Phoenix Zoo...



Ruby in January.
Jared's wedding at Mesa Temple....Greg, Jared, Bryon....
Reception....

temple...Jared and Ryder....
and more reception...






It has been FOREVER. Sorry to all.

Here is a quick update....

Ruby is growing fast. She has been crawling for a week now....and into everything! esp anything that Ryder has. I constantly hear "mom take her away please."
We have to make barrier thru middle of room to keep her off of him. Even though she is bugging him all the time he is still so sweet to her. He really is the SWEETEST child I have ever seen. We are so blessed to have his special spirit in our family.
Ruby is also beginning to talk... these are her words... her first word was "hi!" then "pway" (play) she says that whenever she sees the guitars...haha.
The words that I hear most are "mama baba" aka mom, bottle!...and also dada...when she sees greg. She is learning pretty quickly. I always tell Ryder he is teaching her SO much! and he just smiles, all proud of himself.



Kira also was recently called to serve in Young Womens...and she LOVES it. It is her dream calling...and is everything she hoped it'd be!
Greg is still as busy as ever...school full time, work full time, doing dirtbike wheels on side, and playing in bands. The band part is a great vent for him with all he does!
That is us since November : )

Today was Ryder's NyICU reunion for ST Joe's. It was so cool to see some of Ryders medical staff...Esp Claire! She was his nurse pretty much from the beginning to end. The CUTEST moment was seeing Jesus and Ryder hugging. Jesus is the lil guy photo'd with Ryder below. They were lil 2 lbs buddies in the NyICU. I guess there was another little baby in there that was just 13 ounces!!! yes JUST 13 ounces! her nick name was polly pocket, and was the length of a dollar bill!!! she lived and is totally fine, running around! Im bummed I didnt get a picture of her. SO COOL! Yeah thats why I love St Joes they kick major butt.

Ryder had a Halloween Party at school today....here are his pictures before he headed off. We have 2 costumes for him...At first he wanted to be a monkey...then last minute wanted to change into his cool dragon costume. He wanted to be Elmo....but the store was out of the cool Elmo costumes.

dimples...the chubbier she gets...the smaller they get : (
she is so much fun....

talking to mommy....
Ruby in her almost finished Halloween Outfit...

Such a cool kid.

first day to ride the bus!

Yes, it has been a while! goodness. Sorry! Life has been good here at the Page house. Busy, but good.

Ruby is about 13 lbs now, and a great baby! we are so blessed to have this little sweetie in our family. She is doing wonderful and developing fine. She loves kicking! And laying by Ryder and plays with him. She will smile at her big brother, at times even laugh.

Ryder is being Ryder.....AwEsOmE! He is such a wonderful kid. He is so loving, and sweet. Ryder started preschool last week. He rides the bus. He loves school. Today he got home and said, "mom! school was so fun!" He talks all of the time. He was evaluated by the school district...Bragging moment here for me...he scored 106% in cognitive, and the same in communication, 96% in speech (minor problems understanding things). In physical he scored 50%, that actually was surprising. Good job Ryder.

Everywhere we go this is Ryder.... "oooh look mom, that light is a rectangle!" Or "mom that table is kinda like a cylinder!" He's getting down octagon...he knows that the stop signs are octagons.
He knows his colors, shapes, and recognizes many letters. Almost 3 years ago, we were not sure he'd do anything like this! After his brain problems in the NICU, noone really knew what he would do. Well look at Ryder now! We are SSSSOOOOOOO proud of this kid!
Oh another story...the other day while playing a game with him....he smiled to big and said "mom! I have options!!" I laughed, and thought where did he learn that one?

Kiralee is well. I have had a crazy 3 months of ear infections....like 4! I hope to get tubes in my ears...yes like a kid! I am just so sick of getting high fevers and achy ears.

Greg is BUSY~ with work, school, and his band. He got called to be assistant scout leader to the 11 year olds. He is busy busy....he always makes time to hang out with Ryder though. Ryder sure loves his dad!

Today is one of those days, I sit back and am so grateful to have a special son with cerebral palsy. Ryder is such a sweet loving kid. He teaches Greg and I so much.
I am filled with much emotion today because of his struggles. We get so caught up in our busy life with Ryder we tend to forget he's a "different" kid. Now that Ryder talks (alot!). He is now realizing his differences from his cousins or buddies.
He asks to run, walk...today he really wanted to sit by himself.
Ryder was playing basketball in his playroom, and really wanted to sit to shoot the ball into basket... I had to help Ruby at the same time. Ryder cried to sit, it wasn't an anger thing it was a sad thing....I could see in his eyes he knew... he wanted to sit like the other kids his age....we kind of just stared at each other and emotionally just felt each other.
At that point I knew I could explain his disability... I told him about when he was born really early and got hurt inside his brain....and it hurt his legs, and muscles... Ryder laid in my arms listening, and thinking deeply about it. He told me "Kiwa I want to sit." I knew it wasn't a "help me sit" it was a "I want to sit by myself sit". Yeah, that tore my heart up.
He sees kids playing sports and he wants to do it...he wants to be independent... Greg and I dreaded the day Ryder would notice his cerebral palsy....well today was that day... It breaks our hearts....
moments like today I just grab Ryder and hold him in my arms for a long time and tell him how much I love him, and what a cool kid he is...I could hug him all day.
I told Ryder today that he will sit all by himself someday, and walk by himself. His smile was priceless. I could see in his smile that he is determined, and he will do anything he puts his mind to... like walking : )
Ryder is my Hero. I love him.

Labor Day weekend was an interesting one.... started off rocky ended great.
We had been planning to go up to grandpa Jones's cabin for Labor day for a while, but Friday morning Kira woke up with a fever. She was pretty mad because she hadn't had one since high school. She saw the Dr. it was another ear infection. Kira's fever got pretty high, but she was set on getting out of HOT Mesa.
So we were about to pack up the jeep (we got a new car Jeep Liberty) but something was going wrong with the clutch. Thank goodness we were able to catch rides up!
So we went to cabin...got there....found out we were going to be locked out of cabin for 4 hours while they "bug bombed" the place. The cabin gets nasty Spiders!!! eeeew.
In the meantime Kira's fever went up to 102.3...she was miserable....but happy to be in the beautiful mountains.
It was nice that we were trapped out of the cabin....it forced everyone to be outside in the pines. Then came a thunderstorm...that was a good thing....thunderstorms at the cabin are beautiful.
Also Ryder went fishing for the first time. He caught 3 fish. Kissed a fish. Yes, kissed a fish. haha. Ryder also got to play all weekend with kids! he loved that!!!
Greg got a nasty migraine, while Kira had her fever....we were so lucky to have people helping with the kiddos!!
I love the cabin...minus the spiders....it's one of my favorite places to be.
That was our crazy weekend.