Football & Fairy Tales The McSwains

Ryan's diet

Well...wouldn't you know, that just as I am gaining all of this weight with the pregnancy, Ryan is looking his absolute best! He has lost around 20 pounds since December and has gone from a size 36 pants to a size 32 pants. He's been doing a diet called Intermittent Fasting where basically he only eats for a 8 hour period during the day. He looks great and is going to have a full 6-pack by summer!

Visit with Kate & NO MORE Cashews!

Kate came to Memphis for a visit in early March. It was so great to see her and the kids had a ball! We had lots of great meals, took a trip to the zoo, and a surprise trip to the Urgent Care center due to an allergic reaction from Madison Claire. We miss you, Kate!

NO MORE CASHEWS!!!! While Kate and I were out shopping, Ryan gave Madison Claire a cashew out of nut mix he was eating. Her bottom lip immediately became swollen so he gave her some benadryl. When we got home, the benadryl had worked a little bit, but her lip was still puffy. An hour or so later, she threw up and then on the way to dinner, she started breaking out like crazy. It was so scary! Fortunately, I was able to reach my good friend Rebecca whose husband Scout is a pediatric allergist. They were actually in the hospital having just had their 3rd baby so it was a total God thing that they were actually available. Scout gave us some advice on what to do and where to go. A few minutes later, we were at the Urgent Care center. This is what she looked like when we got there :(

Not sure if you can tell in the picture above, but her poor ears are BRIGHT red and she literally has hives all over her body. It was horrible! They gave her a steroid shot and pretty soon, she cleared up and we went on to dinner. Phew. Scary!

Fashionista!

Seriously...Madison Claire is a little fashionista and it drives me *CRAZY* most of the time! She is 100% opinionated on what she is going to wear and will go through phases where she will only wear certain things without throwing a fit. Examples include: tights, leotards, bathing suits, NO jeans, little arm sleeves (aka short sleeves), NO boots, etc.

It has gotten so bad that I have threatened to take her entire closet away and only give her 3 things to wear for a full week. Luckily I haven't had to do it yet, but stay tuned :). Here she is in some of my clothes and shoes.

February 5th, 2013

Ryan and I met for the first time on February 5th, 2000. This year, to celebrate our 13th "meeting anniversary" we went out for a romantic dinner at Flyte in downtown Memphis. The meal was just okay, but as usual, we enjoyed the company and had a great night talking about how we could not have ever imagined 13 years ago that our life would be what it is today. God has blessed us tremendously and we are so thankful!!

National Championship Game

We had fun watching the National Championship game with our friends from ECS! I'm so thankful for these ladies - coaches wives and friends! The game was a total blow out and I got a headache around half time, but it was still fun to get out of the house.

Christmas

We had a great Christmas vacation. We started in Nashville for a few days and enjoyed spending time with the McSwains and celebrating with them. You've never seen so many presents under one tree! Grandma and Grandpa Terry got Madison Claire a big girl bicycle and she literally freaked out when she saw it. She just started screaming - it was precious! I have it on video and will try to post it soon.

Ryan and I got our Christmas gift for each other while we were there - a new car! We knew that we would need more space once the baby arrives, and knew that we wanted a Honda Odyssey so we went on and took the plunge in Nashville. Ryan kept saying "Merry Christmas" to me and I told him that it was really "Merry Christmas" to him because upgrading from the new 2009 Honda Pilot to the new 2012 Honda Odyssey wasn't near as awesome as upgrading from the 1990 Toyota Camry to the 2009 Honda Pilot :)

We then headed down to Atlanta, driving both cars, to spend Christmas there with my family. We made it and had a great week, complete with the Japanese Steakhouse, an inspired NorthPoint Christmas service, a Howard family game of Minute to Win It, a surprise visit from Julie Haley, make-overs at Laura Mercier, a Les Miserables viewing, Madison Claire reciting the Christmas Story from Luke, a Christmas eve sermon from Ben complete with family singing, a visit with Lauren Brennan, and lots of good cousin time that resulted in a chipped tooth for poor little Mac!