Mother's Day 2010

I know Mother's Day was last month but I thought I had lost my camera. Luckily Ryan found it the other day. The last time I had it was when we went to Fairhope to ride bikes and spend the day. I wanted to post these pictures just so I would have them.

This is when we stopped for lunch. We ate at a cafe on the water. It was so cute!
We were riding past this statue and the kids wanted to stop and have their picture taken with it. They love dolphins!

It was such a fun day!

Hope everyone has a great weekend!!

Father's Day Weekend

Every year for Father's Day Weekend we usually head to the beach. This year we left on Friday and were planning on coming back on Sunday. We were originally planning on staying in the camper but with the oil we didn't want to do that. Ryan had done some work for Amy's dad the other day and so he said we could stay in their house on Ono Island!! I was so excited! On the way there we gave Ryan one of his presents. He loves these cookie cakes from the mall and I even splurged and paid the extra $3 to have the whole thing covered in icing! We had already eaten a big chunk before I thought about taking a picture.
This is the house we stayed in. It's 7 bedroom, 7 bathrooms and 7,000 square feet! it even has it's own private beach with a huge pier. Ryan's mom, Amy, Dale and the boys were suppose to come down and stay Saturday night but they ended up not coming so it was just us. Kenny and his family will be moving in sometime in August.

Saturday our friends Allyson and Wesley were down so we took the boat out 20 miles offshore and went fishing/diving. The kids were so good even though we were out there all day. They kept getting in the water for a few minutes then getting out. I was kinda nervous about that b/c of Sharks and things but there were 2 dolphins who hung out by our boat all day so Ryan said they keep the sharks away! Thank goodness!! Ryleigh and Tanner LOVED the dolphins they kept saying they wanted to catch one.

Wesley went diving. He actually goes spear fishing where he literally shoots fish under water with a spear. It's crazy! He didn't shoot anything that day though. Saturday night we just went back to the house and hung out. Allyson and I rode bikes around the island and then took the kids down to the beach. They left around 9 and then Ryleigh and Tanner were out! They were so exhausted!!!

Sunday we hung out at the beach for a while but anyone who knows Ryan knows that he doesn't sit well so we left about 1:00.

We went to the wharf and walked around and rode the Ferris wheel. They loved the Ferris wheel!

Ryan found these sunglasses for Tanner. They are polarized fishing glasses. I guess so he can see the fish in the water when they go...I have no idea! Our children's pastor said he looks like Tom Cruise with blonde hair in the picture...cigarette and all! :)

We had a fun weekend but I think it's safe to say we were exhausted! Just ask Tanner who fell asleep on the way home while eating a hamburger!

Four Fathers

I just wanted to take a minute to wish a Happy Father's Day to the 4 greatest men I know.

Ryan,
You are without a doubt the most wonderful father I could ever ask for for our children. You put them first in every decision we make. You are more involved than any dad I've ever met. You never want to miss anything when it comes to the two of them. You take off work or cancel plans because it's their first dentist appt, first day of school, every TBall game ect. You are 100% committed to not missing anything with them and I love that about you. I love how we put God first in out house and you set the example of that for them. I couldn't ask for a better partner in this crazy role of parenting. Thank you for being a wonderful father, great role model, Godly example to them and a fabulous husband! You Rock!!

And why is it that even though I'm the one who gave birth they both come out looking like you! :)

To My Dad,

I didn't have any pictures of him on the computer and my scanner was down so this is a picture of a picture. I know it's so cliche but I miss you on Fathers Day more than any other day. I think it's all the focus on dad's and the important role they play in our lives that makes me think of you so much this time of year. Just because you are gone doesn't mean that you still don't impact my life on a daily basis. You taught me so much and it's funny how now Ryan and I can't even make a big decision without both looking at each other and asking what we think you would do. You were always so smart when it came to things like that. You taught me so much and it makes me want to cry every time I think about the fact that Ryleigh and Tanner never got the chance to meet you. It seems so unfair that they don't get to see someone who played such an important role in shaping the person I am today. But trust me you would love them and they would love you! We talk about you often and even though they'll never physically meet you I think they'll always have a piece of you in their heart. I love and miss you dad! Paw Paw,
To the only man I know that could survive in a 3 bedroom house with 7 girls! I am so thankful for the women that you raised. Even though I have no idea how you did it. I have enough trouble and I only have one daughter. I couldn't imagine 6!! When I think of our family and how thankful I am to be a part of it I always think back to you and Nana and the focus you all put on this family. It's because of y'all that we are so close today. Thank you for that!! We love you so much and want to wish you a Happy Father's Day!!

La La,

This one is the hardest of the 4 for me to write. Although I am extremely thankful for you every time I look at you it makes me think of my dad. I think he would love you! He would love how happy you make my mom. He would love how much you love Ryleigh and Tanner. He would love how good you are to Tammy and I. I couldn't think of a better man to fill my dads shoes in our lives. You are a wonderful La La to Ryleigh and Tanner and I couldn't ask for anyone to love them more that you do! Thank you for stepping in and taking charge of the grandfather role in their lives. You were made for it! We appreciate EVERYTHING you do for us and we love you very much!! Happy Father's Day!!

Orange Beach

This past weekend some friends of ours called and invited us to come down to the Beach for the day. We had so much fun hanging out at the pool all day. Ryleigh and Tanner have gotten to where they will swim all over the pool with floaties on with no help! I love the freedom that comes with them getting older!
Miss Priss trying to get a suntan. I didn't tell her that's virtually impossible when you have on SPF 70 that is reapplied every 2 hours!

Around 3 Ryan took them up to the condo and they took a nap. Later we were invited to some other friends condo who had went underwater spear fishing and had caught a bunch of fish.

They had a shuffle board game outside their condo and the kids had fun pushing the disk back and forth.

We wanted to walk down to the beach and see how bad the oil was. Ryleigh hitched a ride on Traveis's shoulders!

Look how bad it is! Isn't it just depressing! You literally can't get to the water without stepping in oil. Ryan walked across it to the water and it took him forever to get it off his feet. At all the condos they have a ton of stuff to clean your feet with by the showers that are normally used to rinse off your feet. They had a ton of chemical stuff to get it off with.

A rare family shot with me in it! Thanks Traveis!!

We actually ended up spending the night with them since it was so late when we got done eating. So Sunday we hung out at the pool and then went and ate at Tacky Jacks.

The things they say

I have a lot of pictures from this weekend that I need to put on here. We went to the beach and had a great time but the oil is in. It's so sad. We take the beach for granted since we've always lived here. We were suppose to go this weekend to but have decided to stay home since we can't technically go to the actual beach anyway.

I wanted to write down what the kids did the other day.

Last week I came home from work and they had completely destroyed Ryleigh's room. Not like just toys everywhere but completely destroyed everything. Toys all over the place, her whole closet emptied onto the floor and all of her drawers dumped out. Needless to say I was furious. I don't usually get mad when they make a mess with toys but when they deliberately do it, I do.

So Ryan and I sat them both down and said we are going to clean this up one time and if it EVER happens again we are getting boxes and boxing everything up in your room and giving it to kids who don't have toys and clothes. Seriously, the only thing you'll have in there is a bed, a pillow and a blanket. They both looked at us and said they understood.

The next day they got all of Tanner's trains out and after lunch Ryan's mom told them to go put them up. They walked in Tanner's room and after a few minutes they walked out and Ryleigh said, "Gi Gi, we talked about it and we really just want mom to box them up and give them to kids in Haiti."

I mean seriously Ry, you are so lazy you would just rather ship the toys off to Haiti than actually pick them up. I really thought about taking them away and a few other things to but I didn't. I also think it's funny that she associates kids who don't have toys/clothes with only Haiti. When we initially said something to them we didn't mention Haiti at all.

Those kids, Please help me!! :)

Ryleigh's First Recital

Ryleigh's first dance recital was this past Saturday at 1:00 at the civic center. She was in 3 dances, gymnastics, ballet and tap. Thankfully she was only in the 2nd act so we didn't have to be there until 3:00 and all of her dances were pretty close together so we were only there for like 2 hours. She had to put on makeup because otherwise they looked completely washed out under the stage lights. She likes to put on makeup when it's on her terms and it's pink and glittery. She hates putting it on when it's actual makeup and mascara. Thankfully Tammy volunteered to do it for me and brought over some Hello Kitty things to use as a bribe!! Hey, whatever works! Here she is putting on the mascara.

Here she is with all her makeup...She looks way to old here! She said "Oh, wow, I look 16! I can get my license!" Umm, not so fast baby girl you are only 4 and I'm going to freeze you that way, thanks!

Mom and Dawn both got her flowers, she was very excited about them. They are still all alive in our kitchen and make it so pretty!

I decided to get her something else since they had already gotten her flowers. One of my customers makes these really cute cookies so I got her to make Ryleigh some. They were really good to!
Backstage on recital day=pure chaos!! It's insane back there. It gave me a glimpse into beauty pageants. Why in the world would anyone want to spend every Saturday doing beauty pageants. It's insane. Her first dance was gymnastics. I was a little nervous about how she would do with all those people watching her but she did WONDERFUL!!! When they were doing their flips across the mat one girl messed up and was in Ryleigh's way. She was so aggravated with that girl. When she was done and came backstage she said that girl messed up her "performance!"

Next was ballet. This was mine and her least favorite. It's just so boring. She did wonderful though!!And lastly she had tap. Is this not the cutest costume ever!!! I was in love with it. I'm planning on getting Tanner a sailor costume for Halloween and letting them both be sailors! How cute will that be!?!

The shortest girl is Ryleigh's good friend Madisson. They go to church with us. The other little girl is Journey,Madisson's cousin. I thought this was a really cute picture of them!

Melinda Leigh's offers a summer dance program. When I asked her if she wanted to take dance this summer she said, "No, I think I just wanna take a little bitty break. My feet are so tired from all this dancing." I said well you don't have to take it at all if you don't want to and she said "Oh no, I want to! When would I get to see all my girlfriends and hang out with them if I didn't go to dance!" That's my girl, who cares about actually dancing, it's all about the social part for her!

Ryleigh, congratulations on your recital! We are so proud of you!! You did a wonderful job and we are looking forward to next year.

Birthdays!

Sunday was Nana and Wesley's birthday. I've always thought it is cool that they share a birthday. Mine and Ryleigh's are 1 day apart and I have the same birthday as my dad's mom but I don't think I ever met her when she was alive...I'm not sure though. Anyway back to the birthdays!

We all ate at Aunt Cheryl's after church on Sunday to celebrate. Here is Nana holding Faith. Isn't she so cute! Everyone was fighting to get to hold her since we haven't seen her since she got home from the hospital. She is a miracle baby and we all are so glad she is doing so well!
Wesley turned 22. After his birthday Lindsey, Me, Whitney and him are all 2 years apart until Whitney's birthday in December. I know that was random but I've always thought that was kinda neat.

Saturday all the aunts and me, Lindsey, Whitney and Ryleigh met for lunch for Nana's birthday. She turned 70! after lunch they all went shopping but we had to head home to get ready for Ryleigh's recital.
We went to Ruby Tuesday's so everyone make these huge salads!

I just wanted to put this picture in here to show mom how the one time Ryleigh is looking at the camera and smiling she is looking away! It was till a cute picture though. We had a fun time at lunch!

Happy Birthday to Nana and Wesley! We love you!

Friday Night

We had a fun family night last night. We went over to the Eastern Shore Center to eat dinner and hang out. We ate dinner at Calfornia Dreaming it was really good! Even better than the food was the price. I had a coupon so it was $14 for our dinner!


Playing a very intense game of tic tac toe while waiting on our food.


Their was a fire truck their that Tanner fell in love with! The fireman gave them these hats.


Doesn't she look so grown there with her legs crossed! She named this statue Sally!


Tanner was not in the mood for having his picture taken so I had to sneak this one. He was watching the firemen raise the ladder all the way up. He was amazed!


We finished up the night with cookies from the cookie company and letting them play in the fountain. I love that fountain! The kids can play and play while Ryan and I can just hang out and talk. The two of then got in a water fight and it was hilarious! Ryan and I were "base" so they would fill their cup up sneak up on each other throw it in the other ones face and run to base! Needless to say Ryan and I ended up a little wet ourselves!

Today is recital day. Ryan got up early and went to ride bikes...45 miles, yea no fun! :) I got up when he did at 6 and have already worked out, showered, gotten all the recital stuff ready and made muffins! Now I'm just waiting on them to get up.
Wish Ryleigh luck today at her recital!!

Tanner Cole

This little boy is growing up right before my eyes! He is developing such an imagination and is saying some of the cutest things. Tuesday night when they were in the bed we were talking about their day and what they wanted to pray for. Ryleigh asked me about my day and what I wanted to pray for. I told her that I had a very important breakfast the next morning with my regional manager and that's what I would like to pray for. Tanner started asking a million questions about it like why, and what time and what are you going to order. Ryleigh interrupted him by saying it doesn't matter Tanner, lets pray it's time to go to sleep. Ryleigh went first and said,

"Dear Jesus I want to pray for my moms breakfast, I hope it goes good and she is full when she leaves. Amen"

Then it was Tanner's turn

"Dear Jesus, Please let mom do good at her breakfast tomorrow so she can make more money and buy me a kayak. I really need one. Dad said if I saved $25 he would buy me one. I only have $4 so far. Please Jesus. Amen."

I died laughing when he got done. He's been wanting a kayak for a few weeks now. I have no idea why or where he got the idea from but it's all he talks about. Ryan told him if he saved up enough to buy the paddle ($25) then he would buy the kayak for him. Problem is Tanner never saves his money. He always blows it! Tuesday night when they counted Tanner's money they also counted Ryleigh's. She has $21. Ryan suggested if they combine their money they would have enough for the paddle. Ryleigh didn't want anything to do with that idea. She said Tanner is just gonna have to save. He was so mad.

He also has been saying some funny phrases lately a few of my favorites are...

"I bet" when referring to almost anything, "I bet La La has a big frog for me, I bet Ryleigh will let me pick the movie, I bet Mi Mi will be in Irvington when I get there." All of those were just this morning in the car.

"I promise" He promises everything under the sun. "I promise Gus likes me to feed him dirt, I promise Gi Gi said I could spend the night, I promise dad said I could have this Popsicle for dinner."

And my favorite, said in his most annoyed voice "Why did you do that?" anytime he is annoyed or if we did something he didn't like he says "Why did you do that?" It makes my laugh every time.

TBall is OVER!

This past Thursday night we had Tanner's end of the year TBall party. They had it at the Bay Bears game and all the kids got to go out on the field. All the players were excited, except Tanner. He couldn't have cared less.
I am so thankful TBall is over and I am not looking forward to any more organized sports for him for a while! He just wasn't into TBall. I think a lot of it has to do with his age. I'm hoping he will love sports. The whole season I kept saying...He may be the worst player on the team...

But he is hands down, without a doubt the cutest!
I think he gets that from his dad! :)

In order to hit this ball you had to pay, of course all year we have been trying to get Tanner to want to hit the ball and he's had no interest. But as soon as something cost money to do it he wants to do it. Of Course!