Christmas, Birthdays and other stuff

Happy New Year! This is just a combination post of a few pictures that we took over the Christmas holidays. We were lucky enough to have one of my best friends fly in to spend Christmas with us. Too bad I didn't take more pictures. On Christmas afternoon we surprised the kids and took an overnight trip to Helen, Georgia. We had booked a hotel and were able to enjoy the beautiful lights, swim in the hotel and just have a fun getaway together. The next morning we went to a few shops and then headed to Mt. Yonah for a fun family hike. The weather was perfect. Sunny and just warm enough to still be brisk and enjoyable. Matt and I have done this hike many times, since it is where we got engaged, but the kids had yet to see the tree where Matt asked me to marry him. We made it to the top with out too many complaints and found the tree!!! Heather was kind enough to take some pictures of our family by the tree that kind of started it all!


The kids on top of Mt. Yonah. Don't worry, they aren't really on the cliff edge- Matt just likes to make it look that way.

I got one picture of each child on Christmas morning. Savannah with a blurry stocking stuffer.
Ryanne with a Pet Shop
Jonah with a marshmalllow Yoda.
Matt and I both celebrated birthdays as well. This year I made Matt a rice krispy bundt cake since Matt doesn't really care about dessert that much and it was easy.
We had a wonderful Christmas with so many blessings. We are so thankful for a great 2011. I hope 2012 brings lots of love, laughter and enjoyable memories!

Trip to Amicalola Falls

We went to Amicalola Falls back in November and spent a beautiful day hiking and enjoying nature.
The kids played and climbed on rocks along the way
posed for a photo once we made it to the top of the falls

enjoyed all the beautiful fall colors and leaves
and just had a great time together as a family.

Savannah turns 5

Savannah celebrated her 5th birthday at the end of November! I can't believe that she is 5 years old. She told me she wanted "ballet stuff", so here she is showing off her moves. Her birthday was on a Sunday this year, so we opened presents in the morning and invited family over for cake and ice cream later that night.

I didn't get any pictures of her blowing out her candles- it was kinda hectic, but you can see her cake on the table. It was a horse/stable cake and she loved it.
Here she is excited about a few gifts.

The following friday she celebrated with her friends. She had a definite plan of what she wanted to do and I forgot to take pictures of most of the things we did.
We started off at the pet store where the girls were able to hold guinea pigs, ferrets, cats, bunnies, gerbils, etc. They looked at dogs, snakes, fish, and boy, was it exciting. We were there for quite a while.
From there we went to Chick-fila, where the girls ate and played. Mostly they played. :D

After that we went to Gigi's Cupcakes and each girl chose a cupcake. We took them back to our house and the girls ate the cupcakes and played and had a great time.

We had lots of fun celebrating Savannah's birthday and we love her so much. She is such a sweet little girl. So cheerful and helpful and kind. We love you Savannah!

Veteran's Day Assembly

At Ryanne and Jonah's elementary school they had a Veteran's Day Assembly. Jonah is in the Mustang Chorale and he told me that they were going to be singing a few songs at the assembly. Yesterday I received an email from Ryanne's teacher that she would be the student representing the 1st grade, reading her poem about Veterans. So this morning, Matt, Savannah, and I, went to the school to attend the assembly.

In the picture above, the Mustang Chorale is sitting and waiting to perform.
In the picture below, the songs of all the Armed Forces were being presented along with artwork and all the Veterans in the crowd, standing when they heard the song representing their section of the Armed Forces. (Ry is in the row of students waiting to present poems)

Sorry about the blurry picture of the Chorale singing, but I wanted to get Jonah in action and my camera couldn't handle the lighting in that building.
Here is Ry with her drawing and poem, after presenting to the school.

This is her poem

V is for Victory for our country
E is for Enough power to defeat the enemy
T is for Teach good to everyone
E is for Enemy will lose
R is for Release freedom
A is for Able to give up their lives for us
N is for Nation power
S is for Strength to go out and fight for us

They also had all the Veterans in attendance, stand as their name was called, and I couldn't stop the tears of gratitude as I looked around me and saw all of them, some hardly able to stand at all, proudly accepting the applause from us. Thank you to all the Veterans and those who are still serving today, for fighting to protect our freedom and all it stands for!

The Script Concert with Lar

So, part of the reason my sister came to visit in October was because I wanted her to go and see The Script in concert with me. I knew that I could bribe her with an opportunity for good music! jk

She and I made our way into Atlanta and found the Tabernacle where they were playing and found parking even though there was a Falcons game and many other things going on that same night. There were tons of people out and about. We found some seats and thoroughly enjoyed singing our guts out. I love it when the singers in a group can actually really sing and let me tell you, these guys sound amazing live.

Thanks Lar for going with me!!

The Script - Science & Faith ( Official Video HD )

Ry's Birthday Celebration and Halloween

Ryanne turned 7 in October and she was given the option of having a party or having 1 friend come over and spending the day doing lots of fun stuff with that friend. She chose the 1 friend option (Yay!)
We met up with our friend on Friday night and the kids made their own mini pizzas, then they watched How to Train Your Dragon while I made cupcakes. Then they did "Frost your own Cupcake" and got ready for bed.


The next morning we decorated pumpkins. All sorts of craft items took over the table and the kids had a blast.


The girls got special nails put on for the day




And we sprayed their hair hot pink and glittery gold.
They played outside for awhile and then we all came inside and made our own sub sandwiches.



Next up, we went to Menchies and got some frozen yogurt. Jonah's concoction almost made me sick, just looking at it. Too much candy! From there we went to Barnes and Noble to look at books and later that night

we met up with Dad at La Parilla for dinner. It was a fun day!
The next day we were able to go and ride a friend's horse. Ryanne loves horses and this was a very welcome surprise. (Somehow some of these pumpkin pictures are out of order, sorry!)

Ryanne was thrilled about riding a real horse and was ready to start lessons right then and there.



We were all able to have a turn on the horse (Savannah's picture got put down below)

On Ryanne's actual birthday, which was a Tuesday (we did all the friend celebrating and horse riding on the weekend), she made a birthday sign so her cousins, aunts, uncles, and grandparents would know where to go to get some birthday cake and ice cream. She also decided to try out a possible Halloween costume.
She loved her cake and eventually got all the candles out. It was a successful birthday celebration!


I didn't get a picture of the costumes the kids wore to the Trunk or Treat but on Halloween we went trick or treating downtown and they chose these costumes from the dress up collection. Every one had fun and they have already forgotten about their candy (good, since it all went with Matt to work!)


Oh, and Savannah wanted to take a picture of the parfait she created today with leftover birthday ice cream, whipped cream and graham cracker crumbs. She was very excited about it.
Well, the pictures are all out of order, but at least I got some up! Just a few weeks until our next birthday!