Halloween Smiles

Alyssa drew the design for this Jack-O-Lantern and the three of us carved it today. Looks like he needs some braces. Now he sits on our front porch this week as we prepare for trick or treating and Debi's birthday.

Bottoms Up

A few weeks ago we spent the weekend in Greenville, SC with our cousins Ryan and Leah Preacher. That's where I got the picture of the South end of a giraffe heading North. We were literally close enough to this animal to throw food for him to eat...maybe 15 feet away. Also, important to note...this was at the zoo, not in a random park or neighbor's yard or anything like that.

Moving Day

The first image is one taken of our moving truck on the highway containing literally all our earthly possessions as we transferred them from Virginia to Knoxville, TN. This is our house before we moved in. I was later greatly disappointed to discover that the bobcat did NOT come with the house.

Driving through Western North Carolina last winter I saw this church building in the perfect setting.

Happy Farm

My dad burning a pile of wood and stumps at Happy Farm, Floyd, VA.

Hmmm...maybe I should've gone with the Independent Greens

Virginia Vandals

My good pal Dustin Steward directs the youth ministry at our old church in Virginia. He also owns a local business. When his business moved into a new building that was planned to be remodeled, he and I came up with a great idea: let the teenagers come to the office and graffiti the whole place before it would later be demolished. So that next Wednesday night we had the youth service in the vacant office building, then turned the kids loose with cans of spray paint...the rest is just art.

When its dinner time, its dinner time.

The Princess at Rest

One time Alyssa and the girls stayed with me in a hotel that gave you a gift bag with sleep things in it like a relaxing cd, ear plugs, and an eye mask. So that night Alyssa insisted on going to sleep wearing the mask and listening to the soft sounds of the cd's nature music. Next day Debi sends me this photo of Her Grace in the car taking her daily nap...with the eye mask.

Fins to the Left, Fins to the Right

These great shots are of my cousin Ryan Preacher who did a shark dive in the Atlantic Ocean last summer. No cage, no weapons, just a feeding frenzy all around him.

Old Friends, New Hampshire

This summer Debi, Alyssa, and Julia spent some time in New Hampshire visiting friends and family. These photos are from her parent's house where Debi spent time with her parents, sisters Bekki and Sarah, and the cousins.

The Radford Girls completed the adventure when they arrived home and Garvey was there to meet them--read on.

...Some guys take their kids fishing

Introducing: Garvey Radford

Garvey is our new chocolate lab puppy that joined our family this summer. In the spring we lost our Weimarainer Ally after some health problems and a few months later we found Garvey. He was born in Kentucky and loves to relax with us inside. He is very calm and has learned fast obedience thanks to Debi working with him in a training class. He is now kennel trained and enjoys a fenced in back yard and long walks on the street.

Kindergarten

This is a before and after picture of Alyssa's first day of all day kindergarten. Months of anticipation and preparation, excitement of begining her new life, and complete exhaustion on the couch at 3:00.

Guess Who's 2??

Julia celebrates her second birthday at home with a cat cake and nice presents from all her family.

Beach Week 2009

I looks like its been almost a year since I've updated this blog. Things have been very busy for us in 2009. We finally moved to Knoxville in May and settled in with a new routine, new schedule, new job, and new school. A lot of people have been asking me if and when we are going to be on Facebook. But let's be honest. I don't think this Facebook thing is going to catch on anyway. The real reason is that all this stuff takes so much time and so I will try to update the last year in the next few posts.

This section is from our vacation this summer to the Atlantic Coast. The girls loved the water and the beach was perfect for swimming. The only thing is that it was very crowded and has us second thinking if we'll go back to this spot. But any week spent in the sand is better than any week spent working.

More details to come...

Kitchen Construction

This is the house that Alyssa built. This is the house, made of ginger, covered in candy, eaten apart, stored in a ziplock bag, that grew teeth-shatteringly stale in a matter of days.

Kill Devil Hills, NC September 2008

Beach Week: Part 2

In September we spent a week at our favorite vacation destination: Outer Banks, NC. This year we stayed at Kill Devil Hills, NC right on the ocean. Debi's parents, Floyd and Julie, joined us for their first trip to the Carolina Coast.