Dad's Tea Party

Thanks to the time change on Sunday, our kids all needed to take good naps.  Not only were they more tired than normal after lunch, we had bible study that night. We knew Caleb and Kallen would not be a problem, Elyse is pretty much done taking them so she was going to be a challenge. Therefore, Nate made a deal with her, if she napped, he would have a real tea party with her. She napped, and he did not disappoint. Their special tea party consisted of blueberry tea, cookies and lots of smiles.

I VOTED

As many of you know, when it comes to politics, I really don't care to discuss, hear about it or watch it.  However, for some strange reason, I have had a very heavy heart on today's election and amendment bills.  Therefore, Nate, the kiddos and I headed out to the polls.  Today was by far one election where I wanted my count to vote.  I really hope you all went out and voted too!  Happy Election Day.

Orphan Sunday

November is National Adoption Awareness Month and today is specifically Orphan Sunday, a day recognized around the world. A day to be reminded of the 18.3 million orphans worldwide. A day to take a moment out of our extremely blessed and fast-paced lives to think about those in a different place in life than us. A day to remember the children...but more so...that 18.3 million means 18.3 million stories, hearts, faces, names (some unnamed), birth mothers, birth fathers, and potential adoptive families.

My family and I got to take part in one of the most powerful and emotional experience that I have been through at church today.  Our church put together a video capturing the beauty of being an adopted family.  Then at the end of the video, everyone revealed their matching shirts that said, "Adopted." stating we are all adopted into the family of Christ.  I hope to be able to share this video with you, but for now, you just get to see us in our shirts.

James 1:27 - "Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world."


 

21st Century Boys

By the way, the picture was NOT staged

 

 

Happy Halloween

I want to start off by wishing you all a Happy Halloween!  I hope your Halloween was memorable, enjoyable and a little spooky.  Ours was really nice and low key this year.  We had a family Halloween party at Elyse's school last Saturday, a simple Halloween social with our friends on Sunday, and we ended the holiday with some great trick-or-treating tonight.  We bundled ourselves up and hit some of our local neighbors.  Going to just one cul-de-sac and a few homes gave our kids enough candy for months :)

Make a Bear

My Uncle Bobby and Aunt Jan gave Elyse a "Make a Bear" box set for her birthday.  Well since yesterday was such a cold and snowy (yes, snowy) Thursday, I thought it was a perfect time to bring out the box and let the kids have some fun.  Well that's just what they did.  Elyse let Caleb have the brown one, and they both enjoyed stuffing their bear until they were just right. 

 

The set also came with princess dresses to dress up your bear, that was by far Elyse's favorite part.  She spent much of her day changing her bear's clothes.  While Caleb spent much of his day taking his bear for car rides.

Special thanks to Uncle Bobby and Aunt Jan for this great gift!

 

Busier

As I stated in Kallen's 7 month post, he is scooting all over the place.  Nate captured just a short video of our little man on the move to give you a glimpse of how our life just got a little busier.  The boy is like all infants who begin scooting, he is getting into everything.  On the positive side though, his naps have been awesome since he has been wearing himself out while awake :) 

Click here to watch video of Kallen scooting.