Party "De-construction" and Bailey update...

a note before i begin: i have come to refer to my children (gresham-newly turned 4, brayden-a monster of a 2 year old, and bailey-a sweet 6 months), as "The Circus;" hence the title of our blog. So if I am talking about a day in our life and I say, "after we put the circus to bed...," you know i am referring (lovingly) to my wonderful children.

as i mentioned in the last post turning 4 has been a huge deal for gresham...i do, however think that he has finally settled into the idea that he is, in fact, 4 now-whether he feels like he is or not. while his birthday was on tuesday we prolonged the celebration (i like for my birthday celebration to last about a week as well) by having the party this past saturday. i would like to take this opportunity to 'publicly' apologize to my wife for being a doubter and a nay-sayer to pulling off such an elaborate shindig. gresham wanted a 'construction' themed party, and that's all piper needed to know...it was on. i would also like to say that she did an amazing job, and a good time was had by all! one of the blessings of working at the church is that we got to host his party there...the space was awesome, although i don't know if the room will ever recover.

in bailey world things are pretty amazing. i know that it was no real secret that was kind of pulling for a 3rd boy, and was actually terrified at the thought of having a girl. i would say that almost EVERYONE i talked to about it said something to the effect of, "she'll have you wrapped around her little finger in no time." okay, dang it. if you were one of the wise sages who said this then you were right. she is amazing! i cannot imagine the collins family without her. the boys love her as well (they have become real pals in the midst of all of this too-really fun to watch). she is perhaps the happiest baby i have ever seen...almost always smiling (which can truly wreck you), and praise the Lord is healthy as well. she is a tad on the small side though (20th percentile as of her most recent appointment). so, she'll be a 'small fry'-we're okay with that.

thanks for keeping up with us.

by the way, i've 'resurrected' an old blog of mine...more about my own thoughts and happenings that i didn't want to subject you to here when you come expecting to read about what is happening in our family. could be life stuff in general, could be ministry related, faith related, fishing related...give it a look if you like.