Ryan and Casey plus 2

EIGHT!!!  I cannot believe I have a daughter that is so grown up!!  We surprised her with her very favorite Bigby coffee smoothie and of course waxy chocolate donuts haha!  I was sad to send her to school on her big day but she was treated so well there!  She told her teacher and classmates that she was born at 2:24 PM and they actually stopped what they were doing and counted down from 2:23 until it turned 2:24......and then screamed happy birthday Whitney.  It made me so happy to hear that she is so loved and taken care of at school by everyone!   As we drove in the driveway she was greeted by Meredith and the Beck family holding signs for her!  She was so surprised and a little embarrassed.  This has become a new phase for her...being embarrassed.  Apparently Ryan sang something in front of a few friends and Whit was beyond embarrassed by this!!  hahaha! She chose Red Robin for her birthday dinner and semi loved the atte...

The month of December is always packed full with parties, school events and more!  It is such a fun time and I am so happy to say that we were all healthy and ready to take on all the fun this year!! We usually kick off the Christmas holiday celebrations with Skeldon cousin PJ party!  Aunt Elaine and Uncle Jay supply the PJ's each year and it is one of our favorite traditions!  This year we had our first annual mom and me gift exchange in the neighborhood as well as an adult movie night to view Christmas Vacation -- apparently this was planned for me since I have never seen this and it shocked many of my neighbors!!! We left the Obannon neighborhood because we never felt a sense of community and quite frankly there were hardly any kids near us at all!  Jackson Woods is amazing and any questions we had about moving here were quickly pushed away.  We had many firsts this year but one of my favorite things has been seeing the kids get along so well.  ...

Two years to the day after my Grandma passed away, my Grandpa went up to join her in heaven.  It was very unexpected as he was fine one day and gone the next.  We think it was an infection that started in his teeth that spread to his heart but are thankful he passed away peacefully.  He loved to smoke and when my mom came into the house to take him to a doctor appointment, he was sitting on the couch with his jacket over his knee and a cigarette behind his ear (showing he was ready to go out in the garage to smoke his cigarette.  She thought he was sleeping at first because he looked so peaceful and that makes us all happy to think that he was going about his normal routine and that he didn't suffer. In fact later that week we found the daily devotion book he was reading and it had the bookmark right on the page for November 30, showing that in the morning on the day he passed away, he read the devotional.  I think of him everyday and miss him more than I thoug...