Just the 3 of us trying to live a simple, God-loving life.
This fall has been soo nice. Jassen hates raking leaves... Dakota loves jumping in them. He got off of the bus one day and said, "Daddy you need to rake the leaves because I need to jump in them." :) One Saturday while I was at work they did just that. This year we let Dakota pick out his own costume, and we were in shock when he chose the "Cars" crew chief uniform! :) Many others were surprised too. Everyone in the neighborhood was talking about him as he drove from house to house to go trick-or-treating. 
Thanks to my awesome sister we had free tickets to Holiday World. We finally made it. It was a georgous summer day to have a family outing. It started out kind of rough because Dakota decided to be in one of his sour moods. He had his moments throughout the day, but overall we had a great time. 
Every September the Frog Follies fill the 4-H fair grounds. This year we decided to take Dakota out there and see what all they had. We went on a mission trying to find "Sheriff", "Doc", "Mater", "Lizzy", and "Stanley". We did find quite a few "Lizzy's". Dakota really enjoyed looking at all the different cars. He got really excited when we found Hot Rods with "flames" on them. Jassen and I just got a kick out of Dakota's reaction to them all.
Although these pictures don't show us doing any charity/ spiritual work we had a GOD FILLED weekend. The places we went we weren't allowed to take our own cameras into. On Friday we sang at New Castle Correctional Facility. I'll tell you right now that that weekend was totally full of firsts, and something many others will probably never be able to do, and would normally be out of my comfort zone. We sang twice at the facility to about 300 inmates. It's soo cool to see how God works in such a dark place. Some had some stearn looks on their faces, but you would see their feet tapping. Some never budged, BUT there were some who took in every word we said. Some were even Crying!!!! The first service I was very nervous. I was expecting these guys to come in with shackles and cuffs. Neither were present! The second service was a little easier :) From there we drove to Carmel and sang at a sister church. A small group hosted us and fed us a spaghetti and salad dinner. Yum! Saturday our big project was to fix, serve, and visit with the homeless men at Lighthouse Ministries. OH, what an awesome day. I was a little uncomfortable knowing that I was going to have to sit down with these people and talk to them. I prayed that God would give me the courage and strength to have/ carry a conversation with these men. A couple of friends and I sat down with 3 men, and sat and talked until we had to sing. And there were no dull moments. These men could not believe that we had fixed this awesome meal just for them, and STAYED to talk to them. Most groups before us usually serve a meal and leave. They were in awe of what we had done for them that day. After we sang we handed out goody bags to them that included socks, shirts w/ a verse on them, bibl, etc. Such a great day. Sunday we were supposed to sing at the Flying Pig Marathon in Cincy, but we were rained out. The church had been singing there for quite some time now to give that extra little push to the runners as they were finishing the marathon, just like we do at the Race for a Cure here in Evansville.
We raised close to $1500 this year. This was our 5 year anniversary walking and raising money for the March of Dimes. Over the last 5 years we have donated $7300 to help save babies!! Thanks to all of you who have donated and WALKED over the few years.
Last week Monica and McKynley visited for a couple of days. McKynley has been practicing at home, and Monica bought more eggs so we could practice at our house. Dakota and McKynley rushed around the living room and foyer trying to find the 30+! eggs she had bought. McKynley had already learned to open them up and see what was inside. Once she found out there was nothing in them she would throw them to the ground. :) 
