October 2015

October flew by this year! We were hoping to go camping sometime this month, but our weekends kept filling up with other things. With the holidays now fast approaching, we will probably put it off until after the new year.
But on to this month!
The first weekend, we had a girls pinterest party with the Sunday School class. I love having this party, its so much fun having people over for an afternoon of visiting and crafting :).
Leslie brought stuff to make pillows, Mari brought a snow globe craft, and I brought stuff to make a way to display christmas cards! Here is us with our awesome pillows (the favorite craft of the day).

The next weekend was the Dogtober Fest at the domain. I didn't get to take Gaius last year, but its always a lot of fun. Basically, there are a bunch of vendors and they give away lots of treats, and tell you about all the services for dogs around Austin. There are trainers, daycare/boarding facilities, people selling treats/clothes/collars etc. and lots of other stuff. Gaius and I met Rachel and her girls since Paul was working and Michael had some training for media at church. Then later in the morning, Leslie came out to meet me for an hour or so. We were able to see the wiener dog races, and the Austin police department demonstration with their dogs.  Plus everywhere you looked there were a bunch of dogs in costume. They always have a contest at the end of the day, but we didn't stay long enough to see the competition. Michael thinks that putting a dog in a costume is torture, but I did make a cute bandana for Gaius to wear.

watching the races, he was beat!

Unfortunately, we had to go to Dallas for a funeral the following weekend. The wife of one of my best friends from high school died after battling cervical cancer for 18 months. She found out that she had cancer when she was 18 weeks pregnant and chose the life of her child over her own life. When the baby was born and she then began treatment, she was already at a stage 4. She fought hard, but did not receive her healing here on earth. She had (and still does) such a powerful story and impacted tons of people through her battle and even her death. Chris, her husband gave such a wonderful and beautiful tribute at her funeral and it was so inspiring to hear the full story of how she fought and the impact her life has been in the short 31 years that she lived. 

The funeral was near my parents house, so we stayed with them and were able to spend some time with Ramona, John, the kids and my grandmother that morning before the service which was nice. The weather that weekend was awful (crazy rain for our drive down and rained all weekend long!), but it was nice to see family. We got to walk through Ramona and John's house to see where they are finally starting the work to re-build after the fire earlier this year. They are very anxious to get it done and move back in!

We then went back to Dallas for another short trip Friday-Saturday for halloween! Hannah and Abby had their last soccer game of the season and we wanted to be there for trick or treating that night. We weren't able to see Michael's family when we went for the funeral, and it had been too long since we saw the nieces! We drove down Friday night and came back after trick or treating Saturday night and even though we were there a short time, we had a blast and were so glad we decided to go!

a ballerina, ladybug, jasmine, and batgirl!

I am so thankful that we live close enough to be able to just drive down even if its just for a day because these girls are growing up fast! Hannah and Abby started kindergarten this fall, Leah just turned 2, and Lizzy is almost 3. Time needs to slow down!!!