Christmas Part 2

Every Christmas Eve my dad's side of the family gathers at my aunt and uncle's house and we eat a GOOD meal and exchange gifts! This year was so much fun because Rylee was actually up and moving around and able to really enjoy her gifts!! I love my family, they're so much fun!!

Aunt Susan and Aaron being cheesy :)

My mom and Manda Jane. Of course Susan being goofy in the background!

Ci-Ci & Aunt Su-Su

Aunt Janet playing with Aubry and Rylee. Rylee loved Aubry's toys more than her own!

My boo :)

Rylee playing with my safety candle I got. It's a light bulb not a real wick and it plays music, right up Rylee's alley!

Rylee's new Princess couch!! Mommy loves it too!

"Dan The Man" and me

After we left Susan & Darryl's we went home and waited for Santa to come visit! Santa was good this year!!

Christmas Part 1

On Christmas Eve Eve Danielle and family came over to hang out and enjoy Christmas together. It was such a fun night, which it always is when we get together! My great grandmother came too! Rylee and Lauryn sported their Christmas p.j.'s.

Rylee and Lauryn couldn't decide who could get up fast enough! They're so cute!

Then for some reason they decided they wanted to get into Rylee's crib and dance to Barney.

I LOVE this picture! It pretty much explains my whole family! I'm not sure what Stephanie is doing, maybe getting everyone ready for the picture?!?! But yeah, this is us!!

Great grandkids and great great grandkids with Mawma!! We're so lucky to have her! You may remember earlier in October we celebrated her 95th birthday!

Lauryn got pretty hot during the picture taking and gift opening that she needed to take her p.j.'s off!! Rylee looks super excited about Lauryn's Barney DVD she got for Christmas.

This is a great picture of Angie!!

Lookin' good at 95!

Molly & I always have to have a photo shoot when a camera is around! :)

Normal picture...

Silly picture!

What a beautiful family!

Aaron came after he got off work to finish up the soups!! We were complete with us all together!! Love you guys!

Red Devil from the 60's

This sweat shirt that Rylee is wearing was my dad's. He wore it when he was about 2 years old and it is still in great condition! Thanks Aunt Janet!!

That same night Molly, Rylee, and me made Christmas sugar cookies. This was a first for all of us, so it was pretty interesting!! They were good though!

And TA-DA!!

A New Tradition...

So this year Rylee helped me make a Christmas craft to give to everyone in our family. It's a reindeer! I was so excited about this and could not wait to show the family! Every year from here on out we're going to make a craft and give it out.

Wordful Wednesday! The Rest Of My Decade...

And so I continue my Wordful Wednesday!! The rest of the 10 years!
Go ahead and join!!



March of 2007 Aaron moved back to Missouri with his family but we stayed together. It was a tough move and the distance made it hard but we made sure to visit each other a lot. September of 2007 Aaron moved back to Kentucky and we got a loft apartment on Main Street . It was pretty cool except it didn’t heat well and we didn’t have A/C, which will be a big deal later…


January 7, 2008 I found out I was pregnant. Scared to death. But we managed and were supported and I continued going to school and working 2 jobs. So in those 9 months I got sick a lot, couldn’t eat much, almost went into labor at 6 months, was on pills every 4 hours to stop contractions, hospitalized twice for labor pains, just a mess of things.

On Monday morning August 18, 2008 the baby was ready. I was 36 weeks and like 2 days so I wasn’t ready. I woke up Aaron at 5:00 AM after having major contractions all night and we headed to the hospital. Word of advice to guys, if your pregnant significant other says she’s in labor and looks like she’s in obvious pain, don’t ask her on the way to the hospital if you all really need to go. Aaron learned that the hard way. Anyway, after waiting on the baby for 9 hours and several other things in between like: almost passing out during the epidural, my blood pressure dropping, eating too many ice chips and getting sick, and taking a nap, Rylee Grace was born. 6 lbs 7 oz, 19 ¾ in long and a cone head full of hair, which she lost.

So starts the next chapter of my life. Motherhood. Pretty much the same as everyone with a newborn, sleepless nights, crankiness, mood swings, never wanting to go back to work, crying the first day I dropped off Rylee at daycare, wait isn’t motherhood supposed to all laughs and giggles??

So that year ended and 09 began. And what a year it has been! Rylee hit a couple of milestones and I was excited and stuff like that. July 2009 I got into a car wreck 5 days before vacation. I got rear ended by a lady who was turned around talking to her daughter instead of watching the road. Totaled my Malibu , you know the car I LOVED! Not to mention Rylee was in the car with me. Scared me to death but we were ok. We went on vacation and enjoyed our selves.

August 18, 2009 Rylee turned one, sad day and touchy subject. Just know she turned one, we had cake and ice cream, I cried, we went to Gattyland to celebrate, I cried, she got a load of toys and clothes, and I cried. End of story.

In September 2009 I got a new car, a 2007 Ford Focus, pretty good car! So from July to October I locked my keys in my car twice, had two flat tires, two wrecks, and I think that’s it. Yeah I got hit by some teenage boy pulling out of a Sonic a month after I got my new car. I was pretty ticked. Just got my car back from the body shop, 2 weeks to fix it. Whatever.

So here we are, about to approach 2010. I hope I didn’t bore you to death with my lame life. But I think a lot has happened in 10 years and I’m proud of it all. 10 years flies by and I don’t like it.

Some time this week....

Aaron and I will be together three years!! We're not really good at keeping up with dates but I know it's right before Christmas. Heck, we could have already passed it. But at least I  know the round about date!! Happy 3 years!!

I've Got A Story To Tell You...

OK. Let me start off my saying that a couple of weeks ago I went downstairs to check on my laundry and left Rylee upstairs alone. I figured she would be fine and I was just going to be a couple of minutes. So as I'm climbing the stairs I hear Rylee at the door. As I turn the door knob to open the door, it doesn't budge. She had locked me downstairs, I flipped. Luckily my neighbor was home and I was able to use his phone to call Aaron who was at work. He came home and let me in. I have learned my lesson and I DO NOT let Rylee run around alone when I need to go downstairs.

With that being said, my story begins...
Saturday morning I went downstairs to do more laundry, I'm always doing laundry, and Aaron was upstairs with Rylee. Well I hear the basement door open and here comes Aaron alone down the steps. I asked where Rylee was and he said in the hallway playing, no big deal. So I put down my laundry basket and run up the stairs because I know what this child will do. In a matter of about 2 1/2 minutes Rylee has locked us both downstairs. So here Aaron and I stand at the door trying to get Rylee to unlock it and let us in. But no, that did not happen. So Aaron and I are just in our socks and no coats. Luckily we have a door downstairs that leads outside so we go out there and to the back door to see if MAYBE we left it unlocked. Let me tell you, snow is very cold when you have no shoes on and it makes your socks so cold you can't feel your toes. After tip toeing to the back door we realize it's locked. Here is the funny part. Rylee and Bella are having a feild day in my trash in my kitchen. I had just thrown away confetti type gift wrap and Rylee pulled all of it out of the trash and on to the floor. Along with that she pulled out old food which Bella thought was her treats. Aaron and I are outside yelling for Rylee to come to the door and she is just looking at us like "yeah right". My neighbors weren't home and even if we could get to a phone we don't know our landlords number my heart.
20 minutes later and after my toes turned purple, we go back to the basement door and brainstorm. THEN genius Aaron realizes he left his keys in his coat pocket last night after her ran out to get our movie. AND I had just hung his coat up in the basement because it was in my way. He pulled those keys out of his pocket and I almost fell to the ground. I wanted to be REALLY mad at him for 1. leaving her upstairs alone & 2. making us run around in the snow barefoot while Rylee destroyed my freshly cleaned kitchen. But I wasn't and I held it together. We have got to remove that lock.

5 Question Friday!

Go ahead and participate, you know you want to!!!

1. Which boygroup did you like most in your teens?
Without a doubt, NYSNC. I wasn't really into the Backstreet Boys, but Justin Timberlake melted my heart.


2. Do you do Christmas cards, letters, photos, nuthin', all of the above?
I send out Christmas cards with pictures of Rylee.


3. If you could meet one celebrity who would it be and why?
One celebrity I would like to meet is probably Barney. ONLY because I would want to bring him home so Rylee could meet him. I don't know what she would do, probably scream and get super excited. Seriously, Rylee loves that purple dinosaur.


4. Favorite thing to cook with (i.e. stainless, non-stick, Dutch oven, microwave, debit card...or, perhaps, a cauldron, etc.)?
Favorite thing to cook is Birtolli. That's pretty much the best I can do and it's oh so good!!



5. What is the one thing you wear the most, besides your unmentionables?
I wear my Gap flats almost everyday. They're my favorite shoes now. Although they cost more than I would like to mention, they have been my best friend!

Go on over to My Little Life to join in!

Birthday Dinner :)

Last night Molly and I finished off our volleyball season. It was an interesting one too. To start off we won the first game yipee! But I did get a little queesy during it because someone on the other team hurt their thumb. And when I say hurt their thumb I mean it came out of place and over top another bone, I don't know the medical terminology but that is what happened. I DO NOT do well with stuff like that. Had any blood squirted out I would have been laid out on the court. But someone popped his thumb back into place and he was fine,but he did leave. So we won that game but lost the second. We played hard and I really like playing with our team.

So we met the rest of the family at dinner and arrived just in time for cupcakes and singing. Rylee got down on some cupcake!! Her Lauryn both loved them!!

The birthday girl Stephanie with Lauryn, Rylee, and Cameron. I hope she had a great birthday!! Happy 10th birthday Steph!! Love ya!

Joyful Thursday!!

This week something that brought joy to my life was a couple of things.

I'll start off with I got my car back on Monday. After two weeks of having it fixed and being the shop I finally got my baby back. I haven't had my car very long but I really did miss it. Sweet focus, you're so great!

Also, I finished all my Christmas shopping last night, what a relieve. I also stress about presents and money and all that jazz and now that I'm finished I feel so much better!!

Rylee made me smile a lot this week. I know she is only 16 months old but I promise her vocabulary is getting so big!! The other night she kept turning on the microwave and I told her no but of course she did it again. My mom said "Rylee what did your mom tell you?" and she responded by saying, "she told me no". And just walked away. I was super excited!! There are other things but I'm sure you've all experienced them so I won't bore you. Growing babies are an adventure everyday!

Tonight is going to bring me joy. It is the last night in our volleyball tournament and I hope that we win the whole thing!! But even if we don't we are going to a birthday dinner for my cousin. I'm excited!!

So that is what brought joy to my crazy world this week, what brought you JOY??

Go over to Good, True, And Beautiful to join!

Wordful Wednesday-A Decade Already??

Ok so this week is going to be part 1 to a two part series, you know it’s going to be long!! I’m pretty excited about this week though. Two weeks from Friday we will be in 2010, crazy huh? Well I thought that I would look back on this past decade and how much I’ve changed and my family too. Don’t worry I’m not doing year by year, just the major things that happened during these past 10 years.

So in 2000 I was only 11 years old and in 6th grade, dang. I remember when we rang in 2000, everyone was scared. We were all in my parent’s living room with flashlights because we were supposed to lose power and all that jazz. But that didn’t happen and here we are…


In 2002 I started my freshman year of high school, scared to death. Those were good days; spending the night with your friends almost every night, sleeping until noon on Saturdays, being able to stay awake late, talking on the phone all the time, being embarrassed of your parents (well some things never change :) ). High school was great!

My best friend in high school Sarah at senior prom.

Danielle and I at a volleyball banquet. Maybe my senior year.

One of my good friends from high school Timmy.

2002 also started my volleyball career, not really a career but you know. I played all four years of high school and loved every minute of it. My sister also played so we were a force to be reckoned with. Volleyball was a good time and I loved all the girls I played with. My freshman year I played with the freshman team. My sophomore year I played with JV and varsity. About 3 games into the season I was taken off JV and only on varsity. I wish I could go back to high school just to play volleyball!!

In May 2004 I got braces for the first time, yuck. After I had a big contraption on the roof of my mouth that made a huge gap in my front teeth, they laid the train tracks down. Shortly after I had them put on I had my wisdom teeth removed (no wise cracks), along with that I had a baby tooth removed that never fell out and a chain attached to the canine to help it come down faster. On top of that I had a metal rubber band thing on my left side to help with an overbite. Yeah I had a full on metal mouth!! Recovery was not smooth.

In August of 2004 I got into my first car accident. Very first day of school my junior year. Molly was driving us and we had her friend Whitney and her brother in the car. Let me mention that I live less than 2 miles from the high school. So half way there we got hit from behind by another girl and pushed into the car in front of us. After that hit, the girl that hit us got hit from someone behind her, so we got hit again. Not a fun way to start the school year.

Ok so some other things happened, nothing I can really remember and blah blah blah…

But in June 2006 I graduated high school!!!! WOO HOO. Not that big of a deal right? Ok so I graduated 99th in my class of 329 and with honors, I was pretty proud of myself! After HS I had plans to attend Western Kentucky University and room with my best friend at the time Sarah. Well that didn’t pan out the way I thought it would and I ended up staying at home and going to a community college right down the road from me. And you know things really do happen for a reason. I went to JCC and got placed in this crazy theatre class that I did not want to be in. There were mostly drama queens in there but there was this one guy that kind of stalked me…yeah I’m talking about Aaron. So we hung out and started dating. College love birds. Also that year my parents bought me my first car, a 2002 Chevy Malibu. I LOVED that car. Leather seats, sunroof, satellite radio, it was great!! Best car.

Aaron & me at JCC, our first picture together!