First Day of Preschool (Year 2):
It was so fun to see how excited Julia was to go back!
PSU Carnival:
The girls and I checked out a free carnival (it was advertised as college student AND family-friendly!) on the HUB lawn while Chad was reffing one night...
That's Eliza sprinting up the staircase with stubborn determination while Julia waits at the top...
only to come down the 2-story slide crying and screaming bloody murder...oops!
Slightly too intense for a 2-year-old, I guess. :)
The smaller set took over the jousting ring for a while with plenty of jumping and climbing...
and not a whole lot of jousting.
Free popcorn makes all of us happy...
And we got treated to an absolutely beautiful sunset behind Old Main to end our evening.
Totally worth going, and I think we'll check it out next year. Even WITH all the annoyed college students who acted like we were crashing their carnival experience... (HEY, it SAID family-friendly, too!!!)
Cousin Wedding #3:
My cousin Katie Thomas got married in October, and Chad had the privilege of officiating this one! We so enjoyed our times of pre-marital counseling with Katie and Nick...we're excited for them moving forward!
The happy couple...
The best course of a wedding meal is an unexpected ice cream course!!!
My crazy aunts on the dance floor...
And Chad singing high at the reception (gotta love Journey)...
Halloween:
Well...we had fun this year!
We headed out to our favorite pumpkin patch with our neighbors to take the free wagon ride...
...and challenged our girls to see what the SMALLEST pumpkin was that they could find (hey, it's pay-by-the-pound out in the patch!)
They did GREAT! This one was so small, it didn't even register on the scales, so we got it for FREE!!!
(lest you think we're totally terrible people, we DID support the fruit farm by buying a boatload of apples for applesauce-making that day...)
(lest you think we're totally terrible people, we DID support the fruit farm by buying a boatload of apples for applesauce-making that day...)
Julia had fun during her dress-up day for preschool...we managed to pull together a Princess and the Frog look from stuff in our house already...and it allowed Froggy to get to go to preschool for the day! :)
We also had a ton of fun painting and carving this year...
(posing on our way to watch a PSU football game at Grandpa's place)
...and it was a blast coming up with and creating our family's Trick-or-Treating costumes this year! (Chad in tights is getting to be a tradition.) Three adorable cupcakes and a pastry chef (or "The Cooker," as Eliza kept calling me...)
(side note -- if your family goes around the neighborhood in totally ridiculous costumes for Halloween....people remember you when you send out an invitation for a neighborhood holiday drop-in event later in the year!)
Happy Halloween! (6 months late...)
Lion Pics:
We managed to snag some family pictures on the Nittany Lion Shrine this fall!
Harvest Fields Dedication:
After years of praying, giving, and planning -- during several different seasons of us being connected and/or on staff at Calvary -- a new facility is being built on the Harvest Fields property. Back in November, we got to be a part of a (very cold!) dedication day.
The scripture memory verse that Eliza chose for in the atrium/lobby (and Julia and I helped to write), adding her scribbles to the end. :)
...and what a blessing to see Julia painstakingly write out another scripture memory
verse of hers on the wall leading into the children's ministry area!
Chad and I wrote life verses on the Worship Room wall. (photo credit: Julia)
We're excited to see all that God has in store for this property and church that we love!
PSU/Illinois Roadtrip:
What do you do when you and your spouse are lamenting about:
#1) Not being in town together for a home Penn State football game this fall.
#2) Having some big things to talk through that are currently going on in our lives/situation?
Plan a 20-hour roundtrip drive to watch PSU play at Illinois in November!!! (thanks in-laws for helping to make it happen with childcare!)
The conversation, processing, analyzing, digging, discerning, challenging, encouraging, and connecting time together went far beyond even our hopes and expectations for the trip...
The football game? Not so much. Imagine the worst that two teams could play, in the (reportedly) most depressing stadium atmosphere in the Big 10 (we knew something was off as we entered when an Illinois usher thanked us PROFUSELY for coming to attend the game) -- all with Penn State still losing.
How we felt at the end of the game...
But even WITH "the-game-we-prefer-not-to-talk-about," the trip was still VERY much worth it, bearing fruit that has carried us through these last many months of waiting on God's next direction for our family and ministry!
So there you go! Our Fall 2014 in a (very large) nutshell! :)
No comments:
Post a Comment