He has overcome

Yesterday was the anniversary of the death of a childhood friend who died 2 days after giving birth to twin boys last year. Sunday, my husband took his father to the emergency room because he was overcome with pain from cancer. Sunday, I watched my sister-in-law host a birthday party for her son as she was holding my niece who was having a seizure. The diagnosis of her short life span is becoming reality as she faces more health issues. There are so many reasons for us to be sad, but yet we have more reasons to rejoice. Sadness comes from a place of love. If we did not love the people in our lives so deeply, there would be no reason to be sad. We also know that every circumstance is by God's design. Even when we do not understand the will or the reasoning of God, there is comfort to know that God's peace is never ending. I know that we are not the only family to be touched by sadness. Many families are facing difficult circumstances. But not every family faces difficult times surrounded by God's peace. If for some reason you are reading this and you do not personally know God's love or the comfort of knowing that this life does not end with death, I would love to talk with you about my experiences. There is no circumstance that God's love and peace cannot overcome.

A friend posted this video to facebook the other day and I just love it. Not only is the message amazing, but the stop motion use of Lite Bright is just too cool.

Because I like a challenge, we added a new puppy to our family dynamics. It was always so easy to take a great picture of 3 young children. (insert sarcastic tone please.) Now that we have 8 week old Lexi, I feel I can finally stretch myself and capture a great, casual, family photo. Or not. Evidence of 3 pictures taken in quick succession:

decent...

I'm losing them fast...

and they're done.

I need someone to give me a tutorial on how to swap heads in photoshop a.s.a.p. However, individually, I can hold my own. It's easy when your subjects look like this:

Love these beautiful girls!

By the way, just for fun, compare the kids in these pictures to the children in the pictures on my blog header taken almost exactly one year apart. What in the world happened? (Dab eyes with kleenex, pretend it's allergies making my nose run, keep it together, man!) Time is stealing my babies. If you have any ideas about how to make it stop, please let me know.

3 things I learned today....

1. If you ever must take a drug test, do not bring your toddler son to the appointment with you. They will not allow him into the bathroom with you for fear that you would take his urine and pass it off as your own clean sample.

2. If you are having problems with your DVR and the cable serviceman comes to your home to work on said DVR unit, it's a good idea to watch the 43 shows you have recorded BEFORE he walks out the door with your entire recorded seasons of Lost, the Real Housewives of D.C., and the Big Bang Theory. Goodbye best episode ever of Crossroads featuring John Mayer/Keith Urban that I've had recorded since May. I miss you already.

3. If you spend a large portion of your day playing Legos with your little boy, talking with your bff for almost 2 hours, and rubbing your new puppy's belly, you will feel like a failure for getting no tangible, visible, work accomplished, but your heart will overflow with joy and your burdens will be instantly lighter.

Can't wait to see what I learn tomorrow!

A new fall tradition

The other day the realization struck me that I have created a new fall tradition. You see, I love to cook and puree my own pumpkin. A few years ago, I never really knew that one could actually cook a pumpkin. I guess I thought the only way to use pumpkin was from a can of Libby's. Then one day, a friend at work talked about baking her pumpkins to get ready for the holidays. What? You bake your own pumpkins? She told me how easy and tasty it was and sent me home with some scratched out directions to make my own pumpkin puree. And guess what? It is easy breezy. Simply clean, cut, scrape, bake, puree, freeze, use. For your enjoyment I'm linking to PW's instructions, but once you try it, there are really no instructions needed. Don't get me wrong. It is not cheaper and there is really nothing unhealthy about those cans of Libby's pumpkin. However, there is something about smelling the fresh pumpkin baking and seeing the bright orange bags in my freezer that speaks fall to me now. I love using a pumpkin for something practical and now I have plenty of pumpkin on hand for pumpkin pies, bread, muffins, pancakes, and all of those other wonderfully unhealthy things to cook in the fall. So grab a pumpkin or two and get baking!

New England Escape, Day 1

We are home from our ah-mazing trip to New England. I loved every minute of this trip! We had the best time and it ranks right up top with our honeymoon to Maui as one of our favorite vacations. We were so fortunate to have great weather; this week they are getting hammered with rain! Yuck! If you're a fan of looking at other people's boring vacation photos, then this is your lucky day. If not, feel free to move along with no hurt feelings.

After a 4:30 a.m. wakeup call, crack of dawn flight, layover in the Admiral's club in Dallas, and an almost 4 hour 2nd flight, we had the skyline of Boston in our sights.

It was early afternoon when we arrived, so it was definitely time for some New England tasty food! We walked from our hotel to Quincy Market and picked the closest restaurant with no wait. I can't even remember the name, but it definitely hit the spot! Lobster for Marty (the first of many) and fish and chips for me. The fish was so yummy and very different from fried seafood of New Orleans and definitely different from the fried catfish delicacy of my hometown.

After lunch, it was time for some serious sightseeing. Since we ate lunch outside, we took in some views of Quincy Market from our table. It was a busy place filled with awesome food and tons of touristy vendors and shops.

We did some walking and headed over to the North End, the Italian district of Boston. Eating at one of these Italian restaurants was the one thing I didn't get accomplished on this trip. I guess that's a good reason to go back, right? This was my favorite area of Boston. I loved the authentic Italian feel to it.

Close to this area, we were able to see the statue of Paul Revere, his house, and the North End Church. The most interesting of the 3 to me was the church. It was fascinating to see how churches were constructed and how differently people worshipped during those times. Every family had a box with their pews on the inside. Some were decorated with fabrics and cushions, but most were plain. The preacher would deliver his sermon from up high on a pedestal. The pew boxes up front were more expensive and for the more prominent families. And the pew boxes in the back? Those were the cheap seats baby!

Paul Revere's home was underwhelming to me. Turns out he only lived there for a few months and it's been redone several times, so it doesn't strike me as historic as what it should be for the price of admission. Maybe it had something to do with the attached gift shop? Anyway, the most interesting thing about it was how small everyone was in Revolutionary times. We are giants compared to these people. Now I know that God created the earth and everything in it, but you can't deny that we are an evolving species. We are a LOT bigger than we were 200 years ago.

I'm going to stop there for today because I don't want these posts to be off-the-chart long. But mostly because I'm tired and I have to be on the soccer fields at 8:30 in the morning. If October wasn't my favorite month and I wasn't in love with the beautiful weather we're having, I would almost wish it was November just to be finished with soccer. It will be fun and I can't wait to cheer Avery on to make some goals tomorrow!

A Little Retro and Rainbows

Armed with a little bit of free time and a mini-me who is learning to be a great chef, we tackled a creative project that has been on the back burner for a while. Ladies and gentlemen....I give you....the rainbow cake. I first saw this cake on a blog a few years ago. A certain young lady in the family will be celebrating her 7th birthday soon and we are thinking of tackling this cake for the big celebration. There were definitely some things that went very wrong, but hopefully the future creations will be a little more (ahem) stable. I have to admit though, it's pretty impressive to display such beautiful colors!

And, since we are talking about rainbows, want to know one of my all time favorite songs?

Love, love the Muppets and I love Kermit singing that song. Anyone remember watching those Muppets shows that came one during prime time t.v.? I loved watching that show. Kids nowadays just don't know good t.v. They can watch 5 episodes of Spongbob without moving an eye muscle. But that Muppet show? It was ROFL kind of t.v. You had to get involved and actually listen. No zoning out and drooling when the Muppets were on. I'm not sure how a cake can get somebody thinking about the good ole days in 1982, but dang, that's just what happened. Tomorrow I'm going on an airplane. Maybe we'll have a post about Top Gun? Oh, why wait. Here's the best scene of the 80's anyway:

I always felt sorry for poor Goose who was obviously the only one not following the latest insane fitness regimen and wasn't allowed to take his shirt off. And who on earth is the guy doing all the yelling? I've seen this movie about 100 times and yet I still do not remember his name. Maverick, Iceman, Goose, and ..... somebody help me out. Who remembers this guy's name? Do your IMDB research and I'll be waiting patiently over here helping myself to one more slice of rainbow, I mean, cake.

East Coast Girls are Hip

I am as excited as a kid 2 weeks before Christmas. Waiting. Anticipating. It's the best thing sometimes. My husband and I are finally taking a little getaway with no kids. To the best we can remember, it's been 5 years since this has happened. 5 YEARS people! It will probably be 5 years before it happens again. It takes so much coordination to leave 3 kids behind. So many things to plan and prepare. So much guilt in taking off without them. So much worry about being so far away. But then there is my wonderful husband. My husband who so patiently (most of the time) waits while they tell me very important things like every person in their class that got in trouble with the teacher that day and which new silly bands were acquired. He deserves much more than 5 days of my undivided attention, but such is the state of life right now. Thanks to my wonderful mother-in-law and the WBBE (world's best baby sitter EVER), it looks like this trip is actually going to happen.

So where are we going, you ask? We're headed to the East Coast! California girls can keep all their daisy dukes and bikinis on top. And their popsicles too. I've been to L.A., and frankly, just wasn't impressed at all. New York? It's my 2nd love, just right under Disney World. I fell in love with the East Coast when my parents took my cousin and I when we were 12 and 9. One of my most fun trips. Do you remember collecting all those shopping bags as souvenirs, Ashley? Great memories. Made a trip there again for New Year's Eve with a college roomie and then ♥ THE MOST ROMANTIC WEEKEND EVER ♥ there with my husband several years ago. It took one carriage ride through Central Park, snuggled under blankets and drinking hot chocolate on a beautiful fall October Saturday morning for me to be a forever NYC girl. A few years ago, I took a last minute girls shopping trip there with my mother, my second mothers two aunts, and my cousin. Just lots of shopping and eating great food and so much fun. This time we're going to branch away from NYC but staying true to my east coast love, we're going here:

and here:

and hopefully eat lots of this:

On the agenda: a beautiful hotel room on the Boston harbor waterfront, a dinner cruise on Boston Harbor, a day trip to Kennebunkport, a quick trip to Newport, RI, and lots of great food and conversation. We truly cannot wait. Christmas is almost here!