Prom 2011

Jalen and Courtney's Prom 2011

The girls had their prom last weekend and what a night it was!  

Jalen and Courtney looked absolutely amazing!  

The hair, the makeup, the dress, the nails, the shoes, the eyelashes, the earrings, the dates, the flowers, the limo....all of it, was beautiful. 

 

The Grand Entrance

Jalen putting on Robert's corsage

Courtney and Peter

Robert and Jalen

My gorgeous girls and their handsome dates!

Courtney, Kaela and Jalen...What wonderful sisters!

Courtney, Bill and Jalen....I love this picture of the girls with their step-daddy!

Courtney, ME, and Jalen...Somebody said that we looked like TRIPLETS!  I have to agree!

Jalen, Courtney and their little sister Kami!

The Prom Group!

Jalen gives the thumbs up before getting into the limo!

We are so thrilled that the girls had a wonderful time at their senior prom!  They had a great dinner at the Oswego Grill and then headed downtown to the Left Bank Annex for the Prom!  I can't believe that this year is wrapping up.  Graduation is right around the corner.  Life is good!  I am so blessed!

Slappy Cakes

SLAPPY CAKES...NOM, NOM, NOM

Slappy Cakes is a an amazing little restaurant in SE Portland.  We went there awhile back to celebrate our Mom's birthdays.  Be prepared to stand in line for a couple of hours, but it is worth the wait!! 

You get to order the flavor of pancake batter that you want.  Then you get to choose all the mix-ins.  Sweet or Savory!  What a fun experience...we will be back!

 

Like Sands through the hour glass.....

The Next Phase!

 Time to get back to blogging! Life has been a little crazy around our place!  We have made a lot of changes in the last few months.  We only have 2 kids at home now!  Allie is going to college at Portland State and living with us at home.  Kaela is doing well and is a sophomore now.  Jalen and Courtney are getting ready to wrap up their senior year of high school!  

All of our little birdies are flying the coop! 

We decided to downsize back in January.  We moved out of our BIG house into a 3 bedroom apartment while we save some major moolah!  Bill and I have been talking about making this move for quite sometime, and it was necessary to take a step backward in order to go 2 steps forward!  Bill and I are concentrating on getting our dream home in the next 2 years.  We want to live on the water!  We have been looking at floating homes on the Columbia River and I have fallen completely in love with one!  It's perfect for us and the marina is really nice!!   Once Kaela graduates from High School and Allie graduated from College, we will be ready to make our last and final move to our home that we will retire in and have fun with our grandchildren.  Okay, that sounds so weird to say considering that we aren't even 40 yet. (A few more months to go!)  No, nobody is having a baby, but in the next 5 years, I predict that we will have little grand babies running around.  Yeah, so weird to think about!  


Jalen and Courtney have prom this weekend!  I'm so excited for them!  Their dresses are beautiful and everything is pretty much set!  We have paid for them to have a limo for the night so they will be riding around town in style.  I will make sure to blog about it for you! 


Here are some pictures of our new apartment. We did a lot of painting and made some changes to our apartment.  It is perfect for us for the time being!  

 Dining Room

 Entry Way

 Living Room

 Master Bedroom

 Kitchen

Of course, I will leave you with some pictures of the kids!  They love to go outside and take pictures! Silly girls!  Also, enjoy the pictures of Kaela's 16th Birthday!!  

Ready for Kaela's 16th Birthday Party

16 today?  What????

Courtney, Allie and Kaela

Allie and Jalen

Allie...Our sweet college girl

Allie, Taylor, Courtney, Jalen and Kaela at Tyler's Birthday Party

Next Up:  PROM
                 OUR ANNIVERSARY
                 MOTHER'S DAY

Be blessed!  I know that I am!

Jalen and Courtney

Blue Letter Graduation Announcement

Get personalized graduation party invites at Shutterfly.com.

View the entire collection of cards.

Pretty Pretty Princess

Ballerina Girl!

Aaliyah is wearing the little tu-tu and leotard that we got her for Christmas! She is such a little angel! I can't wait to start her in dance and ballet classes! 

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year 2011

Christmas and New Year Happenings

A few days before Christmas, we went ice skating at the Lloyd Center Mall. I hadn't been ice skating in years, and I had forgot how much fun skating can be! It was a fun holiday event to do with the kids.

Courtney and Mommy hugging on the ice...well maybe we were holding each other up! :o)

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We had a really nice Christmas with our family. As tradition serves, we went to Bill's parents house for Christmas Eve. It was a fun evening with a great dinner and presents!

This is such a great family tradition to have the kids line up on the couch and have a picture taken. I am going to have to go search in the archives for a picture of them in the same spot only 10 years younger.

One half of our family on Christmas Eve

The Other Ryan Family! We love them sooooo much!

Mommy and Allie

Brothers! I just love the colors on these guys! Looking good boys!

Sisters! Jaylin and Angie

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After Christmas Eve dinner, we went to the 11pm service at our church! There were so many people coming to the service, we had the service at the Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall in Downtown Portland. We packed the house to the rafters! Great night with the kids!

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CHRISTMAS DAY!

What a great day with our kids and family! We had a lazy morning having a big breakfast and opening stocking and presents with the kids. Round 2 was with Mom, Scott, Stacy, Mike and Tyler. More presents and more food. I really felt like I was eating non-stop the entire day! Ugh...The gym is in my very near future!

Courtney, Bill and Jalen

I love this picture! I love that Kaela is smelling her new body spray and Lord only knows what Taylor is saying to Allie. Love these kids!!

The one thing that Taylor and wanted and needed more than anything in this world was a new laptop! We were very fortunate that we were able to give him one this year.

Me and My Sissy! I love you so much Stacy!

Mom and Papa

Our sweet little Aaliyah! She was the light of the holiday! She is really into presents this year, however she was a bit more interested in the paper and bows then the actual presents!

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The Day after Christmas!

Our present from Mom and Papa were tickets to see the Radio City Music Hall ROCKETTES!
What a great present! Bill and I had the best day night! We went to watch the show and then went out for Sushi after. It would be fun to make this show a tradition for us and our family.

Toy Soldiers on Parade

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Bill and I had a very quiet New Year's Eve this year. We went out to dinner at the Chart House (which is our favorite restaurant!), and then we went home in time for the ball to drop and have a nice big New Year's KISS! MUAH!!!!

We hope that this year will bring everyone
health and happiness!
Happy New Year!