A toddler in the truest sense...

Last week, this was our view of Logan...

I'm so glad I had a camera to get this shot at that time!

This week, here's our view of Logan...

Seriously, his tongue does half the work.My heart is goo right now. My baby is walking!

Guess...

...who is walking now, as of this very afternoon??

Pictures to come soon. Let the races begin!!

Honor...

To all veterans...

Past, present and future heroes...

Thank you.

Let Freedom Ring.

This post carries an especially heartfelt thanks to BOTH Shawn C.'s serving in the Marines, and Ryan and Katherine B. serving in the Army, and their families. We are so thankful for you!

Thankful Thursday....er, Friday...

Caleb loves music. So does Logan. Ryan knows how to read music and play a few instruments. I like to listen to music and to sing (probably not that great, but I still enjoy singing!), and at one time played the guitar a bit. With as much as the boys really love songs, instruments, and any-and-all-things music, it's been a blast to occasionally sit on the floor and make our own 'family band'.

Caleb is the 'conductor' - he lets you know what to play, and when to play it while playing about three instruments on his own. Logan is our 'rhythm man' - he will pound on that little drum, or on pots and pans, and actually keep a pretty good beat. Ryan is the 'ear' - making me laugh every time he grimaces due to a sour note, but that he still radiates joy in watching his sons play. I don't know what I am, other than the 'groupie' - as I said, Caleb is the 'conductor' so if Dad is around, I do not get an instrument to play. Oh well.

"Make a joyful noise unto the Lord." Worship in song has always been special to me, but lately the boys have shown me in many ways that music - more specifically, the act of creating music - can be such a pure form of worship. Even the sour notes, played and given with a cheerful and thankful heart, are treasured by our Father. Even my singing which can often be off-key because I love trying to find the melody, is treasured by Him. Just as a mother treasures a drawing of a cat and dog that maybe no one can recognize, but that her child drew, so must God in Heaven treasure our songs, hums, strums, and beats that are offered up to Him.

Today I am thankful that it's not what I do, or how I do it, but that God knows and cares about the state of my heart when I show Him my love. I'm thankful that it's by His grace that I'm called a Daughter of the Most High. I'm thankful that I don't have to rack up all these good works in order to gain salvation - that it's quite the opposite. Because He first loved me, and I've accepted Him as my Savior, I want to do good things in His honor. I'm thankful that lately it's been about the simplest, most basic parts of being a Christ-follower that have drawn me closer to Him.

There are so many things in this world that often point my eyes upward, thanking the Lord for the chance to see them in light of who He is. What are things/circumstances/situations in which you find yourself marvelling at who He is, and who you are in Him?

Today...

• Ryan is taking another actuary exam from 2-4pm. He's 15 minutes from finishing as I type this. I'm praying for good - PASSING! - results (that we'll find out in early January).
• The boys haven't napped well today.
• I have a yucky head cold/sinus infection - it's to the point that I can no longer taste my food. I can't remember it affecting me this way before!
• Eating is no fun when you can't taste what is in your mouth.
• I really want to take a nap.
• I don't think I can stay up to see who our next president will be in this historic election, but you know I'll be praying for the future of our country.

"...Your Kingdom come, Your will be done, on earth as it is in Heaven..."

Photo tag...

My friend Robin tagged me with a rather neat one, I must say. Since she did share a room with me in a tiny apartment in college, putting up with my odd hours due to working at a coffee shop and countless other quirks, I'll play along. I think it's funny what came up...

The rules:

Go to your picture file on your computer.

Pull up the 4th folder.

Pull up the 4th photo.

Tell us about it.

The top picture (the one that applies to this tag) is Logan's "after bath shot" at about 4 months of age. The bottom one is of Caleb, approximately 21 months earlier. Can you tell who is my People Pleaser and who is my Deep Thinker?

I now hereby tag the following:

Katherine, Christy, Lori, Melia & Andrew, and Sarah

(ps - I used the 4th picture of the 4th folder under "2008" on my computer. So I guess I fudged the rules just a tad...oh well!)

Buzz and the Giraffe...

While we don't "get into Halloween", we do thoroughly enjoy dressing our two cute boys up in cute outfits to have a ton of fun at Fall Festival!

Ryan and I found Caleb's Buzz Lightyear costume earlier in October for 40% off - so we couldn't pass it up! Caleb loves the movie Toy Story, so we thought this costume was perfect and that Caleb would love it. However, he would kick and cry every time we brought out the costume for him to try on - until last night. In one of those 'perfect timing' scenarios, Gram and Papa (my folks) came over to see us off, right when I was getting the boys dressed in their costumes. Caleb, being the true firstborn that he is, was in the mood to show off so he willingly - no, excitedly - put on the whole costume! And he kept it on the whole evening!

Logan wore the same giraffe costume that Caleb wore for his first Halloween. I am so glad that the feet were open - otherwise, the giraffe just wouldn't work this year! It's such a precious little costume that I loved seeing another Griffin guy get some use out of it.

We took the boys over to the Fall Festival held at First Baptist Katy, and we had a great time jumping and running through obstacle courses in the inflatable bouncers, eating free hot dogs, and seeing everyone else's creative costumes. We met up with our good friends, the Marhofers, and Caleb squealed when he saw his friend Kaylea who was Cinderella for the night. Those two are so cute together!

After we left the Fall Festival, we went over to Na and Papaw's house (Ryan's folks) and Caleb got to knock on their door and say "trick-or-treat" - which came out more like "trickstreeeeats" - and then he assisted them in handing out candy to other trick-or-treaters. I think he enjoyed that so much more than if we had taken him around trick-or-treating, plus we don't have a bunch of candy taunting us in the days after!

Here's a rare picture of all four of us together! Can you tell we had a great evening? (Logan really did have a good time, too...)