Wednesday, October 28, 2009

Endless falling leaves.....

So the house we bought is in the "old well-established" part of town. This means very large trees (beautiful!) and TONS of leaves in the fall (also beautiful but lots of work!). Our driveway, sidewalks, and yard were hidden under a vast amount of colorful leaves. The rainy weather has made it difficult to get out there to rake and clean things and they just kept piling up. Last night a good friend came to our rescue with his handy dandy rather large riding mower and he and my hubby managed to get everything picked up except for where the pool used to be (and that is neatly raked into the big hole in the center!) However since the yard was being mowed rather than raked the kids made their own pile before the guys started and I managed to get a few pictures as well. The sun was already setting so the colors are rather grayish. Oh well, I'm sure there will be more leaf picture opportunities as only about half our leaves have fallen!






Tuesday, October 20, 2009

Sabbath

So these past months my husband and I have been talking a lot and wrestling with "Sabbath" and what it means. He studied this topic for a message he gave this summer and then some more for a discussion night for youth group. Also in God's perfect timing, the book chosen last month for my book club I am in was entitled "Sabbath" We have learned it is such a wonderful gift from God to be commanded to take a day off! So rather than demanding our girls to take naps every Sunday we are making effort to do things as a family, to celebrate God's blessings, his creation and focus on our relationship with Him.


This past Sunday we had a beautiful sunny fall day and decided to take advantage of the warmer weather (finally! after having so much rain and SNOW the previous week!) The girls were initially not too thrilled when we told them that this park was different as it didn't have playground equipment. They were thrilled however that they would be excused from the previous requirement of naps on Sunday. When we got to the park however, their kid sense of adventure kicked in and they seemed to love every minute we were there and are begging to go back every day.
It was wonderful and while we continue to wrestle with how to do "Sabbath" (especially when Chad has to "work" on Sundays as part of his job) this felt right. Praise God for his gift of Sabbath.
We hiked the trails and discovered a lot of things... we found a huge rock and wondered how it got there when there are no other "rocks" around, we found a slide (yay!), we saw a lot of deer and other animal tracks, (Shannon was hoping to find Zebra tracks though), we saw a snake, a dead squirell (a bit disturbing actually), and gorgeous vistas of miles of farmland ready to be harvested.


on the big rock

Peek-a-boo!


the littlest explorer, lagging far behind ;)

 because she stops to point at everything :)

looking for zebras



extrememly happy to not be napping

Tuesday, October 6, 2009

Birthday Girl

7 years ago, our first precious daughter arrived. changing us forever. giving us a new title and role as "mommy" and "daddy."

she first celebrated her big day with grandpa and grandma because we were in LA for a convention. she was a bit sad at first when we told her we wouldn't be there, but handled it like a trooper and we planned a special day to celebrate after we came back. so last saturday she got to invite 2 of her friends from school over for the day. lots of playing, crafts, some cupcakes and a few presents = a perfect day for our 7 year old :)