I'm still here...

Yes, with all the holiday preparations, busy schedules, recently visiting parents (yay!) I'm a bit behind on blogging. We had a lovely Thanksgiving & I have several events to share with you. It's coming! Just gotta get all that online shopping done first, stay tuned. I'll post before the next holiday for sure :)

Free Day at the Shedd

A couple of weeks ago we checked the Museum listings to see if there were any freebies out there. Brent's day off is Monday & that day the Shedd Aquarium was free. Well, not all of it but a good portion. So we all loaded up & headed to the city. Just wanted to share a few shots from our outing. The boys had fun checking out all the cool fishies & other critters that live in the Shedd. There was a good bit of chasing but overall a good time was had by all.

.I just love this one of the boys. See the snake they are looking at?

Row,row, row your boat...

<>Here, they are watching...

This guy.

attention readers!

So, I'm wondering who's looking at my blog?? I'm very happy to report I have 5 readers to date - Thanks friends! I think there are more of you out there. Would you pretty please register as a follower and leave me a comment on occasion? I would love that :)

The Plastic Boat

A few months ago Luke discovered a long,shallow storage container under the bed in our guest room. He insisted on pulling it out, dumping all the clothes out of it & turning it into his "boat". Night after night he would pull it out & curl up in it with his blankie until we would come get him & put him back in his big boy bed. Finally one night we decided that he could just sleep in the boat if he really loved it that much. So that's what he did, FOR WEEKS. In fact, just a couple of nights ago he decided he was OK sleeping in his nice, comfy big boy bed again. Isn't it funny the things kids do & how wild their imaginations are? This one we sure will not forget.

More TN fun...Canoe ride for the big boy!

Since June we have been working on potty training with Luke. We thought since he was a bit older when we started training it might go faster. Well, not so much. Out of desperation we came up with some pretty lofty rewards to motivate him. His Daddy told him when he started using the potty like a big boy he could do some fun big boy things...like, go riding in a canoe with Daddy. So we held up our end of the deal this trip home -since he's now 95% trained on a good day. That's a victory in my book- it's been a long road & lots of laundry folks.

Brent & Granddaddy unloaded the canoe from the barn & transported it down to Horse Creek for launch. I didn't plan to go on this outing but decided I couldn't miss it & suspected Brent would need some help along the way. You see, Horse Creek is REALLY shallow. It ended up being so fun. The first hour we were able to float pretty easily then we hit lots of rock & trees down in the creek. This meant walking, wading & carrying the canoe in some places. Brent shouldered the majority of the the "dragging the canoe" load while I tried to keep Luke from falling or running up the creek bank :)

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Gotta love that cheesy grin!

I always thought I would have girls when I had children...I'm so glad to have my boys though. I get to explore and enjoy the great outdoors with them. Coming home wet & dirty from an outing is actually really refreshing sometimes.

Trip to TN ~ Whitestone Inn

Earlier this month we took some extended time to go to Tennessee to visit family, go to Brent's 20th high school reunion and we took a night away to stay at one of our favorite places back home. Whitestone is a beautiful place. We got married there 6 years ago this upcoming Saturday. Yes, we got married on Halloween. It was a beautiful Friday afternoon, Whitestone was unbooked so we took it. It was perfect. The Inn has a really neat story. A christian couple who had been in ministry & the business world for years had a dream to open an Inn. They are very generous in letting pastors & missionaries stay there for reduced prices (so NICE for us). So when it works we take a night away to celebrate our anniversay. Thanks to Mamma & Pappa for watching the little ones.
Here we are enjoying an amazing dinner - the food is fabulous.


We got married in the chapel on the right and our reception was in the "Lion & the Lamb" building on the left.

Our view from the room. Sunrise at around 7A, was just beautiful!

So when you hear me talk about how beautiful East TN is, THIS is a slice of what I'm talking about.

I do absolutely LOVE fall...

I'm an autumn in the world of colors. Red hair, hazel eyes. So when fall comes I get so excited to pull out my fleece, day hikers, cords. Probably wear some shade of green or brown about every other day.

It's a rainy, dreary day in Northern IL today. I usually get in to a funk when days like this come. Not today, thank the Lord. I have really enjoyed how vivid the colors look against the white sky. I spent the morning doing a few few errands while Luke was in preschool. Picked up a couple of pumpkins, some nice mums & drove around sipping a cup of Dunkin Doughnuts coffee (my new love!). Took a few shots of the view across the street from our house and around the front.

Nice little tree in our back yard

like our pumpkins? I think the boys will have fun carving them. Um, we will carve them. Rest easy...we don't let our children play with knives.

My point & shoot camera doesn't really do the color justice. It's soooo pretty around here. So, even if it's a rainy, dreary day. God can still spash some color to brighten our day.

So here I am

It has taken me months to finally take the plunge, but here I am in the world of blogging. Who knows how consistent I will be, but I hope to share with friends and family what I'm up to. These cute little boys (& my big boy) I have been blessed with keep me awfully busy. We have great friends to take adventures with, so I'll share about them from time to time.

I chose the name In Every Season because that's what life is - seasons. Seasons are always changing. Some are busy some are quiet, others are exciting, carefree, then stressful, difficult or discouraging times may come. There's a worship song Hillsong United (love them!) does called Desert Song. I love this worship song, it has really ministered to me alot over the few past months. The chorus goes something like this...

All of my life

In Every Season

You are still God

I have a reason worship

I have a reason to sing

It's so true. No matter what season we are in we have a Savior rejoicing with us in the victories and lovingly comforting us in the times that are hard. So, there's a little background the title of the blog.

I'm working on getting all the details about our family up. You know how it is with little ones at home. 15 min here & there...eventually I get things caught up.

Those of you who know me well might be wondering how I managed to put together such a cute blog. Being computer savvy an all ( HA!) Well, my sweet friend Barclay used her creative gifts & made it look great. Thanks Barclay!! Her husband Vince took our family photos this fall. I thought he did a great job. Thanks to you too Vince.