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!