November Happen's

~Beginning of Nov I got my first deer....well actually what really happened is a deer literally ran into the side of my Jeep as I was driving down a 4 lane Highway. It did a lot of damage to the Jeep, but surprisingly enough I was able to keep it on the rode and after stopping to see what all had happened was able to keep going. I am just so thankful I was by myself because it got Mackenzie's door pretty good!
~I started my second trimester and thankfully feeling so much better! I have most of my energy back and the nausea is gone!
~The weekend before Thanksgiving the Carlats, well most of them, came to visit. The girls, well Mackenzie had a great time with our friends that we left behind in Ames. Unfortunately Kate got Croup and we had to take her to the ER since it was the weekend and I got the stomach flu. It took us all last week to get over it and recover, but thankfully by Thanksgiving we were able to sleep through the night and eat!
~The Tuesday before Thanksgiving Mackenzie's school invited the families to come have a Thanksgiving meal with the students and they entertained us with a program as well.
~We had Thanksgiving with my family on Thursday, Aaron's Birthday on Friday and my Dad's side of the family Thanksgiving on Saturday.
~Aaron and I got to go Black Friday Shopping by ourselves. Aaron had several things on his list, but he didn't want to get up early to go. We didn't get to our first store until 9:00 and he ended up getting everything on his list at the best prices.....mostly tools! We topped it off with getting new phones, as we were in "need" and they were running the free phone with 2 yr agreement deal. It was nice to just do it together and I wasn't stressed because I didn't have anything pressing to get.

I can't believe tomorrow is December.........here's to getting into the Christmas spirit!

Beth Moore & Concert

The first weekend in November a large group from our church went to a Beth Moore Conference in IL. I have had the privilege of seeing her a couple times before and have done several of her studies and every time I encounter her I walk away in amazement of her passion for the Word! I pray for just a fraction of that as it is something that I struggle with daily, making time to get into the Word and by getting into it, I mean "study" it, not just read it. Her conferences are like a big Bible study with awesome worship. We studied the life of John the Baptist (Matt. 3 & Is. 40) and 7 things to do if you want God to bring a fresh move in your life. When listening to her read the scripture it is like reading it for the first time, I get things I never understood before from reading it. She has so much knowledge of the history, culture and referencing that it just jumps off the page. She made it into a "movie" if you will! I don't want to make it sound like she is on some high pedestal, but rather recognize the Lord working through her. She is real and if you ever get a chance to go listen to her....GO!
Here are the 7 points she made about bringing a fresh move to your life:
1. Research God's promises
If religious people don't have a fresh encounter with God they will turn to legalism
2. Risk fresh hope
3. Redefine Repentence
4. Renounce territorialism
5. Recognize an offense
6. Reevaluate the promise
We can claim any promise under the NT
7. Regain the GOAL!
A servant of God will not be taken until his witness is complete

I got to go with my mom, my sister, my aunt and my mom's friend. We drove separately from the group and kind of did our own thing, with so many it's hard to coordinate all the details. We enjoyed some good girl time, good food and some good shopping! We got home late Sat night and on Sunday I got to top off the weekend by going to a Point of Grace/Mark Schultz concert with Mackenzie and a good girlfriend of mine! I have been to several POG concerts and have also heard Mark Schultz right when he was just coming onto the scene. I was pretty excited and after jumping through some hoops it all worked out and we got tickets and good seats. I love worshiping through music, it just one of those ways that makes you feel so close to the Lord especially when surrounded by hundreds of other believers!

I give a huge thanks to my husband for caring for our children and allowing me to have some time to refresh!

My Mom's 50th!

November 1st was my mom's 50th Birthday and we wanted to do something special for her! We chose a smaller cocktail hour type of party at my Aunt and Uncles new condo overlooking the Mississippi River! She knew we were going to have dinner at their place, but what she didn't know was that there was going to be friends and some of her family from IL there too!

She was pretty surprised when she walked in and we crowned her the most beautiful 50 yr old!

My dad had special instructions to be "running late" so most of the people would be there before her!
So many friends and family came to help her celebrate........

And some came in style! Some of the ladies got together and thought it would be funny to dress up like an old women.........hilarious and "all out" I must say!

My mom, her mom and her 3 sisters!

The hostesses with the guest of honor! (Several other ladies helped with food and decorations as well)

Check out my sister's blog for more details of the evening including the menu and decor, she said it all much better!



She felt very blessed to have all these people celebrate with her and I have to say we are more blessed to have her in our lives! While planning the party we were trying to figure out what her favorite things were and we couldn't come up with much.....she just always does what everyone else does, eats what everyone else wants, or goes where everyone else wants to go that we had a hard time.

Halloween '09

Halloween this year was a little different, which was ok, it's not that big of a celebration in our family. Not the the girls don't get excited about dressing up and getting candy or us getting excited about watching them get excited....you get the point! It's just not one of our most favorite. This year I happened to schedule my Mom's 50th birthday party (post to come) for the same night as trick or treat. Thankfully the girls still got a chance to dress up on the Wednesday before for our church's Harvest Party!

Always the picture on the front porch...tradition...just like the first day of school!

Mackenzie had decided a while ago that she wanted to be a princess....which I have to say I was kind of shocked as she isn't into princess stuff all that much, but was thankful that I didn't have to go by an outfit.....she just used her dress up clothes! Oh, we did by the crown!

Kate on the other hand didn't have a choice....a duck it was....it is what Mackenzie wore when she was the same age. I always tried to get a non-gender type costume when she was picking them out for the very reason of all the kids being able to wear them growing up! Always thinkin...ha!

BUT on Halloween night my brother, who was watching them during the party, graciously agreed to pass out all the candy I had bought, before the party date was set mind you, to the hoards of kids in the neighborhood. We were warned right when we moved in that this was a popular area for trick or treating. I think the girls had just as much fun passing out the candy and seeing the costumes that they didn't even care that they didn't go door to door. They got their fair share of candy from the bowl and I think that is all that mattered!

Mackenzie's 1st Field Trip

Mackenzie had her very first field trip ever at the end of October to a pumpkin patch and apple orchard! I am so thankful that my mom watched Kate so I could go along as did many other parents from the school. It was a pre-k through 5th grade trip, so needless to say they needed some more hands....and eyes! The day started out kind of rough as Mackenzie teacher was taken to the hospital right before we left. We found out later that it was a heart complication and with many prayers she is now recovering well!
Disclaimer: all of these pictures are taken by my friend Kate (Bryce's, the little boy in the pic below, who we take to school, mom) Since my camera was in the diaper bag at my parents she graciously was my photographer for the day and I must say caught some amazing shots!

We first went to the pumpkin patch! There was so much for them to learn and do.....corn maze

Pumpkin School

Corn pool and many other things to play on!

After our picnic lunch (it brought back so many memories of getting to pick out my special lunch to take on a field trip.....it was one of my favorite parts of the day) the kids got to pick a pumpkin to take home.

Then off to the apple orchard! We got to take another wagon ride out to the orchard to pick an apple.....
See all the different animals on the farm and feed the goats

Loved this picture my friend caught of her.....I couldn't resist putting it on here!

Learn about the apple sorting process and then they got to sling shot apples before heading home!

What a fun and long day had by all! It was so much fun to be able to go along and watch her experience all those things. That is the worst part about sending them to school is you miss out on them doing things for the first time, just watching their minds learn new things, and not being the one to answer all their inquisitive questions. (I have to admit sometimes I'm thankful someone else gets to answer all the why's)

Fall Update

Since we have been sparse in the whole posts category I wanted to catch up....again mainly for my memory keeping!
Since we left off at the end of the summer with Mackenzie's first day of pre-school many things have happened.

In Sept. we got to got back to Ames to watch the Iowa vs Iowa State game! You can't really tell in the picture, but we are a divided house! Go Hawks!!!

It was so good to be back even though it was just for a day. Aaron and I got to go alone with my family while our dear friends the Carlats watched the girls for us! After the game we got to hang out with many of our friends from there which was a huge blessing!

The girls had so much fun playing with their friends. Mackenzie will talk of her friends in Ames quite often!

The girls have spent many a hour in dress up clothes.....gearing up for Halloween I guess!

In the beginning of Oct we got to take a trip to Kansas City to visit our brother and sister in law's family. It always so fun to be with them.....Mackenzie's favorite, Morgan....shopping...and just hanging out! Sorry no pics!

We again live in a college town, much smaller, but Homecoming is still a celebration all the same. We along with our good friends attended the parade they had that weekend!

That same weekend we had another celebration. Kate was dedicated and my brother Dustin was baptized!
It was a very special day with many family members attending! We are so blessed to have parents that brought us up to fear the Lord and are now passing that on by dedicating our children to the Lord and promising to raise them according to the Word of God!

Permit the children to come to me. Do not hinder them; for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these. Mark 10:14
After the service we planned to have brunch at a nice restaurant in town, but our reservations weren't for a while so we hung out at my Uncle and Aunt's new condo right above the restaurant.

The food was great, the whole day was such a blessing and little Kate looks like she's had enough!