Fall Family Evening

Last weekend we also spent an evening with Joe's family at his sister's house. She lives right on the ocean and, as you can see, it's beautiful. After I took our oldest nephew's senior pictures (maybe I'll share some of those later) I couldn't resist snapping these of each of the youngest set of grandchildren on the tire swing! Oh my they are a cute bunch! And you may have noticed that Eli is the only little boy in the group. But...our sister-in-law is pregnant...so maybe he won't be for very long (or he'll just be totally outnumbered

Party With The Winslows!

During our Fall Break this weekend we headed down to Southern Maine to visit family and to party with the Winslows! Our friends, the Winslows, sure know how to throw a party! Melissa is just such an incredible, thoughtful hostess and it is just so much fun to be around their sweet, caring family! And though just being with the Winslows would have been enough we also got to enjoy the company of the Yorks, Hays, Bethels, Knights, and Grays (all friends who have been involved with Lifelines)! And if that weren't enough...the Winslows had such fun planned for all of us...

Mini horse rides!

And relaxing in the hammock...

And while this was the only shot I got of the food there was plenty of it...snacks (including maple popcorn balls we made at the party), an amazing pot luck dinner, and oh my the desserts!

Painting mini pumpkins...

And while these are mini-pumpkins we also had a contest to guess the weight of the GIANT pumpking their son grew (it was almost 400lbs)!

And one of my favorite activities was pumpkin archery! That could be because I WON the adult archery contest (okay, I tied with my friend Ryan, but still)! Seriously, I haven't shot a bow (even these kid's bows we were using) since high school and I had to get a lesson from the Winslow's 7 year old son, but I still rocked it (shooting the pumpkin man twice)! Okay, it was totally a fluke, but I DID beat Joe (and I may never let him forget it)!:)

And the kids got to try their hand at it too! Lily wasn't so sure, but Eli seemed quite into it (Joe's already talking about getting him a bow)!

And there was lots of just playing and hanging out.

And Melissa put together a bunch of fun games for the kids...

A pumpkin/squash rolling contest (check out the concentration on my daughter)!

And a doughnut eating contest (they had to eat it off of the string). Can you see the little girl just beyond Lily? That's Ella- and man oh man that girl was the true doughnut eating champion (she was seriously focused on eating every bit of her doughnut off of the string)!

And hunting for mini pumpkins in the giant leaf pile...

And if all of that wasn't enough there were swingsets to play on and goats to meet!

And I found these two swinging (Lily and the Winslows son Elijah- who are just a month apart in age)...and I couldn't help but laugh as I listened to these two talk up a storm, telling each other stories (mostly about insects) while they were swinging!

And these two- Eli and Jeremiah (the Winslow's youngest) are just about 6 months a part in age and would be just two peas in a pod (if only we lived a little closer)!

And after dinner we ended this most beautiful day with a beautiful evening complete with bonfire and amazing night sky!

Thank you Winslows and friends for making it such a fun fall afternoon!

Jude

You might remember about a month ago I shared about my friends Mandy and Brandon and their sweet baby boy Jude who is quite sick. It has been a difficult journey for them, but God is at work in their lives and especially in the life of their little boy.

After a long wait Jude is finally getting the heart surgery that he needs today (maybe right at this very moment)! Please please please pray with me for this family and for Jude. Pray that the surgery would go well, that God might guide the surgeons and heal Jude's heart, and that God would protect his body from further infection. You can get updates from Mandy's blog at http://mandypelton.blogspot.com

Even if you don't know them personally please check out their blog- Mandy and Brandon have such wonderful faith and insight as they seek to follow the Lord during this time.

Monkeys

I have two little monkeys!

And none of these pictures were staged (this is normal life with my monkeys)!

The Post Below

I just finished writing a post that I have been working on all week. I always knew that someday I would share about the day we lost the baby and the days following, but it has taken me some time. You should be warned that it is a long, emotional post (and maybe one that everyone won't want to read, which I understand). It really just begins to touch on though all we have been experiencing and learning and feeling over the last two months. I wanted to write it because I want to remember. I know that might seem strange to some. But I've found that with a miscarriage so much of the focus is on the loss and not the life. And so I wanted to remember and honor the life of my little girl. And I wanted to share (and remember) how God met me so faithfully and how He so surely carried us through that time. Every morning during that time I would wake up and lay in my bed and all I could do was pray that God would somehow give me the strength, His strength, to get through. He did and He is.