what we have been up to...

It has been a long time since I have blogged, we have been busy! Since my last post we welcomed Fall with a trip to the pumpkin patch with our friends Lindsay and Sam and their beautiful daughters...

Reiter especially loved the goats and the girls loved the hay ride! They had a lot of fun and we thoroughly enjoyed ourselves! We also attended 2 costume parties, neither that I got pictures of, but both were super fun! We also hosted our own halloween party that was a huge success and ended our evening trick or treating with LOTS of candy! It was a great night and the kids were extra cute as a Cowgirl, bumble bee and Reiter was a pirate and also a dog because it was so cold he needed the extra layer! We also trick or treated at the Avenue (our local mall) which was so fun! In November we traveled to Jackson to see my Nana and Papa. It is always so nice to go "home"! It was a weekend that went to fast, my kids played hard with my cousins kids and came home thoroughly spoiled and high on sugar! We celebrated thanksgiving with Kevins family at his uncles house, a holiday we always enjoy! We ended Thanksgiving visiting Kevins peepaw at the rehab place he has recently been moved to and then a visit to Santa at Bass pro shop which the kids liked although the girls wouldn't touch him LOL! Now we are kicking off december and starting some new traditions! We are ok with santa which I know is controversial :) but we are more trying to incorporate the true meaning of Christmas, Jesus. So we have an "Elf on the shelf" the girls named "Jingle Bells" and he has been surprising them every morning with tea parties, marshmallow raids and so much more, He is fun and the kids enjoy it! We also started truth in the tinsel. It is a printable Ebook that gives you crafts and a scripture to do for 25 days of Christmas every day with your kids. We started tonight and they LOVED it! It got some great conversations going. During our craft making I asked what God wanted most hoping Averi and Sofia would say " a relationship with me, for me to ask him in our hearts," something of that nature. Instead Averi said "God wants us to have babies" oh dear, what have we taught them lol! We also started decorating ornaments for the girls tree (yes they have their own in their room, and yes it is pink) with different names for God on them. Tonight was "creator". I loved ending our evening talking about who created them and what else God created. I promise to load more pictures soon! Here are some we recently got back from the girls and Reiter over the summer: