Halloween and other pix from October

The kids had a blast tonight! Casey was giddy with anticipation and kept asking ALL DAY, "when can we go 'truck' or treating?". We only went around our little block in our neighborhood and then headed to Pure Heart Christian Fellowship where our neighbor is the lead pastor there. They were having a festival and "trunk or treating" with lots of games and bouncy houses! Then we headed over to their house to hang out afterwards. We had fun laughing about the "Where Did I Come From" book that I was given to explain "the birds and the bees" when I was little! (I came across it while going through my childhood books when we were preparing for our garage sale). It was a good night and we all had fun, but got to bed really late! I'm praying that the kids sleep in tomorrow morning!

Here is our gang, sitting on the wall in front of our house, ready to trick or treat!

Emily - The Flower Fairy

Casey - The Power Ranger

Ryan - Optimus Prime (Transformers)

Hitting up the last house of the evening, I had to get a picture of them in action!

Emily is checking out her goods!

Can you believe she left that flower headband on all night?

I pulled her in the wagon because her little legs can't keep up with the rest of ours!

Lucy even got to come with us!

My sweet and thoughtful step-mom sent us a box of fall goodies, including cake mix, frosting, halloween cupcake holders, halloween sprinkles to decorate the cupcakes with and even a halloween spatula! Here are the boys making the cupcakes.

Two of our neighbor kids came over to help decorate the cupcakes

When Ryan is concentrating, he really works his tongue!

Spoiled dog!

Ryan plays for the Glendale Badgers (coach pitch baseball). They won their game today!

Casey is playing T-ball for the Blue Stars

Here's his buddy, Micah. "Nope, I did not just eat a powdered sugar donut. Not me, no-sir-ee!"

Here's another buddy of Casey's, Zachary

Here are the 4 musketeers: Casey, Micha, Zachary and Jonah

God Cares

Most of the time, I find myself crying out to God for major things. I forget that He cares about the little things too.

I struggle with staying within my grocery budget. Nine times out of ten I go over by about $30 to $50. I would really like to try the "envelope system" for non-bill expenses but Tripp doesn't think that I can stick with it. So this month I really wanted to show him that I could do it. That I could stick to my budget. But on October 20th when I sat down to figure out how much I had left to spend for the month, I was shocked to realize that I only had $38 to work with. But, I gave it over to the Lord and asked Him to show me what to do with that $38. I discovered that I had a Fry's giftcard in my wallet, but I thought it only had $10 or $15 on it. I looked it up online, entered my giftcard number and do you know how much I had on there? $100!!

God is so faithful.

When I went to the store, I was armed with my carefully planned out list and specific coupons. All the while, asking God to help me as I shopped, guide me, help me to not be impulsive. I had thrown 2 bags of candy into my cart because I had a coupon that made them a good deal. As I was unloading my stuff onto the conveyer belt, I picked up the candy and realized that I needed to put it back. So I did. Once I had given my club card and my coupons to the checker, do you know what my total was? $100.15.

God is so faithful.

Whenever I give it over to Him, he is so faithful to take care of things for me. Why don't I do that all the time? He cares about every little detail of my life. Things don't always go the way I want them to, but in the end, I usually can see that God had a better plan than the one I wanted.

So, all this to say, give everything to God. Everything. He can handle it.

Mama's Losin' It!

This is the title of a blog I've read before and it's just fitting for how I'm feeling lately! I don't even have time to be sitting here venting, but I must, or I may implode.

I love being a mom. I love being a stay at home mom. I just don't think I do it very well! I'm drowning in a never ending list of things to do: papers to fill out and return that come hom in my kids' bags, a sea of laundry growing by the hour on my sofa, a floor that desperately needs to be mopped, a bathroom that looks like a science project (according to my husband!), t-ball practice, baseball practice, homework, dinner, my Hallmark job (that is about to get really busy for the Holiday season), a Bible study that I'm supposed to work on daily but have only sat down with it once this week.

Okay, I vented. Now I must start digging my way out of all my "to-do's". If anyone feels like they have it together and can offer me some advice or fantastic organizational tips, please pass it along!

A Milestone For Casey!

Casey can officially ride a two wheeler bicycle at the age of 4! Tripp took him to the park a couple weeks ago and they practiced in the grass and he got it pretty quick. Here is a video of them below:

Then, just the other day, Tripp got Casey going in our cul-de-sac and now he can steer, kind of (he almost crashed into me!):

I'm so proud of him! I didn't learn to ride my 2-wheeler until after I was 6! He got the hang of it so quickly and he was fearless! Good job, baby boy! We're looking forward to getting the boys on their bikes, Emily in the jogging stroller and going for family run/rides now that the weather is finally cooling off!