American Dream

I'm frustrated.

I'm frustrated with life and where we are headed. I'm frustrated with America and how we are the most ungrateful whiny nation in the world. I'm frustrated with my kids wants.

I'm frustrated.

If you look up the American Dream in the dictionary our families picture is probably right beside it. We live in a nice house, we drive nice vehicles, we have great jobs, we have amazingly beautiful kids and a lab named Gus. American Dream.

But, it's not our dream. Ryan and I never set out for the American Dream. Actually, Ryan and I never knew what we set out for. We never really had a "plan." Our plan was to get married and hope we could pay our bills on time. Nice plan. Lately we have been talking and like I said we just feel frustrated. We both feel like we aren't doing what God has called us to do. Believe it or not we don't feel like God called us to live the American Dream. I don't think he really calls anyone to do that. We just get comfortable and settle in to our routine and are satisfied with that.

Well, we aren't.

As I sit here in my Northface jacket and Nike running shorts with my macbook computer I'm actually kinda mad at myself and the life we have created. We are way to materialistic. We care to much about what people think. But, at the end of the day what does that matter? It doesn't.

When Ryan and I talk about this we keep going back to this verse...Defend the cause of the weak and fatherless, maintain the rights of the poor and oppressed. Psalm 82:3.

So if you think about it say a prayer for us. We are trying to figure out our "plan" and see what we are going to do. And before my mom freaks out we aren't planning on packing up and moving to Haiti or anything. Although, that does sound rather nice right about now.

Friday's Letter

Dear Ryan, I couldn't help but laugh last night when you were painting Ryleigh's toenails for her! She wanted each one a different color and a different flower sticker on each one. You're concentration was hilarious. Dear Tanner, the above picture is what happens when I tell you to go get dressed for school! You have worn your new hunting boots everyday since you've gotten them. Dear Ryleigh, I jokingly said you could miss school today to see what you would say and you said "No way! I love treatbagging day!" (It's their fall fun day). Dear Hudson's, why did I never know of your awesomeness before now?? I truly, truly love you! Dear Mom, Thank you for never getting a divorce and giving me a wonderful two parent home. I know it probably wasn't always easy or fun but I really do appreciate it. (I know that seems to have came out of nowhere but so many of our friends or people we know are getting divorced or separating and it just breaks my heart for them and their kids.) Dear Ryan, I'm committed to you for life. No matter what you are stuck with me so let's make the best of it, shall we? I love you more than Tanner loves his hunting boots!

Fair

Tuesday night we went to the Fair! Ryleigh and Tanner had a blast. They had went a little earlier with Mom, Larry and Karlee so Ryan, Dawn and I met them when we got off of work.

We ran into Ryan's cousins who were there and it worked out really good because they only had 3 kids and we had 3 kids and it was coke night! So we joined up and the kids were able to ride a lot of rides. Tanner rode this hang gliding thing and I thought he was going to scream the whole time. He did really good though!

The picture above and below just make my heart hurt. She just looks SO big and grown up. It makes me laugh how she is all about her friends now. Her, Karlee and Sidney walked around the fair all night hold hands and telling secrets! She is getting so big!

She didn't want to ride the roller coaster at first but she decided to. She was even more excited when they figured out they could squeeze all three of them in there. she had so much fun on this ride!

After we got done riding rides we went and got some good ol' fair food and went to the rodeo. Tanner LOVED the rodeo! He thought the rodeo clowns were hilarious! It was a fun, tiring night!

Our Weekend

We had a pretty fun weekend! Friday night I rented How to Train Your Dragon for the kids and we got Tanner's mattress and put it in the living room and watched it. We made cupcakes and had cupcakes and cookies for dinner and a slumber party in the living room! It was a really fun night!

Saturday we took a trip to Seward Farms. We love going out there. The kids always have so much fun and leave exhausted!

We had a picnic lunch at Seward Farms and then once they were as dirty as they could possibly be, we left!

Some good friends of ours lives out by the Farm so we stopped by to hang out with them for a little while. The kids love getting to play with their kids!

Saturday afternoon we came home and fell asleep watching the Auburn LSU game and woke up in time for the Alabama game. Please keep in mind that we still had Tanner's mattress in the living room!! Ryleigh left to spend the night with Ryan's mom so the 3 of us just laid around and watched the game.

Tanner and Ryan left to go to Ono around 9, they were going fishing the next day. So that left me in the house all by myself! I was so excited!

Ryan sent me these pictures of him and Tanner from Sunday. First Tanner caught a bird!

Then he caught a huge fish!! The fish was seriously as big as he was! He obviously didn't pull it in by himself but he really caught it on the reel he was holding!
He was SOOOO proud of himself and it's all he can talk about now!! I love, love, love the relationship Ryan and him have. They are so close and love to do things together. Ryan just treats him like he's one of the guys! Which can sometimes be a bad thing because of the stuff that comes out of Tanner's mouth sometimes! :)
Sunday Ryleigh and I just hung around the house until we went to go meet mom so Ryleigh could spend the night. So that means I had all of Sunday afternoon to myself! It was GLORIOUS!! My house has never been so clean! I will admit to laying around on the mattress and watching a movie to! Once the movie was over I moved it back into Tanner's room. I could get used to having it in the living room though. It was kinda nice!! :)

Sunday I also made this new thing to display the kids artwork. I think it turned out really cute!

Tonight as long as it's not raining we are headed to the fair!!

Evan's Letter

Evan, Yesterday when I saw you for the first time I wanted to punch you in the face and kiss you all over the face all at the same time. You scared the crap out of us. I have never been so happy to see you in my life. I am so so so thankful that you are OK. I hope when this is all said and done you realize just how lucky (although I don't believe in luck) that you are. God obviously has big plans for your life and wanted you to stick around for a while longer. Dear ER beds, you need to be bigger so there would be more room for us when I piled in there with Evan to take a nap! It also wouldn't hurt you to be longer. Evan's poor feet hung off the bed all day long. Dear Whitney, next time there is a family emergency don't text me "Did you hear about...??" Just pick up the phone and call. Dear Aunt Velvet, I know you are beyond thankful that Evan is OK. It's a miracle and at least for once in his life his hard head came in handy. :) You were so strong all day yesterday and I am so proud of you. Next time (hopefully we will never have a next time) do not wait until 3 hours later to call someone!!! Also, next time I promise to get you your own cookie! Dear Aunt Cheryl, I think yesterday qualified as a cake emergency! Thank you for cooking dinner for everyone! It was a good ending to a bad but could have been much worse day. Dear Aunt Lisa, We will give you one more shot at the phone tree. You drive right by my house...how could you forget to call me! :) Dear Mom, No more Rhode Island for you! Everytime you go it seems like something bad happens! We missed you yesterday. No one was there to ask Evan 100 questions! :) Dear Alford Family, I think we take for granted the wonderful family we have. It's days like yesterday that brings it all into perspective. We are so blessed to be apart of this wonderful group. I wouldn't pick anyone else to depend on! There are many things that could be said about us but I would like to say that no matter what we love each other and are there for each other. We are fiercely loyal and fiercely loved. Dear Evan, I can't say it enough how thankful I am that you are alive. You are an amazing young man and I can't wait to see what God has in store for you. I heard the nurses and other people saying yesterday that the difference in yesterday was one millimeter. One millimeter and we would have been somewhere entirely different yesterday. One millimeter for an entirely different outcome. I disagree, I believe that the difference in yesterday was God. Plain and simple.

I Love You Evan, and I'm so glad you are OK.

Smarty Pants

One thing I love about Ryleigh's school is the projects she gets to do. She always gets so excited about them. this past week she had to decorate an umbrella for an umbrella parade at school. They were going over the letter "U." I let her completely decorate it by herself. It was her idea and everything! I think she did an excellent job.

The finished product.I had a meeting yesterday with Ryleigh's teacher to just discuss her progress to far with K4 and how she was doing. I was excited to talk to her and find out what Ryleigh is like at school. Mrs. Carter said she is an absolute delight! She said that Ryleigh is always so sweet to everyone and is everyone's favorite! The whole week we were in Disney the kids would want to say a special prayer for Ryleigh everyday!

Mrs. Carter also said that she loves Ryleigh's fashion sense! It's no secret that my girl is a fashionista! I mean look at how she dressed for the umbrella parade. She told me it was a special parade and she needed to be dressed up for it! Yesterday she wore a long maxi dress with cowboy boots, a cardigan and an huge flower headband. They can't wear cowboy boots to school and when I told Ryleigh that she said, "Mom, boys wear cowboy boots these are not cowboy boots, they are fashion boots! I think Mrs. Carter will think I look cute!" And she was right, Mrs. Carter loved them!

Mrs. Carter also told me how she had to move Ryleigh to the front row close to her desk because Ryleigh likes Mrs. Carters attention all day long!
Everything she told me just made me so happy! I mean who wouldn't want someone telling them for a solid 30 minutes how wonderful their kid was! :) She also said that she could tell that Ryan and I were doing a wonderful job raising her. That we give her the perfect mix of discipline and freedom. We enforce the things that matter without hindering her individuality. She is who she is and we love her because of it!

We also talked about her progress as far as her school work. Mrs. Carter said that Ryleigh is so smart and on some levels is doing 1st grade work! One of Ryleigh's problems at school is she gets finished with her work early and wants to turn around in her seat and talk and make funny faces at the class. She does occasionally get in timeout for this. Mrs. Carter said she doesn't think Ryleigh is being openly defiant she just gets done early and gets bored. They are going to test next week and we will have a more accurate gage of what level Ryleigh is in school.

I am so glad she is doing so well!! Thank you Mrs. Carter for loving and teaching our wild, sweet, smart little girl!! We love the school they go to and couldn't imagine a better place for our 2 kids. Thank you ABC for not only teaching our kids but helping us enforce Godly values and morals at such a young age!

Friday's Letter

Dear Ryan, Thank you so much for cleaning the house today! It really is going to make my weekend so much more enjoyable. I do think it's funny how when I leave you a list you literally take it step by step. Never adding to it or taking away from it. I don't know why but this makes me SMILE. Dear Weekend, Even though we only had a 4 day work week it still seems like it took forever for you to get here. Dear Aunt Velvet and Mom, Thank you so much for keeping the kids this weekend! I hope they are good! Dear weekend at the beach with all of our friends, I'm really looking forward to you so hurry up 6:00!! Dear Diet, you will resume again on Monday so get ready! Dear Whitney, Running resumes on Monday so be ready. Dear Tanner, I am SO SO SO proud of you sleeping in your bed all this week. You love your new room and I'm so excited for you! Dear Ryleigh, I hope your umbrella parade at school today is everything you hoped it would be. You have been so excited for it all week! Dear Ryan, a husband who baths the kids every night, cleans the kitchen every night, packs the kids lunches AND is cleaning the whole house from top to bottom for me today is a wonderful husband in my book! I love you more than a clean house on a fall Saturday morning!

Why I Blog

Believe it or not, I don't love to blog. Sometimes I don't even like to do it but I'm so glad I do. I love to go and look back at different post and what we were doing this time last year.

I just scanned through a lot of old post and came across these:

Remember this night at Nana and Paw Paw's? It was so fun!
http://stokleyfamily.blogspot.com/2009/07/if-we-would-of-know-yall-were-coming-we.html

I love looking at different things the kids said. Like when Tanner talked about Jesus.
http://stokleyfamily.blogspot.com/2009/08/tanner-cole.html


I know you guys remember the ugliest lunch box ever!
http://stokleyfamily.blogspot.com/2009/07/ugliest-lunch-box-ever.html

One of my all time favorite post was on mine and Ryan's 5 year anniversary.
http://stokleyfamily.blogspot.com/2009/12/5-years.html


Remember when Tanner punched Ryleigh in the face?
http://stokleyfamily.blogspot.com/2009/10/stop-looking-at-me.html

I have a ton more that I love but these are the ones I came across today! You can click on the link to read each one.

I just have to remind myself that even when I don't want to do it, I'll be so happy I did in the long run!

Hollywood Studios-Day 2

If I had to pick our least favorite park it would probably be Hollywood Studios. We had a lot of fun there but there were quite a few things that didn't interest the kids. Since we planned our vacation solely for them if they couldn't ride it we did either. Disney has a rider swap program where you can ride the ride then swap with your partner so they can ride without having to wait in line twice. But what's the fun in riding alone??

As soon as the parked opened we knew we wanted to head to Toy Story Mania. This was hands down one of our favorite rides in all of Disney and without a doubt Tanner's absolute favorite! The boys headed straight to get in line and Ryleigh and I hung back and met a few characters.

She loved getting to meet Stich! I don't think she's ever seen the real movie but she like their TV show.
We then met up with them just as they were going in the door. Tanner really thought the Army men were cool!

The wait for the ride was only like 15 minutes so it went by pretty fast.

We had learned from the day before that as soon as we got off of it to go get FastPasses to ride it again later in the day.

After Toy Story Mania we hit up The Little Mermaid show and Playhouse Disney. Playhouse Disney was a huge hit with them! They liked getting to interact with the show and they love "Oh Toodles!" We also went to this bakery called Starring Hills Cafe. It was SOOOO good!!! I got a Butterfinger cupcake that was as big as my head. It was literally the best cupcake I've ever had! We tried to go to a bakery in every park because Ryan, the kids and I all LOVE bakeries!! I wish we had more in Mobile!

We then headed to the Indiana Jones Show. Tanner kept calling it the Indian show. He loved it! He didn't like the breaks the took when they would explain the behind the scenes type stuff but as far as the show he really liked it!

For lunch we went to Toy Story Pizza Planet. It's a pizza place that's set up like the Pizza Planet in the Toy Story movie. The kids LOVED it and the pizza was actually pretty good! They have an arcade inside so we hung out in there for a little while and cooled off. On the way out they saw this snowman at one of the shops and wanted to take a picture with it!

After lunch we went to The Muppet 3D show. I felt so bad for this show because it's so old and so sad! It really was terrible. The highlight though was when we came out we got to see these guys!!

We then headed to the Lights, Motor, Action stunt show. By this time we were hot and tired and I was feeding into the kids attitude problems. It was just such a long walk and anyone that knows us knows that Ryleigh and I hate 2 things...being outside and being hot. We had a quick attitude adjustment and really enjoyed the show. Thankfully this was the only hot day we had. The rest of the week it was fairly nice out.

Our second favorite thing about Hollywood was the Block Party Bash! We LOVED it!! Someone had told me that they don't try to catch the parades when they go, they just do if they do. Well I would HIGHLY recommend trying to catch them. They are so fun!! We got the kids an ice cream and sat down while we waited for it to start. It was a great opportunity for them to rest for about 20 minutes.

The parade was so cool!! They stop and get down and dance with everyone. It really was a lot of fun. Very entertaining and very high energy.

After the parade we went and rode Toy Story Mania again. With our fastpasses we only waited like 15 minutes when the regular wait time was 180 minutes!!

We then met Buzz and Woody together! Tanner was so excited about that!

That afternoon we went and rode the Tower of Terror. Yes, you read that right. Ryan put my sweet babies on that ride!! They did ok the whole way to the ride when we were talking about it but once we got on and they buckled them in and turned out the lights they got a little freaked out. The whole ride they didn't cry but I could tell they wanted to. As soon as it was over they said "Is it over?" I said yes and Tanner started balling his eyes out. He was so mad at Ryan for making him ride it. He wouldn't speak to him for a while! Later though they were really proud of themselves for riding it and kept telling everyone!

That night we had dinner at Sci Fi. It came recommend to us by a few people but we both thought it was terrible. It was our least favorite restaurant in all of Disney. That night was the show Fantasmic. We headed in about 7 and sat on the very front row so the kids would have plenty of room to run around while we waited for the show to start. The thing about the front row is you get wet during the show!! The kids thought that was really cool.

Waiting on the show to start. Who's kids are these??

Fantasmic is such a cool show. It combines everything Disney into one show. Fireworks, water and all the characters. We loved it!

The only thing I didn't like about the show was getting out of the theater after the show! It was chaos!

Ryan took this picture during the show. Looks like Tanner and I were excited about something!

It was a really fun day and the kids did so well with not going back and taking a nap. I have mixed feelings about taking time out of the day to go back and rest. We did it like twice but most days we just stayed and played all day!

I now present to you...

Mr & Mrs. Brandon Johnson!

Way more pictures to come.

I hope you guys have a wonderful Honeymoon in Mexico!!

Friday's Letter

Dear Scuba Steve (aka Ryan), Last night when you pretended there were bugs in our bed and then laughed your head off at me when I freaked out...not cool, not cool at all! Dear Lindsey, you are getting married, TOMORROW!!! TOMORROW!!! Like as in the day after today!! I'm so excited!! Dear Aunt Melissa, you are such a trooper!! Surgery on Wednesday, rehearsal dinner on Thursday wedding on Saturday...check! Dear Whitney, thank you for the text yesterday reminding me that I was officially 24 1/2...also not cool, not cool at all. Dear Mom, Thursday night through Sunday being spent in Wilmer...it's a RECORD!!! I'm so excited that anytime I look out my window I will be able to see your car. This makes me smile. Dear Jordan, have I told you lately how much I love you?? Well I do!! I think you are hands down my favorite cousin and if you every need anything you can call me! :) (Now remember this when you become a star football player!!) Dear Columbus, Thank you for discovery of America that in turn leads to me being off on Monday! Dear Ryan, I enjoyed our lunch date on Wednesday and our Grey's Anatomy date on Thursday. Although this may be hard to believe, I love you more than Mexican food and McDreamy!

4 1/2

Ryleigh,
Today you are officially 4 1/2. I have no idea why but you have been so excited for this day ever since I mentioned it to you a few weeks ago. I think it just adds to the excitement you have about turning 5. Why you are so excited about turning 5? I have no idea. But you talk about it all the time. You talk about your 5 year old school, you talk about your 5 year old birthday party and your 5 year old dance class. You are so excited!! I am not. When you turn 5 that means the next day I turn 25...not excited about that. When you turn 5 you'll never be four again and that breaks my heart. Last night we were talking about you turning 4 1/2 and being that much closer to 5 and you said "Don't worry mom if I'm 5 or 45 I'll always be your baby!"

Happy 4 1/2 Birthday baby girl! I love you!!