I really didn’t take many pictures this week, I should have as we had a lot going on and now I hate that I didn’t. But, nothing I can do about it now, except try to take more this week. Here are a couple of Kate and Lincoln helping Brett make a pizza.
We had dinner at Dad and Mom’s with Floyd, Wilma, and Renna – again, I didn’t take enough pictures, but I have this one of Kate and Floyd.
I was trying to catch Creighton looking at books, but he caught me.
One evening we met up with Duane and Alissa and their sweet girls for some pizza, ice cream, and to shop for our Operation Christmas Child Shoe Boxes. It was really fun, even with 6 kids.
Our sweet Lincoln, he gets lost in the shadows sometimes, not intentionally, but simply because he is so CALM and LAID BACK that most of the time his WILD and ENERGETIC siblings get more attention. I have really enjoyed the opportunity to spend some one on one time with Lincoln while Kate is in school and Creighton is napping. He is a soft-hearted boy that is eager to please. He loves to laugh and he loves to make other people laugh. He also loves all things sports. He is constantly asking me when he will be old enough to play soccer or baseball or football. He loves it all. Whenever he gets to pick the activity it almost always involves some sort of ball. He’s just a fun kid. Here are some pictures of him from this week!
Lincoln and his scarecrow project for preschool. It’s not super creative, but I’m not creative and I am actually one of those parents who believes in letting the child do the project. =) I thought he did a great job on it for only being 3 years old.
Silly faces
Listening to a story on the radio
Lincoln’s preschool class went on a field trip to a pumpkin farm. The pumpkins were all gone, but they still enjoyed a COLD hayrack ride and petting the animals.
Kate has started to be able to read some very basic books. This night she had quite the audience.
The Primary School celebrated the 50th day of school with a 50’s celebrations. My incredibly talented friend, Mindy, made this skirt for Kate!
Saturday we made a quick trip to the Quincy, IL/Taylor, MO area. We attended a fundraiser for the ranch that our good friends, Shannon and Susan run. The kids had a great time riding the horses and playing. For more info, you can check out their website at www.hisranch.org.
After the fundraiser we spent the afternoon and a quick supper with my college roommate, Amber, and her husband, Tim, as well as their children. Thanks Tim and Am for the wonderful afternoon and delicious supper!!
Cade, Lincoln, Tess, and Kate eating a snack and two lovely butterflies
Waiting for the dinner. =)
We had a fireman, Sleeping Beauty, and a lion here for Halloween. We attended the fall festival at church and we shouldn’t have to buy candy for a year or so. =)
We had a fun weekend with some great people. Friday evening we had dessert with some of my high school buddies, it was fun to see them, even though I didn’t take any pictures. Saturday we went to our good friends, Josh and Penny’s. It was a great evening. The kids had a great time playing together and the adults had fun playing games (it really was fun playing games, Penny) and chatting. Thanks for your hospitality!!
Sunday we went to what is our 3rd (I think) annual pumpkin carving with our neighbors. Thanks to Dan and Wendy for hosting!
I feel like a big lesson I have been working on/learning this past year has been to not let the little things in life take away my joy. As I’ve thought about this as I’ve read different books, or heard different speakers, or observed different people in my life, I am just struck by how joy can be a choice at times. You can be having a truly awful day and turn around and make sure that everybody else that crosses your path has a truly awful day as well. I’ve just been thinking about how ugly that really is. So, I’ve been praying a lot that God would help me keep my joy and it may sound stupid, but sometimes I say outloud, “Satan, you can’t have it.” The past week or so has been a little rough with some sickness and health scares with our kiddos, but I have really tried to be mindful that my circumstances don’t affect my mood. I have not been able to stay “grouch-free” the whole time, but I have come a long way. Just focusing on the upside, focusing on how much is going right, and praying for grace has really helped me in a situation that previously I would have allowed to make me (and everyone around me) quite crabby. So, I encourage you today, whether your day is going well or not so well, don’t let Satan have your joy.
Here are a few pictures from our week.
This boy loves mashed potatoes.
Lincoln was so tired one night that he fell asleep at the table.
We had a little incident with our garbage disposal and Creighton felt he needed to help Daddy with the repair.
On a whim, Bethany and I decided to run another 5K on Saturday. When we crossed the finish line (after we could breathe again) we were both pumped to realize that we met our time goals we made in the spring, and we also met our goal for this race, which was simply not to quit. I just have to give a shout-out to Bethany who not only didn’t quit, she ran without music and had to listen to me gasp for air the whole time. Way to go, girl, I’m proud of you! This is a horrible picture of me, but hey, we had to record the moment. =)
Kate and Kiana have really hit it off lately. They are quite the pair. Kiana went with us to Rader’s today. It was our second annual trip to Rader’s on Columbus day. Mike again graciously agreed to take the morning off of work to go with us and a big thanks to my mom for watching Creighton so we could have some special time with the older kids!
This was my favorite picture of the day. =) Mike and Ki jumping.
Grams requested an updated picture of Creighton. I tried, but he was not super cooperative.
This is just to prove to all you people out there who insist the Creighton is never bad – I beg to differ…
