Sleepy Head

Listen for her little sleepy "hi" at the beginning of the video :)

Thankful Thursday: New Words & New Toys

It's thankful Thursday time! We all have so much to be thankful for and we love to take this opportunity just to write down each and everything that comes to mind. Please take this time to share with us what you're thankful for as well. If you have a blog expressing your thankfulness, please share the link! Without further ado, here's what we're thankful for:

Mandi's List:

I'm thankful for carmel corn. Ronnie's brothers gave me carmel corn for Christmas and let's just say the bag is almost gone! It is SO yummy. They know me so well and know that I like sweets that are crunchy and that I can kind of pick at (or eat piece by piece). It is the PERFECT dessert.

I'm thankful for new words. Mckenna seems to be learning a new word every couple of days it seems. She's such a little chatty cathy and I love it. I absolutely LOVE hearing how she says things. Words like PEEZ (please) and Dayn du (thank you) have never sounded so adorable. I think some of my favorite words she's learned in the last few days are WEE-O (Rio, my parent's dog) and Zooz (Juice...Also said like "Jews" if she gets the J sound a little more dead on). I am so blessed to have such a sweet little love jabbering around the house.

I'm thankful for silly games. Mckenna invented a game. It's called "BUH BYYYYYE". She shouts "BUH BYYYYYE" at me, I shout it back and run away, and then run back when she yells "Mommy." "BUHHH BYYYE"...."BUH BYYYYE"...run away...."MOMMY"....run back. "BUH BYYYYYE"......you get the point. She gets increasingly sillier and louder as the game goes on, and she laughs uncontrollably. Occasionally she can't get out the words she's giggling so hard. I absolutely love the game because I love her sweet giggles. I am so thankful that she is so silly and is now trying to initiate fun games and does things to be goofy and make us laugh.

Ronnie's List:

I'm thankful for new toys. What's funny, is it's not even my toy, but my father-in-laws. Josh (my brother-in-law) got his dad a remote controlled helicopter for Christmas. Not only was it a ton of fun, but it was super addicting! And yes, I have my eye open for one of my own :)

I'm thankful for a new year. I'm not a resolutions kind of a guy, but I'm just thankful that time is still ticking. Another year passed is another year that I'm married to my wife, a dad to my daughter and son to my mom. If this year is anything like last year or the previous 32, it will be awesome!!

I'm thankful for the "end" of the "Fiscal Cliff". Personally wish we had just gone off of it, but at least we don't have to hear about it anymore...until next time.

So, what are you thankful for today?

2012 Year in Review

Here's the best that I can remember from 2012 with links to many of the highlights...

January-In January Mckenna was turning 3-months old and still quite the little peanut (that hasn't changed). I was able to show off my  "daddy skills" as Mandi returned to work and left me on Mr. Mom Island. It's still very enjoyable to spend one-on-one time with Mckenna and something I very much look forward to each day. We also had our first road trip as a family of three when we made our way out to California to visit with Auntie Kirra and Uncle Tyler!

February- I celebrated my 32nd birthday by documenting the entire day in pictures. Mandi got me a sweet camera for Christmas that ended up not getting to us until February because of the terrible tsunami in Japan. I went a little picture crazy to say the least! I was hospitalized for 14 days and issued a Hospital Exercise Challenge. Mckenna "clearly" missed me while I was in the Hole, but she did manage to role over while I was there.

March- After being released from the hospital I hit the exercise really hard! I'm still convinced that it's the best medicine ever and that doing a little bit of something is better than doing a whole lot of nothing. Mckenna starting getting to that stage where she actually knew who we were and didn't want us to leave and entertained us most of the month with her sitting skills!

April- In April, I took part in a Health Blog Challenge that produced some very different posts than usual like which superpower I would choose and writing a letter to the 16-year-old me. We had a great Easter celebration with family down in Tucson and managed to get in a pretty cute photo shoot with Mckenna. 

May- In May I was inspired to push myself even harder after a motivating conversation with a fellow cyster. Mandi and I celebrated our 2nd wedding anniversary, in Singapore of all places, and Mckenna started walking all over the place...with assistance. 

June- We took our annual family trip to Rocky Point, Mexico where Mckenna amazed us all with her ability to sleep in ANY position. Mandi was trying to get back in the saddle after back-to-back vacations while I was realizing that there will never be a "perfect time" to start a quest into personal responsibility...you just have to do it! I didn't get to spend my first Father's Day at home, but I got to hang with fellow cyster Beth Peters at a great event she organized in Boston.

July- It took 8.5 months, but Mandi finally got the itch again...the itch to actually want to work out! Mckenna started to figure out that she could walk around the house with things other than her walker. It was a pretty chill month for me, but I did encourage people in the CF community to get selfish!!

August- It was back into the Hole for me this month for an 18 day stay. Technically, I went in on July 30th, but most of the visit was in August. Mckenna had a blast riding on the IV poles and "walking" while mommy "sang". The highlight of our month however may have been our first date night since becoming a family of three.

September- Mckenna spent some time in a monkey pit at the beginning of the month, showing us all why you shouldn't eat off our counters in the middle and then wrapped the month up  by doing some laundry. I did some reflection on why my wife can't only be my best friend while Mandi reflected on feeling like a total loser at the gym :)

October- Mandi and I had begun to make date nights "old hat" by this time, which we weren't so sure the service industry appreciated. Mandi was working with Mckenna on developing her vocabulary  and I don't think she has stopped talking since. We had two special birthdays back-to-back with Mandi on the 16th and Mckenna on the 17th. We also debuted a teaser called Living Xtreme: Beyond Cystic Fibrosis which we had been working on for almost two years with The Essential Image Source Foundation and The Cystic Fibrosis Lifestyle Foundation. And then of course, the month would not have been complete without a little bit of trick or treating on Halloween with Mckenna the cupcake! 

November- Even though Mckenna's birthday was in October, we waited a couple of weeks for my in-laws to be in town before we celebrated! Mckenna rocked out on a piano while Mandi reflected on the wisdom literally being torn right out of her head in the form of teeth. We had another successful Outrun CF event, this time on Thanksgiving Day, that saw the most participants ever!!

December- Best part of December was getting Eric and Nancy (my in-laws) back home for good as they lived in China or Singapore during Mandi and my entire relationship. I love both of them so much, and they are a great nana and papi to Mckenna. Speaking of Mckenna, she blew our mind with how observant she is, and made us think twice about what we do or say around her. Christmas was of course a great time with family, snow (we did Polar Express again!!) and presents (Mckenna is very good at opening them). As a bonus, our Aunt Vicki from Kansas City joined us for the festivities this year!!

Most viewed blogs this year:
Enzymes: Its all about the poop
The Start of My Kalydeco Journey
My Cystic Fibrosis Mantra

I want to take this time to thank all of you for taking time out of your busy schedules and checking in on us from time to time. This year, we saw RSBR top 1,000,000 views. It's still mind blowing to me that we have even had 1! I'm so humbled by how many of you continually leave comments of encouragement and support. You've seen our family change in big ways and are always there to lend a few tips and tricks when we need them. 

Again, thank you, thank you thank you from the bottom of my heart. Have a safe and happy New Year and I'll see you guys in 2013.

Love from my family to yours,

Ronnie