Nicole (2), Ashley (4)

Being the older sisters, we share a room and we also are going to
share this post. We have had a great fall. We had a great time in
the leaves and a few times dad set up a zip line across the length of
the backyard (from maple tree to swing set) and it has been lots of
fun. We just "turn scared into fun" as dad keeps reminding us.
We love drawing and paiting and maybe dad will scan and post some of
artwork. Ashley loves to draw the family- It looks like 5 smiley
faces of appropriate sizes for each family members with legs and arms
coming out of the circle that is the head. On special days, we get
bodies, but mostly we look like M&M's.
Nicole loves to laugh and keeps the rest of us laughing. I can't
think of a story that would tell well on here, but she has a way of
saying things in the few words she knows that makes it very clear what
she is trying to express.
Oh, and as long as we are writing, Dad is all about Christmas music
this year and is very excited to have found the mp3 stream of Moody
Christmas at http://www.moodyradio.org/brd_AudioMin.aspx?id=13144 If
time allows this afternoon we may start decorating the house! 1st
week of Advent this weekend- we are getting excited.

Luke- 7 months

The much awaited post on Luke. He has been one of the main reasons we
have not been posting as much on here. He had a tough time from 2-6
months old. Turns out he doesn't like his monther eating dairy- his
skin would break out and without the coordination to scratch was
pretty much miserable. Now that Missy has been (or at least given her
best effort at) not eating dairy he is a new kid. Very cute, happy,
smily and loves to play with his sisters(and be played with). He
isn't quite crawling yet, though it feels like that could happen soon.
He is still eating well and not at all small. Mom is getting a nice
upper body workout hauling him around.

Happy Thanksgiving

I'm sitting, with laptop, by a fire in my backyard and thankful for a beautiful star lit sky, a warm fire, plenty of wood and even a leaf free back yard thanks to sunny, warm weather this morning. I'm also thankful for the new Fernando Ortega album, Christmas Songs It is great, but that brings up my question that I'd like to pose: When is it too early for Christmas music? I suppose i could make a poll on the blog, but I doubt canned answers will do. So give me your comments, but also, let me tell you why I'm all for it now that Thanksgiving is over, well, nearly.

The bottom line is, that Christmas Music stirs up all sorts of emotions in most everybody- the good songs at least, and it stirs my heart to Worship. The words of some of these songs are so filled with scripture, Joy, excitement, beauty. Take for example, "What Child is this?" This, This is Christ the King! Whom Shepards guard and angels sing. Haste haste to bring Him Love, the Babe, the Son of Mary.

To some, just lyrics I suppose, but to me, a call to remember the price that God was willing to pay to reach out to us to show us love so we can know and worship Him. I guess I say all this on Thanksgiving to say, I'm thankful for a God who knows us, desires us to know Him and give us a purpose. So you, my facebook and blog readers, join me around the fire on this perfect night as best you can; cold enough to need a fire, not so cold it hurts, stars that shine from mind-blowingly far away-
to reflect on what you are thankful for- something my mom always tries to get us to do around a table of food that I always had a hard time getting into but now wish I did more often- God has blessed us in so many ways. And since I'm going first this year I'll take the best answer- I'm thankful for what this music is so reminding me of- The ultimate Gift of God sending his only son to walk this earth, die on the cross and rise again so that we may have Life and have it abundantly.

Oh, and thought I'd apologize for the lack of postings to this blog in a long time at the bottom of this post, not the top. Luke has kept us busy and I'll tell the full story on that shortly. He is doing well now and i'll leave it at that as my hands are cold and the fire could use some attention. Happy Thanksgiving and God bless.