Merry Christmas & Happy New Year

     This year we were blessed over and over. Seeing Rylan take in the joys of the CHRISTmas season borught great joy to Tyson and I. He loved opening gifts and saying Happy Birthday Jesus! The older you get the joys of CHRISTmas begin to change. For Tyson and I these last Christmas's as parents have been our best Christmas's yet. Getting to see your child over joyed is all a parent wants. This year was neat because we were able to begin explaining to Rylan the true meaning of CHRISTmas. As always there are a lot of pictures, and I will do my best to describe each one.

Tyson and I have a tradition that we celebrate Christmas just us, our immediate family. So before we go to anyone else's house we have our own little Christmas as the Purdy's. This year Rylan helped us cook, and he wore his adorable apron.

This is the first gift that Rylan opened this year. There is no greater joy than seeing your child filled with joy!

Rylan and Granny right before we ate Christmas dinner.

Rylan/Santa playing with Uncle Eric. It was SO nice to have Eric and Kyra home. We miss them so much, and we cherish every minute with them. Rylan loved playing with Uncle Eric and his Tia!

This year it was so fun to set out Santa's cookies. Rylan helped us and was very anxious to eat the cookies himself. The next morning we he awoke to Santa's gift to him he also realized that Santa didn't eat all of his cookies. So what would you do? Well, Rylan decided to finish them off for Santa.

This was a picture of our sweet boy on Christmas morning. He went into the living room and went straight to his Santa gift. It was as though he had done this for years.

Uncle Kirby got him an awesome pair of boots that he was insistent on wearing as soon as he opened them. They are too cute on him. He goes around the house now saying "boo's", meaning boots.

Granny got him Moonwalk Mickey, and I will say that it is a hit. Anything that gets Rylan dancing he loves.

 We are blessed beyond measure and we are so thankful for this life. We hope that you all had a very Merry CHRISTmas, and we wish you all a Happy New Year!

Abuelo Frame

   My dear friend Codie has been keeping me busy with frames for her friends and family. I really love it because I get to make something for someone special to her, and she is so special to me.  This frame in particular was a very awesome frame to make. Codie's dad is a very talented man who is in a famous Rock-N-Roll band. So when she asked me to make this frame I was very honored. She wanted the colors to be red, black, and white, with a grandfather quote, and a Rock-N-Roll theme. So I was very excited to begin creating something for a friend and for a Rock Star! This frame is one that I will never forget. Codie thank you for this opportunity.

I decided to paint the frame black and accent with the other colors (red and white). I chose paper that wasn't too wild, but was fun enough for a Rock Star! The paper and the quote are on cardstock paper.

It is planned that Codie's son Joseph is going to call his Rock-N-Roll grandfather Abuelo. So I really wanted to incorporate that on the frame as well. The musical stickers I found at Hobby Lobby, and I think that they were perfect for this frame.

  "A grandfather is someone with silver in his hair and gold in his heart". And perhaps silver in his long beard. I was so happy, when I showed Codie the frame she loved it! It is frames like this that make this hobby of mine oh so fun!

Seeing Santa

     Last weekend we went and stayed the weekend at Granny's, in Lampasas they were having a Christmas celebration. So we double dipped, we got some Granny time in, and took a trip to see Santa.  On Saturday Momma and I went and did some shopping, then we  all went to eat. After eating we stopped off at the park to play and take some pictures for a Christmas card. So we made the boys suffer through some pictures, and then sent them off to play. Of course Rylan is always trying to play on all things that are for the big kids. But have no fear because those big kids are his Daddy. So Daddy and Rylan played on the big toys.
     After the park we went back to Granny's so that Rylan could take his afternoon nap. Well I guess Granny's was too much fun because Rylan decided to skip the nap. We loaded up and headed to the town square to enjoy some Christmas activities, and see Santa. As the day went on it got colder, so I finally got to put Rylan's gloves and hat to use. The hat he actually kept on, and the gloves too. It was so cute because he couldn't stop staring at the gloves. We had planned on staying for the Parade of Lights, but it got a little late for our little man who had decided to skip his nap.
     So, I will let our adventure of seeing Santa this year be explained in the picture below. Let me just say that it didn't go as well as last year.

Rylan and Daddy playing at the park.

Granny, Rylan and I in front of the courthouse downtown.

Rylan and his gloves, he just couldn't stop staring at them. He would look at them, smile, and say "cool".

Our reaction to Santa this year. As soon as he saw him he completely had a melt down. So no sitting on his lap this year. Just a lean in picture with Momma.

On the way home Rylan fell asleep, mind you it is a 2 minute drive. But as soon as he got up he remembered his gloves, and starting looking at his hands again. He even wanted to keep them on while he ate dinner.  Gloves he loves, Santa not so much. Better luck next year!

Let me just tell you what an adventure picture taking is with our almost 19 month old Ryla-nator!

Luckily Granny is patient and finds him hilarious. So we ended up getting a few good ones for our Christmas Card.

Thanksgiving

     For Thanksgiving this year we went to the condo, and met up with Nana & Papaw. It was a family reunion of sorts. Aunt Judy, Pete, Derek, Nickie and Skyler all came too. Sadly we didn't get to see Aaron, Samantha and Sophia, but we did get to see them the weekend before. We got to relax, eat, visit, eat, watch football, and eat. Nana & Papaw volunteered on Friday to watch Rylan so that we could go to a movie. Thank you Nana and Papaw.  Tyson and I have only been to one movie since Rylan was born. So it was so nice to go and enjoy our second movie. It was a nice weekend and we look forward to the next one!

Rylan, Nana & Papaw

Nana, Papaw, Tyson and Rylan

Derek, Papaw, Tyson and Rylan

Nickie reading to Rylan.  Rylan loved playing with Nickie and Ms. Skyler.

Rylan having Nana read to him next.

Rylan loved it when Papaw played his guitar. At one point Rylan went and got Papaw and took him back to his guitar, he wanted him to play more.

Thank you God for all of our many blessings!

Cousins

     Tyson, Rylan and I had the great pleasure of watching Sophia one night. Aaron and Samantha went and had a anniversary getaway in Gruene. We volunteered to watch our sweet niece, and we are so glad that we did. She is a sweet little girl, and she is a fantastic baby. It was so fun to see the interaction between Rylan and his cousin. Sophia is 7 months and Rylan is 18 months, so they both now recognize the other one. It will be so fun the older they get.
     Honestly Tyson and I were a little nervous about watching two under the age of 19 months. We thought it may give us a glimpse into the future, of what our house will someday look like. And it did. The evening went great, giving us some confidence in our parenting abilities. The two ate at the same time, played at the same time, bathed at the same time, and went to bed about the same time. Although I will openly admit that if you were a fly on the wall of our house that evening, you probably would have gotten some great laughs.
     Aaron and Samantha returned Saturday around noon. That gave us time to get the kids morning nap in, lunch, and then get them photo ready. We had an appointment to go and get Rylan and Sophia's picture taken together. We decided to stack our weekend visit. So Aaron and Samantha got to celebrate their anniversary, and we also got Nana and Papaw's Christmas taken care of. Nana and Papaw have said all that they want for Christmas is a picture of their grandbabies together. So we were out the door and in for a treat.
To make a funny, interesting, stressful and successful story short, I will say that we did end up with a few good photos of the kids together. THANKFULLY!
     The weekend captured in cousin style pictures................

Rylan and Sophia playing together Friday evening.

Dinner together Friday night.

Bath time together Friday night.

Playing together after bath time.

Sophia falling asleep on her Uncle Tyson, so sweet!

The two kiddos playing with their Daddy's before we left to get their pictures taken.