And the winner is...

Rylee!!!

Rylee (or Rylie) Michelle Ratcliffe

We woke up this morning not expecting the day we experienced. As of 11:00am, we had NO intentions of having a baby today. Our precious little girl arrived at 3:53pm this afternoon, weighing 6 lbs 6 oz and measuring 18 1/2 inches long.

Jenna checked-in to her 38 week appointment this morning at 11:00am. We got right in and the doctor checked to see if Jenna had advanced from her 3 cm dilation from last week. Initially, the doctor said: "Yeah I think you are still a 3." Followed by: "Wait. No. You are actually a 4, maybe 5." After further examination (how far the had baby dropped, discussion of Jenna's history, etc.), she asked "do you want to have this baby today?"

We hadn't planned to have the baby early and intended on waiting until the baby came on her own. The doctor informed us we could certainly do that, however, we may not have much time to get to the hospital once labor started. She suggested Jenna was essentially in "latent labor" and that she would continue to contract until they became steady or her water broke-and when that happened there was a good chance we wouldn't make it to the hospital (let alone have an epidural) before the baby came. Her recommendation was that me went to the hospital shortly after we left her office.

We arrived at the hospital around 12:15pm. They broke Jenna's water at 12:40, quickly administered the epidural, and by shortly after 3:00pm, Jenna had dilated to a 10. Jenna held off with the serious pushing until the doctor arrived. Three decent pushes and our daughter was in our arms. Three and a half hours from check-in to baby isn't too bad (for those of you who haven't experienced childbirth, it was short, but far from painless). We prayed that labor and delivery would go smoothly with little complications. We are grateful the Lord has answered our prayers and blessed us with a healthy beautiful mom and daughter. We (Jenna, Cole, & Cade) are ecstatic about our new addition. Here are just a handful of pictures:














In case your wondering, we're still deciding on a spelling preference. Any suggestions? We've ruled out Riley-and anything with a "leigh"-let us know what you think!

Cade's ABC's

In case your wondering, he was telling me to turn the camera screen around so he could see himself. We love this little boy so much! He is going to be a fantastic big brother.

Macarena

Cade has learned some new dance moves. The only problem is the music can't keep up with him.

The Weekend and 36 Weeks

This weekend was the father and son's camp out. I remember last year when this came around I was so nervous to let Cole take our 1 year old out to the camping grounds. I, of course, jump to the worst conclusion and was nervous something would happen that would leave me without both of my boys. But this year, I was more than happy to let them go and have a little "me" time. Funny how you change over a year. Anyway, Cade was so excited to go camping with daddy (They did not stay the night either year). He talked about it all day long and when we picked up Cole from school, Cade could hardly contain himself. He repeated the phrase, "Cade go camping with daddy," at least 20 times while we were getting all their stuff ready to go. Cole said he had a blast. Between running back and forth across the campsite, going on a walk, finding sticks, playing with rocks, and watching the fires, he was more than content. I was so proud of Cole for taking some pictures with both of them in them.

 Pregnancy update:
Here is the 36 week tummy shot

Things are going ok. Physically things are rough but that is expected at 8 months. I will find out this week if I have dilated any. Four weeks to go if I make it all the way to 40 weeks which I am not expecting too. I was very ready with Cade at 39 weeks when I asked to be induced and everything went fine. I have not decided yet if I am going to let myself get miserable enough to ask again or just go on my own. The whole water breaking thing really freaks me out so it is tempting to avoid that again. But she has been measuring on the smaller side the whole pregnancy so maybe I should just let her come when she thinks it is a good idea-we'll see.

And funny story for today that I would like recorded somewhere.
 Cole gave a talk in church today. Cade and I were sitting in the very back row on some chairs. Cade starts crawling away from me repeating the phrase, "Cade see daddy." I had talked about how we could see daddy when he was giving his talk but I was confused why he was saying this because, since he was on the ground in the back, there was no way he could actually see Cole. He continued saying this while he slowly crawled to the end of the row and would occasionally look back at me. Then it dawned on me. He was not telling me what he saw, he was telling me what he was going to do. I knew, from past experience with Cade, that if I got up and went after him he would think this was a fun chase and would book it down the aisle towards Cole. So I calmly stayed in my seat and motioned to Cade very firmly that he needed to come back. Right now. All the while he is still slowly standing up. I knew at this point I at least need to be close behind him if he runs. So I stand up. And off he goes. Running fast, down the aisle, towards daddy. He gives him a big hug around the knees and yells, "Daddy!" all while Cole is giving his sacrament talk. Then here I come, waddling awkwardly down the aisle, heave Cade up and haul him out to the lobby where we had a nice chat. Everyone, but me, thought it was quite amusing.

Hope everyone had a fabulous Mother's Day!!

Visits from Family

In the last couple of months we have had two visits from family!! We feel loved. And we look forward to more visits after the baby comes-although we know those visits have nothing to do with us and everything to do with this little girl ;) First, my family drove up for spring break. We packed a lot into a few days but had tons of fun.
We had lots of hugs...

and lots of red hair...(Alyssa, then Kayla, then me)

and boy time-watching sports and playing with cars...

and girls time-making flower accessories...

and explored Kansas City, traveled through a snow blizzard, ate yummy food, and had a great time together. Thanks for coming!!

And then a couple weeks ago Shanna and Austin came to visit!! Shan and Matthew ended up with an extra flight and decided we needed a visit. I was so excited! We also packed a ton into the week. While she was here we held a booth at a local event selling our aprons. We had so much fun doing it together and had a very successful time. We hope to do more in the future! Preparing and getting ready for that took a lot of our time but once that was over we...

watched our boys play together...

and took our boys to the zoo...

and bathed the boys together (Austin had so much fun with this. So much that it almost took 3 of us to contain him. And then he pooped in the bath which totally freaked Cade out and made him weary of baths for like the next 3 days. I am literally laughing to my self right now because it was SOOO funny)...

and spent quality time with Aunt Shan... (sorry Shan-I know you will hate the first picture but it was so cute of you all in jammies and snuggling!)

Thanks for coming Shan! It was a huge help and we had tons of fun!

Utah County Surveyor

The past few weeks have been stressful as my dad has been running for Utah County Surveyor. He was by far the most qualified for the position, and all things considered, deserved to win the election. I'm proud that he ran an honest campaign and remained true to his values.

In order to avoid a primary election, my dad needed to obtain at least 61% of the votes. Fortunately, 65% of the ballots looked similar to this:

Congrats Dad!!! We are glad the delegates were able to see what we know-a hard working man of integrity who will continue to serve the people of Utah County with all diligence. Love you!

-Cole, Jenna, & Cade