Happy Halloween!

I kind of lost control of the crowd...

Here we are...aren't we so cute?

I hope everyone had a great time on this All Hallow's Eve. We had a nice time. Yesterday though the children both came down with something. Calvin was running about 102 fever with Motrin and Emma was just sick but with no fever. Seriously Calvin was looking about near death yesterday and I was starting to get scared. We laid hands on him and prayed, prayed, prayed. Within an hour his temperature was below 100 and he was up playing. Before we prayed he wasn't even opening his eyes...see? That's what prayer can do. Praise God!


Today we were still under the weather but by Trick or Treat time our fevers were gone and we had perked up a bit. So we went out for a bit of trick or treating. Last weekend we went to a zoo Halloween event in our area so we have had enough trick or treating to last us a while. I've posted a couple of pictures. Hope you had a great time too

It's the Little Things

Yesterday I was getting my hair cut about half an hour after I got off of work. The children were having fun with Auntie Bean and Grandma Peggy so Nicholas was kid free. He met me yesterday at Jimmy John's close to my salon to have a 25 minute lunch with me before my appointment. Isn't that just so sweet? Then he walked with me to the salon even though he parked in the opposite direction. Ah, young-we've-known-one-another for 9 years-love!

As you can see its the little things now a days that get my goat. An $8.00 lunch at a sandwich shop and an arm to be on when walking through the City still gets my heart all aflutter. I love that man so much. I love that he thinks of me and thinks of how to make me happy. I love that he loves me.

Oh yes and by the way...my haircut totally rocks!

Autumn Loveliness

photo courtesy of vrwd.com

Today is Wednesday and it is beautiful. Don't you just love Autumn? There is something so rejuvenating about the season. There are leaves to rake of course but there are also mugs of Apple Cider to sip and lots of cuddling to do. I love when you step outside and it just SMELLS like Autumn. In our little corner of the world is has been terribly cold. I thought perhaps we would never see a real Autumn. But I am very thankful that God brought the warmer weather back and it has been here for the past week. Ah, Fall and I can resume our love affair! I hope you all are enjoying today wherever you may be. Step outside and take a deep gulp of God's lovely Autumn air!

100 Acre Wood

This past Sunday we attended a Halloween event at our local zoo. Emma was Eeyore and Calvin was Piglet. Yes I know he is in pink but in case you were wondering Piglet was a male pig so there! They had so much fun and everyone loved their costumes. I am having a hard time grasping the idea that in a few days November is going to be here. How did this happen? My babies are just getting too big as the time goes by faster and faster.

Another thing the kids loved were their new Trick or Treat buckets. Uncle Marcy sent them and they arrived on Saturday. The children just love them soooo much and everyone comments on how awesome they are. I hope you have a great week and don't forget...Happy Halloween!

Birthday Wish

Next Friday is my Birthday! Hey, hey! I am going to be 28 years old! Wow, how blessed I am to have the greatest family and just be loving life at this age! God has truly blessed us, no matter what the circumstances of our lives may be right now.
For my Birthday I have a wish. I am not telling you exactly what it is but I will tell you it has to do with Nick getting a job (the most pinacle thing on my mind right now). Decisions are being made this week and I just hope they are good news for us. Please be praying. Pray, pray, pray!
So that's what's going on right now. I am cleaving to the fact that I KNOW God is for us. Plans to bring us good and not harm. I know something is coming. I know. I just have to somehow learn to be patient and rely on God moving things in His timing, not mine. :)

Miss Kazoo

This is our little Emma. Sometimes I cannot believe she is Three years old. This will probably sound really stupid but I am beginning to not be able to remember her as a baby. Is this normal? She's just so grown up and mature that it is hard for me to remember that adorable Emma that fell asleep on my chest for all of her naps.
Emma has blossomed into such a neat kid. She is hilarious and unpredictable. She sometimes is such a tough guy and other times she has such a tender heart she is crying uncontrollably. Those are the times that break my heart. She also is so spontaneous. Most of the times she is so shy. And then there are those times like tonight when we walked by the neighbors and she yells at the man on the porch "I'm Emma and that's Calvin". Well okay.
She has also become so independent that it often times breaks my heart. Iwant to be able to scoop her up and cuddle with her but most of the time she just isn't having it.
Emma also has quite the vocabulary. You can hear her scolding Cal often times with sayings such as "this is completely unneccessary" or "this is totally uncalled for". So silly.
That's my big girl. She is so quick to tell me she is going to be 4. To me she is already grown up I just don't know where the time is going.

Pumpkin Carving

Dr. Evil or Nicholas?

This past week we FINALLY carved that silly old pumpkin. We had so much fun! I made a cake to celebrate the event (yes I know I am a HUGE dork!). Then we went on a walk around our neighborhood and had a pumpkin hunt, counting all of the pumpkins we could see on our neighbor's porches. So fun! When we got back home we designed how we wanted the pumpkin to look and then dined on cake while Daddy got to work carving. We had a great night. These memories are the things I hope they remember. Yes Nicholas is unemployed life kind of sucks blah, blah. But moments like this make time stand still. I hope they remember these moments and not bad ones. I hope this is engrained in their little memories as much as it is mine.

Happy Weekend!

I hope you all have a great weekend! It is pretty dreary here today which makes me so thankful I have one fine man for a husband to curl up with on the couch. We have a standing date every day at 3 to watch the Dick VanDyke Show...Ah how I love our life. Nothing too spectacular planned here this weekend, which is A-ok with me. Have a great one!

Mama No!

From the moment my feet touched the stairs to hook up my Coffee IV this morning, Calvin was screaming "Mama, no!" I think he thought I was going to work right that second. After 15 minutes of relentless crying I went to get him. Poor dear. He had thrown everything out of his bed and had a huge armfull of his comforter. You could tell he was trying to figure out how the heck he was going to lug that thing out of the crib. It was so cute and he looked so excited to see me.
I put him into bed with Daddy and he just snuggled all in. He was definitely not happy to see me go this morning and it just broke my heart to have to leave him.
Right now I am living with the verse "Delight yourself in the Lord and He will give you the desires of your heart" in my heart. The desire of my heart is to be at home with those precious children. There is nothing I want more. So I am delighting myself in God and I am faithful that in His time I will get to be at home with my babies.

Aren't We Cute?

I thought i would post one of the pictures from our recent photo shoot. Aren't we cute? Couldn't you just eat us up? The children were amazingly well behaved. Yeah! Tonight we are having tacos which are sounding pretty yummy to me. Then we have a fun filled night of returning Library books and carving our pumpkin...hooray! I am sure I will be posting pictures of that soon (the pumpkin not the books!). Hope you are enjoying this beautiful day!

Gluten Boy

As we are researching Apraxia we are finding that some Apraxic kids have responded well to having a diet free of Gluten. I am curious if any of my readers (or should I say lurkers since I am talking to those of you who view but never leave comments :)...) have ever had a gluten free diet. I am wondering if there is some sort of super center for Gluten free food. Because seriously a loaf of bread costs $8.00 if it is gluten free.

Sunday Afternoon

Here's Calvin and Emma coloring yesterday afternoon. They colored together while I made dinner: meatloaf, green beans, mashed potatoes, and apple pie. They played together so well and seemed to have a really good time. I love the laid back feel of Sundays, don't you?

Christmas Coupons

photo courtesy of playskool.com

If you are like me you are starting on your Christmas Shopping right about me. Or you are at least thinking about it. Or thinking that soon you are going to have to think about it. Well Playskool has issued some coupons that make some of their toys pretty darn good deals. Here is the link. I know for example the sit and spin is on sale at Target this week (at least in our area, that is my one and only disclaimer) is on sale for 20.00 this week and with the 10.00 off coupon it will be only 10.00 (just in case you are REALLY bad with math!) So one of those would be for any kid...who doesn't like to sit around and get dizzy?

My Silly Blessings

With both of our children they seem to be cute and adorable (even more so that usual) the moment that you put a hat on them! Emma usually flashes the silly cute smiles and Calvin somehow always cocks his hat and starts humming Bone Thugs and Harmony Tunes. I love it! Hope you are all enjoying your Sunday!

Finally Getting Caught Up

Last weekend we went to the Pumpkin Patch to pick out great Pumpkin of the year. We had a lot of fun despite being FREEZING cold! I kept thinking "I can't feel my feet!" but just kept on smiling! The farm we've been going to every year has games and activities for the children to play with and this year they were big enough to go on some sory of inflatable pillow thingy. They had so much fun! They were just giggling and Calvin could hardly ever get up but it was so cute! I've posted pictures of that, of us with our Pumpkin and of the children excited about going to the Patch!

THEN the weekend before that Nick's brother treated us to a weekend in Chicago! We felt to blessed by the whole experience. We went to the Bear's game courtesy of Uncle Marcy. It was my first game ever and I actually really enjoyed it. The picture of Nicholas and I is from before the game. It was a good time to get away and not have to worry about bills or job searches or Apraxia, or all of the other 18 million things I seem to worry about every day. And that was worth more to me than anything.

So that's what we've been doing on our weekends. This weekend we have nothing planned which is heavenly.

If You'll Excuse Me...

I'm sorry I have not been blogging lately. Monday we got the official diagnosis that Calvin has Apraxia of Speech, and possibly of the limbs. I am just so overwhelmed right now I need to collect my thoughts. I've been spending all of my free time research coconut oil, omega 3's, gluten free diets, and when I haven't been doing that I've been crying. I'll write soon, promise. Thanks for your prayers and for understanding!

Apple Picking

If you want them to smile, tell them to put buckets on their heads

Calvin's first apple of the season



Here's Emma's

The children picking apples together

This is Emma's "I love picking apples" dance...she also looks like a dino.

So after the Mill last weekend (yeah, yeah, last last weekend) we went to the Apple Orchard. We had a blast! The children love picking apples and I love them eating apples so its a win-win here folks. The weather was perfect and we had so much fun!

The Old Mill

This is the face you get when you ask Emma to smile and she's freaked out

Here we are in the basement of the mill!

Outside being cute!

Calvin and I at our picnic

Last weekend (okay two weekends ago because I am slow) we went to an old mill near our home. At first Emma was not going for it...mainly because it was making a horrid racket while grinding corn down. But once it stopped we had a lovely tour and everyone seemed to enjoy themselves. We ever were able to take home a bag of cornmeal that we had been there to watch them make...I thought that was pretty neat! They rang us up on the original cash register and measured it out on an old scale...we even went home with our cornmeal in a paper bag tied with string...neat-o! We also had a picnic and a thoroughly wonderful time exploring God's creation around us and thanking Him for His goodness.