The Breakfast Series

This year we received a charge from our prophet, President Russell M. Nelson to have our homes be more gospel based. The basis of this charge came through a major change in how we should be worshipping. The leadership of the Church of Jesus Christ provided the membership with an avenue to have a home based/church supported gospel experience. As parents, Kristina and I felt overwhelmed in our responsibility to teach our children the gospel. Despite the feelings of inadequacy, we felt we had many conversations and shared our thoughts on how to best teach our children the gospel. We won’t go into every little detail of how we teach our family, but we will share with you what we call, “The Breakfast Series.”

The Breakfast Series, or “are we gonna have church this morning dad?” as Jared always asks is simple. Every Sunday morning, we have a nice big family breakfast. The breakfast varies each week and has ranged from being pancakes and bacon, French toast, cinnamon rolls and sometimes we even just let our kids pick their favorite cereal. During this time at the breakfast table we have a gospel discussion that includes a review of prior lessons taught throughout the week and we emphasize the doctrine which we have felt is most important and pertinent to our family at the time. Sometimes it is something that was in our home-based lesson plan of the week and sometimes it isn’t. We have children of varying ages and understandings but have found that each child participates and wants to learn. We have felt the spirit with us through these lessons and are grateful that we have started this family tradition.

Many will ask how we do it because of meetings and other church responsibilities. My answer is simply this, we just do. Sometimes it requires us to be up a little earlier and even to be flexible enough to change the day or time. I would never suggest that what works for our family is the way every other family should learn the gospel, but we have found great success and love that our children now ask daily “are we having church today” and are excited to learn the gospel.

Jared Takeshi

Oh where to begin...

From the very beginning of the pregnancy, Jared was kind of a little miracle baby. We had a bit of a difficult time getting pregnant and then things were kind of put on hold when Jonathan left...obviously ;).

The pregnancy itself was fairly easy compared to when I was pregnant with Michael. I was only sick until about week 16 and then it was pretty breezy ;). I was able to exercise the whole time and was crossfitting all the way up until a couple days before he came. We had a few confusing ultrasounds and weren't completely confident we were having a boy until midway through the last trimester.  I was a little better at taking pictures this time around :)

As we got closer and closer to the due date, both Jonathan and I started to worry that he wouldn't make it for the delivery. Every morning between 2-2:30am Jonathan texts me to say good morning. The morning of June 20th, Jonathan and I decided to pray together that Jared (at this point unnamed baby boy Ridge) would come at the beginning of the following week. I had my weekly appointment later that day. When my doctor came in the see me, her first comment was "well you look uncomfortable." I was, but I was only experiencing the normal end of pregnancy discomforts. Before I said anything she then said, "are you sure you don't want to have this baby on Monday?" I was a little shocked and responded with "Is that an offer?" She said it was if there was an opening. I asked if I could call Jonathan to find out if we could get him to California in time for it, and while I called, she checked if I could be scheduled. I already knew it was the answer to our prayer several hours earlier, but I still wanted to make sure he would be there. He was able to talks to the cadre and get permission to schedule the flight and come. There wasn't a slot available, but one of the mothers scheduled to be induced that Monday morning was currently in labor and delivery and I was told if she had the baby that day , the slot was mine. I was heading to San Diego to visit Diana straight from my appointment and while driving down, my doctor personally called me to tell me that I would be having my baby on Monday, June 24th. As soon as I got to Diana's, I booked Jonathan's flight and he was in San Diego with me less than 24 hours later. We spent that Friday evening with Jeff, Diana, and Andrew (and Michael and Stephanie) and then drove back up to Anaheim. Sunday night I started having consistent contractions and by the time we reported to the hospital for our scheduled induction Monday morning, my contractions were already 5 min apart and I was dilated to 5cm. I think regardless of the induction I would have had Jared that day. However...the induction turned out to be a blessing in more ways than getting Jonathan out to Anaheim faster. After they hooked me up to all the fun IVs, they started pumping in the pitocin and within just a few minutes the contractions were getting stronger and were now 2 minutes apart. I lasted almost 2 hours with the pitocin before I asked for the epidural. The anesthesiologist came in and gave me the epidural and as he put the needle in my back I started to cry. He asked if he was hurting me...the thing was it didn't really hurt, I just felt stupid for wanting the epidural...and being on the hormonal roller coaster I was on, the waterworks just starting pouring. The past 2 hours I had been watching the monitor intently as it gauged the intensity of the contractions while monitoring Jared's heart rate. I was feeling kind of proud of myself as I watched the contraction peak and not feel like I was going to die. But I had to pee. So Jonathan had helped me get over to the bathroom with my IVs and when I got back, the contractions seemed to suddenly get stronger and stronger, but according to the monitor they were getting weaker. They were now a minute/minute and a half apart and I watched the intensity on the monitor somewhat bump up slightly but feel like it was skyrocketing. So when I asked for the epidural and he gave it to me  I started crying because I didn't understand why the monitor was saying the contractions were tiny while they felt like they were getting so so so much worse! The nurse then explained to me that more than anything they were watching the baby's heart rate during the contractions and when I got up to pee the monitor had shifted so the reading was a little different AND because it was just strapped to my belly it wasn't an accurate gauge of the true intensity....they tried to make me feel better but I still felt like a pansy.  Anywho...as to be expected, the epidural was wonderful and while I didn't have as much control as I did when I had the epidural with Michael, it definitely did its job! :) Another hour or so passed and suddenly the nurse came back in and started watching the monitor very intently. Every time I contracted, Jared's heart rate plummeted. They shifted me to my left side and his heart rate dropped even more.  The next thing I know they are giving me oxygen and they called my doctor in the room.  She checked me and I was dilated to a 9.  They watched his heart rate drop again now into the 40s and she says "we need to get this baby out of you now, you ready to push?"  So a few pushes later he was out.  We then found out the reason his heart rate was dropping...

There was an actual knot in the umbilical cord.  They thought the cord might be around his neck, but it was just next to it.  Every time I contracted the knot was tightening and cutting off the oxygen to the baby.  I was later told that true knots in the umbilical cord are rather uncommon and often result in still births when undetected.  I was also told that had it been detected earlier in the pregnancy, I probably would have been scheduled for a c-section.  I was confused as to how the knot formed, and they explained that when he was smaller and there was much more room he literally had to of somersaulted and looped through the cord himself.  I read the statistics later...he's definitely our miracle baby.

Jared Takeshi Ridge was born on June 24, 2013 at Orange Coast Memorial Hospital at 10:33am.  He was 7lb even and 19.5 inches long. We feel so blessed to have him as part of our family, and Michael has LOVED being a big brother.   

Jared and I spent the next two days in the hospital with daily visits from Jonathan and Michael and a few close friends and family.  Jonathan was able to spend two weeks at home with us before having to fly back to Fort Benning. 

I love my boys :)

An Update...

I have this reminder set on my phone (it was set when I purchased my iPhone last March...) to update the blog. Over time the list of what to update on the reminder has gotten longer and longer...and I'm not going to lie, I probably won't catch up with everything.  The list goes as follows:

-Jonathan's enlistment
-Andrew's Blessing and Kepler going to the MTC
-Jonathan leaves for BASIC
-Mother's Day and mom's passing
-Georgia/Indiana trip, BASIC graduation
-Texas trip/AIT graduation
-pregnancy
-Thanksgiving in Utah
-Christmas 2012 in Oregon
-Valentine's Day Surprise/trip to Georgia/RASP graduation
-Michael turns 4
-Jared's arrival
-Georgia visit

...like I said I probably won't catch up on everything ;) ...but tomorrow I'll start with an entry on Jared

Jonathan's Address-updated

For those of you looking for an address to write Jonathan, here's his address!


SPC Ridge, Jonathan A.
192nd Infantry Brigade
B Company, 2nd BN, 47th In
3rd Platoon, Roster #344
5375 Hanson Drive, Bldg. 3245
Fort Benning, GA 31905-4769

Michael's New Favorite Place to Play

One of Michael's favorite things to do is hide. There are two places Michael can typically be found when he hides. The first place is on our bed underneath our pillows. We usually see him try and sneak back to our room, but if he ever gets there without us knowing and we take too long to come look for him...he'll shout "Mommy (or Daddy), HIDING!!!!"

(I know I've posted that picture before, but I love it...)

The second and more recent favorite spot to hide is under or in these big buckets.

You can't even see him!




Check him out in action...



He's such a funny kid.

Happy Halloween!

When we were in Arizona for Kim's wedding at the beginning of October, Renae officially taught Michael the word pumpkin. Ever since then, he has been pointing out pumpkins all over the place and thanks to Lee (Renae's father, Jonathan's uncle, and my pseudo padre) Michael has also been calling people "pumpkin head." Every time we went to the grocery store, Michael would BEG for a pumpkin. Finally, on the 29th we went to Sam's Market and let Michael pick out a pumpkin. He was really more entertained by their decorations so we ended up leading him to one that weighed 26.34 pounds. (Which is just about 2 pounds more than him.) He was super excited about it. We carved it the next day after church.

Michael was a great helper, but was still extremely disgusted by the pumpkin innards. We finally convinced him to touch them a little bit, but he ended up just coloring on the outside of the pumpkin while we scraped the inside and cut the jack-o-lantern face on the other side.

This year for Halloween, we thought we'd try and dress as a family again. If you remember, last year Michael was a Zoo Keeper and Jonathan and I were elephants.

Halloween 2010:
We ran through several different ideas and finally decided on a Toy Story Theme. Jonathan and I were Mr. and Mrs. Potato Head and Michael was our adopted Alien child. :) We were trying to go for the inexpensive costume route so I looked up some store bought and homemade costumes and decided I could totally do it by myself. I bought t-shirts for each of us, different colors of felt for the faces, yarn for Michael's hat, a visor to decorate for me, and a hat for Jonathan. All three costumes totaled just under $20 and took me just a couple hours to make.


I was a little worried Michael wouldn't want to keep his hat on, but boy was I wrong! I made Stephanie a hat for her Waldo outfit and after seeing her wear hers, he thought it was so cool!


Michael definitely enjoyed the concept of "trick or treating." We think he completely understood the fact that he was getting candy, but he didn't really want to eat any of it. He just wanted to keep getting more...and more...and more.


A friend of ours from the ward decided to go with the Toy Story theme as well and we did a little trick or treating with them at the end of the night. Their two boys were Buzz and Woody, and as I'm sure you can tell from the picture the father was Andy. :)


While they may not get along all the time, Michael really does love Emmett who is 2 months older than him. The two of them held hands as they walked...so darn cute.


Happy Halloween!

Jonathan's Graduation

Catch-up Post #2.

Jonathan finished his Bachelor of Science Degree in Criminal Justice & Criminology through Portland State University on September 2, 2011. However, while his classes and final projects didn't wrap up until the beginning of September, the commencement ceremony was in August. I think it's a pretty big deal that he graduated from college, so I definitely encouraged him to walk in the ceremony. Lucky for us, Paul, Jennie, James, and Sarah live in Beaverton, Oregon which just so happens to be a hop, skip, and a jump from Portland State University. We took Jonathan's super exciting accomplishment as an excuse to visit them in their cute new home.

When we got to the airport in Long Beach, Michael was beyond excited about hearing and seeing all the airplanes.
He stared out the window by our gate with Jonathan for a while and then ran around the small terminal to every other window to search for more planes. And when he was done doing that he found entertainment in jumping off chairs and running up and down one particular ramp...I'm sure the employees absolutely loved us. I know many other passengers were entertained by his enthusiasm. :)

When it was finally time to board the plane I was too chicken to ask if Michael could get a picture with the pilot...but of course Michael could have cared less. ;) He just wanted to get on the plane!



Michael did great on the flight.

On the drive from the airport to their house, Michael was very observant... "Trees! Trees! Trees!" He must have noticed there are quite a few more trees in Oregon than there are in Southern California.

The time we spent in Oregon was really nice. It definitely made Jonathan and I want to move there even more than we did before. Unfortunately, Jonathan had lots of homework to get done while we were there, so much of our time was spent doing that...but at the same time it was nice to just relax and play at the house. I'm completely bummed that I didn't really take any pictures of the house itself. These two pictures were taken in their awesome playroom. (Not pictured is one of the walls that is entirely a chalkboard. So cool!)
One of the days we were there, we went to Paul's office to have a nice picnic lunch. Afterward, Jennie, James, Sarah, Jonathan, Michael, and I walked around temple grounds. There were a couple brides being pictured, so we didn't stay long. We were also creeping into nap time which probably sped things up a bit too. ;)

Silly cousins.

The Commencement ceremony was on Saturday. Everything was set up outside, and even though we got there pretty early, all the seats were either taken or being saved. We were able to find a spot off the the side next to a set of bleachers with a fairly good view of where Jonathan would be receiving his diploma (or at least the cover...). Michael got a kick out of playing under the bleachers. I kept having these nightmarish flashes of the bleachers collapsing on him...but alas that did not happen.
Instead, he nailed his head pretty hard on one of the metal beams...

I am amazed we haven't had to make a trip to the ER because of one of his head bumps...thankfully him bumping his head on things is happening less and less, but STILL!

The speeches were short and sweet, but there were lots of names read. I managed to squeeze through the crowd and get a couple shots of Jonathan though :)

It took him a few minutes to get to us after the ceremony finished, so as his adoring fans, we took those moments to prepare to shower him with leis! (A HUGE thanks to mom for making all but one of the fabulous leis! It took me just as long to make one double lei as it did for her to make two double leis plus a single lei! And then she made all of the candy leis too!)


I remember going to Paul and Jennie's graduation at BYU and seeing someone with a toddler in a cap and gown with their parents. I thought to myself..."If I have a child by the time Jonathan or I graduate, I am TOTALLY going to be one of those ridiculous moms that does that!" And I was...

The trip went by way too fast...at least for me! Paul, Jennie, James, and Sarah were very hospitable :) and hopefully we'll be able to go out again sometime soon!