Garyn's 2nd Birthday

Garyn turned 2 this past Friday and after a whirl wind of house cleaning we got to have a good weekend celebrating...

Thomas the Tank and Bob the Builder are high on the totem pole these days at our house.....Thankfully I saved a brand new Thomas table from The Big Much knowing after ten years of being in the business that little boys looooove Thomas. We had pondered giving it to him this past Christmas, but he just wasn't quite into it yet, I knew it wouldn't receive the WOW factor.....I am glad we waited cause he is so much more excited now than I think he would have been then.

It felt like Christmas in July though because we anxiously waited for him to go to bed on Thursday night so that we could put it together and have it ready on his birthday morning.......

We covered it with a sheet that night and the next morning he was a little speechless but all smiles!

Pure bliss in Thomas world:

When breakfast was ready, he had a crying, screaming fit because he didn't want to leave the Thomas table. Welcome to having a 2 year old, right! Once he finally settled down to eat, he ate in an even faster mode and was ready to get back to the table within 10 minutes.

We went to the Creative Discovery museum later and enjoyed the new Curious George play area......

Garyn loves music and dancing.......

From there we met Nana, Poppa, and Uncle Gary for some birthday lunch at Southern Star, yummy. Garyn got an iced cookie and ice cream for dessert.....


That night while Tyler was away at football events, Garyn and I went to Chester Frost with the Sunday school friends and got to ride on a boat for the first time this summer. He absolutely loved it and did not want to get out or take the life jacket off, which BTW was pink and green.....I found that funny, Tyler probably would have insisted on a different one if he had been there.



Then Saturday morning we went to Carson's Thomas birthday party and Garyn diligently scoped out a way to get to the cake, which I don't think he realized was cake, it looked just like Thomas. (and his cake that you will see below) I kept him away for the longest, but he finally got past me and scrapped the cake! Ugh, I felt so bad, it was not very noticeable though. (It was however in the middle of picture taking with the cake so everyone saw it) So I showed Garyn how good those fingers would be if he just stuck them in his mouth.......

So we came home from that party, took a nap, and then had his party! Thomas themed as well and fun of course! The little boys stayed at the Thomas table for the first 30 minutes at least. Here is Garyn's cake, which was just like Carson's cake he stuck his fingers in.

My Aunt Joy and Tim came bringing a radio flyer trike and Garyn went from not wanting to leave the table to not wanting to get off the tricycle.

He even stayed on it to open presents.......


So that was our birthday weekend. He loved all the attention and is now enjoying his new toys, thanks to all. Of course there are a couple that we are ready to take the batteries out of like his new trucks that make reeving noises and tire squealing sounds! Can't wait to return similar gifts to those parents! lol! No really we are so blessed and enjoyed spending time with everyone over the weekend.

Garyn is now in a big boy bed. It took some adjusting, but the last couple of nights have gone smoothly. The room is now cowboy themed. Here he is reading in bed...........

Taking Heed.....

So this summer I have been bad about doing my quiet time/daily bible reading. I am habitually doing this every summer and so badly need to stop letting business take away from my prayer/reading time!

God knows this more than I do, obviously, and today when I became intentional about using Garyn's nap time to devote to Him, He spoke to me exactly about this sin I can't seem to stop doing. He is so amazing, that way!

I sat down with my bible, thinking what shall I read.....I love devotional books for there guidance and structure, but I don't have one right now that I haven't already done.....therefore I went back to Deuteronomy, where I think I left off from the last time. Deuteronomy 11 struck me as where I might have left off, and where I might need to read.....

When I came to Deuteronomy 11:16...I got that tingling, warm feeling of love and amazement.......
Deuteronomy 11:16-17 Take heed to yourselves, lest your heart be deceived, and you turn aside and serve other gods and worship them, lest the Lord's anger be aroused against you, and He shut up the heavens so that there be no rain, and the land yield no produce, and you perish quickly from the good land which the Lord is giving you.

Wow...my mind started swarming...
It is finally raining right now, my land is physically and mentally receiving it
Other gods have been receiving my worship
My heart has been deceived into thinking I could go without the daily word of God

When I was in college I was in a bible study group that included the same girls for 5 years. Our teacher was/is awesome and I learned so much from her. Once she had us write down everything we did for a week and how long we spent doing that particular thing. After that week, she explained to us that anything we spent a lot of time on, that wasn't adding to the glory of God, was a god. TV was the one thing I spent too much time on at that time, and I remember thinking..."How is TV a god?", but I learned that I was putting it ahead of God, the one and only.
These verses brought up that memory and told me that I was, again, allowing other things to come before my time with God and therefore worshipping them.

It was so refreshing and affirming to simply open up the bible today and pray for Him to speak through His word and instantly God gave me a lesson.....especially when I was thinking I needed a devotional book, bible study group or Dr. Dooley to teach me the word of God.

Jesus died for us and the veil was torn so that I can come to God anytime....Thank you, God!

Sometimes we all need to record what all we are putting time and effort into to reevaluate what is pleasing to God and what is disobeying. Its like when we journal our eating for diets, more or less, we are seeing what is good to our body and what isn't.

I pray that I can take heed to this lesson from God and change my ways.

T-Shirts....

Now that I have been cleaning up in our extra bedroom, since a bed will be coming out of there to go into Garyn's room, I have realized how many t-shirts we accumulate. I know this is a common trait amongst all of us, but have you ever really thought about it?

I went through a dresser full of Tyler and I's t-shirts....each one had its on memory, and therefore a reason to hold on to it.

One shirt was from middle school, Science Olympiad, a science fair. Tyler and I met in 8th grade, that is where our story begins. I was not a science maniac, neither was Tyler, but we both did Science Olympiad. My only goal was to be able to spend more time in Mr. Fairbank's room with Tyler. Any attention or glances I could get, I took! So, in my clean out, I found my shirt from Science Olympiad.

Other shirts included various vacations, one being Senior Spring Break with 6 of us girls. My many years of helping with Special Olympics was majorally represented amongst those piles of T-Shirts. More recently, Tyler and I's college trips to Seatle and Denver were intermixed in there.

You know all of these shirts were souveniers from some event, that we feel we need to keep in order to savour that memory.......I am very sentimental, don't get me wrong, but I bagged up 3 bags of shirts that we have had stashed away in an extra bedroom for at least the past 2 years since we have been in this house. I gave them away, because I realize all those memories are in my head the other 364 days of the year I am not moving those shirts around from storage place to drawer to box, etc..

Tyler always pushes for me to donate/ throw away stuff. He can tell when I am in the mood to get rid of things, and on those days, he goes to town loading stuff up for Goodwill and the dump.

This week, I did it without him, because I know these treasures I want to build up will only go on to someone else to throw out one day.

Its About Time....

for a post, don't you think? I do!

The short and sweet explanation for no new blogs has been summer fun which equals no scheldules, no regularity, no time for posting, unfortunately.

Garyn got his third black eye for the summer...so far

Garyn has been napping ALOT, unlike last summer, the business and on-the-road-alot hasn't messed up his naps......I get 3 hours normally to clean and plan the next days' craziness (when we are at home!)

As you can see, he is a tosser-turner when asleep........

We spent the Forth of July in Panama City with the family. My dad takes us and my brother's family every year........Thank you dad!

Garyn didn't really like the sand, he would be entertained, notice I said entertained, for about 30-45 minutes. We had to constantly play with him and keep washing the sand off his hands, then all at once he would take off to the pool and would NOT come back to the beach!

(notice his new hair cut, too)

So we spent a lot of time at the pool, Lorna and Lakelin (my neice and nephew) thankfully like the pool, too. Garyn got over his fear of letting go and by the end of the week, would swim all over the pool once he realized his gear held him up.

We went and ate good seafood and played putt-putt golf......

The vacation was a needed rest for Tyler and I since we have been working a lot, and on different scheldules. I have been getting in 2-3 nights a week and Tyler's new technology job is keeping him at school a lot, not to mention football, that is now in full swing.

Summer is winding down and I am shocked at how little I have done on my to-do list! You know the one that we all make when we think we have extra time to do things around the house....well not so much. We are currently working on the biggest task I wanted to do, transitioning Garyn into a big boy bed. I guess thats about all we will get done on the house this summer.

Next week is G-man's (a.k.a Garyn) birthday!! #2! can't believe it!