2009 for the Loftins

I'm afraid to say this but I don't know that we could have crammed more life changes into one year than we did in 2009. I'm grateful for the trials and challenges and blessings that we went thru this last year and so thankful for the friends and family that were there with us to experience them all.

January - Had our first doctor appt .......after we learned we were expecting baby #3

Alyssa turned 4!!!

February - Ryan turned 29 and celebrated in Cali with his very best friend, Kevin Michael in San Diego doing what they love best; on stage - making music together

playing there gig at the cafe in SD

The boys...Ryan and Kev

Ry was promoted with Federated to District Mktg Manager

Bella tried out Dance class and loved it!

March - brought Grammy Judy's 60th B-day And .....Papa's 60th B-day

An incredible trip to Hawaii

April - Grammy Marty turned 60!!
and we put our sweet little house on the market........

and after only 25 showings and 4 months later we sold it!

May - brought the annual trip down Waterloo for the boys!!!! (boy are we going to miss this.....)
And Alyssa finished up her soccer class which she loved!Bella scored her first basket ever and Alyssa cheered her on all the way!!!
June .... we enjoyed the beautiful summer weather in Oregon!

July - brought two of our very best friends JoeLisa their first baby!

PETE!!!

An awesome visit from one of our best friends Kevin Michael which we are so sad to admit the pics were lost.

And an offer for a new position in Utah for Ryan

August - brought our beautiful baby girl #3 Melayna Lynn
September - we went a house huntin in Utah and found one in a week...

We attended the Oregon Alumni Reunion and connected with old friends

You can't see her but Melayna is in the Bjorn on Ry's chest, Ryan, Jason, and Kevin

and we blessed our sweet new addition on Sept. 19th
October - Bella turned 3 but we celebrated on the 3rd!

Three days later on the 6th (her actual b-day) we said goobye to friends and family and moved to Utah to a house that wasn't ready.....

(We were finally able to move in October 21st)

6 days after that on October 12 we received the devastating news that Ryan's life long best friend Kevin Michael had passed away in a car accident the night before and on October 30th we attended his funeral service in California which Ryan spoke so beautifully of his friend and sang at his service.

Kevin's beautiful babies Tyler (1) and Mia (2)

Kenneth (Kev's brother), Ryan and I

Kevin's dad, Ron Michaels and Ryan

November - brought Thanksgiving and a trip to California to be with Ryan's family

December - brought a peaceful relaxing 1st Christmas in our new home which we enjoyed very much, and will be my next post!

Isabella Grace turns 3!!!!

We were so very fortunate to be able to celebrate Miss Bella Boo's Birthday 3 days before we moved out of town. We have built such a strong connection with sweet friends and family and it was so nice to be able to have one last party together!

We went to Bella's favorite place in the whole wide world Chuck -E - Cheese!!!! The chick goes crazy for Chuck. I don't know what it is about that giant mouse...... anyway, we had a blast like usual with everybody. Bella's favorite memory is that she got to hug chuck and that they pounded it (fist-bumped)!!!!

We love our Bella so much!!!! She has brought so much laughter and joy to our family. The other day Kendra was over and was helping me get the girls down to bed for the night and said "whoa Bella's your kid with sass huh?!?!" Yes Kendra yes. She has a firey temper and is such a lover all at the same time. It's very hard to be mad at her because she is so darn cute. One of her favorite phrases is "try to get me" and then she runs away waiting for you to chase after. The other favorite right now is "Uh..Duh" (this we will have to work on) She is so much fun to be around and wants to be like her big sister in every way! She is so very special and we love her to pieces!!!!

Modeling her new snow white dress-up

Chuck-E's backup singers!!!
lovins from Gram!

Her main man Chuck!!

The gang!! Gweni, Lys, Belly, Addie, Gweni and Maci

Blowing out her candles!

The Fife fam

Bell loves her Auntie

Happy Birthday sweet Baby! And it would make her so mad to know I called her a baby......shhhh don't tell :)

Note to self................(beware sort of pg-13)

Here's a quick little *NOTE TO SELF* (and others) if you don't already know better, which I'm sure you may. I'm the girl that didn't know you can get gum out of hair with peanut butter.....still sooooo much to learn.

DO NOT..... I REPEAT, DO NOT tell your young children when your mind is heavily occupied by what could be any number of things, i.e. having a baby the next day in my case "Oh ya girls go ahead and take the library bag and go pick out some books for yourself" or you just might end up checking out something like this.

You can imagine my horror when Ryan called me into the girls room asking me what the heck this book was all about and why we had it. YIKES.

INTRODUCING.....MISS MELAYNA LYNN LOFTIN!!!

Our beautiful baby Melayna is here!!!! She came into the world Friday Aug. 14th at 6:44pm and weighed 8 lbs 13 oz. and was 20 1/2 inches long! The delivery went awesome and we are home and recovering. More details to come.......

Thanks to all who were there and supported us, we truly appreciate you all!

Only Ry can tell you why he turned this into delivery / toga party.......

We call this birth control!

My best friend Julie and my little sis Laurie!

minutes after she was delivered!

It's crazy the amount of love that you feel after you deliver your child together!

Dr. D with the rest of who we call "team birth"!

Melayna and Mama!!!

I love my daughters!

We are a happy family!

Officially a family of five now!

Little punkin

This really says it all for Bella boo, silly!!!

Sportin her baby bling!

proud big sis!

Fun with the Belly!

Tonight I asked the fam if they wanted to paint the belly before it's gone and it was too much fun, so I had to share!

JUST TWO DAYS LEFT TO WAIT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

BIG CHANGES FOR THE LOFTINS........

Well cat's out of the bag........we are officially Utah Bound. Ryan has accepted an offer to relocate our family to Utah and open up the state for business by October 1st. So between now and then we will be very busy selling our home, having a baby, looking for a new home, getting in as many Duck games as we can, blessing our baby and spending as much time with Oregon friends and family as we can. So much to do.........

His primary responsibility in the beginning will be to find and hire a sales team, which in this poor economy wouldn't seem like a big task with unemployment being what it is but believe it or not it IS. So much so that finding a replacement for one of his guys in Portland has his stress level at a critical point and his Ulcerative Colitis is rearing it's ugly head again. Anyway, I have faith that he will be blessed with a huge pool of super star candidates ready to get to work in Utah!

This is a huge change for our family as neither one of us has ever lived there, visited yes but never lived. Ryan has been dying to get out there to be closer to his brothers and sisters and their families and now the time has finally come and he is thrilled. I am excited for the opportunity for our girls to be able to spend time with their cousins and remember how much I enjoyed that from my childhood! We are hoping it will lend us a better chance to get to the temple more often and let's face it the shopping will be a bit of an improvement from what sweet lil Albany has had to offer us. We will miss all our friends and family dearly and I say that tearfully.

In the meantime ......we are still waiting for our baby girl to make her arrival and can't wait to meet her!!! I'm praying and hoping that she gets here soon. If she is not here within this next week she will be evicted via induction on Friday the 14th!!!

Here are some of the ways we have been biding our time waiting for this kiddo!

Welcoming new friends into the world!

Discovering the fish that is Alyssa
Painting fingers

.........and toes!

So pinkalicious!!!

Taking a ride down the slide at the cool pool!!

And finding new homes for these adorable lil friends!

What a busy month......

Our June was filled with all kinds of craziness which I appreciate, as it makes time fly by being pregnant!

We celebrated our 7th wedding anniversary!! I am soooooo so grateful I am married to this man!

1st their was the princess pool, which the girls loved until...... Alyssa decided our cat Tink should go swimming with them too

Then we threw a shower for our dear friend Lisa to celebrate her upcoming arrival!!!!

Here's the lineup beginning with Lisa (due 7/3), Jess (due 7/17), Alicia (due 8/5) and Me (due 8/16) all within just about two weeks of each other and yes it has been fun!!!

Then our cat Tink had kittens, 5 of them, thanks cat. I guess she was just throwin another thing in the mix to keep me busy till the baby comes. Kittens are ready for new homes 8/2 by the way for anyone interested!!

Here is one of our kitten handler / trainer Bella boo with Snow White in the pocket of her snuggie.


Then Lyssa Lou started T-Ball which has been a ton of fun and she loves it!
Swing batta batta s-a-wing!!!
Little studmuffin! She's dying to get her hands or mit on the ball!

And last but certainly not least my hard working man got to make a long awaited purchase! And wouldn't you know it it's already in the shop.......yikes.