Hello Again!

Wow, I can't believe it's been almost 2 months since I've posted a blog on here.
Here are a few pics to recap...

Hannah Beth loved any chance she had to get outside this fall ~ she is definitely a outdoorsy little girl...anything from picking up acorns to finding sticks to walking down the sidewalk in front of our house to sitting next to her pumpkin or trying to pick it up to picking the grass to playing at the park - she loves it all as long as it's outside. I'm afraid it's going to be a loong winter inside.

Anyone have any good ideas for indoor activities that a 15-18 month old would enjoy? I would love to hear!

The day before Halloween, our church hosted a "Western Town" event - they spent hours upon hours building it completely out of cardboard and invited the community to this outreach event. We had a great turnout and it was amazing! We didn't take Hannah Beth trick-or-treating this year but she did get to dress up as a princess that night and get a bucket of candy :) I think she was mesmerized by the whole thing!

My dad took part in the "barbershop quartet" and mom was their pianist. Tony also participated with one of the youth group guys at a "Stump the Bible professor" booth. Hannah Beth wasn't sure what to think of Grandpa with his fake black mustache or Daddy with his glasses and goatee.

 The next night, we had quite a few trick or treaters so we answered our door until we ran out of candy! I need to remember to buy more next year. Hannah Beth was fascinated by all these strangely-dressed children coming to our door - she LOVED it!

NOVEMBER brought Betsy the inflatable cow to bounce on (a special gift that arrived in the mail)...

Weekly visits to see Great Grandpa and Great Grandma in their retirement home (it's soo great to have them only 7 minutes away!) - Hannah Beth loves perusing the long hallways, visiting the birds they keep in a cage there, and saying hello to all the elderly people as they walk by (as well as occasionally trying to walk into a stranger's apartment if they happen to have their door open)...

Mimi and Papa visiting us all the way from California!...

A wonderful Thanksgiving with family and friends...

And then it was time to think about Christmas - so we got out the Little People Nativity Set that Hannah Beth got for Christmas last year - she loves it! It's super cute. [My only complaint is that it's missing shepherds...oh well.]

We set up our Christmas tree on the Monday after Thanksgiving. I've got my Christmas shopping pretty much finished up and we're looking forward to driving down to see Tony's family before long.


I think of and miss Alethia Joy every day but something about the holidays makes me miss her even more. I'm sure any of you who have lost a loved one have experienced something similar...when the family gets together, we are always missing someone.  She would just be a couple months shy of 3 years old now...hard to believe. Life "moves on" but the grief will always be there...changing with time but never lacking heartache.


The words "the joy of the Lord is your strength" were ringing through my head today - I didn't realize that those words came from Nehemiah (chapter 8, end of verse 10) until I looked it up. This reminder to the Israelites still holds true today - so thankful for the reminder that we can have JOY in the Lord no matter what the circumstances - and that JOY gives us strength to press on through life.


May you all have a truly JOYous Christmastime celebrating the birth of our Lord & Savior, Jesus Christ.