Halloween

Halloween seemed to come and go so quickly. I still have 3 pumpkins sitting on my porch waiting to be carved. Guess they'll end up Thanksgiving themes.

This year for Halloween Jake initially wanted to be a mummy. I unwillingly agreed. I went out and bought a white sheet, tea stained it, and then proceded to rip it to shreds.

The boys are in Awanas and have been since they were old enough to go and this year they let the kids dress up for Wednesday night. Oh were they excited. So I take off early to go start on Jake's costume. I got about one and a half arms done and I had had it! So I brought him up to the office and my wonderful mother in law finished him up for me. Of course after she had to unwind my bang up job. It took her 2 hours but Jake was very patient. By the time it was over we had all unanimously decided we weren't doing that again. I am sad to admit this, but I have no photo to share of the mummy that Janie so willingly created! Yes I know...horrible.

So for the rest of the two dress up days he was Karate Kid and Stockton was still a Cowboy. And what a cute cowboy he was:

And here's Jake in the new and improved (meaning super easy to get on and off) costume:

They ended up with a lot of candy that we still have over half of, but fun was had all around!!

One of the most wonderful days of Jake's life and ours as parents!

Jake and I were discussing the other day different things in the Bible and the subject of angels and demons came up. We were discussing the different things each does, etc. He asked me if a demon could get inside of you and I replied only if you aren't a Christian. I believe that if the Holy Spirit lives inside of you there is no room for evil to dwell there also! Now this doesn't mean it can't attach itself to you but that's a whole other story.

1 John 4:4 But you belong to God, my dear children. You have already won a victory over those people, because the Spirit who lives in you is greater than the spirit who lives in the world.

So Jake asked how he could keep that from happening and I said by believing that Christ died for your sins and now lives in your heart. He said oh I do and I have for a long time now, and then he got this sad look on his face and said but I haven't been baptized. I asked him why he hadn't told me this before and he said he had told other people, oops should have told your mom dude! :) So of course we keep talking and I asked why did Christ die for us and he answered for our sins. So we went on about that and what sins were and what it meant to be saved and so forth. I asked him if he was ready to go down front at Church and he said yes he was! So wonderful. God is good!! We are so proud and blessed. I was not baptized until I was 20 and I wanted my children to have so much more and know Jesus early on in life so they can make better decisions than I did. I know this doesn't make one perfect, by all means, I am not claiming I am perfected, however I do try to strive for it and with God's strength that He gives us we can move thru this world knowing we have a secure place, thru His son Jesus, up in Heaven!!

John 3:16-17 For God loved the world so much that He gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in Him will not perish but have eternal life. 17 God sent his Son into the world not to judge the world, but to save the world through Him!

AMEN!! What a wonderful feeling to know that my son will be right up there with Jackson and I when the time comes. Stockton and I have discussed this alot lately because I do not want him to not know and he knows as well! So awesome.

The long awaited Arkalalah blog...

Arkalalah came and went so fast this year and I missed the parade again. However running 7 miles and standing in a crowd of thousands just doesn't sound like that should follow the other. So needless to say I just went to our annual girls night out. Which was more than enough fun!!

The girls that went with me have all been to Arkalalah except Laurie, this was her first year and I do believe she had a good time:

Although she is from Arkansas she still has all her teeth, the chocolate covered cheesecake was a hit if you can't tell! :)

I have been going to Arkalalah since I was a baby. I can't remember a time not going (except for maybe when I lived in Tennessee for 2 years) at least to something that they have in the week of festivities. So we have made Thursday night a girls trip to Arkalalah. And boy oh boy do we have a good time...

We leave right after work and drive down there...this year Nephew and I were the dj's for the trip, they probably won't ask us to do it again next year...gotta love some Sir Mix Alot and Vanilla Ice every now and again. We arrived in Ark City and first thing we do is scope out what we want to eat first. My favorite thing to eat at Arkalalah is a bierock. So Yummy!!!

No idea what was so funny though. So on we go after the oh so yummy bierock stop to find what everyone else wanted. Jasper and I decided to split some fried pickles. She really thought they needed ketchup, I however was fine with the ranch they had given us, so we start scouting out a place that has some ketchup. Low and behold we found some or should I say "our retarded friend Jasper" found some:

She went running over, screaming about the ketchup and people all just stared, oh my it was so funny. So we had to savor the moment by the above picture. :)

After we got the initial food we decided to walk around the carnival and look at all the rides that no one would ride with me. :( When we were done there I of course if you know me had to go to the bathroom. Porta potties do not bother me one bit so off I go. Julie however thought the moment needed to be captured:



SO on we went after that wonderful experience to hunt down our favorite food stand of all...the chocolate covered cheesecake!! After the cheesecake was the hot chocolate...it was so cold that night. Here we are waiting at the hot chocolate stand being a bit goofy...

And I have no idea what I was thinking but this picture of Laurie and I totally cracks me up!!

And then Jasper and I patiently waiting for our hot chocolate, I do love my running partner!

And one of Nephew and I...if you've ever been around us, we are constantly in tears from laughing...I don't even think we know half the time what exactly we are laughing at...

All in all I am sure you can tell it was a funfilled evening that we will do years to come! I will leave you with the last event of the night...yes I had to go the the bathroom yet once again...and this time it was a new potty! They decided to make it a camera moment yet again. The first one is Laurie not agreeing obviously in my choice of restrooms and then the lovely exit is the next one.

It will be a much anticipated fun time for next year!

Gotta love Family Picture Day

So today Jasper and I decided it would be a good family picture day. We are always aware of how our husbands are ready to go and the children get a little annoyed, or vice versa. So why we do try to hurry and not be so picky we get some funny ones in the mean time:



Luke really wanted to be in the picture :)

Here's one of Jasper and I, gotta love friend pics!!!

And another one, you know the ones where you can't quit laughing and she just happens to capture it on camera!!

But I got her back...:)

All in all I think we got some good pics...however Jasper....we forgot to take pics of just the kiddos...oops.

Oh the Pressure!!!!

Well I was just informed this morning during our 8 miles that Jasper is putting out a blog the month of November challenge. I do love a good challenge so here we go!

Arkalalah

For all of my life I've been attending Arkalalah in some way. It starts with concessions I believe today (Tues), then they have a super cool light parade on Wednesdays, but since I am a leader in Awanas we have missed it for the past 3 years, and then Thursday has become a girls trip for a few of us (oh so fun), Friday is usually the kiddie parade, and Saturday around 2 is always the big 2 hour parade. It's loads of fun. I haven't been to the big parade in a couple years. I think the last time I went Jake was 4. Here he is in it with my dad.

So you see it's been about 5 years. I am hoping to go this year to the big parade. We go down after work on Thursday and eat, walk around, possibly ride some good ole carnival rides, and eat some more. Cheesecake on a stick comes to mind! :) I can't wait for this Thursday to experience it again and welcome a newbee into the annual trip. Laurie I hope you enjoy it!!! Here's a pic of us last year.

A couple girls can't go this year for prior engagements , hopefully they can join us again next year. We goina have some fun!!!! ;) Check back Friday hopefully I have the new blog posted for this year!!

Twilight saga sadness

So I've been longing for more of my Twilight stories involving Edward and Belle. The books ended fine and all, it's just they could have kept going and had more and more stories, but no she ended it in 4 books. While they were 4 long books and each book kept getting longer by about 100 pages or so, it's still sad that it's done. So right now the few of us that have read it are counting down until the movie comes out November 21st. We will be there no matter what for that first night!!! Probably standing in line like the giddy teenagers we no longer are. :)

Then there's the sad part about Midnight Sun. I do hope she recovers from whoever let her rough draft slip out into the public. There are so many of us, that why patience would have been short, would have gladly waited until it was completed. To hear Edwards side is so very necessary in my opinion. I hope she has better feelings about it and continues the story for our sake...right girls?!!

Maybe we should start making up our own continuation of the story...what would Alice be doing right now? Is Rosalie still a hag? uh yeah. Who is Emmett arm wrestling now? How big is Nessie? I could go on...oh the sadness.