What a Daddy

Isn't this just the picture of the best dad ever. Davy is so cute with the girls and his young man Ronan. He has been taking the girls out, one on one, for daddy daughter dates on Saturdays. They get so excited to got out for special time with him. And Ronan just stares at him with a smile waiting for a glance. We have had a lot of time together lately because I have been taking classes in SLC. We were able to drive to Salt Lake with each other for a whole week. I love having the extra time to talk about our days. He is always so good to listen to me go on and on about what new Real Estate facts I learned. I cant believe that he has to drive that far everyday and then come home with energy for us. It's a good 45 minutes to an hour each way. We are so excited for TRAX to be done. When it's finished it will only be 20 minutes to Salt Lake going 90 mph.

He recently got called as the YM first councilor in our ward. The boys are so excited to have him. Our neighbor told his mom that Brother Ratchford is the funniest person he has ever met. Just wait til they get to know him better and realize there is much more than that. I certainly could not have wished for a better husband. It's coming up on our 7th year anniversary in a few weeks. I think I will keep him.

Ronan - 5 Months

OK, so how can you not be in love with that face. I have to say that I am completely smitten with this little boy. He flashes his huge smile all day for any reason. As quick as he is to smile he is that fast to tears. When I try to put him to sleep by the ferberizing method his face is soaked with tears. Even his ears fill up tears. How could I do that to this poor guy. I have figured out that if I put him to bed at the right time and don't let him get too upset, he can put himself to sleep. He loves playing with toys and is so alert now. He's so big that he's having a hard time rolling over, like his daddy... but his big pot belly has helped him to sit by himself for a minute or so. I am loving all the new things he can do.

Jackson

Can you believe how beautiful this view is? No not the one of my thighs. This was the view from our campsite when we went to Jackson this last weekend. We went with out good friends Cameron and Shannon Richins and Josh and Cami Cook. Cameron had been to this camp site before for a scout camp. It was a 30 minute drive up the canyon and a dirt road but worth every minute of it. At night the moon was so bright that you could see the granite cliffs and the shimmer on the river. It also created some problems with me thinking that I was seeing large animals moving around. I had to stop looking around in the dark because my imagination just gets the best of me. We had asked the ranger if there was any bears. He said, "well actually there was only one that came to the edge of camp right there." And he proceeded to point to the area right next to our tent. We heard the base of someones radio and had a bit of a bear scare. The girls cleaned up all the food and the boys went searching around with their flashlights. It was pretty comical after the fact. On Saturday we took our rented raft and headed down to the Snake river for some excitement. This first time down was pretty slow. I decided to make the most of it on our second trip down. I stood at the front of the raft not thinking the rapids were very big only to get thrown into the river. The shock of what just happened and the freezing cold water shown on my face. I look over and there is Cameron, I must have taken him with me. I thought that was exciting enough I will get in the back of the raft now. Well what had happened was as the day went on more and more water had been released from the lake. Making must bigger rapids than we expected. When we got to the Big Kahuna we guided our boat so we could hit it right on. As soon as we started to descend into it we realized ahhh we have hit it perfectly. What a rush. The second wave after Kahuna we hit a bit sideways and before I knew it I was in the river again, next to me this time was Shannon. Before I could see me life fly before my eyes Cameron has me by the life vest and had pulled me in with one arm. Dave since has checked about getting life insurance on me.

Nana and Papa

I hope that when I grow up I can be as good of a grandparent as mine parents are. Here is the cutest picture of Nancy and Russ from a photo shoot last summer. This last weekend Dave and I went river rafting. Not only did they babysit but my mom cleaned my garage so that I can park in there now. The sweetest thing was that they loved it. My dad called Monday morning just to see how the kids were. He sent them an e-card and was missing them terribly by that time. More than that my mom has been a full time babysitter for the past 2 weeks. She has been watching my kids all day and then working at night. Reason is that I have been studying to get my Real Estate license. It requires 90 hours of class time that I am almost done with. I couldn't have ever made this dream a reality without her support. So I just wanted to say I know that I am so so lucky to have these two funny old people for parents.

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.