Friday's Letter

Dear man I depend on more than I realized, you have been on 12 hour shifts this week then working at the church after that. Mad props for your ability to go without sleep but I've missed your help more than I thought I would. Dear Ryleigh and Tanner, I am super proud of you guys and how great yall did at school this week. Dear Lindsey, your shower is this Saturday and I am so excited! I hope you get lots of great stuff. I also hope that my cupcake tower isn't a complete disaster. I apologize in advance if it is. Dear Sarah, I'm so glad you started a blog and I have enjoyed reading it this week. If you are ever short on something to write you should do a "spotlight feature" on the Stokley Family and how much you love us! I'm sure it would be a big hit! Dear Ryan, I've missed seeing you this week and I am looking forward to our weekend at the beach. While everyone is at work on Friday we will be playing in the ocean! I love you more than all the water in the shark infested ocean!!

Here are some pictures from our Thursday night walk on the beach.

New School Year

So yesterday was the first day of the new school year! We went Sunday afternoon to open house so they could meet their teachers. Ryleigh has Mrs. Carter and Tanner has Mrs. Parden (Ryleigh's teacher from last year.) As soon as we walked into Mrs. Parden's class Tanner just started crying. He was not happy!! So I just knew the first day of school was going to be awful!
We got up that morning and they both were pretty excited about going. They had packed their own lunches the night before.

How is this little boy old enough to be in K3?? He's suppose to be a baby! I told him if he got out of the car and didn't cry and did good all day at school that I would have a surprise waiting for him when I picked him up. Around 11:00 it was killing me to know how his day was going so I texted his teacher and she said he was doing great, no tears! She even texted me a picture of him playing on the playground. He also got to be the line leader! Which is a HUGE deal! You always get to do it on your birthday and special occasions but he got picked his very first day! (I think he's Mrs. Parden's favorite!)

Tanner,

I am so proud of how well you did your first day of school! You didn't cry at all!! I'm looking forward to all the things you are going to learn this year. I hope you have a wonderful school year! I love you!

Miss Priss wasn't nervous at all. She kept telling Tanner everything that he could expect all day and she even told him she would walk him to his class. I think that's one reason he did so well at drop off, because she got right out with him and walked him into the building. She has a lot of her same friends in her class as last year so she was really excited about that. She also gets to sit at a desk this year instead of a table like last year.

Ryleigh,

I cannot believe you are in K4!! It makes me sad that kindergarten is right around the corner. Thank you so much for being so brave and sweet in front of Tanner. You really helped his day go much more smoothly. You are such a great big sister! I can't wait to see all the things you are going to learn this year! I am so proud of you and I love you so much!! Hope you have a great school year!!

I feel like a terrible mom! Tanner, for the past few months has been walking on his tip toes. Everywhere we goes he would always do it. We thought he just liked to bounce around. Well that's not the case. It turns out that he has planter warts on the bottom of his feet so it hurts for him to walk. He never said anything about them!!
This past week I made him a doctors appt for Saturday with a foot doctor to have them looked at. He said they were pretty bad and one of them was still active. He said we were going to have to start freezing treatments. NOT FUN! Here we are before they started them. He had to scrap around the warts and it made them bleed pretty bad. He then made Tanner lay face down and starting the freezing treatments. Tanner screamed the entire time! Even Ryleigh was crying because Tanner was crying so bad.
The worst part is we have to do 5 more treatments! As soon as we were out of there he was completely fine and didn't say anything else about them all day!

I used to think we were a pretty accident/hospital free family. Well I'm beginning to believe that this is not the case. I mean Tanner has had a broken leg, Ryleigh busted her chin open, Ryleigh got a splinter under her toenail and now Planter Warts. Goodness Gracious, what's next!

Friday's Letter

Dear Husband, this week we had the pleasure of watching Shark Week together. Even after you are still going to get certified to scuba dive. I thought certainly that this would be the perfect week to change your mind. Dear Ryleigh and Tanner, I'm so proud of how good you guys did in swim lessons the past 2 weeks. Although I'm out $200 and you guys still can't swim. Thanks for nothing YMCA. Dear Melinda Leigh Performing Arts Center, I am being sucked into your trap of more and more dance classes every year. Ryleigh is registered for Hip Hop, Acrobatics, Tap and Ballet this upcoming year. To answer your question, Yes, that does come with a hefty dance costume fee. Thank you Melinda Leigh. Dear Dawn, thank you for all the help you give us. My life would be much more difficult without you helping with the kids so much. We really appreciate it. Dear person I was lucky enough to marry, your courage amazes me. Good luck with scuba diving, I really hope you don't get eaten by a shark because I have grown quite fond of you!
I love you more than sharks love seals!

Almost 5

Last night Ryan and Tanner went to the church to help set up for Kids Fest which is our version of vacation bible school. So it was just me and Ryleigh at home. We painted, colored and put a new puzzle together.

When we got the puzzle down it had a big 5 on it. Ryleigh asked what the 5 meant and I said it means that it is for ages 5 and up. She kinda looked at me funny and said "Well it's a good thing I'm almost 5!"

I literally just froze. I mean obviously I know that she will be 5 on her next birthday but hearing her say it really brought it to reality. "SHE IS ALMOST 5!!" That can't be right! I'm not suppose to have a 5 year old!

The whole time we were putting the puzzle together she kept committing on the fact the she is going to be 5 and how when she's 5 she can do this or that. I kept tickling her every time she would say 5 and say "You are not turning 5! You are going to stay 4!" She would laugh and laugh then say it again.

Is it just me or is it hard to believe that my baby girl is almost closer to 5 than 4. It's hard to believe that she is almost half way to 10!

Sarah

One of my best friend's Sarah has started a blog! She has wanted to for a while but I finally talked her into it today! I hope she loves doing it. It's the perfect way to document everything that goes on that we don't want to forget when our kids get older. She has one of the cutest little girl's Zoe. Who frequently appears on our blog! Zoe and Tanner are around the same age and Zoe and Ryleigh are going to be in the same dance class this year! They both are so excited!

Her blog is-www.sarahshuttlesworth.blogspot.com if you want to go check it out! They go on vacations like every other weekend so she'll have lots to write about! :)

Our Weekend

Our Weekend consisted of a lot of this...

Some of this....

And Even more of this...

And is was Wonderful!