11.08.2014

Baby Bump at 14 weeks

Pregnancy is my favorite "look."

11.01.2014

Fall Festivities

Most people know that we as a family choose not to celebrate Halloween. We've never taken our kids trick-or-treating, and we don't pull out the skeleton and zombie decorations each October. This is normal for me, since we didn't celebrate when I was growing up, either. I've never felt badly about it, and I'm sure my kids will be just fine, too. :)

But at the tender ages of 2, 4, 6, and 7.5, it can be hard for kids to understand and accept the reasons behind our decision, especially when they see all of their friends dressing up, trick-or-treating, and cashing in on pillowcases full of candy each year.

That's why I'm thankful for the great churches in our area and the many alternatives they offer for kids to get their dress-up and candy fix without being exposed to the neighborhood's creepy lawn ornaments and teenagers dressed as goblins across the street.

At our new church, Word of Life Ministries, the fun takes the form of their annual Creation Celebration. Instead of celebrating Halloween, they celebrate our Creator and encourage everyone to come dressed as someone or something that God created.

Here are my cuties: 

 Rae as a Native American girl 

Ruby as a Roman princess

Rosie as a pop star

Silas as a shark :) 

The celebration's activities included music, games, prizes, snacks and a lesson taught by a gorilla (yours truly) about being created in God's image. 

Since we live on a dead-end street off of a busy highway, we never get trick-or-treaters at our house. We always have candy ready just in case, and we always end up eating it all. 

This year we were a little late with our pumpkin carving, so we spent Halloween night carving the one pumpkin our measly garden produced this year. The girls had named it "Seedy" and treated it like a pet during the time we had it in he house. Cutting it open felt like killing a favorite stuffed doll, but they got over it pretty quickly. 

Farewell, Seedy!



 After Seedy had a face (and no longer had seeds), the girls re-named her Jack-o-Leena. But Ruby said it looked like a boy, so she just called it Jack-o. 

They don't look too disappointed to be home on Halloween to me!