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Wednesday, September 14, 2016

August in Review

August brought in a very nice change of pace for us, with school nights tying down to home during the week. I think we were all ready for that! Ha. Here is the month in pictures...


This little ham started doing an adorable surprise face ;-)


Griffin's (and my) love of matching pj's continued on! Haha! Mimi got these for them for vacation, but our room at the beach was too cold for it so we had to do them when we got back.


We went over to the Broady's for some baby loving time!


Mr.Pate had some inservice days, and Grady's school was closed for training so the boys spent some time down with my family. Grady played ball all day with peeps, and Griffin got some lake time. He and Livvi even tubed with Jilli and Kyle pulling them on the jet ski! Ahhh! But he loved it.


We had open house night at Bristow! I can't believe he is in Kindergarten. I just can't believe it. We got Mrs. GWord, which is exactly who Griffin wanted. They are going to be too fun together!


He did so good on the first day of school! You can read a whole play by play of that day on a separate post in August.


Griffin goes and comes home with Mr.Pate everyday, since they are both going the same place. But Griffin got to ride along with Dad and be a bus monitor on the first day. He was so excited and wants to ride the bus everyday now... Sorry kid!


Grady soaked up summer down at Knekne and Peeps during this time, and got in some good Nanny time too.


I had my moms car for the week, so Griffin and I rode with the top down one night and had a ball. It was neat being able to see all the stars!


Griffin was the first leader of the week in his class! I got to go eat lunch with him one day during that. Too cute.


Becky faced a fear and drove on the interstate for the first time in like two decades this month. Gary, Becky and I ventured down to Nashville for a doctors appointment. I went for driving moral support and just in case she needed me to drive. She did great!! On the way back, we decided to go back roads to avoid some major construction delays... Well the gps really had us going some strange ways and it was just a hilarious time with them. They both kept saying and worrying that we were lost. I, on the other hand, am a younger generation that trusts my gps blindly. So I wasn't worried at all. It was really funny. I will treasure that last little adventure. Oh and Gary said he felt like a dork that day because she dressed him so brightly and matchy. Haha!


The next day we had our staff retreat. We did some team building out at the challenge course the first half of the day, and then headed to Dabble Studio in Nashville for a cooking class! It was awesome!! You should check them out, they do cooking classes, cooking and painting classes etc. She was great and the food was amazing!! We made pasta from scratch!!


Saturday we headed to Ralphies in Glasgow for Eli's birthday. We had never been and we're excited to try it out! They had a really cool glow in the dark mini golf, skating, inflatables etc. we had a great time!


Can you find Griffin below??!!


It was Star Wars theme, so we had a light saber battle for a bit!


Buds for 3 years and counting!


One of these is not like the rest... Mrs. GWord sent me this and of course my kid is the only one posing?! Haha


That weekend we also had a luau for church!



YouTube Video

Silly kids!

Knekne found Grady some brown boots to match Bubba!


We had a Gender Reveal party for the Staggs'... Science Themed of course!






YouTube Video

Griffin had color weeks at school.
You know he loves a theme!


One day at school as they were talking about family, Griffin shared about his Baby Sister who died, and drew this picture of him holding her. I love his sweet kind heart so much.


Unfortunately during that week Gary had another stroke... And 6 days later passed away. I plan to do a post on this when I emotionally can. For now I will say that the Monday night before he passed, Cameron and I were able to visit with he and Becky at Vandy. It was the most precious time to me. It was only us for several hours, and Gary was still somewhat alert and we really felt he knew we were there and knew how much we loved him. We assured him we would take good care of her, and I really felt like it gave him peace. It has been a very emotional and long hard summer in a lot of ways. Though I have stayed in touch with Becky, that was the first night in a long time we really talked and loved on each other. I wouldn't trade that night for anything. Gary passed the next night.





The above pic is from our Derby Bunko this past May. Gary played with us. It is the only time he has ever played with our group. Just a fun little gift from God I think.

The rest of the week and weekend was spent getting ready for the visitation and funeral. Grandma and Papaw came to watch the boys on Saturday so we could be at the funeral home all day. Jan sent me this pic at some point in the day:


I don't know the story- but it's adorable. Haha! They had a ball and loved their extra time with Grandma and Papaw! My parents kept them on Sunday for the funeral. Sheldon came in for it also, and I loved getting to see him! I will write more about the service in the other post, but it was wonderful.


Grandma got the boys this amazing pool a few weeks ago, and we finally had time to blow it up and try it out! We put it on the deck, which was great bc it is covered and no grass! The boys had an absolute ball. We have gotten in several times after dinner and before bed. Thanks Grandma!

That was a long month, whew!!

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Monday, September 5, 2016

VBS: Family Style

We decided to try something different with our VBS this year, so we did a Family Style one. We had three nights. Night one was a game night at the Living Hope gym and we played human hungry hungry hippo, dodgeball, basketball and had an inflatable. Justin shared his testimony then challenged families to share theirs with each other this week.





























On the way home, Griffin asked several questions and decided he was a Christian and had accepted Jesus- so we prayed right there! Hooray!!!! We are doing a "now that I am a Christian book" to follow up and make sure he fully understands.

Night Two was at the local skating rink! We had pizza, got glow items and had a ball!





























Night Three was at Parking Lot Party, and we did Family Olympics! We did several games and then did a scripture relay at the end!























Justin did a neat gospel presentation in the middle...











The Peaches won the relay! We got a puzzle piece at each station that made us do something, then in the end when put together it had a scripture on it. Tons of fun!


We need some tweaking for sure, but we really had a great week and loved the memories!

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone