lots of fish. small pond.

THAT's the kind of fishin' that's good for Three year olds!  

So proud.  

It's all fun and games until you actually catch a fish and Mrs. Lula has gone back to the house for some reason.  

Fun, fishy times! :) 

The girl doesn't know what she's getting in to...

We celebrated Brittany's birthday while we were in the mountains.

She got a small glimpse in to her future as Mrs. Ryan.

Glimpse 1:
From now on, you have to share your birthday candles with nieces and nephews (even when it just happens to be a fork??)

Glimpse 2:

Birthday presents know no boundaries.
(when she opened this present, she was like, "am I supposed to pull these out of the bag??")

Glimpse 3:

When you marry Jeremy, you marry the family.

Here's B on one knee asking her to marry us.  

She said Yes!!!

And we're thrilled!  :) 

click here to see the family engagement ring up close

Now we've only got one spot left for another in-law.

I think we need to petition TLC for a new reality TV show.  

"The Last Spot" where it's a spin on the bachelor and WE (the family) get to pick who takes the last spot.  

(I mean, I guess uncle JO could have some say) 

I'd watch it! :) 

Hat Night!!!!!

Mrs. Lula has to be one of the most creatively fun people that has ever lived.  She comes up with ideas that are genious for the times that we all get together to make it special and memorable.  This year, in the mountains, we were all instructed to bring a hat of some sort for a "hat contest."  We knew there would be judges, and of course a winner (these are the Ryan's we're talking about!) but, other than that,  there were no other parameters.

Take it as you will :  "hat contest."

Here's what we ended up with:

B was Bride Brittany and I was golfer Jeremy.
We got married and lived happily ever after.
We tied the real Brittany for second place.



She came as herself, with a stellar bride cap that she's heavily considering actually wearing down the aisle come March.



It's hard to tell which is the real Brittany and which is the pretend.



Thomas was the winner-winner-chicken-dinner!
It's probably hard to tell from this picture exactly why he took home first place,
but you can look in the collage of everybody's hat pics to see part of his whole "costume" and let me just say that the "part" that you can actually see, while it does show a tiny bit of what we witnessed during the hat contest, is in no way able to convey the whole thing- but I was threatened pretty heavily that if the whole of his display ended up on the blog-o-sphere, there would be retribution beyond anything I could imagine.  So all you get is a glimpse.  But trust me.  He deserved first place.

Nice effort Thomasina.



Even though the kids didn't participate in the hat contest, I thought Benson was a pretty cute little Habanero.  Although, his pajamas probably could have been a nice compliment to the whole Thomasina display.



Chalk up the Hat Contest to another Lula success!  What a fun idea Grandmama!! :)
(this might be my favorite fam pic ever.  so.much.fun!!!)

Just to see you smile...

In order to get four children to smile...

All at the same time...

It's important to be dedicated to the task.  

Do whatever it takes.

At all costs.

No inhibitions.  

Even if it means standing on your head.

Literally.

In the end, it's worth it.  

Cousins = built in best friends!

As time passes, I am more and more amazed at the gift and grateful to the Lord, for giving us these cousins, so specially close in age (the first three being only eight weeks apart- april, may and june!)-   for giving them the opportunity to grow up with each other, make memories together, hurt each others feelings and practice forgiveness, laugh, be silly and LOVE one another so deeply.  It's a gift on such a large scale that it's really mind boggling.  Praise the Lord for his immeasurable goodness!!

Ryan Family Mountain Trip 2010

The problem with getting slack on a blog that features a pregnant family member, is that it's kinda BLATANTLY obvious how far behind I am when I'm posting pictures of Christa with Ryan Elizabeth still in the oven when she's been out, and in the world, for four weeks.  I was thinking it was three, but it's definitely four.

Sowwy folks.

Anyway.  Please forgive.

And continue to love us (well, me-  this blog is maintained by a singular entity, in case there was any question there) anyway.  :)

{{ Here's the snaps from annual Ryan Family Mountain Trip. }}

We just all happened to wearing the same thing one day,
so it was like, "Hey! Let's be natural and snap a pic!"

We're growing.  Exponentially.
Guess that's what happens when you start with five.



The firstborn son and his girls.  Yeah, they're presh.



Second in the lineup, the only daughter, finishin' up bakin' her only daughter (well, so far!)



The middle child and his fam (us).
(side note: I will forever cherish this picture, as it is the last one taken before I severely messed up my grill.  More to come on that in a later post...)



The fourth child.  And his bride.  They're getting married in March.  We're pumped.  (exponentially!)



And the baby boy.  Who's always good for a laugh.  :)



And of course, we have the sweethearts that started it all.
They celebrated their 35 year wedding anniversary on September 9th.  What an example they are to us!



And as much as they love their children, these grand babies have taken things to a whole new level!





We are so blessed to be surrounded by so many who love us and so many whom we love!
More mountain pics to come.  :) Of course.
You didn't think that was ALL did you?!

Celebrating Five Years!!

On May 22, 2010, we celebrated our Five Year anniversary!
(And this post is the last in the summer in reverse blog series :) we are finally caught up! :)  )

We went out for Sushi and had a great time reminiscing about all the times (the good ones and the ones we've learned from (yes, there have been plenty of those!)  :) !) that we've had over the last five years together.

And in honor of five years, I thought I'd crack open the wedding album and share some pics from our big day :)
These are literally FROM the wedding album seeing as how we didn't use digital photography to capture our wedding.  That seems so weird to me now, it was only five years ago, and things have changed so much!  I PRAISE THE LORD for advancements in digital technology in the last five years!! :)

My last minute as Jessica Hunter :) 

The wedding party!  

To see what five years looks like, all you have to do is look at Becca and Jonathan.  

Goodness Gracious!!

Mr. and Mrs. Ryan

Our first steps into the last five years we've spent together...

Praise the Lord for his goodness, mercy, and grace to us!  

We are so undeservedly blessed!!