Letter

Dear Ryan, I love you but a Michael Kors purse for a 7 year old, really?? We aren't going to be able to afford her by the time she's 13! Dear everyone who does this, I hate the words Hubs, presh, totes and ridc. I mean is it really that hard to say HUSBAND!!!! I CAN'T STAND WHEN PEOPLE SAY HUBS OR HUBBY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Dear Rain, I HATE you. That is all. Dear Waterville, the season passes we bought this year have been worth every penny!! Dear school. it's the first week and I'm already SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO over you!! I HATE you with every fiber of my being. Dear Disney, excited about our trip in 3 weeks!! Dear New York, even more excited about the trip I'm taking there in 2 months!! Dear Vegas, been there, done that. No desire to go back. I've been quite the traveler this year. Dear Pathway Kids Dept, you are so extremely special to our family. We LOVE you!! Thanks for an awesome Saturday and for showing everyone that even though things don't go as planned, we can still have a great day! Dear Ryan, you're welcome for the 2 hour nap I let you take while I took the kids to the pool and got them showered and dressed for dinner at the beach. I now have a free nap to cash in. You know I always keep score. I love you more than a Saturday afternoon at the beach!!

I just realized that there are a lot of things I hate in the there but I really do hate school, the rain and when people don't use the whole word. HUBS AND HUBBY AREN'T WORDS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Dance Recital

You're only getting pictures because I'm tired and I'm not in a blogging mood. :)

Catching Up

Well that was quite the blog break, lol! It's hard to blog in the Summer because we aren't home very much. So I'm going to play catch up. We've been hanging out with this sweet boy a lot. Ryleigh is too busy to hang out with us. 

We've also been fishing a lot. This is my favorite spot on the boat. Piled up in the back in the bean bags. You'll take a nap like no other back there on the 2 hour ride in.

Starbucks with my girl. She didn't have  ceffeine, FYI. She took a video of herself with the drink and texted it to Tanner. She said, "In your face Tanner, you just got told." I don't even know who's child she is.

 We've been climbing lots of trees.

 And spending lots and lots of time at the beach!

 We also got a pool put in so we've been doing lots of swimming. I use the term we loosely. I've only been in it twice but my whole family likes to have huge pool parties while we are gone on the weekends. Not fair!

Blue Jays!

It's been a wild 24 hours! We had known that Evan would probably go in the MLB Draft. We knew that he would probably go in the first few rounds. We knew that he was amazing (obviously, he is an Alford.) We knew that he was by far the cutest prospect. We knew all of these things. We didn't however know how stressful a draft can be. You literally have NO IDEA who's name is going to be called next. Every minute (literally, they have 1 minute to adjust and decide between picks) my heart would go up and down. I could only imagine what Aunt Velvet and Evan were going through. Well we got what we wanted in the 4th round of the draft!!!! Evan was drafted by the Blue Jays. We are all so excited!!!!! 

Evan is an amazing baseball player who has worked so hard to get to where he is. We are so proud of him!!

Evan, You have gone from this cute little boy who I used to babysit to this grown man who is flying out at 4 am tomorrow to start a whole new adventure. I know you are excited (even though you show like ZERO emotion!) I want you to know that we all love you and are rooting for you. You have grown up so much in the last few years!! I remember when we were younger and you were the "bad" kid. We could blame just about anything on you and everyone would believe us. You were moody and mischievous but so cute!! I've always thought that you and I are a lot alike. We are for sure the moodiest two of the family!! You may also take after me in your athletic ability! :)

I'm so excited to see what your future holds!! I'm also very nervous for you! I'm nervous about who's going to make sure you are up on time in the mornings. Who is going to wash your clothes, or make sure you have food to eat. You have proven you don't need much to survive. When I reread that, it seems like a weird sentence but it's so true. Give you clothes and food and you are good. You couldn't care less about a car, a cell phone and are probably the only teenager in America without a facebook. I think that is what is going to keep you grounded. I do think you should let it go to your head a little. You have worked hard and should be proud of yourself. Not many 17 year olds go 4th round in 40 rounds of draft picks. You are a special guy!

No matter how far you go on this crazy adventure. No matter how much money you make or how famous you become. Always know that one of your biggest fans will always be here in little ole' Mobile, Alabama rooting for you every step of the way. I'm so proud that you reached for your dreams and achieved them. I love you Evan!!!!

I know that's a lot of pictures of me and Evan but in addition to being the moodiest we are probably also the most conceited. So, it seemed appropriated! I'm kidding, sorta :) I also wanted proof that we are close for when he makes it really big. I figured I should document these pictures on here so he can't ever deny me!

Tonight we had Evan's draft party. It was a lot of fun! He found out today and he literally leaves tomorrow morning for Tampa. Thankfully, he's not that far away. We plan to make the trip in a few weeks for his first game.

Velvet and Jordan have been so supportive of Evan and have sacrificed to help him get to this point. You guys both should be so proud of yourselves!!! He comes from an awesome family!

 There's not another group of people that I love more than this group!

 It's great to have a friend in the screen printing business. Shirts for all of us in less than 2 hours! :)

 Cousins!

Proof that he does love me the most!!!

 Throughout the whole night I couldn't help but think about Mark, Evan's dad. He would be so proud of you Evan!!! He would be so excited and on cloud 9!!! I believe that God let's the people we love in on what's going on with us here on earth. Just know that when your Dad got a glimpse of this he was grinning from ear to ear. He and God probably even through a few baseballs back and forth tonight to celebrate!

Here's an article on AL.com

What have we been up too?

I came in one Sunday afternoon to find Evan asleep in Ry's bed. I just laughed because he is so big in that bright little girls room! 

 Ry finished up soccer. We were sad that it is finished but she's said it finished just in time. This girls doesn't do heat! Dance will be over next Saturday. Thank goodness!! We are OVER dance.

Ryan and I had our 10 year high school reunion. Neither one of us wanted to go but I was on student council senior year so the planning fell on us. This will be the first and last reunion I plan or attend. Up until 5 minutes before we left I still wasn't entirely sure Ryan was going to come. We actually ended up having a great time!

 We ran into this guy! I just love him!

 So there's some BIG changes coming to the Stokley house in the next few weeks. More to come later. But before that happens I want to do some small remolding and this is on my list.

 He reminds me so much of Evan.

 We celebrated this sweet girls 4th birthday!

 And finished school!!!!!! I was shocked at how different they looked in side by sides. I discovered that I like Tanner's hair longer like the beginning of school.

 Ryleigh's face really changed. She looks so much older!!!!

Now we are just enjoying Summer!!!! I do miss having the Summer off but with my job it's still working out really well. The kids are going to Day Camp which I am hoping they will love. They have gone one day but they didn't go anywhere that day so they didn't love it. So here's to next week!!

Spring Break Part 2