And so it begins... another baseball season underway!

Hello Everyone,

Sorry for the lack of updates lately. Life has been a little crazy yet dull lately. Lots going on, but nothing of much interest to write about. I guess we could call it the calm before the storm! We moved our office up here in Cape Cod into our downstairs so that took up some time. Derrik's been busy every night with his basketball referring and throwing to get ready for this upcoming season, I have been busy making lists and packing bags to get ready for the crazy next few months we have ahead of us, and Ryder has been busy turning into a crazy little man!

So Derrik is in Pennsylvania now. He left earlier this afternoon to head on his trip down to Florida for Spring Training. We had a last minute change of plans last night when we found out our SUV would not be ready in time for the trip. It is still in the shop from the wreck, and we would of had to wait until at least Monday to have it back. Obviously a bigger car would have been ideal given all the stuff we have (babies might be little, but can't travel light!), but Derrik really wanted to get down to Florida.

For those that don't know our plans over the next month and a half here is the plan... Derrik will hopefully be arriving in Fort Myers sometime Monday. Ryder and I fly into Fort Myers Tuesday, and we will be staying at my parents house until March 1st. We are so excited to be back in the town we still refer to as "home" for a little while. I can't wait to see some old friends, and get to meet a few babies some friends have had in the past year. I also can't wait to show off the little man to everyone :) On March 1st we will make the hour and a half trip up to Sarasota for a month of Spring Training. We have rented a house with two other couples on the team to stay in. It will be so nice to have some other girls around that month since the days can become extremely long with the guys at the field for hours on end getting ready for season. The boys have to report March 5th. We will find out at the end of March where we will be for the rest of the season. We are kind of assuming Derrik will be in AA again this year, but the AA team has signed on with a team in Zebulon, N.C. this year. Of course it would have been too simple to go back to a town that began to feel somewhat "home-like" to us in Chattanooga. We will most likely be renting an apartment either on our own or with another couple on the team, but are still kind of up in the air on what our exact plans are at this point. We have to wait and see were everyone gets assigned for the season.

Another last minute decision we made just this morning was to take our pets with us down to Florida. They were originally staying up in Cape Cod until we got settled during the season, but we didn't want to be without them for so long. After a quick phone call to Uncle Ryan this morning asking if he would mind housing Chloe, Turbo, and Hannah for the month we are in Sarasota (the owners of the house charge a ridiculously high fee to have pets there) we decided to plop them in our already completley packed car! It was okay though because there Daddy was extremely happy to have the company on his long trip.

Leaving this season leaves me with such mixed emotions. One moment I am beyond excited to get back to baseball, and the next moment I am over come with sadness. Baseball is our way of life at this point. I love my afternoons at the pool with the girls, going to baseball games every night, dinners with the girls when the boys are on the road, and getting to travel to parts of the country i'd never get to go to other wise. The best part of it all is getting to see my husband do what he does best, and getting to support him through it all. On the other hand though... There is such instability in it all. I am a huge family girl and being so far away from my family breaks my heart. I love the feeling of home, and leaving all of our stuff behind makes me sad. It is even harder this year to know that we are taking Ryder away from the comfort of home and onto the road for so long. I will miss putting him into his nursery and tucking him in every night in his crib. The pack 'n play just really won't do it for me! I packed up as much as I could of his to be able to make a pretend home for a few months. I am sure he will never know the difference... it's just a mom thing I guess. Luckily we have made some great friends in the past few years in this crazy world we like to call baseball which makes it a little easier.

We will be sure to have tons of updates in the next month or so with the whirl-wind of travel we will be doing. Check in for updates :)

Happy Valentine's Day!

Love Always,

Danielle

Ryder saying good-bye to his GiGi the other day

My Little Valentine
Like I said... Crazy Baby!

What happens after the craziness wears off... so precious!

One last family pic up in Cape Cod before Daddy left

Chloe, Turbo, and Hannah (in the travel bag behind Turb) all ready for their road trip south with Daddy

Chloe and Daddy getting ready to head to Spring Training

Soo... apparently my sisters know how to work my parents wayyyy better then Ryan and I did when we were little. When we were little we were lucky to have two pets at one time. My sisters have two yorkies Bella and Buddy, Jake our old man dog, Molly their goldren retreiver, Sammy their cat, and have now talked my parents into two new bunnies. They are adorable, but i'm pretty sure the girls have my parents so far wrapped about their fingers that they have totally lost their minds!!!

Ally and Onyx

Hailey and Thumper (the name keeps changing.. i'll keep you updated)

The Bunnies... Happy Valentine's Day girls!

Some Random Moments of Happiness...

Sorry for the depressing updates lately, but honestly there hasn't been much to cheer up about around here. Luckily there have been a few moments in the last few weeks that we've been able to forget about sickness and put a smile back on our faces.

Ally came home from the hospital late last night without any more answers then we had when she went in. They ran some more tests, and still have some more to be run as an outpatient. The doctors helped Ally out with ways to manage her pain, and we are trying to get life back to normal as much as we can for everyone. Luckily Gram is in town (my grandma that is)! We are sooo thankful she is here because it gives us another set of hands (and patience) to take care of everything.

Yesterday in an attempt to drive Ryder up to the doctors for his cold I slid around a turn in the snow and hit a concrete barrier. Everyone is okay, but the car needs some work. Keep your fingers crossed for us we can get the appraisal from the insurance company and it fixed quick enough for Derrik to be able to head to Florida in a week and a half.

I did finally get Ryder to the doctors today because he has a nasty cough with this cold, and the doctor said to just give it a few more days and it should start to go away. In the mean time he weighed in at 17lb 7oz... the nurse asked me a few times if he was really five months. He is such a big boy!

Hopefully we can get out of this black cloud we're under sometime soon! In the mean time.... enjoy the pictures :)

Ryder with his Uncle Tommy

Ryder with his 2nd cousins J.R. and David
Ryder on his 5 month birthday... he rolled over for the 1st time right before this picture :)

Goofy Man...

Ryder with Daddy at bowling

Hailey and I at the bowling alley

Hailey at the beach... notice the snow on the ground... YUCK!

Ryder at the doctors today for his cold... Looks sick huh?!

Just not getting any better...

Ally is still not getting any better, and honestly today seemed like an even worse day today. She is just in constant pain and it gets to be hard even when my mom and I are trying to tag team the whole situation. Sometimes it's less work to take Ryder then Ally for a little while. The test they were running with her blood work was to see if her SED rate was going up. When she first got sick it was at a 1. At the hospital last week it was at a 17. Anything under a twenty was normal, and with her tests yesterday I believe she was a 26. The fact that this rate keeps going up shows there is some kind of infection somewhere in her body. Sorry for any medical gurus out there if i'm getting this explaination all work. It's the best I can understand it. Ally's pediatrician at this point is very fustrated because he waited all day for answers from a doctor at Boston Children's Hospital and got no where. Now it is Friday night putting us into another extrememly long weekend. The doctor has decided it is best to have Ally admitted up at Boston Children's since she can get care so much quicker. The process is just taking too long with how long it takes to get an appointment with any of the specialists. He is having her admitted tomorrow morning and telling them what tests he wants done. My mom said that he plans on telling them not to have her released until we have a diagnosis or her pain is bearable. Please say a prayer that we find an answer quickly and that is can be taken care of to get Ally back to her old self. Even Ryder is having a hard time making her smile these days :(

Update on Ally

We got the results back today on the second Lyme's test which confirmed she does NOT have Lyme's disease. Every doctor she has seem up to this point was so convinced that was what it was. The earlier test that confirmed she had it they say has a lot of false positives. She does blood work tomorrow to test to see if something in her body is still going up which means there is some sort of infection in her body. My mom is getting more and more confused by all the medical talk which makes it hard for her to explain to us.

Keep praying for her!

5 Months

Could these months go any quicker? I swear I just posted his four month post. We had quite a bit of firsts this month. Ryder had his first plane ride, his first trip to Disney World, his first night without Mommy (so sad), and today for the first time he rolled over! We have been waiting for this for what feels like forever and all of a sudden it just happened. Ryder's hair has started growing like a weed. He has also gotten extremely strong. When you pick him up now he's not just a limp baby. He really scrunches his legs up when your hold him now and is really moving around. Today Derrik and I had to clean out his closet of the stuff that doesn't fit anymore and realized it was practically empty. Of course this meant a trip to the Carter's outlet where we got a ton of new clothes :)

Ryder is up to a size three diaper, seven ounce bottles, and twelve month clothes.

Girls Weekend in Orlando!

Finally an update from our Orlando trip! Hey... better late then never. With all the sickness around here things have been a little hectic. Anyhow... Our trip to Orlando was so great! Ryder, Mom, Ally, Hailey, and I went and met up with some friends from Florida in Orlando for a long weekend. They rented an awesome house just outside of Disney World that was six bedrooms four bathrooms fully decorated in Disney stuff. It was so perfect for all of the girls to be able to catch up. Ryder was so great on the plane both ways and throughout the whole trip. It helped a little bit to have a ton of little girls constantly offering to help. I must say it felt a little odd to finally feed him a bottle once they all left. We spent our first day in the Magic Kingdom. The second day we went to Downtown Disney and then to the Florida Mall where the girls got make-overs at Libby Lou Boutique. The third day we all made a trip to Target for those of us that have to consider that a novelty these days, went to the pool, and then had dinner at Red Lobster. Our last and final day we let the girls hang out around the house and then went back to Downtown Disney to eat at a new restaurant down there called T-Rex. It was like Rainforest Cafe but way cooler! Ryder got a dinosaur toy there that he now loves.

Now bear with me... with a total of eleven girls there were lots of pictures taken. Here are the top few!

The Reeves Sisters with Ryder

The Simmons Sisters with Ryder

Kaitlyn came to visit us the first day!!!

Ryder all bundled up... We get back to Florida and it's cold... Go figure!

Jen toating Ryder through Disney

Ryder and Baby Emily traded stollers

The Whole Crew

Tinkerbell T-Shirts... Mom has had us wear theme shirts to Disney for as long as I can remember

Meredith, Courtney, and Riley hanging out with the Little Man

Ryder and Mommy having a great time!

The girls at Libby Lou

Does it get any cuter then this?! I hope to have a little girl like her one day :)
Ryder is holding his head up so well now

Ryder was being quite the little charmer for the girls before our trip to the pool

The Girls

Enjoying some warm weather

Ugh I Love Him!

Ryder and I at T-Rex

Baby Emily really loved Ryder

Best Friends Forever.... Hailey and Emily

Thanks for planning an awesome trip girls!

Just when we thought it couldn't get any worse...

It did... On Thursday night Ally was up all night throwing up. My mom was just to the point she couldn't handle it anymore so Ally, my mom, and I headed up to Boston Children's Hospital. So many people had told us they are the best up there, and they truly were. We literally walked in the door, gave her information, were walked back to a room, and had a doctor talking to us immediately. He ran the tests they keep running just to confirm them for himself he heart and lungs were ok. We were told the test Ally took to show she has Lyme's disease has a lot of false positives so she took a more accurate one, but the doctor was pretty sure that is what she has. He said the medicine she was on is the best that there is, and that it would take a while for her to get better. I asked him to explain "a while"... he said if we didn't see any changes in her in about 2-3 weeks that it would be totally normal!!! At this point we were willing to accept that she had Lyme's disease and it does take a while, but we needed an answer to the pain so our family can survive the next month or so. The doctor said he was going to set up a pain management program for her. He started off with tylonel and motrin in her IV which truly didn't even touch her. After that they tried more of the oxycodone mixed with an opiate type pain medicine that should have made a drastic change in her. Within about twenty minutes she was pretty relaxed, groggy, and we thought we might have found a solution to get through these tough times. The doctor went to go write out her prescriptions, and in the mean time Ally went right back down hill. When he came back in I asked what we were suppose to do with her until tomorrow night and for our two hour drive home since she had already had her medicine for the next twenty four hour period and she was already back in pain. He seemed pretty shocked that the pain medicine wore off so quickly. He at that point said he was not comforable sending her home in so much pain and admitted her. As much as none of us wanted our sister or daughter in the hopsital we all knew she needed to be there. I headed home since it was almost 12:30 in the morning at this point. I had a sandwich that night that just wasn't sitting well with me, and I was annoyed by how awful I was feeling when I knew Ally and my mom needed me. About half way home my mom called saying that Hailey was throwing up at home. My dad was taking care of her, and I told him I'd come over once I got home to take over. Unfortunately by the time I got home I was throwing up myself. We both had been all night. It really started to feel like a night mare when I checked my phone and had a text from my mom saying she had just thrown up at the hospital and felt awful. I then went upstairs to get Ryder a bottle (Mommy duties don't stop even when you feel like your dying) and saw Derrik's brother Tommy, who is visiting for the weekend, was already up. I told him he was up awfully early, and he told me he had been up all night throwing up! Truly a nightmare at this point. To top it all off, Derrik has been planning a pitching and catching clinic with some of he local students for about a month now. Of course the clinic was today! My dad was suppose to be making the two hour trek up to Boston, but I told him he couldn't leave me with the baby because I couldn't stop throwing up and felt like I was going to pass out. We had to make a phone call to my aunt and uncle to go up to Boston to get them, and we're all trying to keep some food down now.

Ally throughout the night was given morphine which didn't even touch the pain, and apparently made he feel pretty awful. My dad told me they brought in a pain management specialist to help take care of her, but he said whatever they did didn't help much. Now they are on there way home with pretty much the same answers as before. We know we will all be better soon, but just wish Ally was in the same boat we were. Please keep her in your prayers the next month or so.

Thank you to everyone for all your prayers and well wishes over the past few days, thank you to Patty for sitting with us in the E.R. last night, and thank you Auntie and Uncle Sean for picking up mom and Ally.

Love Always,
Danielle

Prayer for Ally

Friends and Family-

My sister Ally has been sick now since December 26th. It started out as what we though was a little cold. She never started to get any better, and adventually got worse. While we were on our cruise my mom took her to the doctors and the emergency room where they did lots of tests, and came up with no answers. She had been to the doctors several more times because Ally was just aching all over, had belly pain, and had absolutely no energy. With still no answers we weren't sure if we should go to Orlando for the weekend. The doctor assured us to go, that it couldn't do any harm. We were all hopeful that after seeing her friends from Florida that she hadn't seen in forever it would get her mind off of things. Unfortunately that wasn't the case, and we even had to push her in a wheel chair through Disney World. While in Florida my mom got a phone call from the E.R. saying she had tested positive for Lyme's Disease. For those not from New England, it is the disease you can get from being bitten by a tick. Ticks in this area are awful and unfortulately it seems to be slightly common around here. My mom and Ally spent all day today at the doctors, E.R., and the cardiologist and still have no answers. We are thankful her heart checked out okay since she had been having awful heart pain for weeks now. We are very fustrated because Ally feels absolutely awful, and patients are running thin while we try to find an answer. She is laying in bed now, and has just taken the pain medicine the doctor prescribed for her to take the pain away.

Please say a quick prayer for our family to get through this time. My mom needs the strength to handle the constant sickness around her, and Ally needs a prayer to help her body get back to it's normal self.

Thanks :)

Love Always,
Danielle

Who does Ryder look like?!

For the past four months I have had everyone ask me "Who does Ryder look like?" We all have always thought he had a lot of his daddy in him, and assumed he got his look from the Lutz side of the family. Until recently that is. In the past month or so everyone has noticed a scary resemblence to how much Ryder looks like my little sister Ally. Check it out for yourself...

Ryder the day he turned 4 months

Ally at 4 months

I told my mom we're going to shave Ally's head and dress her in boy clothes to see what Ryder will look like in ten years :)

We're back!

We are back from an absolutely amazing vacation! Derrik and I went on a seven day cruise to the Western Caribbean which took us to Roatan in Honduras, Belize, Cozumel in Mexico, and to Norwegian Cruise Lines private island Great Stirrup Key. Ryder stayed in with Grandpa, Grammy, Auntie Ally, and Auntie Hailey.

Our first day on the ship we spent watching the playoffs for football.... Go Eagles! The next day we had a sea day. We spent the day getting some sun, in the casino, playing each other in Scrabble (I beat Derrik 3 times!... for anyone who knows how competitive he is this is an amazing accomplishment. I've never beat him at anything), eating amazing food, and just enjoying some time to have fun!

Our second day we were in Roatan. We went to Tabyana Beach which has the most amazing snorkeling. He had such a great time out in the water together. Before I met Derrik he was terrified from the water, and now he has come such a long way. We went so far out, and he was such a champ though it all. He cut his hand open on some coral, but managed to survive.

Derrik at Tabyana Beach... the water was so gorgeous!

The next day we were in Belize. We were suppose to be doing a four-wheeler excursion that took us through the jungle. The four-wheelers were fun, but didn't even compare to the cave our guide took us in. I'm not going to bother describing it because it does it no justice, but it was the coolest thing i've ever soon. It was nothing like the tourist traps most of these places take you into. We literaly had to crawl into this cave, and it opened up into a huge maze that you could get lost in for days exploring though.. if the bats and scrorpions don't bother you! I was fine in the company of the sixteen other people with us, but would have been terrified on my own.

Derrik and I with our head lamps about to head into the cave.

Danielle heading into the cave... extremely chlosterphobic (spelling?!)

Derrik and Danielle inside the cave

Derrik and Danielle after our four-wheeling excursion... such a blast!

The next day we arrived in Cozumel. Out of the three location this one probably sounds the most appealing, but is honestly the least interesting. There are so many ships and so many tourist traps it's just not as much fun. We did a snorkel drift here from one reef to another. We saw some nice stuff in the reef, but it didn't compare to Tabyana Beach.

Derrik and I on the catamaran back to the ship afer snorkeling in Cozumel.

A monkey in the shopping plaza in Cozumel... the sweest thing ever! I loved it!.. It pooped on me right before this picture... yuck!

Our next day was at sea and spent doing the same things as the previous sea day, but with some serious napping too! We new that as much as we wanted to enjoy the sun and fun of vacation that taking a nap was something we really miss with the little man around all the time.

Our next day was at Great Stirrup Cay. We went snorkeling again which was a lot of fun this time. There was a huge rock to swim out to and swim around it. We spent some time out in the water, got out and got some drinks, and soaked up the last of the sun we could on our vacaton!

Savoring the last of our vacation!

We had such an amazing time together, and thank my parents so much for giving us this time away before life gets so crazy again with baseball. My mother ended up in the ER twice while we were gone. Once for herself with kidney stones, and once with Ally who has been sick since Christmas and unfortunately still is. She had the week from hell, and I felt awful knowing I was off having such a great time. She is such a great Grammy! Also a huge thank you to my Aunt who came over to watch Ryder on her birthday while my mom was in the hospital... Thanks Auntie!!!!!

Enough about us... I know what everyone really wants to hear about and see is Ryder. I was told that Ryder was absolutely amazing while we were gone. He didn't really look like he grew much while we were gone, but his personality changed dramatically! He all of a sudden has really found his voice and just makes the loudest noices all the time. He is really starting to distinguish who he knows and doesn't know. He gives the biggest smile to those who see him daily. He is so close to so many things right now! He's trying to sit... not actually sit on his own, but he loves to sit when someone is holding him. He's still trying to roll over. He also loves to stand on us and push with his feet. He is just much sturdier over all, and is just getting so be SOOO much fun!

Ryder sleeping on the couch the night before we left on vacation... I didn't want to put him to bed and say good-bye for a week :(

Ryder's new contraptions... Loves it!

Daddy and Ryder this morning... I think I was thinking plaid when I got everyones outfits together this morning lol
Ryder watching Mommy do her reports at work.. such a cutie!

Doctor Updates

This picture was taken shortly after Ryder got his shots today at the doctor showing off his cool crayon band-aids. He took them like a champ! He didn't even realize the first one happened... not even a flinch on his face. The second one got him a little, but after crying for about ten seconds he calmed right down in his Daddy's arms. We thought we beat those dumb shots today, but unfortunately they have gotten the best of us. Derrik had a cold earlier this week, which was passed to me, and Ryder woke up with full blown this morning. The combination of his cold and the shots has mananged to give the little man some trouble. His temp before bed tonight was at 101.4 :( He's been up since then and was still smiling with his bright red cheeks and all. He's such a great baby! Derrik and I are suppose to be leaving on a seven day cruise Sunday morning. We are hoping tomorrow proves to be a better day so we can go on our cruise with feeling any more guilty then we already do for leaving him. Of course if he isn't okay we won't go, but we know his Grammy can handle a few sniffles and gives him lots of loving!

Now for the stats on our growing man. Gosh he's huge! His head circumference is at 17 1/4" which is in the 85th percentile, his weight was at 16lb 7oz which is in the 80th percentile, and his heigh was at a whopping 26 1/2"... off the charts! His heigh didn't even get a percentile it was so tall. The nurse actually came back in to re-measure him to make sure she wasn't wrong. We're thinking his height is coming in from his Auntie Ally (there baby pictures at this age are identical too!) The doctor says that he is doing great. His height and weight are proportionate to each other so everything is great... he's just a big baby!

If you don't hear from us for a while it means all is well with Ryder, he'll be spending some quality time with Grammy and Grandpa, and Derrik and I will be sailing off into the Carribbean cheering the Eagles on!

We hope everyone had a very Happy New Years... no pictures from that night for us. We were in bed by 8:30 both with colds!