Mark's Melon Patch Visit

We are planning our yearly trip to Mark's Melon Patch. The kids are so excited. We have a few friends that are going with us this year and I believe we are going to have a great time. As I was going through some old pictures I found a few photos of a previous visit to "the patch." The baby in these pictures is Zoe and that cute little girl is Lexie. Man, how they have grown up! I hope this visit will make great memories for our family.

Love

Last Sunday the family went to see the movie Fireproof (minus Holton, he had a grandparent day). We had a great time! The movie had me crying in the first five minutes and I did not stop till it was over. This is truly a movie that should be watched at home so you can do the "ugly cry" and not feel bad about it.

Off and on this past week I have thought about the movie and I have thought about my husband. I have thought about how good he is to me. No, he does not get it right every time and there are times we have to push through tough things, but most of the time there is such a peace in our relationship. The thing is I don't think about the blessing of that peace till the hard times come. I tend to take for granted a husband that helps to cook and clean; a husband that will let me call him more than a hundred times a day when I have nothing to say; a husband that makes time to play with our children; a husband that makes time to go to the doctor with his pregnant wife; a husband that does not fuss about much... he just helps. Not only does he help, he shows me love. Today I am choosing to see the love my husband has for me and our family. Today I am choosing to praise God for the peace and unity in my marriage on a daily basis. The enemy is all too quick to make things look worse in the hard times and not good enough when things are going good. My marriage is one of the greatest gifts God has given me and I believe that in the ordinary day God is showing me His extraordinary love through my husband. I choose to see that. I choose to see that the love that my husband and my God have for me is the greatest thing ever.

(Thank you Father and thank you Eric!)

"Place me like a seal over your heart, like a seal on your arm; for love is as strong as death, its jealousy unyielding as the grave. It burns like blazing fire, like a mighty flame." Song of Solomon 8:6

Fall Fun

My family loves fall. Here are a few of their favorite things:

Boiled peanuts

Cool mornings and nights

The way the air smells

The cotton fields

The slow tractors on the road

The pumpkin patch

Vegetable soup

Fall clothes (My kids wear them even when it's hot!)

Bales of hay

Fall decorations

Speaking of fall decorations, my kids have helped to make our dining room very festive. We love to make homemade things here at the Foster-Whiddon house. So... we made chair covers using plain white pillowcases. We used freezer paper to make stencils for their names. I ironed them on and they went to town with the paint! We then glued felt leaves on and these cute little Indian people that we got from Hobby Lobby.



The centerpiece was made with tissue flowers. We put down a brown runner on the table then we used another white pillowcase. We folded it in half and decorated it with a stencil, felt leaves and cute little birds. We got the idea for the birds from my favorit place, FamilyFun!



It is so much fun to let your kids be part of the process of decorating. Not all of the things they work on are going to look like Martha Stewart... some my look better! :) lol There is a lot of joy in having a visitor come in and your child say "Hey - come look at what I made!" Fall is full of many great things and many great memories.

Made To Party

My family loves to have parties. We are in the planning stage right now for our fall party. The girls are so excited about going to the pumpkin patch and having family over. I love to build these memories for my kids. I feel it is important to celebrate life and have fun with the kids for no real reason but the simple act of enjoying life. Before I get into all our plans for this party I thought I should probably post about our last party. Zoe got to have a tea party while Daddy and Lexie were gone to summer camp. She loved every minute of it! Holton just enjoyed the food :) To read more about the party and see picture you can clickhere.

"What We Do Tomorrow?"

"Rejoice evermore. Pray without ceasing. In every thing give thanks: for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you."
~ 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18

So here comes a new week, a week of new challenges and a week of new joys. I have a whole list of "to-dos" and things I want to accomplish. As we put my three-year-old down for bed tonight she asks the same question she asks every night... "What we do tomorrow?" She is most definitely a kid that likes to know what is going to take place; she likes to have something to look forward to. Most of the time my reply is "We are going to do school, play outside, eat lunch and maybe we will paint." (She loves to paint.) She smiles her sweet smile and acts as if I have just planned the best day ever... just for her. With great joy and excitement she says "Goodnight!"

So tonight as I think of the list of things I will be doing tomorrow I want to stop and ask myself, "What is going to make my family feel the most fulfilled at the end of the day?" Is it going to be having the whole house cleaned? Or is it going to be having all our school work done? No fight, no messes and every kid playing nicely? The truth is most days don't go like this at all. A lot of times at the end of the day I wonder, "God did you call me to do all these things? Because it does not seem like I can get it all just right."

As I read this verse tonight I see more clearly what God is calling me to do tomorrow. It is as if I am laying down to sleep and I am asking my Father "What we do tomorrow?" and He says back to me, "We are going to rejoice for this is a new day that I have made for you. We are going to be in conversation all day. Anything you need, just talk to me. And tomorrow, Vanessa, in everything give me thanks. Give me thanks for the small things, for the big things, for the bad things and the good things. This is my will for you tomorrow. This is my plan for you. Walk in it and it will be a perfect day." I look up to my Father with great joy and excitement and say, "Goodnight!"

This is indeed a new week to walk in freedom by remaining close to our Father.

Stamping Around

The last couple of days I have been laying around a lot. I am now 31 weeks pregnant and I am starting to have some small contractions. So in an attempt to not end up in the hospital I am taking it easy. Well, while I have been taking it easy I have found many cool ideas on the wonderful web! One of those ideas is making stamps. When I saw how easy it seemed I headed right out for some pink erasers and an X-acto knife. The first letter I tried was an O. I lost hope at the beginning because it did not look pretty at all, but the amazing thing is that it works! So I pressed on and I did Zoe's name. I found out that it is easy but the stamp part is not as pretty as I would like it to be. So I am moving on to Alexis' name and hoping I can do a better job with it. In the end they will have their own stamps and I did not pay a fortune for them - not to mention I had fun making them. Here is the site where I got most of my information from.

tired

So I am one tired mommy today. Maybe it's the 7 mouth old baby growing inside of me or the three kids living outside of me. Whatever the case, I am tired. So when I am tired writing is not what I want to do but I do love to read. So hear are somethings I am reading... FamilyFun
Parents.com
This is a great blog... Grace Violet