Fireproof!

Finally..... Aaron and I got to have a night out all to ourselves! Our good friends watched both of the girls and we got to have a dinner that was warm.....peace -n- quiet and we only had to feed ourselves! Then we got to go see a movie....an adult movie. I have been waiting to see Fireproof for like years now(it seemed like it)......it was well worth the wait. I don't think I have ever cried so hard in a movie....and I am not typically a movie crier...... I also laughed a lot! I am just so thankful that there are movies like this being made and put out in theaters! If you haven't gotten to see it, you MUST! Girls.... you have to get a babysitter(the hardest part) and ask your husband out on a date. Let's show "them" that we want more movies like this. We typically wait for movies to go to the dollar theater, but we wanted to send a message with this one!


Fun Facts about the movie:

• Kirk Cameron, a Christian evangelist, refuses to kiss any woman other than his wife. To film a scene in which his character in this movie kisses his wife, the filmmakers had to dress Cameron's real-life wife, Chelsea Noble, as the wife character (played throughout the rest of the movie by Erin Bethea) and shoot the kissing scene in shadow so the difference between Noble and Bethea would not be as evident on screen.
  
  
• Instead of a fee for starring in the film, Kirk Cameron accepted a donation to his charity, Camp Firefly.
  
  
• The film made in nine days what Sherwood Pictures' previous movie, Facing the Giants (2006) made in its entire four-month run.

Thank you Sherwood Pictures!

Kate's new trick

Here is Kate's new trick that she has been doing lately. We will shake our heads and then she does it. It isn't quite ready for AFV, but we think it is cute. Sorry if it makes you dizzy....I was shaking my head.

So sad!

So there was this wind on Sunday...........it just came by and threw our playset into a ball.

Fortunately it looks fixable......if only it would have been anchored down. I won't mention any names on that, but it might have saved you some work! Mackenzie has been praying for it.....that God can help daddy fix it! "God can't help daddy fix it," she said after a while....."He is up in the sky!" Another teachable moment!

Fall Festival

"After this nap are we going to church to jump?" This is what Mackenzie said for 3 days before! Our church has an annual Fall Festival that is a great outreach to the community. The kids look forward to it every year....with giant inflatable slide and tramp...silly sally the clown....carnival games....praise puppets.... and lots of sugar what is there not to love!

This is Mackenzie's favorite thing...she was so sad when she saw them deflating it after it was all over. I actually got a decent shot of her in action....normally it is so blurry!

The other favorite.....

Mackenzie decided she wanted her hair done and face painted...notice the blue and green hair extension. She was heartbroken when she realized she lost it and we couldn't find it anywhere. As she was crying some girl came up and offered her hers. It was a teachable moment on what an example that was about"thinking of others!"

She had gotten her face painted before she went and got a balloon creation from Silly Sally. I don't even think she realized what her face really was until she saw this clowns. Silly Sally was excited to see another clown. I had a picture of them together but it didn't turn out!

Another one of Mackenzie's favorites was the pop toss.......she won 2 liters of pop! Then we had an accident.....she fell into the fish pond booth and got soaked! She didn't seem to mind too much ....I told her to go jump on the tramp and dry off!

Here is 2 of our good friends at the basketball shot booth. They are a couple of the directors for Upwards so they were promoting that. Love the hair Jake!

Mackenzie can't wait until next year....by then Kate might be able to enjoy!

Thank the Lord for Friends!

Ok, I am a little behind on my updates....but 2 weeks ago our good friends Jeremey and Elizabeth came up to visit for the weekend. They have 2 children as well, Rebekah and Aaron. They also came up for the Iowa State football game, sorry they had to drive all this way for a loss!

Mackenzie and Rebekah had a lot of fun together. This is one of Mackenzie's favorite things to do....read books to people.

The two guys and their babes chatting away about something...politics...work...theology....how to save the world!

Then of course on sunday we had to go to Hickory Park! (Ames famous hometown restaraunt)

It was so great to see you guys again! Thanks for coming up to stay.....don't wait so long next time!

Update!

Well, thanks for the prayers for my brother! He did get the second opinion and he does have to have surgery on Nov. 7th, so you can pray that it goes smoothly and for a quick recovery. One neat thing about the surgery....I realize not much can be "neat" about a surgery, but my mom told me today that the doctor that is going to be assisting is a christian man that my parents pastor is good friends with....in fact the doctor called my parents and told them that he is looking forward to praying with them before the surgery.....Praise God in all things!

Our Weekend!

This past weekend was a crazy one.......one filled with laughter and tears! We started out by going to watch my brother Brock play football against and at Aaron's alma mater! Before the game we met up with some of our good friends Jeff and Molly (Aaron's friends from HS) and had dinner. It was so good to see them, but wish they were closer. Then things turned.... right as we got to the game (we were late) Brock was being taken off the field, he had just gotten hurt...his knee. For those of you that don't know him, this is the 3rd time he has hurt his knees playing football. After 2 ACL surgeries(on separate knees) and some therapy his knees have been in great condition. His dream is to play football after High School(he is a junior) and has the God given ability to do so. With his humble heart he has been very dedicated to this dream. Continuing on...... he took a break but finished the game. They weren't exactly sure what was wrong, but thought it might have been a muscle...... he was sore, but was able to walk fairly normally.
Saturday with filled with a lot of great family time. We were all together, something that doesn't happen all that often. My mom introduced me to the art of applesauce making! Thanks mom! Aaron got to join in on Drew's paint ball birthday party....he is still sore! Then that evening we had a bonfire.....hot dogs, smore's and all!
Sunday was church and then we finally got to watch my littlest brother Drew play his last football game of the season. It was their Bowl game and they were undefeated with my dad as one of the coaches. Unfortunately, with a close game they ended their season with a loss, but not without trying to dump the water jug on the coach!
Now for the update on Brock.......he got an MRI today and what they thought might be the problem was not........they think it is the ACL. Things are kind of confusing, but they are going to get another opinion and we are praying for a miracle. I ask you to pray for him as this is really hard for him. He is looking in the face of another surgery, but not without perspective. I just pray that he doesn't doubt and that through this it makes him stronger in his faith. He is such an amazing kid with a heart for Christ, and I don't just say that because he is my brother. God has big plans for him and I just can't wait to see what they are!
We love you Brock and are praying for a miracle!

Fall Fun at the Orchard!

What is Fall without a trip to the apple orchard? We took advantage of the great weather and went to one of the apple orchards nearby last Saturday. We had been to this one a couple years ago and they had added so much fun stuff! We thought it was going to be a short trip, but ended up being there all day with all there was to do.

There was a train ride!

Mackenzie's favorite...pedal tractors. She rode these so many times and still begged for more!

Kate's view of the day.... She loved all the action!

We couldn't believe it..........Herbie! Aaron and I saw it before Mackenzie did, but when she saw it, you should have seen her eyes! She was so excited. Herbie (fully loaded) is one of her favorite movies, so of course we had to get a picture of her with Herbie!

There was a corn "pool!"

My little "ears of corn!"

Aaron brushing up on his roping skills.
This was so much fun.......it was called a jumping pillow! It was a huge blown up pillow type trampoline. I even got to "play!"

We also had to partake in the apple cider, apple cider donuts, bag of apples, pumpkins, gourds, hayride to the corn maze..........needless to say we were a little tired at the end of the day!

1st time for everything

For some reason a week ago I got into this creative mood.... Mackenzie and I decided to make homemade cut out sugar cookies! I had never done it before(I know I am sheltered) and the fall mood was turning creative...so several things came out of this! I searched through cookbooks trying to find the best recipe....the soft sour cream ones! The whole cookie thing turned out to be a 4 day process, how is that possible you ask....

We made the dough on friday morning, then ran around town trying to find the fall cookie cutters, frosting, and sprinkles....all set. Well the dough didn't set up until Saturday, but didn't have time to cut them out until that night. I wasn't having great luck, it was so sticky. We got them all baked, but only a couple frosted.


Then Sunday was busy, so monday was the marathon! I had bought a back up...the sugar cookie mix in a bag just in case my dough didn't turn out, so I decided to make those as well(so much easier, faster, cleaner) and then frosted them ALL! With all of the creative juices flowing I decided to start the "Boo" thing in our neighborhood, so the cookies were a great treat!

The "Boo" package we gave out! If you don't know what I am talking about, check out the link above....it is fun to do in your neighborhood.

Mackenzie got pretty good after the 50th one! I was so glad to be done that evening. I was cleaning up for several days! It always happens to me......I start something and it gets bigger and bigger the more I get into it.

Some of my finished products! It was a fun activity to do with Mackenzie.....she stuck with me until the very end! I'm thinking about going professional, just kidding! Now for the best part.....eating them!

Kate and all her silliness!

Recently Kate has been doing so many silly things! She makes a really funny noise with her mouth like she is breathing in really hard and has the silliest face to go along with it. She is starting to play copy cat.....we will close our eyes really tight and then she does it right back...it is so much fun to see them start to catch on to things! One of her newest things is to just start fake laughing over anything, typically a book or toy! Here is a little video of that.......I didn't get a whole lot of it, of course as soon as I get out the camera she gets distracted. (bare with me, this is the first movie I have taken with my camera and put on here.....also sorry for the lighting)

Here are just a couple funny shots we caught of her! She is such a smiley happy girl! We are enjoying her little personality coming out more and more and Mackenzie is really having fun "playing with her." She is actually starting to take on the role of "Big sister"....babysitting her if I leave the room(she is better with her if I give her that responsibility) and just helping out getting her things! Mackenzie can just get her giggling.....it is so fun to watch the camaraderie.

"The Sweet Shop"

This past Sunday our Women's Ministry team at church pulled off our annual Women's Kickoff. This year we decided to go with something different and do a fashion show...... a little more lively than the normal salad supper! One of my really good friends came up with the idea and went head on, full force into planning this event. It was a "Candyland" theme(not from the game). Then for the fashion show another friend, her mother and myself got together about 20 models sportin everything from head to toe from Younkers! It was an amazing effort on many people's part and here are some pictures of how it all turned out.

We had cupcakes, covered pretzel sticks, tea sandwiches, grape skewers and a variety of candies!

Shirley Temples for the beverage!

Now for the entertainment.......here is my friend Anna, who along with her mom, commentated the show. We had the lights, cameras and lots of strutin action going on that night! It was basically just like any other NY fasion show..... We figure that they will be calling us to put together next years "fashion week!"

Here is the official runway! (More with the models...check back later)

It was so much fun dressing the girls, keeping everything organized, directing the show and watching these girls strut their stuff down that long runway! I never knew how many hours went into putting a fashion show together. I guess since the other 2 had organized several and are still doing it, it can't be that bad! I wasn't at all, it was a blast! Thanks so much to my fabulous husband who took care of the girls many afternoons and evenings! I Love you!!!


Check back for more pics! So many people took pictures that night, that I am sure I'll get some more to put justice to it!