Fall Marriage Retreat

Ben and I are so thankful for our Sunday School class at FBC Boerne.  A couple in our class planned a marriage retreat for the weekend and it was amazing.  We had to go late due to a throwing up Hallie but made it early Saturday morning and didn't miss out on much.  So thankful for Ben's parents for watching a sick baby and a crazy two year old so we could really enjoy some time together and with friends.  We had a total of 26 couples that came!  What a blessing!  When Ben and I started going to church in Boerne there was a total of 5 couples in a Wednesday night class and we didn't even meet on Sundays.  Oh how it has grown and blessed us tremendously. 

The retreat was wonderful and Ben and I both walked away with some great biblical perspectives of our marriage in today's society.  We both really underestimated what we were going to learn this weekend!  We are excited about making this an annual tradition for us to go one.  We felt it really helped us have a goal of not just living day to day to make it by, but really striving to have a GREAT marriage focused on God. 

We had lots of free time and enjoyed the afternoon canoeing, riding the four wheeler (my country girl came out in full force on this one, just ask Ben:)) and taking a tour of the property in Junction.  We had such a great time!

Flashback almost 7 years ago!

At the top of the property overlooking the Llano River

the group!

What a view!

Group of us after the property tour

Halloween 2012

We had a great Halloween this year!  My office has a Boo Bash every year for the referring dentists and families in the area.  We have bounce houses, carnival games and great food.  The kids got dressed up and loved it!  Then for Halloween night our Sunday School class sponsored an event in our neighborhood called Illuminate.  There was another bounce house that Chance literally stayed in the entire time until he got kicked out for other kids to have a turn.  Luckily Chance could really care less about candy and is more about the fun!  We did let him knock on a door for candy, but he wanted to go into the house to play not just to get candy.  I think he doesn't get the concept quite yet:)) 

Trip to Stacy's house!

In October my mom came and stayed with my sister for a week so the kids and I decided we would make the trip to Stacy's to see them on a Friday.  We had a great time with cousins just hanging out and playing!  They are really getting to the age where they play together and "seem" to really enjoy seeing each other.  We convinced MiMi to ride home with us so she stayed the rest of the weekend with us in Boerne! 

Blurry but with all the kids!

Sweet cousins

I love this picture progression of Hallie and Harlan!

Hallie: 9 months

Our sweet sweet girl turned 9 months old on Saturday!  Not too much has changed this past month.  She is eating and sleeping well.  I have started giving her some table food such as peas, small bites of lasagna and spaghetti noodles.  She loved it!  She is getting closer to crawling and willing rolls to her tummy to try to get going!  She loves her brother but sometimes he is a bit much for her and she lets him know!  She pushes him away and screams and then looks to see where I am to get onto him!  Same thing if he takes her toy she looks for me to get onto him!  She is very dramatic and I think will have a lot to say when she starts talking.  She is very good at saying Mama, Dada, and I think just yesterday mumbled something for Bailey!  She likes to wave bye-bye and will clap when you start singing patty cake.  Her hair is getting long and she loves to pull her bows out of her hair!  I think her hair is going to be a light brown color and she has inherited her Mimi and Gran's darker skin tone.  She this girl will be able to tan unlike her mom and brother.  She is enjoying reading books a little more rather than just eating them:)

Love love love this sweet girl!

Love Creek Orchard

This past Saturday we went as a family to Love Creek Orchard.  It was only about a thirty minute drive or so!  Chance loved it!  His favorite was the hay maze!  He just ran and ran!  Not only did they have pumpkins but they had all kinds of animals.  They have hayrides, a musical sing-a-long and tours of the apple orchard.  We didn't even get to do everything!  Hallie was along for the ride and I think she enjoyed it as well.  Chance even got to pick out two baby pumpkins for the two of them.  We will definitely be going back next year. 

Chance looks a little nervous! 

An evening with the ducks...

Last Friday evening we were looking for something to do so we headed to downtown Boerne to feed the ducks.  Chance loved feeding them and talking back to them as they quacked at him.  He was a little scared of the big ones but would say Hi ducks Hi ducks!  He had so much fun!  Hallie was not quite sure what to think and just gave them her typical I am not so sure about you look. 

Its official...we have moved!

We are officially moved to Boerne!  We have had plans for a while to move closer to our church, friends, and grandparents.  We put our house up for sale the last week of June and had two offers within 2 months.  It was shown 22 times!!  Definitely not something that is easy with two small kiddos, but we managed (suffered) through it.  We bought a lot in a development called Diamond Ridge and we are looking forward to building on this next year.  The closing of the house was rather dramatic with threats of lawsuits between the buyers (not us thankfully)!  But it finally went through at the end of September!  We have moved into a rental in Boerne until the house is finished.  Both kids have settled in great and love the new house.  Chance thinks the house is awesome with the stairs and huge backyard. 

Ben and I both rather sentimental about the move when it came.  Persimmon Trail was our first house to buy!  We moved in just the two of us and moved out five years later as a family of four!  This was where we got to know each other, weathered through the times of trying to have babies, and got to know our faithful group of friends!  God was faithful and had a plan and blessed us with our two children during the years we lived there.  We truly loved the Stonewall Ranch neighborhood.  We lived within a block of the pool, loved the neighbors we got to know, and I will miss the two minute commute to work!  But we are excited for the changes to come!  We are now able to be closer to Ben's parents and can do more things at the church during weeknights.