Beauty in an Ugly World

After the election results yesterday (which did not come as a surprise, but still a disappointment), I needed my kids. They had the day off of school today, so we left the world behind to immerse ourselves in some of God's beautiful creations. I wish we could pack up a few things and find a secluded place in the forest to live out the rest of their lives where no influence of the world will ever find them. Unfortunately, that is not the Lord's way. I have to teach them to be strong and to know who they are. But for today, I just needed to be with them.

Tagged Again

O.k., I might get in trouble for posting this, but I was tagged by a friend who says I have to post the fourth picture in the fourth file on my hard drive, so here it is. This is Jason (obviously) just after receiving his first white coat in December of 2004 (I guess it took us a while to go digital!). The school did a whole big ceremony for the giving out of the white coats and the students also received their first stethoscopes. Jason wears a longer coat as a resident, so this one looks kind of funny to me now! Oh, and tag Justin and Crystal, Melanie and Tere.

Halloween

Sara was Minnie Mouse last year, too, but she doesn't know that and it saved me a lot of stress! It did fit her a lot better this year, too.

This is Rachel as Belle. She is my third daughter to wear this well used costume. Thank you Grandma Lauritzen!!

And yet another repeat from last year! Melissa loved being Elina (it's a Barbie thing) so much last year that she had to do it again. Fine with me!

So here's the only costume I actually had to make this year. This is Ashley as Brittney from the Chipmunk Great Adventure. It's a sort of genie costume.

Here's the group. Sara was so done having pictures taken. She just wanted to go Trick or Treating, and is pro, too! She went straight to the door, yelled Trick or Treat, got a candy, said thank you, got another candy, said bye-bye, got more candy. Life must be easy when you're that cute! I like how Sophie had to make an appearance in this picture, too. Maybe we should have dressed her up.

Halloween Family Home Evening

We traditionally carve our pumpkins the Monday night before Halloween for Family Home Evening. We had lots of fun getting messy! Sara kept saying "gucka!" every time someone removed a handful of pulp from theirs.

The finished products--Ashley's is the far left, a scared pumpkin, then Rachel's, a happy Jack o' Lantern, last is Melissa's fancy cat.

Birthday Girl

Another birthday!

Here's our now 2 year-old Sara blowing out the candles on her Minnie Mouse cake.

She loves her new little Dora couch--right now the only furniture we have in our basement!

She likes balloons, too. What kid doesn't. Happy Birthday, my Sara!!

Ashley's New Look

Ashley recently got glasses and picked out the cute frames herself. The picture is a little blurry because I had to take a candid photo. She's still pretty self-conscious about them. But doesn't she look great?? Her eyesight isn't very bad yet, but bad enough that she was struggling to see the chalk board at school and her piano books! Now maybe she can sit down like a normal person when she plays. It does make her look a little too old.

Some Before and After

Due to the lack of anything exciting happening in our lives, I haven't posted in a while. So here are a few of the things I've done around the house so far.

This is our upstairs hallway (and our realtor) before I got to it. Yes, it was sponge painted pink. No idea what they were thinking.

This is after. The carpet is still pink and it will be a while before that gets replaced, but believe me it is in the plan!! You can't tell in the pictures, but I removed all the popcorn texture from the ceiling and painted it as well.

The dining room before. There was wallpaper floor to ceiling and all the molding was dark green.

And after. Once again, popcorn texture removed from the ceiling and we hope to some day replace the carpet with wood flooring.

This is just a maple leaf Ashley wanted to show everyone. Trees really know how to grow out here!!