How excited is Caroline for her third Christmas? As you can see in the picture, she is already looking for holiday treats, and she is also excited at the prospect at getting presents for being a good girl. Everybody out there join her in being nice, not naughty, and we hope you enjoy a blessed Christmas! For unto us is born a Savior, who is Christ the
Lord (Luke 2:11).
THEN PICK UP THE PHONE AND CALL 1-800-CAROLINE FOR HELP.
Caroline's recent visit to the gravesite of one of baseball's all-time greatest pitchers, Warren Spahn, has inspired her to work on her own pitching technique. Basically, she has decided that she can strike you out in one of two ways. One, she can give you a stare-down that will put you in such fear of her fastball that you won't be able to hit her pitch.
Or, she will flash you a look so cute that you won't be able to compose yourself well enough to concentrate. Either way, she's going to be the one celebra
ting in the end.
We have been very blessed over the past week to spend some very happy times together. The main event was what we call the "Galen Bowl," the opening football game of the college season between Wake Forest and Baylor in Waco, Texas. Not only did Galen do his undergraduate studies at Wake and his doctoral studies at Baylor, but Lori has also been an
employee of both universities. Watching our two schools play, surrounded by some of our dearest friends who had also converged in Waco for the occasion, was an unforgettable experience. Caroline was very good, especially at the game, when she let our friends play with her and comb her hair while she said "Go, Go, Go" for both the Deacons and the Bears. Wake won the game, 41-13. Galen even got to say the pregame prayer for Wake, like many years ago when he was the team chaplain, and spent time with Coach Jim Grobe and the players, and he also spent some time with Baylor radio announcer John Morris. 
While in Waco, we also had a nice, relaxing visit to the Dr. Pepper Museum. 
And on the way to and from Waco, we visited the grave sites of several sports legends--Warren Spahn in Oklahoma, and Tom Landry and Mickey Mantle in Dallas. Then on Monday, back in northwest Arkansas, we met Olympic gymnastic Dominique Dawes, who participated in
three Olympic games and was part of the 1996
US Women's gold medal team in Atlanta. This was at an event to raise money for underprivileged children, and Caroline did her part by walking a whole
mile and winning a medal. Now it's back to school for both Galen and Lori, and our long-awaited end of trip and vacation are over,
but these recent memories will stay with us for a long time!
Since our favorite major league baseball team, the Atlanta Braves, has hit a rough spot in the season, we've decided as a family to suit up and see if we can't be of some help. Wouldn't you like for these four players--bringing a combination of dog-like quickness, baby-like determination, and parent-like experience--to be at the start of your lineup? 
And we have started out with some good coaching too, turning to former Atlanta Brave, as well as fellow Wake Forest Demon Deacon and native North Carolinian, Tommy Gregg, for coaching. Tommy is now the hitting instructor and first base coach for the Northwest Arkansas Naturals, the AA minor league team of the Kansas City Royals, here in Springdale, Arkansas. Tommy's team is currently in first place in the Texas League, so now that we think about it some more, we may just stay home and root for the Naturals.
And then she had to go outside to wind down, although we absolutely promise you that the cigarettes on the ground at her feet did not come from her! Maybe it will be fun to show her these pictures one day if she turns out to be a hair diva!
Speaking of getting cut, one person who has never been cut--by a sports team, that is--is our friend Tarik Glenn, recently retired from the Indianapolis Colts as a Super Bowl XLI champion and three-time All-Pro. We wanted to devote a little space to thank Tarik for taking a couple of days away from his family to visit us here and to speak to our student body at John Brown. Tarik has founded an inner-city outreach to children in Indianapolis, which we are glad to advertise for him; you can learn all about it at his charity's web site, http://www.dreamaliveinc.org/.
The composer George Gershwin wrote a line for the musical "Porgy and Bess" which goes, "It's summer time, and the living is easy." Thankfully, that's the way summer has started for us after an eventful spring in which our house was struck by lightning, we had to repair a water pipe leak and some carpet damage it caused, and our dishwasher literally exploded. Caroline is learning to sing and motion along with the cartoon characters she watches on the preschool channel, Noggin, and she has been adding to her repertoire of animal noises at the rate of one about every couple of weeks. This week she was able to answer how a sheep goes, adding to cow, dog, and cat. We're working now on ducks. 
Although, when Caroline saw some actual ducks recently at the park here in Siloam Springs, she decided that she would take off the other way rather than take the opportunity to practice her duck conversation skills. She decided that she would have much more fun polishing her abilities to slide down slides and run across the park. We're planning now for her second birthday party in a few weeks. At the end of the summer, we have a trip to Waco, Texas, planned to see Galen's two alma maters, Wake Forest and Baylor, play football against each other, and we may take a short day trip or two at some point, but for the most we're simply glad to have a little time off for resting up and enjoying our baby grow.
While mommy and daddy have been either working on school or trying to get over some sickness this winter, Caroline has played along her merry way and has stayed healthy and happy. First, there was Valentine's Day, when of course we gave thanks for having such a sweetheart. Then there was St. Patrick's day,
when Caroline dazzled us all day with her green outfit. And we were able to make a quick trip down to Texas, where Galen had a good conference, and we were able both to relax and shop. The most special of all was Easter, when Caroline got to wear a gorgeous dresss that we had been saving for the occasion since before she was born.
After Easter services, Caroline went on an egg hunt and had a really fun time. But now we're all ready for spring, because this will be the first warm weather when Caroline is old enough to do a lot of playing outside. Caroline recently turned 20 months old, and it's hard to believe that we're already thinking about her second birthday
party. But it also seems like she gets sweeter all the time, and we hope she always remains as good as she has been. Sometimes we see a preview of the "terrible 2's," so we know there are growing pains to come, but these are fun days, and we hope to hold on to them for as long as we can! 
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