Sweet Sunday Surprise

As I am sitting on my couch watching football and hanging out on facebook, I look up and see Marlin strolling up the drive in his horse and buggy with his grand kids. We called Daisy in to make sure she didn't spook ol' Skip then we all headed out side to see what was up. Marlin brought us one of the pumpkins him and Linda grew in their garden and then offered the kids a ride. His grand kids climbed out to throw football with Rodney and my kids climed in. Off they went for a little stroll up to the church, around it and back home. Once they came home, they fed Skip a few of our apples and off back home they went. We have been absolutely blesses by our Heavenly Father with the community we were brought into 3 years ago. The people who have welcomed us from day one with open arms have become like family to us!

Another 5K

Last Saturday Rodney ran another 5K. It was the same route as the one before. I took pictures, but can't find where they are on my camera right now but once I locate them I will add them to this post. He did great! He came in 22 this time compared to last runs 38 or 39. Last run his time was 27.39 and this time it was 26.09 and he won a ribbon for 3rd place in his age group. He did a great job and now is becoming addicted to running. He says he is going to start training for a 10K (crazy man).

My ode to the fall season....

Ok, well I posted an early ode that was me being impatient. Now here is my ode and I am right in season!
Madi and I headed out side this afternoon to pull the corn stalks out of our garden and put them to their final use. As we headed out it started to rain but we weren't going to let that stop us.
The wind literally stopped just long enough to take a picture with the flag calmed down.
Here is Madi's try at photography....it may be a bit crooked, but this is the only one I was all the way in and her fingers weren't. Gotta love it when they want to do things themselves.
We had so much fun and I love this time of year. Today was one of theose chilly, windy, drizzly day where you love to smell warm smells, eat warm yummy food and make yummy fall treats like caramel apples.
A few weeks ago my anticipation to fall rubbed off on Colby and he asked me for caramel apples and I told him I would do it in the next few weeks for one of our "Friday Fabulous Desserts" (it's a little tradition we are staring). Well I as out hunting for cans of pumpkins and apple sauce at the grocery today and saw the bag of caramels and couldn't resist. Colby helped me make them and as soon as we are done eating dinner, we are headed into the fridge to pull them out and eat them. YUM!

Dakotah's Playing Soccer

Dakotah picked soccer this year instead of football. He had his 2nd game this past Saturday. They won their 1st game and lost the 2nd. He does so much better in soccer than he did in football, but I still don't think soccer is his sport either. I look forward to seeing him play basket ball in the late fall though.
He looks so cute in his uniform!
You have to look close in these pictures, but Dakotah is in there trying to play. He totally messed up his glasses right before the 1st game so he actually had to play without them.

Inspection

We had the house inspection last night and in a nut shell, not too bad. There is an issue with the water heater and it not being up to code as well as having a gas leak, the lint vent for the dryer is too long which makes it too hard to clean and is actually clogged right now. It has a certain type of wood eating bug, but they haven't done much damage and it's in our contract that the sellers have to treat the problem before closing. That's about as major as it gets. There was a "honey do" list of things that need attention, but nothing we couldn't handle and aren't willing to get our hands dirty in fixing. We will receive the full report on Thursday. Our appraisal has been ordered also and not sure what date that will be scheduled for. The kids and I stopped over at the house for an hour while the inspection was going on and it made things seems so much more real. It's so hard not to get too excited before everything is final. We hit another bump in our loan process that we are waiting to see how it pans out. I am thinking it shouldn't be too bad since the bank did put in the order for the appraisal yesterday. Prayers are still very much needed and appreciated. God is so good in both the good and bad as well as the easy and hard times. Here is a passage that was given to Rodney yesterday.......

Isaiah 43:19, "For I am about to do something new. See, I have already begun! Do you not see it?......." NLT

Wow, I believe God gave that directly to Rodney speaking to him yesterday morning!
Thank you Lord that the inspection went well and that there wasn't anything major or out of our league needing repairs. I thank You for the ability to see You working through out this entire process, even in the bumps. I am still as thrilled today to be on this journey as I was the day we started. We have prayed specifically for this house and believe we have it Lord and as your word says, when we do that it will be given to us. We thank You for you promises and your Word Lord. Please continue to guide us and give us the wisdom to make good decisions through the remainder of the process. Please bless the sellers as I am sure they are as anxious as we are. You are so amazing and I am blessed just to be your child! In Jesus' Name, Amen!

Happy 9th to Colby

Colby's birthday is tomorrow but with it falling on a week day we celebrated today. Colby's dad drove up from Texas to come celebrate with Colby before he gets shipped out to Kuwait. We also had the company of Winter, Jesse, Brandon and Miss Rachel. Colby had his favorite sour cream enchiladas for his birthday dinner and a hunting cake. After we stuffed our selves with enchiladas and cake we sat around and watched football.
You know mom really doesn't want her son to grow up when she forgets the extra candle on the cake! Colby really is turning 9 no matter how many candles I decided to put on his cake. I can't believe he is 9!He got new "lined" hunting coveralls so he doesn't freeze this year sitting out with Rodney watching him hunt. We also got him a carrier for his bible, a basket ball out fit and one of those stretch book covers that is a Notre Dame one. He got a card with some money in it from his dad as well.
Everyone enjoyed the cake, but I think Rachel was willing to show us just how much she enoyed hers. I love that little girl, she's a hoot!

Thanks Giving in our new house????

We got word today that our offer has been accepted! It seems so unreal when I think about it sometimes and it was funny when Rodney had called to give me the news. I couldn't breath very well and I got shaky. Silly girl! Our closing date tentatively at the moment is October 15. Wow that's fast. We have a bit of work we want to get done before we get in so we will be at our house we are in now through most of November. Does this mean we get to have Thanks Giving in our new house? I am sure thinking so!!! How exciting!

Lord we thank you for this very journey You had picked out just for us. Thank You for the patients of mine that grew a bit more, the excitement that has left butterflies in my belly and the blessing of having a house of our very own. Lord You heard our very prayers for this house and have blessed us with it. You are such a mighty and amazing God! We pray You would continue to guide us through the remainder of the journey as this is just the beginning. I pray You would bless the family that has sold it to us and the new chapter of their lives as well. May we honor You in all we do during this process and the taking care of our house. All the glory to You Lord! In Jesus' Name I pray, Amen!

My early ode to fall...

With this crazy Indiana weather, we have been having unseasonal temperatures. It's been fall here even though the calendar says otherwise. I have been in such a fall mood that I decided to head to the attic this week and pull out the box of decorations. I even picked up an apple pie candle for the kitchen to alternat with the warm cinnamon bun candle. I also found my warm mulled cider candle for the living room. It smells amazing in the house! I love my decorations even if they are just a few and my kids have come to depend on them being out when the seasons or holidays change. Enjoy a little tour of our living room which is where I try to keep the decorations contained to so that I don't forget them as I put away and get ready for the next ones.



Now if only I could post the yummy smell :)!

Fall Schedule

Fall seems to be here earlier than the calendar says it is. Fall sports have finally started so we are getting our schedule down. Dakotah has had 2 soccer practices under his belt and Colby has had 1 football practice under his. Colby has seemed to hurt his hand while playing with a team mate after practice on Thursday. We are icing it and wrapping it. If it doesn't get better by Tuesday, we will be going in to see what's up.
House hunting or should I say house offering is in a interesting spot at the moment. We put in an offer on a house in Lafontaine on Thursday and someone put in an offer after us that is extreamly similar to ours, so now we have to go in on Tuesday and make the best offer we feel we can make and they are going to write up a dual offer sheet and present it to the sellers. After that, we wait to see which one they pick. Prayers are still greatly needed and appreciated! I told myself I wouldn't get emotionally attached, I was fooling myself!
Pioneer Club starts on the 22nd in our kick off celebration. This year is somewhat going to be different so it will be interesting to see how things go. I will be teacher assistant of the scooters which is the pre-k and k group. Madi gets to start club this year and she is so very excited about this.
I am excited for fall and will be making it a point to stop from my busy schedule to enjoy the smells, colors and tastes it brings with it.

Hold on to your hats, we have a TEENAGER!

Lastnight we celebrated (4 days early) Bre's birthday. I think we have enough cupcakes to last us the entire holiday weekend! The cup cakes are a ton of colors to reflect the things we got her for her bedroom, for presents.


Big birthday girl!
She even snag to herself.
After cupcakes, she opened presents and then her and I headed up to her room to decorate. She got new sheer curtain panels, comforter and duvet, sheets, throw pillow, side table, storage cubes, laundry hamper, lava lamp, decorative peg board and posters. Her room looks so cute and fun. Oh I almost forgot, she also got a new hairy purple area rug. Here's a few pictures.....

Hillbilly Heaven....

My hillbilly kids, aren't they so stinkin cute!
My hillbilly husband, I actually thought he looked cute too. :)

Last Sunday our church had their anual Fall Festival and the theme was Hillbilly Heaven. We all dressed up in our hillbilly sunday finest and headed to church. After our service, we headed outside for lots of good food, fellowship and fun. Our family tied for first place for best hillbilly family, Autumn wond first for best hillbilly girl and Rodney and I came in 3rd in the egg toss (the egg broke on me even though I was praying the whole time that it would break on Rodney). Dakotah and his patener came in first in the wheel barrow race. We had such a great time and I love that my kids don't hesitate to dress up no matter how funny we may look.

What we do while they are away....

The first couple weeks after school started Madi eased into enjoying the idea of having the house pretty much to her self. One day while I was bopping around the house doing my chores, I walked into the living room to find this....


Ah yes, the joys of having the house to your self! Last week though we started preschool time every day and that has been a joy. It's short, about 30 minutes and then she is off to rule the roost so to speak.

Birthday Kick Off......

Right after school starts a journey of many celebrations start in our household. We kick this journey off every year with Rodney's birthday. We surprised him with a cookies and cream ice cream cake and presents he didn't think were going to be at our house for another week.
Good thing the smoke alarm didn't go off. Whew, you know your getting older when your cake can light up the room! :)
Look at all that candle smoke, wow. At least his lungs work good!

Even when your 32 sometimes you can't resist acting like a goof for the camera and we wonder where the kids get it from.
Now there is the picture I was looking for! Look at that sweet 32 year old. I love that man!!!
Baby, I pray 32 is a blessed year for you with many new adventures in our grasps handed to us by God. I'm thankful God has blessed me to have you for my husband. I love you very much!!

Kindergarten

Ok, so I realize school started 3 weeks ago and wow I am that far behind, but let's go into catch up mode, shall we?!
We have managed to send yet another off to kindergarten and I have to say, she hasn't looked back since she stepped in the door.
This is the day before school started, at open house. We went to check out the room, fill out an info paper, drop off school supplies, read a book and of coarse, mom signed up for goodies.
First day of school outfit. Very cute!
I took her to her class and off she went. I didn't even get a "good bye" She just was off and running. Here's to another one off. I told Madi that she is never going to school and is stuck with staying home with me forever. She seems to think other wise and has no problem vocalizing it....loudly!