dedication

My brother took pictures during the dedication and just sent them, so I wanted to share them with you.

Anna was SO good for Pastor Brian the whole time, not uttering a peep.  Just checking him out and chewing on her hand.  She was talking plenty before and after the dedication as we sat in the pew.  She knew it was her special day and could do whatever she wanted I guess.

She wore the same dress and sweater set that Maria did.  The dress was something Aunt Michele bought and is so cute that we had to have Anna wear it also.  The sweater, bonnet, booties were knit by Anna's great-great Aunt Ida (Nana's sister) for Larry when he was a baby.  They just barely fit Anna; we thought the bonnet was going to pop right off her head!

A kiss of blessing.

We have plenty to praise God for; His blessing on our lives.

belated wishes

Well, I knew I missed their anniversary at the beginning of October, so when my brother sent this picture of their dinner out, I knew I had to share it.

Happy Belated 4th Anniversary to my handsome "little" brother and his gorgeous wife.

2005

Our Sweetheart

transformation

And the pumpkin became.....

a pie...and oh, it was SO good!  You'll have to take our word for it, cuz we're not sharing. :P

We have plenty to praise God for; yummy pumpkin pie!

Jack-o-lantern

the guts

ewwwww!

Maria supervising. She requested a scary pumpkin.

Our "scary" pumpkin.


You can tell she was done with the carving...off she went, singing all the way!

We have plenty to praise God for; beautiful fall decorations.  Only a God like ours could create such lovely leaves, pumpkins and other wonderful things to enjoy. 

jockey

We got an email on Monday telling us about a chance to ride on the Black Horse Troop horses.  It was part of a Senior Service Project by one of the female academy students.  So once the girls were up from nap we headed out while Larry was on a 10 mile run, getting ready for his mini-marathon this weekend.  Maria patiently waited for her turn and loved it, although you couldn't tell by her expression.

pretty cute, although a bit big for her wee little head!

excited to ride...can you tell.

don't let the serious expression fool you, she loved it

she had to tilt her head to even see where we were going

ponytail

Doesn't it make her look all grown up??

dress up

We didn't do trick or treating, but did go to the Lion's Club party at the school. The girls dressed up as what else, big sister, little sister!

apple pickin

Our playgroup met at Countryside Orchard, near Rochester, IN. It is a small family owned orchard. They grow three varieties; Fuji, Gold Rush and Enterprise. We had a good time picking and playing. The kids even got to watch the apple washer and dryer.

This is a heavy bag Mom!

So many apples, so little time...YUM!

cousins

Trey, our nephew, had fall break today and tomorrow.  Since Larry happens to have a meeting down where he lives on Tuesday morning and was planning to stay at their place tonight, it worked out that Trey stay over with us last night and we would take him home tonight.  

Maria just absolutely adores Trey.  He likes her alot too, but she is a 2 year old girl and he is an 8 year old boy, so there is a bit of difference in interest there sometimes.  However, they had a blast at the playground yesterday afternoon.  They were running around having so much fun, which led to some good sleep last night too!

Here are some pictures from the afternoon of playing.

Doesn't he look like a model up there posing?

Climbing up the slide.

Maria trying to be like big cousin Trey and climb up too.

The big scary slide

Maria "helping" Trey!

Playing in the sandbox, earlier in the day.

And after all that play, one needs an apple to regain energy!

We have plenty to praise God for; friends who are cousins.

God's blessings

Today we had Anna dedicated to the Lord.  We were very blessed to have so many family able to attend in support and celebration.  My parents, grandmother, my siblings and spouses and kids, and Larry's parents all joined us.  His sister was on call and unable to attend, and his brother lives in CA.  We also had Pastor Brian, his wife Carla and their nephew.  In total we had 20 here for the service and lunch.

Pastor Brian, Carla and our family

The history on how we both know Pastor Brian is pretty amazing.  When I was in high school I attended youth group in Fort Wayne, IN where Brian was the youth pastor for several years.  I also attended church camp several summers with him.  The first year that I met Brian and attended camp was also the year I made the decision to follow Christ.  I have many fun memories of times spent with Brian and fellow youth group attendees.  Unbeknownst to me, before I had met Brian, Larry was well acquainted with him and his family also.  They had both attended the same church back in Dayton, IN for many years.  We consider it pretty remarkable(or a total God thing!) that both Larry and I count him as a person of significance in our spiritual journeys.  Due to this fact, we wanted to have him play a role in Anna's journey.

Our lovely family

The whole gang

Chuck, Michele, Jeff, Therese, Trey, Andrew, Me, Anna, Larry, Maria, Margaret, Mary, Ryan, Cheryl, Easton, Lisa, Stewart

We have plenty to praise God for; the blessing of family to support and help us raise our children in the Lord.

fall photos

at the orchard

Emily and I met up with the kids at McClure's Orchard near Peru.  The kids had a great time playing, seeing the animals, taking a walk in the orchard, and posing with some pumpkins.  Maria and Joshua always have a great time when they are together.  It was a wonderful day and we enjoyed our time there.
I took too many pictures to put them all here, so here are the highlight and you can go here to see all of them, if you so desire!

the big slide

cheese

swinging sure is fun

climbing the big ladder

...and it was this big

A bad apple!

Cousins

Yep, I was there!

The cutest pumpkin in the patch.

This is where Anna "hung" out most of the day.

We have plenty to praise God for; family time with cousins.

5 Months

Yes, Anna turned 5 months yesterday.

She is well over 17 lbs. we're sure, since she was just barely under 17 at her 4 mo. check up.  She is in 6 mo. clothes, but growing out of some.  We tried cereal once with her, and she seemed to like it, but I'm not in a big hurry as she still nurses well and sleeps great.  Usually 12 hours at night, with a feeding just before I go to bed.  She gets a kick out of Maria and laughs at things she does.  She loves when we sing our blessing at meals, and enjoys music in general.  She is still taking 3 naps most days, sometimes a 4th cat nap in the early evening.  She goes down for her naps so easily, we feel super blessed with that.  Has been enjoying her exersaucer, sitting in the Bumbo a friend loaned us, and playing on the floor.  She doesn't seem to have much interest in rolling at the moment.  We love watching her grow and change.

good days

Some days you just climb into bed thanking God for; everything just fell into place and it seemed like a very blessed day.  Lately I have felt like I had so many of those kind of days, kind of feel overblessed(is that even possible??).  This week was great, despite Anna not really taking much of a nap(teething perhaps?)
Anyway, today for example.  Slept in a bit(Friday is Larry's day off), made some yummy blueberry pancakes, sat and read a novel I have been working on, did a bit of laundry, got a snack for Maria and the girl that I was babysitting today, listened to the girls play pleasantly till lunch.  Larry had gone to the office for a couple hours, and he came home and made us lunch(my prince)!
Took the girls to a good friend's house while Larry and I went to a wedding rehearsal for a wedding he is officiating.  Bless this friend for watching the girls so I could assist him, as poor Anna missed mom and dad and cried for a while for her.  It was her first time away from us!  After the rehearsal I made homemade pizza and Larry left for his mini-marathon in Indy.  He is staying with a friend tonight.  Let's hope he doesn't freeze tomorrow morning.  It is the 7th one he has run since I have known him.  The first one was just before we were married.  We are so proud of him.
Maria and I ate our pizza while we watched some old Donald Duck cartoons.  She was so cute to watch.  Laughing in all the right places and understanding some of the silly things happening in the show.  We ran to the thrift store here in town to look for some winter boots for Maria and SCORE...some nice ones in her size.  I also found a few other clothing items for the girls, a couple shirts for me and a very nice purse in a cool red color.  We came back and it was time for bed.  Got the girls in bed and it was just some me time...computer and TV and working on a mei tai for a friend of mine.
We have plenty to praise God for; abundant blessings in the everyday life!

matchy, matchy!

Can't resist getting them some matching outfits, until they refuse to indulge in my obsession.

you know it's fall

when apple pie is on the menu for dessert.
I was so proud of this crust with the decorative circles I cut out.  I also had a brainstorm to use some peanut butter in the crumb topping, because what dessert is complete without some peanut butter, well that and a glass of milk and some whipped topping.  So I subbed a half cup of peanut butter in place of the stick butter the recipe called for....mmmmmm....enough said!

sister love

Anna get a kick out of watching/listening to her big sister.  Maria loves to smooch Anna, and has to get a hug and kiss before she goes to bed.  When Anna wakes up from a nap Maria loves to come greet her..."Hi, Anna" and of course a hug and kiss.  She often talks to Anna telling her the same things she hears us say, especially if Anna is fussing or crying, she will say "oh, are you tired, it's okay, you want to go to bed?...you're okay."  We have a mini-mom on our hands!
We have plenty to praise God for; these girls LOVE each other.

it's official, we're homeowners

front view, we are on a corner lot.

back view, the screened in porch.

Grandma with the girls in the sunroom after a LONG day of cleaning...thanks mom!

Kitchen

Living room, we do have a lake view! (Don't you LOVE the picture over the fireplace?  So glad they left that for us! HA!)

#1 Bedroom- Maria chose this for the girls room, isn't that great two tone carpet??

Half bath in #2 bedroom

#2 bedroom for mom and dad

Main bath in hallway

Well, lots of you already know the whole story about us buying a house, but for those who don't...here goes.

We started looking over a year ago, in North Webster for a place to own.  Since we live in a parsonage and chances are we always will until retirement, we wanted to have something all our own now.  To be able to build equity and do with it as we see fit, without permission from the church trustees!  Also probably a good idea to not have money saved for a house sitting around when we need to send kids to college.  We may not like the FAFSA results telling us the girls don't get financial aid because of that.  Another big reason is to give the girls a home base as we inevitably move around with the ministry.

The 'neighborhood' where we purchased is called Epworth Forest and is on Lake Webster.  Also in this neighborhood is the high school Methodist church camp.  This area holds special significance for me as I attended church camp here all through high school, and accepted Christ during camp one summer.

All this to say, we now own a house.  We closed at the end of September and this weekend decided to head up to clean and move things in.  My mom met us Friday and we spent 6 hours cleaning.  We went back Saturday to move things in, since we didn't have anywhere to sleep overnight, and the carpets were wet from cleaning them.  Mom and Dad brought a truck and trailer full of  furniture to help make our empty house a bit more welcoming.  Now we have places to sit and beds for the girls!

We have plenty to praise God for; owning our own home.

chef time

Maria was so excited to get her very own apron and matching one for her doll, Honey.  Grandma sure is handy and creative.  Thanks, now she can do some real cooking for Mommy and Daddy.

Also, you can check out the flooring I got and installed in the basement playroom.  It was super easy and didn't cost too much either.  A friend had put it in her basement and inspired me to do so also.  Icarpetiles.com is where I got the Rainbow tiles as they call them(only $.49 a sq. foot), and it was just a matter of laying them out in the pattern I wanted and cutting to fit.  It only took me a couple days, and mainly because I only had a utility knife so cutting hurt my hand a bit.
We have plenty to praise God for; grandma's super sewing skills.