Busy Weekend

Life is good!

We had a yet another great weekend with the Christie, Devin and the Baby at the Ryan Retreat...ha ha! I love having them here. We played video games with Devin and watched some good movies. We ran to the store with Devin while Bill sat with Aaliyah.
So, Bill was Aaliyah's 1st babysitter.

Sweet Little Aaliyah

Devin is such a proud big brother. And such a good helper to his Mommy!

Aaliyah holding Jalen's finger

Mmmm.....A "Devin Dessert"

On Friday night Jalen & Courtney had some friends over to get ready for the high school football game. They looked so cute all dressed in green. As the girls left for the game, Devin said that it reminded him of a parade. Yeah...He was right on! Although I equated it to a female tornado.

During our outing to the store on Saturday, it was raining so hard and the streets were starting to flood in certain neighborhoods. It's was CRAZY!

On Sunday, I had a little party at my house for "Southern Living at Home". They have really cute things for your home. I made it a tea party with cucumber sandwiches, muffins, and scones. It was a great excuse for me to pull out all of my teacups.

Courtney got her "baby" today. She is taking a child development class and she has to take care of a mechanical baby for a week. It's actually really amazing how far schools have come from the egg baby or the flour bag baby. She named him "Maleke Jamal Schaefer Ryan Yocum". The baby will cry throughout the day and night and Courtney needs to take him everywhere she goes and either feed him, burp him, change him, or rock him back to sleep. It's comical watching her try to sush a plastic doll. The computer in the baby will record how she does and that is how she will get her grade for this project. She will be a professional Mommy when the week is done.

Courtney and Maleke

Auntie Lindsey, Mommy, and Auntie JayBug

Halloween 2009 and a baby

Halloween 2009

(and some baby time, AKA....Heaven!)

Christie, my friend for the past 15 years, had a baby on October 27th. A beautiful little girl named Aaliyah. She weighed 7lbs, 3oz. and is a total doll. Christie came home from the hospital on Friday after a C-Section. Since Christie's husband is working on a fishing boat in Alaska, Christie, her son Devin, and Aaliyah spent the whole weekend with us. It was simply glorious. I really wanted Christie to have some time to rest and get pampered. So I basically held the baby all weekend, filled her water bottle, made food and enjoyed visiting with my wonderful friend. Like I said...Simply Glorious. They will be coming over again this weekend for a little R & R at the R & R. (Rest and Relaxation at the Ryan Retreat)! But seriously, I am loving having a baby around. I love the sense of peace and calm that I get when I hold a baby.
What an Awesome weekend!

Halloween was fun. We stayed home, dressed Aaliyah up in her little pumpkin outfit and handed out candy to the little kids. Kaela had a friend spend the night and Matt's girlfriend Carlie came over to help take Devin out trick or treating since his Mama was resting after giving birth.

Devin and his new baby sister, Aaliyah

Matthew and Carlie....His costume gave me nightmares. Ewww! Scary!

Allie spent her Halloween weekend down at school and had fun dressing up with her friends. Alex was a doctor and Allie was a nurse. A sexy nurse....If anyone can pull this outfit off, it's Allie.

Alex and Alex....My little girl is playing doctor! Waaaa....Lord, help me!

Happy Birthday Stacy!

Happy Birthday to my little sister!

We had a birthday party for Stacy on Sunday. It was so much fun to have breakfast with family and friends. I made an egg casserole in the crock pot. It was really good! I also made some fruit skewers with some of Tyler's home made whipped cream. Delicious!!

And the highlight of the breakfast was a double decker cake from VooDoo Doughnuts! We also got a couple dozen regular doughnuts...However, there is nothing regular about VooDoo Doughnuts. They have some wild doughnuts and they were so good!! Such a wonderful and fun way to celebrate Stacy's birthday!

I love you Stac! I am so lucky that you are my sister!!

Here are some pictures of Stacy's special day

The Birthday Doughnut!

Mmmmm.....Doughnuts! Check out the captain crunch doughnuts, and the "Grape Ape", and the oreo cookie doughnut

Chloe and Joey.....They can only dream about VooDoo Doughnuts

Tyler's Whipped Cream....He did such a good job, he got to lick the spoon

Kelle, Stacy and Jenn. Yeah Jenn.....You made it on the blog! ha ha!!

Courtney, Larissa and Allie

Allie got Stacy an official Southern Oregon University T-Shirt for her birthday

The pooches were pooped

Allie's home for the weekend!

My girl was home all weekend!!

Allie flew in on Thursday night and we it was so good to see her face and hug her! I have really missed her over the past month. We picked her up from the airport and went to get some dinner. I was lucky to be able to take Friday and we went and did some
shopping and hung out together.
We had pedicures, talked, fixed her phone, talked, hugged,
got her a new laptop, talked, hugged, etc....

Bill and I are going to try to go down to Ashland in a few weeks for a weekend visit. Then Allie will be home again for ONE WHOLE WEEK for Thanksgiving! Then she goes back for a week and a half and then she will be home for ONE WHOLE MONTH for Christmas break!

Homecoming 2009....Part 2

Homecoming for Matthew & Carlie

Matthew went to homecoming last weekend with Carlie. It has been a tradition with his group of friends to go to Chevy's Restaurant for homecoming dinner and this year was no different. Matthew looked great in all white with a purple tie and purple shoes!!
Only Matthew could pull this outfit off.

Carlie and Matthew make such a beautiful couple!

Homecoming 2009

Homecoming 2009


Jalen & Courtney had their homecoming festivities last weekend. It was a fun filled weekend that would have been even better if I hadn't have come down with a high fever and a terrible cold. But, there is no rest for the weary....so I muddled through.

Jalen was nominated for the junior homecoming princess for her high school. We are so proud of her! On Thursday there was a homecoming parade before the homecoming game. Some friends of ours had a red convertible mustang and he drove Jalen around during the parade. So cute!


Thursday night was the homecoming game. I know that it's a little strange to have these events on a Thursday, but there was no school on Friday. I stayed home from the game, but Bill went and took some pictures for me. Taylor was Jalen's escort.

Sweet picture!

Friday was spent with girls all getting ready for the dance over at our house. Aunt Stacy came over and helped with hair. The girls looked absolutely AMAZING!



I LOVE MY GIRLS SO MUCH!!

GORGEOUS!!!!


Instead of going out to dinner, Bill and I made dinner for the group. It was a huge hit and I loved hearing the laughter coming from the dining room.

Listening to music while waiting for dinner

The weekend was a huge success! I am one lucky Mom!

Coming up next.....

• Matthew's homecoming
• Grandma Schroeder's visit
• Allie comes home for a weekend!

Never a dull moment in the Ryan Household!!!

Powder Puff 2009

Jalen & Courtney

Powder Puff Football Game 2009



We went to watch the girl play in the homecoming Powder Puff Football game last night. It was so much fun! The girls are Juniors this year so the first game, they played the Freshmen.

Juniors 24
Freshmen 6

Woo Hoo!! Then they played the Sophomores who were the winners of the Seniors and the Sophomores game. The lost the last game in overtime!! The score was 6-0. Big Bummer! But the girls had a great time and they looked adorable! Even under all of that face paint!

We've got spirit! Yes, we do!
We've got spirit! How 'bout you!!




Stayed tuned for Homecoming 2009 this weekend! There are some fun homecoming activities coming up. The parade, the dance, and photos of "Princess Jalen"
(Junior Homecoming Princess!)

Courtney, Matthew & Larissa were Baptized!

Congratulations Courtney, Matthew and Larissa!

Sunday night we went to church and Courtney, Matthew and Larissa were baptized! It was such a special night and I feel so blessed that it was on my birthday!!

I love that our family is making life changing decisions when it come to their walk with the Lord. These kids are AMAZING and I love to watch them when they don't think I'm watching. It's AWESOME to see how caring, generous, helping and loving they are towards each other and their friends.

Congratulations! We love you and will do whatever it takes to support your decision.

Courtney being Baptized!




Matthew being Baptized!




Larissa getting Baptized!

We hope that you enjoy some more wonderful pictures from an AMAZING night!
Praise God!!