The Green Truck

This boy loves his Papa's Green Truck!

The Moores are Home!

Just for a little while anyway! :) Carrie and Daniel made the 17 hour drive with nine month old Alli all the way from Texas! (I have such brave friends!) We went to Daniel's parents house in Hartsville, SC to visit with them. It was so wonderful to get to see them face to face and squeeze little Alli. We miss them so much and look forward to each time we get to see them! Maybe before too long, we can take another trip out to Texas to visit them! Or find a church in SC in need of a youth pastor and bring them closer to us! :)

And here's one from Thanksgiving 2007--Just for comparison sake... Alli was just a twinkle in her parents eye and Benson was a bald-headed itty bitty!
Looks like Carrie and I share an affinity for the pink striped polo top :)

I love how Benson and Alli are looking at each other in this one :)

love her!

love her! love her! love her!

They could actually play together this time around!

Sweet friend! I miss you!

Snapped it a little too soon... still sweet though :) Look at those blue eyes!
I love a blue eyed baby!

Lael came to Lexington!

Kelli is seriously the bravest first-time-mom I've ever seen. She brought Lael to Lexington by HERSELF for a day trip to visit a bunch of different people. (I think Benson was like eight months old before I got up the confidence to take him to the STORE by myself, much less on a trip! ) She popped into Hudson's where we were eating dinner so that Benjamin and Benson could meet Lael. They loved getting to smooch on the little sweetie :) This is the first of MANY pictures of our families together!

Benson was tickled to get to see her in real life!



Look at that sweet baby girl!! I love her to pieces!!!

"Uncle B" got to meet little Lael for the first time too-- I think he looks good holding a girl :)

I love both Benson and Lael's face in this one... so funny :)

My what a difference a couple of months makes! :)

Christmas Party

Benjamin is blessed to have a group of guys from high school that he is still extremely close with... Every year we try to get all of our families together for a Christmas party- This year, we had it at our house! It's the first year that everybody has a little one of their own! It's so amazing to think back about when I first met these guys a million years ago and see each of their sweet little families now- The Lord has truly blessed us all!

All the babies (including our first baby, Peaches-- she insisted on being in the pic in her cute little Christmas outfit...)

Tyler, Bryson, Izzie, Benson and Ansley

Proud Papas...

And their prettier halves :)

Here's the newest little arrival, Izzie-- she is such a beautiful mix of her mama and daddy!

Here's the older (by about two weeks) Ansley and her mama Amanda. Benson has especially enjoyed getting to spend time with "baby ansley." When she gets to come over to our house, Benson takes it upon himself to be on "paci-patrol." He watches that Pacifier like a hawk and pops it back in her mouth should it happen to fall out. Last time we played with her, he told me, "I'm going to be a good big brother!" We'll see :) Well, not yet--- That wasn't like a hint or anything! :)

And here's Peach... pooped after all the party festivities.

Benson was pooped too :)

Christmas Card 2009

So, the fact that last year I didn't have enough time to pull off a Christmas Card was rather embarrassing considering I spend all of December designing other peoples custom Christmas Cards! SugarLump Stationery's second Christmas season went much smoother than the first and I was actually able to get these babies in the mail before Christmas Day (nevermind it was only a couple of days before) :)

ps** I decided to add the little cardinal on our card because cardinals have been very special to us this year-- Benson looks out of our back door everyday to see if he can find a cardinal. It was one of the first birds he could identify. We usually have at least one each day that comes to visit us-- one day earlier in the winter we had ELEVEN cardinals on our fence and feeder. It was such a beautiful sight and a blessing to see God's beautiful design in those magestic little birds.

Merry Christmas 2009 from the Ryans!

Lets start at the very beginning... a very good place to start. ... :)

In attempt to capture all of December on this, our "digital baby book," I'm going to backtrack a little give a glimpse at a few of the activities I didn't get a chance to blog about before Christmas. (and before my new super duper camera :) Although, I must say, I still dearly love my Canon Powershot SD870 IS point-and-shoot and it still has a permanent place in my pocketbook to capture those impromptu priceless moments:) It will still make regular appearances on the blog :) no worries of total replacement :) )

These pictures were taken at a birthday party of one of Benjamin's co-workers sons that was held at Fox Tree Farm in West Columbia (which I had no idea existed up until this point, but was quite a ball of fun and would recommend checking out, although their little website leaves much to be desired :) )

Benson got to ride a horse for the first time! He was so brave... quite the cowboy :) I love his little mittened hand in this one :)

It was 37 degrees. That is just plain cold if you've lived in South Carolina all your life!

And for all of you who speculated that our Christmas card picture was STAGED.... well.. it wasn't! It was taken in 37 degree weather while we were rightfully wearing snow gear.
In SC.
Where there were still green leaves in the trees.
In 37 degree weather.
Cold.
:)

They took us on a hayride pulled by an old tractor, which was a fun first for the little guy!

Benson got to feed a llama. I still think they have the funniest looking little faces.. so goofy! :)

Here's the whole troop...

Here we are feeding a donkey...

The man giving our tour told the story of Mary and Joseph traveling to Bethlehem and told the children how maybe this donkeys great great great great etc etc grandfather carried Mary who had baby Jesus in her tummy-- it was such a neat connection for the children to see this animal and to hear how he was God's chosen one to carry His son!

And here's Benson and the birthday boy Bryson just-a-swangin...

a haiku

Camera for Christmas
Over Nine Hundred Pictures
I am not kidding

Christmas Tree Decorating 2009

A little perspective...

Ok-- so I think Benjamin's a little older here, because he has a lot of hair, and he didn't get any til he was two either.. but they are still cute!

{{Hot Cocoa}} Exciting? Um, read this face...

Benson always specifically requests to add the marshmallows...

Drinking the hot cocoa, the marshmallows always escape him... which is rather frustrating...

So he begs for a spoon (we brought this one all the way home from Yogurtland in Texas on our trip to visit the Moores!)

Happy, marshmallow-filled, boy!

Daddy, beginning the forever-long task of putting together our gi-normous tree. (Notice I say, Daddy" only--I do not participate in this part of our holiday traditions because, although our tree is beautiful and probably cost its original owners hundreds of dollars-- we got it at a yard sale-- it completely puts a damper on my holiday spirit because you have to click in and "fluff" each branch and they scratch my arms and frustrate me-- and lets face it, I'm a baby when it come to stuff like that-- So B picks up the slack for the Ryan team in this one.. Thanks, babe! :) ) I do help decorate, though :)

Benson "helping..."

Waiting on the popcorn to pop...

A very strong smile:

A very VERY strong smile:

Benson enjoying some homemade popcorn:

And Daddy still working on the tree...

And Benson "helping..." some more...

Doing the honors of placing baby Jesus in the manger...

And we're still working on the tree...

Angels are so last season...

And Benson helping.... (I really need one of those newfangled tree bag things-- this box has seen its day...)

Time for the lights (we broke up the four-hour process of putting UP the tree and the actual decorating OF the tree into two days, hence the costume changes:)

Here's a little perspecitive from Christmas 2008...

hanging the first ornament...


Benson LOVED getting to hang ornaments on the tree.. there was about a 1.5 foot square that had about 20 ornaments in it..


Oh benson....


Benjamin gave me this ornament last year to celebrate SugarLump Stationery's inagural Christams season-- It is perfect and so cute! I love it! Christmas is my busiest time-- that's why the Blog has been seriously outdated these past couple weeks :)



Our nine foot tree and three foot son

All done decorating!!