Banks

We have a new member to our family, formally known as "Mr. Banks." We are calling him Banks. Most of y'all know that the girls love the movie, "Mary Poppins," and we named the dog after the Banks family that she comes to live with on the movie. The girls have been praying for a dog (literally...every night!) for a while, but we hadn't made a decision on what kind or when we would get one. Yesterday, totally out of the blue, we saw an ad in the paper for Cairn Terrier puppies(the "toto" dog from the Wizard of Oz). We decided to call and find out about them......a few hours later we were on our way to Eufaula to get one. We hardly ever do things on the fly, so this was WAY out of character for us! When Allyn told the girls we were going to get a puppy to come home and live with us, they were beside themselves. Ella even jumped up into Allyn's arms and said "thank you so much daddy." Well, we were locked in for sure at that point. Little Banks has been a very sweet addition to our family, and the girls absolutely adore him. Here are a few pictures of the little guy:)

Beach Bums

We had a blast at the beach last week with Allyn's parents. Talk about the difference a year makes.....the girls were so content to play in the sand and the ocean all day without needing a change of scenery. There were times when the adults could actually look at a magazine while the girls played....major milestone!! It was a WONDERFUL vacation! Some of our favorite activities were listening to Memee tell countless stories, playing in the sand, swimming in the ocean, and hunting for crabs at night. We even got to enjoy a great fireworks show at the state dental conference on Saturday night. We are couning down the days until we can go back!!