Santa! I KNOW HIM!!!!!!

I've been in the gym 5 of 7 days this week...lost inches but no lbs....soooo frustrating.
Ryder has been doing an army crawl from one side of my parent's family room to another. It is so funny to watch him. If he sees a toy he wants, he will do anything to get to it-when he gets frustrated, he simply cries and his Grammy comes running to the rescue.
We went to the Millenia Mall here to see Santa. We got such a cute picture of the REAL Santa. I was so excited...it was just another stranger to Ryder haha.

Grammy and Ryder playing while we waited to see Santa

The REAL Santa

Christmas Time 2011

Well-We made it safe and sound to Orlando. Everyone was so excited to see Ryder and we was excited to see anyone else besides his mama who held him still on an airplane for 6 hours haha.We got in at 9pm and went straight to my parent's house. Ryder stil has NOT adjusted to the time change and I am running on very little sleep.
We have spent a lot of time with my grandparents and I am looking forward to my cousins and sister coming into town (as well as Kori's husband, my brother in law and MY HUSBAND). My brother came in early from school, too. He'll tell you it is so he could hunt but it's actually so he could spend more time with Ryder.

Yesterday, my grandmother took me and Ryder to get his christmas pictures taken. There were some cute ones...The above pics are some of my favorites

Orlando...

HERE WE COME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Dear Ryder

I want you to know how much I love you. I hope you know how proud I am of you-how proud I am to call you my son. Know that my love for you is unconditional and it is forever. There is nothing you could ever do that could change the way that I feel for you, that would change how much I love you. My life started the day you were born. I loved you from the moment I knew I was going to have you but I never knew how much I could love someone until you were born and in my arms. You are my everything and I love you more and more every day. Your smile makes my day-EVERY DAY. When you reach out to me, my heart smiles. When I hear you say "mama", my heart melts. Watching you grow and learn is what I live for. Feeling your soft, sweet hand around my finger is the reason I get up.
Ryder Patrick Fry-I love you more than you will ever know. You are my life and my world and I will never give up on you and I will always protect you and keep you safe.

"No one will ever know the strength of my love for you. After all, you're the only one who knows what my heart sounds like on the inside."

She's A Fighter

In this holiday season, sometimes it's easy to get lost in what it is all about. Christmas is not about Santa or presents or even turkey. Honestly, I don't think it's really about family, either. It's about a baby that was born to come and die for the people on this Earth that he loved so that they may have a chance to spend eternity with him..."no more sorrow, no more pain." I hope we all remember how amazingly blessed we are this Christmas.
As we meet with our families and eat this Christmas and celebrate this new year coming, I ask you to remember and pray for a high school friend of mine. I have not really kept in touch with her but I am following her on Facebook and I would like to ask you to pray for her and her healing. A few years ago, Teri was diagnosed with Lyme Disease. If you don't know about this, Google it. It has been completely debilitating and my heart aches for Teri. She is such a fighter. She is currently in the D.R. receiving some intense treatment. This past Thanksgiving, she was able to sit and eat with her family for Thanksgiving after not being able to for years (this is what I read on her FB).
If you could, as you talk to our Father tonight, or multiple nights please, ask for His will for Teri. Ask for healing and strength and understanding and patience.
God has a purpose for her and I am more than certain that she has been able to bring so many people to know him through her story. She is such a Godly, strong, wonderful woman and I am thankful to say that I have known her.

(These are all taken from her Facebook from, I believe, before she was diagnosed-what a beautiful girl-she still is!)

"This too shall pass"

Weight Loss

Well...I lost 7 lbs in 5 days doing the Master Cleanse. I went off of it for 4 days for Thanksgiving (and leftovers). Tomorrow, I am going back on  the cleanse. I am so tired of this post pregnancy weight. I don't even recognize myself in the mirror or in pictures or on Skype. I have very few clothes that fit right but I refuse to buy any clothes to fit me at 174lbs because I don't want ANY reason to stay at this weight. It's been hard to lose weight and get my blood sugars under control at the same time but in order to lose the weight, I have to have controlled sugars because additional insulin means weight gain (or at least not as much weight loss). I'm ready to be comfortable in my skin. To be able to look in the mirror as I leave my house and be confident. To say "Hey girl, hey!" to myself as I walk by a window or mirror.
Anyway, the cleanse starts again tomorrow (and working out continues) so I will keep you updated with the success I have (I know you are so interested haha)-thanks for pretending at least.

Happy Thanksgiving

From the West Coast, we would like to wish you all a very Happy Thanksgiving. I am so happy that my little family is together this Thanksgiving. Last year, Pat was deployed and we didn't know Ryder was going to be Ryder yet. Even though we are apart from our individual family of origins (yes-I just pulled out some verbage from Family Studies. Aren't you proud Trish? lol) we are very thankful that we are with each other and that we will see our families over Christmas.
Poor Baby Bear has been sick for 2 weeks with a runny nose. On Tuesday night, he started to cough, and this morning it seemed as though the cough was moving more into his chest and there was a lot of mucus coming up with it. Ryder smiles even through his discomfort. I know he feels miserable but he is such a trooper and my little angel.
Here are some pictures of our 1st Thanksgiving together....Ryder is taking a nap right now so I will have to post more pictures of him later.

All the fixings ready to be warmed up

Green Been Casserole and Cornbread

Ryder playing while mommy cooks

Daddy waiting on his Thanksgiving lunch

 Can I get a smile?

 There's a smile!!!

 Getting the table set up

 Daddy cutting the turkey

 "This Guy's Awesome"

 Mashed potatoes donated to us from Operation Homefront-THANK YOU

 Sweet Corn Pudding

 Homemade Banana Pudding with from scratch pudding and whip cream-YUMMO

 Our "Lunch for 2" haha

 Sweet Potato Casserole