What a difference

What a difference a day makes:

Fall

Gorgeous fall day at the park with the kids. So thankful for the opportunity to be a stay at home Mom and enjoy these days with them.

Double Dates

We love double date night with these fun friends!!!

Thanksgiving in Maine

For Thanksgiving we traveled to Maine to meet new baby cousin Paxton and see Uncle James and Auntie Bekah's home there. It was great having the chance to spend Thanksgiving together with Bekah and James. We were sad Raider couldn't make it! The kids loved meeting their new cousin and taking turns holding and feeding him. Haylie of course wanted to be a big helper all the time!! While in Maine we also got to see Sandy's old friend from Junior High!! Josh and his wife Melissa and their kids moved to Maine a few years ago and live right in the same town where James works - Portland, Maine. It was such fun catching up with them, visiting their home and enjoying some tacos from Josh's Taco Truck - Hella Good Tacos. Sandy and Bekah got some time to wander around downtown Portland and do a little shopping and then we all enjoyed Thanksgiving at James and Bekah's house with some of their Coast Guard friends. We even got a group shot and Bekah's friend stood in for Raider so Sandy could photoshop him into the family photo. He was a little surprised when he saw the photos of himself on Instagram. He didn't realize he was in Maine and Sacramento at the same time! 

Maine Here We Come...

My cute little travelers. Headed to see Auntie Bekah, Uncle James and baby Paxton!

End of an Era

We all read the books together and now for four years we have been lining up with all the teenage girls at the midnight release for the Twilight movies!! This is the last movie to come out and I must say I'm a little sad to end our tradition. We will definitely have to find some new books to read and midnight premiere's to attend. We have had our fair share of adventures standing out in the cold and trying to save seats at the theater for each other. 3 out of the 4 movies were release in November and sometimes the line went out the door into the freezing cold where teenage girls and even older women were lined up down the embankments of the parking lot covered with jackets and blankets and hats. Once we got to sit inside but no saving of seats were allowed. When a couple of our girls got up to get popcorn or go the bathroom the movie attendants challenged us for their seats - we were hastily texting them to run back before their seats were confiscated! So many memories of our Twilight adventures and so much fun with these girls!!! So thankful for this group!

Lucky Girl

I am a lucky girl getting to go on a Starbucks date with this handsome guy!

Matching Meals

Haylie and Mommy's favorite place - Smashburger - with matching mushroom burgers and sweet potato fries. Haylie always loves the same food as Mommy!

Soccer Season - The End

Soccer season came to an end tonight and as much as I love watching our little ones run around and even more so watching Daddy coach, I think we might be officially done with soccer. At least I'm hoping ;) I'm sure Micah would love to see the kids continue but neither of our kids particularly love to run. neither are really aggressive enough to take the ball away from someone else and both would much rather have snack and chat with their friends. James would quite possibly do the whole thing again just for the trophy though!!! Oh the thrill of the trophy! :)

Casas Por Cristo

Daddy is in Mexico right now on a trip with our Bible Study guys and Lakeside Church building Casas por Cristo. Although we miss him when he's gone, we are so proud of him and his heart to serve. I can't get enough of this photo of Micah hammering with this little guy - probably one of my favorite photos of him ever! 

Grandparents

I am continually so thankful for Grandma and Grandpa and their involvement in our life and our kids' lives!!! Daddy is away for a few days so Grandma and Grandpa stopped by with dinner just to hang out and play with the kids so Mommy could have a little break! The kids love seeing Grandma and Grandpa, playing games with them and just being silly. James made Grandpa a tie to wear to work and Haylie got out her giant Cinderella to play Sorry with everyone...

So Romantic

I am so lucky to have such a romantic husband. We celebrated our 13 year wedding anniversary this year at our Alma Mater where we met 15 years ago. We got Sac State shirts and went to a football game. We visited the the classroom where we first met and walked around the campus reminiscing. Then we went and walked around the church where we got married. What a great day spent thinking about the past 15 years of knowing each other and the past 13 years of being married. So thankful for a thoughtful husband who planned all of this on his own! 

Dinner at Firehouse where we had our rehearsal dinner. What great memories. I just love this man!!!

Our Bible Study

Our Bible Study is such great group of people. Each of the people in our group has their own way of giving back to others and it is really incredible to me to have a group of people who have studied the Word together for so long who are all so committed to making a difference in the world for Jesus. For this study we have been reading The Hole in Our Gospel and we decided to culminate the study with a service project. We chose to do a food drive for The Orangevale Food Bank since one of our Bible Study members, Brad, commits so much time there. It is his ministry but we feel blessed to have been able to support and be a part of it together. We walked around our neighborhood in Folsom and collected bags of food to go to families in the Orangevale area. The kids were great helpers and we were happy to be able to collect a truck full of food bags that night.