Face off!

I tell ya... you may think you are scary, but this girl is not backing down!!!

(Chloe and Roy, one of the maintenance guys here at ZP, at a staff lunch.) 

Eyes

If you ever wanted a close up of the eyes in this Dalton family.

Can you name the order?

Autumn

I didn't use to be a huge fan of Autumn.  Probably for a couple of reasons.  Living in Texas, there is not much to fall except the temperature.  And I don't like cold weather so fall was just the promise of Winter.  But, I'm beginning to see lots of beauty in this season.  Living in Tahoe, we have LOTS of aspen groves that slowly change color into vibrant yellows with tinges of orange and red.  The sun is still shining most of the time and the crisp air is more inviting than discouraging.  I also don't dread winter quite as much.  The snow is so beautiful here and I just had to learn how to dress warmly.  It also means lots of long evenings by the fire with my hubs playing the guitar or cards and dancing with the kiddos.  I feel like Autumn holds so much promise and is a true testament to the faithfulness of our loving God of how He brings us beautifully through seasons of our lives in the changing of seasons on earth.

And what can I say, its just really beautiful.

Our for a walk at Nevada Beach

I just raked a week ago also

The view out my kitchen window

Paci Addict

Yes, my son is a paci addict.  Do they have classes for that sort of thing?  Our rule was going to be that when he turned 3, the paci had to go cause he was a "big boy".  We ended up getting rid of it a little earlier than that cause he gave it to a new baby that was born.  But about the same time, he stopped taking naps.  I tried so many things to try to get him to sleep!  Then all of a sudden a few weeks ago, he starts napping again... and I also start losing some of Chloe's pacis.  It turns out he was stealing them from out of her crib during nap time and also trading her books and such at bedtime for her paci.  Then he would stash them in his bunk bed.  Other times, he would just crawl into her crib and take his nap there.  I would take them away from him at nap time but then he would not sleep, so like a good mother, I just looked the other way.

I think I am just going to have to let him use one until Chloe gets rid of hers... it seems to be a losing battle.  At what age did you child get rid of their "binky" if they even used one?

My girl

This little one makes me smile so much everyday.  She is crazy but also so cuddly.  

We had a bad bout of the stomach flu recently and when Chloe was sick, all she wanted to do was be held by mommy.  Sweet little baby who is not so little.  (Please disregard the scary eye makeup.  This was the day after Halloween and I had not had time to wash my face.)

Febreze

I pulled out this little bottle to use on some foul smelling something this week and with just one spray, I am thrown back into memories of my time in Peru.  Isn't it amazing how smells can do that?

I went on two mission trips to Peru with AweStar Ministries when I was in high school.  These trips changed my life.  The main evangelism tool that we used was a drama about a "King and a Good Prince" depicting the life of Christ.  (I was an evil knight.) We preformed this drama on street corners, market places, plaza de armas (The main center location in towns), up in villages that had never seen a white person, in schools and in prisons.  Then afterward we would explain the hidden meaning of the story and tell the viewers that Jesus wanted a relationship with every single one of us!  Then we would go out and talk one on one to the people who were interested and still remained and explain in further detail (with the help of an interpreter) and ask if they wanted to know Jesus personally.  Then we would give them information about the local church and take down their information for the missionaries who are there full-time.

I saw God work in MIRACULOUS ways that I had never seen before and have not seen since.  The Lord captured my heart while I was stinky and dirty in the beautiful country of Peru.

Fun fall festival activities

Happy November 1st to you all!  Which means yesterday was Halloween.  I have solid Christian friends who are against doing anything to celebrate this holiday so before judging too quickly our choice to celebrate this holiday, read this post  Should I stay or should I go?  by Kevin East,  the man who married Joe and I .

Anyway, we like to do family themes and so this year we went with a royal Chinese ninja wise man theme.  We have some friends that live in China that sent the outfits for the kiddos when they were born and Joe and I just happened to have some other "asian-ish" get up in our fun skit bag from old Pine Cove days.

We first went to the Kahle Community Center for their kid-friendly celebration and got to play lots of game for fun little prizes like pencils and bouncy balls and gooey things.  I love that it wasn't all candy...cause I will be the one to eat it all.  We met up with our friends, Jim and Erin, and their two kiddos.  Props to Erin for the above photos.

They we headed to our friends, the Johnsons, house for some stone pizza and hordes of people stopping by trick-or-treating.  Apparently, their neighborhood is one of the top places to go for trick-or-treating.  We enjoyed some great food and friends there and then headed to stop #3.  

Lake Tahoe Christian Fellowship Church puts on a Fall Festival of sorts every year and so we met up with some of our Married Couple's Group friends to enjoy more games and fun. The kids had a blast and only went home with minimal candy.  

I have probably eaten half of it already today.  This is why I don't want them bringing any more chocolate, tootsie rolls and skittles into the home.  I'm headed to go work out.