Friends

Lena with her friend, Jenna (dressed as a bee), at our chuch Fall Festival. Note the height difference. Jenna is two weeks younger than Lena.

First-time "Treater"

This is the first time for Lena to do Trick-or-Treating. She of course looke adorable in her crayon costume. We only went to two houses, which were 2 couples from church we are friends with that live within a mile from us. When they opened the door, Lena would only say "Treat!" It was quite cute. Sam and Sarah loaded Lena up with tons of candy. And while we were at Joe and Kim's, Lena played with their cat, Lucy, and fed her a treat. Lena seemed to enjoy the evening, but was ready for bed when we got home.

Preschool Costume Fun

Yesterday was the costume parade/trick-or-treating and carnival at preschool. Of course being a teacher, I had to dress up, so....I dressed up as my favorite children's character, Cat in the Hat. Also, it was the only costume I had on hand (leftover from Sing Song). Lena's costume was a pink crayon, and she got lots of oohs and ahhs, and "O how cute!" The next question was of course, "Did you make her costume?" I was very proud to say that I did make it. I really enjoyed making her unique costume.

Halloween 2007

Mitch decided to go this year as an 14yr. old that is too cool for candy, too cool to smile.




We finally got a smile to sneak out.

Larissa is the best!


Hutton was a good pick to work the football toss at the Harvest Party





Who are these people?

The Pumpin Patch

I took Lena to The Pumpkin Patch last friday, and she had a lot of fun running around and seeing/playing with all the pumpkins. She kept trying to pick them up, and succeeded with a few of them. We didn't take one home, but got some pictures from the day.

One more

Lena Pictures

Here are some pictures I took last week of Lena. I thought I would post them so you can see how she is doing. She loves her swing, and the second picture shows how long her hair is getting. If you straighten it out, it is past her shoulders. The puppy in the third picture, is one that Lena saw at the store and really wanted. She named the puppy Molly. She loves to take "Molly" on walks around the house with a leash.

Hutton spoke

Dear Hutton,
I snuck in to the stadium tonight to hear you speak at Field of Faith. I heard you didn't want all your family there to make you nervous, but I just couldn't not be there. (Honestly, I can't imagine being much more nervous than speaking to 2000 of my peers!) And I am so very glad I went.

What you had to say was powerful, challenging, important stuff, and you said it so well. I am VERY proud of you.

But even more than that, I am learning from you as you walk faithfully through your grief. You "get it", like David and Job and Habakkuk and the Canaanite woman got it. I don't know why God has chosen this path for your life. And like you, I'm not sure I really want to know, but I was blessed to see you choosing to be a blessing to others even through your pain. What I saw on your face and heard in your voice was a sincere desire for those teenagers to get it too. I'm praying that some of them will.

I'm writing this to you on the blog so that the few members of your family who didn't get to sneak in and hear you in person can celebrate the work God is doing in you too.

Love you,
Aunt Trisha

Goodbye Car

I know it doesn't look like a lot
of damage, but they told us it
was totaled. The frame that holds
up something in the engine area
alone would cost too much to fix it.
So, it's bye bye car. At least we
don't have to worry about the debt
on that car anymore, since the
insurance settlement was enough
to pay for what we owed on the
car. So, we are going with one car
for right now, and are going to
save for a car for sometime later.
It will be hard with one car with
our schedules, but we will manage.
We've done it before. Just part of
life. My hope is to be able to save up
for a bigger vehicle to accomodate a
growing family. (No, we're not
pregnant---yet). My favorite car is
the Honda Pilot. We'll see what we
end up with.

Musings of a Proud Father

Well, we sure are impressed with Lena and her development. In fact, we're feeling like Isaac is sort of behind. We made ourselves feel better though as we thought about some of the things he can do. Just to show you how developmentally advanced he is, we thought it would be good to share some of those things with you:

--He is not quite as linguistically advanced as Lena, he does grunt quite expressively as he strikes his brother on the head with his light saber. (As they say, "Actions speak louder than words." Though not, incidentally, louder than Luke's wails.)

--He doesn't seem to be keeping up with Lena in the potty training area either, but he does hold his own legs in the air when we change his diaper. He also has mastered the art of testing to see if his diaper is poopy or not. (Though he has not yet determined how to deal with his fingers when his tests turn up positive.)

--He also is quite spiritually advanced. He seems to be taking this missionary thing to heart. In fact just the other day he was so overcome with love for the heathens that he pushed open the front door and ran into the streets to preach. By the time I reached him he already had two cars stopped and was obviously winning them over when I interrupted his outreach. (Imagine how surprised he was when I scolded him instead of encouraging his efforts.)

--As far as fine motor skills go, he is able to pick boogars from well beyond his nasal septum up near his pharyngeal tonsils. I mean if his finger isn't actually touching his brain, it's about as close as a finger can get. And then to see him come out with his intended target at the tip of his finger is just a joy to a father's heart.

--And then there are his gross motor skills. (Some of you may have thought that last one fit into this category, but medically speaking it just means the movements of his bigger muscles.) Well this boy can dance. In fact, he is able to get his body to move so smoothly and skillfully as he senses the deep rhythms of the music and interprets its hidden soul that he has more than once been compared to one of the greatest dancers of all time--his father.

Well, I hope this list doesn't lower Lena's self esteem too much, but I just felt like it was time we let the world know what a special boy we have.

Bursting with Pride,
Randy

Lena

Yesterday, Lena asked to go potty. So...I took her to the potty and she went on the potty! She asked again later and did it again! We have started a new era in our lives now. She understands now about going potty. I haven't pushed her at all towards it, but she's asking and going.

She's becoming such a big girl now. I say all the time that everything about her is a two year old--her age just hasn't caught up yet. It's so cute to listen to her sing "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star." Her version is:

"Twinkle, twinkle...star....how I wonder....are
up.....high.....diamond.....sky
twinkle, twinkle....star.....how I wonder....are."

That seems to be her favorite song. That and "Jesus loves me."

Our conversation this morning was:
Me: "Lena, we need to get dressed now."
Lena: "No"
Me: "We are going to church this morning. Do you want to go learn about Jesus?"
Lena: "Jesus, Bible?"
Me: "Yes, we will learn about Jesus in the Bible, but first you have to get dressed so we can go to church and learn about him."
Lena: ---looks at me like she's thinking---
Me: "Jesus wants to do what mommy says and get dressed."
Lena: "Okay."

If it has to do with Jesus and Church, she's happy to oblige. At bedtime, she always wants to hear a Jesus story.

God has blessed me with such a precious girl.