Bands

Saturday there was a play off football game at Wildcat Stadium and Ryan wanted to take Ty to listen to the Bands march in and dance! Ryan had just planned to go with Ty and our Friends the King's (Stephen and Sadie) but then I wanted to tag along so I could take pictures and so Whitney decided to tag along. We had fun while the kids lasted but they only lasted about 30 minutes. However, there was not a lot of dancing going along because Ty and Sadie were too busy running in the open field.

Getting his groove on.

WOW

I was hanging up a suit coat of Ryan's and I noticed the badge with Dr. Ryan Steele on it and I could not help but smile. I have never seen it written out before. I know we have a few years to go but I think it has a nice ring to it! We love you, Ryan! Keep up the good work.

Thanksgiving 2009

This Thanksgiving was a big one for me because I hosted my first Thanksgiving ( and well Ryan and Ty because they had to put up with my mini meltdowns from the stress of hosting). The past few days I was a ball of stress. I just wanted everything to be perfect and I also included decorating for Christmas! I know I always take on way too much but that is how I like to do things, I guess.... The best part about decorating early is I can enjoy the rest of our weekend.
Yesterday truly was a great day even though I spent the majority of the day in my kitchen. At least I could see out in the yard and watch all the kids playing and having a great time. Our Thanksgiving meal included Ryan parents and two of his sisters and their spouses and of course 3 of Ty's cousins. The kids played non stop until 6pm when some of the left to go home. That meant no nap for Ty but he did great all day. Although he was ready for bed last night. Currently Ty is on hour 2 of a nap..... I think Ty had too much fun yesterday. Ryan is also on hour 2 of a nap. I guess I wore both of my boys out this week!
Leaves..... the kids loved playing in our pile of leaves. Thank goodness for a beautiful day yesterday.

I had to take a picture of my Corn Bread dressing because I was just relieved that it turned out. The recipe is my Grandmother's and my family has been making it for years. However, this was my first year to make it and it was wonderful. Everything was really good.

The kids table. Callie lead the prayer at the table.

What a wonderful Thanksgiving. We went to Cracker Barrel this Morning with Ryan's parents and my parents so we had a wonderful Morning with family and this afternoon we went shopping during Black Friday and were able to cross a lot of items off our Christmas list! Have a wonderful weekend.

Gobble Gobble

Happy Thanksgiving from The Steele's

Little Elf

Ryan was home all day today so I put him to work. Everywhere Ryan went his little Elf Ty was right behind him. We truly are thankful for this time that we have Ryan. Our house looks like a Christmas Wonderland. However, the Dinning Room table is decorated for a fall Thanksgiving feast. Ryan's parents are driving in tonight and some more of Ryan's Family will arrive tomorrow. I wish my parents could spend Thanksgiving with us but they are heading to Houston to be with Family. Ever since Ryan and I were married we switch Holidays. It seems to work so we stick with it.

May you all have a wonderful Thanksgiving!

We love Ghee

My sweet Mom is still trying to heal from her foot surgery, but the recovery is not going as smoothly as last years surgery. I was so thankful for her today because she came over to lend a hand with helping me put up my Christmas decorations. I am decorating a little early this year but I am hosting Thanksgiving for the first time for Ryan's family so I thought it would be nice to have the house decorated so they could see it since they will not see it during the Christmas Holidays. I know I am taking on too many things but I have all of my shopping done for Thanksgiving and the majority of the stuff I am making has to be made the day of. I will focus on cleaning the house tomorrow and last minute touches. I did get a lot done today but there is some that may have to wait until after Thanksgiving! Oh, we also had work going on in our bathroom, too! It was full day around the Steele household! I guess that explains why I am so tired....
Ty did have school today so we were able to accomplish a lot while he was gone. When it was time for nap time Ty really wanted his Ghee to read to him. I just love seeing the two of them together. Ty loves his Ghee so much and for the past few days when we ask Ty who is thankful for he says Poppy and Ghee. I know the feeling is mutual. We truly appreciate everything they do for us. Of course Ty did not nap this afternoon, but I think there was just too much going on for him to sleep. Happy Holidays! Oh, I love this time of year.

Basketball Season

Basketball Season started today so we headed to Westphalia to cheer on the Blue Jays. I worked the concession stand and Ty ran back and fourth from me to Ryan. It was a fun afternoon. The best part is tomorrow is Ryan's last day!! Hooray for Thanksgiving break!!

HEB

Today we made our weekly trip to HEB to get everything we need for Thanksgiving (at least I hope I got everything because I really don't want to go back). I am sure you can imagine the crowd. We got there around 11am so I was prepared with a lunch for Ty. That corn dog saved the day and our shopping experience. The one thing I was not expecting from our shopping trip was to end up being interviewed for a segment on KCEN-TV 6:00 News. That is right I left a star! Ha. A news Anchor approached us and asked if she could ask us a few questions so I agreed. The best part is I could answer all the questions. I will admit that HEB really does save our family money thanks to their meal deals. This afternoon we headed to Westphalia for a basketball game so I made sure to record it. The bottom picture is Ty watching the segment. I will have to record it tomorrow. Here is Ty: he pointed at the TV and said "Mommy, Ty" after it was over "More Ty, More Ty" so we watched it a few more times, and when he was done "Bye Mommy, Bye Ty". I will say that Ty's first TV experience was a success and thank goodness he was done with the Hot Dog when we were interviewed.

Food For Families

Tonight was the big Food For Families Food Drive that the Junior Leagues helped provide food for. I went up to the drop off site this evening and was blown by the number of people that were there in the pouring rain and donations that were received. This project has been around for a while, but this was the fist time the JL took part in it and I have a feeling we will be doing it again.

However, we did not make it on TV due to a scheduling conflict but it was still great to pull up with 2 cars full of food. When I left the food donated by the league was close to the 500 pound mark!!!! This truly was a wonderful experience and from what I have heard from the local food pantries is they are in need of food. There is a shortage this year due to the economy. I have a feeling that will all change after tonight. It is wonderful to know that a family will be able to have a nice Thanksgiving meal this year. Thanks Sally and Jen for all your hard work this year!!

Girl's Night

Last night the Provisional Class Chairs hosted a night out for the Provisional Class that will already be Actives in January! It is hard to believe how fast this year has gone. I was not sure if I would be able to make it last nice since I was also gone the night before, but Ryan encouraged me to go and I am so glad that I did because it was truly a great night.
I have to say that the best part about last night was that it truly was a social gathering. What I mean is there was no Junior League talk. I really got to know a lot of the girls and I could see some new friendships forming. I had a great night bonding with Maggie! We both have two year old little boys that sound a lot a like! I am still thinking about last night and the wonderful group of women that are in my life. I will say that social nights are going to be a new tradition I have a feeling. Sometimes we get so consumed in our meetings and projects that we don't take the time to really get to know everyone. Thank you Shala and Jackie for planning a fun night out! (Picture: Caitlin, Teran, Kerri, Shala, Lacie, Allison, Kendal, Maggie, Me, Natalie and Christy)


Speaking of Junior League I have a full weekend of events! The first one is starting tomorrow evening with the huge Food For Families Donation/Drop OFF night! We hope to be on TV...... and then Saturday Morning will be spent at the SHR. Have a great night and Happy Friday!

Almost Wordless Wednesday

Practicing our mean face!

I just had the greatest evening with a group of wonderful Women but I am still trying to soak it all in so I will post about it tomorrow. At least I hope.........

Puppy Love

Ty has never been in to stuffed animals until now. Ty loves this little brown puppy so much that he has started walking around with it and sleeping with it. I sure hope this Puppy does not mind Ty always chewing on his tail. I tried to get Ty to look at the camera and say cheese but I guess the puppy tail tasted too good.
Ty is down for a nap and I am enjoying the silence. We had plumbers at our house this morning finishing up work in the bathroom. I hope this project will end soon so I can use my bathroom again. Tonight I have a Junior League meeting so Ty will get to spend some time with Ryan. It is hard to believe that this is our last meeting until January. We still have a variety of functions in December but other than that this year is flying by.

Thankful

I write an article for our Junior League Newsletter every month and my article that I submitted this month reflected on how thankful I am for all the many blessings in my life. I am truly thankful for so much. This time of year I always love to give to those in need. This week is the big Food For Families food drive and the JL is playing a big role in that. We are also helping the families in Fort Hood that were struck by tragedy a few weeks ago by gathering gift cards for families in need. It is a amazing that something so small like opening my pantry and grabbing soup is going to make someones day a little better.
I have been amazed at Ty's School and how much Ty is learning about Thanksgiving, Turkeys, and being Thankful. Yesterday Tyler and I put some canned goods in a sack so he could participate in his schools food drive. Ty's class decorated their own box and will be collecting food until Friday. Today when I picked Ty up from school I noticed a big turkey that had feathers with all the kids names on it and as we were walking out Ty pointed to the Turkey and said "Mommy" That is when I saw Ty's name on a Feather and it read (Ty is thankful for Mommy). That just melted my heart in so many ways. It makes all the 2 year old tantrums seem so small. I am so proud of Ty and the boy that he is turning in to. Please take time this year to reflect on everything you are thankful for.

Picture Weekend

Last weekend was the first weekend that we did not have any major plans but we sure did stay busy. I will say that we enjoyed having a Friday and Saturday night at home. We rented a movie and just relaxed which is always nice to do.
I was very excited about Saturday because Ryan officially is done with his Saturday Classes until January. He still has papers and has a final exam in December but other than that he will be around on the weekends. However, Ryan decided to start a Saturday School Detention Program at Westphalia on Saturday. Seriously?!?!? Thank goodness it wont be every Saturday, at least I hope it wont.
Saturday afternoon was a family day complete with Family Pictures at the Train Depot. A dear friend of mine that I went to High School with and did numerous plays with has started a photograph business, so of course I wanted to be one of her clients! Stephanie and her Husband were so wonderful to spend there Saturday shooting my Family. Ty loved all the attention and exploring all the Trains. The main reason I wanted family pictures is because I want to use them for our Christmas Card this year. As you will see below Ty is in his Christmas outfit. I also brought another outfit for him to wear so it was not all Christmas. Ryan gives me a hard time about these smock outfits but I am sucker for them. Plus Ty looks so cute in them.
Sunday was spent doing chores around the house. We had a great weekend and our looking forward to a busy week. It is hard to believe that Thanksgiving is next week!

Leaves

There is one thing about our new house that we are not used to and that is leaves. All of our tall trees produce a lot of leaves. We have been working on bagging all of our leaves for a while and we finally made some progress this afternoon. As you can see Ty loves playing in the leaves. He would run and jump in to the piles.

We had a wonderful weekend and I just realized that I was behind on my blogging. Sorry! I will work on catching up later.

Enough

For some reason I just don't have the urge to write anything today so this is as good as it is going to get for me this evening. We had a full day and I am exhausted. I am ready to sit on the couch and watch Thursday night TV! Maybe tomorrow my creative juices will be flowing.

Wordless Wednesday-Watching Trains

We spent our afternoon at Whistle Stop watching the trains. If it was up to Ty we would be at the train station every day. Ty loves to watch the trains come in and out of the Depot. We are actually having Family Pictures taken this weekend at the Depot.

Big Boy Bed

No more crib for a our big boy. Ty's bed converted to a toddler bed so we decided a while go that it was time to take the railing down! Ty has done very well and we have not had any issues so far with him getting out. I think Ty was ready to sleep in a big boy bed. We already have a bed for Ty but we wanted him to get used to the toddler bed first. My baby is growing up way too fast.

Little Helper

Ty decided to lend a helping hand yesterday after he woke up from his nap! I will say that Ryan got most of the demolition complete and now it is just time to clean it up.... There is dust everywhere. I guess the good news is Ryan was able to go back to work today.
Ty went to school this Morning and I was able to get a lot of housework done. Tonight is also a Board Meeting night so I am trying to get everything ready for that, too.
On a side note my Mom had her second Foot Surgery yesterday Morning and the Surgery went well but now it is just the recovery that will be the hard part. We went over there yesterday afternoon to check on her and she was still very groggy. Ty kept saying "up, Ghee". I know Ghee wishes she could get up. "Love you, Ghee" as Ty would say.

Demolition

I am guessing the Antibiotics are kicking in and Ryan is feeling better today, because when we came home from the Grocery Store I found this taking place in our bathroom. I guess Ryan has been watching a little too much HGTV with me. (We are having to remodel are bathroom but I was not expecting this).

I am thankful that Ryan has a full time job that he can go back to very soon......:)