Happy Harvest from a Cow and 50s Girl

Thought you may enjoy some pics of the girls in their Halloween costumes. While Halloween, trick-or-treating and things of that nature are somewhat taboo in our community, we still had fun dressing up and attending a Harvest Party at church.

It is actually Dave's Youth Group that sponsors the Harvest Party as a fundraiser. It is so much work for Dave, but it is very rewarding! Seeing our whole fellowship hall packed with kids of all ages and their parents, all dressed up and enjoying some fellowship is neater than the money it raises. We know families appreciate the fun dinner and the many creative games with candy prizes as an alternative to trick-or-treating. We personally had a great time-- we painted gourds, played Go Fish, Candy Walk and Bozo Buckets (there were lots more games, but these were Ella's favorites) several times, marched in the costume parade and had our faces painted. Delia found some other cows to "graze" with (high school buddies) and Ella said the best part of the party was seeing her friends.

A California First! (A Rare Dave Post)

So, tonight while Jen was putting Ella to bed, I experienced a California first. I was sitting down, when all of the sudden the couch felt like it was a waterbed or like it was on a moving platform. It only lasted a few seconds, but I got up and said, "Jen, I think we just had an earthquake!"

Since Jen was rocking Ella at the time, she didn't feel anything, but we could see the strings on our blinds, the doors on Ella's closet and all dangling decorations still swaying slightly.

Jen's response was, "What should we do? Should we be scared?"

Sure enough, shortly after, I learned that there was an earthquake that measured 5.6 centered about 50 miles away near San Jose. There is more information about where it was and who felt what, here. Even though it was labeled "a moderate earthquake," from what I have heard there has been little damage-- the worst possibly being some glass jars that fell off a grocery store shelf. It probably won't make the national news.

Okay, so the event and telling of the story is not that great, but I feel it was a significant milestone for our life in this western state and felt the need to share.

3 Cheers for Pastors!

Our girls enjoying their pastors at work-- Delia being baptised by Pastor Bruce and Ella playing running games with Dave at Youth Group. (Photos by Jeremy Cloud)

While we always feel appreciated and encouraged in this church (people communicate this with regular emails and cards...), October is when we especially feel loved because that is when gifts come out! October is Pastor Appreciation Month. Last year the little kids did a program for the pastors and we had a whole-church pot-luck to honor them. Not needing this kind of attention every year, Dave does value the smaller gestures-- over the past 4 years he's been gifted with dinners, ties, candles, CDs, kind words, generous gift cards, etc.

On Friday night we tried to show our senior pastor, Bruce, and his wife, Joyce, how much we appreciate them. Ella picked out a cool music playing card, decorated it and we had them over for dinner (pita bread with pesto, garden tomato salad and chicken cacciatore-- recipe over to left). There are many things we love about Bruce. He is a totally compatible ministry partner for Dave, from the way they preach to how they view most issues-- very similar. He has set a culture in our church for being caring and friendly. He is such a good model of a generous, time-giving leader, that many people in the church follow his lead, making this one of the most outgoing churches we've ever been in. With this, he is awesome at Pastoral Care. We even cut our night a little early because of a cell phone call he got from people who needed him. Last (and best), he has developed a great relationship with Ella. Ella absolutely adores Bruce and runs to his office whenever we get to church (mostly because she knows she'll get candy...) When he comes over, he'll spend the whole night reading stories to her. He always gets right down on the ground when he sees Ella to have a long conversation with her. I look forward to both my girls having this close friendship with their senior pastor.

So, now a question to you. Do you have a pastor you need to appreciate? On this end of it, let me just remind you how hard a pastor's work is, how much of their hearts and minds go into it, how they constantly sacrifice family and personal time to serve you, how their capacity to love people is so big, how well they model a life like Christ's. October is a nice yearly reminder that we should tell our pastors, "THANK YOU!" And to all our pastor friends and wives, we appreciate you-- your friendship and partnership in building His Kingdom.

Apple Picking (Take 2)

Today we found Fall. We had to drive 2 hours north to do so, but it was worth it. We went to Apple Hill, a several mile stretch of one apple orchard after another. Each boasts more fantastic harvest activities and more delicious apple goodies than the one before it. It was scenic-- full of gorgeous changing leaves. It was tasty-- we ate fresh apples right off the trees and shared a caramel apple for dessert. It was fragrant-- the crisp smell of pine and dry leaves mingled with that of baked apple pies, cobblers and dumplings. It was toe-tappin'-- we found a great Bluegrass band to listen to while we ate lunch. It was quality time-- watching Ella crunch through leaves, dance to the banjo, get excited over farm animals once again and take her first pony ride made us all happy.

I'm Happy/I'm Sad

The good news is that we see far more of the above faces than the below faces. Delia is not just in a happy phase, she's in an all-out "I love life and have uncontrollable joy!!" phase. It takes next to nothing (just a look from one of us) to elicit a smile and happy wiggle dancing. She is laughing and just this week started "chattering" which she does almost nonstop when she's not sleeping. The pictures below were captured in her one minute of sadness today and that sadness (maybe anger) was triggered by me snapping pictures of her instead of feeding her. :) Even her sad faces are precious, though. She has a great bottom-lip-out pouting face.

Sleeping In the Bathtub

We think Delia is growing. She has been constantly hungry and taking lots of little naps during the day...evidence of a growth spurt. This means nights are a little rougher and mornings are a little sleepier for me, though. Here is my loving and goofy husband entertaining Ella while he shaves and gets ready, thus allowing me a few more minutes of rest in the morning!

Hey, No Paparazzi!

How do you know when you are taking too many pictures of your kids for the blog?

"Markers Go On Paper..."

"...not on face!"

Monkeys for Apples

Well, we started out this morning on a fall mission to pick apples. I found one of those U-Pick places on the internet and we were all excited. When we pulled up to the "orchard" (I use that term loosely) we quickly realized our adventure was not what I thought it was going to be. A fruit stand owner informed us that we could just wander around the "orchard" (aka weed and dying tree jungle) and fill our bucket for $5. The apples were tiny and brown and the whole scene was a little scary.

We were extremely disappointed to waste one of Dave's precious days off, so we found a little zoo right next door and changed our plans. Now, Dave and I are zoo-snobs. We grew up going to 2 of the BEST in Chicago, so this tiny zoo (that pretty much just featured 17 different breeds of monkeys) was nothing amazing to us. What we did find amazing, though, was the joy that it brought to Ella. She had a huge smile on her face all day and would say observant things like, "These birdies are funny, they're laughing!" (they were really screeching), or "That monkey has hands!" or "The seals are cuddling." or "This birdie playing peek-a-boo!" (he was crawling in and out of his box). Having turned our sour apples into zoo apple juice, all-in-all it was a fun family day.

Which is Which? (pt. 2)

As we dress Delia up in all Ella's hand-me-downs, we laugh each day about how similar she looks to Ella at this particular age. We thought we'd let you in on the fun too...Ella or Delia? They're most definitely sisters!

Feeling Appreciated

Today we appreciated Pastor Appreciation Day at Funworks, the same place that gives us the free mini-golf. Each year we look forward to our invitation to a day of free activities for those in the ministry. Our first year here (pre-children) Dave and I enjoyed racing each other around the Go-Kart track for a date night. Last year we let Ella discover the climbing/sliding/ball-pit play area for a few hours before I went to work. This year it was fun to spend the afternoon tackling one quarter of the impossible corn maze and 2 holes of the mini-golf. Instead of strapping Ella on our back, we let her have a club. She took a few wild strokes then must have thought, "Duh! We're trying to get the ball in the hole? There is a much easier way!" because she proceeded to march over and drop it in. Of course, we couldn't leave without some climbing and we even splurged a dollar for tokens to play some games-- a hit with Ella. She giggled with delight as she whacked alligator heads. What a neat way Funworks thanks the area pastors and does some great PR! In return, Dave takes his youth group to this place each spring.

A Morning in "Dutch Hollow"

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A farmer from one of the area CRCs turns his land into a destination of fall fun each autumn. We heard about this place from other moms whose children had taken field trips there, so today we checked it out. We found a pretty typical (yet very entertaining!) pumpkin farm that kept Ella engaged all morning. We saw all different kinds of animals, including turkeys (first time for Ella). We hopped on the hay trampoline, dug in the corn kernel sand box, took a hay ride and picked out some pumpkins to take home, after climbing on them. However, even with the many different activities, the one that generated the most conversation on the car ride home and the one that was hardest to pull Ella away from was the horse that was pooping...go figure. Guess that subject is at the front of her mind with all this potty training!

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From Ella's Perspective

On Saturday morning us girls set out to do some bargain hunting at a city-wide garage sale. Before heading out, I stopped at the ATM for some cash. Here is Ella's take on this process...

"Mommy use computer to get Daddy's honey."

Long Pants and Newfound Love

On Friday we had one of our first really cold days, so I had to pull out the cool weather clothes. Hoping to reuse much of last year's wardrobe, I was surprised to find that Ella apparently grew a couple inches this summer! All her pants are too short. We turned this discovery into a family field trip to the outlet mall. Taking advantage of some generous gift cards from Delia's birth and some excellent sales, we picked out a bunch of cute new winter outfits for our growing girl. It was fun to have Dave and Ella both giving input, providing her with some styles different than what I would have just picked. Note to family buying Christmas gifts: Ella is a size 24 months in pants, but NEEDS the adjustable waist, since our Skinny Minnie is probably only a size 12 months around the hips.

(Here Ella happily models one of her new outfits while swinging-- overalls from Baby Gap)

Then last night we got to witness a very special wedding-- the remarriage of a widow and widower from our church, one of them being an immigrant from the Netherlands. Two smile-triggering, tingle-giving moments came when we saw the wife-to-be-again being "given away" by her 6 adult sons. They escorted her down the aisle then thundered, "WE do!" in response to the "Who gives this woman to this man?" question. At the reception all who spoke Dutch were invited to the stage to sing a supposedly familiar song in the "mother tongue." We laughed to see almost half the guests present march up there! Then we sat smiling in oblivion as we listened in the audience to "Daar Bij Die Molen." Church weddings are always great because we know everyone there and have such a nice time enjoying fellowship with friends, but this one was especially neat because it celebrated heritage and God's great providence.

House Arrest

First thing Monday morning I brought my Equinox into the dealer to get some minor repairs done while it was still under warranty. The parts needed for these repairs took the whole first half of the week to get ordered and delivered, though, so we've been grounded from any place we can't walk. For several days in a row our days were filled with nothing much more than playing, napping and eating. We'd spend long mornings in our jammies and even longer stretches of time hanging out in the bathroom (yay, potty training). This blog will quickly chronicle some of the highlights of our pretty boring week...

Here Ella is involved in the VERY serious and important task of lining up her dress up shoes in pairs. She loves order and having a place for things. I appreciate this when it is clean-up time.

We ventured out to church a few times (since we can easily skip over there with the stroller). One was for my Beth Moore Bible Study this Tuesday morning and the other was for Dave's Youth Group ("Yooff Goof" Ella calls it) meeting last night. He made a bonfire, using the hot coals to illustrate a point about how we need each other to stay hot and on fire. Ella enjoyed snacking on the "Gramma Crackers" there were out for s'mores. She quickly learned how to get lots of treats: just ask a high school buddy instead of Mommy! Last night when recaping the day and praying she was thankful for the "fire-- that was pretty neat."

Today we got a package in the mail from Grandma to help Ella celebrate her first success on the potty! It was filled with princess treats and treasures.

Late yesterday afternoon we finally got the car back so this morning we already were out at Jetta's for a Nursery Committee meeting. Ella had a ball playing house with her friends and carrying around their new kitties like babies. I don't particularly like cats, but I did feel some sympathy for these poor guys. Ella hauled them around-- none too gently-- for two hours straight! With our regained freedom more exciting adventures await-- like Costco and the grocery store...

"It's ROLDER skates!"

The Healthy Road Less Traveled

It only took one short visit and a cookbook gift from my "All-Natural/All-Organic" friend, Dorina, to make me realize something. When it comes to healthy living-- and specifically eating-- we do okay, but we can easily do much better. So, for the past few weeks I've been consciously planning meals with more "all-natural" ingredients (like fresh vegetables in soups, sauces and stuff), looking for ways to sneak healthy things into Ella's very picky diet (like flax seed in smoothies) and trying new recipes for things I would have previously just bought already made. For example, this afternoon we made granola-- recipe over to the left. We are still a far cry from Dorina (I think I will always keep Fruit Snacks and Teddy Grahams in my pantry for peaceful shopping trips), but I'm feeling good about the changes we're making. From the bits of unbaked granola Ella kept snooping, I think she is down with some new healthy choices too.

New Page Element

Per your (well, Mom's) request, a list of Christmas ideas has been posted over there to the left. As always, view these as mere suggestions and do feel free to buy similar items at regular stores (don't feel that you need to order these exact things from Amazon). Consider all kids' ideas (especially books) as good presents for both Ella and Delia-- she'll use them some day, right? There's nothing I can think of that she really needs right now.

I'm personally a bit taken aback by all the Christmas decorations being displayed already, but if some of you are up for shopping, have fun!

My Big Sister Is So Interesting...

Happy Birthday, Kyle!

Today Dave's younger brother, Kyle turns 25! Kyle has so many awesome and unique gifts and character traits that I've been trying to think of a way to spin them into a description all morning. I concluded that it would sound rambling, so here is a list of things we love about Kyle:

1. He's brilliant. But more than that (because all the VM kids are smart) he has an intense hunger to learn new things...constantly!
2. He's a wonderful uncle. To watch him play with his nephews and nieces is to see new worlds of imagination open up-- he has a knack for encouraging this.
3. He's creative. Always the social planner of his group of friends, Kyle puts on the best themed parties and events.
4. He's kind and sensitive. Kyle's heart is huge.
5. He cares so much about the people he loves. A conversation with Kyle often feels one sided because he is so busy asking you questions about yourself and your life, you don't get the chance to reciprocate.
6. He's brave and successful. Venturing out the east coast on his own, he now holds an interesting job in the political arena in Washington DC.
7. He's a man of God. His quest to know Jesus better has taken him on some unexpected paths.
8. He's funny. Kyle sense of humor is more subtle than his sister, Kristen's, but he is still hilarious.
9. He's generous. Kyle is a great gift giver. One gift we especially appreciate him giving is his time. He comes to visit us regularly.
10. He's cool. Kyle's clothes, apartment, taste in movies/music is simply hip. (Although, I feel pretty uncool not being able to describe his style with better words!)

We love you, Kyle. Happy Birthday!