I am proud of my husband

What a wonderful weekend we had. I am so grateful for family. I love being a mommy and a wife. I love when we go on trips just the three of us how intimate we become as a family unit. We get to spend all our time together. This weekend was one of those weekends I will always remember. Billy ran the princess half marathon for team in training raising over $2,500 for Cancer. He ran it in honor of his sister Elaine who was diagnosed last year and today is cancer free. So happy that she is healthy and doing well. Billy did not start running until he saw me run the Princess half marathon last year and he decided he wanted to start running too. I am glad I inspired him. It is something we BOTH like doing and a good way to stay healthy and take time away as a family. I am happy he is running too. I told him that as long as he did not run it in less than 1 hr. 55 mins.(My best time for my last half) I am o.k. with however fast he runs. (I can not let him beat me) :) We are both slightly competitive. ;) He did awesome and it was so cool seeing him run by as Tanner and I cheered him on at mile 8 and at the finish line. We had an awesome day after that. Magic Kingdom was practically empty compared to other days and we got to ride several rides with NO WAIT time. Tanner LOVED the Pirates of the Caribbean. He also loved the new Buzz Light year ride and the Jungle Cruise. It was cool enough for sweat shirts and overcast so No sun beating down. It was nice. WE enjoyed the parade without having to stand on top of someone and we even had dinner at frontier land. We got to stay at the Polynesian and it was SO fun. The best part was just being with my two favorite guys. I love that this is something my husband loves to do too. We really needed this weekend together. Life gets so busy at home and with everything going on sometimes we barely get to play and laugh. As I am sure that happens with alot of you. So mini vacations are GREAT!! I love doing several of these a year. Big vacations are good too but with a little one after three or four days we are all ready to get back and be home and then after a month or so we are ready to go again. I also wanted to end this post with how much Billy and I are praying together. We pray ALL the time these days. I know that is why our marriage is thriving. We can not do it without Jesus. We work hard at keeping him at the center. I have to give my husband LOTS of credit for leading this family in prayer every night and reading his Bible daily. I love that he is holding fast to
1 Thessalonians 5:16-18
New International Version (NIV)
16 Rejoice always, 17 pray continually, 18 give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus. We are not experts at staying grateful in all our circumstances. We struggle like the next guy. We do however stay in prayer and know we can not do anything without the Lord. That includes marriage, running, raising Tanner, having relationships or anything. I love that I can call on the Lord for any and everything.

Fun times

It has been really busy lately for little Tanner man, Billy and I. And we are about to have another weekend at Disney. I am so excited. For one I am super proud of my hubby who has raised $2,500 towards kicking cancer to the curb. He is running in the Disney Princess half marathon this weekend. It was my first half last year and Billy decided after seeing me run he wanted to start running too. We ran the Wine and Dine together on October 1st and had a blast. He has been at the finish line of all my races and I am excited to be there for him. We are going to have so much fun. We have had so much to be grateful for lately. For one I am excited to say that my youngest brother Seth got married last weekend and we could not be happier for him. Seth is the baby. (youngest of us 6 children) I remember the day my mom came home with him from the hospital as I was almost 7. He was and is pretty easy going.So sweet as a little boy. His nick name from all of us was "best Bud" He has had some pretty terrible things happen in his life. He was hit by a car when he was 5 and that was very traumatic for our family. Later at the age of 18 he was in another serious accident. The Lord has certainly had his hand on Seth. I am so happy he found Jamie to share his life with. Their wedding was sweet and so simple and cute. We all had a blast. So happy for him. Congrats guys. Yesterday my friend Jessica invited us to the zoo. We had a blast. Tanner and her daughter Bella did amazing. They were so good. It was not crowded and overcast so not too hot. I can not wait to take him there again soon. It is awesome having friends with kids the same age as yours as they understand you REALLY WELL!! :) We did manage to have a conversation on the way down BUT at a higher volume as we were trying to talk over two loud toddlers. We had a blast despite the "potty party" at the gas station on the ride home. I am grateful that I have such amazing friends. I really needed that day with my girl Jess yesterday. I think she did too.

Story Time

I love books. I love reading books to Tanner too. I am reading a couple books right now. One being "Boundaries" by, Dr. Henry Cloud and Dr. John Townsend. An excellent choice for anyone to read. I am excited to finish reading this book. I have read to Tanner since he was in my womb. I read to him every night. EVERY night. I love it!! My mom has always had a love for books too. That is something "caught not taught" Meaning I just remember being a Big reader in school at a very young age. My mom is always buying Tanner books. Me too. She recently ordered him "Don't forget the bacon" by Pat Hutchins. Adorable book. Some of our other favorites have been "llama llama misses mama by Anna Dewdney, "Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What do you see?" by Eric Carle, "Panda Bear, Panda Bear, What do you see? also by Eric Carle, Click Clack, Moo, Cows That Type by Doreen Cronin, God Gave us You by Lisa Tawn Bergren, Love You Forever by Robery Munsch, Good Morning, Good Night by Melanie Mitchell and many others. I am always looking for new children's books. What are some of your favorites?? Today at Mops we had a guest speaker talk about education and our kids. It was good. It got me thinking. He was talking about exposing our kids to books, music, art, poetry, nature, being active, and lots of different things. I want Tanner to have a love for books especially. I will encourage whatever his love is. I took him for a long walk today and short bike ride(would have went longer on the bike but tires went flat) I know Billy and I will expose him to many things. My husband loves music. He likes electronic music and putting different mixes together and Tanner gets down with him. SO CUTE!! DJ and Dj 2. LOL Well I am off to get dinner going and see about laundry while Tanner is still sleeping.

HAPPY VALENTINE"S DAY!

It is quiet and I am enjoying it. Tanner and I have had a great day and he is fast asleep in his crib. My day literally started with a sweet phone call from my husband wishing us Happy Valentine's Day. We have had a low key day and I am so thankful for it. I made pancakes for Tanner, cleaned house, watered plants, swept porches, played outside with Tanner man, and took a nice hot bath. After the long day yesterday and really long weekend I am soaking up a very quiet moment with myself and my blog. I am enjoying keeping this blog. I have always had a love for reading and writing. I will start by saying My Aunt Brenda had her surgery and is bouncing back wonderfully. However the week after she had her surgery my Grannie Janet and Grannie Elsie both were in the hospital with in days of each other. My Grannie Janet was not doing well there for a while. She had major surgery on her intestine and it was bad. My Aunt Leah has been amazing. My Aunt Brenda and Aunt Leah are such amazing christian women and have ALWAYS spent lots of time with us when we were little. My Aunt Leah now lives in Minnesota but is down here now taking care of things for my grandmother. My Aunt Brenda, dad, sister, brother and sister in law all live on one street and I went down on Friday to just try and be a part of things. I did not do much but it was wonderful being near my family. I got to see my grandmothers and visit with my aunts. I also picked up my mom on Friday and I had and amazing day with her and Tanner. We went to lunch, visited both my grandmothers, took her to the store, over to my brothers, and back to her house. Pretty productive day all while my two year old dragged along. He did amazing. He was so sweet to my grandmothers. He is so smart. My family lives 90 miles away so it is not like we drive by their houses every week but as soon as we drove onto McCranie Rd. (where half my family lives) Tanner said "AUNT B." That is what we call my Aunt Brenda. Her house is right on the curve as you come around the corner then my Grannie Janet lives behind her, my brother and his family next door, and my dad and sister at the end of the street. It is a dead end street and makes it so convenient when I stay down in Lakelnd. My mom is not far maybe 6 or 7 miles down the road. WE had a great weekend despite the circumstances. My Grannie Elsie is in the rehab place and doing therapy and recovering well after falling. My Grannie Janet is still in the hospital but has finally been able to have coffee, broth, and Jello. I am so happy about that. It was awful seeing her so helpless and frail. I laugh because My Aunt Leah said she asked her if she could have coffee plugged right into her I.V. and my aunt said she was dead serious. I know how she feels. I can not go without my coffee. I LOVE coffee. BOLD and STRONG!! I have been praying for my family. All of us. I am grateful for Aunt Leah. I also am grateful for my mom. She has been calling me so much. I really got to talk to her Friday just about me, Billy and Tanner and the future. Whitney was a wonderful hostess over the weekend and Tanner LOVES his Aunt SISSY! And he so enjoys being with his cousin Tristan. He loves going to Uncle Scott's and Aunt Lisa's house too. He absolutely loves his family. He cries when we have to leave. Just like he does when I pick him up from his meme's and grampy's house. My heart knows how blessed I am to have a big family who loves my son. I work hard at not taking it personal when he doesn't want to come with Billy and I. Who can blame him he is having so much fun. My mother in law is so sweet. She gave Billy and I the sweetest card and she gave me an adorable Valentine's Day shirt. I wore it to my steering meeting for MOPS last night and I am going to the women's prison tonight so I will wear it again. I am blessed to have my mother in law as well. She is very good to us. Tanner stayed the night over there two weekends ago and Billy and I went to Carrabba's for dinner. It was so nice. He works in Gainesville so we met at his parents house . Anyway, after dinner we had to go back and pick up his car and I saw meme and grampy's bathroom light on. I just smiled cause I knew Tanner man was taking a bubble bath in their huge tub. Well I did not know until later that Tanner insisted on having "OWL" take a bath too. Owl is this huge plastic thing that my father in law put outside to keep birds off his pepper plants and now has turned into Tanner's best friend when he goes to meme's house. Having grandparents who love you is special. My grandmothers are both very special strong women. My grannie Elsie taught me to cross stitch and my grannie Janet hand made me a beautiful quilt for a wedding gift. I pray God takes care of them. Tanner is very blessed that he has his grammy and meme who both adore him. I am asking God to help me be mature, grateful, and wise when dealing with relationships and always be grateful for every second we have. HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY!! LOVE LOVE LOVE!!!

Football, friends, food, and fun!!

Sunday Billy and I decided to have a few friends over to watch the Superbowl and it was so fun. The kids got to play and they had a blast. We started a little early so the kids could have some fun playing in the back yard and they were so enjoying themselves. We had so much fun laughing, eating, and talking. It was noisy and crowded BUT that was the best part. I love having such wonderful friends and anytime I get to spend with them is a blessing. Tanner enjoyed spending time with all his buddies and I can not wait to plan another get together soon.

Something funny!!

I had to come back and add this as it was super funny. I was trying to get Tanner to go to bed and wrap it up for the evening. He did not like the idea. I was like " let's go Tanner, time for night night" He was like um I do not think so. I started getting ready to pick him up and take him there and told me " time out mommy" I said " are you putting mommy on a time out?" He said "Yea" Really all I could do was laugh. I love it. Sometimes the best anctedote for parenting is LAUGHTER!! Please share some of your funny stories. I love swapping stories at MOPS each week.!!

A good reminder

I am fortunate to have such an amazing life. It doesn't mean I do not have hard days. I am however VERY HAPPY! When I have those days where you feel like people say things just to hurt you or your kid is the only one getting kicked out of the gym for biting, I take the time and look at the other side of things. Things that I have to be grateful for. Yesterday was an amazing day. I was able to encourage two of my girlfriends with their struggles. One has a kid climbing out of the crib and refusing to take naps. The other has a kid getting in trouble at school for talking. We all have our struggles and I think victory comes when we admit defeat and ask God for help. I know last weekend I was having an overwhelming day. It intensifies when Billy is gone for the weekend. But yesterday and today have been awesome. I have started really working with Tanner on his numbers and colors. He is talking so well. I am super proud of him. He is 2 so I can not have expectations of him that he will express himself like an adult. He won't. He is 2. Did I mention that?? Ha ha I see how we adults act when we do not get our way SO how do I think a 2 year old is going to act. Maybe your kid does not have the exact same issues BUT it is comforting to know we all have them. I am grateful that my parents have been calling and my mom and I have been having some nice chats lately. My dad called yesterday and wants to come up next weekend and bring my grandmother. I hope she is well enough to come. I am super excited that I am going on a date with my husband tonight. We are blessed that Tanner gets to spend time with his meme and grampy. Such a blessing that they love and support us. I am grateful that God answers prayer. I do enjoy being a mom and I know I am the best mom because I give it my all and put God first. I am trying to do this in ALL my relationships. It isn't about me being a people pleaser. ( I am sure I am doing something wrong somewhere according to someone) But I know as long as I put God first and lay it ALL down at his feet. Then I have nothing to worry about.

Being a mommy

I am so blessed to have different support groups and lots of different people in my life with different backgrounds, different ideas, and different personalities. Diversity is a very good thing. Look at the world God created and all the differences. The world is made up of all kinds of beauty. We are all different and God made us that way. I have been reading lots of different things about parenting. I am staying close to God about my daily struggles, my fears, and failures. He also encourages me with my strengths, my assets, and my abilities. Lately i have been standing on his truth and his word.Romans 8:39
New International Version (NIV)
39 neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord. I think the longer you do this parenting thing the more you realize that your child or children are little people with their own personalities. I read this website called "Positive Parenting". The whole concept is making sure your child knows he is part of a whole family unit and not THE family unit. Also having boundaries set in place and doing what works for you. It is about connecting to your child and hearing them. I know I have hard days. We are hard wired to be self-centered. The biggest thing I am working on right now and Billy is too, is to be consistent in prayer, Bible reading, teaching him about sharing and loving. Not easy at 2 when their favorite word is mine. It is a tough job. Sometimes I think I have this being a mommy thing down and I could have 10 kids. (LOL Yea right) Other days I feel like I don't do anything right. I do wish my family lived closer. They live about 90 miles away. They all make an effort to encourage me. Like just now I am up early and got a phone call from my sister and just us talking sure lifts my spirits. I am so grateful when someone I love just calls to see how I am doing. I also work to get outside of me and help others. I am blessed to be able to do that today. God has a plan for us and my future. I know Satan is a liar and he wants us to live in a spirit of fear and I am laying that down at God's feet today. Thank you Lord for your friendship and letting me know I am your perfect creation. I love being able to blog and I will treasure these posts through the years.