camryn's horse party!

A sweet little girl at R's school had her birthday party at a new horse arena here in town.  We hadn't been to see it yet (it also had a restaurant)...so when R got his invitation he couldn't wait to go!  

We had to dress appropriately for the occasion of course! ;)

Ryder with Grace & the birthday girl Camryn!

Ryder literally KILLED that piñata.  Poor fella...he waked his legs across the room!  Ha!

The cutest little cake!--I think it was done done by Patti Cakes here in town.

Ryder & Dexter...

Horse riding time!!  R was pumped!

Sweet little Abigail!  She used to be the littlest Snuggle Bug--but she has grown up so much over the past year!  I love seeing her every day when I pick R up!

We are so thankful for the friendships Ryder has gained from going to Snuggle Bug and all the sweet parents that we get to share fun things with!  So thankful for that place!

gettin' in the spirit

Squeak made his way back to our house this week!  I didn't get around to our whole "North Pole Breakfast" like last year since we were out of town for 7 days and this was my last week of my Internship...but it will definitely be back next year!  I can't believe this is our third year with Squeak!  R was so glad to see he was back...and that he brought him a friend to play with!!

I've tried to get R to watch some Christmas movies with me...but he just isn't really into "movies".  So far the only one he'll watch is Polar Express, but I'll take it!

I stayed up late on Monday night working on school stuff and watching Hostages.  If you watch the show you know why it is appropriate that I watch the show this way!  OH.EMM.GEE!!

 On my way to school I literally LOLed at this deer stand blow up!

 Squeak brought R some window clings to hang on the window!  R loved them and spelling out "HO HO HO!"

 R went to his Mimi's on Tuesday night and made me a girl gingerbread!  I had honestly never tasted gingerbread before and I actually really liked it!

We've been reading Christmas stories every opportunity we get!  Mimi got him a new Christmas Disney book that has a Toy Story, Bambi and Tarzan Christmas story that have actually been really good!  He's loved them too!

Silly Squeak got caught drinking the syrup the other morning!  Silly elf!

Frozen rain/sleet and ice were predicted for us on Thursday night...so off to the grocery store everybody goes!  I wasn't going to go, but I'm glad I did.  R is a great helper at the self check out.  School on Friday was cancelled Thursday night which is something that RARELY happens around here...but because the weather was calling for ICE and not SNOW--I think they took it a little more serious!

Our advent activity Thursday night was to make a gingerbread house which is one of R's favorite things!  We went the smart route the this year and bought a pre-build house...because last year's was a DISASTER!

Move Christmas movie/show watching while we have freezing temps outside!

We had "elf pancakes" Friday morning while we listened to the sleet hit our windows!  This are fun and easy to eat with your fingers...just dip and go!

Today we had to get out of the house.  I wanted to take R to see Frozen, but again...I showed him the trailer and he didn't want to go!  So...Sonic and Kroger it was instead!  :P  He just likes looking at all the toys!

Poppy got the four wheeler out and did a lil old school pulling on the sleet (yes...that's sleet, not snow!)

Tonight's advent activity was to write a letter to Santa.  R did great with his letters but we only got half way thru!  Ha!--that's okay...he's four!  We'll finish the rest tomorrow!

I got all my decor out last weekend and I finally got my tree out of the box, put up and decorated last night--so we are good to go now!  Such a relief--I just want to enjoy this special time with my lil guy making memories and teaching him the TRUE and ONLY meaning of Christmas.

our trip coming to an end

Wednesday was a cooking and baking day at Aunt Kathy's house!  We all had a lot of fun and it was nice to just relax and enjoy time together!  Aunt Kathy made some of the best white bean chicken chili I've ever had for lunch!  I plan on posting the recipe soon...because I've been home 7 days, and have already made it twice!  ;)

This was a fun TimeHop--to this day R things all the Salvation Army bell ringers are elves!!  Ha!

Sad I didn't any pictures of "us" on Thanksgiving Day--but we were just too busy soaking it all up.  We had Thanksgiving "dinner" so it was nice to just kinda chill all day, take our time making the meal and enjoying all the festive things on TV!

We played Hedbandz after dinner while we sipped on coffee an nibbled on desserts!  It was a harder game than I thought it would be...but it was definitely fun!

 Lil man was EXHAUSTED the next day!

 Thanksgiving night on our way home we were straight up losers and stopped by Krispy Kreme for donuts at midnight!  Ha!  R was asleep so we got him a fun donut to have in the morning for breakfast!  :P

R running around in their front yard before we headed out for the day.

 We had to make a Starbucks run of course!  ;)  & if Mama gets a coffee, then R has to have his lemon loaf!

 We met up with everybody at the Tellus Science Museum which turned out to be really neat!  It had stuff for R all the way up for adults--so we all really enjoyed it!

On our way home we drove thru a light up place...this Santa is the largest light of displays in the Southeast.  R loved all the lights and it was nice to soak up the Christmas spirit the day after Thanksgiving!

We stayed the night at Aunt Kathy & Uncle Sam's so that we could wake up and leave the next morning with my parents and Uncle G.  R and I slept in Tonya's childhood room and there were SO many memories in there...this is one I found hanging on the wall!  If I remember correctly that was the Summer of 2006 in Centennial Park in downtown Atlanta after going to the aquarium!

 It was a LONG drive home....made me even more thankful for getting to fly there!  We had our normal road trip lunch at McAlister's and then had to grab some SB before hitting the road for one last long haul!

Sweet baby slept a good amount of the trip which gave everybody's ears a rest!  ;)

FYI to anyone that might need to know--GA clay does NOT come out of clothes even have the use of special techniques.  Live and learn though...it could be worse!

We had a wonderful and long trip and R got to experience a lot of cool things for a little guy!  We love Atlanta and can't wait to go back!  =)