happy halloween 08 :)

another halloween has come and gone. as i said last year, i am not much of a fan of halloween. i hate the decorations and am not a fan of the whole idea of halloween. that being said... we have a great time every year!! the kids get to dress up in adorable outfits and go see everyone from church. trunk or treat is a great time (we are really blessed that we found port city!). we get candy (more for us than the kids) and then play on the big blow ups.

this is about the only picture we got of the ladybug and cinderella before we went

we started at the trunks collecting candy.

brooke was very cute and wanted to put the pieces in herself. they very rarely made it in the pumpkin on the first try.

hana got to see noah

after visiting the trunks hana and daddy rode some of the blow ups

while brooke and i were waiting in line she played with the stroller

in more ways than one

by the end of the night we posed for one more picture
(i guess jack was just really tired and forgot to open his eyes)

it was a great (but cold) halloween!

for more halloween pictures check out my photography blog

halloween cookies

on this nice halloween eve, kj thoughtfully invited us all over to make and decorate halloween cookies. so we spent the morning creating cookie masterpieces. the kids had a blast!

they got to use cookie cutters and cut out the shapes.

then decorate them

then they finally got to enjoy them!


the cookie masterpieces

thank you kj for a fun filled cookie morning!!

family picnic

hana's preschool doesn't do anything for halloween so their alternative is family picnics. the parents come and meet the kids for a nice outside picnic lunch. during the day the children make the sandwiches. hana made us ham and mustard. it is not exactly what i would have chosen but much better than what some of the other parents got. i heard the parents beside us saying that they had ham and jelly... yum. we appreciate hana not coming up with that creation for us!

brooke enjoying her lunch :)

after lunch the girls got a few minutes of play time :)

our self portrait to remember the day!

closed doors

for the past few months i have been pretty consumed with finding a good part time job for myself. i had several plans, for which God had no use. we all know about my preschool plan. God didn't care much for that one :) my next plan (you would think i would get the hint here) was to tutor at a local elementary school. i sent out resumes to any school that posted an opening. i even interviewed at one. but for some reason i kept getting letters saying that they had hired someone else. now i am not bragging here, but with 5 years of teaching experience surely i was qualified enough to at least interview for a tutoring position. but alas God didn't think so. but, i was still holding out hope, a woman at church (i mean it has to be God's plan when you hear about it at church? right?!) worked at a school. she told me that they had a tutoring opening. she told her school about me and they were excited. i mean this had to be the one right?! well she told me yesterday (at church!) that she thought they had 3 positions and really there was only one. that position had been taken by someone who taught there last year. another door closed. so apparently i am not supposed to work at a school either.
i am perfectly fine not working at all. however, since we have been doing FPU (which is still great!) i have really been thinking about money a lot. we are very thankful that God gave jack his promotion. but in order for us to make it and start paying down some debt (and not accruing any new debt) we still need more money. i know God has this all covered! that being said, there is another job that i would love to have. if it is in God's will... i know it will work out.
i share all of this to say that we have had MANY victories in our money fight! God has blessed us in many ways!! we just continue to need your prayers in order to know where our path leads us!

and as the old saying goes... "when God closes a door somewhere He opens a window!"

why?

brooke has found a new past time... the dreaded question... why?

we were grocery shopping at wal-mart when we passed the pumpkins. brooke points to the pumpkins and says "pukin" "get it" i tell her that we are not getting pumpkins today. she asks... "why?" "why?" I then proceed to explain why i have chosen not to make this particular purchase at this time. all the while, i am thinking to myself... why i am explaining this to a one year old?! and do i worry about the fact that she is already asking me why we aren't buying her something?

this morning we were watching animal shows on tv. brooke points and says "touch". i tell her that she can not touch the dog he is in the tv... to which she asks... "why?" i mean does she really need to understand the whole time space continuum...


so whenever you are around brooke be prepared to explain everything from why doggies are in the tv to why she has to go to sleep and why the sky is blue :) ahh the joys of a verbal one year old!

new aunt

i am proud to announce that my sister just had her second baby boy via c-section. Samuel Andrew was 6 pounds 12 ounces at 36 weeks!

Congrats Courtney, Steven, and big brother Steven Edward!!

here is a link to courntey's blog with pictures galore!

yea!

i just wanted to give a big shout out to my honey on getting a promotion. he has worked really hard for it.
we also want to thank the Lord for allowing this to happen at this time. we know he is faithful to provide for our needs. He has seen us through hard times. we thank him for that and praise him for his provision!

starbucks

so after i dropped hana off at preschool i thought i would treat myself to some starbucks (we had a gift card leftover from last christmas... you can see how much we frequent starbucks). i was thinking that it was a chilly morning and some nice hot coffee would feel really good.
i mistakenly assumed there was a starbucks on every corner... not so much. i had to drive past hana's preschool past uncw to find one. it also didn't have a drive through (my preferred port city java does!). so i drug brooke out in to the cold and into starbucks. the line was all the way to the door... who knew so may people would want coffee on a cold morning! anyway i was standing in line tryng to figure out what to order. it is almost my turn and i have no idea what to get. i hear the woman in front of my order a pumpkin spice something... ok that sounds good i'll have one of those too. so i order a pumpkin spice frappuccino. so after waiting in line for quite a few minutes they call my name.. i jump up and can you guess what i saw??? a cold drink with whip cream! where did i go wrong??!! the woman in front of me got a nice warm pumpkin HOT coffee... what happened to me??
well since i don't speak starbucks... i am freezing with a cold coffee milk shake. i mean a frappuccino is a blended coffee but who knew they blended it with cold??!!

so if anyone wants to share their hard earned knowledge of coffee-ease i will be happy to listen. oh and when is a "tall" the smallest thing you can get?
i mean, i have been to starbucks before, but my sister normally does the ordering!

note to self... learn to speak coffee before you go back!






oh and don't forget... i added a new "feature" to the blog... it keeps track of who is "following" our blog. i would love it if you would sign up! it is on the right hand column. thanks!!

see em ducks

since is was a really nice, chilly fall day, we decided to load up the girls and head to a park to feed the ducks. now, i am normally not a fan of ducks. i have seen too many AFV clips of ducks attacking children while the camera man looks on and laughs. i did not have high hopes for the behavior of the ducks. overall, they were well behaved. they allowed the girls to throw the bread and not snatch it from their hands. we only had to stomp at them a couple of times to keep them at a safe distance. and since i had the safety of my camera to ward off the ducks... i felt pretty good.

here duckie duckie

watching the ducks

brooke and the ducks

after our visit with the ducks, the girls got to spend a few minutes at the playground.

sliding

sliding

it was a nice sunday afternoon :)

our last beach hoorah

being that it is october 16th... i don't much think about going to the beach. i mean i am trying to phase out my short sleeve shirts and move on to sweaters. i had no intention of putting my white body in a bathing suit! but since the forecast said that it was supposed to be 87 and with a bit of prodding from emily and monica. we packed up the van and headed to the beach.

it was an absolutely bea-u-tiful day!!! the weather could not have been better! i might have even gotten some sun on my fall white body!
the kids had a blast!!

brooke played in the sand


hana followed noah


then she followed josh


then they all followed each other... how cute!
(do you notice that hana is not only the only girl... but also about 10 shades more pale than the others?? oh well i guess that comes with the red hair!)

finally brooke joined in

they did stop and eat some lunch

what a great day! thanks for encouraging me to come!!

i added a new "feature" to the blog... it keeps track of who is "following" our blog. i would love it if you would sign up! it is on the right hand column. thanks!!

a day to mourn

today is national day of remembrance for pregnancy and infant loss (which i did not know until i read hilary's blog) This includes all babies who have died because of miscarriage, stillbirth, SIDS, or any other infant death.
we lost paige july 3rd this year. there are few days that go by that i don't think about how my life would be different if God had not taken her. i would be 24 weeks pregnant. i would know the sex of the baby (i just assume she was a girl because that is what i already have). i would be over half way through my pregnancy and getting things ready for her arrival.
i know that all of it happened for a reason. i can say that because i KNOW God has a plan for us, for my life. but i can honestly say that i still don't really know why it happened. sadly, i may never know. besides God's plan, i don't have much insight into it all.
i am thankful for the gifts that we have been given. two beautiful, wonderful daughters (who just this morning were giving me hug after hug- a hug-a-thon if you will). a wonderful husband who was so supportive and cried with me during the loss. wonderful friends and family who listened and comforted me.
i know that we are blessed in many ways. i know that paige is happier where she is. i hope that we will be able to (someday) add another member to our family. but today we will mourn the loss of paige and all babies that were taken before we were able to hold them.

cake wrecks

someone told me about this blog... (if that person is you or you have a link to cake wrecks from your blog please let me know... i can't remember who it is!!)
it is a blog that shows pictures of funny/ weird cakes (and pretty much makes fun of them). well my friend alison makes cakes (which are very impressive... here is her website). she made a cake for brooke's baby shower that ended up on the website... cake wrecks. the cake that she actually brought did not have the mommy on it... just the baby. i just thought it was funny that my cake is famous :)
this is what the cake looked like at the shower...

pumpkin patch

i love the change of seasons. fall is in the air. the crisp breeze on your face. the cool *ahem* 80 degree weather! that just doesn't fit!
oh well, it is fall and we made our annual trip to the pumpkin patch. it is just a great time! the girls got to pick our pumpkins:) i just love fall!

hana striking a pose in front of the pumpkins

another pose

brooke riding in the wagon :)

the sisters siting with some pupkins... this year

and last year... how much changes in a year!! brooke couldn't even sit up!

for more pictures at the pumpkin patch check out my photo blog

fun outside time

it was a really nice afternoon so we all played outside a bit. my girls were being very athletic and had a great time.

some swinging


brooke playing golf with daddy


hana throwing the ball... see athletic


brooke sliding

and swinging


and hana flying

to see my very favorite picture from outside, you will have to check out my photography blog!