Christmas 2008

OUT WITH THE OLD.......

....and bring on the new, motorcycle that is. Ray's new Harley arrived on my birthday(DEC 19)....happy birthday to me!

This shirt is one of Ray's Christmas presents, he loves it!

Christmas parties at school

Tray and Rylee had their parties at school today. They "sugar them up" and then let you take them home-Thanks!

I'm so relieved!!

I have finished this semester. I took 13 hours this semester and I happy to say that this semester is finally over. (This was my first semester on campus. Before this semester, I took a few classes over the Internet.) I actually enjoyed it and meet some new friends. I made four A's and one B. (I'm hoping the B will change, before I took the final I had a 87 average, I'm hoping that I did well enough on the final to make an A) I have a grand total of 45 hours now!! And many more to go!!! Hooray for me :)

Amazing!!!!

Thursday we woke up to a winter wonderland-Southeast Texas style! It actually snowed here. I heard that it hasn't snowed here since the 80's.(I wouldn't know:)) Our kids have wanted to see snow so bad. They know that it sometimes snows back home but we have told them its just too hot here for it to snow.(Ray seems to think that hell has froze over because of our new president elect. LOL) Rylee said, "I can't believe it actually snowed here in Silsbee, Texas." Tray's internal snow alarm clock must of woke him up because he woke up on his own then woke Triston & Rylee up to tell them the good news. Needless to say it was an exciting morning at the Ruggles house. I must say that we were totally unprepared. I couldn't find gloves and some of us don't even own gloves so some of the kids including me had to wear socks as gloves.(Ghetto) They didn't have to be at school until 10am. It's what Sponge Bob says.....ITS THE BEST DAY EVER!(Ray took a picture of almost everything but the kids until the camera died! So that why there is like one picture of the kids and no picture of our snowman.)

A Wise Man, An Angel, & A Present Giver

....Tray was a wise man, Rylee was an angel, and Triston was a present giver at the Christmas program at church today. Aren't they cute? Triston wasn't originally asked to be in the program but after he saw Tray & Rylee's cool costumes he decided he wanted to be in the program. He was a little disappointed that his costume only consisted of a halo. Better luck next time, Triston.(Can't take any credit for the costumes-some ladies in our ward did an excellent job at creating and making them.)

Karate Kid

Triston got his karate uniform today and he is sooooo proud of it. Doesn't he look so cute. (The pose was his idea.) He has been taking karate since September but he reminded me the other day that he still didn't have a uniform yet, so I took care of that today. So its official-all three of the Ruggles kids are karate kids. BEWARE!

I've turned cowgirl

Ray bought me my first pair of boots this weekend. (Early birthday/Christmas present)Sadly, I've lived in Texas my whole life and have never owned a pair of western boots. I'm officially a cowgirl. Of course,I had to buy a pair of western pants, too. I couldn't bring myself to spend $80-$90 on a belt. Maybe next time. I can't believe how expensive western clothes are. So, here is a requested pic of me in my western get-up. Triston took the picture of me this morning before we headed off to school. What do you think, maybe I'll even put a sticker on the back of my hummer that says "cowgirl up" - NOT!

The Ruggles decorated their ghetto-fabulous Christmas tree!

We decorated our ghetto Christmas tree for family home evening tonight. I call our tree ghetto because its a pre-lit tree but none of the lights wanted to work so I went to Walmart today and bought strands of lights to put on our tree that already has lights that don't work. Old lights + new lights on top of = ghetto fabulous. The kids were so excited! And they actually think that it looks pretty and that all that matters, right?

Two great Christmas finds

Today I found an ornament for my ornament exchange. I know this is early for me, I usually wait to the day of. I thouhgt it was so cute. It is an angel made out of a jingle bell for the body and a marble for the head. And I found a Christmas book for the book club this month. This month's book is a Christmas book of our choice. My sister-in-law told me about "The Christmas Sweater". She said it was on the best sellers list and that it was selling out. Sam's had a few copies left. I can wait to read it but I still haven't finished "The Secret Life of Bees". Stephanie, you should be so proud of me. Love you too.

Do you remember?

Rylee does the same things that I did when I was a little girl. I took a video of her singing a song and dancing. This was so familar to me that I joined in singing and dancing with her when she first performed it for me-lol. Tiffany & Chrissy, did we do this when we were little? What about her hair, remember when mom used to braid our hair and we would sleep with it braided and when we took the braids out in the morning-it was crimpy!(And people only thought we owned a crimping iron!) This is Rylee's new thing. She loves it!

Weekend Get Away

This weekend, we went to San Antonio to take advantage of our Sea World season passes and relax. Sea World is awesome this time of the world. I highly recommend it. I really liked the fake snow that was falling as we entered Sea World. It really got me in the Christmas spirit with all the Christmas decorations and Christmas music playing. Not to mention, the lines weren't long and we got awesome sitting at all the shows. I liked the 4D movie of the Polar Express. We loved our 4 star hotel-thanks to priceline.com... baby. We ate at this great Italian restaurant for dinner last night. Yum Yum. A man serenaded us with his keyboard as we ate. He invited the kids to help him play. Rylee took him up on it. (That, of course is no surprise to anyone that knows Rylee). She must have done very well, she got a nice applause from the audience.

Crazy Girl

I left this picture out of my Twilight post.(Can't imagine why???? Maybe I was tired or something.) This is the girl that entertained us before the show. It is a really bad picture. Some one called her crazy girl and that's what I titled my post.

Girls Night Out

Yes, it is 3am and I'm posting. I just got home from a girls night out. My friends Gayle and Lisa, fellow Twilight addicts, started our night at my house for pictures. Aren't our shirts cute? They say, team Edward cause Jacob doesn't sparkle.If you read the book, you get it if you don't READ THE BOOK! Then we went to the book club where we discussed Twilight & The Secret Life of Bees. Next, we ate at Cheddar's and then to the movies. Some how Gayle was able to purchase 3 tickets to the 12:01 am showing of Twilight. We got there two hours early fearing that we wouldn't be able to sit together. I must say that two hour wait was interesting to say the least. A girl, whom I took a picture of, entertained us for a while asking silly questions like how old was the oldest person and how old was the youngest, what everyone did for a living, was anyone in college, etc, etc, etc. It got real annoying after awhile. The guy in front of me ask for hand sanitizer and then lite his hand on fire with a lighter. Anyways to the movie.......At first, it was cheesy but got better.The actress who played Bella blinked her eyes way to much. The actor who played Edward became more handsome as the movie progressed. I loved the actors & actress who played Esme, Rosalie, Emmet, Jasper and Alice. I didn't like the choices for Carlise and Charlie. All in all, I would give it two thumbs up. So there is my review. Good night.

Mel's b-day party

My family unexpectedly reunited this weekend for a very sad occasion. My cousin Max died and his funeral was yesterday. My sis-in law's birthday was Thursday so we thought it would be fun to make her a cake and have a surprise party. The cake wasn't beautiful and really didn't taste good but we had fun scheming up a surprise princess party for her compete with princess crowns, plates, and stickers. Mel, we love you and are you thankful that you are part of our crazy, disfunctional fam-lol.

Halloween

I took the kids to the ward party last night. I had decided that I would not decorate my trunk this year because Ray had to work an extra job. We have decorated our trunk every year since we have been in the Silsbee ward but Ray is the master mind behind it every year. At the last minute, I decided that I would have a game at my trunk and hand out candy. I came up with a game that the kids had to hit the skeleton head in the center of the bullseye with a nerf gun bullet. I'm glad I did it. I think the kids enjoyed it. I handed out a special surprise for those you hit the skeleton head on the first try.

Trick or Treating at Lamar

Triston trick or treated on campus at Lamar on Friday. He had so much fun. He got tons of candy.Their first candy bag got so heavy that we had to leave them behind and a parent picked them up afterwards. I volunteered to help out. Each adult had to keep up with a few children. The children were really good. We had no escapees. We walked to about 7 different building/departments on campus. Some of the staff even dressed up in costumes to hand out candy. Triston said it was awesome.

Triston's Good Deed

Triston got all dressed up in his halloween costume this week and meet up with his friends to hand out sugar free candy at the nursing home. The residents loved seeing all the little kids and the candy was a bonus. I was proud of Triston. I remember being scared of the nursing home when I was younger.

Big Ten

Yesterday was mine and Ray's ten year anniversary. After reading Jill's anniversary post, I was inspired to do a slide show of the past ten years but unfortunately me and my scanner are not on the same page. Maybe later. Anyways, Ray, thanks for putting up with me for ten years. I love you!

The Pimp Mobile

As you may recall in an earlier post, one of our vehicles was damaged from the hurricane. It's been replaced. The kids and I have nicknamed it the "pimpmobile" or "the pimpister." The picture says it all. Ray picked it out. Need I say more??????

Triston's 2nd birthday party

Triston enjoyed his birthday party at McDonald's. I enjoyed it, too. I didn't have to do anything or bring anything besides a candle and lighter. That's my kinda party.

Happy Birthday Biddy

Triston turned four Saturday. I didn't get to post because we just got our Internet working today. We had a family party Saturday night but rest assure that there will be another soon. I was hoping that I could get away with a little family party this year but Ray seems to think that he needs another. BeBe made me a yummy cookie cake. He was so tired that he fell asleep and didn't wake up when we sang happy birthday to him. Needless to say that he didn't even eat a piece of his birthday cookie until the day after his birthday. So here are four things that we love about Triston. 1. He always tells me that I'm pretty. He says,"you so prutty mom." 2. He loves for you to scratch his feet before bedtime. 3. He likes to sing along with the radio and dance too. 4. Rylee and Tray are his best buds. We love you Triston!

Home Sweet Home

We are officially home. Things are slowly getting back to normal. I'll be happy when Walmart is open 24/7 and then I'll really know things are back to normal. We all go back to school Thursday. Just wanted to thank my family for putting up with us during this evacuation. We were able to spend time with everyone but Jeff and Mel. (Don't worry Jeff and Mel- yall are first place for us to visit on next evacuation-lol) Thought I would share some pic from the road!

HURRICANE IKE!!! WE SURVIVED!!

Call me crazy but we stay through the hurricane despite the desperate pleads of my family to leave. I was wishing that we did when the winds were 90-100 mph hour! Ray sent us to his cousin's house where we endured the hurricane. There were 3 adults and 5 children. (the ruggles clan) We lost electricity between 9 & 10 pm Friday. Triston was on flashlight duty. Before we lost electricity for good, the lights went off and on about five times and Triston was ever so faithful and quick at providing the lights so no one would be scared of the dark(mainly him). We tried to let the children sleep until we heard what we thought was a tree hit the house and then we got all the kids up and brought them to the middle of the house where there not so many windows. The kids were up from then on! It was so scary! I just knew any minute that the roof would detach from the house.At one point, Triston said, "I'm freaked out mom." He was freaked out because no electricity means no night lights. Rylee and Tray were extremely brave. Thanks to my sister, husband, and neighbor who texted me through the hurricane! We were able to return home 3pm Saturday. Our home was ok. My car was destroyed and our only tree in the back yard went down on the fence. We spent the night at home last night with the help of our generator. Ray was with us and this morning when he left for work we left for Tiffany and Joe's house in College Station. It took us 4 and a half hours to get here. We are enjoying the electricity! Moral of the story-we will leave next time!