Little Ryder!

It's official!  We're having a boy!  Yep.  In about 16 years, you'll want to get off the streets, hide your daughters, and hope you're not a teacher in the vicinity of this little one on the way.  Just kidding- hopefully.  I'm sure because his parents were so good and well behaved this little one will be too.  Right?  ;-)  Not to sound hokey pokey or whatever, but I kinda felt like it was going to be... A couple vivid dreams changed my mind from it's definitely a girl to I'm pretty sure it's a boy.  Mistakenly we may have jumped the gun a bit and bought a few clothes for whom we thought was going to be a little London-  So here they come Jordan & Slade when you have your little girl! (You can't deny my intuitiveness..)

We're pretty set on Ryder for the name, but are still tossing a few names around.  I'm sure that as I write this, Krystal is coming up with 5-10 names for us to consider as well.  :) Stay tuned.  I can't describe how excited I am about the next few months leading up to delivery along with what the future holds after that.  Kasey looks better and better each day as she pokes out just a tiny bit more and being able to plan for the birth is extremely exciting.  I'm sure right now, Kasey is online looking at clothes, strollers, and everything else boy and will have a full list by later this afternoon.  The baby appears to be healthy and strong at this point and have faith it will remain that way as the pregnancy progresses.  This little one is also going to be blessed with many cousins his same age.  Brandon and Stephanie just had their little boy Jack in May.  Bryant and Bonnie just had their little boy Bennett a couple weeks ago.  Slade and Jordan will be having their baby (I think girl) in August, along with many other cousins that will be within a year or two.  Fun!  Thanks to everyone who have kept us in your prayers lately and over the past couple years.  Jared & Steph, I know your kids have been including us in their prayers every day and it has meant the world to us.  Love you all!

Birthday

Growing up, I remember how jealous I would be every time someone would have a Birthday.  The entire class would bring cookies, have milk and the celebration would seem to go on all day for my classmates.  Even now, the singing of happy birthday, the blowing out of candles and the endless birthday wishes plays over and over in my mind reminding me of being the birthday out cast. What about me?  My birthday is in the summer.  I don't get cookies and cake from everyone.  I don't get cards from the class.  What about me!!?  Thoughts such as these would permeate my soul on the bus ride home and would make me wish for a birthday in the spring time.  Now that I'm older and much much wiser, I can look at it in a much more mature and thoughtful way and honestly say.... HA!!! Who's laughing now?!!!  Not only do I get to have a birthday in the warm air of summer, but the many added bonuses of having the Teton river open for fishing that day, having it over the 4th of July weekend, and having it usually fall on a weekend or close enough to- so I can have 3 or sometimes 4 days of nothing but golf, fishing, and camping is pretty dang sweet.  Then, as if by some eternal and celestial plan, the week long celebration of my emancipation from the womb is ended with Fireworks!  Can I get a woot woot?

This birthday week was no exception.  Over the past 2 years, I have learned exactly how to milk every drop out of my birthday from the professional.. my wife.  (Love you honey)  Boise is blessed with a golf course that plays a buck a hole golf after six.  Guess where I was Monday June 27th at 6:15pm?  That's right- celebrating the first day of my birthday week.  Tuesday, a BBQ with my sweetheart- then back to the course on Wednesday.  Thursday, Kasey had to run some errands to get ready for the next days celebratory events and so I had to "get out of the house" and go golfing!  Oh- did I mention that Shadow Valley golf course let's you golf a free round on your Birthday?  Yep!  Can't pass that up- so back to the course on Friday!  Hooray!!  Kasey came home from work around 6:30 and we headed out to a great Restaurant called Barbacoa.  Truly amazing!  The servings were so big we couldn't finish the 1 salad and 1 entree we ordered- plus some table side guacamole to start us off.  Kasey and I came home bursting out of our jeans and I can honestly say I looked much further along in pregnancy than she did.

Saturday and Sunday we headed to Hagerman for the Neilsen family reunion and had a great time jet skiing, camping, fishing, hanging out with family, and of course 18 holes of golf getting us back to Boise late Sunday night.  If the activities weren't enough already, we decided to run downtown to catch the last of the parade, hit the Boise Zoo, and then -  The Fireworks!  Perfect.  Thanks honey for the best week ever!!