HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

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My sisters and I  . . .

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

Her Choice

Thursday, I had the opportunity to attend the annual benefit banquet for "Her Choice" at St. Paul's Church. Our church has had the opportunity to host this great organization one year, many years ago. It was a great luncheon then with wonderful speakers. My new friend, M, invited me to this year's banquet. She had the joy of helping decorate the room and did a marvelous job, I might add. I saw a few familiar faces, delicious food, great speakers, but what impressed me the most was their special guest speaker from Illinois, Jill Stanek.

Jill Stanek, a common woman, like you and I. It seems like overnight she has turned from an RN nurse to a beacon of light for all the ProLifers and a thorn in the sides of most ProChoice media. She has a fascinating testimony and definitely eye opening for me. How her walk with Christ has given a voice to all of the billions of aborted babies in the world. Yes, I did say BILLIONS! It's astonishing. Isn't it? A possible next Billy Graham, the one person that would find the cure to end cancer or other diseases, the next great God-loving US President - GONE! Now you may have reasons to be ProChoice, but God created us ALL for a specific purpose in Life and in His own like-ness. "Before I formed you in your mother's womb I knew you, and before you were born I consecrated you." Jeremiah 1:5.

I wasn't born under a rock, I do realize these horrorible acts are created all over the world. It makes my stomach flip to just think about it. As a human, it is easier to not think about it much less, how this evil doing is done. Some people are blinded by Satan's lie saying that the child would be better off dead. Having a baby right now would be a huge inconvenience for me and my career or future life. The child is diagnosed with a terrible disorder or disease and won't live to reach adulthood or much less, a few hours. Jill told us some awful stories of her experiences in the Labor/Delivery Room. The secrets she found out working at the hospital were involved in abortions for medical reasons. Come to find out, some of the babies that were aborted were very healthy and didn't have disorders like first thought. Oh and the way, they aborted babies made me sick. They were induced births. The babies were born alive, laid or held by either the parents or nurses until they smothered to death because their under-developed lungs. Jill said the babies would live anywhere between a few minutes up to 8 hours. She herself told the story of holding a baby that fit in the palm of her hand. He had down-syndrome. She said you could see his little heart beating through his transparent skin. She went on to say that he didn't move much because it took most of his energy to breath. She held him until his heart stopped. There were several moments, she just wanted to leave it all. But she felt that she needed to stay and fight for the unborn lives that were threatened to be terminated. It goes to show how the human culture pressures us to live in a "perfect world" that strive for "perfect humans." Yet another one of Satan's lies, which he likes to play tricks with our emotions.

This banquet was to raise money for a local organization called "Her Choice." It's a Christian foundation that ministers to men and women alike, considering aborting their unborn child. They offer other options than abortion. They also offer free guidance, childcare support and charitable help. It's a great charity that speaks God's Truth of LOVE.

If you would like to learn more about "Her Choice," just CLICK HERE!  

Jill Stanek has a blog that I plan to keep up-to-date with her ministry.  Spreading the Word and being the voice for all the billions of little angels (babies) that are with my Lord and Savior right now.  To read her blog or if you would like to know more, CLICK HERE! 

Superman

Flash tried on his Superman costume for this year.  Well, I bought a 2T last year, but his legs are too tall.  LOL!  He is definitely not like Diva.  He needs to go up an extra size every year.  So I guess our Bama elephant costume wins it hands down.  Check out the witch's hat, Diva's, on top of his head.  Too funny.  That is until . . .

he decided to put my witch's hat on.  LOL!  That hat swallows him up.  He had fun playing with it. 

He's a bird, a plane.  No!  He's Superman.

His tough look

And he is taking off - flying off of the couch.  Ugh!

I was really wanting him to be able to wear it this year because he is so in to the Marvel cartoon characters like Batman, Superman, Iron Man, Captain America, Green Lantern, and Spiderman.  He likes to pretend that his Batman figure is flying through the air.  When we look through the toys at stores, he is always wanting to look at the Marvel characters now.  Don't get me wrong, he still loves his cars, sports and Lightning McQueen.  He is 110% BOY!    

Just For Laughs

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Tom Mabe plays pranks on public by pretending to be talking to someone on his cell phone. 
(Caution: there is some bad language)

To give you a laugh this Friday morning.

Enjoy!

Red Ribbon Week and Halloween Craft Ideas

My little diva hated to see last weekend end. As you know, she got to go home with her BFF, "A" after school Friday. Saturday, I brought A home with us because her parents were going to the game in T-town and she didn't want to go with them. We loved having her here. She is such a sweetie. Her and Diva stayed in Diva's room most of the day, watching movies, putting on plays, musicals, concerts and loved having Flash chase them all over the house. LOL!

This week is "Red Ribbon Week" at school. Each day the students do or wear something specific. Monday was red shirt day. Tuesday was Pajama Day (check out the picture). Today was crazy sock day. Tomorrow is hat day and Friday will be school spirit day. Next Monday (Halloween), the students are asked to dress up as a storybook character. Diva and I talked about dressing her up as Clara in "The Nutcracker," but she wanted to wear her witch's costume. So, Diva will be Winfred Witch in the storybook "Winfred Witch and Her Very Own Cat." The students will get to take their storybook with them to school to share, which I think is neat.

It is cool in the mornings, you can tell it in this picture.

My babies in their jammies.

All month, I kept forgetting to put our custom made CD of Halloween music in my vehicle for us to listen to in the mornings. I think I'm kind of glad because that's all my children want to listen to as soon as they step inside the car. There are a total of 17 different songs (Devil Went Down To Georgia, Who Can It Be Now?, Weird Science, Thriller, Ghostbusters, Monster Mash, Maniac, Halloween Theme, etc.) We began playing our special Halloween music last weekend. Flash insists that we play 3 out of the 17 songs over and over. They are "Monster Mash", "Ghostbusters", and "Thriller". I remember Diva was the same way at that age. Now that she's a little older she is beginning to like the other songs more, but not Flash.

Flash is doing well with his color names. He gets them a little mixed up at times, but he is very eager to learn. He is putting together 10-12 piece puzzles on his own with very little help. He loves to play games. I have him match an object with it's silhouette. Then, we match same color objects, to practice with same color concept. He does real good with these games. I introduced to him, paint markers. Oh my gosh! He loves them and I like them because they are washable and not so messy, plus it's a good way to teach color recognition.

With help, he can count to 10. By using the markers, I'm trying to get him to count to 5 on his own. He gets a little confused, but he is getting there.

I just haven't had much time or money to do a whole lot of Halloween crafts this year. But I can share the great ideas with you.

by Trey and Lucy
I thought about making these sweetie with Diva's class, but I forgot that I had already printed out the labels for the treat bags.  After that I haven't had time to make them.  There's always next year.

by Parent Magazine
On the way to school, one resident has her dancing ghost in a circle just off her hill.  So cute and I've wanted to do the same thing now for a couple years.  Oh well. 

by Miner Moments
I LOVE this idea and had so hoped to have the time and money to do it.  PRECIOUS! 

by Parents Magazine
This looks so simple, but I just don't have the time to make them.  It will just have to make my list next year.

by Everyday Is a Crafting Day
This was on my list last year.  I even made sure to have my cheese cloth in stock, but no ghost yet.  Ugh!

For other great ideas for Halloween or other upcoming Holidays, you can find them on Pinterest.  I am absolutely addicted to Pinterest.  A lot of my family and friends have also joined Pinterest.  It's a great place to find and pin all of the things you LOVE. Happy Pinning!

Ol' Timer's Day

Sunday, my in-laws' church planned an Ol' Timer's Day. Most everyone came to church dressed in special costumes to represent those of the old days, coming to the Lord's house. It was fun!  Diva and I did the best we could, dressing up for the occasion. I told a couple of ladies that we were representing the 60s and 70s decades. LOL!

I think the kids had a good time. One of the guys, Perry, rode up on his horse. As you may know, Flash loves horses. I was surprised how easy he was to be placed on the back of Perry's horse. The horse was very gentle with the kids.





The kids did pretty good during church. I thought a time or two that we were going to have to take Flash out because he was being so loud. It was pretty funny whenever we or the choir stopped singing, Flash would announce "we're done!"

After church, we had a very nice luncheon with the church family. It was the best food put in your mouth. Yum! Fried chicken, homemade pies, cakes, and other goodies. It was so good. No one went hungry, trust me. A few of us photographers in the making, had fun taking pictures of couples and groups to document the special occasion.

Back at the farm . . .



the kids played on the tractor, with their paw-paw right beside them. Meanwhile, this mama went pine cone hunting for future holiday decorations.

The Skeleton Bone Dance

Colton told he liked this a lot and agreed that we should put it on our blog for this Halloween week.

Katie Stays the Night

Katie and "A" dressing up for the ball

I've enjoyed getting to know "A's" momma. She is so sweet and we seem to have quite a bit in common. Yesterday, the girls had a field trip. The class went around (walking) visiting the Police station, power company, and distributed canned goods to organizations that will make sure it goes to the needy. Us parents met up with the children at the area park for a picnic lunch. A's mom and I texted each other until we got to the park. By the time I got to the park, I had enough time to play catch up with a few of the parents that are friends of mine. I was so glad that A's mom got to place their picnic blankets next of ours, so we could talk. We just didn't have enough time.

I've never seen such happy little girls because they have planned this sleepover for a week. This maybe sad, but this is the first time Katie's slept over at one of her friend's house, that is not a relative. She has been aggravating me for the past couple of days about what she is going to take and stressing over who will be picking her up. Too funny.

Of course, a few times tonight I've been wondering what the girls are doing. Is Katie using her good manners? She is like any other kid and forgets them from time to time. LOL! I've enjoyed A's mom sending me pictures of the girls having a great time.

Oh me!

My sweet princess!

It was so strange not picking Katie up after school today. Get this, I even got to take a 15 minute nap. This never happens! So nice. I'm going to have to do something special for M, A's mom. She just doesn't know what an angel she is. LOL! So, what did I do with all this free time. Just me and Colt. Well, I finished up a couple of my Halloween gift projects.

This is for Katie's teacher.  Kind of a Halloween "Teacher Appreciation" gift.

The cup is an 24 oz. insolated plastic cup filled with assorted chocolates and candies.  It's decorated with a Halloween bow and label.  Yes,  I actually put together the decoration.  I got the idea from Blackberry Vine.  I printed the label about a month ago and already punched out the label with my cutter.  I'm pretty sure that I got the label from either Living Locurto, The Celebration Shoppe, or The Tomkat Studio.  I honestly can not find it in any of my bookmarks, so if it is yours let me know.  For the black part of the label, I cut  2 - 1 1/2" strips of black cardstock paper.  Folded the paper accordion style and cut off the tail at the end.  I placed a small strip of double-sided tape to both ends and attached both strips of paper together.  It should look like a zig-zag circle.  Once you have the paper down on a flat surface, tape the "Happy Halloween" label to the black cardstock and then tape it to the bow.  Yay!  I love it.  

I helped Katie put these together for her classmates at school.  There are a whole lot more, but I only have a few for the photo.  I made all the kids Halloween bookmarks by using clipart from The Toymaker.  He has a lot of neat things that you can print out on paper/cardstock.  All I did was save his clipart bookmarks and then by using Photoshop, I added the sayings: "Happy Halloween" and "Spooky" for examples.  I printed them out on cardstock paper.  I think they turned out cute.  Katie likes them.  I stuffed all the candies, bookmarks and stickers in sandwich baggies.  I stapled the cute trick 'r treat labels on top.  You can print the same design for several other party supplies through The Celebration Shoppe.  I just loved this theme last year and had to use it this year for something.

Colton Meets Zayden

Colton didn't know what to think about Zayden.  He wanted so bad to touch him.  For a little while, he thought he was a toy.  Susan was the one holding Zayden and talking to Colton about him.  Some how Sue asked Colton, "what is this?"  Colton answered her "a toy."  LOL!  Mom and Susan cracked up laughing at him.  Then Susan asked him something like where did he come from.  Colton told her, very serious I might add, "Target."  Too cute! 

Doug's parents came by and Colton had to show them all the Halloween decorations and tell them about seeing the baby.  It was priceless!  I don't think he took a breath between subjects.  He is so funny because it seems like he starts talking from the time he gets out of bed to the time he goes to bed.  LOL!  He talks about everything.  There are times when he gets so excited and wound up that he begins to stumble and stutter his words.

While entertaining mom and Susan, Katie and Colton were playing kick boxing in the Living Room.  They were acting this way not only because they had new people around to watch them act crazy as a bed bug, but mom helped by giving them a load of chocolate candy before supper.  Thanks mom!  They were bouncing off the walls.  We had to start laughing at Colton because Katie has taught him before the Karate chop to stand just so and motion your hand out to your opponent like he is saying "come on, I dare you."  When he did that all authority and control (on my end) went right out the window because everyone was laughing.  Ugh, my son.  He is such a clown.

For the past couple of months he comes up with these sayings or names that I have to write down before I forget.  They are:

• He calls the blow-up Frankenstein (Halloween decoration) outside - "Einstein".
• He calls Fruit Loop cereal "Donut cereal"
• He couldn't get over Zayden having his diaper changed.  "That babe pooh, poohed?" "Change diaper."  He said with his eyes wide open and pointing his finger at Zayden. 
• "I watch Mickey."  This means, he wants you to either turn Mickey Mouse Clubhouse on the TV or put in the movie. 

Colton's changing everyday:
Not only is Colton growing out of his 24 month clothes, but changing everyday.  Here are just a few things:

• He is into playing games more now.  His favorite games are: Go Fish, Don't Break the Ice and Elefun.
• He likes to be read to now, especially at bedtime.  His favorite books right now are: "Brown Bear, Brown Bear," "I Love You, Stinky Face," "The Monster at the End of This Book," and "Miss Spider and The Sunny Patch Kids".  I found the neatest thing on YouTube.  Movies of some of his favorite books being read or animated.  Yay!  It occupies him, while I'm helping Katie with her homework.
• His new favorite toys that he would rather play with are: Hot Wheels cars, toy trains, balls, Batman figurines, stuffed animals, small simple puzzles.  He has stopped putting together the peg puzzles.  I guess he got bored with them.  LOL! 
• His favorite TV shows are: Good Luck Charlie, Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, Little Einsteins, Super Why, Martha Speaks, America's Funniest Home Videos.
• His favorite movies are: Disney's Cars, Disney's Tarzan, Baby Einsteins Mozart, Baby Einsteins World Animals, Scooby Doo meets Batman, Mickey meets Santa, and Mickey Mouse Clubhouse Choo-Choo Express. 
• He absolutely loves it when his sister comes home from school.  He misses her throughout the day.  He doesn't like it when I spend time with her during homework time, which takes a little over an hour a day to complete.  He doesn't like it at all when she doesn't want to do what he wants to do. 

I've been working with him during the day, while Katie is at school.  We are learning our colors, shapes, numbers, alphabet, sorting, and matching.  I got most of my material from 1+1+1=1.  She has a Tot Homeschool section filled with lapbooks, games, crafts and lots of resources.  Making Learning Fun is another great source because they go by themes or favorite storybooks to make learning more appealing.  Colton loves it! This week, we've done the worksheets based on the Bill Martin Jr. book, "Brown Bear, Brown Bear."  Add in the You Tube
story read by Bill Martin Jr. himself and you've got a great lesson about colors. Colton loves this video and I hope you enjoy it as well.

Harvest Season Spirit

Now that I made my first ghost, I wanted to be creative with the second one.  This time, I supported the frame by adding more wire, from a cut wire hanger.  I also added a more frilly bow with furry boa and hair bow. 

I've been a little busy, decorating for Harvest Season.  It's amazing how you put out a few things and it gets you into a great spirit.  A table full of different sized gourds and pumpkins.  I still plan on making some salt dough characters and spooky trees.  Where I'm going to put them?  I have NO idea!  LOL!  Would someone like them? LOL! My hanging "Halloween Greetings" card, I purchased from one of my favorite stores "World Market." 

The "Trick or Treat" beggers and haunted house with graveyard, I purchased from Big Lots for $7 each.  I absolutely fell in love with them. 

I must tell you that you will have to start checking into Eighteen25 beginning tomorrow for all the Halloween craft and cooking ideas Link Up Party.  I'm thinking about sharing my crafts this year.  What do you think?  I know last year, I had so much fun at their Halloween Link Up Party.  I posted a couple of my crafts, but I received so many other inspirations.  I encourage you to link up, browse, and just have good fun.

Oh and I guess you can see from the photo above, I finally received my Bama Cross today.  Don't you just LOVE IT?!?  I'm so tickled.  A sweet sweet lady from Mississippi makes all kinds of these crosses for a living.  She makes all sizes.  Mine is considered large and is perfect for the front door.  Instead of displaying on my front door, I've got it in my hallway because I didn't want to take down my Halloween wreath that I just made.  Mrs. D had my cross ready for quite sometime.  Unfortunately at the time that she was ready to ship it to me, her son had an accident.  Isn't that awful?  Please keep him in your thoughts and prayers.  I asked her if he was doing better, but she hasn't given me a response back.  If you are interested in purchasing one of these crosses (in any color), please leave me a comment along with your name and web address and I would be glad to get you in connect with Mrs. D. 
Happy Harvest!