Ashland - November 2009

Ashland to visit Allie

Bill, Courtney and I traveled south this weekend to visit Allie at Southern Oregon University. We had a wonderful weekend. We arrived in Ashland around 4:30pm, picked Allie up at her dorm, and got all checked into our hotel.
Courtney introduced Allie to her mechanical nephew....Too funny!

We stayed at the Palm Cottages in Ashland. What a great place! This our new favorite place in Ashland and we won't be staying anywhere else. EVER! We had dinner at our favorite Chinese Restaurnt on Friday night and then came back to watch movies and hang out together. Our room had a really cute kitchenette in it and I made a fun breakfast on Saturday morning. Here is a picture of our kitchenette.

Hanging out in the room on Friday night!

Bill was resting while "babysitting" Courtney's class project! ha ha ha ha....Oh my.

On Saturday, we hit the mall in Medford and walked around for a bit. Then we rushed back to watch the Beaver / Husky game. (Sorry Billy....The huskies played a good game though)

Saturday night we went out to dinner at Beasy's on the Creek. It was a wonderful dinner!

Courtney's baby was pretty good through dinner, execpt he started fussing during dessert. Courtney had to hold the baby while she ate her brownie sundae.
What a good Mommy she will be someday!

However, after dessert.....a totally different story. The baby was screaming so Allie and Courtney had to find the braclet to scan his belly and quickly change his diaper. I don't know what was louder...the baby screaming or all of us laughing.

I'm really looking forward to Allie coming home on Friday for a week for Thanksgiving. Next Wednesday, my Dad and Linda will be here for Thanksgiving. It will be so nice to see them and we have some fun family time planned.

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!!!