Our Family--Thanksgiving 2009

Remember November?

I barely do. And it's almost over! here's what we've been up to this month...

--We went to Dewberry Farm. It was lots of fun for the boys--plenty of climbing and riding and playing with lots of our good friends. We took a hayride out to the pumpkin patch--or what was left of it.

Unfortunately, this was the only picture I managed to snap of the boys together.



Not sure what's more pitiful--the decimated desert they tried to sell to us as a pumpkin patch or poor Jude.

But after he got up, he owned that place.



--Asher and Jude played several concerts--The Living Room Sessions. Outfits of choice that evening were Daddy's shirts.



--We had a craft day with our Bible study group. Here are the pictures our kiddos made. They did surprisingly well! (or their moms did in some cases...hmmm....)



Let's see...what else, what else?

--Oh yeah--I turned 30. Here's some pictures of my kids eating my dessert. There aren't actually any pictures of me from that day. But the devouring of the Tres Leches is well documented.



Jude was under the impression we were reenacting the scene from his birthday.



--And finally, last night we went to The Downtown Aquarium with our friends, the Leathermans. All the boys loved it and what made it even better was getting in for $5 each instead of the usual $16 thanks to it being Aldine ISD day. Just one more perk to being in public education. The list just goes on and on.

We saw lots of amazing sea creatures! Jude went diving to get a closer look.



In addition to the bazillion gallons of tanks there, they have a huge white tiger. I'm sure there is some sort of correlation, but it was lost on me. So we just said hi to the real tiger behind the glass and then posed with other real tiger for a few quick pics.




Fearless those boys are!

Then we moved on to the real fun--the carousel, ferris wheel, and train.




The lighting was bad, but the other reason for the blurriness is that this carousel was moving at warp speeds. Russ was holding on for dear life. He may have screamed like a girl--can't really remember.



Normally, I love ferris wheels, but there is something about being SO high with my children who have very little fear or appreciation of gravity. I was a nervous wreck and Asher and Jude just wanted to be put down so they could hang out over the side.




Needless to say, we only rode once.

Whew! Now you're caught up. Soon, they'll probably reel me in to particiapte in The Real Housewives of Harris County and then you can just tune in to see what we're up to, but for now, enjoy my sporadic updates :)

New Shoes!

My Ssekos came in and I love them! Still learning all the ways to wear them and wishing I had more straps--soon enough I'm sure.

But here is a little video that shows one of the looks.



Have you ordered yours yet?

The More, the Merrier!

This is what our little play group looked like 2 years ago.



And this is what it looks like today!



From the left: Asher and Jude, Jax and Tye, Josh and Dash, Travis (big bro to Cana and his mama is pregnant!) and Josiah and Naomi.

We've added friends and siblings and there are more babies on the way! Bethany will need to purchase a longer couch for our picture next year.

Happy Non-Specific Fall Holiday

We are lovers of reformed theology therefore our hats go off to Dr. Martin Luther as we commemorate the nailing of the 95 Theses to the church door at Wittenburg on October 31, 1517.

But with all due respect to the Protestant Reformation, we trick-or-treated this year. We went to Grammy's house and had a blast with cousins Reagan (aka Hannah Montana) and Reed (aka big scary green dragon.)

Asher loved dressing up as a fireman and Jude was his trusty sidekick, a Dalmatian (not a COW thank you very much.)



Reagan and Reed were very cooperative during picture-taking which is more than I can say of my own two little darlings.



But thanks to Aunt Mindy for capturing this day for us because I neglected to take one picture with my own camera. Hers are always better anyway.

Every Sandal Has a Story

Heather over at Sit a Spell recently posted (like yesterday I think) about an incredible company called Sseko Designs. Sseko was created by Liz, a woman who--get this--saw a need and did something about it. Novel idea, I know. What about that concept do I not get? Anyway--back to Sseko.

The need she saw was this: Ugandan women needing a way to earn money to continue their education. You can read more about it here.

Sseko is a "not just for profit" organization (don't you love that!) Liz broke out of that false dichotomy that says you can either make money or do good. Why not both? Why choose between helping those in need, improving a local economy, and making a quality product when you can do it all?

I ordered a black pair because I'm so adventurous, but there are so many cute patterns to choose from. So go check out Sseko Designs and we can all be cute and socially responsible together!