Ryan's EIGHTH birthday celebration

Can you believe I now have an EIGHT year old. EIGHT, seems so much bigger that seven...probably because it's a big year. He's finally out of a booster seat, which he's been very excited about. He's in second grade, lost 13 teeth, and communicates on a whole new level with Mark and I. He is incredibly smart, makes all A's, and has a very good attitude most of the time. Our super-uber shy guy is gone and he's turning into a jokester at school, which is good and bad! He still LOVES to read and play Lego but Star Wars is finally taking a backseat to sports---which I personally LOVE! He also loves anything electronic: the DS, the Wii, our phones, the computer, TV etc. Somedays I love technology and some days I can't stand it! It is however the very first privilege that gets taken away for being disrespectful, acting too silly at school, and basically anything else that comes our way. Ryan has made us really up our game in parenting. He's so smart he can outwit me quickly if I'm not careful, and you better believe he NEVER, EVER forgets anything we say EVER! Even when we think he's not listening, he is, he ALWAYS is!! :) I am so thankful the God choose him to be our firstborn and I cannot wait to see him in action as a big brother again. He is so sweet with all the cousins and has turned into quite a leader. He still beats to his own drum, has Mark's sense of humor and unfortunately got an equal dose of our stubbornness and sarcasm. He's a very generous kid who's full of kindness, silliness and craziness wrapped into one perfect stinky boy. We love you Kid-O and we are SO proud of you! 8 is going to be a blast.

His real birthday:

Honey and GP treated the older cousins to 3 Spoons and he got his present from them early, which he loved and built in an hour and a half---he has some serious Lego skills y'all.

Then we had a cookie cake celebration at school and headed to Texas Roadhouse for some yummy steak. Ryan's favorite meal :).

His Sports party:

I need to thank the Cersey Party Planning Team big time on the party. I was so sick I hardly remember this so thank you girls for decorating everything and taking all these wonderful pictures to document "the perfect party" (according to Ryan). Ryan had very specific requests, so the fact that he called this party perfect was a huge success!

The decorations:

Yes that's a PVC goal post that Kacey made. I mean how cute??!!

And Caryn meticulously hung the banner and decoupaged the name and number eight. Thanks again girls!

It really turned out very cute...I mean cool!

These two were the only girls allowed at the party.

The Smith clan

Uncle Frank and Caroline

Cutie-Pies

Cersey Team

Again the cutest girls on the planet

And this is what the majority of the party looked like. Lots of running, jumping, hockey, football, basketball, and fun!

Such a mean goalie

Some friends and babies (sorry Ann I thing we surprised ya:)

Party people

Even sick I managed to sanitize everyone!

One happy birthday boy

Getting our grub on

Wyatt and Landry, two peas in a pod.

such handsome fellows

COOKIE CAKE!

Singing

Our one and only family shot. So thankful for my photographer!

Thanks mom for "the perfect party". Sometimes I want to burst he's so sweet, and other times ...we'll save that for the non-birthday post :).

Gifts galore. We have some amazing friends and such a wonderful family. Thank you guys so much for sharing in Ryan's day!

Happy 8th birthday Ryan!

Ryan's QB debut

Ryan has been playing flag football again this year and he is LOVING it! He is in the 2nd-3rd grade division and plays quarterback. He can throw a great spiral and loves to say "down, set, hut" on every offensive play. We have ourselves a great little athlete and have enjoyed watching him gradually get more aggressive and confident this season. (These pictures are all out of order again...sorry folks:)

The most faithful fan awards definitely goes to Grandma! She has never missed a game and we love getting to visit with her at the games.

The amazing Mrs. Wallace made it out to cheer on the crocs last week. We are incredibly blessed to have this fantastic 2nd grade teacher in our lives. Ryan talks about her all the time and it has been a huge comfort to us this year knowing he's in wonderful hands every day at school.

Ryan has a huge fan club. The Warrens cheering on their #1 nephew. Lila was given me her new wave...what do you think? pretty funny!

absolutely edible Caroline who LOVES her Ry-Ry

I love the WFC because it's a very laid back sports environment.

RW getting ready for some De-fence! (he's #9)

these two were a BIG help holding the down marker :)

Some serious actions shots

He's gotten so good!!! Love watching you play Buddy!

These two were on different teams this year, but still the best of friends.

Ryan and Dad

The rest of the crazy fans!

I promise I was at the games, just forgot to get pics of myself in attendance. We haven't had many wins this year and honestly I was concerned at the start of the season because I know how competitive my son is. He has handled it sooooo well (honestly much better than his dad and I:)). I am continually amazed at this child of mine.

LOVE YOU!

Updates & Let's Go Wildcats!!

I feel like I need a disclaimer for this post. It's completely random that I'm updating our lives mixed with a WCS PEP rally post but that's just the way I roll these days. Update #1 WE HAVE A NEW COMPUTER!!!! Whoo-Hoo! We got an iMac and I am beyond excited about it...but going from a PC to a Mac has been a little more difficult than I thought, and I cannot yet figure out blogger- so my pictures are all out of order. I cannot figure out iPhoto yet either and still prefer Picasa so we'll see how that goes but who really cares, bottom line I am just excited to write a post in less than an hour and a half :).

Update #2 I am now in my 13th week of pregnancy and still feeling pretty awful unfortunately. Hopefully just a few more weeks of the pukes and then I'll be able to actually accomplish a task or two around this joint! Lately I have been having really bad headaches as well, so I'd appreciate those prayers!! I heard the heartbeat of this miracle baby last week and immediately heard this thud, thud, thud noise through the speaker. My Dr. then started laughing saying that I have, "an incredibly active baby" and those thuds were teeny tiny baby kicks! I'm not so sure hearing I have "an incredibly active baby" is something to smile at or fear, so for now I'm undecided. It was honestly amazing hearing those thuds, and I am starting to come out of denial a little bit:).

Update #3 We have decided to stay put here in our house and have started to transform our office into a nursery. When I say transform basically we have painted and removed about 10 boxes of "stuff" that I have no idea what to do with! I am excited about having this cozy little space for Wood baby 3 three, and am super excited to find whether we'll add soft pink or slate blue to the light gray walls. Now onto the actual post:

We are so fortunate to attend Woodway Christian School and this year we have a brand new mascot...the WILDCAT!! The school has been such a blessing for my and my family and being a part of their first ever PEP Rally was SO fun!

As all the students pre-K-sixth grade walked into the gym they were handed a pom-pom. I'll let you guess which one of my children was WAAAY too cool for that, and which one thought they might explode with enthusiasm :)

Some of the elementary teachers lead the students in a couple of cheers, and boy were they awesome. I never knew they had such secret talents

And here he is... the WCS Wildcat! He came through the walking track throwing out gum and then kids were EXCITED!!!

Introducing the WCS flag football team.

Let's go, let's go, L-E-T-S G-O!!

And the WCS Girls Volleyball team. Aren't they adorable!

Y-E-L-L, yell, everybody yell (clap clap)W-C-S.

Oh yeah they busted through this poster made by the talented art teacher Mrs. Barnett. Nice work!

Honey lead they Wildcats in a prayer. That's right a prayer at school, need I say more!

Some super excitement

Cutie pies

Oh and Ryan was the only one with no pom, pom---and big shocker he refused to look at Aunt Cary for a picture. But don't let that fool you, he was having a blast!

And this little cheerleader was on cloud nine!

I know I sound like a broken record about the school but when you've experienced the greatness of WCS it's hard not to shout from the rooftops how incredible this place is.

Fired UP

Fired UP

Fired UP, and UP and UP and UP and UP

:)

Life at the Woods

We have been busy getting back into our fall schedule. Ryan and Ally are both LOVING school this year and it has been absolutely wonderful so far:).
Ryan had a Second Grade community helper project and he immediately decided to interview Uncle Josh. He did AWESOME!! Meet the future Dr. Wood.


Ally and momma have had the afternoons all to ourselves and one of her favorite things to do is get pedicures. I love it too!


College football is baaaaack!! Ryan is loving watching football with Mark. They got to go to the BU vs. TCU game and it was incredible. They stayed until the very end and loved every minute of it.


Ryan's also playing flag football again this year and is the quarterback! He's constantly playing ball in the living-room, the backyard, basically anywhere he can throw the ball. Oh and under armor is his official sponsor. :)


Ally and I on one of our many lunch dates. I really haven't been cooking at all lately...


...Because I'm PREGNANT!!!


I know!!! It was a big surprise to us too but, we're thrilled! I thought our family was complete, but the Lord had other plans for us. It is absolutely amazing that this happened at all and we are incredibly grateful. It did however take a little getting used to. Mark almost had a heart attack, I did have a panic attack but... our beautiful, amazing children were SO excited they could hardly contain themselves! It is an incredible blessing and I feel very honored to embark on this journey again (sort of wish I hadn't sold every baby item I had, thankfully the sisters are fully equipped in the baby department).
Our family is going through a lot of changes but I am excited for our future and REALLY ready to start feeling better. I'm 10 weeks and have been super sick this time. And since I'm 35 now, I think it's just overall harder on this body. This miracle baby is due April 1st and we would love your prayers and encouragement. Thank you blogger buddies!

Back...back, back to school again

After the fastest summer on record, it was once again time for SCHOOL!! Ryan's a big 2nd grader and Ally is going every morning until 11:30. She absolutely loves getting to go with Bubba and thinks she is pretty big stuff at Woodway Christian School:). Here are my precious babies getting ready for day one.


Look closely at this picture and you'll notice that Ally has recently lost 3 more teeth...that's a total of four teeth at age four!! She has the most beautiful new smile:).


We had "homework" to bring back on the first day. This is Ally's 'All about me' poster. My favorite section is naming her pets. Since we have no pets she named all our family pets. If I can keep that going for awhile I'll take it!!


Big seven year running into school. What a difference a year makes!


Ally waiting for Daddy to help her in the building.


Our annual pic with the best administrator in town!! This picture blesses my socks off.


The one and only family shot


Ryan and his fabulous teacher Mrs. Wallace. She is amazing!


An added treat this year is that Ally and Wyatt are in the same class---I mean how cool is that??!!


These three are TROUBLE.


Checking out her new classroom


Ally and Mrs. Dunlap. Ryan had her when he was four and I am very grateful that Ally gets to have this fantastic teacher as well


We are ready for a wonderful year. Go Wildcats!

Helping Daddy ;)

We have had such a fast summer! I captured these pictures with my iPhone one random day and just ran across them tonight:). Mark had some really good helpers washing the cars.














Ahhh the relaxing days of summer have come and gone, I just wish the heat would leave as well!

What is Gilbert's syndrome?

(I wrote this on 8-4-11, and forgot to post it)
Tonight

For the past year I have not been feeling like myself. I seem to catch every single virus within 100 miles, I'm constantly fatigued, have body aches and pains, weird yellow eyes, anxiety, insomnia and a plethora of strange tummy issues. I have had every test imaginable and tonight I was finally given an answer! Drumroll please...I have been diagnosed with Gilbert's syndrome.
Lovely. What is this?? Will it go away? Basically it's an inherited liver disorder that effects 8-10% of us. My body produces excess red blood cells and the bilirubin from this isn't filtered properly by my liver (hence my yellow eyes) and leads to all these symptoms. There are more but I haven't experienced those thankfully. There are also"triggers" like overexertion, dehydration, stress, and lack of sleep. Not doing so good on that list today, and something's got to give. :)
As far as a diagnosis goes I think this far outweighs the other options. However, it is not a great thing to hear you have something that's "mild" and has no cure. I am relieved to know what's wrong because it's been a long, long, road. So far I haven't had a big pity party but it may be coming so watch out!! Thank you for your prayers, encouragement and patience. I am hoping that soon, very soon I start feeling better for longer than 2 days in a row!!
Been clinging to this verse...
Isaiah 49:15-16
"I would not forget you! See I have written your name on the palms of my hand."


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