2009 started out with two new additions to our family. My dad's dog, Rooney, had a litter of puppies in December and we were given one. Rory came to live with us during the first part of February and exactly two weeks later on Feb. 17th, Ryan and I welcomed our new daughter, Jaimee Rae Pharr, for the very first time at 3:57pm. She weighed in at 6lbs 7oz and was 21 1/2 inches long (little sting bean). It has been an exciting year adjusting to having 2 dogs and a baby. The dogs get along wonderfully with Jaimee and Jaimee LOVES the dogs. We have been having such a wonderful time watching Jaimee grow, learn and change (even though I told her to stay little forever).
Jaimee is now 10 months old and is an expert crawler. She pulls herself up on everything and has just started to let go for a brief moment. She waves and can say "bye" and "hi." She says "mom" a lot but doesn't really know it's ME. She likes to eat dog food and swim in the dog dish so I have to keep it gated off- poor dogs. She LOVES music and her all time favorite song is Skidamerinkydinkydink- always makes her smile. I took her to swim lessons which she loved and did very well in except she always had to get out early because she would get so cold. She is such a wonderful joy in our lives and we are so blessed to have her.
We had quite the scare for some time when Ryan suddenly got very very sick (April maybe- Jaimee was 10 weeks old). We brought him to the ER for the 2nd time and they finally did a chest x-ray that revealed several lumps around his chest area. He was admitted to the hospital where he stayed for at least 2 weeks. During this time, words like lymphoma and fungal infection were being used quite often- neither very good. They did a biopsy which turned out to be inconclusive so they wanted to do a more invasive biopsy; however, the lumps were very close to his aorta and it was considered a high risk procedure. They did a different biopsy instead which again was inconclusive. Ryan began to improve and finally recovered. No one was able to identify the cause or reason for his sickness but we are sure glad he is better now!
We got out of the fitness industry. Ryan decided he wanted to pursue a career in medicine and I wanted to pursue being a stay at home mommy.
Ryan went back to Union College in August to finish his pre-requisites for medical school. He stayed with Dale and Gerry Eddy (thank you so much!) while Jaimee and I and the dogs stayed back in Iowa. Even though Ryan came home every weekend (we did go out there for a couple) it was still difficult being apart so much, especially when Jaimee is growing and changing so quickly. Ryan overcame obstacles of being a non-traditional student, being away from his family, having not taken classes for several years and got straight As!
We celebrated our 7th anniversary a couple of days ago by driving home from a very fun trip to visit our friends in Tennessee. The past 7 years have gone by so quickly and so much has happened and changed.
We were anxiously waiting to celebrate Jaimee's first Christmas. I think everyone had high expectations of her being overfilled with delight as she ripped open each present. We had a wonderful Christmas even though Jaimee was more interested in the lights on the tree than ripping open her presents.
Christmas started for us on Christmas Eve. We first celebrated Ryan's birthday at home and then we went to Muscatine where we had "Reindeer Games." Many of our Muscatine family members came to my parent's house and we did some silly game, lots of eating, and some real games. It was a ton of fun!
Christmas was just our small family. We had an easy morning and then around noon the present opening began. We were so spoiled this year- especially Jaimee. It took her all day to open her presents (mainly because she only has a 2 second attention span). We had a wonderful lunch and evening together. We stayed one more night so we could attend church/Sabbath School in the morning. It was such a wonderful holiday. It is so special to spend so much time together with family!
Jaimee, Tucker, Rory, and I will be joining Ryan out in Lincoln before the year is over. We have found an apartment out there and will stay until he finishes classes in May. While we're not thrilled about the move and being away from my parents and family, we are excited to all be living in one spot. I will send out an email later with our new address. We begin loading up our big stuff in the moving truck tomorrow (Sunday) and will drive out Tuesday. I am hoping that we get to come back for New Year's.
We look forward to hearing from some of our family and friends that we don't get to talk to very often. If its been a while, be sure to send me an email and include your updated contact information: phone numbers, addresses, email addresses, etc. It's wonderful how the Internet can help families and friends remain close even when living so far apart.
You have found our blog http://www.pharrland.blogspot.com/. My email is rhiannon.r.pharr@hotmail.com Ryan's is ryanpharr@hotmail.com and we have a YouTube channel at www.youtube.com/rpharr21 . You can also look me up on Facebook.
It will be interesting to see what 2010 has in store for us. I hope you all have had a wonderful year.
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!!
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