Some Real Thoughts

I absolutely love this time of year, with the holidays just around the corner and the beautiful colors and sights all around. And yet, honestly, this year is different. Yes, I am still excited about time with my side of our family this Thanksgiving and going to England to be with Nick's side of our family for Christmas. However, I am just experiencing some deep sadness during this season.

We have a few friends that are really going through hard times and this has just filled us with some deep sadness. No matter how beautiful and magical this time of year is, it is nothing compared to heaven. I grieve for the sin and sadness here. There is a deep longing in my heart for Jesus and for heaven.

The other day when I was noticing the beautiful fall leaves, an interesting concept came to me. You know, the leaves are the most beautiful when they are just about to fall from the tree and die. It made me think about the fact that in the pain and sorrow and death, there is beauty still, when we let Jesus shine through. My dear friends, as we go through those hard times, may we let the beauty of Jesus shine through us!

May you all have a bless Thanksgiving!

Choo! Choo! Choo! Logan is 2!

It is hard to believe that our baby is now 2 years old! He is not a baby any more! Sigh!

We had a fun Thomas the Tank Engine Birthday Party for him! Logan just loves Thomas trains, even more than his brother, which I didn't think was possible! We played a few games, had cake and opened presents - the normal birthday agenda, but oh was it fun! One of the things I absolutely love about being a mom is making my children smile and laugh!

Thanks to everyone who added to the fun, by coming to his party, giving him gifts and sending him cards!

Ashe Bash and other fun stuff!

This year was the first year that we carved pumpkins and it was so much fun!!!! Yeah!!! We have this cute, little book called The Pumpkin Gospel. It glows in the dark and is darling in the way that it compares carving a pumpkin to the way that God cleans out our sin and puts His light within our hearts. Oh, that my sweet boys will learn early to let Him clean out their yucky sin!! May the light of Christ always shine within their hearts!!!

Anyways, Landen was so excited as we carved our 3 pumpkins! And Logan kept running in too to see what was going on! Landen helped me to design them and then Nick did most of the hard work! Aren't they adorable?!



For Halloween this year, we went to our churches Ashe Bash. Well done LBC for all your hard work to make this carnival such a success! May the seeds that were sown into the community reap a righteous harvest!!!


Landen dressed as a soilder (Prince Caspian to be exact!) and Logan was a monkey. You can see how cute they are!

Since we are doing the Armor of God this year for our family devotions, we thought that we could get good use out of Landen's costume. (Isn't it crazy how expensive these costumes are?!)









A few days before Halloween, we had cousin Elianna over to play, so our little monkey got to snuggle up with Winnie the Pooh! Ellie is 9 months old now and so very adorable! She alternated between being a princess and Winnie this year. (The Winnie costume was more comfortable, but how can one resist dressing their little girl as a princess?) She is crawling and pulling herself up and just on the go! Look out David and Esther! The fun has just begun!

Well, it is crazy how I do some of my best blogging and journalling when I wake up in the middle of the night and can't sleep because of pain or anxiety. I guess that is just another example of how God can use my small suffering for good. I think I'll try to go back to sleep now and get a little more rest before my boys wake up and need me. Thanks for reading my thoughts and for loving our family! Blessings on each of you!!!

MOPS outing to the Pumpkin Patch

Logan and I had so much fun at the Banducci Pumpkin Patch. It is hard to believe that my baby boy is almost 2 years old! Isn't he so cute in amongst those pumpkins? He sure has a sweet love for life! He even had fun choosing his own pumpkin. Such a big boy. It was nice to have a special date with my baby!



Lately he has been having so much fun talking and putting sentences together. For instance he'll say, "Mom, hug Raff" (which means "Mom, will you give giraffe a hug?) It is kind of cute the way that Logan calls me Mom, instead of Mommy or Mama. Another favorite sentence of Logan's is "Watch Toss, peeeeaaase" (which means "Can I please watch Thomas?") Playing with Thomas the Tank Engine is Logan's favorite pass time. For him it is all about the trains! We are going to do a Thomas Party for his second birthday!

Landen loves Kindergarten!

These first few months of kindergarten have been great for Landen! He absolutely loves school and his teacher, Mrs. Watson. If you ask him about his letters, he will be happy to do the whole zoo phonics song for you, complete with all the actions! These pictures are from his first day of school. There he is with the Sing Lum Lion mascot! Then of course, there he is sitting at his desk with Mrs. Watson. We sure appreciate her!

Mexico Mission Trip - May 2008

We had the great pleasure of taking our boys on their very first mission trip!!! We believe that kids are never too young to serve the Lord! As our boys grow up, we want missions to simply be a part of their life experience; something that our family just does!

And boy! Landen sure was gung-ho! He started off with the hammer, hammering his first nails. But mostly he painted. He was such a hard worker! He hardly even stopped to take a break! He was hot, sweaty and completely filthy by the end of the day! And so was Logan, although I'm not sure how much work he did. Actually, I take that back, his work was smiling his beautiful smile to everyone and giving them that boost that they needed!

At the end of the day, our team had built two houses for two different Mexican families. They were tiny little houses; just one room and not even a bathroom and yet the families were so grateful! It was an incredible experience for our family to be a part of! It was also great to have Nick's parents, Graham and Gill join us! It was the end of their visit to us and it was a blessing to see them jump right in! Thanks, Dad and Mum! And thanks, LBC for allowing us to be a part of this great trip!

One step closer!

Most of you know that we have started the process to adopt our third child, a baby girl! We have been working on it for several months now and just have to complete our profile and get our initial payment ready. Yeah! We are excited to see how God will continue to lead us each step of the journey to our precious little one.

To help with the funds that we need, we are going to hand out baby bottles with a note about our adoption to any of our friends and family who would like to help us. This will be used like a piggy bank for loose change. Every penny counts, as the saying goes!

It is wonderful to think and pray for our little girl and especially her birthmom and birthdad at this time. May God be with them and may His grace overflow to them! We love you, baby girl, wherever you are!