Fall Garden

My fall garden is starting to come in nicely. I am excited every morning when I go out to check on it and my chickens. :) It's fun to see how much they grow and change even just overnight. I planted some herbs: parsley, basil, mint, oregano and some cilantro has sprouted up from the seeds that fell from last year.

I also have carrots, spinach, squash, onions, broccoli,peppers (few kinds) & peas.

These are mini sweet peppers...the kind that Costco sells and I love!

These are banana peppers in the front of the picture, to the left is broccoli and growing on the decorative fence is peas.


And my sweet potatoes are still doing great. I think I will dig up in the next week or so...I'm anxious to see if there is anything below this beautiful foliage.

Can't wait for them to be big enough plants to start producing!

Fun in their sleep!

This last week the kids have made me laugh when I walked in and found them sleeping. Cadence had her dolls all set up and comfortable. :)
And Dylan was sleeping in my bed and I came in to find him with my sleeping mask on. :)
Funny boy!

Halloween Night

On Halloween night Israel, Kati, Drea and the kids came over for dinner. It was beautiful out and we were able to enjoy our meal on our GREAT picnic table. (I love that table and that it is in our front yard so we can get to know our neighbors better!) All the kids, including our amazing neighbors were out. The kids were so excited about the evening and that everyone was out and about. :)

It started off a little slow but then the crowds came. This is just one of the many many groups that came by. We ran out of candy (17 bags!) by about 8:00 and called it a night.

Maggie and Dylan were the ones handing out most of the candy. Cadence was a bit too scared, she gave a few pieces to the little kids but otherwise stayed back and just watched. :)

Yesterday Mark had a conversation with one of his co-workers, he is newer on the team and they started talking about him having a new baby on the way and how many kids he has. That lead to him sharing with Mark about that he will really have 4 kids and that his first daughter passed away after 14 months of life. He went on to share the heart wrenching story of his daughters life journey and tragic death after her 3rd surgery. He said that when he went to see his daughter after her surgery that she lifted her hand and reached to hold his fingers, let go and then her heart stopped beating...

words can't express the emotions that arise in me just typing these words.

The conversation lead to Mark sharing about Lincoln with his co-worker (he had not heard our story before yesterday either). Shared the story of Lincoln passing, that Lincoln was laying on Mark's chest while they both rested. That Mark woke to not feeling the sensation of Lincoln's labored breaths not moving up and down. That he called to me sitting next to him asking me to check and see if he is breathing, which he was not. I held him in my arms as life passed out of of his body. But he felt safe and loved on the chest of his Daddy and began the journey of entering eternity in that security.

Mark's co-worker told Mark what a gift we had that Lincoln passed not in pain and quietly in his rest.

We were given a gift yesterday of being able to see a new perspective in Lincoln's death.

The pain is still deep.

I'm grateful for Mark's conversation and being able to share in the pain & understanding of others who have lost.

Getting Older means better drawing...

Cadence has begun to draw more detailed in the last few weeks. Her people have moved from just a head and alien eyes to a body shape, legs, arms and face details.

This is a drawing from yesterday...I think it is the best that I have seen from her. :)

She is also starting to write her letters really well. She likes to spell and practice. This is what she wrote while we were in the car driving the other day (I of course still tell her what letter to write and then she writes it).

It's always amazing to me how quickly and all of a sudden the kids learning and development happen.

Halloween at Mark's work

On Friday afternoon Mark's work had a holiday fun afternoon for families/kids. Maggie came along with the girls (Dylan was in school). Cadence was a princess with wings, Isabelle a ballerina and Maggie Strawberry Shortcake. They were super excited to be dressed up and headed out!
There were all kinds of fun stuff for them besides picking out candy from all over the building.

Mark was getting creative with the girls making puppets with paper bags. :)

They got their hair colored pink with sparkles!

This is the girls sitting at their daddy's desks. You can pick out Cadence behind Maggie where the 2nd pink balloon is. How is it possible for Mark and Israel to sit sooooo close to one another at work!

Mark had dressed up in the morning for work. He looked pretty amazing in his costume (j/k)! He completed his look with shaved lines in his his hair...just like Vanilla Ice back in the day. Needless to say that he now has a shaved bald head. :)

Conversation this morning:

Cadence: that song just told a lie
Me: what do you mean?
Cadence: it said lied
Me: no, it said true love died

a moment of pause

Cadence: no, it was saying that God would save us from the evil Dr. PorkChop (from Toy story of course).

She was so serious when saying all this. I instantly starting laughing, it was the highlight of my morning! :)