July 17th

My birthday is over and well celebrated, so now we can move on...to counting down the days for Gavin's 3rd birthday!!
A cool thing my parents started doing many, many years ago is a time of affirmation for the "birthday person." We all gather after dinner and sit around in a circle and take turns telling the "birthday person" what we love and appreciate about them. It is an amazing time of encouragement, tenderness, heartfelt appreciation and graceful words given to inspire the recipient to be more...I love hearing those encouragements from my family. Of course it makes me feel good, but more than that, it teaches me how my actions affect others and even how my life affects others. It is a tradition I will do with my family forever. The coolest thing about this year is that Gavin participated for the first time. At first my mom was prompting him to say things, but then he was announcing it was his turn and telling me he loved gardens and tomatoes. He definitely gets the concept and that is really cool. One time he told me something, then said "thats all I got." I am so blessed to have these traditions to pass on to my children.

1) The time with my family on Sunday night

2) My parents coming over early to ensure I would be able to sleep in the afternoon since I had worked Saturday night and didn't sleep much since Jason worked that day.

3) The pumpkin cheescake my mom made for dessert. OH MY GOSH. Its amazing.

4) Jason having Mon and Tues off with us

5) Taking Gavin bowling today - he was so excited. The first thing out of his mouth this morning was : Can we go bowling now? No, Gavin, its only 6:45am!

6) Both kids sleeping until 6:45 this morning - thats sleeping in for us!

7) Gavin not seriously hurting his fingers when he slammed them in the door today

8) Dark chocolate covered cherries

9) The capris from Jason and another pair from Angela and Jason for my birthday - I love them!

10) Less fussiness from Ez the last few days - thats been great. We had a few rough days last week - I think the hot weather and teething added to his discomfort and he was just "needy"(read: carrie holding 23lbs on her hip ALL DAY)