Happy Halloween

From our little pumpkins!

A pumpkin patch.

Faith

Grace, the dancing pumpkin.

Faith looking so cute!

Adorable Grace.

Faith waiting patiently.

Daddy gives Grace a boost at the Harvest Fun Fair.

Let's play!

The ring toss.

Grace tastes her first sucker.

Faith, too.

They just switched suckers.

In front of Brad and Lisa'a door with Mac, Silas, and Janetta.

No tricks, just treats.

We hope everyone had a fun and safe Halloween! We took some pictures of our little pumpkins at home before we went to the Harvest Fun Fair at church. The girls enjoyed their first sucker, did some more dancing, and just had a ball running around. We later stopped by a couple of our neighbors' just to say hello. Our first halloween with the girls was perfect!

Twins for the twins

Morgan and I do not buy lots of toys for our girls. In fact, to date,
we have only purchased one small toy for them to share. That doesn't mean however that our girls are deprived in any way. Our friends and family have generously showered them with many gifts. Believe me, they have plenty of stuff! Way more stuff than we ever had growing up. Today though, I saw these twin babies at the store and I just couldn't resist. I justified it to myself by saying that these will encourage their already loving and tender nature. Besides,
"Every little girl needs a baby to care for, right?..."

Just say right.

Walk for Life

What better reason!

Arrived and checked-in.

Coming around the first lap.

Morgan greets us at a check-point.

The best seats.

Family photo after the walk.

Daddy and Grace check out the festivities.

Faith and froggy roam around.

Grace sets out to explore.

Faith says, "Gimme five!"

Games galore.

Fun for the kiddies.

It was the perfect morning to get out, walk and celebrate LIFE!

Thank you to all those that sponsored me in the 2nd Annual Valley Walk for Life. Your support and encouragement were greatly appreciated! For obvious reasons, this is a cause that's near and dear to my heart. I will forever be thankful to our girls' birth mother for choosing life for them. What a difficult, courageous, and selfless choice for a young woman to make. Participating in this walk was my very small way of helping other young women in my community make that same choice for their unborn children. With your help, I was able to raise over $600 for the Crisis Pregnancy Center. The money will go towards expanding the services of the CPC, as well as helping new mothers with baby gear, parenting classes, and spiritual support.

The girls and I walked together while Morgan volunteered by handing out water and cheering us on. There were lots of fun games and activities afterwards. What a great morning!

Blessing Box

I got this idea from my Wednesday morning mom's group and I liked it so much,
I started ours right away. The idea is to have our family write down blessings throughout the year and place them in the box. Of course, for right now, Morgan and I are the only ones who can do any writing. The blessings could be anything... Big or small. For example, maybe we found a prime parking spot when we were running late for an appointment, or maybe we received an unexpected card or phone call from an old friend? Perhaps it was an answer to a long-awaited prayer, or maybe we're just feeling thankful to be healthy and alive? You get the idea. The plan is to gather as a family on Christmas Eve and read all of the blessings, before we open any gifts. This will remind us of how good and faithful God has been. It will also keep us focused on the true meaning of Christmas.
I love the idea of instilling tradition, faith, thankfulness, and awareness to our children, even at this very young age. Our hope is that in the future, they too, will add their blessings to the box and look forward to reading and remembering them on Christmas Eve.

California Wildfires

Update on Thursday, October 25th...
Jennifer and her family were allowed to go back to their home last night. Despite ashes and soot in their home and lots of clean-up ahead, they are extremely grateful to have a home to return to. It looks as though the wildfires are slowly starting to be contained. Thank you for your prayers and God bless those firefighters.

This week, our thoughts and prayers have been with all of the people who have been affected by the wildfires. These fires have prompted the largest evacuation in our state's history. Morgan's sister, Jennifer and her family live in north San Diego county where they have been evacuated and displaced from their home for the last 3 days. Thankfully, they are safe and due to the kindness of others, they have been staying with a friend of a friend. When you are evacuated in the middle of the night, you don't have much time to think about what to pack other than your family, your dog and maybe a few items of clothing. Yesterday, they were encouraged to find out that even though the hills around them have burned, their home is still standing. Unfortunately, this is not the case for so many others. Please keep the firefighters and rescue workers in your prayers.
May this fire storm come to its end very soon.

Ribbon Cutting

Pictured with our partners, Robert & Emily and two city officials.

(BTW... yes, the scissors were heavy and no, they do not actually cut the ribbon).

We had a busy Monday. Although we've been in business for a couple of months now, we had our official ribbon cutting ceremony for the Tutoring Club this morning. As you can see, it was a family affair. The girls even got in the picture!

Happy Dol, Suzy!

Suzy's personalized birthday cake.

Suzy and her daddy, Todd.

Grace takes her bunny for a swing.

Faith loves to swing with daddy.

Their first time on the swings!

Grandpa and Grace.

We met Noah, who kindly wanted to swing Grace.

And then presto! His TWIN brother came over to play with the girls too!

It was fun (and pretty amazing) to see the twin boys gravitate toward our girls.
Our first 5 year-old gentlemen callers, Noah & Ian.

Faith & Grandma.

The happy family. (Cindy, Todd and Suzy)

Family & friends. (Grace looking chic)

Faith showing that she can bob for apples.

Suzy meets Grace and says, "Hi, you've got some drool there."

We drove to LA today to celebrate little Suzy's 1st birthday. Suzy arrived home from Korea shortly after Faith & Grace. We were delighted to finally meet her and celebrate this special day with all of her family and friends. It was a fun day and the girls had a blast playing in the park.

Petting Zoo

Grace wants to go on the pony ride but she's too small yet.

A beautiful afternoon in Old Town.

Fun new things to play with.

Two Dolls Lawn Mowing Co.

Faith pets the bunnies.

Sheep and goats...

...and piggies too.

"Can we take the bunnies home, mommy?"

Faith pets the piggy from afar.

And that's our cue to leave when Grace throws saw dust on the poor sleeping piggy.

We took the girls to the Fall Baby and Family Festival in town today. They enjoyed running around and checking out all the cool stuff, just for kids. In addition to pointing out every balloon and pumpkin they saw (and there were a lot of them), they also got to play with some new toys and experience their first petting zoo!