Christmas Decorations

Here are some of our Christmas decorations. I love decorating for Christmas and usually do it the weekend before Thanksgiving. I know some people think that's to early but I just say it's one more thing I'm thankful to have done on Thanksgiving!

My favorite part of our house is our fireplace. I love our stockings and the Happy Birthday Jesus sign. I also went a little crazy with the art mesh this year, lol!

This is Ry and Tan's favorite part, the play nativity scene. They play with it literally everyday. Nana got it for them last Christmas and it was one of their favorite gifts.

Here is our Christmas tree...I hate how Christmas tress don't photograph well. I promise it looks much better in person.

Here is a close up of some of our ornaments.

Here is Ryleigh's tree. It's my favorite tree in the house! I just love it!

And here is Tan Man's tree. His is done in fishing lures. It's impossible to find cute boy ornaments so I literally just bought real fishing lures from Bass Pro.

This is new this year and I already love it! It's our Christmas card tree. I love looking at them all. I have about 5 more to add but i haven't had the time to do it.

Here is some art work the kids have done at school for Christmas.

I love these Christmas rugs I got!

And last but not least here is Scout The Window! He's been making messes all over our house this year! The kids have had the best time with it and jump right out of bed when I wake them up in the mornings.

This year we decided to do Christmas with Mom and Larry on Christmas Eve. This is kinda a big deal to me because every year since we've been married we get up and do Christmas with us then walk across the street to moms and do Christmas with them. She then makes a HUGE breakfast and Nana and Paw Paw come over (that's been going forever, even when I lived at home). But this year Christmas falls on a Sunday and I can't speak for everyone but I think it's pretty silly to celebrate Christmas and not go to church (since it falls on a Sunday this year.) What are we celebrating at all for if we don't go and worship the one we even have the holiday for? I know this is kinda a hot topic this year because it messes up every one's "schedule." But you'll find the Stokley Family in church on Christmas morning. Because Christmas is not about opening presents or having time to fit in going to every ones house. It's about celebrating our saviours birthday!

Ok off my rant, lol!

Merry Christmas!!

Christmastime

I honestly hadn't noticed I hadn't put anything on here in the last 2 weeks or so until Ryan texted me today and said I was a little behind on the blog. December is a month of always being behind! I couldn't tell you the last night we've actually been at home. We've had plans every night for the past few weeks. On the plus side that means that I also haven't cooked in the past few weeks! Woo Hoo!!

So what have we been up to?

 We've gone to Christmas parades with best friends! We went to the Semmes Christmas parade which has turned into a pretty big deal. We had literally about 6 groups of our friends all with us. It was a lot of fun!

 We went to Ryan's work's Christmas party at the Convention Center and spent the night downtown. While we were enjoying that Ry and Tan were having fun at Bellingrath with their Mi Mi and La La.

 Last night we went to my best friends Lindsay's parents house for Christmas with them.

 We always have so much fun when we go over there for Christmas. They cook a HUGE meal!

 And buy the kids all kinds of little treats.

 We technically aren't kined to them even though we have the same last name but they are very special people to us and we love them very much!

 Of course the kids favorite part is the presents!! They said Mrs. Pam and Uncle Jeff always buy the best presents! Tanner said "Until we get older and then they'll buy us clothes and that is not fun." Lol!

 Last night we hung out outside the whole time and cooked and ate. Their backyard is BEAUTIFUL!!

I hope everyone is having a wonderful Christmas Season! We've are staying busy and enjoying every minute of it!

Seven

Seven years ago today I married my best friend and my high school sweet heart. She may not always be sweet but we LOVE her anyway and we plan on keeping her around a lot longer. I love to just look back and think about the first time we met and when we first started "dating" and everything we have been through together. If there is a perfect life I'm pretty sure we have it. We are blessed beyond measure and I thank God everyday for that, for this wonderful life and wonderful friends and family we have. I look forward to many more exciting years.
I love you Tiffany.

SEVEN

 God gave me you for the ups and downs

                                                   God gave me you for the days of doubt

For when I think I’ve lost my way

There are no words here left to say, it’s true

God gave me you.

-Dave Barnes

Ryan, I'm more thankful today that God gave me you than I was 7 years ago on this day. It's been a fun 7 years so far and I'm looking forward to many more!! I love you!

Ropes Course

Today for our youth worker's Christmas Party we went to do a Ropes Course. It's in the middle of the woods and it was so fun! Scary but fun! 

 We had to wear some very awkward harnesses that went between our legs. Needless to say they were not flattering at all. Thankfully everyone looked bad...misery loves company! 

 There were like 4 different sections on the high ropes and then four different sections on the low one. We were in teams of 7 and when I say that you have to get to love each other, I mean it. We were literally standing on 2 ft by 2 ft square 50 feet in the air. I'm not one that likes people up in my personal space. I like to keep a good 2 feet between me and the closest person to me. At one point their may have been 2 cm between mine and my teams face and 0 centimeters between out bodies. 

 It was an EXCELLENT Team Building exercise because you really do have to work together. If one of you falls you all fall. They won't let you grab the cables or your ropes so all you have to hold on to is each other. No handles, no ropes, just each other. Scary! 

 This one below was the hardest. You had to all get on this 2 foot board and you can't move to the next one until you were all on that one. So all 7 of us were on that one board. Granted it was only for a few seconds because the next person had to be prepared to go to the next one before we all fell.

At the end of it you get to zipline down which was really cool! It was a great day! I'm thankful for our church and they great group of leaders I get to serve with!

Field Trip

Ryleigh had her first real field trip this past Tuesday. I was able to take off work and go with her. It really was fun to spend the day with her and her friends. Even though I was ready for a long nap when we got home. 5 year old girls are exhausting!

We went to Wales West Train Park in Silverhill. The place was just ok. Literally they just rode this train down to the "North Pole" to see Santa and then make an ornament.

There was this little mini train that they got to ride as well.

The big train was pretty cool. It was really loud and smelled really bad!

It was funny to me how many of the kids were afraid of Santa. Like seriously, scream like crazy, run for your life, afraid!

This is her whole class. One of the things I do like about Turner is their small class size. Ry only has 17 kids in her class and for a public school that is considered REALLY small. I think small class sizes are important for kids to learn.

The girl with the long brown hair is Erica, Ry's best friend.

When we got home Ryleigh was worn slap out! I think her most favorite thing was getting to ride the bus. She begs me to let her ride it everyday and I won't let her. Now seeing the way she acts on the bus with all those kids I for sure won't be letting her! She is a wild child!