WHAT A WEEK!!!

It's been a really busy, exciting week with Michael and Griffin's Birthdays, Griffin's first soccer practice, and his 4th birthday party! Here's some pictures of the fun from Griffin's birthday...

On Griffin's Birthday, the "Boys" went for a kayak ride on the lake on the golf course. They caught 2 bass!!





Then, we went to the McWane Center to see Bob the Builder!







That evening, we went to Chuck E Cheese with Nana and Poppy!

COLLIER ELIZABETH O'NEAL

Well, we've finally decided on a name for our baby girl!! It's going to be Collier Elizabeth! Michael has loved the name Collier for several years now (I had a student named Collier when I was teaching), and Elizabeth is from my mom's family. That has been Michael's first choice for awhile now, so I surprised him for his birthday with a monogrammed burpcloth. He was so excited! How fun to be able to call her by name now!!

My funny little guy....

Griffin has been cracking us up lately with some of the things he's saying. I've been horrible about writing things down so we can remember them all, but I thought I'd share a couple from yesterday and today...
Yesterday he was trying to pick up some things I had told him to clean up, and Anderson came over and started "helping" him. Finally Griffin looked up and said, "I tell you what. Why don't you take care of this? I'm going to the office."
Last night Griffin walked into the house and Michael's Bible Study was here eating dinner in the kitchen. When he walked in he stared at them for a minute, then said in his most grown up voice, "It sure was a hot day today, wasn't it?"
Today when he was eating his lunch he said, "Mmm mmm, these strawberries, I can't even handle it!" What a reminder that he's listening to every word I say!!

It's Destin...I promise!!!!

We just got back from a really great trip to the beach. The water was so absolutely gorgeous that I had to keep reminding myself that we were in Destin and not the Caribbean. The boys had a blast!! Here's some pictures...many of them have my nephew, Bryce, and my niece, Elise.

We took some pictures of the boys together one afternoon on the beach--unfortunately our camera was really foggy and we didn't realize it. Here's a couple of them--sorry for the haze!!

Just a few thoughts....

For those of you who haven't heard me rave about this book, I just have to put in another plug. My bible study has been reading Sacred Parenting by Gary Thomas. Some of you may have heard of him before...he also wrote Sacred Marriage, which I also enjoyed, but this one has just been incredible. I really think it's a must read if you have children--if you're precious angel is under two you'll probably want to read it again in a couple years...for me it's totally changed my perspective. You can get it new for $5.25 on www.amazon.com!!

Another note--a friend of mine emailed me one of her friend's blogs...I so enjoyed reading her thoughts and wanted to pass the address along to you:

http://www.happyhelms.com/archives/2007/07/growing_pains.html

She has such incredible insight that I had to go back through her archives to gain more of her wisdom. Hope you enjoy it as much as I did...