Life Group Scavenger Hunt

This past Saturday night we had our second annual Life Group Scavenger Hunt!  My friend Emily's husband Drew has put it together the last two years and he does a GREAT job!  It was so nice to have an adult evening (thanks Pamaw and Papaw for watching the girls!) and to visit with the people in our class.  We are teaching the three year old class so we aren't in our "home class" very much, and several of our friends are teaching as well, so this was a great chance for everyone to hang out together!

We met out at our Life Group leader's house and split into teams.  Then we headed off to find as many of the items on the scavenger hunt sheet as we could.  We had to take pictures of each item and text them to Drew as we went along.  We had a BLAST!   Sometimes, as adults, it's fun to be silly and act like little kids again!

Drew giving out the instructions...

My four teammates...sorry Kristal I know you will love this picture!

We picked teams randomly (like out of a hat) and Ryan and I ended up on the same team!  We were also paired with Kristal, Scott, and Josh...FUN GROUP!  (Although Scott drove like a maniac and I was just glad we made it without getting in a wreck, getting a speeding ticket, or someone throwing up in the car!  HA!)

Here are a few pictures from someone's iPhone...oh and if you see a big hat, big glasses, or silly mustaches we had to make sure a "prop" was in each picture.  I just kept my mustache on so we wouldn't ever forget a prop.  HA!

Then we all had to sit on a slide together...that was tough to fit!
Recreating a statue outside of a bank...
You can't tell but this next picture is us driving across the Emerson Bride...it said you had to take a picture while ON the bridge...so we figured if we were IN the car, we were still ON the bridge.  We were pretty creative, I know!  HA!
Together in an elevator...

All jumping at the same time...we took a video of ourselves and then Kristal took a screen shot.  As Kristal said..."wow, Ryan, you have some jumping skills!"

Being silly in a shopping cart...

After the hunt we headed back for supper and fellowship.  We watched the Cardinals game and the Mizzou game (we won't talk about Mizzou's meltdown...)  It was such a fun night and we are so thankful for an awesome Life Group class and awesome friendships!

A couple pics of Emory...

Just a couple random pictures of Emory at about 6 weeks old.

She is getting SO BIG already...it's crazy how much she has changed in just a few short weeks!

SEMO Homecoming Parade

Something I look forward to EVERY fall is the SEMO Homecoming Parade.  We watch it in the same spot every year, and my mom always brings a bunch of hot apple cider and hot chocolate, doughnuts, and muffins (and for some reason the last couple of years we've also started getting the little breakfast "chicken and biscuits" from Chick-Fil-A).  It's just such a fun tradition, and I think it's the best parade of the year.  The sororities and fraternities always have pretty good floats, and there are tons of people everywhere! 

We had such a great time, and even little Emory went!  It was too cold for her to be "out" with us, so my parents parked their car the night before in the parking lot right by where we watch the parade.  That way Emory was snoozing away in her car seat in the car 5 feet away from us while we watched.  It worked out so well!

Brynn wanted to wear her purple sock cap AND her tiger hat...it was so cold it was fine with me, even though she did look a little...interesting.  =)

Same spot every year...LOVE IT!

Brynn LOVES the music and the bands.  But her favorite part is the "flag girls" that march with the band.  She talks about the "flag girls" all the time.  (She loves to watch them at football games too).

Such a fun morning!  And just for fun...here is Brynn TWO years ago at her first Homecoming Parade.  She was 7 months old!

JACLYN comes to visit!

A couple of weekends ago we had a very special visitor!  One of my very best friends from college, Jaclyn, was able to stop through Cape on her way back from her 10-year high-school reunion.  While I've seen her several times over the last couple of years, I guess it's always been on little trips, and Brynn was never with us.  So she was able to meet both Brynn and Emory for the first time!  It was so awesome getting to catch up for a few hours!  My parents were close with Jaclyn too, so we had lunch and played over at my parents that afternoon.  (And as you will see, Brynn is wearing a variety of "dance costumes" in these pictures.  She is in a HUGE dress-up phase and anytime we are at my parents she puts on our old dance outfits!  HA!)

Jaclyn brought sweet little gifts for both girls!

Snuggle time with both girls!

Jaclyn thought Brynn was very advanced and tried to teach her how to take a picture
with her phone...sorry Jaclyn, we aren't exactly ready for that yet!  Brynn was waving the
camera all over the place...I'm just glad she didn't break it! HA!

Two out of the five "PAC" members!
We missed you Lauren, Alicia, and Catey!

Being silly!

Brynn was a big fan!  

Jaclyn - THANK YOU SO MUCH for making a little trip to visit us!  LOVE YOU!

Emory's Baby Dedication

This past Sunday we dedicated Emory at church.  I love that our church gives parents the opportunity to stand in front of the church and make a public commitment that we want to raise our children in Godly homes, where our desire is to make Him known to our children and to daily pray for them.  Our biggest prayer is that one day our kids will make a commitment to Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior. 

We signed a special commitment letter that our church frames and gives to us.
We have one from Brynn's dedication too, and and it is such a great reminder of
the commitment we made to the Lord to try to raise our children to love the Lord.

We go to the 9:00 service, so that's when we participated in the dedication ceremony, but several of our close friends were in the 10:30 service so we don't have pictures of them.  But it was an amazing day with so many little babies and their families being dedicated!  I wish we would have taken a family picture, but we were rushing to just get there on time!  HA!  (Funny story - we wanted to be early (or at least on time) since we had the dedication ceremony and didn't want to feel rushed...but of course we were a little bit.  Brynn and I were in the car while Ryan was in the house getting Emory in her car seat.  I'm thinking "where is Ryan...hurry up!"  He gets out to the car and told me he ripped his pants while he was bending over to get her in the seat and it was so bad he had to change pants and everything!  HAHA!")

Winzee and Curt - Weekend Recap

This past weekend my sister and her husband were able to come in town to visit.  With Lindsey being a nurse, her work schedule is kind of crazy.  She had worked like 8 out of 10 days, but then had several days off in a row.  So my mom and grandparents went to Nashville last Tuesday to visit with her and shop, and then she rode home with them on Wednesday night.  Then Curt drove to Cape on Friday after work.

So...we got to see "Winzee" (as Brynn says) quite a bit from Thursday on through the rest of the weekend and we took full advantage.  Here is a recap of our weekend with "Winzee and Curt."

Thursday morning Lindsey came over and helped Brynn get ready for picture day at school.  We all got ready and then we dropped Brynn off at school.




 Lindsey and I (and sleeping Emory) headed to Starbucks to just sit and talk and visit.  My dad (who works part time driving the shuttle bus for SEMO) was on "fall break" so he joined us a little later.


We headed back to my house and hung out, fed Emory, ate lunch, and did a little shopping before it was time to pick up Brynn from school.  We headed over to my parents house to play and eat supper together.

Then on Friday morning we headed to my grandparents house so we could all visit.

Pawpaw got a little snuggle time with Emory.

In my grandparents little town of 1000 people, golf-carts are a big deal and people drive them around town.  So of course we had to take a ride on my grandpa's golf cart.  =)  Brynn even got to drive.  Only in Oran...

We just went for lunch, but my grandma made a roast with potatoes and carrots and gravy, lime jello
salad, rolls, fried okra, corn, and apple crisp!  OH MY!
I sent this picture to Ryan over lunch...he said "DO YOU HAVE TO RUB IT IN?"

We headed home after lunch so the girls could take naps...then after Ryan got off work we went to my parents to have a BONFIRE!  With a newborn, we haven't really done anything like that this fall season, so we decided to have a mini bonfire of our own!

Thanks to Pinterest I made this "pumpkin" veggie tray.  

We were taking a BIG family picture the next morning so we laid all of our clothes
out and made sure we liked everything together.  =)

I also made this cheese-ball...thanks Pinterest!  It was YUM!
Unless you are Curt...in which case the cream cheese freaks you out so you don't eat it.  HA!

 Let the BONFIRE BEGIN!

I think they were dancing in this picture??
And don't mind Brynn's clothes...she's in a HUGE dress up phase so she put on this tutu.

This was our bonfire...HA!

It really wasn't super cold, but Emory spent 99% of the night inside.  But she had to at least
come outside so we could say she experienced the bonfire.  =)
Thanks to Gigi for knitting this adorable little hat.  

Brynn was HILARIOUS!  She wanted to roast her own hot dog so we let her (knowing Ryan would probably just have to make her one), and it was too funny!  My mom had mentioned that she wanted hers really done, and she must have said she wanted it black, so Brynn says "I like mine black too" and just proceeded to stick it all the way in the bottom and roll it in the ashes.  It was HILARIOUS!

 She had so much fun!  And then we made S'MORES!

The boys were going to set up a tent and "go camping" but it was just too cold for her to sleep out there.  So they took a blanket out instead.  =)

After the bonfire, we all headed over to our house.  My parents put the girls to bed (well...they put Brynn to bed and probably held Emory the whole time...ha!) and let us four "big kids" walk over to watch some filming.  I mentioned on here before that they are filming the movie "Gone Girl" here in Cape, and that night they were filming ONE STREET OVER from our house!  (If you've read the book, Ben Affleck's character has a twin sister and the sister's house was being filmed one street over from us.)  So we walked over and watched.  It was SO COOL!  We saw Ben Affleck do a million takes of just knocking on her door.  It is truly crazy to see how many people, cameras, trucks, trailers, lights, and equipment it takes to film a little scene.  It was just nuts!

Saturday morning we had our big family picture.  Then my parents headed to Saint Louis for a wedding (Mollie you looked GORGEOUS!)  Ryan and I and Emory headed to church because we had a lunch for Emory's baby dedication the next day.  Lindsey and Curt hung out with Brynn, and then they all came over to relax and watch the Mizzou game.  We got to visit and enjoy the game while the girls napped.

Curt is a hard-core Tennessee fan, and they were playing the same time as Mizzou.  We were watching the games back and forth and their game was a NAIL BITER.  It ended up coming down to Tennessee trying to kick a field goal for the win.  Curt was in a fetal position all over the basement and this is what he looked like during the field goal.  THANKFULLY Tennessee WON!  YAY!

HAHAHA!
But sadly, I TOTALLY understand how he feels.
Sometimes I hate how "into" the games I get.  =)

The boys let Lindsey and I have a little bit of girl time (we did a little shopping!) and they watched Brynn and Emory for awhile.  Then we all went to Pagliai's to eat pizza for supper.  And we may have even headed to Simply Swirled for ice cream afterward...YUM!  When we got home Brynn took a quick bath and then Lindsey gave Brynn her first little haircut!  For the record, she has NO EXPERIENCE cutting hair, but she just wanted to trim all the dead-ends off.  And we decided to let her.  YIKES!  She actually did a great job!

Brynn was having fun playing with my shirt =)
I know it looks like she's playing with my certain "area"...HA!

Ryan was getting the experience on video...

 After they spent pretty much the ENTIRE day with us on Saturday I'm sure they were exhausted.  I told them it was probably good birth control....HA!

Sunday morning we got up and had Emory's baby dedication ceremony at church (more on that in a separate post).  I was looking at this picture and thought "wow...were Ryan and I holding hands while we were signing the certificate?  That's sweet!"  Then I realized that's just an optical illusion and I think that's Jennilee's hand behind me?  HA!

We headed home and took quick naps before heading back to church at 2:00 for a very special service.  As some of you know (and some probably don't), my sister-in-law Sarah was pregnant with their third child.  She and Jason lost the baby at 18 weeks, so they had a very special memorial service for sweet little Adler.  The service was incredible.  I know they are hurting so much, but they are praising the Lord through it all and are just an incredible example to us of following the Lord and trusting Him when things don't make sense.  We know we will see our little nephew in Heaven someday.

After the service we headed out to Marble Hill where Adler was buried on a beautiful piece of land that Sarah's parents own.  It was a beautiful day and the leaves were gorgeous and you could just feel the Lord's presence in the midst of the suffering.  We headed to Sarah's parents cabin for chili and fellowship and it was a special evening.

So thankful for ALL of our families and all the special memories that were made this weekend.