Inspired tonight...

I've only read Melody Ross' blog probably 3 times in a whole 2 years; I was drawn to her blog tonight; and her most recent posting has touched my heart. I really needed it. If you look on her blog site her posting on November 4th was an answer to my prayers; so inspiring... http://www.melodyross.typepad.com/ the following is a quote from another one of her posts which I LOVE!!!

LOVE IS SO BRAVE

What is being brave?

It doesn't mean that you aren't scared...or confused. It doesn't mean that you know exactly what to do.

It DOES mean, that you keep going even THOUGH you ARE scared, sad, confused....

and even though you have NO IDEA what to do next.

BEING BRAVE
means that you stay exactly who you are...even when everything changes.

IT MEANS

you believe the feelings in your gut...and you listen to the birds and you listen to your heart,

AND
BEING BRAVE OFTEN MEANS

that you ignore all of the other voices around you. (except God's of course)

BEING BRAVE MEANS

holding yourself together when life seems to be falling apart

AND
when you can't hold it together, then....

SOMETIMES the BRAVEST thing that you can do

....is to let GOD hold you together...

to give HIM your pain, fear, confusion and sadness.

BEING BRAVE means

knowing that things will ALWAYS work out somehow

(AND being brave means accepting God's timetable for working things out)

BEING BRAVE MEANS

LOVING...

LOVING EVERYONE.

IN EVERY SITUATION.

UNDER EVERY CONDITION.

Love is SO brave.

YOU ARE LOVE

and

YOU ARE BRAVE
and

YOU WILL MAKE IT.

(Melody Ross)

Trick or Treat!!!

Candy anyone??? I cannot believe how much candy we have in this house? FREE CANDY!!! ; Mom & Dad come on over and get yours! :) hahaha. You think I'm kidding.
Shianne was a fashionable vampire for halloween; she looks so much older in these pictures- very photogenic.

This is our adorable neighbor from across the street; he went trick or treating with us. His Momma is gonna love these pictures...

Brenden was out patrolling the streets! :)
Here are our carved pumpkins; we didn't do too bad we knocked 3 out in 2 hours.... Being the last minute person that I am I waited to carve pumpkins when the kids got out of school on the day of Halloween... Heres the cat...
Casper the friendly ghost...
Half Moon and stars...
Our adorable trick or treaters (I didn't get many pictures of Jimmy) :(
Look at that make-up... only for Halloween... no I am not one of those pageant Moms :)

Jimmys class picture before they went trick or treating round the offices; he is the quiet one all the way to the left- he always looks so serious at school-
I hope everyone else had a fun and safe Halloween night! Don't forget if anyone wants some free candy come on over. :)

Peltzers Pumpkin Patch

We had so much fun at Peltzers! It was our 1st time there; it's a beautiful drive down to wine country. I live very close yet the last time I drove in that direction was at Ed & Jens wedding anniversary about 6 years ago! It is very gorgeous out there.
Picking just the right pumpkin was no chore for Shianne and Brenden; Jimmy took his sweet time; and decided on this cute little white one- they do know how to pick a good pumpkin if I do say so myself. ;)

I love this picture of Shianne:

Playing in the hay is always fun; I found out this day for the very 1st time that my husband is allergic to hay. Poor guy!

Shianne took a couple pictures of Jay and I ; don't you just love all those porta-potties behind us! lol

The kids loved the corn maze

And the pig races; one of the funniest things we have ever seen!

The sunflowers were beautiful...

Off I go; Jimmys trick or treating at his preschool today; can't miss it! :)

Blog make-over and Crazy hair day...

Don't you just love my new blog design? I can't stop looking at it! Yesterday after blogging I was trying to change my background and lost EVERYTHING! I ended up spending the entire day fixing it! Well wah-la look what came out of it; a beautiful place to reflect. :) I lifted the background from the site that Kerry used- aqua poppy designs- there are some beautiful -AND FREE - backgrounds to choose from... Love it!!!


It is red ribbon week at Shianne and Brendens school this week! Today was crazy hair day- when they woke up this morning they could not wait to have their hair done! (even Jimmy) Aren't they adorable?

I still need to share pictures of our family outing to Peltzers this past weekend; the plan is to post those tomorrow. Have a fantastic day!

Moon Sand Fun!!!

We had our nieces over this weekend for a sleepover! The cousins play so well together! They had a lot of fun- at one point Saturday night we had 7 kids in our house!!! 7- thats a lot! They were all very good though. As you can tell I'm gonna need more of that patience I talked about in my last post to clean up my house. I was thinking that maybe I should just clean it and stop saying it so much! I wonder how many times in a week I actually say I need to; or I am cleaning my house. Wow theres a thought I say it way too much- it has overloaded my mind- I think I need to stop that! :) I'm going to enjoy the life God intended us to enjoy and stop panicking over a clean house- I think it's some kind of addiction- Thanks Mom (it's hereditary you know) ! Love you! :) Here are some pictures of our weekend with our nieces... (and neighbor) :)
Jay also rescued a rabbit that almost drowned in a puddle of water out back- theres some pictures of that too! I swear Jane we had all the kids scrub their hands after petting this wild creature! ;) We set it free the next day.