eating donuts...

Sunday afternoon there was a church hay rack ride and picnic. Though we didn't make it for the hay ride, we did brave the freezing temperatures for grilled hot dogs and games. It was so cold. I was glad we didn't do the hay ride.

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Here's Noah's attempt to eat that donut. I also made a video of it b/c it was hilarious. His coat was a sugary mess.

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Daddy did it too.

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Evie had fun licking the donut before she figured out she could take a bite =)

Here is the video:

that one night we did that one thing

Shari and Jesse visited us the second weekend of October. It was so much fun having them here, even though they had to go to Lincoln for a wedding. Some priorities they have...

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Anyway, that Saturday night we hired a sitter, got all dressed up and went out for a second attempt at a local italian resturant. We all went there for Valentines Day and had a horrible time. We had an 8pm reservation (on V Day) and weren't served until at least 10pm when I was too tired out to be very hungry any more. The sock soup (chocolate soup that we joked tasted like it was made in a sock) wasn't so great either. Shari was quite irate and wrote Bella Italia telling them so. They sent her a gift card =)

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Take two: So we all went again . It was very pleasant and we had a great time. I knew Valentines Day was a fluke b/c Terry and I had been there and had always had a great time.

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Pretty good lookin group eh?

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Too cute newlyweds.
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Um, yeah, that's us.
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The light of heaven approves of these two...

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Terry was practicing for the video we made later...
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The restaurant with pretty pink walls...
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Terry jammed his head against mine and I was laughing at him. We were attempting to be cute like the newlyweds.

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After our date we made this video. If you haven't seen it on facebook, then you're behind the times. It's like the #1 rated video EVER. Okay, maybe not, but it's good enough to be. It just goes to show you don't have to be drunk to have fun.

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Snap dog is wearing Noah's Thomas underwear...

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The next day we were hangin out after church. Shari watches Terry play Ring-a-round-the-rosie.

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Nose booger bubble anyone?

snowman killer 1

And she kills him with his own arm.

1st snow man

Terry was very kind to give me a mommy break yesterday. I needed it after our trip to the doctor. He took the kids out to play while I stayed in and read some of the parent Sunday school book: Parenting by the Book. It's very thought provoking, though we can't go to the class since Terry teaches the high school punks. Anyway, what a nice husband.

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See that nice smile Evie has? She's saying "Cheese" the whole time! I took several pics in my attempt to get Noah to look. He never did look and Evie never did look away. She looked the same in all of them. So cute.

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And what a great snow man! Sprinkler for a hat, lawn golf balls for eyes and a nose, bucket handle for mouth and lawn golf poles for arms! All he needs are hands...

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Time to warm up the cheesy frog girl. Oh, and she needs a coat. This is Noah's old one!
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Nice hand snow man. High five!

preschool

So we've officially started our preschool stuff with Noah. It took some time to get him used to the idea that we could do school at home. At first he was adamant that we couldn't do that. We had to do school at, well, school. But now he's calling it school and everything.

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We do a little bribing here and there. All he really wants to do is play Pac Man with Daddy on the Wii 24/7. But really, we just can't, shouldn't, and DON'T want to do that. So we say that we can play after school work is done. Then all the of sudden it's, Can we do school?
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Here Noah is circling What comes first (I think). He's working on those fine motor skills.

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Evie wants all the crayons. I still don't know what happened to the other end of the red one. She might have given it to Snap for a snack...

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She also likes the camera. Does a really great "CHEESE"

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How cute right? Using two hands so he can make a good circle =)

Shadows

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So, Terry loves the David Crowder* Band. He listens to them all the time. They just came out with a new album and I love it. Previously, I had not been the biggest fan. Just not my favorite =). I liked the music, but just didn't groove with his voice for whatever reason. However, I am taking it back after listening to this album, Church Music. It is so good.

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I was feeling pretty low on Thursday night. Terry was listening to my tearful thoughts as we were listening to the CD. It just hit the spot. And it continues to do that.

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I'm still feeling sad and this song, Shadows (sample here), is really encouraging. So simple and so moving:

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Life is full of light and shadows,

Oh, the joy and oh, the sorrow, oh the sorrow

And yet will He bring day from night. And yet will He bring dark to light

When shadows fall on us,

We will not fear,

We will remember,

When darkness falls on us,

We will not fear,

We will remember,

When all seems lost,

When we're thrown and we're tossed,

We'll remember the cost,

We're resting in the shadow of the cross

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JOB 1:20-21: At this, Job got up and tore his robe and shaved his head. Then he fell to the ground in worship and said:
"Naked I came from my mother's womb,
and naked I will depart.
The LORD gave and the LORD has taken away;
may the name of the LORD be praised."

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Amen

October 10th - first SNOW

We woke this morning thinking the light looked a little brighter through the bedroom curtains. It was snowing outside! There was already 2-3 inches and by the time it quit mid-morning, there was at least 4-5 inches. Apparently a nearby city got 17! And three days ago it was 80 degrees...

Evie and I just hung out inside cleaning the window so we could see out of it. Noah "had to" go outside and help daddy scoop snow. Snap dog accompanied them.

Here's SNOW dog up to his haunches in snow.

Like father, like son.

Nice scoopin action Noah

By this time the Snow dog was ready to come in. I toweled him off and put him in his kennel.

Noah then went to the back and slid down the snow covered slide while daddy scooped the back sidewalk.

Daddy came home from printing shirts and played with the kids in the back yard. He made Noah 10 snow balls and then they took turns throwing them at each other. You can see Terry's ball exploding as it hits the slide.

Evie chillin watching the boys play. Terry pulled her around the yard in this sled. He also gave her a snow ball...

Cheese boy! He wouldn't say it but Evie did =). Whenever I open my phone she says Cheese.

Noah went to jump on the tramp. Here he is after he attempted a trick/somersault.

our front lawn

Our front lawn never gets used. There's no fence and high school kids drive way too fast by our house...not to mention the semi trucks that shake our house.

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But Snap got his haircut today and I wanted to show him off to the passing cars. Plus, I needed to clean out Evie's stroller that rolled into the geese-poop infested lake a week and a half ago. Oh this is funny...

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Terry and a few students were disc golfing. I was waiting for them to finish at the 9th hole while the kids threw rocks into the water...though I think Noah might have mistaken some hardened goose poo for a rock judging by a couple of the splashes. Anyway, I had my back turned on the stroller and suddenly heard it moving behind me. I turned out to see it roll into the lake! It was so crazy windy up there that the wind turned it and rolled it down the hill. So I ran down there and pulled it up by it's back wheel, glancing over my shoulder to see if the boys had noticed. They come running over, mistaking my look for a plea for help. They thought Evie was still strapped in to the thing! Well, they were relieved and then we all had a laugh about what had happened.

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I should have washed the thing out as soon as we got home but I needed to start dinner and had company (my friend Olivia from nursing school - we had a nice time), so I didn't clean it. Today I decided to do it since it's gorgeous out.

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Here it is all cleaned up. Evie had to play in the puddle of course. That girl loves to be outside quite a lot more than Noah. He wanted to watch Bolt...

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Snap dog lookin fine with his new 'do.

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Doesn't he look great! The money is totally worth it. He was SO scruffy before.
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This is kinda lame to put up, but I thought it was neat that my kids found it so interesting to watch the water make it's way down the street. I was fond of making dams and mud pies in the gutter when I was little, but then I grew up in town. Terry had an actual creek to play around in. I would have been so jealous back then, had I known.

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Evie is getting ready to toss a stick in.

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We had a conversation about why the water was stopping here, though I'm not sure Noah completely understood me...

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Making a bridge.

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Noah playing peek-a-boo. I think I need to frame this one!

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The girl has to do whatever the boy does.

cute kids

The other day Noah had a "great idea." "Let's go to Sou Koda!" he said. Well, instead of telling him straight up that he couldn't (like I would), Terry told him that it was a great idea and that we should call some family on the cell phone.

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No one answered their phone but my brother. Noah insisted Snap-dog talk to Nathan so here he is holding the phone to Snap's ear! He's also been having conversations with Snap to himself. He says something to Snap and then speaks for Snap in the next sentence. What would we do without that dog?! (Snap gets a haircut tomorrow, by the way =)

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The kids are watching Old Yeller together. They never sit like this so I snapped a picture. And actually, Evie can hardly sit for five minutes to watch any show, so this was quite lucky.

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How cute!

windows

Several months ago, we entered into some improvements that were going to begin in the parsonage where we live. I couldn't believe this all started back in March, but it did. I did a blog about it back then and that's how I know. =)

We got the new stove right away but the new windows were installed only about two weeks ago. They didn't replace the front bay window like I thought they might, just the three bedroom windows on the east side of the house. Really all the windows probably need replaced, but it's nice to have these done.

Terry just got done putting the shades back up over Noah's new window.

This is the guest room (welcome all!) and we just realized that our old shades will not fit over the new bigger window. Have to take are of that later...or never since we're moving eventually.

Oh, this shot is a special treat to all of you out there who love order. I took the old broken computer off this desk and put some of the other unnecessary clutter away. Yea for order! Afterwards I cleaned out our hall closet too but restrained myself from taking a picture of that as well. =)

Here's our new bedroom window. Should be less drafty and leaky. Perhaps after we move they can fix that sheet rock...