The Pumpkin Suit

One of our favorite hand-me-down costumes is this pumpkin suit. Morgan wore it when he was 1 and 1/2 and he loved it. He saw it in the closet last month and was pestering me to get it down for him to wear. I let him try it on but it came up to his knees. So this year Magnuson gets to play in the pumpkin suit.

All Heaven Rejoices

Last night Morgan made a decision to become "a friend of Jesus". He told God "he was sorry for his sin" and asked "God to be his Savior". John and I are thrilled! We were somewhat surprised because we didn't expect him to be ready for another year or so. We had been talking with him about it for the last couple weeks. As I went over his newest AWANA verse with him yesterday morning, the conversation flowed freely about why he needed a Savior and who is the only one who can save us from our sin. I asked him what would happen to him and he said, "I'll go to the Lake of Fire." He was so matter-of-fact about it. Then last night as we were doing bedtime prayers he asked God to be his Savior all on his own, no prompting. I haven't pressured him at all. So, it's amazing how innocent a child's faith is and how real! Praise to God - three out of our four kids are now saved!

The Cow

I came across this picture of Magnuson dressed up last year at this time.

The nose un-picker

(yep, there they are)

I think our little Marina is the only little kid in the whole wide world who HATES to pick her nose. She makes a lot of little boogies but whenever we tell her to clean it out she cries (seriously) and says,"I don't want to. It's gross!" and makes such a fuss. I asked her the other day why she hated it so much and told her that most kids don't have a problem at all (my other two certainly don't). I'm tired of the fuss. So the other day John was dealing with it and I overheard him say,"It's your nose. You're little body is making all these bugars so YOU need to clean them out." So matter of fact - leave it up to daddy.

(the face of not wanting to clean out her nose)

"Fall" Costumes

In our family we don't celebrate Halloween, but the kids love to dress up in costumes all the time, so we take pictures of them in their "Fall" costumes.

the (barefoot) cheerleader

the fairy

Monkey Mo

Frogman

The Pumpkin Patch

On Saturday we went to Lombardi Ranch, the local pumpkin patch extravaganza. They have pony rides, hay rides, train rides, a petting zoo, a giant hay-bale pyramid, giant pumpkin play houses, live music, good food, antique vehicles, and a bazillion pumpkins all around. The kids had a blast! John and I were both on the lookout for that perfect pumpkin picture. Armed each with our own cameras, we must have taken about 250 pictures between us. These are just a few of my favorites.

one of these things is not like the others

comparison: vintage fire truck tires - 19 month old boy

size DOES matter

at last - somewhere to put my trouble maker... if only it were legal

(it's either a very large pumpkin stem or a giant cucumber phone)


There IS such a thing as the "perfect pumpkin", Charlie Brown.

hot, tired, hungry, and ready to go home

New Game Show

I have an idea for a new game show specifically geared for moms. The challenge would be to answer all the questions with only 3 word sentences. I think I'd be really good at this since that's almost entirely what my vocabulary consists of right now...
"Wash your hands."
"Put it back."
"Eat your food."
"What is that?"
"Come here kid."
"That's not nice."
I have a plethera of these in my vocab entourage. I really appreciate when I can participate in grown-up conversation with my dear friend Catherine who's verbage is renowned. I'm sure my feeble attempts to keep up give her a hearty laugh.
So who's ready to make some money? I'm sure I could take all you stay-at-home moms on.
"That's the truth!"

A Tribute to my Daughter

My little Micaela will be turning 8 this month. It's hard to believe how much she's grown into a lady, seemingly overnight. When she was a baby we played together all the time. Now that she's becoming older I have to search for things to do with her. Fortunately, she's a real "girlie" girl so we can always do our nails and put on makeup.

There are so many things I love about her. She's genuine and friendly; she's sensitive about people's feelings being hurt; she always looks out for the "little guys"; her smile can truly light up a room and her tender eyes melt my heart. I pray she will grow to become a beautiful woman on the inside as much as she is on the outside. Happy b-day sweetie - I love you!

Fireproof

I know everyone's probably sick of hearing about how great this movie is... but it really is great! Our home group had a date night and we went to see it. We hardly ever go to the movies honestly, because I'm outraged at the price of one ticket for 2 hours of entertainment. But, this was money well spent. We left the theatre feeling uplifted and encouraged and that doesn't usually happen on the way out of a movie show. (Of course we had sticky shoes too.)