A Visit to Beth & Ryan's

Ryan, Courtney, Jason & I went to Beth & Ryan's Friday night for dinner. Beth made a great supper and then we all sat around talking and playing with Cade. I snapped some great pictures of him. Wish I could post all of them. Thanks Brooks family for such a great night.

Cade on his blanket

Close Up! But I love this one.

Beth & Ryan have learned how to make him smile and giggle a little.

Before & After

Chicken Nuggets

I had the pleasure of babysitting Evan on Saturday night. We had a blast. He is the funniest three year old I know. He loves to tell "stories". He loves chicken nuggets!

Picking the perfect nugget takes patience

Yummm........ it's a good one!

Evan wanted to show Lil Kitty his Happy Meal box. Strangely, Lil Kitty listened intently.

He was contemplating whether or not to eat another nugget

The Patient

Ryan has been down in his back for a week now. He has had an MRI and is going for a Catscan this week. No real word on whats wrong but he is definetly in a lot of pain. We had to visit the ER on Friday night! YIKES. So during one of his resting sessions the boys decided to use him as a napping tower.

Go Bears!!!

One of Ryan's birthday gifts from me was a customized Bears jersey. He was counting down the days until he could wear it on Sunday. So here it is!! Go Bears! Looking at these two pictures I notice something about our tree. All of the decorations are up top. Notice there aren't any down at the bottom.

Cats + Christmas Trees= DISASTER!!!!

Happy Thanksgiving & Happy Birthday Ryan!!!

Hope everyone had a safe and gracious Thanksgiving. Today was Ryan's 26th birthday also. We shucked oysters all night that Grandpa Al had gotten from New Orleans. It was a great day at my mom's and a great night at Ryan's mom's.Thanks for all of the leftovers. I have to go to bed now so I can get up early to brave the black friday crowd. Good night and sweet dreams!

Rachel shucking oysters for everyone!

Me eating my first and last oyster

My dad was shucking like crazy. He and my mom love oysters.

Our first Thanksgiving picture married. Awww.....

My parents and I

When Ry & I were in Mexico we bought his dad some Tequila at Cabo Wabo. Here the guys are getting ready to enjoy a shot of it. Gag!!

When Ryan was blowing out the candles Brylan got a little upset that his big brother Dylan blew out the candles without his help. We had to do it over a couple of times. His face is priceless!

A Bet

My Poppy Bill turns 80 on Tuesday. When my brother was little they would go to the nearby school and play basketball. My Poppy told my brother that when he was 80 he would still beat him. We'll today was the day they challanged that bet. The only thing was that it felt like 30 degrees below zero and the wind was blowing pretty strong. We were all out there for 15 mins and we were ready to go home. The score when we left was 4 to 2 in Nick's favor. My Poppy said he just let him win because he wouldn't want to humiliate him. Right......

Love this picture of Nick in the air

The Adventures of Windshield Man and Buckethead

We'll another night of unpacking at The Miles's. As you can see I did a lot of work again. Caden and I found a windsheild weather visor. You know, one of those things you put in your car when it's 100 degrees outside to deflect the heat? We'll, we tied them around our heads and fought crime all night. As you can see I also had a pink bucket as a helmet. I would have to say that this might happen to be the most unflattering picture of myself I have ever seen. But the look on Caden's face was priceless so I had to post it. We kept the streets safe last night in Herrin. Good work Windshield Man!After several minutes of flapping the band would go around his little ears. Hilarious! We all were laughing pretty hard.He is in the midst of flapping.

Another Family Moves to the Block

On Friday night we all went to Kalen and Falan's beautiful new home to help them move in. I mostly took pictures and watched them unpack! Tobey & Nate, Miranda & Preston, Falan & Kalen, & Ryan & I all now live literally within seconds of eachother. Welcome to the neighborhood guys!!

This is Preston, Miranda's little boy. Is he not gorgeous?

Of course you all know Sophia!

Caden welcomed all the boys into his new room with a trumpet salute. He just got a new haircut. He looks like a big boy now!

Merrett also got a big boy haircut. With all of the toys in the room they choose to play on the mattress.Preston found Caden's new bike. Ryan was showing him how to pop a wheelie.

A Visit to Baby Cade

I went and visited with Beth and Cade on Thursday. He is changing so much already. Beth is such a good momma! She acts like she's been doing this for years. She also looks just as good as she did before she had him! Thanks for having me over. It was great seeing you all. Love -Melissa (the crazy camera lady)

I think he looks like Ryan in this picture

This is the sweetest picture.

A Tribute to the old days

I thought that I would post these pictures of last night to pay tribute to the "old days". About 14 of us went out to eat last night and then came back to our house to chat and have a few drinks. Problem was that most of us were already past our limit by the time dinner was over. So when we went to our house drank 2 or 3 more we were really ridiculous. Then we met up with the guys at a local bar in Herrin. But I have to say this is probably the first time I have really drank in about a year. Since all of our friends are married and have children now we usually just go out to dinner and come back to someones house to watch the kids play. But for some reason we were all in rare form last night. Especially us girls. It was fun but boy am I paying for it today. How did we all used to do this every weekend!!!!! Thanks to Falan for taking care of us and being the DD.

Tobey and Nate Kalen & Falan Tobey found Ryan's Carhart hat & his favorite gas station sunglasses and her and Miranda decided to do sitting toe touches. Tobey posing in her cute red leather jacket but doing an Michael Jackson impression.Every girl knows that this picture is a must on those going out nights. The infamous "taking the picture yourself shot". Dorks.

Monday Night Football Ritual!

As I have told all of you before, Ryan gets all excited about Monday night football and as soon as the game comes on he's out like a light. Of course he has his snuggling buddies along with him. Boy you sure can see how exciting our lives are! Is this what married life is all about? I know some of you can appreciate my cat pictures. So here are a few more. I promise I will put something of substance up soon for all of you viewers that aren't crazy cat people.

Love Melissa

Look what I found in the washing machine.

This is Tinley's favorite chair. Maybe this

explains his little "weight" problem.

Little Kitty loves to sit like this. It's so hilarious. He's deep in thought.

Peek-A-Boo

Trick or Treat!!!!!!!!!

On Halloween we had several sweet little trick or treaters. We were visited by Elmo, Batman, a dragon, pumpkin, & a spider. Thanks for taking all of the candy off my hands! I think I ate my weight in Laffy Taffy this week. Ugh!