VT Memorial Garden photos

In Honor of All Hokies!

Today is the anniversary of the tragic shooting at Virginia Tech University. Eventhough I am in California I was deeply effected as I have a few friends that are alumni of VT.
Also, since I work on a college campus, we were very effected as a university community. We developed a memorial garden in honor of those Hokies that lost their lives on that dreadful day.
Today on campus, there is a special ceremony to commemorate the 1st anniversary, which I plan on taking part in to honor those lost and all my Hokie friends!

May their memory live on in our hearts and minds!

See what Virginia Tech is doing today.

Croup is a scary thing

What in the world is croup? For new parents, it is a scary thing! Especially at 2 am in the morning.

According to webMd, Croup is a common respiratory problem in young children that has a harsh, "barking" cough. Croup causes swelling and narrowing in the voice box, windpipe, and breathing tubes that lead to the lungs.

I never heard of such a thing until it happened to us. Tyler got croup and we had to rush him to emergency on Friday morning. They did some breathing treatments on him and decided to transfer him to Valley Childrens Hospital (Children's Hospital of Central California). We are lucky to have one of the top children's hospitals so close by. We stayed overnight at the hospital and they treated us so well! After a few steroid treatments (that relaxes the muscles in the air passage and helps him breath better), they released us on Saturday mid morning. The doctor said that the coughing would persist for a few days but would decrease as time went on.

It was hard to see our happy baby boy so miserable and not feeling well. He still has a slight cough that lingers on and is fianlly getting his appetite back. We had many people praying for him and his recovery. God answered our prayers!

He's starting to show signs of his normal, happy self again so he's on the way to recovery.

Happy Easter

Have a wonderfully blessed Easter!!

From the Root Family

This year is an especially blessed Easter. I precious baby boy gets to have his first Easter, and eventhough he's too young to know what its all about yet, we will soon be able to share the incredible story of God's love with him and begin directing his spiritual path.

This year also begins the ongoing picture taking at each holiday. We had these pictures taken at a local studio (yes, that is a real lamb!!) and he was just a good baby, and he smiled and laughed so easily. We are blessed to have such a happy baby!

I found it very inspiring and divine that his first professional picture was for Easter and featured a lamb. It made be reflect on what Jesus did for us, as the 'Lamb' of God, and the "lamb led to the slaughter" to cleanse all of us unworthy humans of our sins.

This Easter will be a blessed time of remembrance, thankfulness and praise!

Happy Easter!!

May God reign blessings upon all of you!

I'm Officially DONE...

With school!!!! Hallelujah! Praise the Lord!!!
I am finally done with my online schooling for my Bachelors.
Although actual graduation doesn't happen until the end of the month, I have not finished posting my last assignment and await my final grades.
If all goes well, I will finish with an A in this class, and finish my schooling with a 3.87 GPA, graduating Magna Cum Laude.
I will officially have my BFA (Bachelors of Fine Arts) in Graphic Design and will now challenge myself with getting a job in my new field.
Please check out my new website Sheryl Root Designs, and let me know what you think.
Also, if you have an type of design project you need help with, please feel free to let me know.

Blessings to you all!!

a new stage - rice cereal

now that my baby boy is 4 months old, we got the ok from our doctor to start tyler on rice cereal with his formula twice a day. after starting off VERY messy, we finally got the right consistency with the formula and tyler is getting used to the different texture.
for awhile, we were using a specialized bottle that we put the cereal in that was suppose to help with the transition. it ended up being very messy and not really worth the headache... although it did help tyler get used to eating and swallowing. we used a combo of the new bottle with cereal, spoon-feeding, and the regular bottle with the formula.
he's getting the hang of it now and its so cute to watch him eat.
i have pictures in my camera that i will post soon.

4 Months and Growing

Today is Tyler's 4 month birthday!

Happy Birthday, my precious baby boy!!

He's grown so much and is becoming a little man with each passing week. Some milestones this month were:

• He now weights 15 lbs and is 25 in long (he goes in for his 4 month shots on Friday).
• He's quickly groing out of his 0-3 mth clothes.
• He's now sleeping in his crib every night. He sleeps through the night (and has been since about 2 mths). Depending on how early he goes to sleep and how early/late he has his last feeding, will determine what time he wakes up in the morning. Anywhere between 3 am and 5 am. He also dreams and makes noises in his sleep.
• Tyler now holds his head up by himself.
• He loves to laugh and smile alot.
• He has strength in his legs to stand up, with a little help. He's so wanting to walk already.
• He's now eating nearly 40 oz a day (8 oz per feeding, 5 feedings a day) and is closely getting ready for the transition to baby food.
• He gets mesmorized by the tv. Whether its Mythbusters (there's a story about this for another time), or any funny cartoon we have on for him, we watches intently. (I wonder where he gets that from?? Uh, maybe his two couch potato parents?? LOL) He's definately going to be a visual learner like me.
• He's not teething yet but he's very close. You can see the white caps almost close to coming through his gums and they are very sensitive. He's drooling alot more and loves to bite on a teething ring (or my finger).
• His hand/eye coordination is coming along slowly. We're also working on his ability (or should I say desire) to reach for things. He loves lights and sounds.
• He's still getting used to his tummy time but does pretty well at pulling himself up. He can roll himself over with a little help.

I'm so proud of my little baby boy. I can't wait to see what he learns in this next month!

Another University loss

Tragedy struck again on another university campus... this time it was Northern Illinois University. More lives lost at the hand of a very unhappy and disturbed person. I listened to updates yesterday on the developing story and was just saddened by the grief and shock of the students and faculty members on that campus.

This morning on my way to work, I was listening to KLOVE (as I always do) and after a news update about the tradgedy, they played "I Will Be Here" by Steven Curtis Chapman. Usually this is a great wedding song but today it hit me in a different way. The lyrics made me think of how precious life is and how we can be gone in a single second. We can face tragedy of all types, but we are to take comfort in the thought that God is always there with us every step of the way. He never leaves us, never forsakes us.

My heart and my prayers go out to those effected by the events at NIU. I just hope and pray that they can feel the love of God surround them and that they can draw near to God instead of push him away at this time.

Here are the lyrics to "I Will Be Here"
by Steven Curtis Chapman
Tomorrow morning if you wake up
and the sun does not appear
I will be here
If in the dark, we lose sight of love
Hold my hand, and have no fear
'Cause I will be here I will be here

When you feel like being quiet
When you need to speak your mind
I will listen
And I will be here

When the laughter turns to cryin'
Through the winning, losing and trying
We'll be together
I will be here

Tomorrow morning, if you wake up
And the future is unclear
I will be here
Just as sure as seasons were made for change
Our lifetimes were made for these years
So I will be here

I will be here
And you can cry on my shoulder
When the mirror tells us we're older
I will hold you
And I will be here
To watch you grow in beauty
And tell you all the things you are to me
I will be here

I will be true to the promise
I have made
To you and to the One who gave you to me

Tomorrow morning, if you wake up
And the sun does not appear
I will be here
Oh, I will be here

Happy Valentines Day!

Happy Valentine's Day to my dear friends!

Not only do I love you and hold you all dear in my hearts, be comforted that you are also

LOVED by our Heavenly Father - so much more then we can even imagine!



Happy Valentine's Day!

Be Blessed!!

3 Months

Today, my baby boy is 3 months old.
It's hard to believe that it's been 3 months - time has flown by. He's now weighing about 12 lbs, and eats like a little piggy. Grandmas tend to want to overfeed him (the poor thing is starving to death!) It's the grandma way. LOL Obviously since he's 12 lbs, he's not lacking in food.
He's been such a joy to our lives.
He's already sleeping through the night (has been for about a month), smiling alot, even giggles from time to time and he had his first over-night stay at grandma Judy and grandpa Jim's house. Troy and I went to go see the Blue Man Group (3 guys painted in blue that have an intersting musical show with strange instruments. it was very cool!!) so they watched him while we went. It was a bit strange not having him with us when we got home, and waking up the next morning without him there. Judy dropped him off back at my mom's house the next morning so I rushed over there at lunch to go see him.
I went 24 hours without seeing my little guy! OMG, I can't tell you how much I missed him.
:-)

His 3 month pictures to follow soon. We've been so bad and haven't taken any since Christmas!!

Back at work

This week was my first week back at work after being off for 2 months with my baby boy. No tears have been shed, although I have found that I do miss him during the day.
Surprisingly, it hasn't been too tough, since my mom is watching him and she only lives 5 minutes away from campus. I go over to the house every day for lunch to see my little man. He's usually sleeping.
The days seem LONGER and I find myself spacing out a lot at my desk. I have a lot of distractions, including my adorable little pictures I have as my desktop wallpaper. This week was a bit quiet since classes are still on their winter break.
School starts back up this next week so the campus should get a lot more active and hopefully, the work day should start seeming shorter. This also means it will be harder to find a decent place to eat on campus without a long line.
New this semester is the opening of a Chick-fil-a on our campus. I still haven't been down there to taste the food but their reputation is for great Chicken! We'll see.
It's been a long, busy week. I'm pooped. I totally understand how new moms can suddenly change their mind and remain stay-at-home moms instead of returning to work. If it were financially possible and I could keep myself from staying in my PJ's all day every day, I might consider it.
I applaude all you SAH moms!! You're my hero!!

Here's some pics from Christmas:

A New Year - New Beginnings

The new year brings many new beginnings for us.
Not only are we new parents but I also am getting to experience the emptyness of going back to work and leaving my precious baby with a sitter.
In our case, the sitter is grandma (my mom) but being away from him all day when I've spent the last 2 1/2 months with him constantly is a bit rough. Today was my first day back at work after being on maternity leave.
I checked on him on my lunch break. He had been cranky that morning but was fine when I got there. He was fighting going to sleep so I rocked him to sleep before I left. He slept the whole afternoon until I went to go pick him up after work.
I thought I'd be a little more emotional but no tears were shed. I did miss my little man but knew he was in very good hands. My parents only live about 5 minutes away from work so I can run over there if there's a problem.
One good thing about going back to work today was that this week is a short week. Yah!! The campus was closed the week between Christmas and New Years so there are a lot of people still on vacation. Because many are still on vacation, the office was pretty quiet. I got caught up on emails and updated my system. I got a little work done this afternoon but it was hard to get motivated. Luckily, the afternoon went by fast.
Me being away from Tyler during the day makes having time with him at night extra special. I know its an adjustment and everything will be fine.

Happy New Year

This year is almost gone...

a new year is on its way,

Time to put the past behind us

and look forward to a promising year ahead!

My, has this been a crazy year for us. A huge prayer answered ending with our little blessing and early Christmas present! We had a lot to be thankful for this year. We look forward to an exciting future with our son!

May God bless you all with a promising new year!

Tyler's First Christmas

We survived Tyler's first Christmas.

We had so much to be thankful for this year - especially our special Christmas present. ;-)

The holidays started out with our traditional Christmas Eve with family from Troy's dad's side. It's a traditional going back 3 generations where we get together and have chilli and cornbread. We usually go to Trina's (Troy's sister) house but this year, it was at our house. That meant that I had to get all my Christmas decorations ou and put up the tree. We hadn't decorated for the last few years as we're hardly home because of Christmas rehearsals and such. We didn't have a big production this year, and we now have a reason to decorate.

Christmas day was a busy one, as most holidays are. In the afternoon, we went to my sister's house up in the mountains, and then came down and went to Troy's mom's (Judy's) house that evening. It was quite a day and Tyler was awake through most of it. He got a little cranky at Judy's house, I'm thinking because there was a lot of people there.

We had 3 different 'Baby's first Christmas' outfits that we put Tyler in for the holidays including a Santa hat that was unfortunately too big on him. He looked so cute in them. We found one onesey that said, "Who needs Santa when I have Grandma." That's especially true for Tyler since grandma Judy is already spoiling him. We saved that one for Christmas day so we could show the grandmas.

Among Tyler's gifts were clothes, toys, and a cute little overnight backpack with Mickey Mouse on it. It was way cute and I was tempted to keep it for myself. One special gift we gave to all the grandparents was a double picture frame. On one side, it had a cute picture of Tyler smiling. On the other, was his footprint imprinted in a clay-like substance that turned rubbery when dried. It was specifically designed to hold a footprint image on one side. It was quite a chore to get his footprint, but based on their reaction, it was worth it.

I took a few pictures, but not many. You would think I'd be going picture crazy since this was Tyler's first Christmas. It'll be more fun next year when he's able to open his gifts on his own. Tyler's is growing so quick. He turned 2 months old on December 18th. According to the last doctor's appointment he's now weighing 11 lbs, 5 oz. Believe it or not, that's just one ounce more then I weighed when I was born (I was a month overdue).

With the new year right around the corner, that means I'll be back at work soon too. I've gotten used to staying at home with him, but actually look forward to getting back into the swing of things. My mom will watch Tyler while I'm at work. They live close to campus so I can go check on Tyler during lunch and it's on my way to and from work.

I'll post pictures soon, when I get them downloaded.

Until then, Happy New Year to everyone!

May God Bless each and every one of you for 2008!

A new adventure

A new adventure began today... our first service in our new building.
For the past 6 years, New Harvest Church has met and worshipped in a high school cafeteria. Four years ago, we purchased an old citrus packing plant and TODAY

WE HAD OUR FIRST SERVICE IN OUR NEW HOME!

We have done Christmas and Easter productions over there but it has never felt the way it felt today. Allbeit, there were a few first day hickups but overall, everything ran well and the music was awesome! Our pastor, Mitch, was nearly in tears talking about how much he's prayed for this day and thanked all of us who have helped to make it come true.

The 'plant', as we called it, has a lot more to come (a huge event/main worship center to seat 3,000 and a fully functional commercial kitchen for catering) to come in the next few years. In the next year or so, we will have a fully-staffed child care center on site for our members and open to the public.

One dream of mine will soon come true as well. Now that we've moved in to the 'plant', I can start marketing the facility for concerts and events. It has always been a desire of mine to bring more Christian talent to the Fresno area. Once the event center is complete, I plan on bringing some full-on concerts in. Until that's complete, I have our smaller worship center that seats an estimated 800 people.

I just have to continue to be patient and prayerful on what God wants me to do in our new building.

The Future is Looking Bright!

2 months

My baby is 8 weeks old today. In my eyes, it's been 2 months eventhough he doesn't technically turn 2 months until the 18th. Went to the doctor the other day and he is now weighing 11 lbs, 3.5 oz. Ironically, that is how much I weighed when I was born and I was a month late.

We are looking forward to Tyler's first Christmas. Eventhough he won't remember it, this Christmas will be very memorable because we thank God every day for our precious baby.
Grandma Judy has already went nuts on presents... and Troy and I have even gotten him a few things already. :-)

He's beginning to smile, which is so cute when we talk to him. We can see when he reacts to us now. He also is almost sleeping through the night. He's sleeping about 6 hours at night and taking short naps during the day. This makes us VERY happy!!!!

We can't help but say again that we are so blessed with this child!!! He is sooo good.
He hardly cries, he sleeps REALLY well, he is a healthy eater and can sit still and be content by just staring at the ceiling or looking at lights.

We love our precious one!!!

Our First Family pic

Here's our first family photo.

Just wish Tyler had his eyes open!

Here's some new pics of Tyler by himself. He's just so adorable, I love taking his picture. So sue me, I'm a proud mom! :-)

The boy LOVES to sleep!

Very Thankful

Happy Thanksgiving!!

This year, we have so much to be thankful for. Every year we are thankful for the many blessings God has bestowed upon us, for taking care of us and providing for our needs.

This year, we have a very special reason to be thankful. God has given us the wonderful opportunity and duty of raising a child.... HIS child! And a precious one his is too! I am incredible humbled everyday on how our faith, patience and trust in God's timing has brought us what we've been praying for for so long! A son!

We started the year still discouraged about not being able to conceive, and a few months later... I was carrying a precious bundle of joy. This will be Tyler's first Thanksgiving and we are very thankful that he is here with us.

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!

Eat, Drink and Be Blessed!

One Month Today

One month today, my baby was born.
A lot has changed in one month!
Coming off a good pregnancy (except for the minor back pain the last few months) I had a good delivery. God bless epidurals!! :-)
Eventhough I had issues after the delivery, I have a precious baby boy to show for it now.
Even being a few week early, he was a good 7 pounds, 7 ounces.
He's grown so much already!
Can't wait til his personality starts to appear. Right now he just still eats, sleeps and poops. I can tell he's starting to get ticklish when I touch his feet and he smiles slightly (mostly from passing gas).
My little man is growing up!
New photos coming soon.

Happy Birthday Tyler!!

1st pediatric appt

Tyler had his first appointment with the pediatrician on Thursday. .. his 3 week birthday.

Everything checked out well. He's now weighing close to his birth weight - now at 7 lbs, 8 oz. (He had lost some weight being in the nursery for a week.) He's now an inch longer at 22 in. long and we can now feed him when he wakes up (provided it's not longer then every 4 hours). That means Troy and I (mostly ME!) get a little more sleep. He also now eating double the amount he was before. This child is a little piggy when he eats (more like inhales) his formula. :-)

The doctor has given us the ok to take him off all his prescription medication given by the hospital - 3 medicated creams for his rash, and 1 for his acid reflux. The acid reflux medicine was actually making Tyler spit up more then without it anyways. He's been doing much better without it. He also got his circumcision done. He slept right through that. This boy can sleep through anything.

We've started taking him out more, and he made his grand appearance at church last Sunday. He slept through the whole worship set. Like I said, this boy can sleep! Many people at church were thrilled to see us up & around, and also loved to see how well Tyler was doing. We had a lot of people praying for us and for him during my pregnancy and his time in the nursery.

Every day, he grows and every day he becomes more precious!!
I thank God every day for my precious baby boy!!
He is truely a miracle and blessing from God!