Happy Birthday to my Best Friend

Fun in the Sun

Last week we had the opportunity visit with our friends, Shelli, Brooke, Karter and Ryan and had another opportunity to get used to swimming in a big pool. Emily was cautious at first, but quickly realized how much fun it was. She is especially fond of her first freckle which we noticed after leaving the pool. She says "Mommy, frackle".

23 months old

What an interesting month this has been as we are preparing to begin the terrific two's. Emily continues to be quite the communicator and it amazes me to listen to what she picks up. Most mornings when I go in her room she will say "Hi Mommy", but just recently she started adding "I...lub you" after saying hello. She asks quite frequently "ah, doing" (what are you doing?) and she will continue to ask that question until she receives an answer and even when she gets an answer she'll ask it again. Her funniest communication yet is when she says "no touching" to Charlie or any member of the house that is touching Mommy. I'm not surprised that Emily has a protective nature about her when it comes to me because I recently found out that Charlie was the same way with his Dad when he was very little.

Emily is very observant to sites and sounds around her. She enjoys telling me when she sees an airplane or hears a motorcycle speeding down our street. She also lets me know from inside the house when she hears the mail truck driving to our box.

Emily has the ability to switch from her sweet self to Miss Flossy Bossy in a matter of seconds. She enjoys trying to get one of us to come to her by saying "mere" and then she tries to move her pointer finger which ends up being upside down. Here she looks like she's saying in her best mafia voice the words of Sofia from Golden Girls "I spit on your grave".

Monkish Child

We realized the other night by the placement of these colored cups that we have a "monkish" child on our hands. Basically that means she's crazy/picky about certain placement of things and orderly which is certainly not a bad thing. I'm really hoping this will carry over into her teenage years too.

Meet Claire Lillian Buss

Kristen and I had the opportunity to visit with Mandy (formerly Fitzpatrick) and Scott Buss and their newest addition, Claire, while they were in town last weekend. We had a great time visiting and playing in the pool.


Watch out world of business tycoons, Emily Groff has just submitted her resume.
This is friends of ours, Amy and Kevin Johnson's, little girl Josie. She could have been my twin when I was little.
Aunt Kristen sun bathing at the playground.

Window Project

A while back I got the idea to handmake a curtain rod for our guest room along the woodsy theme. I never really had the motivation to work on it until Kristen and Holly moved in. I finally finished it a couple of weeks ago with the help of my husband and Father-in-Law. Bambi approves.

Blast from the Past

We had the priviledge of visiting Tim and Julie Sellers and Leah and Phil Mollohan during a cookout last Thursday. Tim, Julie, Leah and I went to Uganda Africa together 13 years ago. Tim, Leah and I were in the Ohio State Baptist Student Union together. Leah and I haven't seen Tim and Julie in about 12 years. Leah found them on Facebook and found out they were going to be up from their home in Texas for a wedding. We had a great time reminiscing and the kids also had a great time meeting and playing together. Thanks Leah for getting us all together.

(Charlie had to leave early to prepare for his hiking trip that weekend so that's why he's not in this picture.)

Start them early

Emily had the opportunity to be involved on a small scale in our Vacation Bible School this year since there were classes designated just for teacher's kids. One of her teachers, Mrs. Marie, built this castle and Emily decided to sit inside. She had a great time and we're excited for next year.


Thank you Cavanaugh's for taking this picture. How cute they are peering out the window.

Philippians 4:13

This is an amazing video! You might want to get some tissues.

Brotherly Love

My Mom is giving me updates about David since we couldn't be there for his arrival. She says Jack is really proud to be a big "brodder" and you can tell from this picture.

David Bryant Clay...

...entered the world on Monday, June 30th at 5:50pm. He weighed 8 lbs. 13 oz. and 20 1/4 inches long. Mommy and David are doing well. Don't ya just want to squeeze his cheeks.