Thursday, May 27, 2010

When did I go from being obsessed with what my kids wore all the time to not having the energy to fight with them about it? Tanner insisted on wearing his cowboy boots into the library instead of his Sperry's and you know what? I let him! I think it's even more weird that I actually think he looks pretty cute in his shorts and cowboy boots. Oh my, what's happening to me!! FYI: I still draw the line at characters or cheesy animals/flowers on clothes in public. I don't think I'll ever bring myself to let them wear that kinda stuff when we are out. There aren't many things in this world that I can't stand more that a shirt with spiderman on it or a big picture of a flower that states flower underneath it. Like we couldn't tell from the picture what it was.

We have been busy lately! We have Tanner's end of the year Tball party tonight at the Baybears game and tonight is also Ryleigh's last night of dance. Tomorrow morning we leave bright and early for a Junior High retreat to Tennessee. I'm very excited about it! It's going to be a lot of fun. Thankfully we are off on Monday so we will have a day to recoup before work on Tuesday.

Tuesday, May 25, 2010

A Letter for Today,

Dear Ryan, Thank you for my wonderful Mother’s Day presents. Yes, even after forcing me to ride my bike for 16 miles I am still thanking you. I am however not thanking you for eating the last pop tart. Tanner was not happy with you this morning when he woke up! Dear Tanner, you can start getting in our bed again in the middle of the night when you stop insisting on sleeping with whatever bug you caught that day. Dear Ryleigh, This is your last week of dance and I can’t wait to see how much you have learned in your recital. I’m so proud of you. Dear Gus, Please stop getting into Ryleigh and Tanners pool and then thinking I’m going to let you come inside. Dear Junior High kids, I have an awesome game for you guys to play this weekend which may or may not involve a diaper and eating something brown out of it. Oh the joy of Junior High Retreats! Dear iPhone, I hate you as much as I love you and the more I hate you the more I love you. It’s a terrible relationship that I am trying to break up. Dear Inventor of the book on tape, I have fallen in love you the past few weeks on my long trips to The Bayou. Thank you for making it go by faster. Dear Grass, since my husband will cut everyone’s grass but ours I’m going to need you to stop growing or I’ll be tempted to rip you completely up and replace you with AstroTurf. Don’t think I won’t. Dear Dyson, I’m in need of a new vacuum cleaner and would love you to send me one. For free of course. Dear Friday, will you please hurry up and get here. Dear Camera, please come back. I have no idea where I lost you and need you to return before we leave at 5:45 Friday morning. Dear Memorial Day, Thank you for being on a Monday and giving us a wonderful 4 day weekend

Friday, May 21, 2010

No Cavities!

Wednesday I took off work to go to Ryleigh's end of the year picnic at school. They had it at Semmes Park and the kids had a lot of fun. I on the other hand thought I was going to die from the heat and humidity! Have I ever mentioned before that I hate being hot unless I'm laying in the scorching sun on the sand with water in front of me!
This is all the kids that went. Ryleigh is on the top row sitting down on the left. I have really enjoyed ABC and I'm excited that Tanner is going there next year. I really hope he gets Ryleigh's same teacher.

They probably had the most fun watching the Life Flight helicopter take off. They were able to get pretty close to it and were laughing at how hard the wind from it was blowing them.

After the picnic we had dentist appts. They have never been to the dentist so I didn't know how they would react...This is how Tan Man started out...

Yes, he is screaming while we hold him down! He did not like it at all. He finally calmed down once I started joking about how all the dentist was trying to do was clean out all of Gus's poop that he ate for breakfast. He died laughing and was fine from there on out.

Ryleigh did excellent the whole time and kept telling the dental assistant how big of a crybaby her "little sister" is! Tanner would just get madder every time she said that!

Everything looked good with their teeth. Ryleigh has 20 teeth and Tanner has 18. He did notice that Ryleigh has a pretty bad cross bite. He said it's nothing to worry about right now but if it doesn't straighten out by the time she is 6 then she may need corrective surgery. I'm not stressing out about it, we'll cross that bridge when we get there. Just pray that is does correct itself and we don't have to do anything further.
And what better way to celebrate NO CAVITIES than Ice Cream??

Tuesday, May 18, 2010

Saturday was a busy day for us. That morning Ryan and I got up early and went and rode bikes. (Thanks Aunt Velvet for keeping the kids!) We rode 16 miles, yea I know that's a long way! We rode on the side of the road which I was really nervous about but it ended up being fine. There isn't much traffic in West Mobile at 7 AM. We then went and ate breakfast at Starbucks! There are not many things in this world that I love to do more than to get a Grande White Chocolate Mocha and sit outside of Starbucks and talk to my favorite guy in the world. It was a great morning with some much needed time together!


After that Ryan had a side job to do so I went and got the kids and we went to the fruit stand (which they loved) and the library.

That afternoon Tanner had his last Tball game, can I get an Amen! I'm so glad Tball is over and I have to say I'm not cut out to be a ballpark mom. More on that later though.
After Tball we headed to Nana's for "Fun in the Sun" part 1 as Whitney named it!

Everyone came over and we ordered pizza and made a huge slip and slide. We had a great time!

I was very scared here that Evan would grab my legs as he went through my legs and make me fall!

I know we are so weird!

Can I please tell you how much I LOVE THIS GIRL!! She always makes me smile!
She decided that she wouldn't have to shower Saturday night since we played in so much soap. She also said she wished she would have brought all her dirty clothes and kept changing as she went down so they would be clean!

Tanner didn't want to get wet!
I didn't want to go on my stomach it hurt to bad!
What can I say...we are one of a kind!
We also played freeze tag and Red Rover, Red Rover. Ryleigh LOVES Red Rover. It's seriously her favorite thing to play ever! Once she was called to run through and we let her break through and the look on her face was priceless!! She was so excited to have broken through the hands and about getting to pick someone to take back with her. She would literally play this game for hours if we would let her!
It was a great afternoon!! Fun in the Sun part 2 is coming up in June. We are all going canoeing!

Friday, May 14, 2010

Oh, How we love these girls!

Have you ever seen a better looking group of girls??
These are hands down without a doubt my favorite group of women, ever. Is there really anything better in life than a good, close family? I can answer that for you, no there is not. There is nothing better than knowing no matter what you have someone to support you and love you. I know we always make jokes about how goofy are family is, how big our family is and how we get together for EVERY SINGLE BIRTHDAY, but I am so thankful we do. I'm thankful that Ryleigh and Tanner will grow up in a family that loves them and a group of people who would do anything for them.
My mom is by far my best friend. She is always there to help us do whatever we need her to. She loves Ryleigh and Tanner so much (probably more than she loves me!) She is the bossy one of the bunch and the first to be a grandma. Although in my mind I think of all of them as an extension of grandparents for the kids. She is a wonderful cook, Ryleigh said just the other day that Mi Mi's cooking is so yummy and mine was Yuck-O!

Aunt Tena, we don't see her nearly enough! She has always been hilarious and so much fun to be around. Ryleigh and Tanner love her and she's always going to make you laugh! She is a giver my nature and is always putting everyone else above herself.

Nana is our prayer warrior! She literally prays for hours every day and sometimes when I have something big going on I actually call her and ask to her to devote her entire prayer time to me. (which I doubt she really does.) No, I'm not selfish! :) Chances are if you read this blog then she prays for you, on a daily basis. What better gift could you give your family than the gift of prayer?

Aunt Lisa is who the kids probably see the most since she lives right next door. It's funny how in the winter we will go a whole week without seeing them but once daylight savings comes around we see them a few times a week. Ryleigh and Tanner love going over there and playing and destroying her house. Who else would let you eat 3 pixie sticks out of a medicine cup with a mini spoon! She has recently been spotted stealing our blackberries as Ryleigh and Tanner informed me!

Aunt Velvet according to Ryleigh and Tanner makes the best cookies! I guess when you are 3 & 4 anyone who lets you eat cookie dough straight out of the container is going to be a great cook! She has always been willing to keep the kids whenever I ask and is actually keeping them tonight for me! She is the baby of the bunch so she is also the closest to my age. Whitney and I give her such a hard time but I hope she knows how much we love her!

Aunt Cheryl has been God sent this past year! She has been so helpful with Ryleigh and school. She lets me bring her there every morning before work and Mrs. Kim or Aunt Cheryl will walk her over to school. Is has saved me more stress and worry than they could ever imagine! Ryleigh has really enjoyed going to Curves and loves getting to see everyone there. Aunt Cheryl is the sale queen and is always looking for stuff for everyone. She can see something that is such a good deal and she'll buy it, it's bound to fit someone in our family!

So to answer my first question...No, I've never seen a better group of girls in my life! We are so thankful for them and everything they do for our family!!

I love the second picture of them! Whitney and I had been posing all day and told them to do the same!

Thursday, May 13, 2010

Mothers Day 2010

It's funny on a day devoted for Mothers that I didn't get one picture with my kids or with my mom...All I got was a ton of crazy pictures of our crazy family!

We knew that Sunday would be spent at church and Aunt Lisa's house so we celebrated my Mother's Day on Saturday. I have pictures from that but we went to Fairhope and had the BEST time!! Ryan and the kids got me a new hair straightener and a road bike!! I kinda expected the straightener but the bike was a total surprise!! So we took the bikes to Fairhope and just spent the day over there.

Sunday everyone went to Nana's church which I just love to do! For some reason I just love when our whole family does stuff together! Afterwards we went to Aunt Lisa's house to eat.




We also celebrated Aunt Tena's Birthday. Happy Birthday Aunt Tena!




Although I may look pregnant in this picture, I assure you that I am not!!

We were trying to get a picture of us jumping but Aunt Velvet is terrible at taking action shots! :) Why were we trying to get a picture of us jumping you ask? I have absolutely no idea!



Success!


Please take a moment to notice how much longer my arms are than Whitney's.
We are starting her early! Hopefully, if she's lucky, she'll be as cool as we are! One can only hope so!
I hope you didn't enjoy this Tanner because there is no way no how you are going to be building pyramids ever again! I tried to get everyone to make one big pyramid but no one would cooperate with me but Tanner!
We had a wonderful day with our wonderful family!

Wednesday, May 12, 2010

Monkey See, Monkey Do!

I promise this is totally safe!!


I have pictures from our fabulous Mother's Day weekend but I've been stranded in the Bayou with work this week and there is no Internet out here!! So I haven't been able to upload them. We had a great day though and I'll uploaded the pictures tonight. We have been so busy every night this week we've had something going on!

Friday, May 7, 2010

Strong Will

Recently I had the opportunity to attend a conference by a wonderful Christian author and speak Beth Moore. Beth has 2 daughters. Her oldest as she said was the most pleasant child. She was so easy going and never gave her any trouble. Her youngest daughter, who was at the conference with her was the complete opposite. She wasn't "bad" she was just stubborn and hard headed. she wanted things her way and definitely was a leader and not a follower. On a conference about insecurity the thing I took away most from the conference was something Beth said about parenting her youngest daughter, Melissa. She said it took her a while to realize but....

Once you get that stubborn, strong willed mindfocused on one thing
it will be dangerous
for the kingdom of God!
Yes, she may be stubborn. Yes, she may be strong willed. Yes, she may make me crazy but I'm going to take that advice to heart. She has the potential to be a powerful force in this world and I pray that God uses her to do that. She is a wonderful sweet girl who knows what she wants and is going to do everything possible to get it. She is a leader and not a follower and I am so thankful for that. I'm thankful that she thinks for herself instead of letting other people do it for her. I'm thankful for her outgoing personality and most of all I'm thankful that she is so determined in whatever she does. Now I'm off to channel that determination into great things!

Thursday, May 6, 2010

Crawfish Boil

Here are the pictures from Ryan's dad's families crawfish boil we go to every year. We always have so much fun going, especially the kids they love it! They like to all get a crawfish (a live one) and have it all day. Tanner actually found a fish in the sack of crawfish and kept it all day. It was Yuck-O (as Ryleigh says now!) We normally stay the night and go to the zoo the next day but it just didn't work out where we could this time. I really want to go back to the New Orleans Zoo one day this year. Not this summer though it's way to hot down there!!








I'm not sure how those 2 little girls are actually related to us (like cousins or what) but Ryleigh loved them. She said "Mom! I have 2 new best friends and they are totally awesome!"