Reading already?

I have been reading to Griffin his whole existence. From the womb he heard all the novels I read to my students last year and now he hears me read all his books and even my own to him. Lately, after I read a book to him I will let him hold it and he will start talking as he stares at it. It's so funny. It's like he is trying to read and he's copying me. I love it. So the other day after I read him Toy Story I gave it to him and he played with it for forever. I am hoping this means he will have a love for books like his Daddy and me. Someday Griffin will read to us (Lord willing). That is so neat to think about.

Video from Matt Chandler

Please, please, please check out this video of Matt Chandler. He is the pastor of a church in Dallas called The Village Church. This is his response after finding out he has a tumor in his head.



Video from Matt

How Hard is it to Get to Heaven? (Mark 10:17-31)

How Hard is it to Get to Heaven? (Mark 10:17-31) from Tyler Hicks on Vimeo.

Questions for discussion for parents and teens:
1. Can you earn favor with God? Why can't you be good enough for God?
2. What are you trying to fill the God-sized emptiness in your soul with? (what are you building your identity on?)
3. What will it take for you to be free from being controlled by something other than God?

Snow & Bananas

Let Griffin sit on a raincoat out in the snow yesterday for a bit. We still have some snow that hasn't melted in our yard today. He also enjoyed practicing feeding himself some bananas yesterday morning. I think he got one piece in his mouth and the rest were all over him. We will keep practicing. :)

Covered in white

I knew it was suppose to snow the night before last, so yesterday morning before I went to get Griffin out of bed I peeked out our bedroom window to see if the prediction came about. Sure enough it did and boy was I excited about it. I love snow. The only person I know who doesn't is my mom and that's only because with snow comes really cold weather and she's not big on really cold weather. Anyways, it snowed all day long and is still snowing this morning! I bundled Griffin up so we could go stand in the open garage and look at the snow while we waved bye to Tyler as he left for work. Griffin didn't know what to think about all that white stuff. He just stared. We couldn't stay out there long before we got too cold and came back inside to our warm, cozy house.
I know it will all melt soon, because snow doesn't stay around too long in Clovis, unfortunately, so I'm going to try to enjoy it while it lasts. Thank You, Lord for washing me and making me white as snow and I thank You for Your love that lasts forever and is always constant. Help us to love you the way you love us and let us love others this Christmas season and consider them better than ourselves. Thank you for the gift of snowy days here in Clovis.

7 months

Happy 7 months Griffin!
Today Griffin is 7 months old. Some of his accomplishments include:
-sitting up unassisted
-doing rolls
-grasping anything and everything
-holding and sorta drinking from a sippy cup
-going to bed at 8:30 pm, waking up at 7:30 or 8:00 am
-practicing crawling
-I would say he weighs 17 lbs now, since he weighed 16 lbs a month ago, but not sure.
-wearing 6-9 month or 9-12 month clothes and a 3 diaper
-eating fruits, veggies, and rice cereal, and still nursing 4 times a day
-talking all the time (working on MaMa and DaDa)

Griffin, we love you so much! You are so much fun and a joy to watch grow. You are God's sweet gift to us and we look forward to every month ahead with you.
Love, Dad and Mom

The way to go

Tyler and I have come to realize this year that shopping online is the way to go! We have made all of our purchases online except one. As Tyler put it: "No parking, no walking around looking for hours, no lines...this is the way to go." We found that there is so much more available online too. So we say try it if you haven't. Happy shopping!