Swinging Through The Leaves!

Lily LOVES playing in the leaves and we have a pretty large pile of them for her to play in! This large leaf pile happens to be right by her swing. We discovered that if we pile the leaves all up in the path of her swing and Joe gives her a big push she will sail through the air and plow into them- sending the leaves flying in the air and Lily giggling with delight! Joe pushes her and I stand by waiting to rake them back into the swing's path- over and over again!

Goodnight Prayers

For a while now Joe and I have been praying with Lily before bed. It started off when we put her to bed at night, but now SHE insists on praying before nap time too! Usually we ask her what/who she wants to pray for and she really is pretty good at telling us (although sometimes she needs some suggestions). But she usually wants us to do the praying (she'll say, "Dear God" and "Amen"). Sometimes she'll repeat after me, but that's about it. Until a week or two ago. I asked her what she wanted to pray for and she said that she wanted to thank God for her books, for making the grass, and for daddy. So, I started praying. Lily quickly repeated me and said, "Dear God." But it didn't stop there. Before I could continue she just kept right on going with the following prayer:

"Dear God. Thank you for my books. Thank you for making the grass. And thank you for my daddy. I love you. Amen."

Ummm, I was pretty much in tears- especially to hear her tell God that she loves Him!

Lily- 2 1/2 Years Old!

Here's my precious little girl at two and a half years old!

Trick or Treating!

Just before leaving for trick-or-treating

At Trunk-or-Treating. The pirate is our associate pastor!

Trunk-or-Treat
and

Trick-or-Treating at our favorite neighbors house!

We had so much fun trick-or-treating this year! Lily talked about it all day long (and days before and days after)! First we went to the 1st annual "Trunk or Treat" event that our church hosted (a bunch of people from the church decorated their cars and handed candy out from their trunks in the church parking lot)! It was fun to see some of the families we know from church and they loved seeing Lily all dressed up as Minnie! One of the men in our church dressed up as a ghost (and made noises as we walked by)- I knew that this wasn't going to go over well- and Lily was quite afraid- but in the end she happily took his Skittles and everything was fine! Apparently candy makes everything okay!

By the way, ever since my parents were here and taught Lily that ghosts say "Boo" she loves running up to people and yelling "Boo" at them. If you react and pretent to be scared she just laughs and laughs like it's the funniest thing ever. It's a riot!

Anyway, after going to the church we headed back home to do a little trick-or-treating up and down our street. Lily really loved this and I was amazed at how quickly she caught on. It didn't take long before she learned that the houses with their porch lights on were the ones that were handing out candy- and she would quickly point them out. And although she needed a little proding sometimes she was pretty great at walking up to the door (with me holding her hand), knocking (and saying, "knock, knock"), and then saying either, "Trick or Treat" or "Happy Halloween." And she wasn't bad at saying thank you either (though she sometimes needed reminding). But every now and then she was so fascinated by the candy bowl that she forgot everything all together!:) Everybody loved her costume and she got an especially wonderful reaction from the 5 little ladies handing out candy at the assisted living facility just down the road from us!

The fun has continued and every time we let Lily pick a piece of candy from her pumpkin she spends about 5 minutes trying to pick out just the right piece!:) In the meantime it only took Joe and I two days to polish off our leftover candy!

Carving Pumpkins

Scooping out the guts

Joe's carving and Lily is pushing out the shapes

This is her "pumpkin face"

Decorating her little pumpkin with foam stickers

Lily's finished pumpkin

Joe's pumpkin- complete with hair!

My pumpkin

Well, we didn't get to carving our pumpkins until Halloween morning. And once again I was amazed. Amazed that our little girl who loves to play and make messes and get dirty refused to stick her hand inside the pumpkin to pull out the "guts" and seeds. She refused last year too, but I figured it was just a fluke. This seems like something that she would love. But no. She was instead content to try to scoop out the insides with a large spoon. Oh well. Obviously she is still too young to carve her own pumpkin, but this year she was able to tell me what shapes and sizes she wanted her pumpkin features (for example large triangle eyes)- I drew them and Joe cut them out. And on one of her little pumpkins we let her go to town with some glittery foam Halloween stickers- she was so proud of doing that one all by herself!

Minnie Mouse!

Here she is- our little Minnie Mouse!

Lily loves the Mickey Mouse Clubhouse show and my mom made her this adorable Minnie Mouse skirt and hat for Halloween. She was so excited to be Minnie Mouse- complete with a little squeak and all!

Bonfire!

On Friday night we had our good friends, Brave & Jenny, and their kids over for a bonfire dinner! So much fun! We roasted hot dogs and smores over the fire! The fire was a little smaller and smokier than we had hoped for but we still had a blast. We did opt to eat inside where we also enjoyed beans, chips, and veggies in a smoke-free environment! After dinner though as we did the smores we had a great time enjoying the fire, the crisp air, and each other's company. I just adore this family and Lily plays so well with their little boy and girl! At one point Joe inflated the GIANT ball that he uses for outreach on campus (I'll have to get some pictures of this sometime) and you wouldn't believe how long the kids were happy just pushing this giant ball around the yard! Wish I had been able to get more pictures, but I was too busy talking (and still trying to get used to my news lens and flash)! Thanks Williams family for a wonderful night!