Weekend Recap

We had a wonderful weekend with our family. Aunt Sarah and Uncle Greg flew in from Cali to meet Lynley and hang out with the rest of us. We had a great time and were truly sad when they left. It had been a YEAR since we have seen them and that is just NOT ok!

I am so impressed with the way the love on our kiddos and how patient they are with them. From going out to dinner, playdates at the park, and even bath time they just jumped right in..

Friday night they sent Eric and I out on a date night and it was much needed and so much fun. When we came home it was evident that they had fun as well, seeing how there were about 20 art projects and 100 videos of them playing and having a good time.

Saturday morning we got to go to conseco field house and play on the court. Our neighbors had it reserved for a function and we got to have fun too. JH was very sad at first because the goals were high and he couldnt shoot the hoop, but with perserverance and patience he made it and his attitude changed.

Saturday night we had our life group over for dinner and to watch the UFC fight. I love how our friends have become our family and we all just hang out. It was so much fun. We said goodbye to Sarah and Greg seeing how they took a taxi at 4:30 the next morning to go to the airport. We were super sad to see them go, but are excited to see them at Christmas. What a fun visit we had!

Fall Leaves

All fall long JH has asked to play in the leaves. He thinks it looks like so much fun and honestly it is. But the truth of the matter is we live in a new neighborhood and we don't have a whole lot of leaves. There are lots of leaves at Mrs. Stewart's house (his teacher) and he is always talking about playing in the leaves there.

The other day it was the perfect fall day. High 60's, blue skies, light breeze, and the sun shining. So I decided we would go and play in the leaves. There is a park near our house so I was hoping it had a lot of leaves since there are some mature trees there, and we hit the jackpot!

So i took the camera, the kiddos, and some hot apple cider and we were set. Here are some pics of the great leaf day of 2011

Operation Christmas Child

Each year in MOPS we have had the opportunity to participate with Operation Christmas Child. It is something I love to do and it always gets me in the Christmas spirit. This year was one of the first years JH was old enough to understand the concept and get into it. I tried explaining that we were getting gifts for a kid who otherwise would not have any for Christmas and pretty much all they were getting was what was inside the box. He got that, but he kept asking for things as well. Again I reminded him and he seemed to get it, but not really.

We came home from Target and started packing the box up. He loved the wrapping and what not, but I could tell there was no connection. So I pulled out the handy dandy ipad and searched youtube for operation christmas child. There were TONS of videos of testimony, how to's and so forth. We are a huge American Idol family so when I saw that Scotty McCreary had posted a video of him packing a box I knew we were set. We saw the kids, the concept, and how it impacts kids lives all across the world, and then it clicked for JH.

John Hunter thought it was the coolest thing ever. I am so glad we did it and I cannot wait until next year to do it again!

Trick or Treat

We kicked off the Trick or Treat season by carving pumpkins. Well we only carved one, but it was intense. We invited our neighbors over for dinner and pumpkin carving and he brought his drimmel tool so we were set!

Here are some of the pumpkin pics....

Katie and Tim have a little girl Clara who is 6 weeks older than Lynley and we saw this picture on pintrest so we decided we would give it a try... here is the outcome.

This year our church had us take Trunk or Treat to the streets. So our life group jumped on board and we had a huge turn out in our neighborhood. It was a great time full of bounce house, chilli, hot dogs, and candy. A great time was had by all, now we have to figure out what to do with all the left over candy?!?!?!?!

Stoney Creek Farms

On Sunday we took the children to StoneyCreek farms. I had been wanting to go all "fall" but with a newborn I found it difficult to find time. We were gonna go on Friday but John Hunter came down with some food poisoning. So we went on Sunday! And my exact quote was, it was the BEST day ever. We had so much fun. John Hunter was thrilled with the activities and Lynley loved her first hay ride.... I am gonna let the pictures speak for themselves!

Life happens best in community

This is one of my life's core values. Life does happen best in community. When we moved here to Indy I feared we would never have any friends and always be alone. God had something bigger planned. We joined a church, met some friends, and started doing life. I don't mean we went out to dinner once a month, or sent a few how ya doing text messages. I mean these people know my ugliness and love me anyway. There are several couples in our life group and honestly we are well above a dozen children. And we do life. We watch each others kids, pray for each other, talk about our marriages, pray together, and are like a close knit family, and we have fun. The stories we could tell or more importantly the stories our kids will one day tell, well they are just priceless.

I love the fact that we all serve a great God, how has given each of us a different passion, but someone we all just get along. I think there is something in scripture about one body many parts;) And our kids are like siblings. So much to the point that we were are ringing in 2011 and had a great time. Our friends Matt and Hannah were there, and Hannah and I gave birth a day apart. I am so excited to raise Lynley and Wrigley together. We are able to struggle through the woes of a new born, get excited for their milestones, and love on each others babes. This is what we were created for... community.

So Saturday we all got together for a little two hand touch football. I think the guys were super excited, and the kiddos were thrilled. I on the other hand "took care of lynley". It was so much fun. And afterward we all just went back to someone house, ate dinner, the kids played, and the adults sat in the hot tub (and i was still wearing pearls) and just talked about life (80s tv shows and nasty youtube videos).

For Halloween we all got together and passed out candy in our neighborhood. Set up the bounce house and had chilli and hot dogs. The men took the kids and the women stayed behind and passed out candy. More memories made for our family within this community!

In the month of November I just wanted to remind myself how thankful I am for this group of people. God ordained this group long before it came to be! And my heart will forever be changed!

Gratitude

So all day long I have seen people post the 30 day thanksgiving challenge. I think it's a really great idea but I wanted to take it one step further. I want my sweet little to know what I am thankful for more than my "followers" on Facebook. So after a quick trip to the dollar tree and some rummaging around in my art closet I've come up with the following idea.

A grateful poster. Sounds simple enough.
I took some ribbon tied a bow.
Wrote the world grateful in the middle
Put the date in the bottom corner.
Assigned a color sharpie to everyone who talks in our home.
And hung it on a door in our home with a wreath hook.
Then at dinner we all took turns and wrote down our one thing were thankful for.

At the end of the 30 days I am gonna take a picture of the board and print it out. Put it in its own album and each year do the same thing so we can reflect on the things our family has to be thankful for.

So what is your family thankful for today?