Our Own Family FUN!

Abbey is a "Baker" and Cole a doctor!

Abbey wanted to be a very "blingy" baker...hmmm, Julia Childs maybe!

So comforting to know there's a Dr. in the house!

Wanted to post some quick pics of the kiddos taken this last weekend at our church Family Fest! Our family will not be participating in Halloween this year or in the coming but LOVE the new tradition we are starting tonight: out to dinner, movie and snuggles in p.j.'s with blankets, and popcorn with a hidden treat in each cup!  I'll post pics later of the evening, it should be FUN! 

This year the Lord lifted the veil over my eyes and coincidentally many of my Christian friends as to why He does not want our families participating in this pagan Holiday.  We have in fact gone trick-or-treating in past years and in my gut, really disliked the whole thing, but fell into the "well, it's just so the kids can dress up" excuse.  But the truth is, God has called us to be LIGHTS standing out against all the darkness.  God's word is SO clear on this over and over...avoid all kinds of evil, so that we can be sanctified through and through (1 Thesselonians 5:22, 23).  God has even led me in the past weeks, as many of you know to be very bold in my Christian walk and ask establishments such as Walgreens and Party City to limit their Halloween paraphernalia to ONE aisle so that parents can shield their children from it.  Would you know that our God is SO, SO, SO AWESOME that in both cases both store managers complied and took it ALL down and limited it to a particular area; I'll say it again, God is on the move and He is asking for our boldness!  I get so excited every time I think of that situation because its proof that God works through little people and every day mommas like you and me!!!

I hope that you and your families have a great weekend and please keep this election in your prayers!!!  Let's be fervent about it because it is not so out of reach that this country has the veil lifted off their eyes and votes for Godly leaders on Tuesday...McCain and Palin...we need people in office that know the Lord!

Fall Blessings

My adorable "snaggle tooth"!!!

Cole finally smiles right at the camera, oh man, melts my heart!

Mamaw & Pawpaw at Mamaw's big 80th Birthday Party!!!

Wow!  Still smooch'in at 80 & 83; what a love story!

Chad's Uncle Ray, Aunt Kathy, and cousin Whitney; we had the best

time staying with them over our trip, awesome, awesome family

Rand and Jane, a.k.a. Nana and Grandad!  (Mamaw is Jane's Mom)

Abbey & Cole LOVE their Aunt Kelly and Uncle Chris!

Kelly's birthday celebration; she turned the big 29!

The Fall decor is out; it took a while to get it out this year 

but as soon as Ike's aftermath was over, up it went.  I just LOVE fall!

Lot's of updates since the last "Big Boy Bed" entry!  October has been a full month; full of Abbey and Cole's school activities, travel, Ladies Bible Study classes and many, many other blessings!  I keep wondering will life get busier each year as the kiddos grow or is this just a busy season of life with one 2 and one 5??  I seriously hit the ground running every morning at 6:30 and the feet don't stop running till well after Abbey and Cole are asleep.  Who ever said being a stay-at-home Mom is "easy breezy" or compared it to sitting on the sofa eating bon-bons???  Girls, this is WORK but Oh my, I'm SO beyond blessed to be doing this job than any other!!  

Abbey and Cole have settled right in their routines at school and are doing so great!  Being room Mom for both of their classes is keeping me just "a tad" busy (what was I thinking)!!  But seriously it's been SO awesome to be a part of Abbey's kindergarten experience and to see first hand all the wonderful things they're doing and learning.  We had to build a class scarecrow earlier in the month and the class chose to make a scientist; he ended up being a "mad scientist" which was a hoot and is still on display out on the school lawn.  Abbey's been groov'in in her jazz class and is having so much more fun in something less structured than ballet right now and amazingly Cole has been doing much better about not running around the dance studio like a caged in monkey! B.t.w., Cole loves preschool now, runs to hug his teacher (SIGH); Mom feels SO much better about this now!

We recently traveled to the Dallas/Ft. Worth area to celebrate with Chad's family for his Mamaw's 80th b-day party and were able to celebrate my sister-in-law Kelly's b-day too; such a fun trip!  I've posted some pics of our time.  Every Tuesday I'm blessed to be a part of Ladies Bible Study at church and have been leading one of the groups this semester.  We've all been studying the names of God and our study is "I Want To Know You, Lord" by Kay Arthur; it is just changing my prayer life and opening my eyes to how much bigger, awesome, and powerful our Lord and Savior is.  If you want to know the Lord more intimately, just call on Him by any specific name (our Jehovah Jireh, El Shaddai, Jehovah Rapha, Jehovah Nissi); there is power in His name!  

Oh, Oh, and I can't forget to share that last night was a bit eventful; after Cole decided to drink his head-to-toe body wash and I called the Poison Control Center because he was foaming of the mouth with bubbles (Yah, fun times) then Abbey said her tooth was loose.  It took about 30 min. but mom here, wriggled the tooth out and Abbey was so brave, then we noticed the tooth next to it was really loose, and out it came too!!! So the tooth fairy had to cough up double last night... did I mention that Chad was out of town during all the excitement?!!  O.K., well I'm going to post lots of pics and let the pictures do the rest of the talk'in!  Hope each of you are having a wonderful Fall so far!