Welcome to our new layout! We're glad you've stopped by for a visit. We're enjoying life as God gives it, feeling so very blessed by His goodness to us. Our 3 kids keep things very lively and interesting around here and make life 3 times more enjoyable. If you're a first time visitor, please let us know how you heard of our site! Pictures are available for registered users.
Lots of pictures have been added! I can't remember now what albums I put them in or what albums I created, but it will probably be obvious. I did add quite a few to the "random July pictures" and then created several new ones. We're also working on finding out how to get the captions that I write above each picture in Flickr, to be above the pictures here on our website. In the mean time, if you want to see captions you have to go to our flickr stream and look there. :)
Stef had a Mary Kay party last night, so she suggested the kids and I go run off to Chuck E. Cheese for a bit - we did so and had a great time. The 1-token-per-game policy is nice, makes a small amount of cash go quite a way, and the kids mostly like the same stuff. I learned a couple of things:
We had a nice time, a couple pix are attached.
Rachel's 2nd birthday is officially over. We had another fun filled weekend and Monday is here again. So funny, how we look forward to the weekends coming (and we act like its because they're so relaxing) and then they come and go so fast because we're so busy during them. :)
Friday night Jason's sister Jenny came over to spend the weekend with us. We had a lot of fun with her and the kids really have enjoyed seeing Aunt Jenny more these days. Rachel loves that Jenny calls her "Princess Rachel" and gets a big kick out of Jenny getting into all the little things that she loves. Saturday Jen baby sat for us and we went to see the new Batman movie - very good, in our opinion. Her final party started at 5pm and we had Jason's side of the family over and our good friend Brock, from Livermore. We hadn't seen Brock in 5 months and it was SO good to catch up with him. All day Sunday, Ethan continued to tell me all the days that "Uncle Brock" is coming over to play with him this week.
Sunday was an awesome day, as usual. Church was great, Frank preached an excellent sermon from Isaiah 24&25 and after church we had some friends over for lunch that we met... get this... online. Yes. This is a sign that you live in the new mellinium -- You meet and become friends with people completely online. We had a blast with the Swensons and enjoyed getting to finally hang out with them in person. Sunday night we had my sister and a friend from church over and we played (of course, the wii) watched a movie and had dinner. Busy weekend, but full of fun. I'm uploading pix in a few minutes.
Have a good week everyone!
On Saturday, Rachel had a special alone date with her Grandpa and Grandma Arnold. They took her to Marine World! She had loads of fun and came home talking about how she rode on Thomas, Harrold, the air balloons, saw the dolphins, sharks and tigers! Her Auntie Jenny went along as well and she adored all the attention she got from her. :)
Jenny stayed at our house Friday and Saturday night and we had lots of fun spending time with her. She lives several hours away, so its always nice being able to spend long amounts of time with her. Anyway, I don't have pictures of the Marine World trip, so you'll just have to take my word for it... she had a blast. :)
Thank you, Grandpa and Grandma!
Today was a big day for us, but a very fun one. We started the morning off going to our church's "ground breaking ceremony" at our new building site. Yep, its official! The ground has been broken, graded and is ready for building! Its very exciting... and we've only been at the church 2 years! Imagine the families that have been waiting for this for 6+ years. We prayed over the site and sang "To God Be the Glory". It was SO fun seeing the land laid out and envisioning how its all going to come together. We also got to see a picture of what the finished product will look like and its gorgeous. I can't wait!
After the gathering there, we all met at our Pastor's ranch for our actual church service. Every year the town our church is in hosts its annual Cornfest and the High School we rent for a church building needs the facility on this weekend, so we have to go elsewhere. It makes for a very different sort of Sunday, but always very fun and eventful. After the service there's a big BBQ/potluck -- we all eat together and the kids get a kick out of playing together at the Griffith Ranch. God was so good and gave us perfect weather for it today. It was breezy and enjoyable.
For us it was an even busier day and packed full of never ending fun! We came home in time to get ready for Rachel's birthday party with my side of the family. Her actual birthday is tomorrow, but we celebrated with a party tonight. Rachel had SO much fun... we know this because after everyone left she continued walking around the house saying "That party was fun!"
This was the first birthday party where we were able to have ALL 6 of her cousins here! Madison and Kyle are here for the week and so they were able to join us. It was cute seeing all 4 girl cousins playing dolls and dress-ups together. I get the biggest kick out of watching them all interact now that they're old enough. We really had a blast. We had pizza, water gun fights, pool time, fun with the wii, presents and cake and ice cream! It was loud, yes... but loads of fun.
Our kids went to bed tonight, both asking for their traditional cup of Rice Milk. I went to the kitchen, filled their cups and by the time I got back to their room... they were both out cold. I uploaded lots of pictures from this morning and this afternoon. This coming weekend we're having a party for her with Jason's side of the family and tomorrow is her "real" birthday, so we'll be living it up big then as well.
Have a good week!