Christmas Traditions

This is our first Christmas where Ryleigh and Tanner truly have an understanding of what is going on. They are so excited about this season and I love that about this age. We are trying very hard to walk the line of making them understand the true meaning of Christmas and why we celebrate it and also having fun with the holidays.

This is also the first year we are going to incorporate some traditions into our holiday season. Mom started a great one with them when they were born where she takes them to the store to pick out an ornament. The first year they got baby's first Christmas ones. She keeps them in a box separate and when they are older and have their own trees they can take the box with them. Each ornament represents a time in their life and I think that is so special. Ryleigh has already said she wants a my little pony one for this year and Tanner wants a guitar one. Good luck finding those mom!

We are starting tonight with a tradition called a Jesse Tree. Every evening for about four weeks until Christmas, the family reads through a devotional, talks about the lesson, and hangs the appropriate ornament on the Jesse Tree. Each lesson walks chronologically through the Bible, highlighting historical moments that lead to the birth of Jesus. And each ornament highlights the devotional for that day. We are going to use a simple tabletop tree for this and use ornaments that Ryleigh and Tanner can color from templates I found online. Here is a link that tells more about it and the reason why people do this. I know it's mostly for catholic people but I thought it was a great way to tell the story of Jesus and lead up to his birth. The second tradition we are starting is Elf on the Shelf. This one has no great spiritual meaning behind it but it is just a fun way to get excited about Christmas. This is the description from the website: Elf on the Shelf is based on a tradition Carol Aebersold began with her family in the 1970s. This cleverly rhymed children's book explains that Santa knows who is naughty and/or nice because he sends a scout elf to every home. During the holiday season, the Elf on the shelf watches children by day and reports to Santa each night. When children awake, the Elf on the shelf has returned from the North Pole and can be found hiding in a different location. This activity allows The Elf on the Shelf to become a delightful hide-and-seek game. Each collection comes with its very own scout elf, a hardbound children's book, and a keepsake box for easy storage. In addition, each shipment is marked for “Special Delivery” from Santa's workshop.

I wrapped the box up and put it outside last night and then told them I thought someone was at the door. They ran to the door and were so excited to see a "Special Delivery from the North Pole" addressed to them! We then read the book and set him on the mantel. You're suppose to name the elf and record it in the book along with the year you started the tradition. Ryleigh named our elf "Scout the Window." "Scout" because she heard him referred to as a Scout Elf in the book and "The Window" because she said he needed a last name.

They were really excited to wake up this morning and find where he had moved to. I also got a kick out of finding different hiding places.

I hope these are traditions that stick with us for years. Although I love the holiday season and all the craziness that comes along with it I think it's important to sit back and remember why we really celebrate Christmas.

As Ryleigh said the other night "It sure is nice of Jesus to let us get presents on his birthday!"

New Haircut

The other day Ryan was taking Ryleigh and Tanner so they all 3 could get haircuts. He always takes them because a good friend of his cuts his hair and has been for years. It's actually kinda funny because she's at this nice salon and I'm sure he's the only man that gets his hair cut there.

Every other time he has taken them he just gets Ryleigh's hair trimmed. Well imagine my surprise when I get a text and this is the picture! I didn't know what to think. I kind of liked it but then again I didn't. It actually turned out cuter when I fixed it the next day. It wasn't so curled under.
See? The next day picture looks better. I think it's cute but I won't let her get it cut that way again. I refuse to spend 20 minutes fixing a 3 year olds hair. You have to fix it just like mine by straightening it and then rolling it under.
She LOVES it though! Karlee had gotten her hair cut even shorter so that's why Ryleigh wanted it cut. And everyone knows Ryan will let them do whatever they ask!

Flowers and Ruffles!

Oh, how this post makes me laugh. We went Saturday to look at Bridesmaids dresses for Lindsey's wedding. We had so much fun. All the people in there thought we were insane. We were dancing around and every dress we tried on we would burst out of the dressing room with some random pose. Or maybe I was the only one dancing and bursting out the random poses!
Whitney took these pictures and as you can tell is a horrible photographer! She used the excuse that I wouldn't just stand still to take a picture.

Dress # 1

Dress #2

Dress #3

We finally decided to let each girl pick her own dress as long as they are the same fabric and color. I think we narrowed it down to like 10 or 11 to chose from. I think I'm going to go with Dress #3. That one is in the colors she is using.

Guess who else we got to try on dresses!!! Whitney! She looks like a old lady in this picture. It makes me laugh! (By the way that is not one of the dress options, Lindsey just made her try it on.) This picture was taken in the corner of the dressing room. She wouldn't come out and most certainly didn't want me to take her picture. I tried to get her to strike a pose but she wouldn't!

I have no idea where the title flowers and ruffels actually came from. Somehow we got to talking about what we were going to do with Whitney's hair for the wedding and I suggested a flower since they are in this year. We also discussed how ruffels are in...I know it makes no sense but that's why I love days that I spend with her. Because nothing makes sense but it makes me happy!

Paparazzi

This past Saturday night we had Paw Paw's 70th birthday party. Whitney and I had been together all day so we thought it would be a great idea to make him a crown and a sign. We stole (borrowed) the crown from Buffalo Wild Wings and made everything else courtesy of Hobby Lobby (which we did pay for just in case you were wondering)! I know he looks happy in this picture but I don't really think he was to happy about all the pictures we were taking of him. Actually for some reason we took a lot of pictures all night long! We are like paparazzi!Literally there were camera flashes going off everywhere. Here his Paw Paw on his throne with his glorious crown!

You would think with all the pictures I mentioned that I would have some better ones than these. Well I'm sorry to say I don't. I know I took a lot of good ones with mom's camera and there where even a few where Aunt Cheryl's eyes were open! I know, can you believe it! But all I walked away with from the night where these poor quality iPhone pics.



I think everyone should chip in $20 and buy me a small digital camera that will fit in my pocket. It'll benefit everyone. You won't have to look at the poor quality photos that I snap with my iPhone because that;s all that I ever have with me. Maybe an early birthday present from everyone??

You may notice no pictures where taken of Ryleigh and Tanner and that would be because they were not there. Ryan took them to see the Blue Angels in Pcola on Saturday and they didn't get home until late. Would you like to see some pictures from the Blue Angels?? Yea, I thought you would. Then please make a donation to the camera fund!

Anyone need Saving?

I present to you Superhero Ryleigh Claire better know as Super Girl. She has many powers, including: making people laugh, acting silly, being dramatic, dancing, hyper, joyful, beautiful.
She also has many side kicks, Tanner, Gus, Boots...(and soon I'm sad to say maybe a cow).
According to her she can do anything she wants to. No matter how big or small the task at hand according to her it's possible. Which is what I love so much about kids. The words "I can't" are hardly in their vocabulary. According to her "She can do anything because God made her like him and he can do anything!" There is so much we can learn from children and the sweet innocence that they have.
Super Girl Ryleigh loves all things girly, bows, nail polish, blow dryers, makeup...because when your saving the world you should at least look good doing it!
I love knowing that no matter how bad my day may be Super Girl Ryleigh Claire will be there at the end of it to save the day! She always makes me smile!

Senior Bowl Run 2009

So I had my first race on Saturday! I was really excited about it. Friday night the kids went to stay with Lindsey so I could get up early and not have to worry with them Ryan was suppose to work but ended up getting off at the last minute so he ended up running with us. When I run during the week it's usually always with Tina and Lindsay. During regular running we always stay together and if one of us stops we'll all stop. Well we decided on race day that we would all run at our own pace. If we stayed together great if not then that's fine to. Here we are before the race.
We all stayed together for the first few minutes and then Tina left us! She's the fastest which is weird because Lindsay and I have way longer legs than her. A few minutes later Lindsay got ahead of me to. Ryan decided to stay back and run with me the whole way. I'm sure he could have went much faster but I'm glad he stayed back with me it was fun to run with him. Here we are before the race.
We ended up finishing with a pretty good time Ryan 33:10 me 33:11 he beat me by 1 second! I actually finished 5th in my age group which was 20-24. I was really happy about that!
After the race we went and ate Brunch at The Spot of Tea downtown. I love that place! They have the best food!

The rest of the day was pretty great. After Brunch I went and got an hour long massage, then home to get ready for a wedding. After the wedding and Alabama beating LSU we went to the movies. It was such a fun day!

Halloween 2009

Would everyone like to see some Halloween pictures??

Yeah, me to!

Tammy has gotten this new high dollar fancy Nikon camera and so Halloween I gave her my memory card to take pictures with that way she could just give it back to me and I could put them on my computer. Well I guess she was side tracked half the night because she only took 2 pictures and they were of them coming down a slide so you can't even see them!

So we are having a Halloween picture do over tomorrow night! In other words mom is taking them to the fall festival at Nana's church and I'll be sure to tell her to take lots of pictures and I'll just pass them off as the "original Halloween night" pics! I know, I'm so clever!

In other news I'm running my first race tomorrow! It's the 5k Senior Bowl run. So wish me luck! I know I'll be able to finish but I really want to finish and have a good time. So we'll see how it goes.

Ryleigh and Tanner are spending the night with Lindsey and Brandon tonight. I think this is the first time Lindsey has kept them both and the first time for sure overnight. Please pray for her! I'm sure they'll be fine and if not it'll make Lindsey want to wait a long time for kids!

Sorry to ruin your chances for grand kids anytime soon Aunt Lisa!

Tanner Man

Guess who is getting potty trained...slowly but surely Tanner is coming around to using the potty. He's done it a few times off and on for the past few months but never consistently. Mom had him this past Friday night and put him in big boy underwear and he has been wearing them ever since. Even when we went trick or treating he had them on. I'm so proud of him. Hopefully he'll be 100% potty trained soon!

Tanner goes to Nana's every Monday so she can keep him and spend time with him. He really does like going but every single Monday he cries and cries when I drop him off. Nana thinks that it's because he doesn't want to go but I think it's just because I get him straight out of the bed and put him in the car. So he's just grumpy and not awake yet. Nana told him last week if he came in and didn't cry she would take him to lunch and buy him a football. This morning he said "I'm going to try real hard to not cry!" And I'm happy to report he didn't cry! I haven't talked to them today so I don't know how lunch went but I hope they had a good day.

I'll post our Halloween pictures tomorrow. Hope everyone had a good weekend!