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.