Girls Weekend!

My friend from small group, Ashley Ethridge, called me this past week to invite me to go to a cabin in the mountains over the weekend with some girls from church that I'd met a few times, Audra & Whitney. Ryan said he would be okay with Madison Claire for the weekend, so off I went! We left Nashville on Friday night and made it to Blue Ridge, GA around midnight. We stayed in Ashley's dads cabin and had a great time! We were able to sleep in, shop, eat, make crafts, watch a movie, and talk...all kid free! I so enjoyed getting to know Audra & Whitney better and look forward to more outings with them all in 2010! In case you are wondering - Madison Claire was an angel for Ryan....no troubles at all.

A fun week!

Mom came into town last week for a visit. She got here on Tuesday night and stayed through Saturday morning! It was great fun having her in town and Madison Claire was spoiled rotten! She kept Madison all 3 nights while we had something planned. Wednesday we went downtown to hear our friend Cyndi sing for a Pancreatic Cancer benefit, Thursday we kept the Morrow kids so Nate & Anne could go out to celebrate Nate's birthday, and Friday Ryan and I went out to sushi for date night! If only mom could come every week!!!

Here are a few pictures from the week:

Cyndi & DJ singing

Small group girls - Zan, Ashley, me & Cyndi. We missed you Val & Kristina!

Me & my honey

Zan & Craig with me & Ryan

Me & Ryan in front of our tree. Special thanks to Ash for my fun turquoise birthday necklace!

Mom brought these precious matching Aprons for us. Madison Claire's says "Madison" and mine says "Madison's Mommy". Too cute :)

CPA Football banquet

We officially closed the CPA football season this past week at the football banquet. Ryan had a lot of fun this year despite their 3-7 record. The record doesn't show how close many of the games were. They lost 6 games by a total of 30 points. Ryan switched up the defense this year to work with what he had and enjoyed creating & implementing the new defense.

We'll remember this as Madison Claire's first football season, the rainiest season yet, the year Ryan was completely tricked by the practical joke between Trent Fisher & Nathan Tutor, and the year he survived a potential brawl with the line crew at Pearl Cohn.

SEC Championship Game

We had a fun visit with Dustin, Tasha & Keatyn today for the SEC Championship game. Tasha and I were pregnant at the same time and it has been a lot of fun going through the same milestones together with our first babies! Keatyn is one month younger than Madison Claire and is just as cute as she can be. We're thankful for their friendship!!

When it was time for them to leave, Madison Claire didn't want them to go so decided she would try to get Keatyn out of her car seat!

Santa!

Madison Claire was introduced to Christmas this week! Annie and I put the tree up and got it decorated while she was taking a nap. When she woke up and saw the tree she freaked - let out a scream and didn't want to be anywhere near it! Over the day it grew on her and now she wants to crawl right up to it and touch the branches or pull the ornaments.

We took Madison Claire to see Santa Claus today at the Green Hills mall. We both really felt like she would freak out because she's been a little leery of strangers lately...especially men. I decided that the best approach would be to just walk her up there and plop her down really quickly before she had a chance to check him out and get timid.

She surprised us with her reaction...she didn't cry or smile...she was just very serious in checking him out and wondering what on earth was going on! Check out the video and these sweet pictures of our little punkin who is starting to look like a big girl!!! Special thanks to Ashley for letting us borrow this precious dress from Ellie!

And here it is on video:

All pooped out after the Santa experience....if this isn't the cutest little picture of her sleeping, I don't know what is!

GACS

We had some excitement at our house this month as Ryan applied for the Head Football Coach position at my high school, GACS. We updated his resume, coverletter & references, researched the school & it's history, sought advice from friends & mentors, and prayed for God's will for Ryan to be clear. Ryan found out on Tuesday that he is not being considered for the position.

We are disappointed in the news as I know that he would have made such a great impact at GACS, but we are trusting in God's providence and in His greater plan for Ryan's career and our family. I knew Ryan would be disappointed on Tuesday so I made him a cheer-up package with some of his favorite things that I don't like at all so he usually doesn't get! It included a Route-44 Root Beer (gross!), chewing gum (double gross!), Reeses (I like these!) and a card. None of this even compared to the real icing on the cake...seeing Madison Claire!

Please join us in praying for God's direction!

The Big 3-0 & Thanksgiving

I celebrated my 30th birthday last week in Destin. I told Ryan that what I wanted more than anything for my birthday was to spend the week with my family down in Destin. My dad was diagnosed with Shingles & Pancreatitis the week before Thanksgiving (oh no!) but luckily he improved in time for the holidays and so we headed down to Florida. It was such a great week...I wish it weren't over!

We got there on Tuesday evening and my birthday was on Wednesday. I slept in on Wednesday morning and we hung out at the condo that morning. In the afternoon, Sarah, Meredith & I went to see the Twilight movie, New Moon at the movie theatre. We then headed back to the condo where my Mama Howard, Uncle Russ, Gary & Cheryl joined the rest of us for my birthday dinner. The evening ended with a good game of Catch Phrase...what a ball!

On Thursday morning, Meredith mentioned that she was considering running the Music City Half Marathon in April. I got the bright idea that it would be fun if we all ran it together (imagine a vision of all of us crossing the finish line holding hands with them above our head...oh what fun!). Surprisingly, everyone seemed to think it was a good idea. Even Ryan said he would do it if the rest of us did! So....we decided to start our training that morning and went for a 3 mile run around Kelly Plantation. About 1.5 miles into the jog, I had quickly decided that the half marathon was a BIG mistake! Ha Ha!

After our jog, the girls laid out on the balcony and the guys played the Wii. We had everyone over again for Thanksgiving and played dominos that night. Ryan won the first 2 games of dominos and he was SO pleased with himself. I wanted to beat him so bad! I came close once but Fetz took my domino slot!!!! I said "please don't put it there, please don't put it there so I can beat Ryan McSwain" but to no avail. I think there is a Ryan conspiracy going on here....

The girls went shopping on Friday and I spent all of the gift cards that were given to me for my birthday! It was so much fun! That afternoon, we went over to see the McSwain's new condo in Panama City Beach. It was great! The grandparents kept Madison Claire while Ryan and I went to dinner at our favorite place - the Red Bar. Afterwards, we drove to Rosemary Beach to get dessert at the Sugar Shack and were pleasantly surprised to see the main square all lit up for the holidays!

Saturday morning we took some family pictures. I'm waiting for Meredith to send them to me via email (Meredith - if you are reading this, please send them!!). I'll post them as soon as I get them. After the pictures, it was a relaxing day at the condo and ended with a Make your own pizza party and a game of Nurtz. Sunday came too soon and before we knew it we were headed back home. We did have Meredith with us which was fun - we picked her up on the way down and dropped her off on the way back.

Madison Claire didn't have a great week. She wasn't her normal self. We weren't sure if it was because she was in a new place, in a pack-n-play, in a closet, around too many people, or something else. It turns out that the "something else" revealed itself on Sunday...her FIRST tooth!!! I'll post a picture as soon as we can really see it when she smiles.

I can't believe that I am 30...but so far, I love the 30s!!