids and she gets invited out to play with them. I stand by the window and watch her because I am just so nervious about her being outside by herself. She is the best helper a mom could ask for with the baby. If Ronan starts crying before I can get up she is over by him giving him his binki. She keeps asking me when she gets to be a mommy and have a baby in her belly. I told her a long time from now. She asked if by Christmas she would be a big mommy like me.

Ronan 2 Months Old

Ronan is now 2 months old. I can hardly believe how fast it all has gone. He didn't seem like a little baby for long. My arms already get tired from carrying him around so I am sure he is getting close to 12 pounds. I take him to the doctor this week so we will see. At night he is a wonderful sleeper just waking up one time to eat. He is awake so much more now. Facing forward to look around is his favorite carry position. I love seeing him smile and say agahh. These pictures were taken by Elisha Snow who is my friends sister-in-law. She did an amazing job and had her work cut out for her with the girls who wouln't hold still.

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.