Sometimes in life you are lucky to make friends that are like family

My best friend and her family's house burned down today.  This happens quite often to families everywhere, but it really seems to hit the spot when it is so close to home.  This family is amazing.  If you don't know them, I assure you they are.   They have three children that are now dealing with not having a home or their toys.  They have lost everything, and I hope that everyone lifts them up in prayer as they go through rebuilding their lives.  If anyone has anything that they would like to donate, please let me know.  From the smallest thing to the biggest, doesn't matter.  If you can't donate, just pray for them.

On a more personal note....Lyndsey, you have been my best for quite some time.  I love your kids like I love mine.  There is nothing that I wouldn't do for you, Gary, Eliza, Makinzy, or Jackson!  In the meantime just remember you can always lean on me....

Rylee Clementine

Today my sweet Rylee Clementine is six years old.  It feels like just yesterday we were in the hospital, debating how Caylon was going to react to having a little sister.  My heart just exploded that day with overwhelming joy and love.

And Caylon loved being a big sister.

Through the years, I have always called Rylee my hardest child.  I realize today it is because she challenges me. She wants answers to every question no matter how obscure, and she wants me on my toes because I expect her on hers.  She is definitely an attention grabber when she warms up a bit.  Her level of intelligence at her age on life matters would amaze anyone.  When John Henry died and we were explaining death to the children, Rylee simply said "He's in heaven with Jesus riding his four wheeler".  She was four, and I was blown away.  

She remembers everyone's name and their relation to her within the first five minutes of meeting them.  Over the years, she has found several outlets.  Her favorite is music. The only child I've ever seen who loves Kiss, Van Morrison, Beatles, and her new favorite...Bon Jovi.  She is a rocker to the songs she listens to to the clothes that she picks out when she walks through the door.  She dances and flips all over the place.  She started really dancing when we got the recital DVDs that the kids watched relentlessly.  She memorized every dance no matter how hard.  She was born from a boombox in every way possible.  

She has an amazing drive about her.  I admire it.  

Happy Birthday my darling Rylee.  I can't believe you are growing up so fast on me.  I love you more than strawberries.

From the Mouth of a true blue Auburn fan

I just have to say that I am extremely impressed with both teams that played in the BCS National Championship last night.  Everyone has said all football season that LSU and Alabama were the top two teams in the nation.  They are.  I've seen so many posts making fun of the fact that LSU lost today on facebook, and that disappoints me.  This is why.  When Caylon was in the spelling bee last year, how tacky would it have appeared if I stood up when a child spelled a word incorrectly and mocked them.  I can imagine me screaming "What a loser!  You can't even spell the word soil!".  Yeah.........It's classless.


We are taught as children that you can't always win, and we instill that in our children as well.  Be proud of the fact that LSU made it to the championship; don't make fun of them for not winning it.  It is okay to be excited about your team winning, but do it with class and values.  


And as a proud Auburn fan I have to say that I am so proud that our state now has three back to back national championship trophies.  So War Eagle and Roll Tide!  

First Time

So, this is the first time I have blogged since MySpace days.  I'm really too busy to do this, but I really enjoy sharing our crazy lives with random people :)

So for my first blog I would like to introduce myself and my family.  I'm Ashley Griffin Bean, and I am 28 years old.  I have four children and one stepdaughter.....and they are all girls.  I'm so catching hell in a few years, but as for now they are all amazing children that make my life worth living.  And I live.  Hard.  I work as a sales representative for Wireless Expressions, an authorized retailer for AT&T.  I've been doing this job on and off for almost 5 years, and I love every second of it.  With that being said it consumes a lot of my time.  Having 5 kids and a full time job inside and outside your home makes any free time you have gold.  And gold is hard to come by in this house :)  

Thank God for my husband, Chris Bean.  He works as hard as I do and is a huge help with the girls. 

He is the complete opposite of me.  I'm eccentric, he's laid back.  I'm always in go mode, he'd rather be napping.  We have been married for five years in August.  It has been a bumpy road, but what marriage with five other people involved wouldn't be....and yes, I'm referring to the kids.  He does have an outlet that he enjoys that gives him "man time" that he so needs.

He is the drummer for a blues band called Double Wide Soul.  Go check them out at www.doublewidesoul.com

And now....our children.  They are all different and talented in their own way.

First, the oldest girl is my stepdaughter Madison. She is 9 years old.  She is in the gifted class in school, so obviously she's a smart girl.  She loves doing everything from dancing to art to singing and dancing.  She's just like her dad-she wants to be good at everything.  Very versatile.  I love that about her.  

Next is Caylon.  Caylon is the first baby that I gave birth to and she has a different meaning to me than all of the children.  She was the first person to teach me what being a family meant and how awesome it is.  She is smart beyond her years, but she is infamous for being in "Caybug World" most of the time.  She has the largest imagination out of any of the kids and has her nose in a book at any given moment of the day.  This year she is doing musical theatre which is what she is extremely talented in.

Rylee is 5 years old and just started kindergarten.  She is my rocker girl.  She loves music...all kinds of it. She is doing sooo great in school and makes us prouder of her every day that goes by.  She makes friends so quickly.  She is also an amazing dancer, so this year she is learning tumbling.  The dents on her head proves that she is great at it, but needs to learn what wide open spaces are.  

Next are our three year old twins.  Crimson and Clover. 

Crimson is just wild.  She keeps us busy.  She is the bossy one and will tell you exactly how it is all the time.  The one thing that I can say about her that always impresses me is that she always pays everyone some sort of compliment.  Sounds like a future salesman to me :)

Clover is our sweet twin.  Clover is so loving and sweet.  She will do anything to make someone happy.  That worries me to a degree, because at some point it becomes survival of the fittest in our house.  But for now, I enjoy still having just a "sweet baby".  

So that is our whole bunch.  I hope that everyone enjoys listening to our stories, as I enjoy sharing them.