Nativity Set

This morning Ryleigh and I were talking about what she wants for Christmas. She has a few things in mind and they are all kinda expensive so I'm wanting her to decide so I can be sure to get what she really wants as opposed to something she just likes. Anyway though we were talking and Tanner comes in from just waking up and was still groggy and tired. He ask what we were talking about and I told him. He said:
"Mom, all I want is the Jesus playhouse."
"What Jesus playhouse Tanner?"
"You know Mom, the one from Wal Mart?"
"You mean the nativity set?"
"No, Mom I mean the Jesus's playhouse. You know, it has baby Jesus, his mom, his dad and some sheep."
"Tanner, that's a nativity set."
"I don't think you know what your talking about mom, it's a playhouse. It's at Wal Mart in the Christmas section. Next time we go I'll show you because it's what I really want."

Then he curled back up and went back to sleep. He's such a sweet, sweet little boy.
I know which one he is talking about but it's breakable so although it would be pretty in our house it would either not last long or he wouldn't be able to play with it. So instead I found this one at Lifeway. It's made for kids to be able to play with. I think Ryleigh and I are going to go get it for him for an early Christmas present!

Twins

I know I've posted this before but is seems like it's happening a lot more now. Everywhere we go people comment on how cute my TWINS are! They do look a lot a like. Especially now that they are officially the SAME HEIGHT! They stood back to back today and Tanner has officially caught up with her. He was so proud!

Everyone in our family seems to think Lindsey is going to have Twins. (No, she isn't pregnant, yet! Hopefully soon though we need a new baby in our family!) All I can say is if you do have twins is, GOOD LUCK!!!

I do hope you have at least 2 kids and I would say it's a good idea (or at least I think so) so have them close in age. My 2 our best friends and always have someone to play with. How fun is it to be 3 and 4 and always have your best friend around!

Because, it's fun to make faces and goof off like this but wouldn't be nearly as much fun if you had to do it alone!

I hope you guys always stay the best of friends! And Lindsey, the more I think about it twins may not be such a bad idea...the benefits of two kids close in age but only have to be pregnant once!

Friday's Letter

Dear Ryan, our veterans day date was Aw to the Some. Spot of Tea was wonderful and I'm glad you are slowly falling in love with Hudson's as well! I think it may be the $2 Sanuk's we got Tanner that sent you over. Dear girls of my family, I had a wonderful time at the Christmas Jubilee and dinner with you guys last night. Just so everyone knows "We are just like you, only prettier!" Ha ha! (I love the Budweiser sign right above us in that picture!) Dear Blake Shelton and Miranda Lambert, I have never been a a huge fan of either one of you but after your CMA wins and how genuinely happy you guys were...I think I fell in love. My new favorite song is "We are just like you only prettier!" Dear Ryleigh, I am over the moon excited for you about you putting up your Christmas tree. I'm glad you finally were able to talk your dad into letting you put it up. It's looks wonderful! Dear Mrs. Kim (Cunningham), your facebook response when people were saying it was to early to put up Christmas trees was priceless! And I quote, "What can I say??? The birth of the Saviour of the world is a pretty big deal!!! I celebrate my birthday a whole month and my Jesus deserves way more than that!!! Such a wonderful time of the year and I am truly thankful!" Dear Paw Paw, Happy 72th birthday!! I have something to talk to you about tonight. Even though you don't know what it is just go ahead and get ready to say, "Of course Tiffany! You know I will do that for you because you are my favorite!!" (if you say it that way or not we all know it's the truth!! :)) Dear Friday, you feel like Monday since I was off yesterday. That is a bad thing this morning but this afternoon it will be fabulous!! Since I love these girls almost as much as I love Ryan they get 2 post today...Dear Nana, Mom, Aunt Melissa, Aunt Cheryl, Aunt Tena, Aunt Velvet, Whitney and Lindsey, I am more thankful for you guys than I am for Christmas trees in November and Hudson's. Enjoyed the laughs last night! Love ya'll!

Social Calendar

So, it's official our kids are to cool and to busy for us! Friday night Ryleigh called Aunt Lisa to see if she could spend the night over there. Aunt Lisa said yes because normally when Ryleigh ask it's a week day and she can't. So Friday night we had no kids and no plans. We decided to take advantage of it and went to eat at Wintzells in Saraland and then to Moka's coffee house.

We had to stop by Wal Mart and Ryan found this in the middle of one of the aisles and insisted on riding it around Wal Mart!
I told him that is why our kids don't want to hang out with us anymore! :) I said I can't wait for Ryleigh to get older and we can use stuff like this to embarrass her. He said we won't be able to because she'll be running in front yelling "There is nothing wrong with him!! He shouldn't be in that cart!!" Ha ha!!

Saturday we did something we never do...we stayed home all day!! I cleaned the house from top to bottom and Ryan did a lot of yard work that needed to be done. We then watched Alabama lose! It was a sad, sad day.

Ryleigh had been calling mom all day begging them to come home to Wilmer so she could spend the night! Seriously, you would think she hates her house! :) So mom did and it left Ryan and I free again with no plans. I suggested we just stay home but Ryan had already been home all day so he had to go somewhere. We threw on some clothes and went to Lowes, Hudson's (I got a new vacuum cleaner!!) and Zaxby's.

I hate I didn't get a picture of them Sunday before church. It was pajama day so all the kids wore their pajamas. We actually went out to eat Brunch after church and I had forgotten to bring them clothes so they went in their pajamas and house shoes!!

Sunday afternoon we hung out at home while Ryleigh was on the go AGAIN!!

I did get her to come home when I told her I made an obstacle course in the yard.

They Loved the obstacle course! I timed them and they kept trying to beat each others time. Tanner picked the tunnel up when Ryleigh was in it and made her fall out. She was not happy!

Gus even got in on the obstacle course action!

Ryleigh asked me Sunday night if she could call someone to go spend the night again and I told her sadly her weekend was coming to an end. She said "I'm just a spending the night girl on the go!" Yes, you are! Tanner was also really sad the weekend was ending!

Miss Priss already has plans again this weekend!! She is having a slumber party at Sydney's house. Then a birthday party Saturday. She is a busy, busy little girl with a very active social calendar. Poor Ryan and I have nothing planned. It's pathetic I know.

Principal's Office

Well it happened. Tanner had his first trip to the Principal's office this past Tuesday. It was only a matter of time the poor boy and school are just not mixing well. He got caught spitting on someone and biting a little girl! (In his defense she put her finger in his face. She needs to learn to leave cute, sweet little boys alone! ha ha!! :)) Tanner has a WONDERFUL teacher who is very patient but firm with him which is exactly what he needs. She has been wonderful and called me Tuesday afternoon to let me know what happened. He had to go to time out twice in Mrs. Carter's room (which is Ryleigh's class) and had to miss their whole recess class. He was heartbroken. He kept asking Mrs. Parden when recess was and she would tell him but then say I'm sorry Tanner but you aren't going to be able to go because of your behavior. He would respond but I said I'm sorry!! When I picked Ryleigh up from dance she wanted to call everyone and tell them what happened. Literally we called like 8 people so she could tell the story. She made a point to say he missed the ENTIRE playtime. (Normally they only miss like the first few minutes as timeout if they are bad.)

We talked to him when he got home that night. It took us a while to decide what to do. I just felt like spanking him was a little much since this was the first time it had happened. He isn't really used to school or any type of organized system like that so it's been an adjustment. We just sat him down and explained how he should behave and what he should do if someone is aggravating. We told him at school Mrs. Parden is the boss and he has to listen to her. We told him if it happened again we were going to spank him and take away his favorite toys for a few days.

I'm happy to report when I picked him up today the first thing out of his mouth was "Mom, I was extra special good at school today!!" Mrs. Parden was behind him to confirm it was true!
Tanner, I know somehow you are going to make it through the year. You may be rowdy and hard to handle sometime but you are so cute and sweet that it cancels each other out!! I just pray for Mrs. Parden's nerves! Lord help her!! :)

Disney Animal Kingdom

I know Disney seems to have been forever ago but I really want all these pictures and post to be on our blog so here is Disney Day 3- Animal Kingdom!

We went to AK on Monday and get there when they opened at 8. I knew that this was going to be one of our favorite parks. And it was. The whole thing is just beautiful. Absolutely gorgeous!
Our first stop on the morning was the safari. Tanner LOVED the Safari. Seriously did not want to get off of it.

He loved looking at all the animals. His favorite was the giraffes. Once we got off we were sure to get a fast pass because we knew he would want to ride later in the day.

We then walked to go see It's Tough to be a Bug. I didn't know how Tanner would do with this show. I mean he's obviously obsessed with bugs and animals but this is kinda in your face and has some "mean" bugs. He did really good. A few times during the intense parts he would just close his eyes. Overall though they both really liked the show.

We then made our way to Dino Land where they have a few amusement park type rides for kids and a huge bone yard that you can play in the sand. The kids really liked this part of the park. They got to meet Winnie the Pooh, Tigger and Eeyore.

The thing about writing this so long after we went is that it's hard to remember everything we did.

Around lunch time Ryleigh fell asleep in the stroller so it was just us and Tanner. We let him do whatever he wants and he just wanted to walk around and look at all the animals. They have a lot of "trails" you can go down and see animals.

We ate lunch at the Flame Tree BBQ and opted not to wake Ryleigh up for lunch. We sat outside on a pier that went over the lake. It was so nice. It was the most peaceful lunch we had the whole time we were in Disney!

Ryleigh didn't miss to much. We walked around and did these little activity things they have in each part of the park so we wouldn't have to wake her up but she still wouldn't miss anything big.

Tanner was sure to rub it in her face though once she did wake up!

Once Ryleigh got up we went and watched the Nemo show. Tanner and I liked it but Ryleigh and Ryan didn't. They have a 3 second attention span and don't really like TV or movies. It was a really good show though.

After that Ryleigh was starving because she had missed lunch so she and I set off to get her some lunch while the boys went to ride the safari again.

We then went to see the Lion King Show. We all really liked this show. It's nothing like what you would think when I say The Lion King. Ryan and Ryleigh even liked it because it was pretty interactive. After that we walked around and rode all the rides they wanted to ride again. We really liked the Animal Kingdom...well I would say Tanner and I did more than Ryan and Ryleigh.

Animal Kingdom isn't really an all day park especially when you get started at 8 am so we had made plans to head to Downtown Disney for the night. We ate Dinner at Planet Hollywood and it started STORMING! Of course I didn't bring our bag with our rain ponchos either! We just waited for a few minutes when we were done eating and it passed over. The good thing about the storm was it also drove all the crowds away. It seriously felt like we had Downtown Disney all to ourselves!

They loved the Lego store!

We also let them spend their money that night. and boy did they! They both had $60 and they spent every dime. It was so funny watching them ration out their purchases and really deciding what they wanted. We went in the huge Disney store (it's the biggest one in the world) and were in there for what felt like FOREVER.

They found this one store that had everything for $10 or less and it was like a jackpot to them! Ryleigh bought a baby Pluto in there and Tanner bought a Pirate set that came with an eye patch, sword and stuff like that. It was the beginning of his Pirate and Pirate ship obsession!

Next up: Epcot!

Halloween Weekend

I'm going to start this by saying I'm exhausted. We had a busy weekend and if it weren't for our lazy morning and afternoon on Saturday I may not would have survived! :)

Friday night mom took the kids and Karlee to Nana's fall festival at church. They had a lot of fun!

While they were going I went on a date with this smokin hot guy...I know, you all are so jealous! We went and had dinner at Wings (one of my favorite places!) and then went to Moka's.

We LOVE Moka's. We both got a coffee and split the fondue. It was so so so good! We hung out at Moka's for well over an hour just talking and enjoying uninterrupted conversation. It was wonderful!

Saturday Ryan went to the hunting camp so the kids and I went to Velvets to make cupcakes and eat lunch. This is the only picture I got but the kids insisted on dressing up to go over there. Tanner was a Transformer and Ryleigh was Tinkerbell. Our Cupcakes turned out really good! Look out "cupcake lady" we are taking you down!

Saturday night we had a Halloween party at Katrina and Kevin's. It was a lot of fun. Madisson (Katrina's daughter) went as a doughnut! How cute is that costume! She got it from Pottery Barn and now next year Ryleigh says she wants to be a doughnut!

Allyson and Wesley went as old people...how hilarious is this costume!

Bumble Bee Tanner

Ryan and I looked for costumes Friday night and Saturday afternoon but everything was already gone. That's what we get for waiting until the last minute! So I went as Minnie dressed as a transformer!

Sunday we went to church then headed home to get ready for Lisa's Halloween party. We had so much fun! Ryleigh went as Minnie (she had 3 costumes for the weekend Minnie, Tinkerbell and a Sailor) but for some reason all 3 times she wanted to be Minnie. Tanner went as a Pirate.

Aunt Velvet went as a farmer. She looked really cute!
We then went trick or treating through Lisa's neighborhood. She lives in a really nice neighborhood and the kids got lots of good candy!

After Trick or Treating we went to Pump it Up. Our church had rented it out as a safe fun alternative to Halloween. We only caught the last 30 minutes of it but the kids still had a lot of fun.

I am glad Halloween is OVER and now we can get ready for the real Holidays!! Thanksgiving and Christmas are my favorite!!!