Water Boys

Score one for having a water-loving breed.

Bailey is not the most friendly Labrador on the planet. Some days he'd sooner take off your arm than have you walk in our home. But he LOVES Ben. And he's not bothered at all by Luke. I'm grateful that our boys have a big dog and they are growing up unafraid of dogs.

Notice who's not in these pictures...

Our little Beagle had an adventure yesterday. I had left the gate open and she decided to tour the neighborhood. I found her several streets over, sniffing a stop sign. God is watching out for that dog - that's all I know. I don't know how she didn't get hit by a car. When she's gone, she's got that nose to the ground and she never looks up. This is the first time she's been loose from our house since we moved in this January. Hopefully it'll be the last.

Stay cool this weekend!

Four Months

Someone's happy to be four months old!

His brother loves giving him kisses.

Four Month Stats:

Weight: 14.8 lb (47th percentile)

Height: 27" (95th percentile)

Head Circumference: 17" (75th percentile)

Luke,

You have brought so much laughter and excitement to our home. We didn't know how we could love another baby...another boy...as much as we loved the one we already had. But we love you more than we ever thought.

You are the happiest little guy we've ever seen. You're relaxed and you smile constantly, unless you're ready to eat. Then you go from quiet to deafening in about a half second.

You're on a great schedule right now, thanks to your mom. You eat every three hours, and you've mastered the eat, play, sleep schedule. Last night you went from 9:30 to 5:30 without waking up. You ate at 5:30, went back to sleep, and woke up at 8:30. It was great.

And when you woke up, you were laughing, grabbing your toes, and blowing raspberries at us.

Things you love:

Your exersaucer

Your Johnny Jump Up

Baby Einstein

Holding your Toes

Chewing your Hands

Watching your Brother

You've also been swimming a lot lately. When we hold you in the water, you kick your feet like crazy. We put your face in the way the swimming instructors told us, and you aren't fazed at all. You also like to just float on an inflatable. Your big brother thinks it's great that you're in the pool.

We just think it's great that we have you in our lives.

Friends Turning Four

Saturday we went to a birthday party for one of Ben's friends, Eli. His mom and dad went to college with us. Jenny and Jill are good friends and workout partners-in-crime. Their Zumba experiences are pretty hilarious.

Jill did an amazing job with this party. She talks about how cute our Birthday parties are - but she's one-upped us with this one.

Eli is ALL boy, and loves sports, especially baseball. Their new house (and oh my gosh their house is perfect) has a huge backyard, so the kids were invited to play in Eli's Ball Field for the morning. I turned into an 1950's Mississippi African-American preacher and carried around a sweat cloth to dab my forehead the entire time. It was REALLY hot out.

Everything was baseball and bouncing-boy themed. Fruit kabobs, Pretzel Sticks dipped in icing, baseball cookies, oreo balls with star sprinkles, and sausage (base)balls.

This is my favorite piece - the upside down egg basket with the old baseballs.

Birthday boy enjoying his snacks...

And opening his presents...

Ben gave him a giant lollipop and "Harry the Dirty Dog."

Eli has a new puppy. Every little boy needs a book about a dirty dog.

Thanks, Brad and Jill, for a fun morning.

Ben is SO glad you guys moved closer to Conway.

Jonesboro...Continued

On Wednesday we took Ben out to Craighead Forest to play. I'm not sure what it is - a state park, county park, city park - I guess I could have googled it in the length of time I just typed it, oh well. It's a lake (though not for recreation), campground, trailway, sports area - and it also has several great playgrounds.

I'm not sure if this was allowed, because after we fed the ducks/geese, a parks official came over and started setting off explosive traps to scare the geese away - it was pretty stinking funny.

One piece of bread hits the water, and the geese swarm.

These two friends walked right out on the dock with us. Ben was in HEAVEN.

He had a blast throwing them bread...

Eventually we ran out. And our friends left us...sad.

As we were leaving the dock, Ben spotted another duck under a tree.

He had to point it out to Mommy.

Luke slept through the adventures.

After we fed the last of the ducks, we headed over to one of the play areas. Ben loves this one because it's built like a giant fort. It's really cool.

Ben is really becoming independent when we're out playing. He climbs and runs and is really asserting his independence.

And by asserting his independence, I mean he's peeing behind trees. Hilarious.

Yes, Dr. Murphy...I know

Several years ago, Jenny and I were interviewing with a church in Tennessee. It was to be my first job after seminary. We had emailed back and forth with this church, and while we were in Arkansas over Spring Break, we agreed to drive over and meet the committee for lunch.

A few moments in, Dr. Murphy, one of the members of the search committee, asked me if I "Knew I had a great wife..."At random points during

the lunch/interview...he would interrupt and say, "But do you know you have a great wife???"

We later learned that one of my references had responded to the committee's email questions about me with the response..."Good guy. Good family. Great wife."

It struck the committee members as funny - to me it was very typical of this individual's busy schedule to just shoot a quick response from his Blackberry. And I think for the most part he was right on the money.

It's taken almost 8 years and two sons for me to realize how great she is.

It's 9:30, and we've been in complete peaceful quiet since 8:30. She's trained our two boys to be sleepers. Benjamin is three years and almost four months, and he takes a solid 2.5 (sometimes 3) hour nap every day. And he sleeps every night from at least 8:30 to 7:30. Sometimes 7:30 - 7:30.

We had a rough couple of nights at my parents just due to Luke being in the room with us, and Jenny said at one point, "As soon as we get home, we're taking care of this..."

I knew exactly what she meant, and exactly what she was about to do.

We were about to cry it out. Baby Wise. Brace-yourself-restrain-yourself-fix-a-big-bowl-of-ice-cream-and-get-really-engrossed-in-a-rerun-of-Grey's-Anatomy crying it out.

Friday night was round one. Saturday, round two. And tonight...round three.

Victorious.

He went down at 8:30. Cried for 5 minutes. And then he was out.

She's an amazing mom.

Add to it the fact that she just cut my hair while I sat in the living room.

Yes, Dr. Murphy. I know.

I have a great wife.

Love you, baby.

Fourth of July Week

We were so happy to see the arrival of July - not just because of the Fourth and family events, but because it meant June was history.

June was VBS and Children's Camp back-to-back and there wasn't a second of down time. Because I worked so much, I took the 5th-7th as comp days and we left town for the week.

My family always has small reunions on the weekend of the 4th - usually just involving a couple of big lunches. We made it to Jonesboro late Sunday evening and were able to go to one of the lunches on Monday.

There's a firework stand out at my uncle's air strip (which is where we have lunch) so Ben gets to stock up on various explosive devices as soon as we finish eating.

Watching a "Snake"

Luke wasn't too sure about the noise and smoke.

Throwing Pop Snap things...

Ben and Abby throwing poppers at each other's toes...

Monday night, waiting for fireworks

(note the matching outfits that Jenny made for the three of them).

A rare moment that evening, when all of them were sitting still.

This was how Ben spent the majority of the evening...

climbing over the third row seat in the Suburban.

Luke spent the majority of the week right here,

in Grammy's arms.

Quick moment of sweetness...

Precious cousins...

We didn't consume one bowl of homemade ice cream or single slice of Peach Cobbler - which is really rare for us. Not that we didn't eat plenty of fattening holiday food.

Stay tuned - more pics to come of our week with the fam.