Redneck Thrill Ride

Luke Pics

Can you get enough of this little guy?

Day at the Park

Just some great pictures from our trip to the park the other day. We love to take the power wheels up to the local elementary school and ride around the track. I can chip some golf balls while they drive around. Then we hit the playground. It was great weather and a fun morning.

In Inspirational Story For You

Luke Pics

Somebody's getting chunky these days.

God's Memory

Family Bible Night dealt with our memory as we played the game of memory tonight. We played a quick game and then talked about how hard it is to remember where the cards are sometimes.

Then we talked about God's memory, and how it is perfect. He knows all of our good and our bad choices. We also practiced saying the word omniscient, and discussed that that means God knows everything.

We all agreed we never want to challenge God to a game of memory.

Family Fire

Last winter Emily and I just loved having a fire in the evenings when it got chilly. It's just so relaxing. My dad had some trees that fell and gave us some free wood, so we actually had a real fire the other day rather than a pine mountain log. It is a lot more work to split the wood, but you do get to hear the crackle. The boys just love to watch the fire.

Harvest Festival

Here are some pictures from the Harvest Festival at our church. The kids had a blast on "hay mountain" and the inflatable slides. This one child, who I'm related to but will remain nameless, decided that her costume was cramping her style, so she took it off while in the bounce house. It was too funny.

A Man's Swing

via videosift.com

Trick or Treating

This year we had a "Bad Fireman," a pirate, and a penguin. They boys thoroughly enjoyed trick or treating. I can't remember a year where there were so many other kids running around from house to house. It was a lot of fun to see so many neighbors all out together. They both got more candy than they could dream of, so that should make for an interesting next few weeks.

They also had a blast handing out the candy to those who came to our house. Ben was kind but firm to anyone that tried to take more than they were allowed. He isn't afraid of big kids.


(Unfortunately we had a flash problem with the first picture - finger in front of the old flash.)

Family Bible Night - Haste Makes Waste

No, you won't find a verse that says haste makes waste, but you will find the principles of hard work, patience, and doing your best in the Bible. First I had them make a tower as tall and strong as they could in 30 seconds. They got frustrated real quick as I counted down, especially Ben. He practically begged for another chance so that he could do the tower like he invisioned. We looked at the final product and measured their height.

Then I gave them as much time as they needed. Both built larger towers and talked about how much less frustrating it was. We talked about how haste makes waste (and defined both haste and waste - Caleb thought I was talking about his mid-section!). They understood though as we talked about some examples of racing through deskwork at school or brushing our teeth at home.

Career Day - Caleb's School

Caleb's Kindergarten had a Career day where each child got to dress up however they wanted. Then they all lined up and went from room to room showing off their costumes in a parade. Caleb chose to be a fireman, but if you ask him he'll probably tell you he is an evil fireman. I guess that means he makes fires instead of putting them out. Pretty scary isn't he?

I thought it was interesting to see what the different costumes were. A friend from church who is a policeman was also there watching his son, and he was probably bursting inside with pride at all the kids dressed up like policemen. His son had the coolest swat team uniform on (I wish I had a picture). There were also lots of doctors too. One girl was dressed up as Hannah Montana, wig and all. I even saw one girl carrying around her baby and car seat, a future mom in training.

There were no kids dressed as CPA's though. Go figure.

Luke and Ben

Wing Suit

Keys to Living - Family Bible Night

This Family Bible Night was one of the best yet. I took a bunch of luggage locks and put them on a puzzle we had. Then they got to choose keys to try to unlock the puzzle locks. This took a long time for them to figure out what keys went with which locks. They had a great time though.

Then we talked about how the Bible contained truths that were the keys to living. We named as many of those keys as we could (like the 10 commandments).

Political Ads

In the spirit of the political season, Emily and I put together these spoofs for the Sunday school lesson on Sunday. We were covering 2 Samuel 1-4, and David and Saul's son Ish-bosheth are both jockeying for control of the kingdom after Saul's death. Hope you enjoy.

Guess Who?

We got this game for the boys and they love it. It's the super heroes edition, so it has required all four of us to learn what the names and stories of each of these marvel heroes is. I was surprised how well Ben understood the concept of the game and how to narrow down your choices.