Mother's Day and Josh's Birthday

On our way to the hospital to have baby Josh!!

Yesterday was a very special day. We celebrated Josh's 5th birthday as well as Mother's Day. What makes it even more special is that Josh's birthday hasn't fallen on Mother's Day since the day he was born. So, it made yesterday extra special! Joshua Aaron Berhar came into the world May 13th, 2007. He was 7 pounds 9 ounces and such a gift! The most precious gift I could ever be given for Mother's Day that is for sure!!  

Josh's favorite gift was a guitar. Or "Bee-tah" as he calls it. He has been asking for one for months now and carries it with him everywhere. Very proud of it!! I can't believe he's 5!

3 precious gifts

He's FIVE!!!

Playing new guitar with Grandpa

Me with my 3 amazing kiddos! 

Beach trip!

We took a family beach trip recently to a beautiful house that sits up on a cliff overlooking the ocean. Everyone in my extended family was able to come except for Kami. We had such a great time just being together even though the weather wasn't all that great. We took advantage of the few times the weather was nice and made sure to make it outside. There wasn't a whole lot that Ryan could do outside of the house, so he mainly stayed inside and played games (mostly chess!) But the views from inside were gorgeous so he wasn't complaining. Outside in the yard there was a great swing that the kids absolutely loved! Large enough for two kids to swing on at a time and the smiles on their faces when someone would push them was priceless as you can see from the below pics! 

William and Jorie

Brothers: William and Luke

Elliott and Luke's turn!

Such a beautiful view!!

My favorite of all the swinging pics.

Grandpa helping Josh down to the beach!

Ryan playing chess with his dad. 

Bath time was great fun with the jacuzzi bath tub!

Family photo (minus Kami)

                                        

Dinner!

All of the cousins!!

A

Ryan is 16!

Ryan is now 16 years old! Hard to believe! We celebrated his birthday a couple days early this year. He got some new movies, an Itunes giftcard, a new video game and a Duck's shirt to name a few. :) 

The Birthday boy ready for the party!

We decorated using Ryan's favorite colors, yellow and green!

Even the confetti was green and gold! 

Ryan with most of his gifts.

16 year old!

New bathroom!

 So, here is our new bathroom!!! We are LOVING it so far! Such a difference from the old one and so much easier for us to shower Ryan now. We love the new look of it too.

Here is the temporary setup we are using until we purchase our shower chair for Ryan!

It looks kind of silly. But, it is working okay for now. Steve even drilled holes in the cart for water to drain out. That is Ryan's old bath chair sitting on top of the cart. It is bolted on so no worries about it shifting while Ryan is in it.

My Sweetheart

1. How long have you and your significant other been together?

Well that depends on when you start keeping track. We met in 1996, began dating in 1998 and were married in 2001! 

2. How did you meet? {What's your "love" story?}

Most people who read my blog probably already know how we met. But, we actually met through Steve's cousin, Aaron. I dated him first and he tragically drowned just weeks before he was going to propose to me. Steve and I became close friends as we were both dealing with the same pain of losing Aaron and eventually fell in love. ;)

Aaron and I

3. If married, how long have you been married? If not, is this the guy you hope to marry? {do tell}

This year we will be celebrating 11 years of marriage!

4. If you are married, where did you get married at? Big or small wedding? If not, where would you like to get married? And will it be big or small?

We were married at our church, First Baptist and had our reception at Bend Golf and Country Club. We had probably about 150 guests.

5. Do you have any nick-names that you call one another? Do share!

Not a whole lot really. "Sweetie" or "sweetheart" would be the main ones. :)

6. Name 3 things you love most about your honey.

He is very honest, hard working and SMART!

7. Tell us how he proposed?

We don't have any pictures of the original proposal. So, I snapped this one 10 years later in the exact same spot. :)

We went on a vacation together to visit family and friends in California. While there and visiting a beach, he placed the ring in a seashell and asked me if we could look for seashells together. Of course, I picked up the one with the ring in it (as it was very obvious) LOL and he got down on one knee and proposed. Very romantic!

8. Is he a flowers and teddy bear kind of guy for v-day, or strawberries, champagne, and rose petals?

Definitely a flowers kind of a guy. He often gets me flowers just because. :) Not so much the other things.

9. Are you a sunset dinner on the beach kind of girl, or pop a movie in and relax on the couch?

Lately? Probably more of a movie and relax on the couch kind of a girl. :)

10. Tell us one thing you'd like to do with your significant one day. If you could do anything? Go anywhere?

Probably travel more.

11. Tell us what you plan on doing on this Valentine's Day.

We almost never do anything special for V-day. Usually we stay home and I make us a special dinner. 

12. Are you asking for anything this Valentine's day?

Nope. He usually gets me flowers and chocolates. And I usually make him his favorite meal and sometimes get him chocolates too.

13. Give us one piece of advice of keeping a relationship strong and full of love.

Communication!

14. Show us a picture of what love means to you? My sweet family

Bathroom remodel

Today, we kissed our old bathroom goodbye

 We couldn't be happier that we are finally having our bathroom remodeled to suit Ryan's needs. He will be 16 in March and lowering him down into the bathtub just isn't going to work for us anymore. Imagine the chair you see in the above photo actually sitting even lower in the tub. That is the way it was for nearly 10 years. About a month ago, Steve actually bolted the current chair higher up to the tub itself to try and give our backs a bit of a break! But, even so, it was still really hard on the back to lean over the edge of the tub to place Ryan into the chair. With the new shower, Ryan will be placed in a chair with wheels and then rolled into the shower. So, the only lift will be more of a transfer type of lift which is much easier on the back! It's an inconvenience to go without our main bathroom this week but, it will be well worth it in the end! I will be sure to post pictures of the final result too!

And here is what it looks like now after the first day!

Finding the right shoe

 After reading a fellow mommy blog earlier today, I was reminded of what shoe shopping used to look like for us a few years back. Due to Ryan's disease, he wore AFO's or (Ankle Foot Orthotics) on his feet from the time he was 2 years old. The purpose of these for Ryan was to try and keep his foot in the correct position. Since Ryan will never stand or walk, the disease will turn his feet inward. It's a natural progression of his disease. We tried several different clinics over the years and we never could get AFO's to fit him properly without leaving red marks on his feet or causing a great amount of discomfort. In the end, about 5 years ago we decided to give up the AFO's for good. Ryan is now at an age where he wants to pick out his own shoes and not special orthotic shoes to go over his AFO's! In the above photo, we had just purchased him a new pair of special shoes. I can't even remember what they were called now. But, it was about that same time that we finally gave up on his AFO's. When you have a child who does not walk, shoe shopping takes on whole new meaning. I'm not looking for shoes that my child can jump in or feel most comfortable in for a certain sport or activity. I just want to be able to get the shoe onto his foot without causing him pain! And Ryan wants whatever shoe looks coolest to him at the moment. Currently, he is pretty fond of his Lebron James shoes! But, we always buy shoes at least 2 sizes too big. This is because he has absolutely no control over the muscles in his feet or toes. So, when we put a shoe on him, his toes bend up underneath him. He cries out in pain nearly every morning that we go to put his shoes on him as usually the toes on his left foot get bent up and I have to reach in through the shoe laces, find his big toe and straighten it out. Not an easy task, believe me!! I always feel a bit of sadness when he has outgrown a particular shoe and I look at it and it still looks brand new. Shoes that never made it to the ground. But only rested on the footrest of Ryan's wheelchair.

Ryan has teeny tiny feet. Here we are comparing his feet to little sisters (Ryan age 10 and Jorie age 4)