Latest Pictures of Riley

Here are some recent pics of our little man!  He is such a chunk...can you tell?!  I am almost to the point where I can't carry him in the car seat anymore!! My back is killing me!  Anyway, he has started rolling over regularly (the picture of me kissing him is when we first saw him do it....he had already done it in his bed) and he loves to smile and laugh.  He has also recently "found" his feet.  It makes diaper changing interesting!! Hope everyone is doing well.  We will probably be in Pensacola through May because of all the bad weather we've been having.  We are getting anxious to move so the Lord is teaching us patience I guess!!

My Heavy Heart

I am afraid that my earlier post may have offended some and/or sounded judgmental.  Let me just keep it short and simple this time....my heart really hurts for those going through fertility and marriage difficulties.  I guess I really can't imagine what they are going through.  The only thing I know to do is to keep praying!

My attempts at Creativity

Well, I thought I would share with all of you my attempts at being creative!  If you know me, you know that I don't have a creative bone in my body.  I am very ok with admitting this, but I do try to pretend I am somewhat crafty when I am with someone who is good at all of this (umm....my friend Roos).  These 2 project ideas were given to me by others.  My mom's friend Mrs. Karen told me about the name in the frame.  I first thought it would be way too difficult (and it was at my first attempt...I couldn't find letters I liked....but the joys of internet shopping paid off).  Anyway, Edmond helped me put it all together and I was really pleased with how it turned out!  The other hanging frame is from my mom.  She is a Creative Memories consultant (or used to be....not sure) and they came out with this magnetic board.  The cool thing is that you can change out the background, letters, etc. whenever you get tired of what you have.  I thought this looked good in Riley's room too!  I was just so happy with the end results that I had to share!!!

Where will we go....

NORTH CAROLINA, SAN DIEGO, HAWAII, OR JAPAN?  Yes...we are getting ready for the big move (and Riley is getting ready for the beach)!  In about 2 months, we will be moving to our first permanent duty station.  Well...kind of!  Depending on what type of helicopter Edmond flies, we may go to one more stop for 6 months, and then we would go on to our first duty station.  Our final destination will be one of the four places listed above.  We are excited, but a little nervous.  We will be in constant prayer about this choice because we want to be where the Lord wants us.  Of course the military will have a say as well, but we all know Who is in control, right?!  We will keep you posted as we find out more information!!

Four Months Old

Just a little update on Riley's health before I start this post...he is doing much better.  We still have a way to go before I would say he is "back to normal", but he is making great progress every day!  Thanks for all the prayers!  Now for the fun stuff....

Riley turned 4 months old today and last night (finally) he slept for 8 1/2 hours!! Woo hoo!!  I know some of you are super moms out there who got your children to sleep through the night much sooner, but we are very excited about reaching this milestone...even if it took us a little longer.  And I am not naive enough to think that this will be a constant from now on, but hey, we had to start somewhere!  I was so excited that at the eight hour mark, I snuck into his room to take a picture.  Now, he is not the most peaceful sleeper.  His head ended up where his feet had been when I put him down! 

 A few days ago we heard his sweet laugh for the first time.  We had heard him coo while smiling before and I interpreted that as a laugh, but this one was for real. The picture of him in his tub is from his first laugh....I was too late with the camera to get a picture of the actual laugh, but this will have to do. He is still changing so much every day!  He has made our lives so much richer!! We love you, Riley!!!

Update on Riley

Yesterday we got a call from the Doctor saying that Riley had Salmonella.  We have no idea where he could've been exposed to this, but we are worried sick, to say the least!  We have been cleaning our kitchen/apartment inside and out just to be sure if there was something here, that it is gone now.  They told us that it can be contagious from one person to another if they are in contact with bodily excretions.  It works the same with animals/pets.  It makes you so aware of things you may track in with your shoes or even if you drop a blanket and don't wash it right away.  Anyway, Riley is doing ok....not great, but ok.  They have told us that it could take days, maybe weeks for his symptoms to totally go away.  That just makes me sick!  My mom stayed here to be with him yesterday and today (so that I could go to work for a few days) and I will be home with him for the remainder of the week.  Please pray for us.  We are struggling with feelings of guilt and inadequacy as parents (maybe me, more so than Edmond).  You just think that you should be able to protect your child from these things!  In just a few short months, Riley has experienced an allergy to dairy, a stomach virus, and now Salmonella!  I just feel horrible!  Anyway, enough about my feelings.....more than anything, please pray for Riley to be completely healed!  I know the Lord is with us and has His arms around him, but it still breaks my heart watching him go through this.  We love you all!!

Riley in the Hospital

On Thursday, February 19th, Riley started running a fever and having lots of really dirty diapers (if you know what I mean) with some blood in them.  During the night, his temperature shot up to 102.8 and I started getting nervous.  I took him in to see our pediatrician, Dr. Mahaffey (who is just wonderful...we love her), and she sent us straight to the hospital.  She said she didn't want us to worry, but since it was right before a weekend and we couldn't get his fever down she wanted us to go so that they could run some tests and monitor his hydration.  I called Edmond and he met us at the hospital at about 12:30.  Friday was pretty rough, but Riley started doing much better on Saturday.  They sent us home today (Sunday), although he is still having some dirty diapers!  He is no longer running a temperature, thank you Lord!  Anyway, most of you have been praying for him and we thank you!! We still don't know what he has (most tests have come back negative), but feel certain that he is on the road to recovery!  Here are a few pics....the gown was just so sad so we did not put it on him....had to take a picture though.