December. . . so far

Before I get into all of our December activities lately, we did celebrate Thanksgiving.  But I didn't take very many pictures.  I don't ever seem to take many pictures on Thanksgiving.  Probably because I'm too busy eating!  Anyway we had a yummy Thanksgiving dinner at the Hopewell's.  Almost everyone was there (we missed you Jessie and family!) which was quite a treat.  We were all able to hang out with Jordan one last time before he headed out to boot camp!  Yup, Jordan's joined the Marines!  He got shipped out to California on the Monday after Thanksgiving and he'll graduate in February.  Keep him in your prayers!  I did manage to get a couple of pictures on Thanksgiving though -

Who do these goofballs belong too? 

We gathered for a big group photo too.  Unfortunately it was after Wendy had to leave to work for Santa.  ;) 

And of course we can't take a family picture without one of these:

The best part of Thanksgiving was the huge bounce house that John and Diane brought over for the kids.  Seriously.  THE BEST IDEA EVER!!!  We hardly saw them!

Daddy and the kids also went on the annual Thanksgiving break campout.  This year they actually had to rough it in a tent since we sold the camper.  And it was COLD!  I made sure my babies had lots of warm clothes and blankets though.  They had tons of fun with Grandpa, Uncle John with his two boys, Uncle Bruce Tyler (I guess he's not really their uncle but what the heck do you call your father's uncle?) and Christian and Uncle Ira and Todd.  Sadly Bruce and his kiddos missed it this year as they were in Utah so Maddie was the ONLY girl!!!  Poor thing.  She still had fun though.  My plan was to get all the Christmas shopping done while they were gone and work on some other projects but I ended up getting sick the day they left and felt like crap the whole time they were gone!  I did brave the crowds on Black Friday though just long enough to get some of the shopping done.  Then I came home and slept the rest of the day!

The next week was Ryley's birthday!!!

  

And we finally got the chalkboard wall finished!  Yay for a husband who knows a guy . . . anyway - back to the birthday.  For his birthday dinner Ryley wanted to go out to dinner with Grandma and Grandpa and he picked Chili's.  It was fun!  Grandma and Grandpa gave him a remote control car which he had a blast playing with out in the freezing cold in the Chili's parking lot after dinner.  Boys!  Yes, Daddy and Grandpa were right out there with him.

The next day we went out and got Ryley's present - a skateboard and new helmet.  We went out looking for a new bike but he couldn't find anything he liked within the price limit we set.  I guess we'll keep looking.   Craigslist sounds good!

He desperately needed a new helmet anyway.  He got a little frustrated with the skateboard on his first tries but hopefully he'll be more patient when he can actually go outside for a while and practice without freezing to death!  It's been a little cold lately.

On Sunday we had our Smith family party.  Since Brianne and Ryley are so close we had a double party.  Ryley got all his birthday wishes fulfilled by Granny and Pops - his very own can of cranberry sauce.  And he ate it ALL.  Such a weird kid, but he really loves the stuff!

That wasn't the only thing he got for his birthday though.  He also got lots of Pokemon cards (some from us and some from Granny and Pops), a CD player for his room from Granny and Pops, a whale Webkinz from us, and a Trio building set from Brianne and John. 

After the presents it was cake time!  We found this cake on clearance at Kroger and thought it was so cool.  Kind of ironic though since Ryley would NEVER eat a hamburger!

Brianne had her own candles and Benny had to help blow them out. 

It was a fun little party!  These next pictures don't have anything to do with the actual festivities they're just some gratuitous cuteness. 

I hope Ryley had a great birthday.  It's hard to tell with this kid - not a big talker.  I can't believe he's seven already!  A few things about him right now:

- He loves playing on the computer or watching anyone play on the computer.

- He really likes doing his math work and reading to me. 

- He HATES his handwriting workbook and basically despises all writing in general. 

- He loves wrestling with Daddy and the other kids.  He and Cash have started wrestling on their own more.  Oh joy.

- He loves to go camping with Daddy.  In his class sharing presentation a couple of weeks ago he was supposed to think of what he would do someday to be a good Daddy.  He said, "I will take my kids camping."  His wife will greatly appreciate that someday.  ;)

- He can be the sweetest kid on earth and also quite the opposite.  He does love to torment and get a reaction out of his brother and sister.  He definitely has some extreme moods!

- Speaking of how he can be so sweet, the other day Josh took him to work with him for a couple of hours in the morning.  Before he and Josh left I told Ryley to go get a couple of snacks to take with him.  He got some for himself and then also got a couple for Josh (without being told to do so.)  After I picked Ryley up from the office and we were home doing our school work I could hear Ryley sniffing in at the kitchen table.  I went in thinking he was just upset about having to write a sentence or something (he REALLY doesn't like it!) and he was just sitting there with these big ol' tears in his eyes and his bottom lip poking out.  I asked him what was wrong and he said, "I got Daddy and Kit Kat and a granola bar!"  I was thoroughly confused at first but managed to piece it together and said, "So you're sad that Daddy won't have the snacks you got for him?"  He said, "Yeah, I don't want him to be hungry." 

- He really likes our Geography Songs.  He's memorized about 8-9 of them now.  He usually struggles with remembering the words to songs but he has latched on to these and has really progressed with them.  He does NOT like the GLEE soundtrack though.  :)

- He is very athletic.  He really likes to throw balls (or anything else) and play soccer and jump on the trampoline.

- He can run on all fours like a giant monkey or Tarzan or something!  He's pretty fast too!

- He's the only kid who will reach into the guinea pig cage.  Maddie will pet them and Cash will look at them but Ryley will reach in and chase them around until he gets one.  They're quick but he's fearless!

-He's total random at times.  The other night right after we were done saying prayers and immediately after his "Amen." he tells me, all teary-eyed, "Mom, I don't want to go to the Grand Canyon."  I said, "What? Who said anything about the Grand Canyon, Ryley?" He said, "I'm afraid I'm going to fall in!"  I have no idea where that came from but I assured him that we would not be visiting the Grand Canyon any time soon and that if we did we would certainly make sure he didn't fall in. 

Well, we also had an anniversary in there somewhere.  Thirteen years!!!  So crazy.  I've actually known Josh for longer than I didn't know him, now.  We didn't do anything super special.  Grandma and Grandpa volunteered to watch the kids (while they had Bruce and Elisa's kids too - bless them!) so we went out to dinner, went to Target to do some Christmas shopping, stopped by the Nativity Exhibit to pick up our nativities, left the Nativity Exhibit to do some more Christmas shopping (back to Target), went back to the Nativity Exhibit to pick up our material since none of that was up yet when we were there the first time, and then picked up the kids from Grandma and  Grandpa's house.  Long night!  It was good to get the shopping done though!

All right.  I think that's enough for one post.  I have some more pictures though - visiting Santa and Maddie's singing group performances.  I'll try and get those posted before next year!  In the meantime, if you didn't get one of these in the mail -