a little bedtime story for you

Tonight M had his first BIG spill...falling face first onto the tile...bloody, bloody, bloody nose.

We are excited for Fall Festival tomorrow at our church! M is going as a MONKEY! But...he already outgrew his costume!!! Not kidding. I bought it awhile back since I was unsure how often we'd need to travel to IL, and I didn't want to miss out on getting it...and now it is too small. Today we made treat bags for the kids on our street, and we're going to deliver them tomorrow. Will post photos!

WINNER!!! I won a free photography class with Christi at Rawsii!!! I think there are still spots open if you are interested! I am really excited. My goal is to get good enough to take unique, quality photographs for families who cannot afford to have their pictures taken by a professional. A guy we know serves in an amazing ministry in which he moved into a rough neighborhood and brought the love of Christ to the people living there. It's been a total transformation! These are some of the people I would like to bless...so pray that Christi can teach me to focus in manual!!!!

edited2add: Here is a site I checked out last night and wanted to share since I am always looking for new ways to give away your money! HAHA! http://onemillioncan.com/ I loved all the causes, but I was especially diggin' this video: http://megavoice.com/indexvid.php ... I just wanted to give all those people a BIG HUG!

cheetos, zoo, & tortillas

While M is still not a chatterbox, he does choose to speak about the important issues in life, such as "CHEETOS, MOM." Cheetos are dear to my heart because they were in the picnic lunch packed by Scott on our very first date...and again on the day he proposed. I hadn't eaten any in a very long time, but I bought some yesterday...WOW, I had forgotten how cheesy-crunchalicious they are! So now when M says, "CHEETOS, MOM," I'm inclined to oblige!

M and I went to the zoo. Had the place to ourselves. We took his zoo book, and he enjoyed looking up the animals we encountered!

This morning we attempted to make homemade tortillas. If I am going to grow old in the desert, I need to learn the staples of southwest living. I think our breakdown occured at the kneading stage when M decided to roll out our dough balls into snakes. Needless to say, we ended up with some pretty tough tortillas.

Advent Conspiracy

I've been meaning to re-post this post, but kept forgetting until Rachel shared this video:



Also on Rachel's site is a video created by her former church to promote Advent Conspiracy...check it out!

Often when we watch a video like this our heart jumps, and we say, "ooooh, great idea!" But that great idea gets forgotten or tossed out the window when it's time to practically apply it to our lives.

D.L. Moody stated that "Every Bible should be bound in shoe-leather”...meaning don't just read it, live it! So... in the interest of putting feet to our faith, does anyone want to share any practical ideas you plan to implement this Christmas to get your family's focus back on Christ? For example, making your own Christmas cards, or spending a certain % less on gifts this year, or starting a new family tradition, etc

Also...regarding Advent calendars/spirals...is there anything in between the cheap paper calendars and the expensive wooden spirals?

my lifeline

If I were on "Who Wants to be an HTML-ionaire", my lifeline would be REBECCA! Everything good on my blog, I owe to her. Thanks, girl, for telling me how to make my slideshow large... and for all you do for this 1st time blogger.

too. much. fun!

here are some pics of our lovely day! i love the ones of scott jumping over M...in one of the photos, M turns and runs at the last minute. his face is so funny!



just trying to upload larger photos...for some reason i can't get the slideshow larger...testing...1, 2, 3...


UPdate:I posted earlier that M seems to know the difference between boys and girls. This morning he and Scott were looking at a book that had articles of clothing, one of which was a dress. We've never brought it up before, but today I asked M if boys wear dresses. He shook his head no. Then I asked if girls wear dresses. He nodded. I thought he might have just guessed, so I started asking about different people....like Daddy, Mama, Kit, etc...each time questioning if he/she wears a dress. He got it right every time!

edited2add: Jump around, jump around, jump up jump up and get down! Yes, Scott can fly without even really trying. And while it wasn't one of the characteristics that led me to accept his marriage proposal, I must say that his vertical has come in mighty handy at times for this girl of small stature.

friday's fun & UPdate

photos from playing with balloons in the morning and playing at church in the afternoon:

(if you'd like to see the slideshow in full screen, first click the play arrow then click the square with 4 arrows on the bottom right of the box)




UPdate:

M is finally getting some teeth!!! The best part about this will be no longer having to watch him swallow string cheese without chewing....yuck!

Since M understands the differences between boys and girls, I thought I try to see if he could get "he" and "she." Last night as we read I would ask questions like, "Does he have a ball?" or "Does she have a hat?" when there were pictures of both boys and girls on the page...and he always answered correctly.

If you ask what word starts with D, he will say Daddy...and M he will say Mama and (sometimes) also point to himself. He often remembers what words look like and can point them out when you ask.

M enjoys playing pretend, and he seems to have a great sense of humor. Not that he giggles at everything but that he "gets it" and laughs when you make a joke.

I asked Scott if he wanted to add to this update, and he said, "He's stinkier than two months ago."

To China for Owen Fundraiser

Rebecca and family are having a FANTASTIC GIVEAWAY to raise travel funds to bring home their precious Owen! This giveaway should really be called a FUN-raiser because the prizes are just oozing with fabulousness! No money is required to enter the drawing...but after you see Owen's sweet face, you are going to just hand over your credit card. He is THAT cute.

Check out all the details at the official fiesta site!

P.S. Don't Owen (photo at left sidebar) and M look like they could be brothers?