it will be hard to choose the happies for this week (overwhelmed with blessing)! Finley and i are having a blast with our new little girl and soaking up every second he is home on "paternity" leave.
here are a few of my highlights from this past week:

the prettiest girl in all the universe


silas loving on Maye


allyn and Maye bonding


dinner with fun people


elle can not get over her "alive" baby doll


scrumptious boys loving on a baby girl

my birthday was a couple of days ago and i decided to capitalize on the "do whatever you want to day." so, i loaded up the kids and took them golfing! we went to a local lindsey links golf course in springdale. i played pretty well, but the kids were amazing! we rode around in the cart, the kids would tee off with me, and then usually put. one hole (#3) they played completely from start to finish! what a great birthday for dad.

my super duper bff in the entire universe posts "happies", so here are a few of mine.

Chillin' with Maye baby



sisters



things the older kids do cause they are "bored"

“The Christian gospel is that I am so flawed that Jesus had to die for me, yet I am so loved and valued that Jesus was glad to die for me. This leads to deep humility and deep confidence at the same time. It undermines both swaggering and sniveling. I cannot feel superior to anyone, and yet I have nothing to prove to anyone. I do not think more of myself nor less of myself. Instead, I think of myself less.”

— Timothy Keller, The Reason For God, New York, NY: Dutton, 2008, p. 181.

last night brooke and i had a surprise date at pf changs while the rodda's took the kids to eureka springs. our one goal for the night was to pick out our daughter's middle name. our waiter decided to get in on the action and so did her co-worker. the names suggested were hilarious. basically the suggestion was to walk around outside and see what we liked. a few they suggested were: sky, mist, blu, rain, and a few different kinds of fruit. brooke and i had a blast on the way home coming up with new ones: stopsign, promenade, moon, and our favorite, ag russell knives! what a great middle name for our daughter.

thanks for the banana pudding jenn!
you better believe i will eat it allllll!!!
you are very sweet to this almost 39 week prego!
-b

like any normal married man with kids, i like a few minutes with my wife each night to catch up and "talk about the day." (ok, i'm officially really old) anyway, we had put elle and silas to bed around 9 or so and it was approaching 9:30. they were not asleep yet and i had already gone in once for a cup of water. brooke and i were talking about an important conversation i had had earlier in the day and elle starts calling for 'daddy.' i asked her to wait, but that didn't matter. i got up, walked into her room where she and silas sleep, and asked her if this was really important. i tried explaining that i really needed some time with mommy and so this had better be good. after a short pause to determine the 'importance' of her question, she then proceeded to ask me the proper lyrics to "I've got a pickle" sang by Buckwheat on the Little Rascals. apparently they watched the movie yesterday and it was her new favorite song. whats a dad to do? instead of getting mad, i of course obliged and sang "I've got a pickle, I've got a pickle, I've got a pickle, hey hey hey hey!" the look on brooke's face when i returned was priceless.

my day revolves around getting to take a nap...praise the Lord...sleep time.
i want to be a professional hibernat-er!
today we played hard...one of the kids adventure was playing in the sand box...
as i tried to do my bible study...i just let the kids come in and out of the house...
filling up their buckets with water heading back outside and so on...which only means one thing for me...
today i must pretend i live in a beach house...sand under my feet, on the couch..
and mysteriously on my pillow?!
i've already dragged both kids to the shower twice to get the sand off...once at 10:00am and once at 2:00pm.
today i made it to 2:30pm...before i wanted to stick toothpicks in my eyes to stay awake.
so i put on a 30 min disney cartoon...and waddled off to sleep...
i was so preoccupied with trying to fall asleep quickly...that once i did...fiddle and diddle were climbing all
over me telling me they wanted waffles and grilled cheese.
i made myself get up...and began cooking with my eyes shut (only burned myself once). I ate most of Si's waffles...and almost drank the jar of syrup.
i'm just sure i'm at the stage of pregnancy that i eat to stay awake.
i also decided it was a good time to take my iron pill and pre-natal...surely one of those will zap me
back to the land of the living. i seriously want to take 4 iron pills...but we all know what taking to much iron will do to someone.
so...now i'm awake...elle is ringing the door bell trying to sell me newspapers...and telling me to talk to my husband before i decide.
Silas just pushed our lawn mower out into the middle of the front yard...(who opened the garage?!!)
and i'm debating whether or not to place 5 customer orders. Since I only get work done after 10:00pm and i've messed on on the last 3 orders....urg!
moral of the story...pregnancy + brooke = scrambled eggs! i'll quit rambling....thanks for listening.