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!!

Fathers Day

Am I jumping the gun a bit to want to celebrate Fathers Day?  Maybe.. probably.. I'm just excited to have a little one on the way.  Kasey, of course is wishing me happy Fathers Day this morning right when we woke up.  I'll take it!  I hope I can be the Father to my kids that my Father was to me.  Patient, kind, loving, and wise.  My Dad always seemed to know when to coddle me and when to leave a foot print on my rear end.  Growing up, he knew when to give me the reigns which many times I used as a rope to hang myself with.  But, he knew that I would learn from that - even if it were very slowly.  Happy Fathers Day Dad.  Thanks for being the greatest mentor, leader, example, friend, and Dad that anyone could be blessed with.  You truly are the greatest!

Baby London?

Kasey looks so great!!! Man I'm excited.  Each day I wake up and wrap my arms around her feeling her tiny little baby bump trying to gauge the growth of her tummy.  Just knowing that in just a few short months we're going to have a rug rat of our own in the home gives me feelings of joy, excitement and terror!  I've heard stories of Kasey growing up, and I KNOW how I was and wonder what our child is going to be like.  Hopefully she'll (assuming that I'm right and it's a girl) be much like her Mom.  Kind, generous, even tempered, and understanding.  I'm at the point where I'm having dreams usually every night of a little baby girl laying in the crib with the cute little binky I've already purchased that says "I love Daddy" on it.  :)  Already melts my heart.

We've decided that if it's a girl, we'll name her London Lyn Marcum and if it's a boy Ryder Cameron Marcum.  Cute I think.  Kasey really loves London Monroe... but, I think she should have Kasey's name.  Her middle name was our compromise.  I plan on posting her 12 week picture on Wednesday.  Stay tuned.

Here we go!

Well, we've been saying we would start something like this for quite some time but always found and excuse to wait. NOT ANYMORE! Kasey and I have been trying to have a baby ever since we first got married 19 months ago. Now- that's going to happen!! We are so excited to be parents, I can't even tell you. Once I figure out exactly how this thing works, I'll write chapters upon chapters about getting from where we were, to where we are and hopefully those that feel like reading can follow us to where we will end up. Life has been crazy until now and I hope I can find the time to jot down some thoughts, feelings, experiences and maybe even try to write down the lessons learned form those experiences... ya never know.

Ok... I think I have a handle on how this whole blog things works.  Now I feel really stupid because it's so easy and know that we should have been doing this quite a while ago.  Now, let's see if I can play catch up of the last couple years.  Where do I begin?

I know!  It all begins with Kasey!  That seems to be where my life started and can't imagine ever being without her or in a different situation.  As many of you know, Kasey and I worked together for a few months before we started dating.  It's really kind of a funny story.  When I hired her, I was struck with awe because of her beauty and didn't realize that she was as young as she was.  Her mannerisms and the way that she carried herself put her in my mind somewhere closer to my age and that was the last I thought of it.  In order to "keep it professional", I told my business partner Ryan at the time that I would incorporate a "5 second" rule and not look her in the eye for more than that amount of time... just to be sure.  How funny- Apparently, I knew I was in trouble right from the get go.  I mean who says that..?  After working together for about 4 months, I decided to take my team on a trip to the lake for a day of relaxing and water skiing etc.  It was that trip that changed it all.  We were appropriate.. fyi... but, this was really the first time we had ever spoken about anything other than work since she started.  Hours went by while we sat and spoke on the dock.  To say it was refreshing is an understatement.  We spoke about our past experiences, relationships, hobbies, and family as if we'd known each other for years.  Needless to say- I broke my 5 second rule.  I remember getting home and knowing that I had to find a way to be around her outside of a work environment and schemed another trip to the lake that wasn't "work related" and made sure she knew we were going as friends to hang out.

When we got there, we didn't leave each others side and to be honest have spent just moments away from each other ever since.  Within a couple of weeks, we were already talking marriage.  I remember the first time I looked at her and said:  "Can I keep you?"  She was astonished at my boldness.  Funny stuff.  For the record however, I would like to mention that she spilled the "I love you" words first.  To this day, I'm not sure if it was an accident or not.  She just looked over at me and said "I love you" and then got completely embarrassed... Of course, I had to relish in that moment by saying:  "What did you just say" and made her tell me again before I reciprocated.  Talk about being on top of the world.  2 Months later- we were married and I had the most beautiful, supportive, understanding, smart, and just genuinely good person I could have ever imagined.  It was truly the stuff dreams were made of.