Tanner's Birthday Weekend

Tanner's birthday was on Saturday. Ryan and I knew we would be busy all day getting ready for a wedding shower we were co-hosting for some friends of ours so we went out to eat Friday night for his birthday. He chose Texas Roadhouse and got to ride on the saddle since it was his birthday.

Saturday morning we got up and made him Birthday Pancakes. I do this for them every year.
He was NOT happy about the sprinkles Ryleigh and I put on them. I though he would love them!

He quickly forgot when I told him he could open one of his presents. We wait and give them their big present on the day of their party. So this was just something fun for today.

I met Mom that day so she could get the kids. She took Tanner to Toys R Us and let him pick out his birthday present. Then they headed to Dauphin Island to spend the afternoon at the beach.

They had a great time! Tanner said is was the most fun ever!

And Ryleigh said it would have been more fun had it been her birthday instead!

Then they headed back to moms to have a little mini party for Tan Man. He requested Mom to make a Lemon Pie for him!

I think he had a great day!! I can't believe my baby boy is 4!

Happy Birthday Tan Man!

Tanner Cole, You are FOUR years old today!!! This makes me want to smile and cry all at once.
Your Dad and I love you so much! You are such a sweet little boy. This past year has been one of the most incredible years. You have grown so much this year.

EVERYWHERE we go people comment on how beautiful you are. Seriously, they say he isn't just a cute little boy, he is absolutely gorgeous. Seriously, you are so cute. Those bright blue eyes, curly blond hair and dimples just make me smile.

This past year you started school (which you currently still don't like) and Tball (which you also didn't like). We are trying Tball again. You start next week. So hopefully you will like it.

You already have your future wife picked out. You proposed last year around this time to my best friend Lindsay and still talk about it once a week. You'll say when Lindsay and I get married or when Lindsay and I do this. Lindsay has currently started dating someone and you do not like it at all! I wish you could marry Lindsay! :)

Sometimes you are as tough as nails and then sometimes you are the biggest sissy ever. It all depends on your mood.

You LOVE anything that has to do with bugs, Lizards, Frogs or any kind of animal really. You literally could stay outside for hours looking for critters. You keep them in cages until we eventually sneak them away to let them out so they don't die.

You and Ryleigh have a love/hate relationship. Sometimes yall are the best of friends and sometimes yall can't stand to look at each other.

You love the water. You love going to the beach and fishing. You also love to go hunting. Not as much though if you aren't seeing deer.

You want EVERYTHING you see. Literally every commercial that comes on you want it. Everything you pass in the store, you want it. Everything that everyone else has, you want it. (I wonder where you get that from??? :))

You are a Momma's boy. I always said I never wanted a Momma's boy but I couldn't imagine it any other way.

You have grown so much this past year and I can't wait to see what the age of four has in store for you. This year you will go to 5 day a week school and also start football in the fall. You are getting so big! We love you so much Tanner and I am so thankful that I get to be your Mom!!

I love you buddy!

Friday's Letter

Dear Dreams, Thank you for allowing me to spend a few hours with my Dad every once in a while. I never know when it is going to happen but when it does it is absolutely wonderful. Dear Dad, I'm going to write this to you like you were here to read it. When big events happen in my life it makes me miss you more than ever. I want so badly to call you and tell you about my promotion. I want so badly for you to spend Tanner's 4th birthday with him. You would absolutely love him. He is the perfect mix of tough and tender. He reminds me so much of you. He has massive hands and feet. He's 6 inches taller than everyone in his class. He loves horses, bugs, pigs, goats well actually any animal. I wish you could be here to see Ryleigh's dance recital. She is me made over so I know you would love her. She would make you laugh until you cried. I wish for Tammy's sake that you could see her house. It is absolutely gorgeous and you would be so proud of her. Her land stretches for what seems like miles and in the distance mountains go on forever. Her view is breathtaking. When we visited he I couldn't help but stand and look out the window and think about you. You would love it. Death is a funny thing. With time the days get better and you go some days without even thinking about it but then out of nowhere it hits you, and hits you hard. Last night I dreamed you were here. I dreamed we went to breakfast and caught up. I dreamed you knew everything that had happened in the past 5 years. It was like you were never gone. I love you and miss you so much. Dear Dreams, thanks again for the wonderful gift that you are. I can't wait until the next time I get to spend some time with my Dad!

What's been going on...

Hello!

We have had SOOOO much going on this past week that I haven't been able to keep up. It's been a very trying and tiring week. This past weekend we went to the Gulf Breeze Zoo with some friends or ours as kinda a little birthday celebration for Tanner. I had a ton of pictures but they won't post big and I don't really feel like dealing with it. Here is Sarah's recap of the trip. It was a lot of fun! After the zoo we went to Destin and ate dinner and took the kids to the beach. We were there during the sunset and it was so pretty! I couldn't believe the kids played in the water! They are insane.

In other news. The kids are learning so much at school. I would say that Ryleigh can officially read. She has read 2 books so far. She is so proud of herself! We have to be careful about what we spell out now when we don't want them to know what we are saying. It's happened twice so far where she was able to figure it out. This morning on the way to curves we were arguing about the fact that she should not get a cell phone for her 5th birthday. Well she is her father's daughter and had a whole list of reasons why she should. Because what if she needed to call 911 because all 3 of us were hurt! When we got to Curves she was still talking about it so she asked Mrs. Kim what she thought. Mrs. Kim then said what did your dad say? I know he would say Y-E-S. Ryeligh said, "Me to, I know he would say yes!" So add that to the list of words she can spell! :)

Tanner still likes school about as much as you would like to have a root canal. He doesn't cry or anything when we take him but everyday I pick him up and ask how his day was he says, "Not good." He has no reasons as to why. He just doesn't like the structure that school offers. Bless his heart, he's in for a rude awakening next year when he has to go for 5 days. He is learning to write his name which I am so proud of! He is left handed which for some reason makes me smile. (I have no idea why. Maybe because most presidents are left handed! :))

Ryan and I have both been working our butts off. He is on 5 12 hour shifts. Which if you know him you know he hates because he loves his Friday's off. At least he is getting a lot of overtime! I have recently been promoted at work and will move to my new branch soon. I'm going to be the branch manager. I am very excited. I always said I wanted to make a list of 25 things I wanted to do/accomplish before I was 25. I never made the complete list but I did put a few things down and becoming a branch manager was one of them!

Mountains Day 2

We had a really fun second day in the Mountains. We got up that morning and Ryan had to finish some stuff with the tire. So he took Ryleigh and I to the outlets. After he got done him and Tanner came and joined us for a little bit.

After that we went on a few hikes through the National Forest. We were going to Cade's Cave but I'm not a huge fan of stuff like that so we just went to the National Park and did the trails there.

The kids did really good and actually walked the whole way. It was about 2.5 miles! I was proud of them!
You can't really tell because I didn't take my camera and just had my cell phone camera but that's a waterfall behind them.

After that we went to the Aquarium in downtown Gatlinburg. The kids had a lot of fun at the Aquarium. I didn't know what to expect since it was a Ripley's attraction. (Ripley's has literally taken over Gatlinburg.) We loved it though!

I'm not sure what's up with the hand on the hips of Miss Priss. She has started doing this when she poses for pictures.

We then went and ate dinner and played Putt Putt. We were back at the hotel around 8 so we could pack up and get ready to leave the next morning.

On the way home on Sunday we made a detour to Cullman, AL and stopped to have lunch with my sister and her husband. We had yet to see her new house and it is BEAUTIFUL!!! It's exactly what you would picture her house to be. It's sitting in the middle of 10 acres that's all flat and cleared. It's literally in the middle of the country. When you look out her huge front window you just see mountains for miles. I'm so happy for her!!

We had a great trip but I am still unpacking and getting all the laundry done...does that ever end? :)

I hope everyone has a great weekend!

Wacky Wednesday

Today was Wacky Wednesday at Ryleigh's school. She was very excited about it and I told her she could go get dressed and put on WHATEVER she wanted this morning. She was beyond thrilled. She spent a great deal of the morning trying to decide what would be the Wackiest! So this morning I sent my beautiful sweet girl to school dressed like this....

She's a mess!

Also, Happy Birthday Aunt Velvet! We love you!!

Mountain Vacation Day 1

We drove up to Gatlinburg Thursday night when I got off of work. Unfortunately we had a flat tire so we didn't actually get there until like 2 am. Poor Ryan, he was exhausted! I'm thankful though he never ask me to drive. I hate driving!

We got ip Friday morning and headed to Ober Gatlinburg. We rode the tram up the mountain. The kids loved the view and got a little nervous when the tram would start shaking!





We went snow tubing which was a lot of fun! Tanner especially loved it.





The first time we dropped down the hill it was so fun hearing their screams!





We dressed them really warm and there were thankfully no complaints of being cold!



































Ryleigh got tired of snow tubing about an hour into it. So Ryan and her took a break to get some cookies and hot chocolate while they watched me and Tanner. Tanner wanted to try snowboarding/skiing and we briefly talked about it but decided we didn't really have the time to do it the right way so they would love it (ski school). So we are going to wait until we can take them for real. Because as bad as Gatlinburg wants to be a "ski mountain" it really is kinda a sad excuse for one.





After snow tubing we grabbed some lunch and headed to go ice skating. I already knew there was no way I would be able to do it so just the 3 of them did.





Ryleigh was surprisingly good at it. We really thought Tanner would be way better than her because she's not very coordinated! (Bless her heart!)











Tanner really just liked to sit on his butt and be pushed around!











We did a few other things in Ober Gatlinburg like the alpine slide, animal encounter and shopping.

















That afternoon we went back to the hotel room and took a nap while Ryan went and got the tire fixed. We stayed at a hotel that was literally right in the middle of the main strip in Gatlinburg. Which was nice because we just walked everywhere. That night we went and ate at Crawdaddys and just hung out in downtown Gatlinburg.

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