The Polar Express

This is the second year in a row that Nana and Papaw have taken all the grandbabies on The Polar Express. Last year Reesey was less than a month old and cousin Arden hadn't made her debut into this world yet. This year we had four active Purdy babies. Rylan has been watching the movie and wanting us to read him the book almost everyday. So we knew that this would be fun for him this year.

Before we got on the train Rylan happily took a picture with the conductor. He was so excited and talked about him like he was a Rock Star!

Here are our babes in their PJ's ready to ride.

A family photo of us.

Rylan was so protective over his Polar Express Ticket.

Here are Nana and Papaw and all four of their babies. You may notice how hard it is to get one of all four grandbabies looking.

Ry loved the hot chocolate, and making a mustache with the whip cream was even more fun.

That babies enjoying their train ride.

Rylan and Sophia looking out the window for Santa.

This was Rylan's face when he first saw that Santa got on the train. He actually talked to him this year, he told him what he wanted, and ever so sweetly greeted him with a "Merry Christmas!"

Here is his excitement, and him telling Santa he would like to get Buzz Hands this year.

Seeing the excitement and joy that Rylan got this year was so thrilling and emotional for us parents. Seeing CHRISTmas through a child's eye is magical. I pray that you and your family are enjoying this season of Christs birthday.

Christmas Is In the Air

Okay, I'm Back! Blogger is now allowing me to upload pictures again, yay! I've missed you all.

The Christmas season is in full force at the Purdy house. Here are a few pictures to let you in on a few of our CHRISTmas happenings.

Jimmy (our elf) has returned.

Rylan is really into Jimmy this year! He wakes up every morning wondering where he is, and if he has gotten into something. This particular day he wanted to dress like him.

Our tree is up. We had two little helpers this year. Elf 1................

and elf 2. Reesey still thinks we are decorating the tree, because she wants to play with the ornaments everyday. Just today she realized that she could unwrap the presents.

Our two little elves.

We went to Lubbock last weekend to celebrate Tia's birthday. We took her to dinner at Abuelo's (YUM) and then we all went to look at Christmas lights.

Here are Tia and Uncle Eric (so cute) and Rylan ready to go look at lights. Listening to Rylan's sweet little voice talk about his excitement for lights warmed this Mommy's heart. Although at one house I pointed out a Santa, his response was, "That's not the real Santa."  When do they start knowing that? The car went silent, all four of us adults were stumped on how to respond. LOL.

We got our first snow last Sunday night! Tyson ran out and began playing in it.

The babes and I waited until the next morning. Here are our little elves all bundled up.

Rylan loved playing in the snow.

Christmas projects are underway.

Our lights are up!

We are counting down until Jesus Birthday.

I would love for you to share what Christmas looks like at your house this year.

Three Generations

Buying gifts can sometimes be a difficult task. So whenever I can make something for someone, that is what I do. I love having children, because most of the time all grandparents really want is something from them. So, for Bruce this year I wanted to make something special for his birthday. Rylan is his only grandson and I wanted to make something that incorporated three generations of Purdy's. I came up with the idea of putting Bruce's handprint on a canvas, then Tyson's handprint on top of his, and Rylan's handprint on top of Tyson's. 3 Generations! It worked perfectly because they all three have different size hands. I used black paint for Bruce's hand, brown paint for Tyson's hand, and white paint for Rylan's hand. I found some masculine scrapbook paper at Hobby Lobby and edged the sides of the canvas with it. I then printed the bible verse Psalm 45:16, a verse about generations. I put the verse on the scrapbook paper, and used Mod Podge to put it on the canvas.

This was how the canvas looked when I was done.

This is a close up of the bible verse.

Here is a better angle. You can see the scrapbook paper on the edges, and you can see how well the handprints turned out. This was something I hope that Bruce loved.

Reesey's Birthday Party

I know this is a few weeks late but I still wanted to share. Reesey's 1st birthday party was simply sweet. We had a lot of family and a few friends to celebrate with. Our girl napped right up unitl the party and was kind of a Momma's girl the whole time (which this Momma loves)!  I decided to go with the owl theme and use light green and light pinks. I couldn't find everything I wanted in light green and light pink, so I ended up going green and pink with a lot of different variety in both. I only did a few decorations, nothing over the top and all handmade by this Momma. I didn't do games so all I really had to plan for was the food, cake, gift bags, and a few small touches here and there. Without further ado.............................

I made a door hanger to welcome everyone into our home. You know I'm not the best photographer, so this is the best picture I could get of it. I purchased different cardstocks that had pink and green and used that as the body of the owl. I searched owls on pintrest and I found this one to use as my template  http://pinterest.com/pin/48061920994640994/.  Mine aren't identical but I didn't want them to be. I used flowers I had purchased from Hobby Lobby and glued them by the owls ear. I added flowers to all the owls, I wanted to have a little feminine touch.

I made a highchair sign for my birthday girl. I saw one of these on pintrest http://pinterest.com/pin/48061920994628797/ and thought that I could make it fairly easy, and for almost nothing. I was right, it was easy and turned out just like I wanted it to.

I wrapped a box I got in the mail from Amazon and stuck another handmade owl on it. I purchased the 1 at Hobby Lobby. I painted it, and used it as table decor for the party and also for her 1 year old photo shoot.

This was the party table. Like I said nothing too crazy, simple and sweet just like my Reesey. I didn't do much food since we had invited everyone to stay for fajitas after the party. I just had juice, water, veggies, and fruit.

I found these adorable owl cupcakes on pintrest and I knew that I wanted to have them at the party. http://pinterest.com/pin/48061920994308719/  So my Momma kindly helped me decorate my cupcakes (which I purchased from the grocery store, I'm not a baker). I had the bakery do the frosting in light pink icing, and we added Oreo's for the eyes and used Reese's Pieces for the center of the eyes and the beak. Easy and so cute.

I just love them!

I found a bakery that would create sugrar cookies decorated with the owls of my choice for fairly cheap. So I had them make these as the gift bag/thank you gift for our guests. They turned out perfect. My dear friend Allison is just fabulous at digital scrapbooking, labeling, and card making. She very sweetly made Reesey's invitaitons for us and the adorable thank you tag that is on the cookies. Thank you Allison, they were perfect, much like you http://brendelsthree.blogspot.com/.

Our sweet girl loved all of her presents and smiled with a small laugh when she held each one.

Big Brother had a hard time grasping little sister getting all the attention. So we thought we would let him help open presents, which really was a big help.

This was a picture we were able to get before Reesey dug into her Smash cake!

I ordered her cake from the same place I ordered the cookies from. The cake matches the cookies. I sent the bakery pictures of cakes I had found on pintrest and they created this!

Here is our 1 year old (that was hard to write) little girl digging inot her cake. Surprisingly she loved the cake part better than the icing.

This was the damage when she was done with it.

My dear friend Camille made Reesey's birthday shirt and bow. She is so awesome, I tell her what I'm thinking and then she creates exactly what I want, only cuter.

Again, an idea stolen from pintrest http://pinterest.com/pin/48061920994618483/. I wanted a little flair but not too much. So I made this easy, half tutu belt. I thought it was perfect for Reesey and she looked adorable in it.

Happy 1st Birthday sweet Reese Lynn!

Happy 1st Birthday Reese Lynn

On 11-11-2011 we welcomed our sweet baby girl into this world. This last year Reese Lynn Purdy has filled this house with sweetness, LOTS of smiles, tenderness, a bundle of cuddles, cute little giggles, more laughter, sibling love, new child locks, and blessings of joy. We had no idea what a little baby girl would be like. We are so thankful to God for blessing us with our little Buttercup. We quickly adjusted to having a boy and a girl, and we love it!!!!!!!!

Reesey Cup, you have been the best baby this last year. You have taken over your Daddy, Brother, and I with your sweet smile and easy going attitude. This household is filled with laughter and little girl giggles daily. I can't imagine our lives without you. I love walking in your room after nap or in the mornings and seeing your sweet smile peer over the railing. It never fails, I can always look to you to provide a sweet grin, reminding me (daily) how good this life is. I have never met a happier baby. For your Daddy and I there is no greater joy than watching you and your brother play together. You laugh at him more than anyone, which can be dangerous. LOL. I love holding you close, because I know that you will always lay that pretty little cheek on my shoulder and wrap your chunky little hands around my neck. You always make this Momma feel loved. You still have plenty of rolls and I love tickling you in between them. You have changed a lot this year. We see a daintier side to you than we do your big brother. You aren't yet walking but I'm guessing by Christmas you will be. You are saying Momma, Dada, Bu-bye, Bubbba (which completely made me cry the first time I heard it), wu-wu (which we think is Ry Ry), yum-yum, ooo-oh, and beebi (which is baby). You eat like a little piglet, we haven't found much you don't like.

I can't wait to see what you have in store for us this next year. We have already noticed a little sass begin to surface. I'm sure with the help of God, your Daddy and I can filter that into something beautiful. My Dear Sweet Reesey, I love you with all that I am. You are happy, beautiful, and you show a sweet wide-eyed attitude for this world. May God continue to bless you my sweet daughter!

"For you created my inmost being, you knit me together in my mother's womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made."  ~ Psalm 139:13-14

You Are My Sunshine

For Tyson's birthday this year I wanted to make him something from his babies. I really wanted him to have something from them for his office. So I came up with this; "You are my Sunshine" canvas. I used Rylan's hand prints as the outside of the sun using yellow paint. I then used Reese's hand prints for the inner part of the sun, the orange part. It came out really well despite a few smudges, which are what made it homemade. For the words I just printed them on cardstock, and then I used Mod Podge to adhere it all onto the canvas. Simple, sweet and very cheap.

The best part is that Daddy loved it!

Happy Halloween

I hope you all had a Happy Halloween, we had a great day and really enjoyed watching Rylan trick-or-treat this year. I really wanted the babes to dress as some duo, but Ry wasn't having it. So I gave in and let him be Buzz, and I must say he was the cutest Buzz ever (partial yes, sorry). Our Reesey Cup was a pumpkin, and just so very precious!

Here are the babes before we headed out to trick-or-treat.

Here is Buzz (Rylan) Lightyear!

Here is our "Lil Pumpkin"!

Rylan loved going from house to house this year. He ran from one house to the next, we even had a hard time keeping up.

Reesey just enjoyed riding along and watching all the kids.

We went with a big group, all the kids were precious and we really had a fantastic time together.