trick or treat

Trick or Treat

Smell Our Feet!

grampa z.'s birthday party

Because Gramma Z. was up visiting and helping me out for the second week that Nathan was away for training, she didn't get to be with Grampa Z. for his birthday. To make up for it, Ivy thought it would be a good idea to throw him a birthday party, even though he wasn't here. (Talk about rubbing salt into the wound!) Ivy and Gramma Z. made cupcakes, wished Grampa a happy birthday, and then ate them without saving Grampa Z. a single one! So cruel!

If I must say, they were yummy! (Let's just not tell Grampa Z. that though!)

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, GRAMPA!

catching leaves

Here's a new game we thought up today. It is a special game that you can only play in the fall season...

Leaf Catching!!

Here's how you play. You take a bucket (probably shouldn't put it over your head as you need to see the leaves as they fall)...

...and run around like a maniac trying to catch leaves in your bucket as they fall to the ground.

It's harder than what you think!

bake sale today

Ivy has been planning to have a Bake Sale with Gramma Z. for some time now, and now that Gramma is finally here to visit, the Bake Sale Day has arrived!

Gramma and Ivy baked some chocolate chip cookies and then Owen joined them to deliver them to our neighbors - Lincoln and his family. Ivy's plan was to have a bake sale, and she would sell them to the neighbors. When asked how much she would charge at her bake sale, she replied, "They're FREE!"

Delivered! Bake Sale was a success!

terror

Ivy had the WORST nightmare EVER last night. She woke up in the middle of the night screaming that blood-curdling scream and tried to get as far away from the wall of her bed as possible. (She sleeps on the top bunk so that means she would have eventually jumped or fallen off her bed.) When I got her out of her bed, she was trembling and shaking uncontrolably. It was the most scared I had ever seen ANYONE. I brought her over to my bed to talk about it and calm her down. Her nightmare was about Cruella deVille from the movie 101 Dalmatians (the one with the real people in it...not the cartoonish movie) trying to get her. We had watched that movie as a family a few days ago, and this was the first result of it. AND, because Ivy's scream was so shrilly, it ended up waking everyone up in the house. Of course, Nathan had to be away at training. So, Ivy, Owen, and Letty were in bed with me that night and Gramma Z. (who was now up to help in Nate's absence) joined us to keep all of the kids in bed safely.

Can you guess what family won't be watching that movie any time soon or any movie with real-life villains in them???

cereal & devotional diapers

Letty started eating cereal about a month ago, but I'm just now getting to write about it. Here's our messy cereal face girl...

***************************************

On a separate note, I saw this idea on a blog while planning a baby shower for a friend and thought it would make a GREAT gift to a new mom. I love the idea of going to change your baby's diaper and getting a present (in more ways than just one...if you know what I mean) to read an encouraging verse of Scripture. A Mom of an infant is so busy as is...why not put Scripture and encouragement at her fingertips!

random thoughts

Do you ever remember things at very random moments? I believe that's how a Mom functions most of the time...well, at least, that's how I function. Ivy had one of those moments today. We were sitting and reading the Bible story about Saul who later became Paul, and the next thing you know she is talking about how we found someone's false teeth in the woods while letterboxing/hiking with our friends, Tyler, Natalia, and Abbie. So random. I guess she takes after her Mama.

rocky gorge

While Grandma O. was here to help me in Nathan's absence, we took the time to go visit Rocky Gorge...

While there, we came to read this sign which talks of a woman who had slipped on a rock while trying to cross the river and fell into the raging waters which pinned her below. She was stuck in the water for more than 3 hours and survived, but the man who helped rescue her was Miss Mary's husband! Quite a fascinating story to read and then to hear Miss Mary tell about it! So neat!

grandma o. comes to help

Daddy had a couple weeks of training out of state so while he was gone, Grandma O. came up to help out with the kids and to visit. As usual, it is always so nice to have a familiar face and an extra set of eyes and hands.

A few highlights...

LOVE the faces!

Tea Party!Either going on a trip or running errands (you never know where Ivy will take you)...

Playing outside...

Thank you, Mom, for the great time of chatting and for taking the time to come up here and help me out so much this past week!

tyler natalia & abbie

Finishing out my posts about the Truitt family's visit to our house, here's what happened when we stayed put...

Reading...

Flying...

Being Friends...

So sweet!

Wrestling...

(Abbie didn't like her daddy wrestling one bit though...)

Thanks for coming to visit!

wendell's

I entitled this post "wendell's" because it will be the only way Tyler will remember being at this place. Tyler couldn't get it through his head that this place was called Weston's and NOT Wendell's. (He probably still thinks it's called Wendell's!) Anyhow, while Tyler and Nat and Abbie were up, we headed over to Weston's Farm to use the beauty of the farm and their harvest for some group and family photos.

*INSERT GROUP & FAMILY PHOTOS HERE!!!!


This farm also has a hay house which the kids have so much fun crawling through.