Goodbye Dr. Tom....

All you mothers out there know how important it is to have a good pediatrician, right? Well, in my humble opinion, we had the best one out there. Dr. Tom Metcalf has been our pediatrician for the better part of 10 years with the exception of the little hiatus' we took to Arizona and Kentucky. I never liked any of the others we had as much as him so as soon as we returned to Utah, we went right back to him. He is so kind and gentle and the best part is that he actually listens to the mother. He feels that a mothers instinct should not be ignored....When he isnt working in the office he spends his time in Washington as an advocate for childrens health.Well, sadly, he has retired. We are going to miss him, but he hand picked his replacement so I trust completely that we will like her too. Here are the kids at his retirement party with Dr. Tom. He had clowns there for all the kids and they made Addison a princess crown out of balloons....

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Catching Up.....

I know it hasn't been that long since I last posted so there is'nt necessarily a lot of catch up but I have a couple of slideshows with pictures I forgot to post. The first is from the 4th of July Weekend... we went early Saturday morning to our old ward for the annual 4th of July pancake breakfast. Thats always a good time to visit and eat a good breakfast...then we ventured over to the Gateway to see the movie "The Last Airbender". The kids had been dying to see it. While waiting for the movie to start the kids had a run around the fountains area and tried really hard not to get wet. Everyone managed to stay dry but Ian....here are the pic's from that day.

Then of course the next day was the actual 4th of July and we decided to take the kids to a Bee'z Baseball game because afterward they put on a fabulous firework show! Denver really wanted to take the kids to a baseball game before he left. So here are the pics from the game....

So, last night we celebrated the 24th of July which in Utah is bigger than the 4th of July in terms of holiday's. For those that dont know what it is, we call it Pioneer Day and we are celebrating the pioneers that traveled West and settled what is now the Salt Lake Valley. A lot of sacrifices were made to venture out here into the unknown and their trials were massive. There definitely is a reason to celebrate those strong and faithful people.... We went to my friend Karolyns house last night. They live in a great house with an even greater yard that consists of ponds, a trampoline and a campground style fire pit complete with split log benches. The kids had so much fun roasting hot dogs, marshmallows, making smores and just goofing around with Karolyns two daughters. Addison was in heaven with those "big" girls... Logan (she called her Loden) and Brynn. Also Karolyns boyfriends' daughter Sydney was there and Addie acted like she had known her forever. It was cute. After all the eating and playing we had a fun "wyoming style" firework show! Here are some pics from the night....I wasnt a very good picture taker last night but got a few.

So the other news is that Denver has taken a job with his company (Boeing) in their South Carolina plant. He moved there on Thursday. It is basically the same job but with better opportunity. He has been going to school for business management but in this small little Salt Lake plant there was not much hope of him ever getting into management. Not to mention most of the work on Boeing's new big plane is being moved to the Charleston plant. With the economy the way it is, it seemed a good choice to go there where the job is guaranteed for the foreseeable future. Me and the kids have stayed behind for now. I really dont want to have to start the whole process of school over and since I only have about a year left, it made sense to stick it out here for a while. We have discovered SKYPE and the kids get to video chat with him each night so that will be fun for them. We are just going to keep busy to keep our minds off the fact that he isnt here. For example this Fall I have registered for a full schedule at the U. I found a full day preschool for Addison which will allow me the time to finish my homework during the day before the kids get home from school in the afternoon. That way we can spend those afternoon/evenings with their homework, Taekwondo, Soccer, Dance, Scouts, and whatever else comes our way. I have also signed up for the Womens Choir that I sing with each year. Im pretty sure every day of the week will be filled with something!! So if I seem frazzled or my blog posts are short, you will understand why! Hope you are all having a great Summer....school is almost back in session!

Hey Jude......

Finally, after 9 days of waiting (im)patiently......Jude Lorenzon Ries was born early this morning at 6:51 a.m. It must have been all the walking at the zoo yesterday but then again, I think he was just ready to join the world!! He is perfectly healthy and beautiful weighing in at a whopping 9 lbs 4 oz and 21.5 inches long. Alisa is also healthy and doing wonderfully after a relatively short labor and delivery.

She was already dilated to a 6 by the time she went in to the hospital this morning around 3 a.m. I was able to go to the hospital with the kids this afternoon to kiss and love the little guy

and I can attest that he is just perfect and sweet as can be! He very much looks like Ian when he was born....it was fun to see the resemblance. Baby hunger pangs have finally subsided now that I am home and away from that newborn baby smell.

So, anyway, we are excited to have another baby in the family!! Congrats to Nathan and Alisa....another cute little boy to add to the brood :)

Fun with Family....

With the impending arrival of my new nephew, Jude, my parents flew into town on Wednesday. After a few days of visiting and catching up, there was still no baby... So Saturday we got together at Nate and Alisa's house for a BBQ.

We had lots of good food and fun hanging out together.

The next night my mom and I went and saw a movie together....


and Monday, we all went to the Zoo....


hoping that perhaps walking around might help get labor started for Alisa who was now 8 days over due!


Soren and Addison had fun together...but mostly it was Addie taking charge and playing "mom".

We spent nearly 3 hours in the heat but had a really fun time.

Monday = Funday....

Today we ventured over to Draper for a photo shoot at a new studio called Foto Fly. I have mentioned them before but now I have the goods to show you how much fun this place is! Most of you who know me know that I was a Kiddie Kandids devotee for years. Although I never completely LOVED everything they did or their options, it was better than Sears or the really expensive studios that I could not afford. Well, now that they are forever closed and I have lost all of my pictures, never to be able to re-order them again, I was feeling a little lost. Enter Foto Fly. They have taken the basic concept of Kiddie Kandids and reinvented it totally into an amazing experience coupled with amazing prices. Their studio is gorgeous and they have the most amazing rooms with bright colors, fun patterns, and great chairs. This is not Kiddie Kandids....its like the grown up version but even better. Everyone on the staff was super friendly and great with my kids. We got an entire HOUR of picture taking and the best part.....we get ALL the images on disk for a super low price! The one thing that drove me nuts about the formerly mentioned studio was that I could only afford to purchase one image even when there were other cute ones taken. Foto Fly gives them all to me on a disk and I can post them as much as I like on my blog, facebook, etc....without legal ramifications :) Anyway, I just cant say enough about them. Its dreamy to finally have somewhere to go for pictures again....without taking out a loan to pay for them!! (these are only a fraction of the pictures we got today)

Happy Birthday America!

We have had a really fun holiday weekend! We took the kids to see a movie on Saturday and on Sunday we went to a Beez Baseball game with a HUGE firework show afterward. They had so much fun.... The weather has been incredible! Today we had a picnic outside in our courtyard with the typical 4th fixings.... bbq chicken, corn on the cob, potato salad and diet coke :) I love the 4th of July. During the firework show last night Ian started crying...I asked him what was wrong and he said something about the sacrifice people made for our country.... I just love how sensitive he is and how he is unafraid to expose it. I think this is fast becoming one of my favorite holidays. Here are the kids as we were going to the game and firework show! Hope you all enjoyed your holiday too!