Marathon

I can't believe I am about to type these words but I feel like if I actually tell people I'm doing it then I'll be more likely to actually do it...I'm running a marathon...well it's really a 1/2 marathon but that doesn't sound as good. My friend Lindsay and I just out of nowhere decided to do this. Well more out of nowhere for me since I don't exercise AT ALL. She on the other hand does all the time and already runs a lot. We were suppose to start training last Saturday but then it stormed all day so now we officially start on Sunday. I'm actually kind of excited. That'll probably last until I actually start. Our first race is October 24th and its an 8k which is equivalent to 4.96 miles. (I use the term "race" loosely as I will just be happy to finish and could care less about winning.)We then have the Senior Bowl 10k which is 6.2 miles in November. December we have a 5k "race" (by then maybe I might win!) which is only 3.1 miles. I can't believe I used the term "only" and "3.1 miles" in the same sentence! I also can't believe the amount of quotation marks and parenthesis I've used in this post...my word! Anyway though our final race (I use the word final because that will surely be the death of me) is in January and it is 13.1 miles.
So wish me luck hopefully I can walk on Monday after we start training. The goal is to run 1 mile straight on Sunday and then walk/jog for 2 more. I haven't ran an entire mile since the 7th grade so we'll see how it goes!

Grandparents Day

Did everyone know that this past Sunday was Grandparents Day? Honestly I didn't until I was in Wal Mart and saw an advertisement for it. I decided to cook for mom and Larry and Nana and Paw Paw. Most people automatically assume that I can't cook...It's not that I can't it's that I don't like to. But contrary to popular belief I do cook almost every night. Well except Wednesdays because we have church and of course not on the weekends and well last night we ate at moms and tonight I'm ordering pizza...So it looks like I cook once a week. But still the point is I can cook. 

They all came over Sunday after church and I made chicken spaghetti, corn and rice casserole, bread and cheesecake! 

We are so thankful for all of them and we just wanted to do something to let them know that. (Dawn was out of town with Amy and Dale which is why she wasn't there.)

Happy Grandparents day and thank you for EVERYTHING you guys do for us! We really appreciate it!

Time out

Ryleigh's school is having a book fair today and every child is required to purchase one book. It's for fundraising purposes and at Christmas time when they draw names they will give the book they purchased as a gift to the girl/boy whose name they drew. Of course you can purchase more books (as if they don't get enough of my money already!) So this morning I go to Ryleigh's school to buy her book. They told us you could get them out of class or just go in and buy it yourself. I decided to go get her just so I could see her class and thought she might like to see me in the middle of the day. I walk to her room and look through the window and I didn't see her in her seat. I looked to her teacher and we made eye contact through the window on the door and she busted out laughing. I was so confused until I looked over in the corner only to see Miss Priss in timeout!
Her teacher came to the door and said the reason she was laughing was because Ryleigh never has been in timeout before and is usually so good and she couldn't believe the one time she goes is the time I show up.
I have a hard time believing that she doesn't spend over half her day in the corner but whatever you say Mrs. Parden!
She was in timeout because Mrs. Parden had left the room to get a book from the book closet and when she came back everyone was in their seats and Ryleigh was screaming, loudly! She wasn't hurt or crying she was just screaming for fun. She was using "her outside voice inside."

I'm sorry to tell you Mrs. Parden but we are a loud family and almost always use our "outside voices inside!"

I made Ryleigh apologize to Mrs. Parden and she will also be in trouble tonight when she gets home. Nothing major but she'll probably not get a snack after dinner or not get to watch a movie...I haven't decided yet.

Knee Boarding

When I did the post from labor day I forgot to mention that Ryleigh and Tanner knee boarded...Seriously. Completely all on their own board. I was AMAZED!! Tanner had went with the guys when the went wakeboarding. All the girls decided to ride out on the water in Traveis's boat to see if we could find them. When we did they said "You just missed Tanner knee boarding!" I didn't believe them. The few times we have tried to get him to ride on a tube he cried like a baby. I thought there is no way he is going to knee board all by himself. So I made them let him do it again, and he did it!! I was astonished! 

I was already emotional that day because it was the start of college football and not many things in this world make me happier than college football. 

No lie, when I turned on College game day at 9am and saw Kirk Herbstreit smiling back at me tears came to my eyes. Seriously. Real tears.

So when I saw Tanner knee boarding by himself I also started crying. (This is so not like me!)

Well not to let Tanner out do her Ryleigh also did it and did an excellent job also.  

Here are some pictures of them. We took them with Traveis's iPhone so there wasn't a zoom. 

I know I say this ALL THE TIME, but they are getting SO big!! Between them growing up and the start of college football I might need a few boxes of Kleenex!

Night Terrors

Imagine waking up in the middle of the night to a horrible scream and running in your kids room to see them sitting straight up in their bed screaming, crying, shaking, sweating, just completely upset. Well that's what has happened to us for the past week. Tanner has been doing this every night for the past week in the middle of the night. Usually around 1am. It scared me to death the first night. When he does it its like he is in a trance of some kind. It's really weird! I called the doctor on Monday and she said that it sounded like he is experiencing night terrors. The thing that concerns her the most is that night terrors generally only last a few minutes and they normally don't happen every night. Tanners last for a good hour and have happened every night for the past week except Tuesday. We've done some research online and with talking to the doctor she said you can normally pinpoint what is causing them and get them to stop. In Tanner's case I think we have it narrowed down to lack of sleep. One of the common times kids have night terrors is when they are overly tired. Well Tanner started having them when we were on vacation and he wasn't getting in the bed until 10 or 11. The only night he didn't have them was Tuesday night when he and Ryleigh went to bed at 8. Last night they resumed because we had church and he didn't go to bed until 10. Hopefully we can get his sleeping schedule set and get this under control. If they don't stop after a week of cutting out all cartoons that involve bad guys (spiderman, bolt, batman..) and going to bed early then we will be referred to a child psychologist or psychiatrist, I can't remember which one she said...which one can't write prescriptions? Anyway so hopefully we can get this fixed. Keep him in your prayers or actually keep me in your prayers. He doesn't even remember that they happened and I'm the one scared out of my mind at 1 am!!

Labor Day Weekend

This first picture pretty much sums up how I felt last night when we got home...EXHAUSTED!

For labor day weekend I took off Friday and we left for the beach Thursday afternoon. We had a lot of fun and stayed through Monday night. We played in the sand...

The Hulk and The little Mermaid!

We also got airbrushed tattoo's...Ry got a butterfly and Tanner got Batman!

We played in the water fountain. We were suppose to go to Waterville on Sunday but we woke up that morning and it was STORMING! so we went and got doughnuts then came back and took a nap. Once we got up it had stopped raining so we went to the outlets and they played on the playground and in the fountain and rode the carousel. 

Saturday all of our friends were down so we went to Lindsay's beach house and hung out there all day. The guys wakeboarded and we hung out on the pier and the boat. Saturday afternoon we had a Bama at the Beach party! It was so much fun. We grilled out at a gazebo in Orange Beach and watched the game on our big tv with all of our friends! Ryleigh and Tanner were so good the whole time!
When we got there Thursday night we went down to the beach and caught sand crabs, flew kites and let them run around. We did the same thing Friday night to but we also went fishing then. 

Tanner loved all the jellyfish that washed up on the beach!

Ryleigh loved drawing in the sand!

Friday afternoon we went and ate lunch at Lu Lu's and then had cheesecake at Hope's cheesecake. It was so GOOD!! I love cheesecake!!



I love this picture of her. It looks like she is saying "Oh my Word!" I also didn't tell her to sit like that. It's her new thing! 

This week starts back to our routine. Ryleigh missed school on Friday and they were out on Monday so she's ready to get back. She also starts dance on Thursday and is very excited about that!! Tanner man starts potty training today so keep us in your prayers as I lose my mind!! It's funny that we just went through this with Ryleigh not to long ago and I already don't remember a thing from it! 

We have been really busy lately so this is a two weekend recap! The weekend before last we had 4 birthdays, F-O-U-R!! So instead of having 4 different birthday parties we had one big one.
Look at all the cakes!! So Happy Birthday to Tammy, Aunt Cheryl, Evan and Larry!
This is Tanner man and Whitney at the party. Notice his shirt, its our attempt to make his dress "cooler" I think we are successful, that shirt is the cutest thing ever!
Ryleigh and Aunt Tammy. That night she had a slumber party with Aunt Tammy at her house. To say she was excited would be an understatement, she was PUMPED!!
Poor Tanner man had nothing to do so Aunt Velvet said he could come stay with her. So Ryan and I were kid less on a Friday night and so show how boring we are, we went home and went to sleep. I know its a fast paced life we lead! 
This is a picture of Tanner turning into Ryleigh right before our very eyes. She always turns her head when you try to get a good picture of her and he has never done that until recently. 
This past weekend we were really busy. Friday night kicked off High School Football so that means 5th Quarters begin for us. Every year I forget how tiring they are. I had to work Saturday so I only stayed until 11 but Ryan didn't get home until 1 am. He hasn't stayed up the late since...well I guess last year during 5th Quarters! Saturday I had to work and the kids were at moms. After I got off we met some friends of ours at the water fountain in Malbis and then back to their house to watch the UFC fights on PPV. We put the kids to sleep in their bed (Ryleigh, Tanner and Zoe) and they looked to cute. Sarah took a picture but I didn't have my camera. I'll have to get it from her. 
Here is the two people that make my blood pressure go through the roof!! Sunday we just hung out around the house. We couldn't go to church b/c our power was out all morning.
This is a picture of the purple people at church that I have mentioned before. Tanner LOVES the purple people. He actually wants to be that for Halloween. Here is him trying to dress up like one...
If he does this for Halloween we will have to get him a better costume! 

This Thursday we are leaving for the beach. I am so excited!! We will be gone Thursday thru Monday. It's our only real family vacation we are having this year. SO I'll have a lot of pictures from that. Hope everyone is having a great week!!