The Freeman's

August 2011

2011-12-16T16:32:00.000-08:00

That time of year again for the NICU graduate picnic. They had some pretty good grub there and we got to see Dr. Snyder again. I am so grateful that we have been able to stay in touch with him through these picnics and that he has been able to see the positive result of his hard work.

Lily (Aldrin) is that you??

I think Mike got a little bored at work...

Ryleigh has started to get the hang of using the mouse and playing games on the computer.

Bath time!

July 2011

2011-12-16T15:59:00.001-08:00

Mike got back into training mode and started to run on a regular basis. As a result he started to lose weight and wasn't having as many problems with his asthma!

We went to the hometown celebration in Star on the 9th and Ryleigh got a pair of angel wings that she re-purposed as bunny ears. The festivities also included a parade, a HUGE water fight that involved fire hoses, and a pie contest. (Mike made another peanut butter and chocolate pie for this contest and out of nearly 20 pies he got 3rd place!!)

I guess July was a rough month to be a pedestrian! Ryleigh had a hard time keeping up with her feet sometimes which resulted in some pretty good bumps and bruises. Poor kid :(

Every summer there is an event in Boise called the Twilight Criterium. It draws people from all over the world to participate in this race that shuts down some of the streets in downtown Boise to allow cyclists to compete for money and bragging rights.

June 2011

2011-12-16T15:32:00.000-08:00

Once the weather warmed up a bit Mike took his bike out for a spin.

Mike also competed in a fun race where the contestants had to ride little kids bikes. Ryleigh was kind enough to lend Mike her bike. (A decision Mike and his derrière would come to regret!) Although Mike did not win the race, he won a bike sprocket belt buckle in the pie contest by submitting a peanut butter and chocolate pie that he made from scratch!

Still in the baking mood, Mike made some cookies. There was a triathlon cookie (swim, bike, run) and an "R" cookie for Ryleigh.

May 2011

2011-12-15T21:01:00.000-08:00

Mike gave Ryleigh a head full of braids.

Ryleigh had her own "double rainbow" experience.

On May 7th we celebrated National Comic Book day with the guys from Star Wars at the local comic book store!

Ryleigh was so excited to get in the bath she didn't want to bother with taking her shirt off :)

Towards the end of the month we went to a local hiking spot called Jump Creek.

Once again Ryleigh has proven that she can sleep almost anywhere! (Sometimes before Mike or I get up in the morning Ryleigh will wake up early and lay down right here)

April 2011

2011-12-15T20:15:00.000-08:00

Ryleigh is a very good "mother" to her babies. She likes to tuck them into bed and read them stories.

Mike got creative again and made a Pi pie.

For months Mike had been growing out his facial hair for "cinco de mustache". Finally he couldn't stand it anymore and shaved most of it off! This style only last a few minutes and then he shaved it off too. (I was done with it after the first couple of weeks)

Mike spent some daddy-daughter time painting Ryleigh's nails. What a great dad!

The day before Easter we went to a party that a family in our ward put on. Ryleigh grabbed some Easter eggs and got a little goody bag. Later that day Mike got a nasty cut on his forehead. Then we decorated out own eggs for Easter.

Easter morning we took some pictures and went to church. When we got home Ryleigh went looking for some more eggs.

Can you spot the green egg?

Ryleigh got custom curtains for her room that I made for her!

February and March 2011

2011-12-15T16:38:00.000-08:00

Not too much happened in February. Well, I turned 33 but that's about it.

In March I channeled my inner hair stylist and I had some fun playing with Ryleigh's hair.

And apparently Ryleigh was channeling her inner "bag lady" in March.

January 2011!

2011-12-15T16:14:00.001-08:00

This time Ryleigh put the fort to good use and took a nap in it!

For her birthday this year Ryleigh got a Clifford the Big Red Dog cake. She also got more dishes, playdoh, and the Cootie game.

I'm not sure why her hands are on her face, she just snuggled up with her bunny and got all comfy cozy :)

December 2010

2011-12-15T15:06:00.000-08:00

Ryleigh went to her first birthday party at her friend Abbigail's house!

so.tired.can't.make.it.to.the.bed....zzzzzzzzzzz

Ryleigh went to a Christmas party the hospital put on and she got to see Santa!

I see you!

Ryleigh was given one of the most important roles when we decorated the Christmas tree.

Ryleigh likes to play in forts :)

My parents came to visit for Christmas. Ryleigh enjoyed having time with Grandma and Grandpa Willison and opening some presents.

We got up bright and early to say "goodbye" to my parents on the 26th.

Thanks to their loving wives, Mike and his friend Jarom get to be twiners once in a while!

November 2010

2011-12-15T14:48:00.000-08:00

Photo bomb or stolen camera?

We went down to Utah for the Thanksgiving break to spend time with the Willison side of the family. My brother Darren showed us the way to the appetizers. Ryleigh got to eat her dinner with her cousins Jada and Bailey. After many takes and a lot of hassle we finally ended up with an acceptable family picture.

Later that week we went with my brother Mark, his wife Nancy, and their two kids to a Pirate themed restaurant! The girls enjoyed the roller coaster "ride" and the merry-go-round.

October 2010

2011-12-15T14:02:00.000-08:00

Mike and Jarom took a moment to kick back and relax between the conference sessions.

Early in the month we went to a corn maze that had plenty of activities for little kids. Ryleigh enjoyed making corn angels, getting a ride on the tractor from Mike, and the petting zoo.

We had three other couples over to our house to eat and the men made the whole thing. Now, which one is dinner and which one is dessert?

We went to the Boo at the Zoo with Camp Rainbow Gold (a great organization that plans fun activities throughout the year for kids who have gone through chemo). Ryleigh dressed up as Clifford the Big Red Dog's friend Cleo.

Ryleigh went trick or treating at MSTI, (that's where Ryleigh got her chemo treatments). Later that day we went to a different corn maze and watched a piglet race! They also had a bounce pillow, a roller slide, a train ride, and a BIG chair. Ryleigh got to have a pony ride. There was even an oreo cow that came with milk!

September 2010

2011-12-15T13:49:00.000-08:00

In September Ryleigh channeled her inner princess!

Mike made an Apple apple pie :)

Ryleigh got a care package from Becky Graham all the way from Rochester, NY!

August 2010 was a busy month!

2011-12-09T13:03:00.000-08:00

The first week in August Ryleigh and I went to the annual NICU graduate picnic. Ryleigh got to see Javier, one of her former "neighbors" during her long stay in the NICU. We also got to see Dr. Snyder again. (The doctor that saved her life.)
Afterwards we made our way to the MK Nature center which is right next to the park where the picnic was being held.

Ryleigh really likes eating spaghetti! She tried to dress herself but still needs a little help :) She also likes to take her socks off and wear them like gloves.

At the end of the month Mike participated in the Idaho Bike MS: Road, Sweat & Gears 2010.

The following week Ryleigh was invited to take a tour of the Boise State Bronco Stadium. Mike and I got to tag along! We went up to the press box and watched the team practice for a little while. We got to meet the team and coach Pete. Then we headed out on the field and got to play around for a little while :)

Ryleigh got to sing in her nursery class one last time before we moved to Star, Idaho.

July 2010

2011-12-09T12:23:00.000-08:00

The first week in July we went to Fallon, Nevada to spend time with Mike's parents. Ryleigh's cousins Kaylee and Andrea were visiting and we all went to the Carnival that was in town! Ryleigh hit it off with Allie, Grammie and Grandpa's dog. When we went back to Boise Ryleigh participated in Relay for Life. The next day we celebrated Mike's 28th birthday. Later in the month we went back to Fallon, Nevada. This time Mike's older sister Angie and her whole family were there. Mike's sister Melissa was also there. Thanks to Mike's dad we all went to see a baseball game in Reno. It was a good month!

May and June 2010

2011-03-02T15:18:00.000-08:00

In May Mike got Guitar Hero for his Playstation 3 and Ryleigh got caught red-handed getting into the guitar. We had some of the neighborhood kids come over to play one night. At the end of May we went to a local indoor playground that is filled with inflatable slides, jump houses, etc. Ryleigh really like to go on the BIG slide but I think the adults had the most fun there :)
In June Ryleigh had her first post-chemo scan. There's a picture of her in the hospital waiting room waiting to go to her scan and practicing jumping. (Up until this past weekend (02/26/11) Ryleigh would only use both feet to jump about 1 out of 100 jumps so that is why she was practicing.) I also included a picture of Ryleigh just after the scan when I was still waiting for her to wake up from the anesthesia-they have to sedate her to get a clear MRI.
The last picture is Ryleigh, as she would say, playing "rock on".

Par-ty! Par-ty! Par-ty!

2011-03-02T14:08:00.000-08:00

The week after her last chemo, she got to go a Hollywood themed "prom" for the kids and their families thrown by MSTI (the place where Ryleigh received her chemo). Ryleigh loves to music and she loves to dance. She had a lot of fun in the ballroom. (Sorry the videos are so dark)

I just need to sit down and write!

2011-03-02T13:36:00.000-08:00

It's been way too long so I will just do a couple of short entries to get caught up and then I will try to stay up-to-date.
Last year on April 15th Ryleigh completed her chemo treatments with flying colors! Since that time she has had 3 MRI scans, her most recent scan was earlier this month, and they have all come back "unchanged". This means that there is no new growth!! Here are a few pictures of Ryleigh killing time during her last treatment and then later on we went out to celebrate her last treatment with some friends.

Odds and Ends

2010-06-11T10:01:00.000-07:00

As you can tell, I am not a very diligent blogger. This post will cover the first couple of months this year to help me get caught up and to fill you in on what's been happening in our household!
Back in January I put together two "rag quilts" for the first time. Unfortunately I didn't get a picture of the first one, but they both turned out pretty nice. Once I got the hang of it they were pretty easy and fast to complete. In the picture, I flipped one corner to show that the underside was all one pattern. After this picture was taken a friend of mine clipped all of the edges and washed it to give it a frayed look and then we gave them to some kids at our church.
At the end of January we got to take Ryleigh to her first Steelheads (local ice hockey team) game compliments of the American cancer society. The majority of the section we were sitting in had kids that were cancer survivors or kids that were going through treatment. Ryleigh had so much fun shaking the noise makers that were provided and dancing to the loud music. It was a great game and the Steelheads won!
Around this time we also tried to transition Ryleigh to a big bed. After a week or two of a lot of restless nights we decided with the stress that chemo was putting on her body, she wasn't ready for that change. (Now that she is done with chemo she has made the transition with no problems!)
For my birthday, and part of my Valentine's gift, we went to a beautiful cabin right next to the Tamarack Ski resort. It was a wonderful cabin with two huge bedrooms, a living room, a full kitchen, and it had a hot tub outside. Our friends Jared and LeeAnn had one room and we had the other. Ryleigh slept on a makeshift bed on the floor and one night she fell asleep while looking at her "Clifford" book :) On Saturday we drove about 30 minutes to go to the snow carnival in McCall. One of my favorite sculptures was the bathroom. I have no idea who those kids in the picture are but they weren't the only ones pretending to use the facilities that day!
In March, Ryleigh and I (Kristy) went down to Utah to visit the Willison side of the family. We stayed with Mark and Nancy and Ryleigh got to play with Nancy Donna and Reed. We went to the playground at the school down the street one day and Ryleigh really enjoyed playing dress-up with Nancy Donna's clothes.

I think we may have a potential Olympic speed skater on our hands!

2010-03-05T16:17:00.000-08:00

This is Ryleigh's daily ritual. She loves to run around the table. She pushes her chair, she still pushes her little play station that was in a previous video, and sometimes she just runs around by herself doing laps. She is in her own world when she's running around like this!

It's been a while!

2010-01-10T18:37:00.000-08:00

It's been a long time since the last post so I decided that I just have to sit down and do this. Back in October Ryleigh had a friend over to play. Ryleigh has really developed a love for cheese! One day we got a chunk of cheese out to eat with crackers and when we weren't looking Ryleigh shoved the whole thing in her mouth. Later that month we went to a Halloween party put on by the American Cancer Society. Ryleigh found a little girl there that was dressed as Elmo. Sometimes Ryleigh likes to climb into the toy chest with her toys to play. In December Mike and I got to dress up and go to a fancy party his company threw. Recently Ryleigh finger painted "thank you" notes for the people at the YMCA that gave her physical therapy/swimming lessons and she was so tired by lunch time that she just leaned back and fell asleep. Yesterday was Ryleigh's birthday so I decided to do cupcakes this year. Last year I didn't let the cake cool completely and when I went to frost it, it was a mess. This year was a BIG improvement :)

Happy Anniversary!

2009-10-07T13:31:00.000-07:00

The past couple of weeks have been pretty good. Mike started a new job a couple of weeks ago at a company called Clickbank.com. He does customer service and he LOVES it. His building is at the entrance to one of the local parks, it's only minutes from campus, and he has a window seat that overlooks the river! There is a total of about 30 people that work there and so they get to know each other really well. At Mike's old job there was about 25-30 people just on one team and there were about 15-20 teams just in the collection department. His new job has been a pretty big but much needed change.
The week after Mike started his new job was the 5K.
Today is our 4 year anniversary :) I find it hard to believe that it's only been four years but I doubled checked and it's true, it's only been four years. I don't mean that in a bad way. In the past four years we've lived in 3 different apartments. I've had 2 different jobs and 3 if you count being a mom. Mike has had 3 jobs and he's been in school for all that time. We went to Europe for our honeymoon the summer following our wedding. Shortly after we got back from Europe I had a miscarriage. A year after that I was pregnant with Ryleigh. When January 2008 came around I had two aneurysms and Ryleigh was born prematurely. Throughout 2008 I was recovering and we had some things to work through with Ryleigh. Lastly, this past April Ryleigh started chemotherapy. It just seems like all of that should take 10 years to go through, but I know that we have been blessed every day of the past 4 years. I am so grateful for Mike and how caring he is with me and Ryleigh. It's been a good four years.

Women's celebration weekend

2009-10-07T13:00:00.000-07:00

On September 26th I was in my first 5K! I was in the stroller division pushing Ryleigh. That weekend happened to be Women's conference weekend and Mike's mom and sisters traditionally get together in Salt Lake for the conference. They are all so sweet that they came up here to Boise to be with Ryleigh and me and they even participated in the 5K with us!! (I couldn't leave Ryleigh here for the weekend because Mike had work and school.) The 5K event is an annual event that benefits the hospital where Ryleigh and I stayed when I had my aneurysms and Ryleigh was born. It is also the same hospital where Ryleigh had her brain surgery and where she had her port placement surgery for chemo. For me, the 5K really meant a lot. I wanted to give back. I am so grateful to my mother-in-law, Sue Freeman, and my sisters-in-law, Angie, Shauna, and Melissa for walking the 5K and celebrating women. More than 12,000 women, young girls, and babies participated and there was such an amazing feeling of joy and happiness felt throughout the crowd. As we were nearing the finish line we came to "Tuxedo row"; there were about 15 men dressed up in tuxedo garb clapping, high-fiving, and just offering words of encouragement. We were able to see that the participants at the end of the crowd were all in wheelchairs and they were unable to push themselves so they had volunteers assisting them! I will always remember the feeling of unity as we crossed that finish line.

Yes, she is a little strange but she's our baby!

2009-09-20T09:13:00.000-07:00

Ryleigh loves to pretend that just about anything is a phone. She will hold the object up to her ear and walk around saying "Hell-o, hell-o". Here are just a few examples. There's her cup, the remote, sunscreen, an ipod nano, and the one that is too small to see is a magnet!

August so far

2009-08-19T11:30:00.000-07:00

This month we went to the annual NICU graduate party and we got to see Dr Synder, (the doctor that resuscitated Ryleigh after the emergency c-section), and we saw Melissa who was one of the nurses that cared for Ryleigh while she was in the NICU. There are usually a couple hundred people that show up and some of the kids where in the NICU over a decade ago!
One of Ryleigh's favorite things to do is hang out on the back of the couch and yell out the window!
She has also been spending time trying to learn how to wink (usually she blinks but once in a while she is able to get just one eye to shut). About 4 or 5 months ago Mike started to help Ryleigh do somersaults on the bed, and lately she has been trying to do them on her own. She's almost there!
Two weeks ago Ryleigh started a 12 week swim program at the YMCA to help her maintain her core strength and stability as she continues with chemo the program is sponsored by the Lance Armstrong cancer foundation .
Mike will be starting back to school next week and I have recently started reading "A tale of two cities". This will be the third or forth time starting that book, I hope to actually finish reading it this time! The language that Charles Dickens uses and the way the he uses it doesn't flow for me and so I've had a difficult time getting into it. This time will be different, I can feel it!

2009-08-04T13:00:00.000-07:00

This past month has been pretty busy. Mike's parents and older brother Jason came to visit the second week in June and we went to the old state penitentiary in Boise which is supposed to be haunted! No need for the ghostbusters as far as I could tell. In one of the old buildings they had a museum which contains a bunch of old wagons/stagecoaches. I think I saw one of the first convertibles ever!
About a week later, as Mike was cooking a delicious dinner, I hit my foot on Ryleigh's chair and got a huge blood bubble under my skin. It scared me quite a bit because that is exactly what it looked like when I had my aneurysms but a lot bigger and on my neck. (gross, huh?) It's been two weeks and my foot is still a little tender.
The rest of the month we have been trying to keep up with Ryleigh. She is finally walking full-time. One afternoon she was so tuckered out that she fell asleep holding onto her best friend "Abby". This past Saturday I got some pictures of Ryleigh eating spagetti and making faces :)

Mike's first triathlon!!

2009-07-11T13:09:00.000-07:00

Mike was in "the spudman triathlon" this morning, he had to do a 1.5K swim, 40K bike ride, and 10k run. Here are some of the highlights from the race, (you can click on any of the pictures to zoom in and get a better view of Mike). The first picture is before the race and Mike is standing at the exit for the swim. In the next picture the swimmers are all waiting for the race to start and Mike is all the way on the far right side, he's facing this way and has the black wet suit hood on under his orange swim cap. The next picture is the actual start of the race and Mike is the one farthest to the right in the picture. The next picture shows the buoys that were used to map out the course. The kayakers are there to make sure everyone is okay. Mike was so fast on the bike that I wasn't able to get to the transition area soon enough to get a picture of him on his bike. The next picture is Mike coming around the last curve before he got to the straightaway. The last one says it all. He finished in just over 4 hours and 14 minutes!! I am so happy for him :)

2009-07-09T16:26:00.000-07:00

Over forth of July weekend we spent time with the Willison side of the family that live in Utah. My (Kristy's) sister Carrie was able to meet Ryleigh for the first time. Ryleigh really enjoyed playing with the cousins and watching the fireworks. The last picture is at a local playground where Ryleigh is holding on for dear life!

Dairy Days!

2009-07-02T14:25:00.000-07:00

Here are pictures from the "dairy days" parade in Meridian, Idaho June 19th.

Family time

2009-06-17T11:23:00.000-07:00

On June 6th we went to two different outdoor festivals being held by some towns just outside of Boise. The first one we went to was the Renaissance Faire in Meridian, Idaho. It had the typical arts and crafts booths along with booths that had kids practicing calligraphy, making play swords out of "water noodles", and booths that demonstrated weaving and making small metal badges.
There was some Celtic dancing, there were mock sword fights, and Mike did the caber toss. (Which is basically where you try to flip an 85 pound pole end over end.) There were also plenty of "ring toss" type games for the little kids. If was pretty fun.

The second festival was in a small town called Star, Idaho. The festival is called "Mule days" but we got there too late to see the mules. oh, well. Mike and I both got to do the rock climbing wall, which I really liked. It was my first time doing anything like that. Ryleigh got to have her picture taken in a tank. I don't think she knew what to think of it all. The rest of the fair was carnival rides and food and craft vendors.

We love this girl!

2009-06-06T12:23:00.000-07:00

Here's a shot of Ryleigh's improved walking skills. That's right, she's got mad skills!

This is a video Mike took of Ryleigh taking a mid-morning nap. Lately she gets tired at different times and all of a sudden she will just crash!
Lately Ry has been calling Mike by his name rather than "Dad". It's really cute but we're trying to stop it early. She picked it up from the neighbor kids who just sit and yell "Mike, Mike,Mike, Mike,Mike, Mike,Mike, Mike," until he answers them. The sepia coloring is a feature that I found on the camera and wanted to try it out.

Mother's day

2009-05-12T14:48:00.000-07:00

This past weekend Mike planned a really nice mother's day weekend for us. On Saturday we went on a double date with our friends the Grays and we went to Star Trek. After the movie we walked around downtown and took pictures. We then went back to the Gray's for dinner and games.
On Sunday I woke up and Mike had 2 dozen roses for me! He then made me breakfast and we had a nice relaxing day.

A little bit of everything

2009-05-12T13:45:00.000-07:00

Last week I took this video of Ryleigh making her way around the kitchen. She still is not walking on her own so she uses this play station to help her get around. When she is over by the glass table top she is playing hide-and-seek!

This is a mixture of some photos from the past couple of weeks. Two of them are Ryleigh eating in her high chair, making a mess. One of the pictures is Ryleigh standing at the front door talking to the grass. That's right, she was talking to the grass. There's a picture of her in her new orange sundress. And the last picture is just to show off a feature I found on our camera that allows you to add glimmer to your pictures :)

A few small steps for Ryleigh, one giant leap for progress!

2009-05-05T12:58:00.000-07:00

What a week

2009-04-24T08:14:00.000-07:00

The past 15 months have had a lot of ups and downs for us. As many of you know Ryleigh was 9 weeks early and she had a lot of complications at birth. Due to those complications Ryleigh had scare tissue that formed in her brain and started to cause hydrocephalus. In September doctors performed surgery to remove as much scare tissue as they could and to create a bi-pass in one of her other ventricles. In December Ryleigh had to go in for an MRI to make sure the scare tissue didn't grow back. The MRI showed that the surgery in September had been successful but it also showed something that wasn't supposed to be on the scan.
One of the doctors reviewing the scan saw something on the optic nerve but it was unclear what it was. The scan was only meant to check on the fluid so it wasn't very thorough and it wasn't focused on her eyes. The detailed scan they needed would take about half an hour and so they would have to sedate Ryleigh to make sure she would stay still.
The detailed MRI was scheduled for the beginning of March. Two days later I met with her neurosurgeon and he delivered the news that Ryleigh had a tumor on her left optic nerve called an optic nerve glioma and we would have to meet with an oncologist, Dr Chang. The following week the oncologist told us that the tumor was inoperable. (The location of the tumor would make it difficult to determine which tissue was good and which tissue was bad so the entire nerve would have to be removed if they operated.) The way that they treat this kind of tumor is with chemo.
For Mike and me, the idea of putting our 15 month old daughter through 12 months of chemo was repulsive. The oncologist went on to explain that the scans Ryleigh had for her surgery 6 months prior didn't have the tumor. In December the tumor was about 1/2 a centimeter and on her scan in March it had doubled in size and was now 1 centimeter. She went on to say that if it continued to grow it could eventually cause her to go blind. Our minds were reeling. Dr Chang told us that if we wanted to wait we could postpone starting the chemo for 3 months but not much longer because it seemed to be growing so fast. She told us to take time to think about everything and let her know what we wanted to do.
Almost immediately we both felt that the best thing to do would be to attack it aggressively. If we waited and the tumor continued to grow we ran the risk of the tumor affecting her vision. Once her vision was compromised there was a good chance they would not be able to fix it. Mike and I felt very confident in the oncologist. Any question we had she knew the answer, she had Ryleigh's best interest in mind, it was the same hospital that took care of me and Ryleigh in January 2008, and the same hospital that took care of Ryleigh in September.
We let Dr Chang know that we wanted to go ahead with the chemo. Her port placement and first treatment was scheduled for April 20th . (A port is a device that is about the size of 2 peanut M&M's and would remain under her skin for the duration of her treatment and has a tube that delivers the chemo directly into her vein.)
This past Monday Ryleigh went into surgery around 12:15pm and it took less than an hour to have the port placed. She then went up to recovery and they monitored her for a while before they would start the chemo. A little after 6:30pm they started the chemo and it took about an hour to finish. Originally they were thinking about keeping her overnight but she handled everything so well she was able to come home that night just after 10pm.
Since Monday, Ryleigh seems to be a little more tired and her appetite isn't quite what it was, but she is doing really well. We strongly believe that if Ryleigh didn't have to have the surgery in September we wouldn't have caught the tumor before it affected her vision.

You Decide

2009-04-08T14:27:00.000-07:00

Who does Ry look like??
Kristy

or Mike?

A Much Needed Vacation!

2009-04-07T10:53:00.000-07:00

Last month for Mike's spring break we went to Fallon, Nevada to spend time with his parents, brother Jason, and his sister Melissa. While we were there we went to circus, circus and to this gigantic sporting goods/outdoorsman type store.

At circus, circus we watched one of the free shows they put on throughout the day. The show at that time happened to be the Russian acrobats. It was a great show. They added some comedic antics to their routine which made it very entertaining! We also played a bunch of the carnival games they had there and Ryleigh ended up with a big dalmation that matches the one she was given last year.
The outdoorsman store was big enough to be a small mall all by itself! It had displays of different types of wildlife. Which was really cool to see.
Most importantly, we stayed there from Friday evening until Tuesday morning and so we were able to enjoy the vacation. We took time to just relax, Ryleigh was able to nap, and I bleached my hair!

Kristy gets crafty!

2009-03-27T11:40:00.000-07:00

We recently had a woman in our church teach two classes on stitchery. She did an awesome job! In the first class she brought patterns for us to use and showed us how to do the stitching. The second class involved using tea to dye the material and give it an aged look, and painting the frames and giving the frames an aged look as well. I'm thinking about adding an image of Tinkerbell to my frame but I'm not sure yet. As of right now, this is the finished product!

Mike's Finished Bike

2009-03-15T21:40:00.000-07:00

Last July I was sitting at home, watching TV, on a Sunday afternoon eating a bowl of Captain Crunch (with crunch berries of course) when I came upon a channel that said it would be airing the Hawaii Ironman Race. I'd never watched one before so I settled in for the show. Watching that race made me fall in love with the sport and the athletes who participate. I decided that I would join the ranks of these amazing people. For the last 8 months, I have been cruising eBay and Craigslist for bike parts. You see, the unfinished frame has been taking up space in Ry's room and I was finally able to complete it this week with the purchase of the Reynold's carbon fork you see. It is now up to me to train and compete. I am really proud to say that this bike is the beginning of an obsession. I am really excited. Wish me luck and strength.

mmmmmm...chocolate...(gurgle)

2009-03-02T10:16:00.000-08:00

Yesterday while Mike and I were putting the dishes in the kitchen, Ryleigh decided to have dessert without us! She managed to unscrew the cap on the chocolate syrup all by herself. What a little stinker :)

Farts and Frowns!

2009-02-17T22:08:00.000-08:00

Ryleigh has learned how to make a new noise and she practices on my arm, on Mike's arm, the couch, and the chair. She has also learned how to pout. What a cutie!

Ryleigh likes to sneeze.

2009-01-13T17:02:00.000-08:00

Recently, our little angel has begun to mimic as much as she can. This is an example of this.

Look out! Here comes Ryleigh!

2009-01-10T15:45:00.000-08:00

In the top picture I wanted to see if Ryleigh's hair was long enough for piggy tails-as you can see, they are there but kinda pathetic. Earlier this week Ryleigh fell asleep in her high chair for the first time. Yesterday was Ryleigh's birthday! She now has her own set of wheels! Her "car" turns into a cart she can push around to help her walk. She also got two puzzle cubes that you have to fit the different shapes into the right slot. She even had a little bit of vegan birthday cake (she hasn't had eggs yet and it doesn't require eggs). It was a great day :)

Happy New Year!

2008-12-31T09:06:00.001-08:00

The day after Christmas we went to Pocatello to celebrate Christmas with Mike's family. Ryleigh received some nice gifts from Grammy and Grandpa Freeman. She also got some early birthday gifts from Angie's family (mike's sister), Shawna's family (one of Mike's other sisters), and Grammy and Grandpa. She enjoyed playing with the ribbon from the gifts for a little while.
While we were in Pocatello we were able to attend the baptism of one of Angie and Ryan's daughters. During the baptism Ryleigh took a quick catnap.
One of the gifts Ryleigh received is this beautiful poncho and matching hat. It was made by a friend of Mike's mom. I love it!! I just wish Ryleigh would keep the hat on instead of trying to eat it :)
Ryleigh is only nine days away from her first birthday!! She has made so much progress in the past couple of weeks. She started to clap her own hands together in the past two days (usually she would slap our hand or face or the side of her bottle), she army crawls all over the place, she loves to stand up with a little bit of help, lately she has been holding onto the metal frame from our kitchen table and working her way around it, she's starting to get the hang of chewing her food, and she is a little chatter box! It has been a wonderful year and we wish you all a happy new year :)

Ryleigh's First Christmas!!

2008-12-25T10:07:00.000-08:00

Good times!

2008-12-07T17:35:00.001-08:00

The first picture is Ryleigh laying on a bed of nails at the science museum! (She wasn't a big fan of that.) The other picture is from the science museum also. The platform with the paper on it swings back and forth and the arm that holds the marker stays where it is and it makes a cool design.
The last group of pictures are from a trip to Rexburg, Idaho at the beginning of November. My older sister Amy had to train some employees at the Best Western there and she needed to bring the kids, so I went over to baby-sit. I was a little worried at first but the kids found ways to stay busy!
The first Rexburg picture is of us enjoying dinner at the local pizza place, Craigo's-I just had to have one of their pizza bombs.
The girls loved putting on the shower caps and pretending to be lunch ladies. In the picture Lexi is "calling" the second grade down over the loud speaker to eat!
The kids spent a lot of time in the indoor pool. It was a lot of fun. Ryleigh even went in the pool a couple of times.
The last picture is the Rexburg temple. It is so big and beautiful.

Ryleigh does not want to cooperate!

2008-10-24T09:51:00.000-07:00

Deer in the headlights

Ryleigh's favorite chew toy

Making faces at mom

Sick of getting her picture taken

Blair witch picture

Watch your fingers!

2008-10-01T17:40:00.000-07:00

This is a picture of Ryleigh's first two teeth. She started cutting both teeth around August 16th.

If you click on the second picture you can see the four teeth she started cutting the same weekend she had her surgery (September 13th). Needless to say, she had a really rough month! Since her surgery she's been doing really well. In the past couple of days she has started rolling over a lot!

Laughter makes the world go round :)

2008-09-19T17:07:00.000-07:00

What a tough girl!

2008-09-17T00:57:00.000-07:00

This video was right when we got to the hospital and we were waiting to go downstairs for her surgery. She was in a lot of pain but she was too weak to cry much.

Ryleigh was taking a cat nap while she was waiting to go into the operating room.

This is the day after. If you look closely, you can see some blood on her ID bracelet. Ryleigh decided she no longer wanted her IV and she went ahead and pulled it out!

The white tape on the top of her head is where the incision was made. It is a very small incision and they didn't need to shave any of her hair. She needs to keep the little hair that she has!

This is her surgeon, Dr Cherney :)

Home sweet home!

Our sweet angel

2008-09-12T15:38:00.000-07:00

This is how Ryleigh has spent most of the week. On Wednesday Ryleigh could not keeping any of her food down, she couldn't stay awake, and she was just not acting like herself. We called the doctor's office and were able to get her in that day.

The pediatrician, Dr Granwehr, had some of Ryleigh's blood drawn to do some tests. She thought it was probably just a virus, but because Ryleigh was having trouble staying awake, (and with Ryleigh's history), she wanted us to come back Thursday (yesterday).

On Thursday the blood tests came back normal. Ryleigh was only able to eat 2 ounces at a time and she normally has 5 ounces at a time, she was still sleeping a lot, she whimpered a lot, and now she was having a hard time focusing when she would look at us. So Dr Granwehr told us to go have a CT scan done.

The scan revealed that Ryleigh has excess fluid in her brain which is causing the ventricles to swell. Today we spoke with the pediatric neurosurgeon and Ryleigh will have surgery tomorrow. The neurosurgeon, Dr Cherney, studied Ryleigh's CT scan and he said that it looks like there is some tissue that wasn't there before that is now covering the place where the fluid normally drains out of the brain. So the surgery tomorrow is to create a bi-pass for the spinal fluid. If everything goes well with the surgery she will not need a shunt.

Quick note

2008-08-23T12:54:00.000-07:00

This is a dog that Ryleigh got from Becky Graham as a gift. The picture on the wall is one that was in Ryleigh's crib while she was in the NICU. A couple of weeks after Ryleigh had been home from the hospital I found the picture in with all her papers and so I hung it on her wall. As soon as she saw the picture she got a really big smile on her face! I told Becky this story and she sent this dog out not really knowing what the picture looked like. Isn't it crazy how similar the spots are?

We finally caught Ryleigh rolling over on camera! She hangs out on her side a lot but doesn't like to actually roll. In this past week she has cut two of her teeth! She has been so great during the whole thing you wouldn't even know they were coming in.

A message from Ryleigh

2008-08-12T20:15:00.000-07:00

Hi everyone! This is Ryleigh, I just wanted to share some pictures from my busy week. On August 6th I went to a party for NICU graduates! Some of the kids there were in the NICU over 10 years ago!! While I was there I bumped into Javier, he was my neighbor in the NICU for a little while (and our parents used to go to the same ward). I also saw Dr Snyder, he's the one that resuscitated me, I wouldn't be here without him :) He was really surprised with my progress. This weekend I went swimming for the first time. It was a lot of fun but a little cold. welp, I'm gonna go play.

Sprouting like a weed

2008-07-28T09:58:00.000-07:00

The first picture is of Ryleigh when she was 3 1/2 months old. The second picture is of Ryleigh now, 6 1/2 months old! (The chairs have different designs but are by the same company and are the same size.)

Ryleigh is on the move!

2008-07-28T09:19:00.000-07:00

The first picture on the top is where I always put Ryleigh in her crib at night. The second picture is the foot of the crib where I found her last week. The third picture is where I found her at the head of the crib this morning! Keep in mind that Ryleigh doesn't crawl, rollover, or even scoot yet. She wiggles her body around enough in her sleep that she moves around the crib!!
The fourth picture is Ryleigh trying to block out the light, and yes, she is asleep. She has never been a fan of bright lights. The last picture is Ryleigh and me first thing this morning :)

July is almost over!!!

2008-07-23T19:09:00.000-07:00

I can't believe how fast the year is moving. Ryleigh is growing so fast. She's now 14 lbs and is acting like a completely healthy baby. She turned 6 months old and as you can see, she's beautiful. Mike has 2 weeks of Calculus left and then a 3 week break from school. Kristy is getting really strong. We take walks 2 or 3 times a week and are eating much healthier. Once again, we would like to thank everyone who came to visit and those who offered love, prayer, and support to us in the first few months of the year. We love you all.

Happy 4th of July!!

2008-07-04T09:18:00.000-07:00

HAPPY 4TH OF JULY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Summertime!

2008-06-23T15:41:00.000-07:00

It has been a busy month for the Freeman family! Mike is taking a "survey of calculus" class this summer. (It's calculus for business majors.) I have been doing a little bit of baby-sitting for our friends. And Ryleigh continues to grow and get smarter each day. A week and a half ago on Saturday the fourteenth Ryleigh and Mike met soccer star Mia Hamm (top picture)!

This past month we celebrated Mike's first Father's Day!! The black and white picture above is a picture of our hands that I printed out Walgreens and using their photo machine I was able to add the words "Together Forever" right on the print. That was one of Mike's gifts and it now sits on his desk at work.

Ryleigh's newest accomplishments have been the occasional laugh and she rolled over once last week!!

End of May update.

2008-05-31T22:11:00.000-07:00

Just thought we'd take a minute and write down what's been going on around the Freeman household. These last couple of weeks have been really nice, especially since school ended and the only thing we had to worry about was work. Kristy and Ryleigh stay home while Mike goes to work at Citi. It has been a long journey since the beginning of the year and I'm proud to say, with absolutely no sarcasm, we all survived. Ry is getting bigger every day. She has now passed 11 lbs and is steadily gaining about an ounce per day. Kristy is getting stronger and more agile. We take walks, sometimes up to a mile long. I'm so proud of her. Summer classes start on June 9th and I'll be taking a 4 credit Calculus course over an 8 week period. Needless to say I'm not exactly thrilled about math but my motivation has really changed since the last time I took Calc. Here are some pictures and videos of Ry. She is the cutest little diaper filler in the world.

Last Sunday, Ryleigh received a blessing in front of the ward. A lot of family showed up to support and participate. Special thanks to Amy for the help with the accommodations at the hotel. Special thanks to all those who traveled long distances to join us. We love you all very much. Here are some pictures of the event.

Here's some more pics of Ryleigh.

2008-05-18T20:25:00.000-07:00

Ryleigh's big week!

2008-05-18T13:44:00.000-07:00

This is Kristy, I decided to do the update today. This week Ryleigh slept through the night 4 times!! We feel so blessed that she is doing well. She is growing and changing so fast. She holds her head up on her own really well, she is starting to hold on to the bottle when she eats, and she has been batting at the stuffed animals that hang from the mobile over her swing. She is a precious little girl with a million dollar smile and we love her so much!

Ryleigh in her element

2008-05-06T14:41:00.000-07:00

This pretty much explains itself. We took this one this morning before I left for work.

Weekend BBQ

2008-05-05T19:57:00.000-07:00

I finally caught her smiling. She has been doing this more and more lately. She's even starting to smile when she recognizes Kristy or me. It's really great to see the progress she's making.

This past weekend we had BBQ with a bunch of friends. The house got a little crowded so we moved the couch and all the chairs outside. It was a lot of fun and the food was great. Ry really likes being outside.

I caught Kris and Ry napping

2008-05-03T16:33:00.000-07:00

This weekend has been everything I had hoped for. I was able to sleep in and then hang out with the girls. We checked out our local auction house then looked for garage sales. We got home around 1:30 and fed Ry. After the feeding, I went upstairs to catch up on some tv episodes that I've missed over the last couple months. I put Ry in her crib and Kris laid down on the bed in the nursery. I watched NUMB3RS and Moonlight. Eventually Ry wanted to be held, so I put her on the bed with Kristy and they snuggled right up and I had to take a picture.

2008-05-03T02:01:00.000-07:00

Little Ryleigh just couldn't stop hiccuping. After all she had gone through, it was great to see such a normal function come from her.

Ryleigh at 6 weeks

2008-05-03T00:31:00.000-07:00

This is a video we took while Ry was still in the NICU. She had tested positive for a very contagious virus, hence the gloves and gowns. They didn't want us spreading it to the other babies in the unit.

Friday night update. 05/02/2008

2008-05-02T23:36:00.000-07:00

As you can see, Ryleigh is getting bigger every day. Her face is so expressive. The best part is the fact that she has dimples like her mom and dad. Ry has been such a huge blessing and an even bigger trial. Her eyes are still dark blue, no teeth yet, and she is hitting a lot of important milestones. She can follow moving objects with her eyes, she also turns to sounds. We also have experienced her first smile. She has been known to smile in her sleep but this one was while I was playing with her and she just had a big, dimpled, toothless smile on her face. It was amazing and comforting to know that she recognized me.

This week has been pretty crazy. Working as a bill collector is difficult work. I don't get any enjoyment from my job. I just sit and wait for the next person to call and tell me exactly what's on their mind, while I have to express my sympathies for their hardships. Today I decided to count how many times I hear either a "thank you" or a compliment. After 5 days, averaging 60 calls per day, I had 7.

School's going okay I guess. I only have about 2 weeks left until finals. Fortunately, none of my finals are comprehensive. Also, only 2 of them are tests. the other 2 are a paper and a presentation.

Kristy is doing well. She is still pretty sore and has more healing to do, but she's looking great. She got a new haircut and then let me dye it red. She looks so good, and it was a huge boost to her confidence.

Tonight, the three of us went to see Ironman. It was awesome. The movie was pure enjoyment. Kristy did have a problem with one part where Tony Stark pulled a feeding tube from his nostril. The memory of her own tube removal combined with seeing it on screen nearly made her throw up. Other than that and only two small peeps from Ryleigh, the movie was completely uninterrupted.

We are all looking forward to the weekend. Ry has been sleeping almost 6 hours in a stretch. We love the progress she's making.

Thank you all so much for you prayers and you love. We have definitely felt the your support these last few months. Feel free to leave any comments.

Ryleigh's Rough Beginning

2008-04-29T00:47:00.000-07:00

hello everyone, welcome to my blog.

I'm kind of new to the blog thing but I will try to keep it as updated as possible.

I'm going to start my blog as of January 9th. I'd like to start off by telling you the story of how my daughter came into the world.

January 9th started out like any other day. I got up, got dressed, and went to work. As I pulled into my works parking lot, my phone rang and that's when everything changed.

I could see on the caller ID that it was Kristy (my wife)who was calling, i answered, "hey sweetie," she spoke quietly and said that i need to come home and take her to the hospital. I immediately took off for home and told her to sit down. on the way home i called my boss to let him know that i wouldn't be coming in that day.

when i arrived at our house, Kristy was sitting on a chair in the kitchen, and right away i could tell there was something really wrong. her face was pale like a corpse and her neck had a huge bulge on it as if there was a tennis ball under her skin.

when we got to the hospital, she was so weak, she couldn't walk from the car to the ER. so i ran in and got a wheel chair.

Within 10 minutes she was surrounded by doctors and nurses and everyone was really worried. A vascular surgeon was called in to confirm the diagnosis of an anneurism. His name was Dr. Gilbertson. He not only confirmed the anneurism, but he found a second one. Kristy was bleeding to death internally. He said that she had to get to surgery NOW!! and about 45 minutes after i got the call from Kristy she was being operated on.

Now, at this time, Kristy was 7 months pregnant. We wanted to wait to find out if it was a boy or girl. In the vascular surgery operating room, our little girl had to be taken out through emergency C-section. At a mere 3 lb 2 oz, she came. But that's not the half of it.

Our little girl had no heartbeat and it took 10 minutes to revive her. The pH in her blood was so low (6.8) she should have died. this acidosis took 80 minutes to bring in to check. all the while I was in a waiting room with absolutely no idea that she had even been born.

In a matter of an hour, i had nearly lost my wife and child. Needless to say, there was a lot of praying that was taking place. Finally, the doctor who delivered the baby and the Neo-natologist who revived her called me in for a conference.

They told me about her lack of heartbeat, her acidosis, and to throw one more on top, she has a bi-lateral hemorrhage in her brain. that means that her brain was bleeding in both hemispheres. They didn't expect her to survive the next few hours. My heart dropped. I was about to lose my daughter before i even got to see her. they took me to her incubator where doctors and nurses were everywhere. i looked at her stats screen and figured out which line was her heartbeat. my eyes remained fixated on that line. within 10 minutes of seeing my little girl for the first time, i saw her heart stop 3 times.

Meanwhile, Kristy finally got out of surgery and i was called to the ICU to be with her. She looked like she had gone through hell and back. they had told me what to expect, but nothing could have prepared me to see my beautiful wife like that.

I barely left her side for the next week. She ended up bleeding out over 3 liters of blood (internally). So much blood was in her chest cavity that her right lung was really compressed. She had to go back into surgery. The surgeon cut through her rib cage and scooped out a liter and a half of coagulated blood, which released a lot of the pressure on her lung. She had been through so much trauma, she couldn't breathe on her own. She had a tube down her throat for 15 days. 6 Surgeries and 3 weeks later she was finally able to come home.

Ryleigh Sue had a longer recovery. for the first three weeks, she wasn't expected to survive each hour let alone each night. I really didn't think she was going to survive. Finally I was able to give her a priesthood blessing. The spirit was so strong. Not even on my mission had I felt such power. Then, through my bleak outlook the prompting came. The Spirit took over and it told me to bless her with something I didn't think would come true. This scared me. In my mind, I thought she was going to die.

During the blessing, the spirit said through me: "Ryleigh, you are a Freeman, your parents love you and you will make a full recovery. Your Heavenly Father will send his angels to watch, protect, and comfort you." After that was said the blessing went back into my words, and all I could do was end the blessing and excuse myself. I locked myself in the restroom and wept as I poured my heart to God. I prayed with more fervor than I ever have in my life. I prayed that the Lord would allow that blessing to come to fruition.

then she started to grow. her brain hemorrhage had stabilized (the pressure in her brain stopped increasing) and she was no longer getting worse. 2 weeks after that she actually started getting better. she was still really sick, but she was getting better.

then, all of a sudden, she got sicker again. her bowels started dying. they wouldn't move her nutrients or gas. She looked like one of those really malnourished 3rd world kids with the huge belly. This too, almost killed her.

10 days of "big gun" antibiotics and treatment and she was back on the road to recovery.

On week 10, she was looking like she would be able to come home in a month or so. that was a big week. there was finally a light at the end of this nightmare-ish tunnel. that week Kristy and i took the training courses needed for a special needs child (CPR, basic first-aid, etc...)We even stayed overnight in the hospital so we could learn how to take care of her.

That Friday, a bomb was dropped on us. they said we would probably take her home in the next week!!! and 76 days after that hellish morning of jan 9, our daughter came home.