Out of the mouths of babes

There is a house two doors down that out does itself with Halloween decorations. They have several life-size monsters and one is a Dracula hanging on their porch. Last year Laurel and I cringed at how the kids would react and what we could do to limit their exposure.

One of our philosophies in raising our kids is not protecting them from the ways of the world so much as preparing them for it with a godly foundation. This of course is always a challenge and protecting them from the world always seems much easier at the time. But it pays off. The boys understand what the decorations are and are not afraid.

But today, August demonstrated just how effective the fruits of our labors are. As he and I walked by all the monsters, he of course was drawn to them and he said in his two year old language, "Me, (we can't get him to say "I") want to help those monsters."

I said, "You do? Why do you want to help them?"

He said, "Because they don't move, they must be stuck."

Kids constantly surprise me!!!

Christian

Down on the Farm

We visited a small farm this weekend. The boys had a good time. It unfortunately is still hot (97 degrees today) so we weren't completely in "fall" mode.



At the farm we found the pumpkins that we will carve. This year I will only do one for each of the boys as they require so much work.



In this picture the boys are decorating two small pumpkins.


Christian

Marathon Training

We are now in week 7 of our 20 week training. I am putting in about 33 miles this week and Laurel is logging in 13 miles. This has been a fun experience already. The coaching we have is superb and we have benefitted immensely from it as opposed to running by ourselves.

This week, for our Saturday run, I will be running 15 miles around Tempe Town Lake and Laurel will do five. The boys have a babysitter during our runs, our coach’s mom who they call Grandma, and she has been a blessing. This has been a great way for both of us to get into shape.

The non-profit we are running for is Chances for Children. Anyone who wants to support us may give a donation by clicking on either of our names (Laurel or Christian). All contributions are tax deductible and you’ll receive acknowledgment from Chances for Children in the mail.

Christian

Greetings

Well, I am going to jump into this in addition to our family website. I have found that I enjoy keeping up with relationships through blogging and will save the family website for posting pictures more like an album.

Christian