I miss

Just a few things I miss...

-I miss Grandma Brillhart calling me Ry-Guy.
-I miss Gally 218 and theDBBS.
-I miss going to Friday night high school football games.
-I miss getting to see Travis, Josh and Chris every day.
-I miss spending time with Grandpa Peterson.
-I miss old school cartoons.
-I miss the Cleveland Indians being good at baseball.
-I miss playing baseball.

Brothers... by other mothers.

I thought I would take a few minutes to write a quick post about my brothers-in-law, I just refer to them as my brothers though. In the picture posted above is my brother Joel Anna's brother (left), Andy Anna's sister's husband (middle) and me. This picture was taken at a Fall Fest that their church in St. Louis put on about this time last year, which was awesome by the way! In this picture the three of us had just finished a pie eating contest along with a handful of people that were there. A little background about the pie eating contest; one of us pictured here won it! One of us pictured took mouthfuls of pie and spit it into another one of our pie pans and one of us ate the pie that the other one spit in a failing attempt to win... We had a really fun time doing this, we got the opportunity to compete against each other, there was some elbow throwing and even spitting in the others pie to win. That's how competitions go with us... I look at this picture quite a bit and think how lucky I am to have married into such awesome brothers. Andy and I are almost the same age, at pretty similar stages in life and VERY like minded when it comes to most aspects of life. So he and I have found that we have a very valuable relationship to one another in that we can bounce ideas, experiences, victories and defeats off one another. Just the other day I told him how much I appreciate getting to go through life with him as a brother. Our talks are very meaningful to me and I am very thankful to have him to talk to. The most important thing that he and I have together is that we both married Westwood women, and having a brother in arms when it comes to that is PRICELESS! Just kidding, being married to Anna is fantastic and I'm sure Andy would say the same about Kerry. I am just thankful to have Andy as someone that I trust and who trusts me so that we can really talk about the things that we are struggling through or celebrate the victories with!


Then there is Joel... I came into the family when Joel was about 15 years old, and find myself lucky to have known him for so long. I have gotten to see him celebrate incredible high points in his life and I have gotten to be there for him when he needed me as well. Over the last few years, Joel and I have gotten very close. We talk almost every day and I very much value the relationship I have with him as well. He is 7 years younger than me and we are in different stages of life at this point. But there isn't much that he's going through or will go through that I have not already experienced. So we have very good talks about life and love and a lot of M.M.A. The trust between us has grown to a point where he is also someone that I can share all of my struggles and secrets with and know that it is safe with him. Having that kind of trust in someone especially another man is vitally important to me and I think myself very lucky to have that kind of trust with Joel. It has been awesome watching him grow from a teenage high school kid to the man that he is now. I have gotten to watch him make wrong decisions, pick himself up and then make the right decisions, and am incredibly proud of where he is in life right now! I am excited to think about what else life is going to bring for him in the future, he is a brilliant person (if you didn't know that just ask him he will tell you) and has a world of opportunity and his fingertips!

So thanks Andy and Joel for accepting me as much as I have accepted you and I look forward to growing old together and continuing to walk through this life together as the next generation of men and leaders in this family!

Thinking of bringing it back!

Should I bring back the beard???

Surgery

Last week Ryder had to have a minor surgery to fix his being tongue tied. He was born that way and over the course of time it has caused a few problems for him so it was time to take him to an E.N.T. and have the frenulum clipped, thus freeing up his tongue. Part of this surgery was going to necessitate him going under anesthesia for just a couple minutes while they preformed the procedure. Due to this he was not allowed to have anything to eat or drink after midnight the night before his surgery. Since he is so little they didn't want to keep him from eating long so they scheduled it for 6:30 in the morning.

He woke up that morning as happy as could be, which is the norm for him he is a morning baby! He was all smiles and happy and getting the attention of all the nurses in the surgical center. As it came time for the procedure we had to put him in a little hospital gown, pictured above, and they took him back to the room where they would be preforming the procedure. During all this the nurses warned us that babies generally wake up from the anesthesia pretty upset. They are usually fussy and irritable. So we were prepared for him to be upset when they called us back afterward. But to our surprise when we got back there he was all smiles and happy and had about every nurse in the place in his recovery room waiting for Anna and I to get back there! They told us that the procedure went off flawlessly and that Ryder was such a joy! One nurse even said that they wished all babies were as good as Ryder! I kind of puffed my chest out and had a "yea that's my son" moment. I was just so happy that he came through all of it perfectly and that it all went off without a hitch.

I said all that to say this, Anna and I had a lot of people praying for Ryder that morning. A lot of our close friends, family and people from church were covering Ryder that morning in prayer. We even had one friend set an alarm clock so that she would be awake to pray for him before he went into surgery that morning! Without a doubt Anna and I felt God's presence and blessings on Ryder that morning. We are so lucky and thankful to have such amazing friends and family who will stand up and pray for us. Thank you to everyone who kept my son in your thoughts and prayers last Wednesday morning, Anna and I cant thank you enough.

Welcome back, welcome back, welcome back!

Okay, so I could be the worst blogger of all time. 11 months between posts is probably too long to keep my followers waiting? Hopefully my masses (7 followers) will find their way back to me and keep up with what it's like Being Brillhart. A lot has happened since I blogged last... Ryder was born January 27, 2011. Just 364 days after his brother. Leyton is getting bigger every day, he's walking and climbing and repeats everything you say now! Ryder sits up on his own and can scoot on his butt around the floor. He works up to hands and knees when he's on his belly and will be crawling in no time! The boys are big and healthy and the brighth spot in mine and Anna's lives. Every day we get to encounter something new with one or both of them and I love looking forward to what each new day with my sons and wife will bring!

As for Anna and I it has been a wonderful year also. I got a promotion and moved from the production side of things at the company I work for to the corporate end! So instead of jeans and work boots every day it's dockers, polo's and loafers. I'll be honest, I miss my work boots. But the job is great, it's very busy and keeps me thinking all the time. Anna is still with Ranch Fiberglas. She has moved into an office manager's roll and pretty much runs the whole front end now! Which isn't surprising from her because she's brilliant and I knew it was only a matter of time before she ran the place!

So that's the last year in two paragraphs, I will do a better job from now on keeping you updated on the day to day in our lives... Thanks for following!