Halloween

Halloween, 2009. I don't know what it was this past year that made Halloween not quite as fun as years past. Maybe it was the fact that Justin was coming down with an ear infection and was definitely not his true self. Maybe I was a little extra sensitive to all the disturbing decor that almost everyone in my neighborhood seemed to be displaying. I don't know, but we still had a fun time nonetheless.

I wish we had stayed longer at our church's First Fest. It was free to the public, and it was the most unbelievable carnival we had ever attended. They had 15, yes 15, inflatables all over the property. They had fun performers like the "tall man"..


...a bungee jump type affair that Justin attempted....


...mini rides, horse back rides, face painting, bowling, and the list goes on. We had an absolute blast although Justin seemed pretty expressionless through the whole thing.


Then we had to go pose for the camera, which he didn't put up a fight for. This year I kept asking him what he wanted to be. He didn't really care, so I chose a race car driver for his new car obsession. When I put it on him for the first time he totally didn't love the fact that it was all one piece. And he kept saying he was Chick, the poor sport on the movie Cars. I don't know why this always bothered me, that he wanted to be the bully on the show. So I finally explained to him that Chick wasn't a kind friend or a peacemaker, so he finally settle on being the King, the nice respectable driver on the movie. Ironic thing if you go back and look at the Halloween playdate photos, his posed photo shows him holding Chick in his hand. It was just fate, you know?


So no more lineage of the postal worker, but we continue to represent the blue collar workforce.


We stopped by our buddy Luke Wilson's house, where their flat screen plasma TV was in the yard in order for everyone to hand out candy together and watch the UT game. Since Justin was heading downhill quickly, we decided to go trick-or-treating on our own. Very few houses seemed to have casual Halloween decor. One man on our street was even on a microphone yelling at the little kids, while wearing a hideous mask, and telling them how scary he was. I think I might go egg his house soon - that's the way to show him Jesus, right?


I got somewhat choked up watching Justin just crave a group a kids to run around with. This kid needs a sibling! But I truly am content with our family of three.


Little man got a little tired at the end of his journey, so he grabbed a ride on Daddy's shoulders.


Until next year....

Prayer Request

I feel led by the Spirit to ask you to pray for me this month specifically for the Lord to open my womb. I have felt this on my heart for a few days and have just kept trying to suppress it. In the shower this morning I felt overwhelmed with emotion as I recognized my disobedience by keeping my thoughts to myself. I knew that the reason for me feeling this way is for God to receive all the glory in this long struggle of mine. I ask you to intercede and beg in my behalf that God would move mountains in order to display the manifestation of His glory. I have even fed led to be bold in my prayer journal and have been asking for not just one but two babies. Seems crazy, I know, but God can do anything, and the more people that are aware of it, the more He is glorified through it. I feel led to lift up specifically my unsaved doctor as well, who still scoffs at me giving God so much credit through this entire process. He is still playing a major role in all this. I covet your prayers, fellow warriors for Christ. Be bold and plead on my behalf...

Silly sunlight and cookies all in a row

So I've been MIA from the blog for awhile. I think this is just the beginning of a trend for me. I think it's because I am on my computer so much editing photos for everyone's Christmas cards that by the time I need to get on the internet I just don't have anything left in me. Lately the internet has just not brought me any joy, and the thought of having to respond to an email, look at a blog post, much less my own blog to manage, has just made an unsettling in my stomach. Beth Moore this past week kind of nailed it on the head for me. She was talking about the reason why nothing on this earth brings us true, complete satisfaction because we have eternity set in our hearts. We will never truly feel like we are "home" until the day we meet with the Lord in heaven. I am starting to transition into a season in my life where I need less commitment, responsibility, and leadership that is required of me. I feel the Lord slowly tugging me away from things that I have enjoyed, and probably received a sin-load of pride and self-righteousness from, and is preparing me for the next season. What this is I don't know, but there is still that hope deep withing of what it might be. All these things are very much unlike me and my gregarious personality - it's quite refreshing, actually.

With that being said, since I am waiting on my Mobile Me to upload my Halloween photos, I thought I would blog about some pix that just make me smile. Justin and I have been a fun twosome lately, and these were just silly photos we took last week.

I saw some sunlight coming through our kitchen window and sat my student on the couch for some playtime with some different settings.


Can you believe that I am embracing the photos that don't always get the smile? Strange for me to say, but I actually didn't want him to smile.


I have actually enjoyed the Christmas photo sessions because I have been capturing the kids' personalities in fun ways.


And what's funny is the families like the ones where not everyone is smiling. I am always stunned when my favorites are not always theirs, but it's all a learning process.


I had some leftover Halloween cookies that we decided to bake one chilly afternoon. Yes, my line boy just had to put them all on top of each other.


Reminds me of the tower of Babel - in fact, we are studying that this week in church.


I love this photo.


I'll get back to the regular scheduled program soon. Enjoying just catching my breath these days.

Pumpkin Playdate

There once was a girl named Shannon


who decided to host the annual Pumpkin Playdate yet again.


She decided that creative food, families bringing favors, and spending lots of time of decor was so 2008.


So she picked a day to host following a massive rainstorm and cold front that emerged in her city of Houston.


She decided that the more the merrier was the tactic this year, and boy did everyone take her up on it.


So all these lovely children and their kids were not only stuck in the house but were doing their craft in the garage (thanks to Leslie for getting the craft together!). Never fear - Shani's alternative is here.


There were new faces this year


and old, from far away lands, faces.


There were families that could only manage one of the children in the photo (this older brother refused to come in costume - maybe next year)


And others that only had one to child to begin with


But we sure had a grand time!


Even if some families came without older siblings who were celebrating at school.


And to think that I even forgot to take a photo of sweet little Blake Haas, attending his first playdate ever (don't know if we scared him off for good). But I did manage to get late comers Dora, Diego, & Boots after we took down the photo session on the stairs.


There were girls that showed up late after school


But not too late. We waited until the party had halfway cleared out before I remembered that Derek had taken a long time to tie the pumpkin pinata together from the stair overhang. Had to make do with the weather by staying inside.


We used yard sticks


and baseball bats


and my son even attempted to break it open with a machine gun fire.


But alas, oldest costume wearer Audrey finally took the pinata down to its death.


And then it as every man for himself, armed with old HEB grocery sacks to fill up with the candy (that I had handpicked the night before so that it was all age appropriate candy).


And boy, were there lots of candy to grab. And the day before Halloween, no less.


Everyone ate in stages, and we even busted out some food that fit the costume. Mickey eared chicken fingers for Miss Minnie.


There were some that stayed later


Which in turn made some new besties in the process.


Whew, and to think that I am blogging about it not to long after - success! Halloween and sickies that followed to come soon.

CBB Pumpkin Carving Event

So I am finally catching up on everyone's Halloween photos. Mine are coming...shortly. What free time I have right now is being spent editing Christmas photos for families that I am taking. So my photos come in next to last place, with the blog struggling to even stay up in the line-up. We came home form BU Homecoming in order for me to direct our neighborhood pumpkin carving party. We closed off one of the streets, designed our pumpkins, ate food, and just let the kids run wild.

Notice the hard worker in our family, the hubster himself. And a quick funny story about Derek: Justin's buddy was talking to his parents about what he had learned in Sunday School yesterday morning. He told them he learned that God was really big and could do anything. He then added that even though God was big, He wasn't as big as Derek. His parents had to explain that yes, God is even bigger than Mr. Derek.


Justin giving his father some support. He didn't feel like getting his hands all dirty.


I was surprised at how many kids carved their own pumpkins.


These girls were very quickly ready to pose for the paparazzi.


One of the high school freshman boys was nice enough to play football, tackle football might I add, with the younger hooligans. Justin was all about the dog pile.


We even had some neighbors without kids in the house to come and fellowship with the other neighbors Chrissy, in the middle, has been my right hand man on these events since I have never hosted any of these before.


And for the record, thanks to all the rain during the week before Halloween, our lovely carved pumpkin was nice and rotted by the time Halloween came around. Which is fine since I wasn't going to be making any pumpkin pie with it or anything like that.

My little otter

I had some leftover plates from Halloween out last weekend on the the counter. I came back after doing some laundry and saw four plates on the kitchen table at each chair. I asked Justin why he had set the table, and he told me it was in case we had any company stop by. Little host in the making.

I was at Walgreens getting my prescription the other day and Justin saw some kids playing at a nearby park. He told me that after we got the medicine that we needed to stop by and say hi to those kids in case they were new friends. Always looking for the next friend.

And today during nap time I went to go take some Christmas card photos for a family and was pulling back into my garage at 5:30pm. The house looked completely dark. I walk in to find that both Derek and Justin are still napping. By the time they woke up, which wasn't much later, it was almost dark, thanks to the time change. Justin ran into the room to go wake up Derek, and then he asked his father to go downstairs with him to make him some breakfast. it took us about 10 minutes to explain to Justin that is was his nap that he woke up from and that it was dinnertime, not breakfast.