All Thanks to Jannah!

We bobbed for apples (I say we...but really the kids and Jannah...I didn't want to get wet:) Ate donuts off a string, and decorated a Halloween cake (because we didn't already have enough sweets), and went trick or treating. Is that a child's dream come true, or what!!

I'm caught up to Halloween!!!

It could not have been more memorable. Here we have Fancy Nancy and Posh Puppy, a tiger, a fairy princess, and a soccer player.

Paddle Boats

I don't know why I have such a fascination with paddle boating! I think it stems from watching "A Time to Love". I don't know. It just seems romantic:) I have been seeking out a place that still has paddle boats for a long time, and found this amazing park in Salisbury. It's a great park...but I realized that paddle boating is not as fun as I had pictured in my head. It was a LOT of work. Trying to get the boat to go anywhere while trying to keep three kids and a diaper bag from falling out. I don't know if we'll do it again, but it was definitely worth the try:)

The Goat

The first picture is of the farmhouse where we stayed. All of Amish country was lush and green like this. It was absolutely breathtaking! If you'll notice in the second picture...the little guy in the bottom left hand corner. That's the goat the owner has trained:) He would throw a remnant of french toast, pancake, or waffle up onto the slide. Then the goat would walk up the stairs, eat, and slide. It was hilarious.

This is the life...

There could be no other trip in the world that was as enchanting and serene as this one! Words cannot describe how beautiful Amish country is. There was the tiny room in the loft of the farmhouse where we slept...the kittens playing around the yard...the full breakfasts every morning...the hayrides...the animals...the playhouse...the dress up...too many more delights to mention...and to top it all off...the best of friends as travel buddies!

Paw Proof

One glance wouldn't explain why this is one of my favorite pictures of all time. In fact, it's hard to even tell what it is:) But it is...and here's why:

When we got home from Reno all of our window panes were covered with paint. It's apparantly a standard professional painting procedure. 'Just peel it off when it dries,' we were told. (Beside the point...it took me a box of razor blades and blistered hands before I finally finished "peeling" the thirty or so windows we have in our house, not to mention that every last one of them is sectioned off into rectangles like the one in this picture!)

As I was walking down our unfinished staircase being careful not to step on an exposed nail, Caleb ran up to me yelling something about having seen a bear in our house! He said it ran around growling, took some cereal, then proceeded to push the door open and run out. This is my fairly serious Caleb who, up to this point, had never been known to make up stories or be exaggeratedly imaginative.

He then led me to the door and showed me the proof. There indeed had been a bear in my house...




I saved this pane to be scraped last...but still couldn't bring myself to finish scraping, hence the perfect circle around the prints. I couldn't let it go for a couple of weeks, and if the door didn't happen to be the most prominent one in my house who knows but that I would have saved it forever!

Unexpected Excitement

After a long three flights home from Reno to Charlotte...we were the last to get off the plane. Right before we got out the stewardess who had been doting on Becca asked the kids if they wanted to meet the pilot! You would have thought it was Santa Claus in the cockpit! Actually, only I would have known how excited they were because unless you know them really well...their demeanor doesn't automatically display their internal emotion. They come across pretty solemn and somber (especially after a draining day). So, that's them with a real pilot in the real cockpit! It was priceless and blessed after such a day. When we were getting our baggage later on we saw the two pilots and the stewardess on the escalator and they waved goodbye to the kids. They were thrilled.

2 Weeks 2 Long...

The happy reunion home...

All the Grandchildren...

Bennett, Elena, Ashton, Felicity, Caleb, Courtney, Rebecca, and Rachel

Lemonade Stand

Oh the innocent joys of youth...

Rae Rae

My niece...Rachel...learning how to sign "more." What a cutie!

Felicity

Chalise's Beautiful Angel Baby...Felicity

This is one happy baby:) I took about ten pictures of her just laughing and smiling. It was adorable. She is the sweetest thing!

Random Reno Pictures

The cousins absolutely love each other and have so much fun together! We miss our Bennett, Elena, and Ashton!

FHE pudding treat

50's party

Reading together

Trip to Reno in August

Bright-eyed and ready to go...this was our first leg of the flight. Charlotte to Atlanta. We had to wait for a while on the run-way, but no big deal:)

Turns out...it was a big deal. We missed our connecting flight to Salt Lake and had to take a shuttle to a hotel for the night. Delta gave us a night stay at some "Value-Inn" kind of place, and a couple meal vouchers, but somehow that didn't quite compensate for the hardship.

Night at the hotel...

4 am flight the next morning to Salt Lake. Finally on our way... Only 2 more flights to go!

I'm a big girl now...

If Becca were my only child...I would be thinking that potty training is the easiest thing in the world to do! Don't they just kind of figure it out on their own? It's as easy as 1-2-3!

Homemade Princesses

All you need is paper and a stapler.