The perfect cookie

So... What is the perfect Christmas cookie? I can cut them out myself, bake them just right, carefully place them on the cooling rack, ice them smoothly, and shake the sprinkles so that they are evenly distributed on each perfect Christmas tree shaped cookie and end up with only a few dishes to clean. Or... I can teach Megan how to cut them with the cookie cutter (they end up a bit mis-shapen), let her place them on the cookie sheet (thumb prints included!), let her put them on the cooling rack (broken pieces and all), let her ice them (she likes it when the icing drips off the sides), and let her shake the sprinkles on the cookies (pretty much dump the sprinkles in one spot on each cookie), then clean the green food coloring off Megan, the counter, the floor, the towel and myself, then sweep up the spilled ingredients, wipe the sticky finger prints off of EVERYTHING, and then... I get to enjoy hearing her tell her Daddy and anyone else who will listen how we made cookies and all that we did. Then she runs to the kitchen to show her handiwork off and offer one to every visitor. Perfectionism has to take a back seat, and the goal becomes making memories and enjoying my wonderful daughter in everything we do. I started out making the "perfect cookie" by myself while the kids watched a Christmas special in the other room, but ended up making "perfect cookies" with my little Megan.

Happy Birthday JACOB!

Rebecca & I cannot believe that Jacob is ONE! He is so big and so much fun! Today was fun-filled for the whole family. Jacob was able to have some of his favorites for his meals and he was able to ride in the van facing forward for the first time! He loved it all!


Rebecca & I are so thankful for God's blessing in our lives with two wonderful children. We also went and got our Christmas tree! It was so much fun!

Then, this evening after a messy dinner of Spaghetti, we had some BIRTHDAY CAKE! It was strawberry cake with rainbow frosting, but Rebecca said that she could not serve him a pink and white cake, so she colored the icing BLUE! He loved the cake so much! Jake's favorite word is "WOW!" He said it a number of times while eating his birthday cake. I have to confess, the cake was WOW! Rebecca is such an incredible mommy & wife. It was the perfect day for Jacob's first Birthday!



Please feel free to leave any birthday wishes for Jacob!

We love you!
The Griggs Family!

These kids are the best entertainment!

Jacob's first beef and cheese ravioli!

"Extra"-ordinary Day!

I know most would say, "Michael, Why do you not just call it an extrordinary day?" Well, because, this day was EXTRA special!

We had the pleasure to worship this morning at our church, have lunch with family, watch our home team win their football game, and spend time with friends. Yet, with all of this excitement, the most extra special part was in the evening with just us, we watched Megan & Jacob play.

Jacob is improving on his ability to balance and take a few steps at a time. It is so cool to see him grow.

Megan also did something special that brought tears to my (Michael) eyes. Rebecca has been working with Megan to recite John 3:16. Well, tonight Megan said it all by herself. I wept with overwhelming joy, because there are times when it seems to all make sense.

Rebecca & I get to learn and celebrate Jacob's steps as a little boy wobbling towards us. We also rejoice over Megan's steps as a "big" girl towards an understanding that Jesus came to save the World.

I am so proud of my wife and all of her hard work in teaching Megan these words. We pray, and ask for your prayers, that these words will permiate into her little heart early in her life so she will recognize that Jesus loves her so much and wants her to know Him.

As a husband, I am proud. As a father, I am proud. As a child of God, I am amazed.

Annual Cherry Family Maggie Valley Trip

After much anticipation we finally got to Maggie Valley! We always have such a great time while we are there. We did the usual rounds of visiting The Mast General store, the Main street festival (the kettle corn was even better this year), the apple stand, Joey's Pancake house (omigosh, so good!!!), Granny's Chicken Palace (Jacob got to join in this year, last year I was on meds to keep him in the oven a bit longer), a winding drive through the mountains, a hike to a gorgeous waterfall, etc. Mom and Dad (Grandma & Grandpa Cherry); Christi, Jeremy, Kaitlyn, and Zachary; Sarah; Michael, Megan, Jacob and I were all there. Andy was there in spirit:) WE MISSED YOU ANDY!

Again it was wonderful!

Megan is so good with Jacob, she want to show him everything and really enjoys playing with him.

Jacob thought he was going to enjoy a few dandelions... he was wrong!

Megan is used to posing for mommy to take her picture. She was running up these stairs to go on a hike and obligingly sat for me to take this picture. She was quick to get back to her mission as soon as I was done.

We spent a while at this stop on the Blue Ridge Parkway. We were so high up that we were standing in the clouds at some points. They would roll right past us and around us. It was very cool! We stopped at almost every other "Scenic overlook" on our way. Michael and I were in awe of God's creation, it was fun getting to share it with the kids, and each other.

A night out

We went to the Prominade tonight for ice cream and to listen to the live band they have in the park area. Megan and Jake loved it! I think the sugar rush from the strawberry ice cream hyped them both up a bit.

Jake loves being on his daddy's shoulders!

Megan was having a blast dancing to the music. She danced for about 45 min straight! She was hopping up and down, waving all around, and making up her own little dances. She danced with mommy, daddy, Jake, and her little friend Paige.




While Jake was on Michael's shoulders he kept reaching for the tree branches. He was enamored with them. I really like this photo, so simple and innocent.



I am so glad it is the weekend!!!!!!!

Update at last!

So I've been told I need to update. It has been a very busy few weeks this month. Megan was sick, Jacob had pink eye, I have been purging the house of clutter in preparation for our huge neighborhood yard sale. I am trying to find a balance between cleaning the house, planning and cooking meals, training Megan and chasing Jacob, keeping in touch with friends, keeping family up to date (ie. The blog), and having a little time to myself to read/nap/e-mail etc. It seems when I am doing well in one area there is always another area that suffers. The blog is that suffering area right now, plus the camera batteries are dead and the camera itself is in need of repair. I have been taking a lot of video instead of pictures. I will start the picture thing up again, and the blog thing, but for right now I am focusing on the house and keeping it and the kids in order.

Megan loves her library classes, always lets me know "mommy I had a great time!"after class. She is increasingly girlie, loves pink, twirling in her ballerina costume, and playing with "Baby Susie" (her doll) more than ANYTHING else. She has started telling us "I love you very much!" at random times even before we say a thing. It's pretty fun and makes Michael and I feel so wonderful.

Jacob now says "da-da!" to Michael and "uh-oh" the rest of the time. He started clapping and waving all in one week. Mostly he does it in response to Megan, she is such a good little teacher! He is a VERY fast crawler, and quickly learned to crawl up the stairs. He has made it 1/2 way up before I realized what he was doing, we now have a gate up to discourage any escape attempts:)

We love you all!

For Andy

Andy, we hope there come in handy there in Michigan. Let me know if you need any tips on cooking, etc!

Jacob said: "Mommy, she's doing it again"

This was just such a cute picture of Jacob I had to throw it in for the Grandma's!

Cha - Ching!

Not much excitement going on here. I waited in line for 35 min yesterday to get gas in the van. It's crazy! When I filled my tank it was $2.89 a gal, now it's running at $3.29 at the stations that still have gas. Needless to say we aren't going anywhere for a few days.

A great day at the park

We LOVE going to the neighborhood park at night. For us pale people its great! Michael gets home from work/school at 7ish and off we go. Michael got a little camera happy at last nights trip to the park. Who can blame him? He had such great subjects to photograph!

Megan and Jake had a great time playing together. This picture of them peeking through the tunnel is Michael and My favorite!

Megan HAD to take her babies in the tunnel with her, she takes very good care of them.

I love playing with my babies!!!

It was a little dark on the way home, hence the blurry picture, but we had to get a picture of Megan and mommy pushing the strollers.

Hmmm...

Does this picture (Megan's hand on Jacob's head) remind anyone else of Andy and I growing up?

Daddy! I no screaming today!

Megan and Jacob had their 2 year and 9 month check ups today. They are both doing very well. The doctor was (always is) impressed with Megan's verbal skills (she gets it from her smart daddy) and with the fact that she is potty trained (I think I will take the credit for that one since it was my blood sweat and tears that went into that week of training!!!). Megan asked the doctor so many questions, including "Dr. Cleveland, why you singing so much?" To which he replied, "Because I am so happy to see you my dear Megan!". He is such a good doctor. He was whistling a tune while he checked Jacob, which is why she asked. Jacob just smiled showing off is 6 teeth, and soaked up everything around him.

Tonight we took the kids to get ice cream because, as Megan told her daddy when he got home, "Daddy! I no screaming today!" She was of course referring to the fact that she didn't scream while the doctor was checking her. She than confessed to"just a little bit crying". We went to Coldstone Creamery which is sooooooooo yummy! Megan got "straw-bay-ye" with rainbow sprinkles, and Jacob got 1/2 of mine! I only gave him a taste and boy was that asking for trouble! I will post a picture later of him protesting when I finally said he had had enough! I am trying to teach him sign language for a few simple words like "please", "thank you", "more", and "all done". It should help with his frustration level. I was able to do it with Megan and it really worked out very nicely.

Jacob's First truck

Yesterday Michael and I decided that Jake needed a truck to play with. Our toy closet if full of dolls, baby bottles, purses, princess shoes and the like. Poor Jake had nothing to bang together or make "vroom" sounds with. He loves it to say the least. Right away he drove it around and made "boy" noises with it. It must be something God pre-programs into every boy.

Megan, on the same shopping trip, got new baby bottles. They were her reward for staying in bed all night. We were very amused to see the two of them sitting next to each other, Jake with his truck, and Megan feeding her baby-doll. We did not set this picture up. Megan always sits pretty close to Jake no matter what they are doing, it was just cool to see the differences in the two of them. We love them so much!

On Saturday we all packed up in the van and headed to UNCC. Michael needed to get his books for this semester so we decided to all go. I know we sound cheesy sometimes, but we really do like spending as much time together as possible. Michael is very excited that school is starting up again. He will have to get up pretty early in the morning and won't be home until after dinner time, that part he never looks forward to. This is the place God has us right now. We feel that this is moving us closer and closer to Michael being able to be in full-time vocational ministry. We are excited about where God is going to take us in the next few years. Michael has about two more semesters to go until he has his undergraduate in History. And as far as we see right now the next step is seminary. We will have to wait and see where God leads us. If any of you feel so inclined, please pray that we will clearly see where God wants us to go.

We have decided that I am going to start trying to find a child to watch during the week. I would like to be able to find a child close to Megans age. Not full time though. Just two or three days a week. If anyone knows of someone looking for part time childcare please let me know about them. I am going to do pre-school curriculum with Megan and would love to have someone for her to do it along with. Plus, getting us closer to being debt-free won't hurt:)

I would love to hear how you are all doing! Please leave comments after this entry. The cool thing is that everyone else can see what you are up to and comment on your comment as well. Was that confusing? Anyway, just be sure to sign your name at the end of your entry if you don't have a blogger name.

We love you all!

A good day

Today has been another good day! Better on the sleep/nap front so far! Probably in part due to the fact that we went to the park today with friends. Megan ran and climbed and rode on the swings until I decided her little system had had enough. She is just like Michael and I, she doesn't handle heat too well. After 10 min at the park she was red faced and her hair was soaked with sweat. I could tell she was tired because when I challenged her to "race me to the car" she didn't put up a fight.

Jacob is learning at light speed! Yesterday Megan started going up stairs and said to Jacob "you come with me?" beckoning him with her hands. So... without a second thought I helped Jacob follow her. Needless to say he caught on after several steps and proceeded on without much help from me. Oops! Later, on my way to Bible study, I received a call from Michael. I had neglected to inform him that there might be a slight chance that our son had inadvertently been taught how to climb the steps. Michael found him as he was on his way up. Oops again!

Jacob also learned just this morning that he could stick his tongue out at us. It was so cute to see that little tongue being stuck out as he stared at us blankfaced. Megan got a kick out of it too.

To anyone who was at our wedding: Check out my photographer friends website. You might happen upon a picture of yourself! The address is www.liveartphotography.com. There are some really good ones under weddings/receptions. Aubs, I would still love a copy of that one of My father-in-law and I for myself!

Jacob tries out turkey sticks for the first time and LOVES them!

Megan shows a little attitude at mommy... it didn't last long.

Megan thinks about what mommy said would happen if attitude continues:)

Going to the "Lie-Berry"

Today was a super busy day for us. Up at 7 am, a power walk through the neighborhood, than straight into the van to go to the Library (Megan insisted on calling it the "Lie-Berry"). Megan had never been to the Library before. I think we will be going on a regular basis now. She loved it! She was almost overwhelmed with the fact that she could pick out all the books and tapes she wanted and we could bring them home. It is such a wonderful feeling to see her so excited about such simple things. I pushed it a bit though by taking them to two book stores afterwards. I should have stopped at one. Anyway, they are both sleeping now! It's time to review my chapter for Bible study.
SIDENOTE: Michael is by far the best husband on the planet! He makes it a priority to get home each Tuesday to take care of the kids so I can go to Bible study. I am so blessed to have such a wonderful husband!

We were very glad to hear that (Grandma) Donna got to Texas safely. We are so excited for her big step of faith in going. We love you Donna!

The Pictures are of Megan and Uncle Andy (who will be leaving for Michigan on Sept. 2) and Jacob watching the storm.

Our Wonderful Family!

It's official, we have joined the rest of the world and started a blog site! I hope you all enjoy having access to us 24/7. Leave comments for us if you like. We love you all.