Let's Jam Buddy

Ok, so for Lindsey's upcoming bridal shower I suggested for us to make a Cupcake Tower instead of getting a regular cake. Regular cakes are so last year! :)
Seriously though, cupcakes are EVERYWHERE! Carrie Underwood even had them at her wedding. So anyway, Velvet, Whit and I went last Saturday night and got all the stuff to make it. I went and got the boxes from the post office Thursday so Thursday night we got to work on it!

I have no idea what they are laughing at here...there's no telling!

Whitney painting the letters. We had to give her an easy job, because if you didn't already know she isn't the most crafty person. :)
Aunt Velvet cutting out perfect circles. She's all smiles! Thank goodness Aunt Lisa was there to wrap it!

All I have to say about this picture is please tell me I don't always look so dorky!

And here is our almost finished product! Minus Whitney's head and Plus a box with the letter L on it. The small box I got for the top was to big. so we cut out the L and everything for it and now I just need to find a smaller box to use.

Here is what I was going for...(the picture is off my phone is why there's the iPhone stuff at the top and bottom.

What do you think?

I think it turned out really good! I can't wait to get the top layer on and put cupcakes all around it! She better like it!

Thanks Whit for the title...she wants to keep the tower once we are done with it and put it on her coffee table. Aunt Lisa said what will you say the letters stand for. She said "Let's Jam Buddy!"

Days Until...

We have a lot of big events coming up! First there is the kickoff of Alabama Football! Although we are die hard Alabama fans we just love football season in general. I love sitting on the couch all day on Saturday and watching every game starting with the 11:30 all the way to the 8:00 game!

We have 38 Days until Kickoff!

We have our first real family vacation planned this year! We are going to Disney the last week in September and I'm SOOOO excited!!! Ryan and I both keep saying how excited we are about it! The kids are excited but I don't think they realize exactly what Disney World is since they've never been. I have Gill making them some really cute shirts to wear.
If anyone has any good Disney tips or things we should do or places we should eat leave them in the comments. I'm kinda overwhelmed with planning the trip!

We have 59 days until Disney!!

The last big event we have coming up is Lindsey's wedding. I'm so excited about it! I'm the maid of honor, Ryleigh is the Flower Girl and Tanner is the Ring Bearer. She has her first shower coming up in 3 weeks and I'm making a cupcake tower for it. Keep your fingers crossed it turns out cute!

We have 73 days until the Wedding!!

Storytime

I think bedtime has turned into my favorite part of the day!



I love cuddling in the bed with Ryleigh and Tanner and reading to them. I love how good they smell after just having a bath. I love how they listen so well now when we read to them! We read a story from their bible each night and then they both get to pick out a book to read. It turns into a whole ordeal but it's so sweet!


Ryan has also been getting in on the fun lately! I will admit that they tend to like Ryan's stories better since he adds to them as he goes. I don't think anywhere in froggy learns to swim does his mom call him a crybaby and tell him to quit whining!

Friday's Letter

Dear Ryan, You are the only person I know who could trade our old lawnmower for a truck. Yes, it may be an old truck but it will get you back and forth to work fabulously without adding miles to your good truck. Is it weird that I'm proud of your trading abilities? Dear Tanner, Unfortunately the above picture is a true depiction of the way you went to the store last night with your dad in his "new" old truck. I apologize for letting him do that to you. Although no one probably even noticed the way you were dressed. They probably paid more attention to the fact that you had a snicker's ice cream bar smeared across your entire face. Dear Ryleigh, Your sales skills are remarkable. You had a very convincing point last night when you were trying to sell me a monkey from the store you had set up in the living room. You told me "He will do everything, you can just sit on the couch and watch TV, he even does laundry!" You speak my love language! I'll take 2 monkeys, please. Dear Whitney, I love the text messages we send back and forth throughout the day. They brighten my day. One of the conversations from last night read "If you can think of something else you would rather have me make let me know I'm all ears. Well not all ears because my ears really aren't that big...maybe all fingerprints, I have some massive fingerprints." 4 words for you You. Make. Me. Smile. Dear Aunt Velvet, I'm sorry for not telling Ryan to pick Evan up Wednesday night and therefore leaving him waiting for an hour. Please forgive me. Dear Man who also speaks my love language, Is it sad that the thing I'm most looking forward to this weekend is the waffles you promised to make me in the morning? Maybe it is, but you love me anyway which in return makes me love you more.

Weekend Rewind

We had a busy fun weekend...but I think I've came to the conclusion that that is every weekend of ours. I told Ryan this coming up weekend we aren't making any plans. NONE!

Friday night we went to my friend Lindsay's and made homemade brick oven pizza's and went swimming.
Lindsay thinks she's a pro! She actually is much better than when we first started making them. The first time instead of having round pizza's we had rectangle ones. We've came a long way!

The pizza's are SO good. We tried a few new ones and my favorite is BBQ Chicken, Ryan likes the Buffalo Chicken.

This is their back yard. Isn't it BEAUTIFUL!!! I love it out there. And it has everything you would need. A Bathroom, kitchen and TV.

Tanner likes to play in the hot tub b/c he can touch. He'll throw that ball for Bailey their dog for hours!

Saturday we met mom that morning to get the kids and we went bike riding. They were having a slumber party with Morgan and Carlee and were very excited!

There was a whole group of us that went and we rode about 20 miles.

Ryan thinking he was 16 again he started to jump down these stairs and at the last minute chickened out a just rode down them. Thank goodness, he's not as young as he used to be!

We stopped about halfway back and went in this cute candy store. I love Fairhope it's such a beautiful little town.

Sunday afternoon I went to pick up the kids from mom and we celebrated Mrs. Barnes birthday! Happy Birthday Mrs. Barnes. Sunday night we had an engagement party for our friends Courtney and Ward. Ryleigh and Tanner LOVE Ward...They call him Pooter Tooter. I have no idea why! They had just gotten engaged Saturday night.

We have a lot coming up in the next few weeks. Ryleigh and Tanner start swim lessons next Monday for 2 weeks and then they both start school!!

Friday's Letter

Dear Lance Armstrong (aka Ryan), although you may be able to ride your bike for 20 miles at an 18 miles per hour pace does not mean that your slightly less out of shape (but much better looking) :) wife can. So please cut me some slack this Saturday. Dear Tanner, next time you catch a frog in a cup and decided to leave it on my nightstand for the frog to escape and then scare me to death in the middle of the night, don't. Thanks. Dear Whitney, I loved your response when I told you that Ryleigh and Tanner had to have the 3rd size up on bikes. "OMG make them stop growing right now, seriously, immediately." Please come see us soon we miss your beautiful face! Dear Ryleigh, contrary to popular belief you are only 4 years old and no, you do not need a cell phone. If I ever need to reach you I can just look to my left. Sorry to spoil your fun. Dear Lindsey, Only 85 days until your wedding. I cannot wait! It's going to be so much fun! Dear Mr. Stokley, 5 points for not being mean to me when we've been running this week. I would also like to give myself 5 points for not face planting on the trails you made me run. I just knew I was going to trip over a stump.
I love you more than chap stick!

Bikes

Monday night out of nowhere Ryan decided that he wanted to go buy the kids some bikes. They've never had them but because we really don't have anywhere to ride them. Well I told Ryan let's just wait and get them on Saturday and we'll make a whole day out of it. But, No. Once he gets something in his mind he is going to do it. So after running Monday night we headed to Wal Mart.

Please take notice of Ryleigh's outfit. Yes, she went into a store dressed like that. Thankfully we didn't see anyone we knew.
I was telling my friend Sarah the story of the bikes and she pointed out how Ryleigh is a lot like me and Tanner is a lot like Ryan.

When we first walked down the bike aisle the 2 bikes that instantly caught their eyes were the Disney Princess and Spiderman bike. Well everyone knows I can't stand characters but on a bike I would be ok with them.

Until I looked at the price tag...they were $75! For a kids bike! We kept looking around and found some other ones that weren't character bikes and in my opinion were 100% cuter that were only $40. The girl one was pink and purple with flowers and the boy one was red and black with fire. Much more tolerable than Disney Princess and Spiderman.

I asked them what they thought about those 2 bikes. Both said they wanted the character bikes.

We then told them that the character bikes were much more expensive for the exact same thing. Ryleigh said how much more expensive? I told her $35 and that basically she could buy 2 of the pink bikes for one of the Princess bikes. She immediately said she wanted the pink bike. That girl knows the value of a dollar!

Tanner on the other hand didn't care he still wanted the Spiderman bike. He's been saving his money for a real Buzz Lightyear that talks. They are $35 at Wal Mart. He has about $32 saved up so far. I told him that he could get the Spiderman bike but he would have to pay the difference and then he wouldn't have any money left to buy Buzz Lightyear. He STILL didn't care!!

In the end we made him get the red bike because I knew that he wouldn't care once we got home.

It's funny to me that Ryleigh is a saver and doesn't have to have everything. She is also very practical and usually if you give her the reasons behind something she well go along with it. Tanner is the complete opposite. He wants what he wants and doesn't care how much it is. That's one of the main reasons I'm making him save for the Buzz Lightyear as opposed to just going and buying it for him. He needs to learn how to save up for something he wants!