Trick or Treat!

Last night was Beggar's Night, so here are some pictures. When I picked Colby up from school he said he wasn't feeling good. UGH! He came straight home and laid down but when it was time to go out he said he didn't feel like going. What? No Candy? So he stayed laying down. Cale and Daddy went out for a little while but he was more interested in helping me hand out candy. We had them both in bed before 8:30 (without argument), that's how you know their sick. Cale was sick in the night and Colby still wasn't feeling well so we just had a day of laying around today. Colby went to a Halloween Party Monday night, which I am glad for since he had to miss TRICK OR TREAT last night and his class party today. Shawn was sick yesterday morning and me-well I'm just too TOUGH to get sick. Knock on wood, everyone is feeling better, maybe were over it.

I love it....or no

So this past weekend Shawn and I were having a conversation about how we really need to be trying to get the boys to eat healthier. We try but sometimes when we are really busy trying to be quick definitely isn't healthy. I realize its so just about better planning so I'm trying. Today I went to the grocery store and stocked up on some healthy snack alternatives and also tried to do some meal planning. That brings us to dinner tonight.....Cale helped make dinner with Dad. They made homemade fries, broccoli and grilled some steaks. He thought the fry idea was cool. They cut them, tossed them in some olive oil and baked them. So all of this delicious food is on his plate. We begin the debate about the broccoli. So he eats it (FINALLY), declares that he loves it, Shawn says do you want some more buddy. No thanks Dad, and he hops down, I don't think he even got one step away from the table when he vomits all over the kitchen. Shawn was like that'll teach us. So for the rest of tonight he has been telling anyone who'll listen-his tubby toys, Maggie, Colby, the walls ~ANYONE-that he loves broccoli! Too funny. I guess its good that he hasn't banished it from his list.

Cowboys vs. Vikings

I forgot to even do a blog since after last Sunday I do have bragging rights. See I am a Cowboys fan~~my hubby a Vikings fan. They played last Sunday and woohoo Cowboys won! Even Maggie May is a Cowboys fan, don't let the disgusted look on her face fool ya....

It has arrived....

On 10/18-we ordered Shawn's new TV. It arrived on Tuesday. Best Buy told us it would be 6 days, it came sooner, and I'm absolutely positive that that wasn't soon enough for Best Buy. Shawn was like a small child waiting for his new toy. Everyday he said did they call, maybe I should call them, so he'd call. Anyhow he's happy, make that ecstatic about it. I'm feeling like its large, very large. But I guess that's to be expected since its a 50 inch plasma.....boys and their toys. Now we just have to wait for the wall brackets to arrive. Note to the manufacturer, please hurry.

Mama's little helper....

Friday morning Cale set out on the task to bake cookies (please don't notice the tub he's getting the cookie dough out of). Its so funny how when kids are young they love- love- love to help. Doesn't matter what it is-laundry, mopping, cooking, dishes Cale will volunteer. I have to take the help while I can get it, because as Colby gets older he gets busier with his own things and less willing to help. Don't get me wrong Colby still likes to help, it just comes a little less frequently.

The cookies were delicious, he's a great baker!

****please note the pile of dishes behind him are clean, just waiting to dry...:)

More Family Circus....

Family Circus

I have always loved the comic Family Circus, probably because the kids say the things we hear come out of our own children's mouths. Anyhow, there have been a couple here in the last month that I loved and I found a cool website that you can view them all. I thought I would share the couple that I really liked.

I love my life!

Please excuse my rant..... It is one week past our 10 year wedding anniversary and today, just a normal ordinary Thursday, and I can not explain how I'm feeling. I am one lucky girl, okay woman, since I am 33. I have two boys that love me and think I'm pretty fantastic. And don't even get me started on my husband, what a great guy! Someone who I love, who is my best friend, and who I can count on for anything. And probably what makes him even better is how much I respect him. He works hard and takes such good care of our family. A wonderful husband, father and business man. How lucky am I?!!! So for those of you that really know me, the lyrics to song below are of course from a country song, Sara Evans says exactly how I've been feeling today and for the past 10 years of this wonderful life. Jeffrey Shawn Adair, I love you, baby!

"I Could Not Ask For More"

by Sara Evans

Lying here with you

Listening to the rain

Smile just to see the smile upon your face

These are the moments I thank God that I'm alive

And these are the moments I'll remember all my life

I've found all I've waited for

And I could not ask for more

Looking in your eyes

Seeing all I need

Everything you are is everything in me

These are the moments I know heaven must exist

And these are the moments I know all I need is this

I've found all I've waited for, yeah

And I could not ask for more

I could not ask for more than this time together

I could not ask for more than this time with you

And every prayer has been answered

Every dream I've had's come true

Yeah, right here in this moment

Is right where I'm meant to be

Here with you here with me Yeah

These are the moments I thank God that I'm alive

And these are the moments I'll remember all my life

I've found all I've waited for And I could not ask for more

I could not ask for more than this time together

I could not ask for more than this time with you

And every prayer has been answered

Every dream I've had's come true

Yeah, right here in this moment

Is right where I'm meant to be

Oh, here with you here with me

No, I could not ask for more

Than this love you gave me

Cause it's all I've waited for

And I could not ask for more No, yeah

No, I could not ask for more

Pictures from the Family Fall Festival

Cale playing a game
Chief Micaela, her costume rocked!
All the little cowboys during costume judging.
Middle sized cowgirls being judged. Little miss Jordyn won!
Jakey waiting to be judged.

Pictures from the Family Fall Festival

Talking over strategy before golfing...
Jordyn, Jake, Jayden playing a game with Mr. Randy.

I love the look on Colby's face in the background
Jordyn and Ashlin playing a game.
Jayden and Ashlin playing a game.
Jayden and Ashlin playing a game. Jake bring Ashlin his loot!

fun at the Family Fall Festival

Saturday night was the Family Fall Festival for JCFC. It was a lot of fun. We had a wild west theme so we got to dress up like cowboys. Cale dressed as Kenny Chesney, and was quite a cutie! I was totally excited at the aspect of making cakes for the cake walk, that is until the task actually began. I attached some pictures, it was fun but quite a bit more work than I had anticipated, I'm glad Ashlin came by to help me out. I don't think I will be quitting my day job anytime soon to become a cake decorator, that's for sure.

We had a tough time finding costume ideas for Colby but he was good enough with wearing his gun holster. Ashlin was babysitting for the Sustala's kids and they were all dressed up in their best western attire. They were so cute, and had a great time, and were soooo well behaved. I will add some pictures of everyone in costume later.

Another busy, busy week....

Last week was another of those weeks where when it has ended you just go wow! So here are a few quick details.

• Sunday night we had our Marriage Life Group at the Main's, it is a great "SMALL" group, it has been very eye opening and helps really think about how your partner may be interpreting things.


• Monday night we had Colby's Taekwondo belt promotion. He has been in Taekwondo since January of 07 and really seem to enjoy it. Because of his age range they do the belts a little different, he has to a little more work to promote to different colors. So this was his graduation from yellow belt with white stripe to orange belt with orange stripe. Very confusing. I was so proud of him, he has really been learning a lot these past few weeks, we've had an instructor change, and most of what he had to show to the judges was stuff he has just learned. He did AWESOME!


• Tuesday we went to lunch with Lisi and Amy, which has become a Tuesday ritual. Cale and Lisi play so well together and its great for some mom time. :)


• Wednesday I had to take Cale back to the doctor, he fell the other night playing at the Mumm's (you know being a 3 year old) and still was limping a week later so the doctor wanted to do more x-rays and lab work to rule out any serious issues. We started at our regular doctors office for blood work (not fun) and then went to the radiologists for some hip, pelvis, and knee x-rays. Long story short-they found nothing....I guess that's good, but its hard not knowing what exactly is wrong with your little one. (The picture of Cale with the eye mask is on our way to the doctors office, he has morphed into a TEENAGE MUTANT NINJA TURTLE)


• Wednesday night we had our Parenting Life Group, what a blessing it has been answering some of those questions that you know everyone has.


• Thursday was Shawn and my 10th wedding anniversary. Wow! Its hard to believe we have been married for 10 years. Wednesday night Pastor Lori was talking about making the decision to be a cycle breaker, and I guess that is exactly what I have done. I am so happy with the marriage that Shawn and I work hard to have. We are so blessed, and I hope we will celebrate many more anniversaries together. Shawn's sister and brother in law came over Thursday night and watched the boys while we went out to dinner, it was nice to have some us time. Guess what else I did on Thursday afternoon....put my WEDDING DRESS on, 10 years, two kids later and it was even a little loose. I was pretty impressed. (The picture of Cale on the fireplace is a after dinner performance of his wonderful singing talents, and yes his microphone holder does just happen to be his underwear)


• Friday I started with "THE" cakes....more on that later.


• Saturday I finished "THE" cakes with Ashlin help. That night was fall festival for church, such fun!
  

New friends....

It is always amazing to me how quickly kids make friends. Tonight at the anniversary party I said to Cale "that little boy looks like hes about your size" Next thing you know they are off and running. Side by side most of the night, too funny. I had to post some pictures of Cale and his new friend Tanner.

Happy 50th Anniversary!

Tonight we went to a anniversary party for some dear family friends. Shawn's best friend since he was little is Steve, and his parents just celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary. WOW! What an accomplishment! Jerry and Carolyn are two of the sweetest people and we had such a good time celebrating with them tonight. They are such an inspiration to Shawn and I. We are about to celebrate 10 years....only 40 more to go....

Happy Anniversary Jerry & Carolyn, wishing you many, many more!

Happy Birthday Pastor Josh!

Today is Pastor Josh's 30th birthday, a big Happy Birthday to a wonderful guy. PJ is a super guy with a big heart that shows in everything he does. His family is a top priority and you can tell it everything he does. What a wonderful wife, daughter and son. The Singleton family has definitely been a blessing to our family as well as many others. Thank you Pastor Josh for the work that you do, bringing God's message for all of us to hear. I am so glad that we were listening to the radio that one day last spring and opened our hearts to hearing how much the church could offer our family. Happy 30th Birthday!

I love the innocence of children.....

This morning on the way to school....

Me: Tomorrow is Pastor Joshs' birthday!
Colby: Really! How old is he going to be?
Me: 30!
Colby: Wow, he's really young....especially compared to Dad!
Me: HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

Now thats funny, at least he didn't say compared to me too!

Our pictures are up.....

Erica emailed me today to let me know that she had sent our pictures out, so hopefully we will have them tomorrow. She did post some on her blog this afternoon, a little sneak preview. We had so much fun at the photo shoot with her, take a look.

Pumpkins galore....

So yesterday for Mom's Group we headed out to Cumming, Iowa to Howell's Pumpkin Patch. We had such a good time, we couldn't have asked for more beautiful weather, and the kids were great. We got to take a tractor ride out to the pumpkin patch so the kids could pick their own pumpkins. I loved Amy's family rule, if you can lift it you can buy it. I got the honor of taking Lisi along with Cale and I, because Amy was feeling a bit under the weather. She picked a perfect size pumpkin following the rule of course. Cale picked the very smallest pumpkin I think I have ever seen. We picked one out for Colby (since he was at school) and one for Maggie too, couldn't leave her out. The kids got to feed the goats, see pigs, turkeys, horses, and geese. The loved using the old fashioned water pump to fill the horse trough. It was great to see these CITY KIDS loving the farm. After a busy morning we headed back into town and stopped at Happy Joe's for pizza and ice cream, yummy! What a wonderful day!

Mom we forgot to read our God book....

Cale just came downstairs, he has been in bed about 15 minutes. As I'm getting ready to in my nicest yell possible to tell him to go back to bed he says "Mom we didn't read our God book"

Now how awesome is that?

Apple Pie-but not....

In a past Kraft Foods magazine I saw a recipe for a mock apple pie, it was totally intriguing. Instead of apples you use RITZ crackers. I know strange....but it totally does. I made it on Sunday with the intention of taking it to Life Group, but it wasn't done. I shared it with some neighbors just to prove that it did turn out. It looked and tastes just like an apple pie. It was delicious and it makes a great conversation piece.

I also read this on the internet while googling for the recipe and thought it was pretty interesting.....

The recipe -- or one very much like it -- was invented around 1852 by a group of pioneer women for their children who missed the apple pie they'd had "back east." In Helen Evans Brown's West Coast Cookbook, she quotes Mrs. B. C. Whiting's How We Cook In Los Angeles (1894), "The deception was most complete and readily accepted. Apples at this early date were a dollar a pound, and we young people all craved a piece of Mother's apple pie to appease our homesick feelings." The recipe was referred to as "California Pioneer Apple Pie, 1852", and the crackers used at that time were "soda crackers" which were mixed with brown sugar, water and citrus acid and cinnamon.
After Ritz crackers were created in the early 1930's a recipe for Mock Apple Pie began appearing on the box. Apples were once again expensive and homemakers in those years were once again able to use crackers in order to give their children a taste of apple pie.

Amazing Blessings....

Everynight before bed Cale and I have been reading a book called GOD IS IN THE SMALL STUFF FOR KIDS. It has short little lessons(not sure that is the right word), but then there are questions to discuss. So after we read last night I asked him the questions and then I said what it the big idea at church this week (and at the top of his lungs) he says "The BIBLEs just not a book!" (which I think is totally close enough especially for a 3 year old) Ashlin was sitting in the hallway and said that was the cutest thing ever, I was in amazed that he remembered. I thought wow Pastor Lori would be so proud, and I was proud too. He asks more and more questions everyday about God-- did God make this? Where did that come from, did God do it? I love it! Thank you Pastor Lori. And thank you God for all you do and for giving us such a wonderful childrens pastor to teach our children!