Christmas Eve

Silly String!

Tonight Ryan and I were bored! We had plans but they fell through so we were just at home. Well you know Ryan and sitting at home don't mix! Wesley had walked over from Aunt Lisa's so we decided to go prank everyone! 

We went to the dollar store and bought a ton of Silly String and the to the Fireworks Store to buy those streamer pop things. First we hit up Whitney. The funny thing is she was asleep in the recliner. We really scared her! 

 Next we went and picked Jordan and Evan up from their grandmas and brought them to Whitney's and then got them! They said they were wondering why we just randomly came and picked them up.

These won't go back in order.

 Next we went to Aunt Cheryl's to get her. She said when she saw all of at the door she thought we were there to sing her Christmas Carols! ha! By this time Whit, Jordan and Evan had all joined us. Lil' Ryan was at work and Lindsey goes to bed at 6 pm.

This turned into a progressive dinner. We had Reese's at Whitney's and when we got to Aunt Cheryl's she had spaghetti and pecan pie. (You know your family likes to eat when they just randomly have enough food to feed everyone. Even when they have no idea you are coming over.)

These are out of order...we actually went to Aunt Lisa's last. When she saw all of us she knew because she was at the house when we planned it. It was still fun!

 Tanner got a little swirly action!

We went to Mom's after Aunt Cheryl's and she got it the worst. It was all over her stove and cabinets and her! She had ham, dressing, green bean casserole, sweet potato casserole, rolls and loaded mashed potatoes for all of us. Oh, and chocolate cake! :) 

Aunt Velvet wasn't home or we would have gotten her too! It was a really fun night! Merry Christmas Eve Eve!

Santa

Our kids don't believe in Santa...I know, insane! Go ahead and get the shock out of your system. :)

We've gotten a lot of questions in the past few weeks about why they don't believe in Santa. We have many reasons on why we think it's better for them not too think he's real.

The funny reason is that Ryan doesn't want Santa to get credit for the presents he buys! Lol!

The other reason is that we also encourage them to always tell us the truth and we promise to do the same to them (in an age appropriate way.) So we don't see the point in lying to them about Santa. Because basically that's what it is, lying. Now I know that may seem kind of extreme but its my blog, haha! We teach them on a daily basis that Jesus is a real person who performed real miracles. Not make believe ones that involve reindeer and red suits. We don't want to use Santa as a distraction on the real meaning of Christmas. This also helps when we are teaching them to give. They used their money to buy bikes for other kids this year. If they believed in Santa then they wouldn't need to give back because Santa would take care of it.

We still do the fun Christmas stuff. We have an Elf on the Shelf, we get pictures made with Santa and put out reindeer food and cookies for Santa. We don't discourage the fun of it all. But seriously, one man goes around the whole world in one night to deliver toys?? That's not even believable! I mean the love Cinderella and Spiderman but they know they aren't real people.

We like to keep the focus on what the focus should be this time of year. Jesus, family, friends and food!

FYI-they don't believe in the Tooth Fairy or Easter Bunny either. :)

What have we been up to?

Miss me? I promise to get better at keeping up with the blog. When I don't it stresses me out so I told myself I wasn't going to worry about it this month. This is the craziest month for me at work and then throw Christmas in on top of that and it's INSANE!!!

Scout the Window is back! They thought the green milk was absolutely hilarious!

 My rental car got broken into in Atlanta. One more reason why I hate big cities!

 When it was Ryan's night to set up the elf he made him fly. They also loved that!

 We took the boat out. This is one of my favorite things about Mobile-warm weather all year round!

 I love these 3 kiddos!!

 We celebrated Aunt Whitney's birthday! I told yall that Blakeley loves me more, she doesn't cry like that when I hold her. :)

 We went to the North Pole stroll (do not recommend this) and Chill with friends!

 We went to Ryan's work's Christmas party and celebrated our 8th Anniversary.

 We have loved on this sweet girl every chance we get! She's getting so big!!

We went Ice Skating. Well they went Ice Skating, I just watched. The last thing I need to do is break my leg. Everyone knows I'm not known for my grace!

 After Ice Skating we rode the ferris wheel at the Wharf and Tanner was TERRIFIED!!!!

 We've played dress up numerous times!

 We celebrated Jesus's birthday at our annual Happy Birthday Jesus party!

 And we've drank lots and lots of hot chocolate!

Christmas is in just a few days and surprisingly I'm actually ready! It feels good to have everything done and to just get to sit back and rest. I'm thankful I am done because Tanner has the flu! We took him to the doctor Thursday night and they gave us the bad news. Thankfully they gave Ry some medicine to help prevent it so I'm hoping she doesn't get it as well.

Happy Birthday!!

28!! Ryan, I think that officially qualifies you as old! You are only 2 years away from THRITY!!!!!!  I hope you have a birthday that is as wonderful as you are!!! I love you! 

In addition to Ryan becoming one year older today he also got a promotion at work! I am so proud of him! He's off the next 2 weeks for Christmas but he starts when he goes back to work Jan 2nd.

Thankful

I never did a Thankful post on FB or on the Blog and I meant to around Thansgiving. So here is what I am thankful for....not necessarily in this order so no one get their feelings hurt (Whitney). 

I'm thankful for Ryan! 

I mean how could you not love this smile? I'm thankful that he married me and that he puts up with me on a daily basis. It's not an easy job but someone has to do it and I'm glad that someone is him!

I'm thankful for these two crazy kids! They are the light of mine and Ryan's life. They make me laugh and cry on a daily basis. I am thankful for the kind, caring, funny, God loving kids they are becoming.

I'm thankful for Mi Mi and La La! They help with the kids at the drop of a hat and are some of the best grandparents kids could ask for. More than anything I wish my Dad was here to see the kids but I think he would be really happy with the job Larry is doing.

My Mom is my best friend. Although she may drive me crazy when she calls to "just talk" (I HATE talking on the phone) she is always there for me! She cooks dinner for me more times than I can count (seriously, it's embarrassing) but I like to think she enjoys it! :) Funny story...the other night I walked over to help her put up her Christmas tree. Well a few minutes later Ryan walked over and I asked what he was there for and he said you told me to walk over for dinner. I didn't tell him that but he knew if he said that she'd cook for him! And of course she whipped up a 5 course meal in less than 5 minutes. :)

I'm more than thankful for Gi Gi! Our lives wouldn't be possible without her. Seriously we would be LOST!!! She does more for our crew than I can count. She takes the kids to school, picks them up, meets me at whatever practice they happen to have and just loves them! They adore her and Ryan and I do too. Thank you Dawn for everything you do for our family.

I'm thankful for my Nana and Paw Paw. They have been married for a long time and give us a great example of what marriage should be! I'm thankful that they are the ones who started this crazy family of ours!

I'm so thankful for these 2 girls! Neither one of them have sisters so I like to think I'm the next best thing. They make me laugh harder than anyone else.

I love than I can count on them for anything. We have a long group text that we keep going that makes me laugh out loud when I go back and reread through it. FYI-Lindsey is the worst texter backer (yes, that's a word) ever!

I'm thankful for my wonderful sister!! When she first moved away I hated it but now I love it! I don't get to see her as much as I used to but I really enjoy my trips to Cullman! She can make anything and my house is completely decorated by her. She's so creative!! She also knows how to buy Ryleigh and Tanner's love! Lol! (They love her even without the presents :)

I'm thankful for this group of people! It's to many to list individually but I love them all! I love our stories that go back for as long as we can remember. I love that the older we've gotten the closer we've gotten. I hope it always stays that way.

I'm thankful for this group of women. I love how they cook for our hundreds of family functions and how they always make an effort to get us all together. We'll be doing a lot of eating out when it's mine, Lindsey and Whitney's turn to take over the cooking, lol! I love how close they are and how they raised us to all be close too. I wouldn't trade my family for anything!

And lastly, I'm thankful for this sweet, precious little girl! She's only a few months old but she has brought so much joy to our family.

I have a lot to be thankful for!!!

Happy Anniversary to my favorite guy!

Want to know what I love about Ryan? I'll make you a list...

1. I love the fact that we are so much a like it's scary. We are both stubborn, hard headed and opinionated...put us together and you get RYLEIGH! Lord, help us!

2. I love the fact that he is at everything for our kids. Literally, everything. He doesn't miss a dentist appt, dr appt, soccer game, Tball game, dance recital or anything else that goes on in their lives. I think that says a lot about him as a Dad. When they look back on their childhood they'll always remember that they had a Dad that was present. You can't replace that.

3. I love that we know what to expect of each other. He knows that there is no way he's going to come home to a home cooked meal and I know to never expect him to do laundry.

4. I love that we went weeks without a sheet on our bed and for some reason it didn't bother either one of us. We actually didn't even think it was weird until Mom basically freaked out about it. She has since brought us a new set of sheets over, lol!

5. I love how we end every night with a few rounds of UNO as a family before sending the kids to bed. It's one of my favorite parts of the day.

6. I love how when we are together he never expects me to drive or pump gas.

7. I love our story. As Ryleigh has gotten older she has started to ask about our lives and how we met. I love that I married my high school sweetheart.

8. I love that he never has an opinion on which restaurant we are going to eat at.

9. I love that he went against everything I thought and said, and bought a boat. I love the boat almost as much as I love him.

10. I love that he's there for me. I love that he's always on my side. I love that we are on the same team and I love him!

Here's to many, many more years Ryan!

Here's my favorite anniversary post