Too Cute To Scoot!

Cute shots .. well, because we can! :) Silly willy, cutsie tootsie! Love my boys and their expressions! *HEART*

Fall Festival Festivities!

Mother's Day Out (sooo grateful for the one who started that program! lol) has a Fall Festival every year for the kiddo's! They get to dress up in family friendly costumes for the day, usually to take photo's and most children don't even keep them on, like my Gabriel. Kien on the other hand didn't WANT to take his off, but he did anyway. As you can see, it might get a little "warm" in that suit! Samson Suit that is! 

As most of you know, or for those of you who do not, our home is a real life real living God honoring household. As the scripture says, (emphasis on the last sentence) in Joshua 24:15 states: But if serving the LORD seems undesirable to you, then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your ancestors served beyond the Euphrates, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you are living. But as for me and my household, we will serve the LORD.

So, in saying that, we try our best to honor God, even in an unGodly holiday the world celebrates. In my compromise I have allowed the children to dress up, but only in Godly characters. Now, before anyone judges, know that I am at peace about this, and there is no room for debate or argument. This is my strong conviction, and I will not pass judgement upon anyone else. :) So, with that said, here are my lovely little blessings! 

Kien is Samson! Amazing story! So, I went to the Christian Book Store to seek out a costume, and just to my agreement, they too, do not sell halloween costumes! They had a very VERY small section of costumes for doctor, vet, teacher, fireman and policemen mainly for church plays. AND they were all $30.00! Oh, no, I just couldn't justify spending THAT much. I was actually a bit frustrated because 2 years prior they had a Bob and Larry (from veggie tales) costumes on clearance for $5.00. I only got the Larry costume because it was a size 4Toddler (as you can see I had to make some adjustments to the costume) and the Bob one was too big. So, instead of acting on instinct, (yay for me) I didn't purchase it in hopes it would be there next year. :( Sad to say, it was not and again, not this year either. I also figured that the line would be extended into costumes of other Veggie Tale Character's because of how popular the movies are! Thinking I need to do more research, and then possibly write to Big Idea company making a suggestion!So, as we were meandering over to the video section to pick up the latest $5.00 Veggie Tale and Hermie movies we had to catch up on, I came across this Samson costume! And, much to my pleasure it was only.. get this.. ONLY $5.00!! SCORE!! WIN! SCORE WIN WIN! LOL-- 

Kien and I had previously read the story of Samson in his children's bible. He has asked on numerous accounts to re-read it. I think he just likes that Samson was STRONG! 

As you can see, Gabe was not real thrilled to be wearing his Larry costume. With a little bribery (candy-ha!) He did wear it. He wore it all the way to school even! YAY! 

As you can see, Kien has a sword and a shield. They were a great purchase that daddy made to surprise Kien with a little treat. So, because it was actually a "Thor" set, my crafty shmafty self decided to put a sticker over the Thor name and then use letter stickers to spell out Samson to match his costume. Worked like a charm!

Gabe enjoying the candy. UGH! Sometimes battles need to be fought, and sometimes they don't. I broke the rules a little, because sometimes, spontaneity is a good thing! :)

Oh, my! Talk about adjustments to the car seats! Yes, I had to bring their straps out just a hair to make them fit snug and safe on our venture to school. No issues, no meltdowns, another WIN situation! lol (Can you tell I REALLY LOVE a no-meltdown day?!)

Kien was one of the two first children in his classroom. It was awesome to see other students in their costumes as well! Kien is every bit of "petite" in the whole sense of the word, this costume definitely boosted his confidence! (The top of his head STILL comes up to the shoulders of all those who are in his class) SO adorable! What a huge little blessing!

Poor Gabe was swallowed by his costume, but he was the ONLY veggie tale character! I am not quite sure how long he stayed in his costume, but upon returning that day to pick them up, when I asked, Mrs. Anneke did say that he didn't keep it on long. Enough though, to get their photos! :)

I was actually very sad that I couldn't get a Bob the Tomato costume so the boys could "match" again this year. Last year and the year before I dressed them as the Lion and the Lamb. Below is a photo of their costumes from last year. They had the same costumes different sizes the year before that, but  was able to sell them at the Just Between Friends consignment sale last fall. Which I did purchase new costumes, one being a clown and the other a superhero, but, those were only for daily play dress up with the rest of their toys.

Sunday, October 30th, we were having the Great Treat-tastic adventure at church. It was our weekend to volunteer in FC Kids. Brandy and I decided to wear glitter, because we were going to go as Angels.
Which, I will NEVER do again, as I somehow got it in my eyes and paid for it the next morning when I could barely get my eye to open! LOL! Lesson learned!
Here is my brandy, who is so sweet!

And myself! I actually did purchase some angel wings from the store, that I was going to wear along with glitter in my hair, but, they broke as quickly as I put them on. So, I ended up taking them Sunday night to exchange so Brandy could wear the new unbroken ones the next day.

As I mentioned above, I do let my children participate as long as they are honoring God in their costumes. So, Jeremy decided to be a "rock star". .. yes, a CHRISTIAN rock star from THEE BEST Christian artist EVAH! Skillet lead singer! :)

Here they were, ready to go on a Monday! We let the older children go in our immediate neighborhood because we know most of our neighbors. Then, we headed over to the Row's household, where we were delighted to meet up with the Haschke's! When Gabe and Kien go up to the houses, they are to say, "Treat please" instead of the traditional -trick or treat-. We don't do tricks. Not sorry. LOL

All four of the little ones. Too cute! So glad we were able to see them!

The candy score afterwards! I am SO in the wrong business! I bet those candy companies BANK this time of year! Glad they had fun,

All in all, it was a great time! Peace!

Candy Corn Fudge- and all kinds of things...

So here I am browsing some blogs from my groups looking for some inspiration for craft idea's to do with the boys. And- let me tell you, I have found SO many idea's, very overwhelming! In my visual meandering, I stumbled upon some fun fall recipes. I thought to myself, well, we are having home team and it would be quite festive to make some fudge--candy corn style. I have NEVER EVER not even once EVER made fudge in my life, but after reading the ingredients, psshhshshsh, it seemed seriously easy. It was decided. Everyone at first thought that it was cheese! lol! Yes, if you look at it, it does kinda look like cheese, right?! Ha! But, it was a HIT! EVERYONE loved the fudge, and I was SO glad it turned out! Already sent out the recipes to all my women friends who asked for it! :) 

 Brandy has a pair of sunglasses that the lenses broke out its frame, and she still wears them. Yes, it's a "fashion statement" and she has no shame in rockin' them. Whatever- it's a phase, and I choose my battles pretty well I'd say. I have to admit though, they were adorable on Kien! =D!

 FIG! Mocktails and chocolate night! I just LOVE FIG night. It's "MY" favorite night of the week! I made cake muffins and brownies, but, because I never made brownies in a mini muffin pan, it was a fail... LOL They were too crunchy, and I was not going to feed my girls crunchy brownies! So, next time I will know not to cook them so long, but the cake muffins were a hit and YUM! :)

Ok, this is a bit embarrassing, but you know, life is full of surprises. I went to start the oven to make the cake and brownie muffins and when I opened the door to put the cake in, I was pleasantly surprised to find this left over night from the previous day's lunch. We totally forgot about them! LOL! Hey, when you have 4 wonderful active kiddos and a wonderfully busy hubby, things like this happen, and as long as my children are not lacking anything, I just smile and shake my head. Life is good!

Rev Run in the HOUSE!

What a huge blessing it is to see what was once a secular hip hop star testify their life story from going to having EVERYTHING but yet still feeling very empty. That's the story of a lot of our lives if we will be honest. Rev Run came to our church to share his story. Man, did it bring back memories! Walk this way was their numba one "rock box" song! You can watch Rev Run live at www.fellowshipchurch.com and click on the video titled watch weekend message. You will truly be blessed. 

Nummy Lunch & Cute Poses

Any child I have known LOVES PB&J sandwiches. I have been blessed even further that mine LOVE yogurt  with any and all fruit. (Except green grapes, Kien thinks they are yukky and prefers red) So, although they do eat PB& sugar free Jelly on whole wheat no fructose corn syrup no gluten bread A LOT- I always mix in the yogurt and a banana (or fruit) to make their lunches healthy to eat. :) In dinosaur shape of course! :) 

I spy with my little eye, something that is a .... KIEN!
:)

Gabe and Kien are photogenic. Well, with a camera (iPhone style) in their face all the time, how could they not be? I just don't know how to get them to sit still for a little bit to capture one!

 Look into my eyes....

 I can't hear you...

Brownies for Flavour

Once a month on Tuesday (at our FC FW Campus) we have Flavour. The other Tuesday's each month we have FIG (these gatherings are where we can connect individually). So, for the BIG Flavour of the month everyone brings some sort of theme food, or as this time was just a finger food event. We made BROWNIES! The fudge ones! Kien and Gabe did assist, but mainly to just lick the spatula. The best part.