Thankful Tree Tags

While there are still stories to share from the past couple of weeks, I wanted to show off our final list of Thankful Tree tags for 2013. Last year (below) was a bit more "mommy-guided." This year, I just let Macklin decide each day! If he talked to someone of saw a picture of a friend, they probably made the list. I will note that two forms of H2O made the tree before mommy ;) I think we will continue this tradition as it is a great intentional way to talk about thankfulness. 

Polar Bear 2013

Another great trip to Frontier Ranch with our Vail Valley Young Life group. 

More pictures can be found on the Eagle Valley Facebook page. 

Grandma Time

We have enjoyed having Grandma with us for this week. 

More pictures and details of our time together to come! 

Grandma is Coming!

Grandmas is flying out to see us tomorrow and we are so excited! 

I think a spunky little boy will be excited to stay up past his bedtime to welcome you in! 

Macklin Lied

It happened. My sweet boy intentionally lied to me today. My heart was sad. 

He had a bag of delicious peppermint bark that was given to us at our MOPS dinner on Friday. He was so excited to eat it after dinner, as I had told him. After coming up from the back of the house, I noticed Macklin behind our white chair being extra quiet. "Macklin, are you eating the bag of candy?" "No, mommy." "Macklin, come here." He comes out from behind the chair with a little smirk on his face. "Macklin, I need you to tell me what is really happening. Are you eating the candy?" With candy cane pieces stuck in his teeth and with the yummy holiday smell coming from his mouth (and with mommy smiling on the inside), my precious boy says, "No, mommy. I am not." 

He is clearly not perfect. But the first intentional lie was a hard one. 

Of course I had to discipline him, pray together, and we talked over what it meant to lie and how much it hurts mommy and God. 

I am so grateful that our God forgives us when we mess up. 

"If you confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us of our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness." -1 John 1:9

Amen! 

 PS - I am glad that he has come a long way from the ROARING days :)

Happy Veteran's Day

 We want to say thank you to all of our veterans this year! We need more than just one day to thank all of the servicemen and women, that is for sure. 

Macklin made this card to send to his Great Grandpa Sprague (this is Papa's digital copy :) 

Macklin is doing a great job with his letters. The work THANK is in blue (K is on the far right). The word YOU is in red (Y is a backwards 4 and the tail of the U is abnormally long). Don't forget that purple pool in the middle. All Veteran's need a pool, duh. "Mommy, that is the little pool of icky water. It goes down the pipe and then it turns into nice water. The kids play in the little pool and the mommy's get the nice water." Thank you, Macklin. 

Fall Yard Clean Up

It took five high school friends (as well and Justin and myself) three hours to get this yard cleaned up! I wish I would have taken a before picture, but it sure looks nice now after 21 hours of labor! It is so nice to have things cleaned up though. 

 The kids love it, and the 55 degree weather in November! 

Silly girl :)

Macy's First Bike Ride

Our weekend was pretty relaxing, but Macy did get her first opportunity to ride the Strider Bike! She needs about another 1/2" of clearance before she could do it without me holding her. But she had fun and enjoyed it! 

No Thank You Bite

We have a thing in our house called the "No thank you" bite. Macklin must take at least one bite of every type of food on his plate. If he doesn't care for it, then he may say "no thank you." It seems like a good idea to me. Be respectful. Be considerate of your awesome mommy (grandma, mema, mimi, etc) for making yummy food (although it may be more yummy to you in 10 years...or maybe 20). Learn to try new things. All of that is a good idea until he pukes on your table at dinner! 

Yes, this did indeed happen this week...and it was the third time that it has happened over the last six months! I think that Mack gets himself worked up about the food (normally a vegetable). He thinks about the fact that he does not like that food. When it goes in his mouth, he normally holds it in there for a bit and then gags. Out it comes. Then, Justin and I cover the surprise and laughter on our faces as we go get a rag to clean up. Macklin perfectly finishes the situation with a polite, "No thank you, mommy. I didn't like that." 

One fact to add to the story. Last week at MOPS I learned that it may take kids up to 20 times of tasting a food until they like it. I am not sure I can go 19 rounds of mushrooms before he finally swallows one. 

Eagle Valley Young Life - Fall 2013

Young Life has been one wild ride this fall! I want to give a quick overview of our semester so that you can get a glimpse into our lives. The Lord has answered our prayers in growing our leader team - we have 8 leaders this year! We have a large group of senior girls and an increasing group of senior guys that are helping to plan our weekly clubs. Justin has been doing a great job with empowering them to lead the group. Our club numbers have been way up this year. Above is the picture from our Dodgeball Club last Wednesday (over 120 kids). The pictures below include one from our Mud Volleyball night and then one from our Halloween Club. We are not lacking for fun events around Young Life, that is for sure! 

Here are two games that we have done with kids this fall. The one below is boys racing to lick Ritz crackers off of a plastic board (disregard the horrible outfits...remember, these are goofy high school boys). The lower one is girls (blinded and on a dudes shoulders) attempting to dip a doughnut in chocolate syrup and then feed the poor boy laying on the ground at Duck Dynasty Club. 

What we love more than the goofiness of Young Life is the relationships. We get to hang out with our high school friends and be a part of their lives. They let us in on what is going on and we get to point them to Jesus and teach them to follow the Bible. Below are some of our Campaigner kids (kids that already have a relationship with Jesus) that chalked the school entrance for a club night. They want their friends to come to YL and hear about Jesus too. 

Tuesday mornings are one of my favorite times of the week. We (my friend and fellow YL leader Jade...third head back on the left) have 18 girls (we have 6-10 on a normal week) that have our book for our morning Bible study (mostly senior girls). It is a blast to be able to talk about how the Bible relates to our lives and points us to freedom in a relationship with Jesus. I love the questions that come up each week as their hearts yearn for truth. What a sweet group of girls!

Pray for Eagle Valley Young Life 

We would LOVE for you to join with us in prayer for our ministry. 

Here are some things that you could pray about...

-Kids to sign up for our winter camp trip (Nov 22-24) called Polar Bear Weekend at Frontier Ranch

-Campaigner kids to be bold in loving their friends and representing Christ at school

-More leaders to love EVHS kids! 

-God would allow leaders to keep meeting new kids in and out of school 

-For former YL students that are in college now... for their faith to grow, for them to be challenged, for them to surround themselves with quality people

Macklin's Sayings

At 3 and a 1/2, Macklin keeps us laughing everyday! He says some of the funniest things. 

Here is a video with his catch phrase of the month. 

He is saying "We can fight the giants, can we feed the lions?" 

(I have no idea where he picked that up, and it makes no sense.)

Then he is saying "The wise mane built his house upon the rock!"

He likes a lot of the Veggie Tale Sunday School songs (on this CD) and you will hear him singing them. 

He also enjoys the songs from Story Time like Head, Shoulder, Knees, and Toes as well as 5 Little Monkeys Swinging in the Trees and Old MacDonald. But he never seems to sing them when he is at Story Time, silly boy. 

He is good at using his manners with his cute little "Please" and "Thank you"s.

He is starting to remind Baxter when he does things wrong "Bad Baxter" and he for sure helps me out with Macy :)

Some other funny things that he has sad lately include:

"Mommy, we are going in the hot tub when the dark is in the sky."

"When does Christmas come out?"

M: "Daniel, the man at the store lost his legs to a big fish in the ocean." 

D: "Oh, is that one of Macklin's tall tales?"

M" "No, I don't have any tall tales."

(Actually, that is what the man without three limbs told Mack. Not sure if it was true, kinda freaked him out.)

When trick-or-treating, he came up on a legit haunted front yard (high school kids scaring you). For the rest of the way he told every other house, "Thank you. Hey, that house over there is scary."

M: "Can we have soda, Daniel?"
Daniel: "No we don't have soda right now."
M: "Oh...we have that when Mommy and Daddy are gone."
Good conclusion by Mack, Daniel is now in trouble! :)

I will try to post more often so that I can remember more. He makes us laugh often! 

Sledding on Vail Pass

 We live in a beautiful place! While it is still fall in Gypsum, Vail Pass has over 18inches of sugary powder. So we ventured up with the Bakers and Bangtsons to do some sledding! 

Justin and Jake checking out the hill! 

Three boys with three kiddos! The race is on! 

Justin and Macklin

Jake and Trevan

Daniel and Macy

Our afternoon ended with hot coco and naps on the way home. Now, to figure out this new time schedule. 

Halloween 2013

We had a full day of Halloween fun this year with two sets of costumes! 

Creating

After a late night sewing session, I finished all of the costumes for my family. 

The fox set of costumes became much easier when a gracious church member allowed us to borrow her son's fox accessories for the morning. The vest for Macklin's Jake costume was the most time consuming, but I used this website for the idea and this website for the pattern. I really enjoy this part of the dress-up process, I just always should start sooner. 

What Does the Fox Say? 

Our morning outfit was the What Does the Fox Say theme. The song/video is super popular right, especially with our high school friends. If you haven't seen it, you must watch it. Keep in mind that it is from a Norwegian talk show (with comedians) and they just made this for their viewers. Their website says that no one that previewed it even thought it was funny.  It is silly and awkward but the beat will be in your head for the rest of the day. 

Our high school friends thought it was funny and our principal got a great shot of our family. 

Here are a few of my favorites from the EVHS Costume Contest (which is a bigger deal than Homecoming)

Cheetah Girls, Greek Gods, and Taco Bell Sauce Packets

Story Time

Then we headed off to library Story Time where the kids got to TorT around to the librarians. Nice, warm, easy first step for them! Most people had no idea what Macy was sporting, but it didn't matter. She looks more like a Macaroni Grill server than anything. 

 

Trick or Treating

The real costumes that Macklin wanted were to be Jake and the Neverland Pirates. I think they look pretty darn close to Jake and Izzy! 

We had a blast at the Dodds with this group of characters. We are blessed to have sweet friends in this valley that love Jesus! It was a fun night. Only one house scared Macklin with creepy people in the front yard (actually mostly my runners!). Macklin was WAY more excited that last year. He would yell,  "ONTO THE NEXT HOUSE!" After saying his thank yous. It was fun to watch. 

Fall Events

So many fun times during the Fall in Colorado that it makes it my favorite season! Just seems like you get to enjoy the surroundings and you can't help but appreciate God's creation when you look around you! Here are some of the fun things we have gotten to do in the past three weeks. 

Gypsum's Fall Festival

Chalk another event up to the free family events in Gypsum (love this town). Macklin said, "Mommy, why don't I have my costume on?" "Because Mommy missed the memo. Sorry buddy." Good thing he doesn't stay on one topic too long. Costume or not, the kids had a great time. Carnival games, bouncy castles, candy, prizes, and one HUGE pile of leaves to run through (intentionally dropped in the middle of the park). It was cold but a blast! 

 

Oh, and a flash mob doing Thriller in the middle of the concert! 

Fresh Cookies and Playdates

Trevan came over a last week to play with the kids while his family moved. It was a blast. Mack and Trevan play so well together. While we did get some work done, fresh cookies were the highlight of the afternoon together. 

Another playdate with Corbynn later in the week was enjoyed by all as well! The Leonard Family was on the move last week as well! 

Fun Festive Lunches

Where did this spider come from!?

Making Halloween Cookies for Our Friends

I think this is funny with the Mr and the Mrs (thanks to Van and Laine to these awesome and well loved wedding gifts!). 

Fall Leaves

I love this picture of Macy. While we have done two full rake-ups of the yard already, you would never guess! I really enjoy our trees all summer long, but the fall does bring about a lot of work! 

Our Thankful Tree

We did this last year with Macklin and really enjoyed it. Our first tag was for Daddy and Macy was the next one today. We will go all the way through Thanksgiving with this one! 

Climbing Trees