Some photos from Bennett's 9th bday

A Bakugan Birthday and More...

Bennett got a bunch of Bakugan for his birthday which he was very excited about...and as you can see Mark couldn't figure out! He also had a cake made of glazed donuts (his favorite).

He also got this cool present from his Nana...it is like an Easy Bake Oven for boys. It makes gel bugs! Check it out!

And of course blowing out the candles

Some Random Birthday Photos:

Happy Birthday to Bennett!!!

Newsflash: Bennett Lanier turns 9 years old today!

His parents are officially old!

Our most fabulous son and apple of our eye, Bennett Ryder Lanier, turns 9 today. Officially he will turn 9 at 10:22pm.

This has been a big year for Bennett. It was full of finishing the 2nd grade and starting the 3rd. Playing but not loving to play soccer, mastering guitar hero, learning to play the real guitar, and learning to play chess. He also has become the master of building paper airplanes and is teaching himself to draw. He knows all the words to the theme song of Phineas and Ferb :) and loves to make goofy videos for youtube. Oh and let's not forget that his favorite curse word is CRAP (ugh). This year Bennett experienced the passing of his dear puppy Rhosie and also got a new puppy, Murphy. Overall he is continuing on his quest to being just a great kid. As he gets older he gets more confident and has a group of really nice friends that he hangs with on a regular basis.

Today he will spend his day by having his friend Christian over to play during the day and his friend Nicky is coming to make pizzas with us tonight. On January 5th he is having a paper airplane birthday party. Which is BOYS only :)

Happy Birthday Bennett, we hope it is the best yet. We love you.

Another Movie Review for YOU!

Marley & Me

So this movie was made for the Laniers. We went to see it on a dreary Sunday morning with plenty of rain and grey outside...in other words a perfect day for a movie! Marley & Me is about being a family. It shows the ups and downs of family life and how you still somehow stick together through it all. There were parts of this movie where we laughed so hard because we had all done the exact same thing with our Marley...Drake! Marley was no ordinary dog and either is Drake. Just this morning I chased her around a desk trying to get a baggie of food from her that she had swiped from the kitchen counter. She of course got half of the baggie and ate it baggie and all, and somehow we forgive her and move on because she can lay down on the floor with Bennett and give him a big hug (yes she hugs) and make him laugh the biggest belly laugh you have every heard. We definitely recommend this movie however bring your tissues...we all cried.

Merry Christmas!

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

Mark Lanier turns the big 3-8!!!

November 16, 1970 is the day the husband and father of our little Lanier clan entered the world. To celebrate the day of his birth he will be spending the day with his family and then in the evening he will be partaking in huge amounts of sushi. Mark doesn't give speeaches (even though I ask him too) on his birthday or worry about that fact that we are getting old...quickly. Instead he just looks ahead to the coming year. Probably not a bad idea.

Happy Turkey Day!

Happy Turkey Time to our

friends and family!

With all the crazy things going on in the world these days, we wanted to take this opportunity to thank everyone for their love and support throughout the years. Besides eating beyond comfort, the month of November brings the perfect time to make sure we have told the people in our lives how much they mean to us. Gobble, Gobble. Love, The Laniers

Our Guitar Hero

Bennett has started guitar lessons. He now proudly knows 2 chords, G and C. He is doing really well. He really like his teacher Alex, he is super cool. I overheard him asking Bennett what his favorite songs were and to Alex's surprise Bennett answered...The Devil went down to Georgia and Rock Me Like a Hurricane. It was a proud moment .

What's up with the Laniers

Hello to my favorite blogger fans...I haven't been a very good blogger lately and thought I would take a minute to catch up. At the moment the Lanier house is running on empty! I have been working on a project for work that is creating a 100 mile round trip commute for me everyday. Considering how hard it is to get gas...the timing isnt great. I have been getting home late so we just haven't had the family time we usually have. The best part about this story is that our final presentation is on October 6th so the days are numbered!!! Life returns to "normal" soon!

Bennett and Mark are doing well. We are staying busy with soccer and keeping our gigantic horse/dog Drake busy. The weather is starting to cool down so we are trying to be outside as much as possible. The image below is our soccer star, Bennett Ryder Lanier. This year soccer is much more complicated then it has been in the past. They are playing on a bigger field and with all or most of the rules. Bennett is actually learning quickly and starting to put it together out there on the field.

On the weekends, we have adopted this baseball field near our house as our very own dog park and we have been meeting friends up there to let the dogs run and catch the soccer ball. It is a great time for everyone. Kids and dogs seems to love it. The picture below has Drake with her favorite soccer ball and Bennett trying to out run Drake's buddy Divo.



Bennett has also been fooling around with video lately. Check out this one he did this weekend. He has a couple more that he made himself which are hysterical and I will try to upload to our blog. I guess that is all for now. Like I said we aren't up to much these days around the Lanier household...

Thank you

I wanted to make sure I sent a heart felt thank you for all the love we received after Rhosie's passing. It is so nice to know we are surrounded by so much love. Thank you it made a difference to say the least. Love to all from The Laniers.

Sweet Rhoser

Thursday, September 4, 2008 was a very sad day for the Laniers. Our dear sweet Rhosie Mo Reed Ryder-Lanier passed away. Rhosie had spent the day hanging out on the front porch in the gorgeous weather and went to take a nap under one of our rocking chairs and passed away while she was sleeping. As most of you know Rhosie was not your average dog. She had the heart and soul of a Diva. She was around before the Lanier family even existed and has been through everything with us. The good, the bad and the fabulous. She was here to see us bring home our sweet baby boy and to wonder what the heck was happening in her household with that strange little baby. She has been a constant companion and that special dog that everyone in the neighborhood loved to come and pat when she was out and about. I am going to miss her so much. I look for her in all of her usual spots and expect to wake up in the middle of the night to hear her snoring on the floor next to me. Her passing has left a hole in our family and we will miss her always.

Mama Mia!

Ok here we go a fabulous movie review for all you blogger fans out there! I saw this with my BFF Mrs. Ashlee Dunbar. We had dinner and a couple glasses of wine before we went to sit in the most comfortable theater chairs ever, so we were primed and ready for some good music and of course some good acting. We were not let down. The music as you can imagine was the highlight of the movie. We both made sure to own the soundtrack to the movie before the night was through. We had a great time, we laughed, we cried and walked out humming a tune or if you are Ashlee singing the songs. You may be asking ...you cried during Mama Mia, huh? Well let me just tell you. We saw the movie 2 days before our children started the school year. Ashlee dealing with her 2 little kindergartners heading off into the scary world of elementary school and me dealing with my child becoming an official 3rd grade Tween, the song "Slipping through my fingers" that Donna sings to her daughter Sophie on the day of her wedding just hit us right in the gut and tears were a flowin'. So you may ask...is there anything negative for this movie review...of course! The part of the moview where we looked at each other and thought what the??? Was when James Bond busted out in song. Pierce was a little scary but not enough to sway your opinion of the movie. A great girls night out movie. I think I might be going with another group of girlfriends in a week or so to see it again :)

Rockin' it 3rd grade style

Well folks Bennett is a 3rd grader. I cried a bit on my way to work thinking about how quickly he is growing up. Besides the fact that Bennett's teacher is a gator, yes an U of F alumnus she seems very nice and Bennett like the first day a lot. He walked in this morning and his assigned seat was right next to his good friend Ethan! He also said that today they did no work so it was great day :) Here are a few pictures before he got on the bus this morning. BTW the kids at Bennett's bus stop are giants :)

Space Chimps...you gotta be bananas!

Well Blog fans I have another movie review for you. This one is going to be a lot shorter then my Wall e review because there just isn't enough content. I have added a link to the LA Times review of Space Chimps so I get a little back up from the legit journalists out there:

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/the_big_picture/2008/07/space-chimps-ke.html

I took my 8 year old son and his 8 year old friend to this movie on a scalding hot Sunday afternoon. We were eating popcorn, nerds and drinking coca cola products in the air conditioning...what could go wrong...? Well there actually is an answer to that question and the answer is Space Chimps! Wow this movie was seriously awful. I wasn't expecting alot considering the title of the movie but I got even less...this story was all convulted and it was just down right dumb. I usually am more excited to see the kids movies then the non-kid movies because they are just fun...uh can't say that about Space Chimps. Now the two eight year olds I was with said they liked it, however they didn't laugh or show any expression throughout the movie...could it be they were humoring me because they were just glad to be enjoying the air conditioning, popcorn, nerds and coca cola products on a scalding Sunday afternoon?

36

As most of you already know I am turning 36 this month. The reason you would all know that I am turning 36 is because I usually start talking about my birthday the day of Ashlee's birthday in April. Her birthday is my reminder that I am also going ot be a year older soon.



It is safe to say my 35th year was a very hard year. It has probably been the largest growth year since having Bennett. Mark is now a stay at home dad, which has been a struggle for our family financially, but, very rewarding for all of us as a family. We are a closer family because of it. We constantly struggle keeping the dog hair off of our floor and I struggle trying to be a pack leader in my home of 1 child and 2 dogs. Learning that I am not a pack leader has been an eye opener as well, I learned that even though I have always been such an opinionated b?*ch I am not actually a strong presence but instead a big mushy softy. My biggest growth opportunity in my 35th year may sound ridiculous but is true...I have learned that I am not always right. It is has been the hardest pill to swallow but it is true...it is somewhat liberating to know I am not always right but also scary...and finally I also have swallowed the pill that for such a hard worker I am lazy.



So in my 36th year my hopes are that I can turn the corner and become a pack leader in my home, I become a more active person with my family, I can become financially responsible, and I can continue to be wrong. I also hope that I have had enough growth experiences in my 35th year that my 36th year isn't that interesting.



So Happy Birthday to me! Looking forward to leaving 35 behind!

King of the Family Turns 84!

Bill Ryder a.k.a King of the Family, as he is affectionately called by his Great Grandson Bennett Lanier...turned 84 on July 6th. Almost all of the family was able to make their way to Tallahassee to celebrate. Jeff was the only person unable to attend and his presence was missed! On his 84th the noted King of the Family went on a 2 mile bike ride to shame the majority of the family who sat around on our butts complaining about the heat...He is as always an inspiration to us all. For dinner we all gathered at the home of the King and Queen of the Family and had a dinner hand picked out by the King of the Family. Lamb, white rice, corn and a peach pie for dessert! All his favorites. When it came to gifts it seems The King of the Family attracts consumables. He received liquorice (spelled incorrectly on the package for some reason), dried apples, gummy bears, and snacks galore! He also received a head lamp that has 12 LED lights in and after it took almost all of us to figure out how to put the batteries in it, he was nice enough to try it on for a photo op (photo shown above). He got a book by George Carlin a book of crosswords puzzles from his Queen and biking gear to make sure he is as fashionable as he is active ! So Happy Birthday Graps! We all love you and are continually inspired by you!

When was the last time you needed a reminder that we humans are pigs?

Well if you are looking for a reminder of how Americans over do EVERYTHING and need to see what the world is going to look like because we have to do everything at an extreme then I have a movie for you! The delightful children's movie WALL-E. Wall-e is a tale of a robot who was left on earth to clean up after the filthy humans as the humans go live up on a space ship and relax and get away from all the trash. Of course the government promises that these little robots will have everything cleaned up in 5 years and when that doesn't happen they end up floating around in space for the next 700 years , all the Wall-e robots die and the one lone Wall-e is left to use them as replacement parts whenever he breaks. The humans of course don't learn there lesson from Earth so for the past 700 years they have been polluting space with their trash as well. They all float around on these huge chairs and get fatter and fatter and fatter and they have a computer screen in front of their faces at all time so they forget to look around and don't even realize they could go to the pool or run around the track or get a massage for that matter. They drink all their food...cupcakes in a cup sound good? So Wall-e is this sweet little trash compacting robot who falls in love with the robot Eve. Eve's job is to come to Earth and try and find eveidence of life...Wall-e does find a little plant growing inspite of the disgusting humans and the story goes from there. Pixar is obviously looking to make a statement. I walked out depressed, my son walked out confused and my husband fell asleep for about 15 minutes of the movie as the robots beeped at each other with their names...Wall-e, Eve...Wall-e, Eve...Wall-e, Eve...well you get the point.

Good Friends and The Buddah Bubble...

Last weekend my good friend Jasa Jawn Schummacher was in town from Fresno, CA. Her family owns a lakehouse at Lake Sinclair here in good old Georgia and we went down to spend the night last Friday. The first thing I will tell you is that it is amazing that this family, originally from Los Angeles, found this lake because when Jasa said it was in the sticks...she wasn't being dramatic...it is WAY out in the sticks. Because of dog boarding issues Bennett and I were the Lanier family members to partake in this adventure.

After driving 2.5 hours we were finally there, it was so great to see Jasa! I had not seen her in about 3 years and it was definitely worth the drive to say hello to a good friend. Bennett got to work making the best of his time at the lake house affectionaly named LATOGA (LA to Georgia). While I was running my mouth he was busy with smores by the fire, badmitton, night swimming and twister with a cute little girl named Grace. Bennett and I slept in this huge air conditioned dome tent which is affectionately called the Buddah Bubble or the Yucky(see picture above of the meditating Bennett). Thank you to JAsa's Mom for adding the A/C! It rained the next morning and Bennett and Grace played badmitton in the rain and about 10 board games and then once the rain cleared it was one last swim for Bennett and we were back to Alpharetta.

The next installment-last day of 2nd grade

3rd grade here we come!

Bennett's last day of second grade was a lot of fun! I took some pictures of him heading off to the last day of 2nd grade to arrive 6 hours later off the bus as a 3rd grader! Amazing. We are as I am sure you can tell from our blog that we are very proud of him. When he got off the bus all the kids at the bus stop got shot with silly string and water guns and to top off the fun, Bennett got straight A's on his report card!

After we got home from school Jessica was crazy enough to have volunteered to put together the neighborhood END OF SCHOOL PARTY!!! There was a moonwalk, cotton candy, tattoos, pool fun and lots and lots of chips. It was great fun until the drought lands of Georgia's sky opened up and poured down rain on the party! It was great to see the kids having a great time at the party...however we never did make it to the limbo contest and it was disappointing that it got cut short. No matter what Summer is officially here!

Trying to Catch up!

Hello all my blogger friends and family! The end of school rocked our world and keeping up with the old blog has been a serious struggle. I just got some cute pictures from the end of the school year of Bennett crossing over from a Wolf to a Bear from our Cub Scout Den leader. I thought this was as good a time as any to start catching up.





At the end of the school year the cub scouts have ceremony where they boys take off their Wolf neckercheif and get their new neckercheif for the coming year. Bennett is now going to be working on his Bear badge for cub scouts. We have heard it is a lot more work then the Wolf badge! Cub Scouts definitely takes the whole

family into account now so Mark and I will be busy whiddling or something crazy next year

This weekend I am going to updating the blog so here is what is COMING TO A BLOG NEAR YOU (in the very near future)

• Last day of School


• End of School Party


• Broken Wheel on Jessica's Car


• Replace door in the Lanier house


• Saga of tree falling on fence


• Queenie's trip to Tally


• Neighborhood block party


• Trip to the lake


• 10th office in 10 years at Cox Enterprises

and much more....

until then....

Pomp and Circumstance

On to Kindergarten!

My blogging today is about our dear friends the Dunbars! Jack and Elizah Dunbar graduated from Pre-K today. Their graduation ceremony was really, really cute. All the kids were all dressed up and had these cute little paper mortar boards on their little heads. They performed songs lead by their fabulous music teacher Ashlee Dunbar. Their favorite song was probably The Bear Hunt but they also sang some sweet songs that made all of us attending try hard not to cry. At the end they each let go of a balloon with a prayer tied to it and watched them go up in the sky.

I remember Pre-K graduation being such a big step for Bennett, and the Dunbar twins are ready to go, they are off to start their Elementary School career. I asked Jack if he was ready for Kindergarten and he nonchalantly said yep! We send our best to them both and wish them a fabulous summer! Bennett is of course available for Elementary School advice sessions if needed. We are so proud of you!

Blog-ga-log-a-ding-dong!

Spring Soccer Season Comes to an End

Bennett finally had his last soccer game and soccer party where he got a very cool trophy! His team won all their games except they lost 1 game and tied 1 game! GO Lightning! Bennett played alot of offense and scored a lot and assisted alot. He became a really good passer this season and was able to set up his teammates for goals. Sounds a lot like David Beckham I know.

Guitar Hero

So Bennett was nice enough to pose for some Guitar Hero pictures. He has completed Easy and Medium and is half way through Hard. If you haven't done Guitar Hero I will tell you that is quite an accomplishment. To put it in perspective I am through Easy and half through Medium. To get to this point I actually spent 6 HOURS one weekend trying to beat Tom Morrell on Medium! It is not easy.

Lanier's Cook Out in spite of gross back yard

We aren't letting the fact that our backyard has no grass and tons of weeds in it stop of us from enjoying this gorgeous time of year. We have been cooking out like mad. Bennett and Mark cook, and the dogs sniff. This weekend we had hamburgers on Saturday and then Lamb chops on Sunday! Gourmet huh? You wouldn't think in a backyard like ours you could serve up such gourmet meals...but somehow we make it work.

Last...but certainly not Least! MOTHER'S Day 2008

So I hope all those Mother's out there had a great Mother's Day and were treated like the fabulous women we all are. I had a great Mother's Day. My family took great care of

me. There was breakfast, poems, flowers, naps, reading by the pool, dogs getting along and a delicious dinner to end the day. It was perfect.