Wyatt is 1!

My baby turned one year old last Wednesday (August 3rd).  I can't believe how fast this year has gone by!  This past week has been so hard too thinking about how sick he was last year.  He is such a sweet little guy, I am so thankful for him!

Crazy Kid!

Here is a quick look of some of the last years pictures of him!  Enjoy!

August 3, 2010.  Wyatt Ford is here!  8 pounds 13 ounces!

Fighting to breath on CPAP, 30 hours after his birth.

The morning after the worst phone call of my life.  Dr called my room and said they had to intibate Wyatt, his breathing had gotten too bad.  He was fighting to breathe over the breathing tube.  Worst 10 days of my entire life.  The teddy bear was a gift from Big Brother Cooper saying "Hi Baby Wyatt."  Since Cooper was too young to be allowed into the NICU that is the only contact the brothers had.

8 Days old!  Getting stronger!

The first time Cooper got to see his brother.  In the NICU at Presby of Plano in Texas.  Best hospital in the entire world if anyone wants to know!.  This room is a special room for parents to sleep in with their babies the night before their NICU baby can leave the hospital.  Its like a hotel within the hospital.  Nurses come by once or twice a night to check on the baby but they don't have the tubes and wires or anything like that.  Cooper walked into the room the following morning, moved this chair over to Wyatt and starting petting him. It blew our minds!  He instantly became the best brother in the whole entire world!

Cooper about to bring his brother home!

Look who's a month old!

Two months!

Eating cereal at 3 1/2 months old!

4 Months old, December 2010.

5 months old!

He's 6 months old here!

7 Months and counting!

8 Months!

What a difference a month has made!  Look who's 9 months old!

So big at 10 months old!

11 Months old!

Happy 1st Birthday Beautiful Boy!

The Boat

While we were up in Canada, my grandfather (my Dad's dad), was talking to Nick about how he was cleaning out the old barns on his property.  While talking, Grandpa said to Nick that the old boat was up there and he could have it if he wanted it.  The old wooden boat has been the apple of everyone's eyes for as long as we could remember, but nobody has ever asked for it...until a kid driving by came up to the door and asked Grandpa if he could buy it off of him and Grandpa said no he was going to give it to family.  Anyways, a little bit about this boat:

Granny and Grandpa bought it in Ontario in 1966 or 1967.  It's original owner bought it in 1952/1953.  The owner was on the same army base as my grandparents and sold it to them when he was transferred overseas.  It was used by my Dad and his brother and sister when they were kids all over Ontario.  Then they got older and it just sat in my grandparents barn.  My dad and the guy who lived beside us in Orleans, Canada growing up took it to our house when I was 3-4 years old and restored it.  They spent all weekend working on it and finally took me out of a ride on the rideau canal in it.  To their suprise their was an old boat festival going on.  Not that that has anything to do with the story of the boat but its cute.  After that day it went back to the barn...and stayed there for 23-24 years...until this summer.  

My Granny and Grandpa (boat owners since 1966!)

Nick, Grandpa, my cousin Chris, and a bit of help from Cooper pulled it out of the barn and checked it over. It truly is in incredible condition other than some bird and rat poop on it haha.

The boat was on its original trailer and needed a bit of work to be able to make the trip from Ontario, Canada to Dallas, Texas though!  So Uncle Murray and Nick worked hours on updating the trailer, buying a new axel, changing the wheels and bearings and such.  Their hard work payed off and everyone was so happy to see someone so excited to want the boat so much!  

Nick told me one night while laying in bed "I've loved that boat since the first time I laid eyes on it ."  So cute!

So now we are going to be restoring this old boat for the next few months!  Should be fun.  Still looks great, needs a bit of work and some new paint and she'll be working like a charm!

CANADA Summer 2011

I am SO far behind on this blog!  Things have been happening so fast that I haven't had a chance to post anything in far too long!  We took a trip to Canada to see my family at the end of July.  We left Wylie at 4:00 in the afternoon on Thursday (after Nick's meeting).  He had stayed up the night before until 4 am so he would sleep late into the day.  That way he could drive the entire night (since I can't see well at night I wasn't much help).  I drove the first stretch to Tulsa (a 4 hour drive).  Then he took over and drove until 7 am.  We stopped 3 times during the night and stretched.  Both boys did amazing and slept through the night!  Well...I take that back... After the 2 am stop Cooper wasn't falling back asleep so I took the opportunity to close my eyes for a few minutes!  I'm one of those people who won't let only 1 person be awake driving at any time during a long trip.  I have to have a second set of eyes on the road for safety.  So Nick and Cooper chatted for 2 hours!  Here's a quick picture of Cooper singing to Adele during the middle of the night (he wasn't as crazy looking as this picture looks lol).

I drove the following morning for a couple hours while Nick rested, then he took over again.  We crossed into Canada through Michigan around 4:30 in the afternoon.  Once we hit Toronto I drove again.  The fastest speed we hit on the entire drive was there in Michigan; I couldn't keep up with them, and I'm a pretty good speedy driver!

We arrived at my Grand-parents house at Midnight.  We were buzzed from our Tim Hortons coffee's (YUM!).  We stayed awake talking to everyone for a while but finally coaxed ourselves into going to bed and starting to recover from the mega drive.

While in Canada we saw all of our family, went to see the changing of the guards in downtown Ottawa, did some shopping, had lots of amazing food, and had Wyatt's first birthday party with my whole side of the family.  It was so special, everyone was there!  Oh, we also brought Cooper to the dinosaur museum!  he has been wanting to see it for MONTHS!  Here are a few pictures:

Cooper on the same exact tree that my brother and I had our pictures taken on 2 decades ago!

Wyatt's first time on REAL SOFT grass!  Nothing like this crappy Texas grass that hurts to walk on!

My Nanny and Papa (the boys great-grandparents). My mom's parents.

My Granny and Grandpa (their other great-grandparents).  My Dad's parents.

My Aunt  Sandy teaching Cooper how to swim!

We did some fishing at Uncle Mike and Vi's house (on the Mississippi).  We caught tons of sunfish!

Yup, this sassy Dallas Mamma can forget her makeup and diamonds and get down and dirty..and take a fish off a hook.  HAHAHA, so many people would have never believed I did this!  I also picked live frogs out of the pool too!

The changing of the guards in Ottawa.  Its breathtaking!

My babies and I in front of the parliament buildings.

Nick and his boys in front of the parliament buildings.

Dinosaur fossils at the dinosaur museum!

Wyatt in MY Granny's Grandfathers crib.  That means this crib is Wyatt's Great, Great, Great Grandfathers.  How amazing is that?  Granny also slept in it, as well as her dad!  Breathtaking to think about!

Family picture taken at Uncle Mike's.

People swimming in the pool for Wyatt's birthday.  All family and friends!

Nick's burger balls before he made them into patties for everyone!

He went crazy for his birthday cake!  It was awesome!

Nick is sitting in his boat...that we pulled back from Grandpa's barn...on the middle of I-30 in Texas.  Next post is about the boat.... Anyways, a tractor trailer lost the front axel on his truck (don't worry, nobody was hurt), but the road was closed so we all had to park our cars for well over an hour.  We decided to have some fun and took this picture.  The lady behind in the van had Nick checking her air in her tires, showing her a TX map and how to get to where she was going.  It was fun to be silly after being stuck in the car for so long.   Such an amazing trip, can't wait to go back!

Easter 2011

It is now May and I am just realizing how far behind I have been on writing on this blog!  I don't do it on purpose, I've just been really busy (read the next post and you will see why!).  So, here is a quick rundown of our Easter and some pictures to go along with it!

My Aunt, Uncle, and Cousin arrived the night before Easter, so we had a great wake up the following morning.  The Easter bunny did a great job hiding eggs all over my parents massive house and yard.  It took Cooper over an hour to find all his eggs.  Wyatt got some fun things too, but he is still too little to do the egg hunt.  Next year though!

Here is a picture of my two little guys in their bunny ears, thanks to their Nana! :

Cooper had a great time finding eggs all over the place:

It was a great day, went by too quickly though!

BUSY MONTH!

This past month has been SO busy!  Let's break it down into the 4 weeks of a typical month.

Week 1: My family friends, Gwen and Larry, came down to Texas to visit.  Whenever family comes, we try and spend as much time as possible with them.  That meant LOTS of driving back and forth to my parents house (which is an hour away from our house).  They were here for one week.  They left on a Friday and my Aunt, Uncle, and cousin showed up that Sunday.

Week 2 and Week 3- Aunt Sandy, Uncle Murray, and my cousin Marc came down from Canada.  What a trip!  We had such a great time and stayed busy the entire two weeks!  Cooper and Wyatt got spoiled, as always, by the family!  Cooper had a bit of a hard time adjusting once they left because we stayed at my parents house for most of the days that they were here.  Less than a year and they will be back though!

Week(end) 4- Nicks parents flew down from Tennessee from this past Thursday night (they didn't get in until late at night), and stayed until lunch on Monday.  It was a short visit, but we never stopped!  Nicks brothers also came on Saturday afternoon/early evening, and left the following day.  It was a PACKED house!

Cooper is in his second to last week of school.  He is going to have such a hard time this summer not going to school because he absolutely LOVES it!  I'm a bit worried about how he will do once he returns next year and has a new teacher because he LOVE his teacher, Mrs. Holloway, so much!  I'm trying to come up with lots of fun things to keep us all busy this summer though!  Keep reading during the next few weeks to see what I come up with!  (OH!  I almost forgot...while my cousin was in town we went to a drum and guitar store so he could see for some new pieces for his drum set.  Cooper fell in drum heaven...so now we have a drum set in our living room, and a little boy who loves to go crazy on them!  Drum lessons to start soon...)

Wyatt is getting SO big!  He is 9 months old, and wearing 18 month clothing.  He is SO tall its insane!  He is in the 90th percentile on height.  Poor chum is growing faster than his little body can get used to it!  He's crawling really fast, pulling up on everything, and is completely head over heals in love with his big brother.  If he ever has a sad face, Cooper can change it in an instant by just coming close to him.  I'm not sure how I got so lucky with these two sweet boys!

Nick and I have been busy too.  We have been painting (with a brush...by hand) the inside of the new fence.  We will spray the outside, but we don't want the metal poles to be painted or have runs with the paint on the inside so we are painting it by hand.  We have about 12 hours (times 2 people) in so far and we have just passed the halfway mark!  Its not too bad though, we talk and have a good time doing it while we are out there.

Nick is still liking his job.  He is quite busy and has some of the strangest times for business calls (I guess thats what happens when he is dealing with companies all over the world!).  He is also on a men's softball league, so the kids and I have been his cheer squad over the past few weeks while he is playing.  He has been wanting to join one for a few years and finally found a team by luck and it has been working out really well for him!

I am still busy doing the typical mommy things!  I love it though!  Lots of cooking too.  I have a cooking blog that has taken off and is taking up tons of my time, but I love it and have gotten some really good compliments from it!

Wyatt is 9 Months Old!

We just got back from Wyatt's 9 month doctor's appointment.  He is doing so good!  He is already doing everything he should be learning between now and when we go back for his one year appointment!  Cooper seemed to be a few months behind on all of his leanings (probably because of his prematurity when he was born), and Wyatt seems to be months ahead.  So crazy!  (Don't worry, Cooper is up to speed now, and even advanced on certain things like motor skills).

Anyways, here are Wyatt's statistics:  He is in the 90th percentile on his height, and in the 50th percentile on his head circumference and weight.

No needles today too which was a  great thing!

Cooper came with us to the Doctor and praised Wyatt for being such a big and good boy.  Make me super proud that he's mine!

While driving to the doctors we had to drive by my OB who I saw when I was pregnant with both boys.  Cooper decided to explain to me how Dr. Sharma (my OB) took Wyatt out of my belly and how he was happy she did.  Super cute, thought I would mention it  :)  More to come soon!