Nine

Well, Carly is NINE today! 

HAPPY BIRTHDAY SWEET GIRL!

You've brought us SO MUCH joy with your sweet smile, laugh, and sweet attitude! 

We had a great couple of days of celebrating with our girl...  she had her first "Non-Family-Sleep-Over" and had her BFF Olivia over.  We went to see Tangled, which was very cute (Lucky for Ben, he was over the Warren's house!) made home made pizza's... and seriously, she talked Olivia into watching "The Best Movie Ever... Back to the Future 3!!!!"  Ryan was so proud!!!  Very funny!  This morning we cheered Ryan on while he ran 22 miles... then went to Cracker Barrel for breakfast while he was still running.  Yes, I felt very bad about doing that:)  TONIGHT, we went to the Olive Garden (Carly's favorite!!!) for dinner with my parents, Uncle Steve, and Rochel and Edgar and the cousins.

Here are a few of her gifts from her party... she's saving money for an iPod Touch, and she got an amazon gift card from Amazon fans Uncle Dean and Auntie Tracy... iTunes GC from Torrey... the Little Big Planet dolls from Grandma and Grandpa (she about lost her mind!!!  they are from a video game she plays with Ryan)... there's more on the way from them, too...  we are all about extending the birthday!

Peace Bath Products from Ben... she's already to travel in Peace now!

Money for her iPod from Uncle Steve... and Aunt Rochel and family...

a Peace watch from Grammy and Papoo... and they already got her the American Girl Doll that she loves!

Earrings from Auntie Laurie and Uncle Tim and the cousins...

as well as puppets... we are eagerly awaiting a show, but must make sure Eli is over for it!  He loves puppets!

And my favorite part of the night, Eli blowing out the candles!  It was so funny that i re-lit them for him about 3 times.  He was all practiced up since his bday was about 2 weeks ago.  Can't believe I didn't take a picture of his darling sister, but I was slightly distracted by the cake and coffee:)

And one last gift... Auntie Laurie made the kids pillow cases and fleecy blankets!  I think my Hippie Girl was pretty happy with her day!

Thanks to everyone who called and were able to come out for her big day!  And to Aunt Rochel for making a very yummy cake!  Mmmmmmmm.... and thanks for the leftovers!

Happy Birthday Carly!  I'm so thankful God picked us to be your parents... When I remember the day you were born, I can't block out the fact that your little heart stopped beating and God guided  Dr. Q to safely deliver you ANYWAYS, and that you are FINE.  I'm thankful for every sweet minute we've had with you... I make myself remember those scary minutes, so that I don't take a single minute with you for granted! 

WE LOVE YOU!!!

Happy Birthday!

Favorite Song of All...

I just had to share this. Yesterday in our church, several of the members who are deaf, or who sign for the deaf led us in worship during the offeratory. Now granted, I'm a total emotional sucker for this kind of stuff, but seriously??? Stop and think about how much this totally honored God and how beautiful it must have sounded to Him. And then think about how cool it was for these people to get to praise God in such a very cool way. Their way. Love it.

(video clip is just partial... and not mine, but someone who attends with us)

Random Picture #4

In case you ever wanted to see McGregor Children with black hair...

Random Picture #3

Carly... on the beach in Panama City... at sunset.  It's a cell phone picture, but I still love it.  GREAT weekend watching our brother-in-law complete an Ironman competition.  So proud of you, Josh!!!

Swim Team Halloween Party

Ben and Carly love the annual Halloween Party that their swim team puts on... it's at a local bowling alley and they always have a blast!  

As I've mentioned before, Carly is all about the Peace Sign, and of course, wanted to be a Flower Child Hippie.  Shocking, she had most of the "costume" in her usual repetoire!  I did have to make the vest, which was easy enough by cutting up an adult sized brown tshirt, and adding a few iron on patches from JoAnn's.  I think she will keep it forever!

We watched the original Karate Kid with the kids last week... really need to show them the updated version! (That was for you, Mom!) Of course, Ben thought it was HYSTERICAL, and was SO impressed when we told him Uncle Edgar is a Black Belt in karate.  He was kind enough to share his karate clothes with Ben... thankfully the pants have a very big drawstring and the shirt was easy enough to tie together! 

Dancing at the party... this girl didn't stop moving for a couple of hours! 

And the whole crew... and for anyone who remembers me talking about Dana, she's standing right in front of Ben... Got to talk to her mama tonight and made sure to tell her how encouraging I found their cheering this summer... and also how sad I was to see that she no longer does the butterfly stroke as if she were a real butterfly, because THAT was hilarious! 

Clermont Swim Meet

Ben and Carly enjoyed a VERY successful swim meet today in Clermont.  They both worked REALLY hard and we are very proud of them!  It was a beautiful, breezy day... so sitting on the pool deck was actually quite enjoyable!  Check out their times... Personal Bests all around!  Previous times in BLUE, today's times are in RED.

Carly (in the "Cone Lane") shows off a perfectly executed flip turn!

50 free:  50.98   TODAY 46.57

25 back: 30.50    TODAY 27.71

50 fly:  1:07.89   TODAY 1:06.99

Ben (also in the "Cone Lane"), in the 200 freestyle.  We decided he MUST have been sleeping the first time he did this race since he took SO MUCH time off today!  We told him that if he took time off his race, he'd get an hour on Roblox.com (his favorite website) and if he came in under 3 minutes, he'd get another hour... Apparently that was all the motivation he needed!

200 free:  3:32.99  TODAY 2:43.45

50 back: 40.11   TODAY  39.76

We are really proud of them and EXCITED that they did so well!

They say it's your birthday....

... it's my birthday too!  Ok, of course it's not.  My birthday is in December.  In Michigan.  But it was RYAN's BIRTHDAY, and we had fun celebrating with him!!!  To start with, Carly hung the card she made her dad on the kitchen cabinet.  A week ago.

Then when we got up, we found that Betty Caroline Crocker had been to visit our kitchen, too.  Sadly, she forgot that she isn't supposed to be baking muffins when not supervised by an adult, but it was the thought that counted, right??  Plus, muffins were yummy.  Apparently she didn't get her mad baking skills from her mother.  She DID, however, get the whole "easier to ask for forgiveness rather than permission" thing from her mom.

Ryan's day REALLY started out with the 15 miles he ran for his marathon training... best time ever.  I told him he would be faster when he was 38!  With running out of the way, we headed to Tijuana Flats for lunch. The picture of the chips is for you, TRACY!  I know, mean.

Headed to Orlando for fun birthday getaway.  I'm telling you, last minute on hotels.com is where it is at for great hotel reservations!  This time we got a "Kids Suite" at a random hotel, and of course, our little nuts loved it!  You'd think it was THEIR birthday!  This one had a fort in the room for them...

Twin bed in the fort, and bunk beds... their "own tv" and gaming system. 

Ryan's pick for a Disney park, Hollywood Studios.  We got dessert at the Sci-Fi Drive In diner, which was very fun!  Ok, AND yummy.  Our waitress was kind enough to snap a photo...

The "Lights, Motors, Action" car show, which was excellent! 

And the Toy Story Ride, where Ryan got the best score, of course.  You don't have to let the kids win on your birthday!!!  Not that he ever lets them win, anyways...

The Rockin' Rollercoaster and Tower of Terror rounded out our afternoon at the park, followed by dinner at a very odd Chinese restaurant.  Ben and Carly picked out their own presents for their dad, and Carly had been planning her's out since May.  T-shirt from The Flats!!  Ryan wore it proudly!  I find it slightly disturbing, but I guess it adequately reflects the hot sauce he loves from there! 

On our way home this morning, we stopped at a Halloween store to try to find costume items (unsucessful), but Carly loved these glasses, and it was worth a photo... She is completely obsessed with the Peace sign (still not sure why, although she IS a very laid back, earth friendly girl) which she refers to herself as "Rockin' the Peace Sign" whenever she wears anything bearing said symbol... you know, which is daily.  Here she is Rockin' the Peace Sign via glasses.  Oh boy.



Happy Birthday RYAN!!!  We love you and love celebrating with you!