Grams

My Grams recently moved into a care home. We try to visit as much as we can. I just thought this photo was sweet.

Preschool Christmas Program

My sweet Baylee Boo turned 5 last week. I honestly can't believe it. I am already dreading her going to kindergarten in the fall. This picture just makes me smile. She never told me she was going to play Mary in her preschool Christmas program until a few days prior. She was so excited to carry baby Jesus and she thought it was so funny that it was a baby doll girl instead of a baby doll boy. The sweetest thing of the whole night was when the children sang their Christmas songs. I could hear her voice so clear over all of the other kids. SHE LOVES TO SING! In fact, I can't help but chuckle when she "performs" a song on our fireplace "stage" and she introduces herself by saying, "Okay, we will now here from a little girl named Baylee Savage!"

Cole "Barefoot" Savage

I had to jot down this funny story about Cole before I forget. Maybe these new year's resolutions are going to stick. Hehe!

So we made Christmas cookies a few Sundays ago and I asked Cole and Baylee if they would deliver some to our next door neighbors. Of course they were up for it so I told them to get on their shoes and coats and I'd get the plates ready. As I head to the door I notice Cole is barefoot. I looked at his feet and told him it was cold out. He looked at me with the most serious look and said, "Don't worry Mom, I'm quarter Indian, I can just go barefoot." I laughed and then decided he needed a pair of moccasins!

Side Note: Cole is some kind of lego maniac at the moment. The kid just can't get enough. Space police and star wars legos have been keeping him quite busy this Christmas break.

Happy New Year!

Wishing you all a Happy New Year! I'm excited for 2011! One of my goals is to keep this blog updated so that I can have a really cool book someday. I try hard to keep up with my four angels and keep our house a home, but by the end of the day I'm just too pooped to post anything. So here's to new goals and 2011! I also decided to make this blog private. I'll wait a little while to do it because I know many of you don't check-in that often. I only post 5 times a year (maybe). Sorry! Email me at ryanandstaciatyahoo when you run across this and I'll be sure to send you an invite! We had a great Christmas and hope you did as well.
Check out my little Lukie Pie. He's growing way too fast--why does it have to be that way?

Halloween 2010

I know, I know--always behing with my updates! :) We're all doing great and had a wonderful Halloween!

Luke Aaron

Meet the newest member of our family -- Luke Aaron Savage. He is so sweet and precious. I am savoring every little thing about him. He was born on 7.20.10 and weighed in at 6 pounds 3 ounces. The delivery is something I'm trying to forget. It was a nightmare. Let's just say that nausea, placenta previa, severe preeclampsia, placenta abruption and emergency c-section = the less than 2 minute birth of my sweet angel boy. It was a little traumatic, but each day is getting better and better. We're just thankful it's over and thankful Luke is healthy.

The kids can't get enough of him. Cole is on constant Luke patrol. He reminds everyone to use "magic soap" and guards Luke from Gabrielle's maulings. We told Cole that Luke looks a lot like he did as a baby and it's been funny to hear him tell everyone how cute Luke is and how he's going to look just like him. He is so proud!

Baylee loves Luke and is constantly asking questions that a 4 year-old shouldn't be asking. She's also interested in how my body is healing and how the whole process of baby Luke came to be. She's super entertaining right now because she just wants to know everything!

Gabrielle will probably beat Luke up when they start playing with toys, but right now she is so sweet with him. She pulls at his clothes so that she can hold him and she even does a little rocking move when she's holding him. She calls him baby Yuke and whenever Luke looks at her she just laughs and laughs.

Ryan and I are super tired, but really, we're just so thankful for our little family right now. Actually, we're not that little of a family now! Crazy!

We hope you all are well. I'll post more photos when he's not so yellow. All my babies get jaundice and stay yellow for a couple weeks.

Ryan and I - 2010 Update

I meant to do this yesterday. Here's the scoop on Ryan and I.

Ryan: Ryan is doing great! He works hard, but he also plays hard too! At the moment Ryan is loving road-biking (training for a triathlon), four-wheeling (gotta love craigslist) and working in our backyard. Check out the photo of our built-in grill he built last summer. He recently built his own road bike too. He pretty much built the entire thing watching American Idol. Every Tue/Wed our living room was covered with bike parts. He took his first spin yesterday and it worked! I was quite impressed. And for the last little while he's been playing Mr. Mom too. He's doing a fantastic job of keeping the house tidy, keeping the laundry going and cooking up some extraordinary dishes. :) He's also the young mens president in our ward, so he pretty much runs from thing to thing all week long. That's him though! You won't find him sitting unless he's on the throne, if you know what I mean! :) I'm very thankful for him.

Me: Things are good, just at a standstill for the moment. I'm prego with baby #4, a boy due at the end of July. I recently found out that I have placenta previa. I spent a few days at the hospital last month and have been on bed rest ever since. Thankfully, things seem to be going smoothly. I have another ultrasound this Tuesday and we're hoping things will have shifted a bit. I've never had any complications with my past pregnancies, aside from nausea, so it's been kind of a shocker. I'm not used to staying at home and resting all day. I miss going places, doing things around the house, cleaning, cooking and playing with the kids. I probably still do a little more than I should, but we're handling it day by day. They've given me the steroid shots for the baby's lungs just as a precaution. I'm currently 27 weeks, so I've got ten more weeks to go before they schedule a c-section. We're hoping and praying that it doesn't come to that. I'm actually not that worried. I have a feeling that things will be just fine. So really, we're all doing great. I have spent many hours coloring, playing with play-doh, trying to sew a felt play house for Baylee and Gabs, ordering a lot of stuff on the internet and talking on the phone. The real bummer has been that I had to cancel a trip to NYC with my two sisters and Mom, a family trip to Maui and a quick trip to San Diego. I had been really looking forward to all three trips. We moved back our Maui trip, but now we'll have 4 kids to travel with! SCARY! Anyway, we hope you all are doing great! I'll try and do better with the photos Mom!


I couldn't find the photo of the grill. I'll take one when it's not raining.

2010 Update

My oh my! I have surely neglected this thing! Things have been a little busy around here. First off, we're doing great! Here's the scoop on everyone:

Gabrielle: We also call her Gabs. She's growing up so quickly and insists on us knowing it. She's got a very sassy personality and I so appreciate it. She and Baylee are tough little cookies. Gabrielle is currently into Yo Gabba Gabba (not a huge fan), balloons, baths, coloring and talking. She's quite bossy too. We put up with it because she's such a great sleeper! She makes us laugh and we all adore her.

Baylee: Baylee is four and is in love with preschool, dress-up clothes, singing into a microphone, dancing, coloring, cooking and make-up. I get a huge kick out of Baylee. She's pretty much my best friend these days, as we spend the most time together. I've always thought she was smart-even as an infant, but the more she's grown the more brilliant I think she is. She just amazes me. It also scares me too because she's just growing up way too fast!

Cole: Cole is currently in kindergarten and doing great! I have to say that I am the mother of the sweetest boy on earth. He's thoughtful, caring, sweet, responsible and probably a little too mature for his age. I'm not sure how Ryan and I did it! :) He really is a great kid! Right now, he's currently into playing basketball, baseball, running, reading, playing the Wii, riding his scooter and banana splits. Did I mention running? The kid runs EVERYWHERE! He also asks for a banana split almost everyday. I give in a lot because his knees are very bony and they're very scary for me to look at. I need to ask my MIL, but I think Ryan was just as bony. Because I know that I've never been bony! :)

Too tired to finish up... I'll tell you about Ryan and I tomorrow!

Football Stuff

Aren't you so excited that football season started? I am just so thrilled! I record every game on TV and have been trying to convince Ryan that we need to attend as many games as possible! I just love this time of year! Ryan, on the other hand, doesn't really like to watch football. He'd rather go shopping, try a new restaurant or get a couples pedicure. I'm trying very hard to get him to love football as much as I do. I know it would do wonders for our marriage! :) I practically had to drag him to Dallas to watch BYU and OU play. He really wasn't into the game. He was more interested in people watching, eating football food and walking around the very cool Dallas Cowboys stadium.

Okay, I'm kidding. Wouldn't that be so funny if it were true? What's funny is that when I was walking around the stadium I was totally searching for a place to get a pedicure. The stadium is so cool -- I was sure there was a salon in there. Unfortunately there wasn't anything of the sort. Don't you think that's a great idea though?

We all had a great time watching the game. Baylee was the only one who got a little bored. I let her take pictures with my camera and she snapped 180+ pictures. There are random photos of someone's bottle of beer, a close-up of an old man and lots of herself. So funny. See photo below. Even Gabrielle did great. I'm not a huge football fan, but I love going to live sporting events. Thank goodness BYU won!

Life is Good!

Hi again! Life is good here! We've had a wonderful summer. Cole started kindergarten this year and now we have to stay put. Bummer. I'll post what we've been up to later this week. I'm super tired tonight--long day!


Baylee is our little entertainer. This girl is always singing! I love it when we know the same songs! Who knows, maybe we'll be the next big mother/daughter duo. :)

This photo just tears me up. I hated sending Cole to school. Can you believe he goes from 9-4! I had so much anxiety the week prior to school. I'm pretty sure my worries caused an ulser. I've been in a lot of pain--emotionally and physically. I can't help it. I miss him. He's such a sweet guy and I just want him around. The first day was a 1/2 day and I worried the entire time he was gone. When I picked him up he looked awful--pale, scared, worried etc. I started crying right there. Apparently he didn't eat much and felt nauseated and lethargic most of the time he was at school. I'm pretty sure I caused all of his nervousness. I'm trying to do better.


I had this little surprise waiting for Cole when we got home from school and all he wanted to do was lay in bed. I felt so bad for him. This photo was taken a few hours after we got home. This week of school has been better!


Guess who started walking this summer? Our little Gabrielle is into EVERYTHING! She loves finding little treasures--drawers with cleaning supplies, the toilet, toilet paper, dirt from our plants, dish towels, you name it! She can usually be found hanging on my leg or getting into stuff. We sure love her though.
I was able to snap a quick photo before leaving for church on Sunday.
Gabrielle threw a fit when I wouldn't hand over my camera. She was chasing me all over. She's a momma's girl like no other.

I'M ALIVE!

So guess what? I did it. I finished the 1/2 marathon in Seattle. I've been worried about it for quite some time and I'm so glad it's over! Seriously, I feel like a huge weight has been lifted. :) Ryan did the full marathon and he did awesome. We were able to meet up with so many good friends, including running into a few friends from our home town. Joel did the full thing along with Ryan's sister, Amber and her hubby, Kenny. Everyone did so good. What's crazy is that Joel hurt himself several weeks before the race and was told he couldn't run. He still ran and did great! Ryan thinks he's ready for another... I'm ready to hang up my running shoes. My sisters thought I was crazy because I didn't buy a cute little running outfit and after seeing these photos, I'm so sad I didn't. I don't know what I was thinking packing those little pant/short things--I was worried about being cold and it happened to be very warm that day. Anyway, I'm glad it's over and glad I did it!

Busy Busy

This picture is so funny. I think this is our only family photo. We had a request for a current family photo, so I had Ryan set up the tripod. Gabrielle is crying because we all yelled "cheese".


My poor kids look beat up. Baylee had an accident with a weight machine and the scar around her eye is still healing. She also had a bruise from I don't know where. Cole's nose is red because he was squeezing it too hard in the pool.
Can you tell Baylee's been out in the sun? Gabrielle is so fair! I think all of my coloring went to Cole and Baylee. There was nothing left for Gabrielle.


Gabrielle at 7 months old.


Once again, I'm posting some photos for my Mom. Here you go Mom.

I've been really busy and I don't have photos to prove it, but here are a few of the latest we've taken. I've been busy training for a dumb 1/2 marathon that I got suckered into doing. I'm trying not to think about it... I also recently started piano lessons. I took lessons when I was younger, but I really didn't learn anything. I had my teacher start me at square one and it's been great. I'm just finding that practice time is pretty scarce. The kids are great and growing up so quickly. They make me laugh all day long. Gabrielle has me the busiest. She's just not happy unless I'm holding her or sitting right next to her. That's probably the main reason I don't update very much. Ryan is doing great also. He just finished his annual 50-mile hike near Lake Powell. I went to Tucson to visit my sister while he was gone and had a great time. I flew by myself with all 3 kids! It wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. I was so impressed with how good they did! Anyway, we're all doing great and hope you are too!

I know, I know...

I know, I know--I know I'm horrible at keeping this thing updated. Mom, these photos are for you. Can you believe Gabrielle is already 6 months old? She's giving me a run for my money already. She grabs anything and everything. She also puts that anything and everything in her mouth--it's gross. I can't wait until she's past that stage. She loves real food and will spit out all baby food. She already sits up all by herself and will cry on demand for something she really wants. I feel like her life is on fast forward!

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Cole made this at preschool. Isn't he a cute leprechaun?

BYU Young Ambassadors

The BYU Young Ambassadors came to Rio Rancho and it was only a few minutes away so we decided to take the whole fam. I really thought the kids would enjoy it. Nope. We left during intermission. Here's why...

Me: Cole, please sit still. Baylee, please sit in your chair. Cole, isn't this cool? Baylee, isn't this cool? Cole, please sit still. Baylee, please sit in your chair.

Cole: I want to go home and ride my bike and jump on the trampoline.

Baylee: (whining)- When do I get to have a turn up there? I want to sing my song.

Me to Ryan: We're out of here.

Indoor Camping

The kids wanted to go camping last weekend so Ryan made it happen. He pretty much does whatever the kids want. No wonder Cole thinks I'm like Ruby... Thanks for being a good Dad, babe!



Even Gabrielle had fun "camping".

Don't Be Jealous Ladies!

So I told Ryan not to get me anything for Valentine's Day. He usually goes a bit overboard and I just wanted a few hours to shop and get a pedicure. We both agreed it would happen and that would be it. Well, Valentine's Day came and went and I didn't get my few hours. He was on call over the weekend and of course, someone was in agonizing pain and needed an injection and percoset(sp?). We made the office visit a part of our date, which also included a trip to Costco and a very romantic dinner at Wendy's. Needless to say, Valentine's Day wasn't what I envisioned. Ryan felt bad about it so he brought home these roses on Monday. He didn't notice the sticker on the flowers when he bought them, but I just thought it was so funny and so appropriate that he thought I deserved the Manager's special!

It's That Time Again

Ryan is already fired up for gardening! Even the kids are excited for our garden. They spent the evening planting loads and loads of seeds. I took them to Target on Tuesday (Target Tuesday) and I let them each pick out a "toy". They both wanted a gardening tool. I thought it was funny.

Multitasking

Gabrielle was having a hard day a few days ago. Thank goodness she was happy in the laundry room. I was behind with my laundry so she was in there for quite a while.

Max and Staci

So I learned today exactly how Cole feels about me and I'm kind of sad. Here's why.

Scenario: Cole and Baylee are watching Max and Ruby while I prepare lunch.

Cole: Mom, Max is so funny.
Me: Why?
Cole: He just put a spider on his sandwich.
Me: You're right. That sure is funny.
Cole: Ruby is so mean!
Me: You think?
Cole: Yep, she's just like you Mom.
Me: (speechless)

I have often thought how annoying and bossy Ruby is. I'm so sad that Cole thinks I'm like her.