Spring in winter

We've enjoyed an amazingly warm season this year. It's hard to imagine that it's winter when we've had weather in the 50s and even high 60s. I'm not complaining. I'm just dreading the potential snow that may eventually come. But we are sure enjoying playing outside. Riley is wanting to be outside all the time either playing in "dirt" or going to the "park". It's fun seeing how much more he can do at the playground than last time we were there. 

He calls this "monkey swing". Don't know where he got that. He named it by himself. But he just wanted to do it and didn't want me to be close to him. Already wanting some independence!

Playing in the dirt with daddy. He loves our dirt patch so much I'm considering not planting flowers this coming year! 

It's so fun being a mommy. Ty and I either just bask in the sun while he plays or I try and keep Ty on my lap while he tries his hardest to get that brown stuff in his mouth!

Riley's trip to the zoo!

Riley's favorite things are animals!  He LOVES them.  His favorite movies are the Madagascar movies.  So he's loved playing with zebras, giraffes, hippos, and lions.  He had never seen any of these animals in real life though.  We were so anxious to see how he'd react.  So, for his birthday we headed to the zoo!

Isn't that sky amazing!!  We went up with Bryan's family.

 First animal:  Zebra.  That was really exciting.  Every animal he saw he just kept saying "whoa!"  Not too many smiles.  Just big eyes and a "whoa".

 This picture is to prove that Ty was there.  He was a champ.  Only problem: MASSIVE BLOWOUT.  Fortunately I had an extra outfit or he would've had a new Hogle Zoo onesie.

Sitting on the Lion

 Elephant:

 Rhino:

 He watched the sea lions forever!

 Grandma and Grandpa enjoying the weather and the kids

 Trying to be like daddy so they had to switch hats.  Can you see the one on Bryan's head?

Riley's cousins Tori and Jayden

 We were at the zoo from 9-1.  Riley usually takes a nap between 12 and 1.  Around the end of our time he was getting REALLY tired!  But we didn't want to miss anything.

 He "rode" the hippo on the carousel.  He wanted the bear but a kid got to it first so he went to the hippo.  But when the ride started he got nervous so we ended up holding him.  He liked it though.

 Seeing the giraffe!  He was so tired that he wasn't showing excitement.  But he didn't take his eyes off the either!

The male's name was Riley!

On the train around the zoo!  He was still having fun!

 And that's a wrap folks!

Lion's Den in September

Bryan had his first visit to one of my favorite places on earth: The Lion's Den.  This is my grandparents mountain house in Colorado that our extended family has that we have had so many wonderful memories in.  Bryan hadn't ever been there and that was unacceptable so we packed up our boys and headed to CO to meet my parents up there in the middle of September.

Whenever we go to CO we always go to Moab first.  It cuts up the drive and makes it a little shorter for the long haul and we get to see the other grandparents too. Riley loves playing in the red dirt in Moab and this time was especially fun because it was MUD!  He was covered!

 The next morning as we headed out we stopped by Grandma McKinnon's first grade classroom!  It was fun seeing her classroom and all her kids and she was so excited to show off her grandsons!

 And then we were off!  This picture is VERY deceiving....he was not happy 80% of the drive and the other 20% he was asleep.  But at least I caught a good moment on camera.  He was more happy if I was sitting next to him as well.

 We made a stop in Vail to get out and run around.  The mountains were breathtaking!  The colors were lovely and the aspens were bright yellow!  The weather was in the 70s and a cool breeze.  We stayed there an hour!  We all felt very refreshed by the time we left.

 And then we made it to the Lion's Den.  Bryan and Riley enjoyed exploring all that there was there and I was just soaking in the peaceful feeling I always have when I go there!  It was fun to have my little family in this place that I grew up in.

Little chairs on the balcony.  Riley didn't like that Bryan was on the big chair!

Reading night time stories before bed!  Do you think he's happy?

Daddy and his boys the next morning.  Lounging in my grandparents rockers!

 Our first day I wanted to show Bryan EVERYTHING! So we went up to Winter Park where I learned to ski and got to show him around there.  We drove through Fraser and it was so fun!  Then we went home for boys naps and then we headed up to Grand Lake.  I love Grand Lake but as we got there is started to rain.  It didn't dampen my spirits though.  We still walked up and down the street going in to the little shops and we walked down to the lake when there was a break in the clouds.  But it really dumped some rain on us while we were there.  Riley actually liked it quite a lot.

What is falling on my head?

 This is one of my favorite moments of the trip.  I was getting ready while Ty slept and Bryan took Riley out to the swing and they just swang (is that a word) and Bryan got him to repeat "I...Love..." and then went through anything he could get Riley to "parrot".  He said mama, daddy, baby, grandma, grandpa, all his aunts, uncles and cousins and then random things like bears, Shadow, bugs, etc!  Such a tender moment!

 Then my parents met up with us and we went to Grandby Ranch and rode the ski lift to the top!

Riley didn't like it and kept saying "down" and "all done". We thought he'd like it more than he did.

View at the top of the mountain!

Riley walked around with "papa".  His favorite thing to do was to "shake it".  They would shake the leaves off the trees.  And yes, my dad was camouflaged in the aspen trees.

Little Ty Ty snuggling grandma on his first hike.

 Another of my favorite things to do while at the Lion's Den is to go on a walk around the neighborhood.  It's so beautiful walking around that part of the mountain and the weather was incredibly nice.  We just put jackets on the babies and we were off!

 Sellers tradition:  Ebelskievers!  We have them at the Lion's Den often as well as always on Christmas morning. This was Riley's first time with them.  He loves pancakes so I just assumed he'd love these.  He liked them but wasn't so sure.  Even after calling them pancake balls (two things he loves) he still wasn't sure.

 Next Tradition: Ultimate Bocce Ball.  We go all over the meadows playing bocce ball.  Riley really wanted to play.  So we did all we could to let him play and not mess up our game.  Bryan was KILLING us and was ahead by like 5 points right away, but we all started catching up.

 Unfortunately the weekend went by too fast and we had to say goodbye.  It was incredibly hard to leave.  Especially because we were only with my parents for 25 hours and 8 of those we were sleeping.  We'll have to do it again soon.  Bryan loved it! And my heart was happy.

This is how we all felt leaving, and a more accurate depiction of how he felt being in the car.  Although he did sleep for a good portion of the way back to Moab.

Welcome Tyler Jay!

We are so happy to introduce our new little mister, Tyler Jay McKinnon born July 9.  Here's the story!

Heading to the hospital!

"See you soon, buddy!"

We arrived at the hospital at 9:30 only for the nurses to tell us that we had been bumped a couple hours for delivery!  What a bummer! Right when we were psyched up for getting the baby out and we were sent home!  So we returned to our house for 2 hours and at 11:00 we got the call to come to the hospital!  So we headed back and they were very accommodating and got us right in.  They got me in the labor/delivery room and started getting my vitals and hooking me up to monitors and doing the “paperwork”.  Then I met the doctor, Dr. Dabling, who was delivering the baby and then the anesthesiologist, Dr. Martin.  Kathy (a friend, parent of old students, and a Labor/Delivery teacher at the hospital) came in and was there until I headed in to the OR.  She’s a big deal at the hospital so I got treated like a VIP!  So Dr Martin came in and explained all that he was going to do once in the OR.  This time I was getting a spinal instead of an epidural.  I was able to walk myself into the OR and then I sat on the table and he gave the shot.  It hurt! But I started getting numb pretty quickly and so I laid down and started to get ready for delivery.  Because the baby was breech I was interested in seeing the delivery.  The doctor said they could set up a mirror but they couldn’t really let us video tape the delivery until he came out. So I thought I’d just watch as the baby came out (I wanted to see them pull him out legs first).  But once they started the c-section I was so curious that after the initial cut I watched the rest of the operation.  It was so fascinating. Dr. Martin was amazing and sat by my head and explained everything that they were doing.  He was AWESOME! I saw them cut into my muscle and then into my uterus and saw the fluid empty.  I didn’t have the same relief feeling as Riley’s birth, but I think it was because I was so occupied with watching the birth.  Then the doctors (Dr. Jacob was there helping out) pulled open the uterus and got little Tyler out!  He was covered in the white stuff and was very purple.  

Sorry for those of you who don't want to see this, but I think it's cool!  Umbilical cord is still attached here.

It turned out the chord was wrapped around his neck twice, which is another reason it was good to have the c-section. It was cool seeing him come out backwards.  They cut the chord and lifted him up and the doctors said he was pretty big and needed to hold him up with two hands again.  So I was thinking he was going to be in the 9 lbs range.  They swooped him away to clean him up (Denise (another nurse and parent of past students and also helped deliver Riley) was there to take care of the baby, which I’m sure she pulled some strings to do).  He was crying so well with no fluid in his lungs, which meant he didn’t have to go to the NICU!  While they were cleaning him up I watched them get out the placenta and then pull out the uterus!  The put a rag on the uterus and cleaned it out!  Then they started stitching it up OUTSIDE of me.  After it was stitched they put it back in!  Then they sewed the muscle and then they stapled the top layer shut.  I counted the staples while they did it…16.  And they had to redo one like 3 times.  I knew that would hurt eventually since there were a few extra holes!  But it was seriously awesome.  At some point in the stitching process they brought in little Ty-guy and said he was only 8lbs 1 oz.  Whoa!  He was small (comparatively speaking). It was fun having him so ready because I was able to have him close to me and they did a little skin on skin and Dr. Martin got pictures of us there and I got to see him longer than I did with Riley!  It was such a special moment.  He looked so much like Riley at first except that he had a bunch of brown hair! 

Then they moved me back to the labor/delivery/recovery room.  My mom was able to be there while Bryan was with the baby.  I was able to tell her (and Kathy who came back) the whole story.  I was also starting the get some feeling back in my legs!  Right before they moved me to the mother/baby floor and where I’d stay the next 4 days they brought Tyler in to me and I was able to hold him!  I got to hold him while they took me down which was wonderful!  He is beautiful!   It was such a special experience!

First time holding the baby!  Just about to move from the recovery room!

Daddy!

Riley wasn't so sure but he did pretty well meeting his brother!

This was not the first day but it's the first picture of us both with Ty.