Recently I was reading a blog and came across an exciting opportunity and I want to invite some of you to have the same opportunity. I have decided to take part in a book exchange and I think it is going to be a lot of fun for Ryson and we will get some wonderful reading material out of it. Besides who doesn't love getting mail, especially at the age of 3. The process is simple. I need 6 friends to participate in this with me. The concept behind it is great. Your children will get to expand their library by the simplicity of sending another child a book. Email me if you are interested and I will get you all the information! Hope some of you will take part in this because I think the kids are all going to love it!

Smile because it will make someone else's day...

This past weekend we packed up our bags and we were all looking forward to heading to Owensboro. However, we had to delay the trip to Saturday morning due to the snow. What snow you ask? The snow that decided to skip over Lexington but yet make it nasty enough outside to keep us here in case Allen had to work. Thankfully he didn't have to work so we were able to head to Owensboro early the next morning to spend some much needed time with the family. Not only is it a great place for Allen and I to go and relax and enjoy the weekend but most of all RYSON LOVES IT!!!

The excitement coming from Ryson when playing with the other boys is unexplainable. He loves running through the house, fighting with all his men but most importantly PEEING OUTSIDE AT THE FARM ;) Yes that is what he wants to do when we go there. Needless to say, I usually allow this. Why not...he's a boy ;) Aside from this, we loved getting to see everyone, always eating great food and OF COURSE...snapping a few good pictures!

Enjoying some Valentine's with the boys...

My two favorite boys

Hope everyone has a great week!

SMILE

I am trying so hard to get caught up on my blogging since I started this blog. I am new at it so I am still working at it but anyways, I have dedicated today to a few blog post just so I can get caught up. Time has flown by but it has been so much fun. Ryson is now 3. He had his birthday November 7th and was so excited about it all. We counted down to the actual day, got excited about his party at daddy's, had the family to my house to celebrate him turning 3 AND had a big birthday party. Ryson loved all celebrations and is already wanting it to be his 4th birthday. Here are some pictures from the special event. It brings tears to my eyes that I can still remember laying in the hospital waiting for his arrival and now he is 3.






We had so much fun celebrating Ryson's birthday. It's always so much fun to have everyone together in one place. Ryson loves playing with all the kiddos and opening all his presents. More importantly we just feel so lucky to have so many great friends and family that are always there each year with us as he grows a year older to celebrate with us.

Wow…time really slips away from you during the holidays. The older Ryson gets the more I realize it. This year we had so many fall festivals, Halloween activities, and Thanksgiving dinners that December was here before I knew it. I always get so excited for Black Friday because I just can’t say no to a good deal. However, this year I was less than impressed with the sales. Therefore, I had a lot of deals to find throughout the month and of course I had zero problems finding these deals ;) Most of them were online since I traveled the first two weeks of December. Once I got home I had to get in a party with my girlfriends, Christmas in Owensboro and then of course Santa came to visit us.
We had so much fun celebrating this year. Ryson is at the perfect age where he gets Christmas, he was interested in anything and everything Christmas, and wanted it to be Christmas Eve very bad for about a month ;) The not so fun part, his wish list. Most of you know, Ryson loves anything pirates, swords, and guns. Typical boy I KNOW!! This wouldn’t be such a challenge for Santa to get him some fun stuff to fulfill his wishlist…EXCEPT HE WANTED A PIRATE SHIP. In my eyes this was nonsense. He received 3 PIRATE SHIPS for birthday presents at the beginning of October. Why in the world would my child tell Santa 3 different times that this is what he wants. To make matters worse he also wanted pirate guys. Well, we may or may not have about 50 pirate guys at home. I refused to add either of these to our collection come Christmas morning. Santa didn’t listen…he definitely brought pirate guys…and a pirate ship…AND WAY TOO MUCH MORE. I must say though, Santa got very creative with his pirate ship. He was so kind to bring us a pirate ship that is a sand/water table! WE CAN’T WAIT FOR PRETTY WEATHER SO WE CAN PUT THIS TABLE TO USE!!!

Of course, Allen and I both had a great Christmas too. We both got so many great gifts but the beset gift of all was the people I got to spend it with. I couldn't have asked for a better Christmas Eve...spending time in Owensboro with Allen's family. It brings such a big smile to my face to watch Ryson and all the boys play together. They have a blast just running and playing with each other. I always feel so relaxed and loved when I am around Allen's family. Christmas with my family was on Christmas day. As always we have it at my brother's house which is nice beccause we get to celebrate Olivia's birthday too. Olivia is extra special to me and is like my own...if they would let me have her I'd take that child in a heartbeat. Christmas with my family this year seemed a little extra special. We decided not to exchange gifts, except getting mom something. It was so nice to not stress about each others gift and just focus on the kids.

After all was said and done with Christmas, I looked around at the overflow of toys, thought to myself "What has Santa done..." then quickly realized how truely blessed I am. Some people do not go overboard at Christmas like I do. It's silly and I say every year I will cut back but no matter what I know that there are people out there who can't afford to do what I do. I am so thankful for my life, my family and my friends who have pushed me along the way to give me the opportunity to do this stuff for Ryson. Hoping everyone had a very MERRY CHRISTMAS and enjoyed the holidays as much as I did.

Dear Santa, I Can Explain...

"I didn't mean to....I will use my words Elfred" Ryson told him one morning shortly before Christmas. This was a result to Elfred, yes the popular but very special to us Elf on the Shelf, taking Santa a bad report one night. Elfred came to us at the beginning of December and made for an interesting friend. Never once did Ryson forget to look for him first thing in the morning, or mid-day, or possibly all day long ;) Elfred had a huge impact on Ryson's behavior...I just may have used this to my advantage ;) Either way, Eflred was great...he even went on long trips to Owensboro and Danville which Ryson just loved. Here are some of our fun places we found Elfred and the trips he made just to watch over Ryson(who needed it...)

His first night in the house

There's an Elfred in my underpants...

Just a midnight snack...

Coloring everyone pictures

Woody and Elfred hanging out

Hanging on the door

Elfred's trip to Danville
UH OH

Santa sent a note by Elfred and Ryson was rather scared when he woke up. The whole month of December he worked hard to not get a note from Santa...and one morning he did. Before I could read the letter to him he was apologizing to Elfred so Elfred could go back and tell Santa. It was so cute because you could tell that he did not want to be in trouble. Once I read it to him he noticed that getting a letter wasn't all that bad from Santa. Santa had sent him a letter just as a friendly remind to use his words and to watch his behavior! He also sent him a special shirt to go visit him in because he was headed to visit Santa with Gammie that day.

Elfred was so much fun and we can't wait for him to come back and visit next year. Ryson still talks about him and he definately helps with the behavior so I AM READY FOR ELFRED TO COME HOME TOO ;)

My favorite time of year...

I always look forward to December. I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE going out on Black Friday and shopping. I am nto crazy and fight, yell or scream but I love a good deal and thoroughly enjoy seeing all the crazy people out there get serious over these toys. After that the craziness seems to start. There are always birthdays, Christmas parties, work parties, and then the most important of them all...Santa visits. This year we were so lucky to be invited to see Santa up close and personal. He made a special trip all the way from the North Pole to come visit the kiddies at my great friend Leigh Ann's house. I was a little worried because last year Santa and Ryson were not considered the best of friends. It went a little like this...



My poor little guy did not enjoy that one bit. This year I really talked it up. He grasp the concept that Santa brings him all those toys, he gets that the Elves work hard to make those, and he also now understands that Elfred (our silly little Elf) really does report to Santa on Ryson's behavior. As we started talking about it Ryson insisted that he would talk to Santa. I must say that I did nto believe him. Off we go in our pretty little outfit face all clean no tears and laughing as we drive to Leigh Ann's. All throughout this drive all I can think about is I'm getting ready to spend money on pictures that Ryson is goign to scream and cry in. Little did I know though....we walk in and Ryson immediately runs back to tell me he saw Santa and he is so excited to sit on his lap. SUCCESS!!!!!







So as you see this year was a huge hit. I love all my pictures. Ronifotos did an amazing job with the kids and the pictures couldn't have been any better then these! Ryson couldn't stop talking about Santa and it made me so happy for him to enjoy this experience. We have since visited Santa another two times this month. The second time we went to the Horse Park to see the lights and do all the fun kiddy activities. This Santa pic does not compare to the one above but Ryson sure did love talking to him once again.



After telling Santa what he wanted and giving him lots of hugs we had to rush home and get ready for bed because Ryson had to visit Santa one last time before Christmas. The next morning Ryson got to go to Frankfort and hang out with his Gammie. She works for the State Police and they were all so kind enough to let the kids come have lunch with them and visit Santa. Ryson loved it. He loves Police and think they are just absolutely AWESOME!!!! His gammie said he loved visiting Santa and he even offered to help a little boy who was scared of Santa...LOVE HIS HEART!!

Pirates, Princesses and More

I have so much catching up to do. We have been so busy with the holidays that I have not had time to blog so I have a little extra time right now, which may or may not take us all the way back to Halloween ;) Yes I know that was a long time ago but we had tons of fun celebrating so I must share. This year I thought it would be fun to host a Halloween party with all of our closest friends and the kiddies and I am so glad I did. Everyone had such a good time and I even stressed out just a little getting things together ;) It was a great turn out with tons of little scary people running around and lots of big kids in their costumes too. We had a great turn out with about 14 kids and 20+ adults. Other then seeing all the little ones running around playing, my favorite party was making all the food. I really enjoyed getting creative and doing funny and scary foods for everyone to eat. I hope you enjoy the photos as much as I did making the food...and yes it was eadible ;)

Delicious worm burgers

Ghost Pretzels, Pumpkin Cookies and Ghost Cookies

Dirt Cup

Not so yummy candy corn

Scary Teeth

Mummy Dogs

Thanks Leigh Ann for the pumpkin pizza

Pumpkin Cake

I can't wait for next year. I have so many ideas of different food to make and ways to get very creative with making kid friendly Halloween food. Until then I will continue using Pinterest to find some great ideas ;)

Tinkerbell came to play with us

The policeman on duty

The beautiful candy corn witch Olivia

Avery and Ryson looking so serious( probably the two least serious kids I know)

Precious little Drake came to visit us ;)

Costume Change

Addison and Ryson taking a little break

Hope everyone had a great Halloween and had so much fun dressing up and acting silly ;) I know my little guy sure enjoyed Halloween this year!!