Circus

On Saturday I took the kids (Jim and Christiana were on their way to FL for a wedding) to the circus with some friends who had invited us. We had so much fun. It was the first time we had gone to the circus here in Knoxville and the kids were so happy. They had only been to a little one ring circus at a local fair when we lived in VT, so this was quite a treat for them. Here are a few pictures. Enjoy.

Tigers and trainer

Elephant

Joshua loved the elephant. He

clapped the whole time for it.

These guys made me so nervous.

Jugglers

Jonathan's Experiment

Jonathan was so excited the other day when he decided to do a test to find out if ants like brown sugar or white sugar better. I thought it was so cute at how excited he was and the fact that he thought of this on his own. Here are a few pics of him setting things up.

We will have to wait for results and test again later due to the fact that it rained and drowned most of the ants that made it to the sugar.

We Changed His Name

We changed his name from "Baby" to "Houdini." Can you tell why?

And the Results Are...

Ok, so yesterday I had my ultrasound so that we could find out for sure if there are one or two babies, what my real due date is and if we are having a boy or girl. You see, I've been measuring four weeks further along than my due date and my mother is an identical twin and my dad's brother and sister are fraternal twins, so both my grandmother's had twins.

And the results are, we are only having one child (I'm measuring large due to the fact that this is my eighth pregnancy), it's a boy and my due date is January 9th.

So, I will get to deliver at the birthing center so long as there are no complications and we will be having our fifth boy in a row (six boys altogether) and our fourth child with a birthday in January. God keeps things interesting in our house. I'm curious to find out if anyone will share their birthday. We have one on the 5th, one on the 12th and one on the 19th and this one is due on the 9th but I generally go 41 weeks which would make this child's birth date closer to the 16th. I guess we'll have to wait and find out.

Without realizing it we have followed a J, M, J, M, J pattern in naming our boys. Our kids seem to think this next boy needs a name that starts with an M, but there really aren't too many M names left that we really like. Any suggestions?

Ultrasound

Going to have an ultrasound today. Will there one or two babies? Boy or girl? Will let you know...

Balloon Festival

Friday night our family went to Knoxville's Balloon Festival for the Balloon Glow. It was really neat to see all the balloons lit up at night and synchronizing their glow with music. My favorite part was when they did the National Anthem with a huge American flag hanging from a balloon raised slightly off the ground. Another neat aspect of the balloon glow was that it was done around a pond so that all the lights reflected off the pond.

Here are a few pictures of the event.

I Love the Fall

Fall is my favorite time of the year. There's not much about it I don't like. I love the breeze, apple cider and roasted pumpkin seeds, the changing of the colors, the leaves that fall, raking and jumping in piles of leaves, the kids playing outside, the smell of leaves burning, the smell of chimney smoke, fall decorations and Thanksgiving. I even love wearing turtle necks and flannels with jeans.

I've heard that some people get depressed during the fall because everything is dying. I don't see it that way at all. I think that as a Christian, fall represents death perfectly. I think that God demonstrates it through this season as it should be. We all know that death is just a part of life, but if you are a Christian it is a beautiful thing. When we have lived out our seasons in life and it is time to die, then just as beautiful as the leaves changing colors so is our passing into eternity with our Father who awaits our arrival.

I hope and pray that when I am old and grey, my passing will be as beautiful as my favorite time of the year. I pray that as I and others look back on my life it will be beautiful and lived without lots of regret and sorrow. That my children and family, although saddened will rejoice with me.

How about you? Do you know Christ as your personal Saviour and will your death be as beautiful and colorful as fall? I encourage you today that if you don't know Jesus as your Saviour then get to know Him today. You don't have to be perfect and have everything in your life perfect before asking Him into your heart, He will help you fix what's messed up. It's really easy. Just accept that you are a sinner, believe that Jesus was born of a virgin and died for your sins and rose again and has prepared a place for you called heaven, and then confess your sins to Him. That's it. Then live your life everyday to its fullest. Read the Word (if you never have then starting in the New Testament in the book of John is perfect) then live by it. I promise you, it's not boring, it's wonderful and you will be much happier then living any other way. Blessings to you and have a great weekend.