Happy Halloween

We had a great Halloween here. We started with a party at Brooklyn's school on Friday (which Sam even went to. He was so excited to be in Kindergarten for a morning.), followed by a birthday party Saturday morning, trick-or-treating that night and free burritos at Chipotle to finish off.

Here's our Super Girl ready to go trick-or-treating with friends Saturday night.

Sam the pirate collecting all his booty... he loved yelling TRICK OR TREAT at every house.

With our big group of kids this is what people were met with when the opened the door. More than ten kids begging for candy :)

Here's some of the group.

Here are Brookie and Sam. Adorable don't you think?

We're Sick

There's not much to say about our lives here, just sick. The kids have been sick for nearly a week and seem to be getting better but ebb and flow and now Brent is sick. He's the worst out of all three of them with a 102 temp last night. I, thankfully, have not gotten sick. Here's to hoping that I stay healthy and that Costco sells chicken soup by the crate because we're going to need it.

In Colorado even the kids run...

Last week Brooklyn had the Dragon Dash at her school. It's an annual race for the kids in the neighborhood of the school. K-2nd grade run .8 miles and 3rd -5th grade run 1.5 miles. Despite Brooklyn's hacking cough she made it through the whole thing and got her medal. We all ran together and had a great time!

Cotopaxi

We survived another quarter of Brent's schooling and have been enjoying a two week break before he starts again. Last week we spent a few days at a friend's cabin near Cotopaxi Colorado. It was beautiful.

This, and a few other swings, were Brooklyn's favorite things. It was the first thing she asked to do each day (as is evidenced by her pajamas).

We celebrated Brent's 33rd birthday up there. Ironically we remembered that we had celebrated a previous birthday at this very same cabin with friends during our first year of marriage. (note: I did not make the cake, a friend did, and she is amazing)

The mountains and the skies were beautiful.

Silliness abounded.

Two days we woke up and went to bed with deer covering the front lawn.

The kids went fishing for the first time and loved it.

This is what they caught. Quite the first day I'd say!

Soccer

Brooklyn started playing soccer with our YMCA league last week. She is the only girl on her team but she is managing to hold her own...well... if you call holding your own doing twirls on the field while the boys crash into each other while chasing the ball. There's no doubt that she's having lots of fun!

Here she is in her first game...actually playing soccer!

Here she is perfecting her ballet second position

And here is how thrilled she is to be playing her "favorite sport" finally!

And of course, her biggest fan.

Stolen My Fear

Do you know what it feels like to be gripped by fear? Paralyzed with it? Have you ever found yourself if the place where you're so afraid that you've had to very purposefully walk yourself down / out of that place simply to keep functioning? If you've ever faced cancer, or had a loved one face a life threatening disease, if you've come this close to dying, or if you've been with someone who's really violent you probably have felt this. It's something I've felt since sometime around third grade. Not constantly of course, but it's been a far too frequent visitor in my life.

Sometime around the age of 8 or 9 I felt like a lot of people died in my life. The closest one to me was my grandpa, but there was my pastor at church, and a boy at my church that suffered with a brain tumor but thankfully survived. My memory of when my auntie died is hazy, but it might of been around the same time. In my child mind, death was every where. My parents did a great job of processing these events with me but there was one time that fear gripped me. I still remember it. I remember where I was sitting in my house. At the bottom of the stairs that led up to my room. Beneath the thermostat (I would hide there at times and peek around the corner to eavesdrop on whomever was in the kitchen). I was thinking about death and a terrifying feeling of blackness, emptiness and nothingness came over me. Loneliness. The idea that I would never again know the things of earth: people, places, things. I lost my footing.

It took me nearly 25 years to get it back. This time I was sitting in church, but my fear left as quickly as it came that day sitting beneath the thermostat. For years I was terrified of my own mortality. I intellectually knew what I should feel, what I proclaimed to believe but my heart kept revealing the lair in me. It wasn't the experience of death that was difficult for me, I understood what I believed for other people, it was my own mortality. Then about 7 months ago, one encounter with God healed a fear that had been crippling me for 25 years.

But it didn't stop there. I've noticed that other fears are holding on to me as tightly.

The first time someone died that my children loved, I worried. I didn't want the same confusion about death to get rooted in them. I do what I can to make sure that doesn't happen, just like my parents did. But I realize that my fear, as well as my loss of that fear, has helped me get to know God more personally. There are so many ways that I want to protect my children from harm, and of course I will always try to do that. But I want to remember that when pain does come to their lives, God can redeem it and grow His relationship with them through their healing.

My Kindergartener

Thank you so much for all your encouragement and prayers for Brooklyn, she did amazing!!!

The past two days have been pretty rough around here. She's been sick and super nervous. But today she woke up excited and never looked back. In fact, on the way to school, when I looked back here's what I saw:

Doesn't look like a terrified little girl to me.

Here she is leaving the house:

And here she is lining up outside the school. We were supposed to drop her off but we parked instead and walked her to her line. When they started going inside she turned around waved, "bye!" with a big smile and walked away. Simply amazing from how she was yesterday.

(Sam is enthralled with the Bumblebee backpack in front of Brooklyn)

She only stayed for a half day today because she is still recovering from her ear infections and pink eye. Tomorrow will be a full day. I think she would have been happy to stay for a full day today!

Before she took a nap today she asked for all three of us to yell, "Thank you God for helping Brooklyn have so much fun at school!!" A bit long for yelling, but awesome.