Bennett rocked this looked for a long time while playing with his cars. At one point he looked up, adjusted his hat and glasses, and said, "Daddy, I'm cool." "Yes, you are, buddy," I said, "Yes, you are."

I must admit that I've been a very delinquent blogger. Too much to do I guess. So, here are some highlights from the last couple months.

The boys had a great time playing in the leaves....and there were a lot of them.

My parents came to our home for Thanksgiving...bringing their new Puggle, "Nubbin."

The boys spent some quality time with Grandma, putting a Gingerbread house together.

Here's Bennett spending some time with Paw, inspecting his new "hot wheels."

When my parents came to visit, we all went to Pittsburgh for the "Backyard Brawl," which is the annual football game between Pitt and WVU. It was cold...and the Mountaineers lost...but it was fun.

Here's Preston watching the WVU Band:

And here's a picture of the boys in front of our Christmas Tree:

Our Day at Cooper's Rock

We ventured out today to Cooper's Rock State Park. It was such a wonderful place. There was an amazing view overlooking the river valley, and countless rock formation we could climb on, over, and even through. Preston explained our thoughts pretty well. We lured the boys to go on this little trip by promising them a playground. But after climbing on some of the rocks, Preston turned to me and said, "Daddy, this is better than a playground! This is like a playground God made."

The only downside to the day was that we were disappointed that it took us three years to "find" the place.

Here are the obligatory photos:

This is a picture of a caterpiller Preston was looking for...and found:

Climbing on, and in, and through the rocks:

This is a better picture of the rocks than of us, but it shows how beautiful and fun this park is:

You Only Have One First Day of First Grade

Preston entered the first grade today. He was a little apprehensive, so to pump him up I told him that you only get one first day of first grade. Also, he's been talking a lot lately about wanting to be a missionary, so I explained to him that he was actually a missionary at his school. He got the opportunity to show the other kids what Jesus is like by how he loved them.

Anyway, here's a couple pictures we took to document the day.

He's excited...

He's not so excited...

He's excited!! I think.

Huh?

A couple nights ago, I was tucking Preston into bed for the night, and we started talking about spiders. He was worried that a poisonous spider might bite him while he slept. I tried to assure him that he wouldn't get bit. But that didn't work. Then I told him that the worst that could happen (if he got bit) was that he'd get a little sick (like having the flu) and we would take him to the doctor. But that didn't work either. So, I pulled out the big guns. I told him that God is in control of everything. Nothing happens that God didn't plan to happen. And he made his plan even before he made the world. I told Preston that God controls every step a spider takes, and because of that God would protect him, because God doesn't make mistakes.

I thought I had won. I could tell that Preston was thinking about it. I thought he was satisfied with that answer, because (for a moment) the questions had stopped. But just as I was patting myself on the back, Preston looked at me and asked, "Daddy, if God controls every step a spider takes, how come he doesn't move us to sin?"

Huh?

Nothing like a little discussion about the interplay between God's sovereignty and man's free will right at bedtime.

Great Little Praiser

Here's a video of Bennett 'singing' with his class at Gull Lake. He won an award for 'Best Little Praiser.'

Madness

Here is an example of exercising poor judgment to impress your kids. On the inside, I peed my pants a little: