10 years together!

On August 18th Ryan and I celebrated 10 years of marriage. The past 10 years have flown by!! Our lives have changed so much in these 10 years. We have both changed careers, had 2 babies, watched his mom recover from a horrible accident and mine recover from a massive stroke, bought a house, bought too many vehicles, Ryan has had 2 surgeries...But overall LIFE IS GREAT! I am so blessed to have found a husband that loves me and our children, and provides for our family. He is a man that is the leader of our family, and always tries to do what is best for us.

To celebrate our anniversary we took a trip to Savannah over the weekend without the kids. We had a great time, and I think the kids had just as much fun at home staying with my mom and Nanny!

I pray that Ryan and I have many, many more happy years together!

Back from the beach...

Here is our week in pictures. We had an interesting ride home that included Ryan wrecking his motorcycle while I watched in my rear view mirror and him having a broken elbow. We like to end our vacations on a POSITIVE note I guess! :-)

More July 4th photos

Wanted to add some more pics from the 4th. We are busy getting ready for our beach trip, can't wait for sand and sun for a week!

Is it July already?

Where has June gone? This summer is flying by already! This past weekend we made a quick trip to SC to visit our friends Zach and Marie. We had fun swimming, eating, and relaxing. Landon finally got into the swimming thing and actually likes it. Lexi is swimming great, now if she would just get some confidence.

Here are some pics from the weekend:

Remembering Cohen...

I love my kids!!

My kids are hilarious these days! Landon talks all the time, and loves to put on a show. He loves to dance, and sing, and play monster. Lexi talks non-stop about her boyfriend Ray, who she says she is going to marry. (Poor Ray doesn't even get an opinion on this one!)

This week has been busy, but fun so far. Friday we are headed to SC to visit friends and spend the 4th at Parris Island. I love spending the 4th there!! My hubby was a Marine that was trained at PI, so it is cool for our kids to see what he went through in boot camp.

Happy everyone has a Happy and Safe 4th!

Summer Time Fun

Part of the Payne family with my Grandmother- Grace Lyon Payne

Handsome Lan Man

My beautiful Alexas!

Just a few pics from our family reunion at the lake this past weekend. We all had a great time!

Life is a highway...

I wanted to join in on Show us your Life over at Kelly's Korner, and today's theme was how you got engaged.

Ryan and I met in April 2000 a few days before his mom was in a terrible accident involving a drunk driver. At the time Ryan was in Marines and stationed 4 hours away, but when the accident happened he was given a Hardship Transfer to come help with his 4 younger siblings. During the first few months of our time together we went through a lot helping his family.

On Father's Day weekend in June 2000, Ryan and I went to my family reunion in Lake Park, GA. On the way home from the reunion Ryan stopped on the side of I-75 (it was dark), and asked me to get out of the truck and dance with him. The song God Gave Me You by Bryan White was playing. I thought he was insane, but did it anyway. So we slow danced on the side of I-75 as semis flew past us. As the song was ending, he told me to sit down in the truck, and he got down on one knee and asked me to marry him. Before I told him yes, I said "GIVE ME MY RING!". Then of course I said YES!!!

So here we are 10 years later, heading to the same family reunion tomorrow for the first time in 10 years! Our lives have changed so much since then, and we have been blessed with 2 sweet miracles!

Winter Break 2010

My mom and I took the kids for a short trip to Atlanta for Winter Break. We took them to the Imagine It! Children's Museum (which they LOVED!!!), the World of Coke (more fun for the adults), and to the Georgia Aquarium. We stayed overnight in downtown, and had an easy walk to everything. It was FREEZING this morning when we headed out, so we were thankful to be close by.

Good, short trip!

Snow in South Georgia

Our Home
Landon loving the snow!
Alexas and Emily making snow angels!

We have SNOW! WOW! It is so pretty! The kids had a blast playing outside in it. Landon wanted to "Catch it!". Lexi was so excited to make a snow angel. Cold, but beautiful!!!!

It's been a while...

It has been almost a year since I last blogged. Life gets in the way most of the time. The kids and my job keep me busy, and at night all I want is to veg out in silence!!

Landon is a very wild 2 year old boy these days. He loves to play and climb, and hates when he doesn't get his way. His favorite saying these days is "Sissy mean!" He does love his sissy though, and asks for her all the time. They fuss and fight over everything though!!

Alexas is still enjoying gymnastics, and is getting so tall. She is over 4 foot tall now. 2nd grade has been a real struggle for her, and we have had some decisions to make regarding her education. We are almost certain that we are going to have her retained in 2nd grade, because she just isn't where she needs to be to go to 3rd grade and have to pass the CRCT.

I have started working on my Education Specialist this semester, and so far it has gone smoothly. I am doing it totally online, and really enjoy the program so far. Ryan will graduate at the end of this semester from Darton after 3 long years of hard work on his part. I am encouraging him to continue on and get his Bachelor's degree.

I will update the kids pics soon, typing on a new computer and I don't have any saved on here.

Until next time, God bless!