Crazy kids

These kids are insane!

But that's why we love them!

Sunday!

Today after church Ryan was having anxiety about not putting the boat in the water the past few weekends so we made a quick Sunday afternoon boat trip. 

 We rode to Fish River and ate at Big Daddy's restaurant in Fairhope.

 We like going there because the kids can play in the sand while we eat in peace. We went with some friends of ours so it was nice to hang out and talk while the kids played.

 It was a quick fun trip and now we are laying on the couch eating reese's and watching the Emmy's, I love watching awards shows. My dad and I used to always watch them together and would always try to guess who would win each category. Watching them makes me miss him. Ryan isn't near as good at guessing!

"Have you talked to your mom yet??"

Ok, so it's no secret that I have a really close, big family. It's one of my favorite things in this world.
The downside though to having such a big, close family is that something is always going on. Seriously. Sometimes I sit back and think my goodness how can so many things happen in one family. But then I stop and think...we have a lot of people for things to happen to. Not many people count their 2nd cousins as their nieces and nephews.

One thing that drives me crazy about our family is the communication system in times of emergencies. Someone always gets left off and doesn't find out. More than once that person has been me and it drives me crazy! Technically all the aunts/moms say that they should call their kids and tell them. Well for some reason my mom forgets she has me!
Since this happens often Whitney and I for some reason always look out for each other. As soon as we hear news good or bad we make sure the other one has heard. Most times the other one hasn't heard yet. What I hate though is we usually are communicating by text and the text always start with...

"Have you talked to your mom yet??"

Anytime the name Whitney Ivy and this text pops up on my screen my heart DROPS! Like last night when I'm sitting at soccer and I get that text. I immediately respond with, "No, what's wrong????" Well then Whitney takes her sweet time writing me back while I'm sitting in the grass at soccer about to have a heart attack. Finally I call her and she said, I was just about to hit send! She goes on to tell me about what had happened and who was currently hospitalized. (It was lil' Ryan and he is fine, thank goodness!)

I basically yelled at her for texting me that first sentence and said from then on out she needs to just text what happened. (She did the same thing when Evan was in the hospital click on that to read about it)  The time from that sentence to finding out what happened is torture! She then pointed out when Paw Paw was in the hospital I did the same thing to her!

We need a new intro line Whit....any suggestions?

Friday's Letter

Dear Ryan, Do you ever remember having these chubby faced little kids? I sure don't! They have grown up way to fat and that makes me sad. Now they are by far the tallest and by far the skinniest in their classes. Someone should really feed them. Dear Ryleigh, I don't think I'm going to be able to handle kindergarten. I really don't. Yesterday you came home with a folded note in your backpack. When I opened it it said Erica and then her phone number. I do not feel like you are old enough to be swapping notes and phone numbers with your friends at school. Dear Tanner, you still hate football and you still hate school. You told mom the only thing going good in your life right now is bowling. You are officially crazy! Dear Tammy, I told you Pininterst was the best thing ever! You're welcome! Dear drive to Birmingham, I hope I don't have to drive you for a VERY long time. 6 times in 8 days was enough for me. Dear Mom, I hope your life becomes less stressful soon. We love you. Dear Paw Paw, we are still praying for you! I hope you get to feeling better soon. Dear Whitney, I am mad at you. You know why, the end. Dear Operation Starvation, you start on Monday. 4 weeks out of town and being able to expense meals has caught up with me. Dear Courtney, Your enthusiam makes me smile, so does your love of of white trash bags, LOL!!! Dear Lindsey, we haven't seen you and Brandon in a while. Come this way soon. Dear Aunt Lisa, I can't believe you wouldn't let Ry and Tan come over and take baths at your house tonight! They come up with the weirdest request. Dear Aunt Cheryl, I am mad at your daughter and I am also mad at you. You both know why. (I'm not really mad just so everyone knows! :)) Dear Ryan, this weekend will be full of football, football and more football. It would end up being the perfect weekend if Mississippi State beats Auburn! I love you more than I love Alabama Football!

Labor Day Weekend

This weekend we went to my sisters house in Cullman, AL. I was not looking forward to the drive but I was really looking forward to seeing her. We hadn't seen her since June when she came up for Ry's dance recital. Mom made the trip with us and it was fun to make the drive with her and spend some time with her. 

 Tammy got them both presents. She got Ry some canvases. Ry is really into painting and painted Tammy a huge picture to put in her house. Seriously, it's as big as Ry. She got Tanner this skateboard that he loved!! She typed up this whole letter like the skateboard was from Lightening McQueen and he was so excited about it.

 I took some pictures of her house so everyone could see it. Grant it they aren't great pictures because I took them with my phone but at least you can kinda see it. This is the view out her front window in the living room. It's absolutely beautiful and you can see for miles. She doesn't have any neighbors. The have like 10 or 15 acres and their house is right in the middle of it.

 Tanner loved riding Jimmy's tractor!

 This is her kitchen and of course mom was cooking in it. She made Tammy a chocolate cake for her birthday that was a few weeks ago.

 This is her living room. Like I said the pictures are awful. The whole house has an "old farmhouse" theme. She's decorated with a lot of re purposed stuff and antiques.

 This is her breakfast area/dining room. I love the shelf on the wall. She made it from on old board.

 This is a wall in her den. I love the Red Brick (you can't tell it's brick here) and I love the clock!

 Another shot of the den. This is Jimmy's "Man Cave!" It's where their only TV is in the house. Tammy HATES TV.

 This is Tammy office. She has like 4 of those bookcases filled with books and it looks so cool in there.

 This is the view out of her office.

 And this is their bedroom. I wish I would have gotten better pictures. I just snapped these real quick before we left. I didn't even think to get one of the front of the house. It's so cute with a white picket fence that goes all the way around their front and backyard. I'm so happy for her and her new beautiful house!

While we were there she took me to some really cool antique shops and I got a ton of stuff! I know this all looks kinda like junk but it's going to look so cute in our house when I'm done!

We had a great weekend! It was really nice to be out of Mobile and not in all the rain. I hope everyone else had a great Labor Day. 

Friday's Letter

Dear Ryan, I hope you have an awesome time white water rafting this weekend! I'm sad I couldn't go. I hope yall have a great time! Maybe when you get back we can actually hang out. I feel like I haven't seen you in forever. That's probably because I haven't. Dear Aunt Lisa, Tanner is fine. I was going to make some type of smart allelic joke here but I'll spare you! :) Dear Ryleigh, I'm so glad soccer went so well this week and I'm so glad you enjoyed it. You said you didn't even get hot, which is a miracle. Dear Tanner, I'm sorry I "wasn't choosing God's way" last night when I chose to not help you clean up the mess you made. You made the mess, you clean it up. I'm sure God would agree with me. Dear Paw Paw, I'm so glad you are out of the hospital and feeling better!! We love you!! Dear Tammy, we are looking forward to seeing you this weekend! I am however not looking forward to the drive. Boo! Dear Mrs. Carter, Tanner asked me last night if I had your phone number. When I told him I did he wanted to call you so he could "call in sick to school." Dear Room Service, you were delightful this week. It was so nice to just call a number and have them deliver crazy amounts of food right to your door.  Dear Tanner, I love when I told you to put on your new sunglasses so I could take your picture, the above picture is what you did instead. I also think it's crazy that you and Ryleigh both own Costa's now. Your Dad is INSANE! Dear INSANE husband of mine, Although you are insane and literally buy the kids whatever they want I still love you. I have to repeat that to myself over and over again sometimes like when you buy them insane things! :) I love you more than you like spending money.

4 1/2

Guess who is officially 4 and a half...

 Seriously, have you ever seen such a cute little boy? That hair is enough to melt anyone's heart! I can not believe he is half way to 5! When he starts school next year I'll officially not have any more preschoolers. Just "big kids" :(

 Tanner, You make us so happy! You are so cute and loving! I love your "signature" goofy pose!

 Happy half way to 5 birthday Tan Man!!