Christmas Trip to Oklahoma 2011

We were so happy to be able to make the trip out to Oklahoma City again this year!  It was SO GOOD to get to see my Mom, my Grandparents and my Uncle and Aunt!!!  Ashlyn did so incredibly well on the drive out.  We left home about 3:30 in the morning and David drove the whole way!  He is such a trooper!  

Mom had a little chair just Ashlyn's size to play with!...along with a million other toys!!!  She had a blast playing there! 

 The first night we visited with my Grandparents, Ashlyn arrived asleep...I think she really enjoyed being held by her Great Grandmother! 

 She woke up before too long and it was Great Granddad's turn to play!  I hope she knows how special she is that Great Granddad busted out "Monkey"!  We were excited to show Granddad her "Monkey Leash".  She loves that thing!  She WANTS to put it on when she sees it...it gives her so much more freedom than a stroller.

 We loved our "picnic" at my Grandparent's house!  Granny made her famous Tuna Salad.  I don't remember a time that I've been to Oklahoma that she hasn't made it for me!  I love it!  She made her cream cheese stuffed celery and cookies too!  Food, Chalk and Bubbles Galore!

 My Mom babysat one evening so we could visit the Devon Ice Skating Rink in Downtown OKC.  Neither David or I had ever been ice skating before.  I'm hooked!!!! I LOVE it!  I had SO MUCH FUN!  David only fell once and I don't want to brag..but well...yes I do...I didn't fall at all!

 

 Granddad took us to "Pops".  It's this really cool gas station/diner.  We ended up eating at Braum's because they had an HOUR LONG wait!  Eating at Braum's was definitely ok with me though because it's one of the places we always visited when I came as a kid, so we always make a point to go to Braum's at least once during our visit.

They did have normal flavored soda pops, but these were some of the large selection of quite interesting flavors...

I love seeing my Mommy and my baby girl playing together.  We worked on our sign language skills while we were there - this is a sign language puzzle.  Ashlyn liked it so much that she stashed a piece in one of our bags.  We brought home the letter "K" as a memento.  Mom said I can bring it back next year. ;o)
We had a pretty good ride home.  For me the ride home always seems longer than the ride there.

Christmas Day - Part 2

Bright and early we headed over to David's Mom's house.  David and Mary cooked our traditional breakfast casserole and we drank Mimosas, while Papa Chuck and Ashlyn danced to Christmas music.

 Ashlyn knows what to do with presents now...just about to crack into one in this picture.

 Uncle Joe got Ashlyn a Princess purse, keys and cell phone set.  She loved them...especially the keys!

 Ashlyn's cute little Christmas Day outfit.  The little silver dots on the skirt are snowflakes.  No snow this year though!

 Merry Christmas Y'all!

 Papa Chuck took the opportunity on Christmas morning to make the men work for their meal.  They moved the big bear claw tub into the bathroom they have been renovating.  It really caused quite the commotion.  Papa Chuck and GrandMary have a gift for restoring these old houses to their former glory!

 Chillin' by the fire.  Cell phone in hand, I might add...

 GrandMary and Papa Chuck got Ashlyn a shopping cart for Christmas.  Ashlyn LOVES anything she can push about.  She pushed it around backwards for a while.

 Then she figured out how to roll!!!

I LOVE her smile!
Since Christmas was on Sunday morning this year, we headed off to the service after presents had been opened and breakfast had been eaten.  Ashlyn stayed with GrandMary and Papa Chuck since Ashlyn was in DIRE need of a nap.  I really enjoyed the service.  We had beautiful music, a children's church nativity play, and a great reminder of why we celebrate Christmas.  In all the hustle and bustle of the Christmas season, we do remember that Christmas is the day we celebrate the birth of our Lord and Savior.  The day that began the one greatest display of Love in the history of the earth.  The day that the man who would live a sinless, blameless life on this earth for 33 years and then willingly lay down (with great pain and suffering) that life for all our sins was born.  Happy Birthday, Jesus and Thank you.

Christmas Day!

I will now take the time to wish everyone a Very Merry Christmas...I know it's a little late...but the sentiment is still there! :o)

 Santa came to visit!!!!

 The stockings were hung by the chimney (or gas logs in our case) with care!

 Ashlyn's first look at all the presents!  Yes...that is a vacuum...and yes, Mommy did ask Santa for it and yes...it was one of my favorite gifts and yes...I know that means I'm officially old when I actually want cleaning appliances as a holiday gift!  It's tiny and weighs next to nothing and is great for the bare floors!

 Ashlyn LOVED her Santa gifts!  She would have played with just them for hours before she realized she had more new stuff!

We weren't planning to stay home all day though, so we encouraged her to start opening the wrapped gifts.

 She is TOTALLY like her Momma and NOT a morning person.  Who else would cry when opening presents?...yep me and my baby...two peas in a pod. :o)

Thankfully she recovers quickly!!!  I had to put this picture in.  Baseball was David's "First Love" - so Ashlyn got a pink princess baseball glove and ball this year.  It's a little big, but she'll grow into it.

P.S.  Santa also got Mommy a Kindle Fire!  I'm LOVING it too!

Christmas Party at School

I just have to say that this Christmas Season went by WAY too fast!  So many fun things to do and not nearly enough time to do them all in!  Ashlyn's class had their little Christmas Party on the 21st.

 Ashlyn gave all her little classmates a coloring book and crayons that Mommy helped her make.  You melt regular crayons in the oven into the shape of a Reese cup.  I found that project on Pinterest and was really excited to make them!  You are supposed to use old broken crayons...but we don't really have those lying around yet, so we had to use new ones.  Daddy even helped make them!  He cut the paper and I peeled and broke them into the muffin tins.  We had fun family time making them!

 These were the Big Kid favors that I brought to work and for Ashlyn's teachers.  My family calls it "dogfood".  Gross, I know...I've since learned about 6 other names for the concoction.  Whatever you call it...you won't go wrong calling it YUMMY!

This is Ashlyn's class, minus one little girl who came later.  She LOVES her preschool!  She gets visibly excited when we get there and usually wants to play for one more minute when we come to pick her up.

 Ms. Angie is her morning teacher.  She LOVES Ms. Angie!  Angie is such a sweet, kind, caring person!  She also goes to our church, so Ashlyn gets to see her in nursery too!  Angie smothers these babies with so much love and affection and I am so glad she is Ashlyn's teacher!

 How cute are those dangly little feet!!!

 All the kids brought one wrapped book to exchange.  Ashlyn got a book about Katy Duck.  She has gotten so good at opening presents!

 Ms. Amber is Ashlyn's Lead Teacher.  Ms. Amber is SO Wonderful!  She lovingly challenges these little babies to move to the next step in their development.  She is a kind, funny, and smart lady and I am so glad God placed her in this role for Ashlyn.  Ashlyn LOVES Ms. Amber too (even though you can't tell it from her face in the picture - this picture was taken about 10 minutes before NAPTIME)!

David is always a big hit with kids!  The little girl in his lap is the daughter of some friends of ours that go to church with us...so she knows him...but all the other little kids kept coming up to play with him too.  He has been so great with kids for as long as I've known him!  I feel old right now because I'm remembering my 10-year (almost 11 now) old niece when she was this age sitting in David's lap!  Ashlyn is so blessed to have a Daddy that makes the time to participate in her events.  David is blessed to have a job that enables him to participate.  I am blessed to have them both in my life.  I love our little family of three and all the memories that we are making together!

Zoolight Safari 2011

This summer we registered for membership to the Birmingham Zoo - so we made it a point to visit Zoolight Safari this year.  It was still pretty cold out, but not nearly as cold as the night we went to Homestead Hollow.  Can you tell we appreciate Christmas Lights???

 Ashlyn was not interested in taking a picture...she wanted to go see!

 Ashlyn's Very First Carousel Ride!  I think we were riding a tiger.

Daddy LOVES showing Ashlyn the farm animals!  She's so funny though, she'll run after them, but she DOES NOT want to touch them!
We walked all around the zoo and saw the MILLIONS of lights!  We had hot chocolate (Ashlyn had a little taste of hot chocolate poured in with her milk) and popcorn.  We rode the train - We had tried to visit Santa again at Homestead Hollow...with no better luck than her previous visit, so we just walked right past Santa's room at the Zoo.  She got a little freaked out when Santa was waving at us on the train from his camp site, but she recovered quickly.   Hopefully she'll be a bigger fan of Santa next year. :)

Homestead Hollow and Christmas in Birmingham

 

My step-mom, my step-sister, Ashlyn and I decided to go check out the "Homestead Hollow's Christmas Light Spectacular" this year.  We had a fabulous time looking at the lights.  It was SO COLD out that night!!!  I love that we got to bundle up and it really felt like a wintery Christmas event!  It was nice to get to visit and Ashlyn always loves getting the extra attention!

We spend Christmas Eve Day in Birmingham.  We went to my Dad's house and opened presents and ate such yummy food!  I know I tried at least 4 different desserts (not including the little chocolate mice)!  I don't often get to see all the step siblings together now since we are all pretty much grown, so that was fun!

This isn't a picture of the actual mice we ate...but they look JUST like the one's Jacque makes.  I think they are too cute!!!

We left Dad's for a little while to go over to see Bonnie, BJ and the kids.  Please note my sister taking a picture of her "genius" plan to get Ashlyn a loud toy!  A Minnie Mouse music band set (including a drum and flute).

 Now please note that I've had ten years of practice and three harmonicas trumps one drum in terms of level of sound ANY DAY OF THE WEEK! :o)  Better luck next time Sista!  Love you!

Aunt Bonnie and Ashlyn.  I love the little hair clip she got for her.  It was a little Santa hat and Ashlyn actually left it alone in her hair (for the most part).

"Wha is Tha?"

"Wha is Tha?"...is the new catch phrase around the Ryan Household!  Ashlyn started saying it over Christmas Break and hasn't stopped yet!  She really expects an answer too and will repeat the question over and over until she gets one...she's driving her teachers at preschool batty! :o)  Speaking of holidays!!!...We had a great Christmas and New Year!  We were so busy that I didn't really have time to blog, so I'm about to go crazy with the picture uploading on this thing so I can catch up!