My Favorite Time of the Year

I love the fall when the leaves start changing colors, the weather is perfect (although it's been an extremely warm fall this year), the fun festivals, and of course football season.  This year we took a lot of fun field trips with the boys.  We went to several orchards to pick apples.  Hillcrest Orchards was our favorite because it had so many things to do such as a petting zoo, a huge slide, pig racing, tricycle and wagon rides, and live entertainment.  The boys loved this place.  If you ever go, the apple fritter and apple cider donuts are to die for.  With my mom's group, we took the boys to a dairy farm.  Carter really got into this.  He saw his 1st cow get milked, learned all about where our milk comes from, and watched a dog herd the cows.  On Halloween, we took the boys to the pumpkin patch.  We had our very own private hay ride through the farm and got to feed the catfish in the pond.  The fish were huge!!  We may make this a tradition on Halloween because there was nobody there so we didn't have to fight the crowds or wait in line for the hayride.  For Halloween, Carter dressed up as a race car driver and Bo was a lion.  We attended our neighborhood fall festival and then went trick-or-treating with a group of friends.  Carter loved spending time with his new friend and neighbor Hamilton Jansen.  They led the pack of kids through the neighborhood.  They knew exactly what to do.  After every house, Carter would yell out "mommy, look what I got."  He was so excited to have a bucket full of candy all to himself.  Bo was the perfect lion.  He'd see people on the sidewalk and growl at them as they walked by.  He was too precious and had no problem at all wearing his costume.  I think he enjoys dressing up!!!

For Thanksgiving, we had Gary's dad Mike in town from Oregon.  The boys loved having him here and got a lot of quality playtime with him.  He was great with them and very patient.  For whatever reason, they enjoyed roughhousing with Mike and every time you'd turn around, they were punching him in the leg or belly.  We are very thankful for him helping Gary finish some of our final projects we wanted to do before Parker arrived.  Gary has about 8 more hours worth of work on building an outdoor storage shed and then everything will be complete.  I'm sure we'll think of another project to add at some point.  In another post, I'll have to put before and after photos of our latest projects.  We got to spend a few days at my parents house in Dublin over the Thanksgiving break.  It was great to be in the country and just relax.  The boys did a lot of hunting.  Carter went hunting for the first time with Gary.  They saw a few turkey and squirrels, but no deer.  Bo's favorite word at the moment is deer.  Whenever I mention my dad, Bo says "papa deer, pow."  It's funny that this is what he associates my dad with.

Parker is growing well.  I am now 35 weeks.  The dr. said that since I've been early with my two previous pregnancies, then I could go anytime from 35 weeks and on. Hopefully, I have another few weeks for him to grow and be 100% healthy.  I'm feeling great with the exception of being tired.  The last week or so I've been ready to crash around 7:30 or 8pm.  The nesting has definitely kicked in because I"m constantly cleaning, organizing, and redecorating.  The boys are getting super excited to meet their brother.  Carter really gets it this time around and is asking a lot of questions.  I think he's going to be so helpful and a great big brother.  Bo knows there is a baby in my belly and gives him kisses, but I'm afraid he doesn't know what's coming.  He's definitely been more clingy than normal so I think he knows there are about to be changes around here.  We started him in his big boy bed 2 weeks ago.  The 1st week, he did well but was getting up every morning around 5 or 6am.  That was tough, but now he's back to normal and getting up anytime after 7am.  We're so thankful for a fairly smooth transition!!  Well, I think I've covered most of the happenings in our lives.  I wish I was better about updating more frequently so I could be more descriptive, but for whatever reason, blogging is such a chore for me.  Hopefully, I can continue it though!  Here are a few pictures from the fall:

Celebrating Halloween

What are your thoughts on Halloween?  As Christians, there is much controversy on whether or not we should celebrate this holiday because of it's pagan roots.  After studying 1 and 2 Kings last year and doing more research on idols and the origin of certain holidays, I began to question some of the traditions our family was participating in on certain holidays, namely Halloween, Christmas, and Easter.  As a child, we always treated Halloween as innocent fun, where we dressed up in fun costumes and got tons of candy.  We never got into the ugliness and darkness that often comes with this holiday.  But after studying scripture, I didn't want to make light of what it said and ultimately dishonor God by partaking in something that I thought was innocent and ignore the uneasy feeling I was having about celebrating it.  Being a person who is very black or white, I need scripture to say, "do not celebrate Halloween, only evil comes of it."  But as we know, scripture doesn't mention anything about Halloween.  So this is where I have prayed and prayed about what our family should do this year.

Finally, this past Saturday I felt like God gave me the answer that just made everything make sense.  It was the simple question, what would Jesus do?  Jesus would want us to "Let our light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your father in Heaven." Matthew 5:16.   Ironically, this was my scripture memory verse for the week.  Well, nothing is ironic with God!!  Would we find Jesus condemning the pagans/gentiles or would we find him out fellowshipping with other sinners?  As Christians, we are to take every opportunity to bring Christ into every aspect of our lives.  Too many Christians become locked in with an "in-reach ministry" vs "outreach ministries."  Jesus in one of his parables says "No one lights a lamp and hides it in a jar or puts it under a bed.  Instead, he puts it on a stand, so that those who come in can see the light."  Luke 8:16.  So this Halloween, our family has chosen not to keep our light hidden but to make use of this wonderful opportunity to bring glory to God amongst all the darkness in this world.  I want to close by saying we are not judging anyone who chooses or doesn't choose to celebrate this holiday.  We know that God is the ultimate judge, He knows the condition of each of our hearts, and this is just what our family feels God has led us to do.  Stay tuned for pictures of the kids in their adorable costumes and some fun crafts we've created this week.

End of the summer

Is it just me or did the summer fly by?  After our mission trip, we immediately left for the beach for a wedding and quick family vacation with my parents and one of my brothers.  We went to Defuskie Island, which is where the wedding was held.  It was such an awesome spot to vacation, especially with young boys.  You had to take a ferry to the island and used golf carts to get around on the island.  The beach was totally secluded and just perfect .  It couldn't have been a better retreat to unwind and get caught up on sleep and family time.

We ended the summer with a trip to the Aquarium, celebrating my 30th b-day with friends and family at the Gwinnett Braves game, mom and I taking the boys to the circus, a visit from Grandpa Mike, celebrating Elijah's 3rd birthday, apple picking, and some backyard play on the slip-n-slide.  Enjoy the pictures!