Hadley Jane

I need Hadley's birth story recorded so here it is:

Hadley's pregnancy was smooth but still hard! Moving was hard, food not appealing, couldn't sleep well, and soooo uncomfortable. But nonetheless, the were so excited to welcome another little girl into our family. I'll be honest, I was really nervous about adding a newborn with James not even 2 yet. But I am excited for him to have a friend while the older kids are at school and doing older kid things.

I chose to be induced at 39 weeks. I was pretty done being pregnant, my body looked ready, and I liked the idea of being able to plan for the other kids to be watched. We had Michelle and Dusty come up on a Sunday and I was scheduled to be induced Tuesday morning, January 19, 2016. We were suppose to call the hospital at 5 am Tuesday morning. I was so nervous/excited/feeling guilty for not waiting for her to come on her own that I got terrible sleep. At 5 we called and they then told us we were scheduled for 8 am. That would have been nice to know sooner. But it was nice to be able to see the kids before we left for the hospital. We got paperwork done and into our room all hooked up to potocin around 10. The doctor was busy and couldn't come break my water till around 12. I was feeling pretty good-just nervous. He came and broke my water and then contractions started coming faster and harder. I wanted to wait until I was feeling a little more uncomfortable until I called in my epidural. All of a sudden the contractions were hard and horrible so I called it in. They finally came. By now I can't even describe how uncomfortable I was and in lots of pain. He finished giving me the epidural and was just walking out when I felt the need to push. She was ready to come. Pushing was the hardest with this one. Also the epidural seem to  just take the edge off. So while it was pretty hard and painful, it was fast! She was born at 2:26pm at 7lbs 6oz and 20.5 inches. They immediately laid her on me.

Such a huge relief to see her healthy as well as to not be pregnant anymore! And she had red hair!! She was born with more hair than any of the other kids.

Everything after that seemed really calm compared to the intense labor. They let me hold her a while before they cleaned her up. I nursed her and she did great.

The kids were so excited! Cade said he was nervous, but in the end he has always loved his baby siblings. He is really good at holding her and asks all the time.

Here she is all dressed and ready to go home!

Here are some pictures I took of Hadley at 1 week old

We have just loved having Hadley here. The kids all love her. She has been such a good baby too. Doesn't cry much, a good eater, and even sleeps some at night! I am excited to see her grow up and bond with her older siblings.

Cade's Baseball Season

Cade did coach pitch baseball this spring and it was so much fun! It was our first experience with baseball (I could totally be a baseball mom! Wresting will take some work...). It made for a busy couple months but we really enjoyed it. It was fun to watch him improve and have fun. Cole was the coach and really enjoyed working with all the boys. He did such a fantastic job. Sorry for the huge amount of pictures. We are just obviously pretty proud of our little guy. And there is a video at the end.

Batting pictures:

I like this one with Cole in the background.

Running to first!

Running to second 

His favorite part of the game is getting the ball and throwing it hard to first (or another base). After he did that well he would be super proud of himself and reenact it in slow motion out on the field to himself. It was adorable. 

Here he collided with another team mate but he got the ball and threw it.

Waiting at second

 Team cheer at the end.

 

Cade and his coach :)

Video of a hit and slide to second

Birthday Buddies

Rylee refers to her and Cole as birthday buddies since their birthdays are 2 days apart.

On the 24th we celebrated Cole 32nd birthday. I asked him if he was content where is life is at age 32 and he replied "Yes." Everything is just how it needs to be. He requested a cheesecake so I found a recipe for a Butterfinger cheesecake that I thought he would like. And it did turn out quite tasty!

Next up was Rylee's. We had pancakes again and she was definitely the little princess for the day.

 Later she tried out her new scooter and played with all her new stuff. Cole's parents came into town that afternoon to surprise the kids. Later we had cake and more presents.

 She requested a pony cake. Having no idea how to do that I searched Pinterest and found something I thought I could reasonably do. I turned into more of a Pinterest fail. The end result was kind of creepy (she wanted eyelashes to make it a girl pony). But she loved it and that is what matters! Here is the picture from Pinterest.

 Here is my version:

 Haha! It makes me laugh everytime! I didn't have enough frosting to fill in the gaps or the tools to even try. But lets be honest-even if I did I am just seriously lacking in cake decorating skills!! :)

Happy Birthday James!

James had his first birthday on April 9th! Cade and Rylee loved having a birthday party for him. He actually got 3 parties. We went to Utah that weekend and decided it was a good excuse to get family together to party! So we had a party on his birthday at home, one with the Ratcliffe side, and then one on the Black side. It was great to see so much family.

Here are pictures taken in the backyard on his birthday. 

 That night we opened presents and had cupcakes. He was pretty excited about his candle.

Here is is first cupcake. He tried eating it but I am not sure how much he got in his mouth. He ate some but overall wasn't a huge fan of the cupcake. Just kind of hard for him to eat.

But this was his face after his first bite of ice cream. Definitely an ice cream fan. :)

These are at Grandma Ratcliffe's house at James' second party.

 James loved Dusty. He would actually lean to him so Dusty would hold him. He does even do that with Cole!

These are pretty terrible quality pictures but here is the final party at the Allen's house.

James is so much fun.
-He has a pretty intense character.
-He is very small-like the 9th percentile for weight and 1% for height.
-His hair is pretty bright red and big blue eyes. I get lots of comments on both.
-He has one tiny tooth on bottom. He hasn't shown interest in table food yet but I feel like he turned 1 and now he is totally interested! He is doing much better eating and showing interest in table food. -He knows one sign so far: eat. He is very good at it now.
-He loves balloons and balls. (and most things that are not toys).
-He actually is a terrible sleeper. We are working on that.
-He loves Cade and Rylee. He watches them and gets happy to see them.
-He is a proficient crawler and no where near walking.

That is a little it about James right now! We love him to death and are excited to continue watching him grow!