What we've been up to...

We have had a lot going on in our little family lately so I haven't blogged. Here's what we've been up to in iPhone pictures. 

Catching lot and lots of bugs. 

 Eating fresh cantaloupe straight from the garden. 

 Playing and swimming with friends. 

 Playing games with our Aunt Whitter. 

 Picking vegetables with friends. 

 Admiring the huge sunflowers in the garden.

 More swimming with friends. 

 Playing trucks in the dirt. 

 Laundry :(

 Playing with sidewalk chalk. 

 Tubing with 2 tubes behind one boat...not gonna lie, I was a little nervous. 

 Fishing, fishing and more fishing.

 Drawing in the sand. 

 MORE swimming with friends. 

 Going to the dentist.

 and being silly with arts and crafts. 

So that's a recap of our Summer so far. It's thrown us some very unexpected curve balls but we are going with the flow and having fun! I'll be back to regular blogging soon. Hope everyone is having a great Summer so far!

Show us your life!

A blog that I read named Kelly's Korner is hosting a show us your life living room.  I participated in it last time and wasn't going to this time but my living room has changed a lot since then. We redid our floors and I went shopping like crazy at antique places in Cullman with my sister. 

This is looking in from the foyer.

 We got new throw pillows and you can kinda see our new floors in there 2 pictures.

I got this from a lady you makes them and sells them at stores. I bought it from Curves. I love how it displays the kids art work without being overwhelming.

 I made the picture frame hanging on the wall and my sister made the pillows and bench.

The pillows are old real burlap sacks. The guy we bought them from said they were over 200 years old. I love the colors on them and how they match my throw pillows. Tammy made the bench out of scrap wood she had in her garage in less than 30 minutes. She's a machine!

 I got the little magazine basket when we were shopping in Cullman as well.

 I completely redid my mantel and I love the way it turned out. I wanted the barnyard shabby chic look.

 I got this ladder idea from Tammy. She had a big one in her living room that holds old antique quilts. I got the lamp and ladder when we were in Cullman.

I want to get a saying cut out to go on these boards but I have yet to do so. I got the boards in Cullman and Ryan nailed them all together. Although they don't have anything on them right now I still like how distressed they look.

 Tammy made me this for Christmas and it hangs above my back door. It's a board and knobs on it.

Tammy and I also made these when I was up there visiting her. We made them completely out of things she already had. They are fence boards with burlap and mattress springs for the handles.

As I was posting all of this I realized that almost my entire living room has been furnished from one weekend in Cullman. They have the best stores up there and I can't wait to go back!!

He's got Salt Water in his veins!

When you request a cast net and a crab trap for your birthday instead of a bike or video game when you're only 5...you've got salt water in your veins. 

When you know Port-side and Starboard side better than left and right...you've got salt water in your veins.

When you would rather catch minnows than build sandcastles or jump waves...you've got salt water in your veins.

When you know the difference in a speckled trout, white trout, red fish and snapper...you've got salt water in your veins.

When you know that the reason we slowed down in the boat is because "It's a no wake zone"...you've got salt water in your veins.

When you know what a BC is and all the other equipment used for diving and spear fishing and you can't wait until you turn 10 to get certified...you've got salt water in your veins.

When you know how to bait, cast and reel in your own fish better than you know how to ride a bike...you've got salt water in your veins.

When you know the various limits of the different fish you can catch before you "limit out"...you've got salt water in your veins.

When someone is reeling in their fish and the first thing you scream is "GET THE NET!!!!!"...you've got salt water in your veins.

When you're the only 5 year old who could probably get an actual job as a real deckhand...you've got salt water in your veins.

Tanner loves anything to do with the water. He gets up at 4 am like a champ to fish the day away with all the guys. He never complains and everyone is always amazed at how much he knows about fishing and the water in general. One of our friends said this weekend, "Man, that boys got salt water in his veins!" It's one of the truest statements I've heard in along time!

How does your garden grow?

So I have this insanely large garden that I have worked so hard on at our house. It's done really well and I've even been able to give Mom and Larry a lot of vegetables from it. 

LOL! Everyone who knows us knows that Larry has an insanely large garden that he has worked so hard on that I like to take credit for. Credit that I am not due whatsoever. Although I was very specific in what I wanted him to plant in the garden. I also have walked out there once or twice to admire it. I have not however gotten anywhere near the actual plants or dirt. I mean because it is 100 degrees outside and I hate being hot. :)

Larry has done an amazing job on his garden and he is very proud of it. It literally has every vegetable imaginable in it. Sunday after church all of our sides were composed from items from the garden.

While tending to his garden he happened to find 2 turtles. Tanner has wanted turtles for the longest time and they are actually one of the few animals we haven't owned. (You can scratch bird off of that list too.) We have what we think is a boy turtle and a girl turtle named Tuck and Ming Ming. These names are a nice break from the usual Gumball Machine.

Why yes, I assure you Ryleigh does have on shorts. Being 6 years old and wearing a size 3T with legs that go for miles makes it hard to find shorts that are long. Thankfully she doesn't wear shorts when we go off or people would think I was a terrible parent!

Mother's Day 2012

Our Mother's Day started out bright and early with breakfast at The Spot of Tea . We took Ryan's mom there and met his brother and his family there. 

After breakfast we walked over to Cathedral Square and took some pictures. None of them turned out really good because the sun was in our eyes. I had also forgot my camera so these are just iPhone pics.

After breakfast we went to church at my Nana's church and then had lunch at Mom's with everyone.

Hope everyone had a great Mother's Day!

Look what we found!

You will never believe what Whitney and I found at Moms...the ORIGINAL Nintendo.

We were pretty pumped about it! Of course we opted to play the original Mario and laughed our heads off the whole time!

First we had to clean the disk. (I know it's not technically a disk but I couldn't think of another word to use instead of disk...anyone have one?) You are officially considered old if you remember having to blow into the game to clean it out.

Next we plugged in the old school controller. We looked for the gun so we could play duck hunt but we couldn't find it. We also talked about how we wish we could find the pad for the track game. Does anyone remember that game? You ran and then like jumped and landed on the pad. This was considered cutting edge technology back in 1987. When we put in the game it came up on the screen Copyright 1987. Whitney pointed out that she wasn't born in 1987. Thanks Whitney for making me feel older that I already feel.

When the game actually started you should have heard us.  Every time a new screen shot came up or we made it to a new level it brought back so many memories. I had forgotten how small Mario is until he gets a mushroom and when I got my first star I had completely forgotten than you can run into things without dying while you were blinking. We remembered how you can go into tunnels to go to secret passages and does anyone else remember the underwater level being so hard?? We also laughed when we realized you can't go backwards in Mario. Once you pass something it's to bad so sad.

It was a fun afternoon of laughing until I almost cried with one of my favorite people in the world. Long live the original Nintendo!

Teacher Apreeshation

Last week was Teacher Appreciation at Turner. We Love Mrs. Cooper and loved getting to show her how thankful we are for everything she does for our sweet girl.

Ryleigh wanted to make her a card and took this to her room and did it COMPLETELY by herself, no help at all. I laughed forever when I saw how she spelled appreciate. She is very good at sounding out words and spelled it exactly how it sounded, lol!

Thank you Mrs. Cooper, We APREESHATE you!!