Friday, July 30, 2010

Let's Jam Buddy

Ok, so for Lindsey's upcoming bridal shower I suggested for us to make a Cupcake Tower instead of getting a regular cake. Regular cakes are so last year! :)
Seriously though, cupcakes are EVERYWHERE! Carrie Underwood even had them at her wedding. So anyway, Velvet, Whit and I went last Saturday night and got all the stuff to make it. I went and got the boxes from the post office Thursday so Thursday night we got to work on it!
I have no idea what they are laughing at here...there's no telling!
Whitney painting the letters. We had to give her an easy job, because if you didn't already know she isn't the most crafty person. :)
Aunt Velvet cutting out perfect circles. She's all smiles! Thank goodness Aunt Lisa was there to wrap it!
All I have to say about this picture is please tell me I don't always look so dorky!
And here is our almost finished product! Minus Whitney's head and Plus a box with the letter L on it. The small box I got for the top was to big. so we cut out the L and everything for it and now I just need to find a smaller box to use.
Here is what I was going for...(the picture is off my phone is why there's the iPhone stuff at the top and bottom.
What do you think?
I think it turned out really good! I can't wait to get the top layer on and put cupcakes all around it! She better like it!
Thanks Whit for the title...she wants to keep the tower once we are done with it and put it on her coffee table. Aunt Lisa said what will you say the letters stand for. She said "Let's Jam Buddy!"







Wednesday, July 28, 2010

Days Until...

We have a lot of big events coming up! First there is the kickoff of Alabama Football! Although we are die hard Alabama fans we just love football season in general. I love sitting on the couch all day on Saturday and watching every game starting with the 11:30 all the way to the 8:00 game!

We have 38 Days until Kickoff!

We have our first real family vacation planned this year! We are going to Disney the last week in September and I'm SOOOO excited!!! Ryan and I both keep saying how excited we are about it! The kids are excited but I don't think they realize exactly what Disney World is since they've never been. I have Gill making them some really cute shirts to wear.
If anyone has any good Disney tips or things we should do or places we should eat leave them in the comments. I'm kinda overwhelmed with planning the trip!

We have 59 days until Disney!!

The last big event we have coming up is Lindsey's wedding. I'm so excited about it! I'm the maid of honor, Ryleigh is the Flower Girl and Tanner is the Ring Bearer. She has her first shower coming up in 3 weeks and I'm making a cupcake tower for it. Keep your fingers crossed it turns out cute!

We have 73 days until the Wedding!!

Monday, July 26, 2010

Storytime

I think bedtime has turned into my favorite part of the day!



I love cuddling in the bed with Ryleigh and Tanner and reading to them. I love how good they smell after just having a bath. I love how they listen so well now when we read to them! We read a story from their bible each night and then they both get to pick out a book to read. It turns into a whole ordeal but it's so sweet!


Ryan has also been getting in on the fun lately! I will admit that they tend to like Ryan's stories better since he adds to them as he goes. I don't think anywhere in froggy learns to swim does his mom call him a crybaby and tell him to quit whining!

Friday, July 23, 2010

Friday's Letter

Dear Ryan, You are the only person I know who could trade our old lawnmower for a truck. Yes, it may be an old truck but it will get you back and forth to work fabulously without adding miles to your good truck. Is it weird that I'm proud of your trading abilities? Dear Tanner, Unfortunately the above picture is a true depiction of the way you went to the store last night with your dad in his "new" old truck. I apologize for letting him do that to you. Although no one probably even noticed the way you were dressed. They probably paid more attention to the fact that you had a snicker's ice cream bar smeared across your entire face. Dear Ryleigh, Your sales skills are remarkable. You had a very convincing point last night when you were trying to sell me a monkey from the store you had set up in the living room. You told me "He will do everything, you can just sit on the couch and watch TV, he even does laundry!" You speak my love language! I'll take 2 monkeys, please. Dear Whitney, I love the text messages we send back and forth throughout the day. They brighten my day. One of the conversations from last night read "If you can think of something else you would rather have me make let me know I'm all ears. Well not all ears because my ears really aren't that big...maybe all fingerprints, I have some massive fingerprints." 4 words for you You. Make. Me. Smile. Dear Aunt Velvet, I'm sorry for not telling Ryan to pick Evan up Wednesday night and therefore leaving him waiting for an hour. Please forgive me. Dear Man who also speaks my love language, Is it sad that the thing I'm most looking forward to this weekend is the waffles you promised to make me in the morning? Maybe it is, but you love me anyway which in return makes me love you more.

Tuesday, July 20, 2010

Weekend Rewind

We had a busy fun weekend...but I think I've came to the conclusion that that is every weekend of ours. I told Ryan this coming up weekend we aren't making any plans. NONE!

Friday night we went to my friend Lindsay's and made homemade brick oven pizza's and went swimming.
Lindsay thinks she's a pro! She actually is much better than when we first started making them. The first time instead of having round pizza's we had rectangle ones. We've came a long way!
The pizza's are SO good. We tried a few new ones and my favorite is BBQ Chicken, Ryan likes the Buffalo Chicken.
This is their back yard. Isn't it BEAUTIFUL!!! I love it out there. And it has everything you would need. A Bathroom, kitchen and TV.

Tanner likes to play in the hot tub b/c he can touch. He'll throw that ball for Bailey their dog for hours!
Saturday we met mom that morning to get the kids and we went bike riding. They were having a slumber party with Morgan and Carlee and were very excited!
There was a whole group of us that went and we rode about 20 miles.
Ryan thinking he was 16 again he started to jump down these stairs and at the last minute chickened out a just rode down them. Thank goodness, he's not as young as he used to be!

We stopped about halfway back and went in this cute candy store. I love Fairhope it's such a beautiful little town.
Sunday afternoon I went to pick up the kids from mom and we celebrated Mrs. Barnes birthday! Happy Birthday Mrs. Barnes. Sunday night we had an engagement party for our friends Courtney and Ward. Ryleigh and Tanner LOVE Ward...They call him Pooter Tooter. I have no idea why! They had just gotten engaged Saturday night.
We have a lot coming up in the next few weeks. Ryleigh and Tanner start swim lessons next Monday for 2 weeks and then they both start school!!

Friday, July 16, 2010

Friday's Letter

Dear Lance Armstrong (aka Ryan), although you may be able to ride your bike for 20 miles at an 18 miles per hour pace does not mean that your slightly less out of shape (but much better looking) :) wife can. So please cut me some slack this Saturday. Dear Tanner, next time you catch a frog in a cup and decided to leave it on my nightstand for the frog to escape and then scare me to death in the middle of the night, don't. Thanks. Dear Whitney, I loved your response when I told you that Ryleigh and Tanner had to have the 3rd size up on bikes. "OMG make them stop growing right now, seriously, immediately." Please come see us soon we miss your beautiful face! Dear Ryleigh, contrary to popular belief you are only 4 years old and no, you do not need a cell phone. If I ever need to reach you I can just look to my left. Sorry to spoil your fun. Dear Lindsey, Only 85 days until your wedding. I cannot wait! It's going to be so much fun! Dear Mr. Stokley, 5 points for not being mean to me when we've been running this week. I would also like to give myself 5 points for not face planting on the trails you made me run. I just knew I was going to trip over a stump.
I love you more than chap stick!

Thursday, July 15, 2010

Bikes

Monday night out of nowhere Ryan decided that he wanted to go buy the kids some bikes. They've never had them but because we really don't have anywhere to ride them. Well I told Ryan let's just wait and get them on Saturday and we'll make a whole day out of it. But, No. Once he gets something in his mind he is going to do it. So after running Monday night we headed to Wal Mart.

Please take notice of Ryleigh's outfit. Yes, she went into a store dressed like that. Thankfully we didn't see anyone we knew.
I was telling my friend Sarah the story of the bikes and she pointed out how Ryleigh is a lot like me and Tanner is a lot like Ryan.

When we first walked down the bike aisle the 2 bikes that instantly caught their eyes were the Disney Princess and Spiderman bike. Well everyone knows I can't stand characters but on a bike I would be ok with them.

Until I looked at the price tag...they were $75! For a kids bike! We kept looking around and found some other ones that weren't character bikes and in my opinion were 100% cuter that were only $40. The girl one was pink and purple with flowers and the boy one was red and black with fire. Much more tolerable than Disney Princess and Spiderman.

I asked them what they thought about those 2 bikes. Both said they wanted the character bikes.

We then told them that the character bikes were much more expensive for the exact same thing. Ryleigh said how much more expensive? I told her $35 and that basically she could buy 2 of the pink bikes for one of the Princess bikes. She immediately said she wanted the pink bike. That girl knows the value of a dollar!

Tanner on the other hand didn't care he still wanted the Spiderman bike. He's been saving his money for a real Buzz Lightyear that talks. They are $35 at Wal Mart. He has about $32 saved up so far. I told him that he could get the Spiderman bike but he would have to pay the difference and then he wouldn't have any money left to buy Buzz Lightyear. He STILL didn't care!!

In the end we made him get the red bike because I knew that he wouldn't care once we got home.

It's funny to me that Ryleigh is a saver and doesn't have to have everything. She is also very practical and usually if you give her the reasons behind something she well go along with it. Tanner is the complete opposite. He wants what he wants and doesn't care how much it is. That's one of the main reasons I'm making him save for the Buzz Lightyear as opposed to just going and buying it for him. He needs to learn how to save up for something he wants!

Monday, July 12, 2010

Ryleigh in 20 years

The other night Ryleigh and I stayed up way past her bedtime talking. I love this age that she is in where she is content to sit down beside me and just have a conversation. We talked about her and what she likes. We talked about my job and what I do. We talked about Ryan and Tanner. We talked about God and why we believe in him.

We sat and talked for a good 45 minutes. I wanted to record what she said about her future. So when she's older and looks back on this we can laugh!

She said she will never move out of our house. I explained that I used to live at Mi Mi's in the room that is now their playroom. When I got married I moved out. She said she didn't care. When she gets married they will both live at our house. Except he'll have to sleep in Tanner's room because her room is a girl room! :)

She wants to have 2 kids, both girls. She wants to name them Madison and Baisley. (I suggested Paisley, because I'm currently OBSESSED with that name and she said nah, Baisley!)

We talked about what she wants to be when she grows up and she said "I want to go to college and then they'll tell me." I explained that it doesn't work like that and she can pick to be anything she wants to. She then said she wants to be a worker. I then explained that you go to work somewhere like a lawyer, doctor, banker, astronaut ect. But that an actual "worker" isn't a job. She then said I want to work at the bank right beside you!

It was such a great conversation with my girl. She is getting so big and I'm loving the stage we are in now.

Friday, July 9, 2010

Friday's Letter

I read a really great blog called Today's Letters. She writes a letter everyday to random things in her life and always 2 to her husband. I really love the idea of it and although I don't want to commit to do anything daily but showering I'm going to try to start doing it on Fridays.

Dear Ryan, I thoroughly enjoyed our spontaneous "date" to Panini Grill and Home Depot last night. You are disqualified from the race we had from the front of Home Depot to the car. On the grounds that you said we weren't racing and then took off! So. Not. Fair. Dear Summer, Please go by slower, I cannot believe that it is already July! The kids will start school in August and it seems impossible that I have two kids old enough to be in school. Dear Tanner, when you look back on pictures of yourself from this summer please know that it is your dad who refuses to let me cut your hair. He wants to see how big and poofy it will get before school starts. I'm apologizing in advance to you. I'm sorry. Dear Friday, please pass by fast we for once in our lives have a low key weekend. I know, SHOCKER! And Lastly Dear Ryan, thanks for not only being my husband but also being my friend. You reminded me last night of the many reasons why I love you I think my number1 is the fact that we sometimes act like we are kids still. Proof being the race through the parking lot, the piggy back ride through Home Depot and the singing of Fergie's my humps in the car last night. I love your laugh.
Peace Out!

Wednesday, July 7, 2010

Outcome

Monday morning we left the beach pretty early and headed back to Mobile. Ryleigh had a doctors appt at 1:30 at our Pediatrician's office. We didn't really think they would be able to get the splinter out but we needed a referral to a surgeon.
He said that there was no way he could get it out and referred us to Dr. Galloway at Mobile Infirmary. (Tanner loved the room she was in, Buzz Lightyear!)

We couldn't see Dr. Galloway until Tuesday and Ryan couldn't meet me. Mom called and said that she would but I told her I would be fine. Thank Goodness she didn't listen to me and came anyway! When we walked in mom realized that is was the group that Denise (a good family friend of ours) is the office manager. She was so great and made the whole thing much easier! She took us right back and the doctor immediately came in.
He said that the best safest option would be to give her the numbing shot and get it out with surgical tweezers as opposed to going to Mobile Infirmary and doing outpatient surgery. The thing about the shots is she would have to have 4 of them ALL in her big toe! The surgeon said that it is the worst shot and it hurts so bad. He said grown men cry when they get it. So we laid her on the table and me, mom, Denise and the nurse were all holding her down. When he did the first shot she lost it she was screaming her head off which in turn made me cry, it was AWFUL!! I never cry when they get shots but this was insane.
After the shots we waited a few minutes for them to take effect and then he pulled it out. She cried during that to but I think just because she could see him doing it and we made her get back on the table.
So after a new stuffed animal puppy, a smoothie, $5 from mom, a gift bag full of candy from Ryan and renting a movie, she was fine. I'm so thankful that is over! Also thank so much to Mrs. Denise who made the process a heck of a lot less painful!! We were in and out of there in no time at all!! Also, thanks to mom who knows when not to listen to me and came anyway!

Sunday, July 4, 2010

The Splinter

See that dark straight line on Ryleigh's big toe? Yep, it's a splinter. A HUGE splinter!


She was playing on the pier today and got it stuck under her toe. Her toenails were painted bright green to match her bathing suit (she wanted them to match!) So at first we couldn't even tell there was one in there.
I called her doctor because there was no way to get it out. It broke off at the top so it's impossible to get to. The nurse said that as long as she wasn't in pain anymore that it would be fine to wait until tomorrow. She also said that she doubts there will be a way to get it out without doing SURGERY!!
So say a prayer, we are going to take her in tomorrow. I know it won't be a big deal but anytime you hear the words surgery when referring to your child you get a little freaked out!

Happy 4th of July!




We hope everyone has a safe and happy fourth!



Friday, July 2, 2010

We are still here!

Contrary to popular belief we haven't disappeared off the face of the earth we have just been so busy! Last Thursday Ryan left for Atlanta and took the SR High kids to a conference, Six Flags and a Braves game. Kris was suppose to meet them up there but he ended up getting hurt at camp and couldn't come. So Ryan was in charge of 15 senior high kids for 4 days by himself...Bless his heart!

Friday night the kids stayed with mom and I cleaned out closets, the pantry and the cabinets. (I know, when did my life get so exciting! I know you all are so jealous!)
Saturday we met Sarah and Zoe to go see Toy Story 3. It was such a cute movie!
We went to the theater in Malbis so we could let them play in the fountain afterward. The 3 of them play so well together.
After that we decided to be brave and take the 3 of them to eat Mexican. I was really thinking Ryleigh and Tanner would be terrible because it was late in the afternoon and they had been going nonstop but they were actually excellent!

It was such a fun day! It's so funny to me watching them as they get older and the conversations they carry on and how active their little social lives are!
Sunday we went to my friend Lindsay's house and made pizza's and went swimming. I need to take pictures one day of their outside kitchen and pool area. It is SO nice. Like nicer than my house!!
The kids loved rolling out the dough and putting the toppings on. I'm sure no one minded the fact that Tanner licked his fingers in between adding every topping! :)
The outside pizza oven is so cool. It's done by fire and you put them in and in less the 5 minutes they are done. Here is the buffalo chicken pizza! So good!!
Tanner loved playing with their dog Bailey. I actually videoed him throwing the ball in the water for Bailey then racing him to it and then grabbing Bailey's tail and riding back to the stairs! It was to cute!
I promise to get back to posting next week but Ryan didn't get home until Sunday night and then I left Monday for Birmingham with work and didn't get home until late last night. This weekend we are heading to the beach for the fourth. I'm already exhausted and we haven't even left yet! I hope everyone has a safe and happy fourth of July!