Beauty

Today I am in awe of the beauty around me. Emily and I left school early today to meet the garage door repairman and got home about noon. I was lost in thought about all the things I needed to accomplish this afternoon.

All of the sudden I looked up and saw all the leaves that had fallen on the street. They were yellow, orange, and brown. The branches of the trees were heavy, laden with the leaves still yet to fall. It was so beautiful I almost stopped my car. I wanted to take a mental picture so I could remember it.

I said to Emily, "Look at all the leaves on the ground!"

She said, "I see them mommy. Aren't they so beautiful?"

"Yes, yes they are."

I often wish I could paint or draw. I so wanted to sit outside this afternoon and paint the leaves and the trees. Their fall colors are beautiful. Our weather here has been beautiful for about two weeks. Such wonderful fall colors shining in the sunlight.

What a wonderful creation we live in. I just want to stop and thank God for all the beauty He has given us. Enjoy your day wherever you are and whatever you are doing. Know that God has created this wonderful world just for us to enjoy.

Halloween 2009

As is our tradition now...The Beck's and the Thielman's came over for trick-or-treating last night for Halloween. We did not get a picture of Mark David with all the other kids before going out. I am very sad about that. But we got one with him decorating cupcakes after we came back. This is our fourth Halloween to go out with Mark David and second with Lilly and the boys. All the kids got tons of candy. I burnt the pizza, but we all had fun and I don't think anyone really noticed but me. :)

Before trick or treating

Better before picture

Doctor, doctor, doctor....and a princess

Griffin showing us his light stick

The girls discussing the merits of pick light sticks.

Griffin and Elijah...oh my goodness they are big!

BFF's

Everyone leaving with their booty.

Decorating cupcakes

Emily and Lilly decorating cupcakes

More cupcake pictures

Boys eating their icing and cupcakes

Loving the icing!

Yummy!

BFF's

Look I got, Lissa!
Griffin loved his lollipops, he would not let them go! :)

Elijah spent most of his time running and screaming! So cute!

The Pond

Sunday we decided to walk to the pond. The kids had a lot of fun, and Ben ended up falling in the pond. The pictures are in reverse order...but you will get the idea just start from the bottom of the post! :)

Ben and Jeannie...quite possibly his first real crush. :)

The boys looked for frogs the whole time. They were the cutest little frogs ever!

Ben and Brighton looking for frogs.

Ben, Brighton, and Braden looking for frogs.

Emily walking around trying to get dirty.

Ben, Brighton, and Braden looking for frogs on the rocks that I am sure Ben is going to fall off of. He finally did fall after he had been alone on the rocks for about five minutes. He was a good sport though and just kept playing.

Ben going to catch up with the boys after Darren scared him under the bridge.

Kids and Peanut going to play by the water.

Boys running with the dogs to the rocks where they found lots of little frogs!

Pumpkin carving

We visited our friends Jeannie and Darren. We decided to carve some pumpkins on Sunday before we left. Here are the pictures. Enjoy! :)

Darren cutting open the kid's pumpkin

Ben and Emily helping Darren clean out the pumpkin.

More pumpkin cleaning with Darren watching.

More cleaning, now with Jeannie helping.

Kids have now given up and are letting Jeannie clean out the pumpkin. Oh and Ms. F was paying us a visit over the weekend too.

Now Brighton has come over to help clean out the pumpkin. This really only lasted a minute or so before they were all bored with the pumpkin cleaning and they just decided that it was clean enough. :)

Emily drawing the face she wants carved onto the pumpkin. It is an interesting interpretation of a traditional Jack-O-Lantern.

Here is Ben's side of the pumpkin. We did not get a good picture of the side I carved for Emily but it was interesting! :)

Emily's First Day

These are pictures from Emily's first day of school. I know this post is late...sorry. :(

Where have you been?

I had a friend call the other day and say...Where have you been? Well right here, I said. But I realized after the conversation that I have not really seen anyone for weeks. I haven't talked on the phone to anyone but Chris to say could you pick up something from the market or that I would be late. I haven't posted to my blog, I haven't cleaned my house, and I haven't done much of anything else.

Where have I been, what have I been doing? I am not sure. Do you ever have times like this? You know that you have been doing stuff and running around like an idiot but...where have you been?

Then I realized that probably the Lord was thinking the same thing. The Lord is wondering where have you been? You have not been meeting me for coffee lately. You haven't been reading My Word lately, you haven't been seeking My counsel lately. Where have you been?

I know that my friends will wait for awhile for me to come back, but I know the Lord will wait forever. Here's the kicker though...who will I make wait the longest?

For Emily's Birthday her daddy bought tickets to the circus. We had such a good time. I didn't get many pictures because it was a little crazy, but here are the few that I did get. We got there early and went down to meet some of the performers and get their autographs. We took a few pictures with them as well.

Ben's First Day of School

Monday was Ben's first day of Kindergarten. I was very sad, he was little nervous, but we both did really well. I managed to drop him off without crying, but started crying as soon as I was in the car driving to work. So sad to see him growing up so quickly! Seems like just yesterday he was born and I was holding him in my arms for the very first time. It is unbelievable to me how fast the time goes!

Getting ready to walk out the door.

Daddy and Bubba

Ben and Mommy

Bubba and Sister

Bubba outside his classroom.

Benjamin sitting at his desk.