Fall Portraits

While we were outside enjoying the gorgeous fall day, we tried getting some outside portraits. The kids (especially Caeden) weren't too cooperative, but a couple shots turned out pretty well.

outside at Gram & Krampa's

Today was a gooooorgeous fall day, and the kids LOVE to play outside in Gram & Krampa's big yard!!

Caeden played cars and dug in the dirt.

Sylvia used Gram's trowel to do some digging, and played in the "deep deep forest."

Krampa & Sylvia picked up acorns all around the yard and put them in a bucket.

Annah helped Gram water the new plants Kramp & the kids planted yesterday.

Grandma's 85th Birthday

Today more than 90 people (family and friends) came together to celebrate this amazing lady's 85th birthday. My Grandma Crabill--Mom's mom.

She had no idea we were all converging on her home with tons and tons of food, hugs, kisses, cards, grandchildren, great grand children, great great grandchildren...

A man was hired in with huge fryers and dozens of pounds of fish, chicken, tenderloins, onion rings, french fries, mac 'n' cheese corners...all kinds of yummy greasy foods!

Grandma was very surprised, and happy to be.

I can't begin to tell how blessed our family is to have a Grandma like her. She is truly giving, genuinely loving, and such an example of the love of Jesus. In her blessing before eating, she prayed that all her family would love and serve Jesus with all their souls. And, it is obvious that she prays her beautiful prayers from her heart. I am so thankful to have her for my grandma, to learn from her example, and to see the way her family loves her so much.

Fun & Fellowship with Friends

These girls are BFF!
It's so hard when you get used to having friends as part of your daily life and then suddenly, for whatever reason, they're not. We try to get together with our good friends the Stambaughs as often as we can since they moved into town. We have been managing to see them every few months. Tonight the kids and I met them at State Farm Park for a picnic and some playing on the playground. It was perfectly beautiful weather--nice and mild and sunny and clear...ahhh! (Yes, I will probably mention in every post over the next two months HOW MUCH I LOVE FALL! ;) Although we wished Jeremy could have joined us (He was busy studying for a LOMA test he had.), we had a very enjoyable evening.

Sylvia was pretty impressed with herself that she could climb the rock-climbing wall...I was too! And she hung out at the top for a while before I got her picture!

Our Heavenly Father's Power and Love for Us

This morning we had an amazing church service (well, two actually). Pastor Scott spoke about CHANGE. He talked about how changing the human heart is about the hardest thing ever. But God tells us in Acts 1: 8 (But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earths.) that we will receive power from the Holy Spirit that can help us through anything! We ourselves have little power/capibility, but through God we have more than the power of dynamite (which is what the Greek word for power comes from!)

As a large part of his illustrating this point, Pastor Scott shared the story of Dick & Rick Hoyt, and compared Dick's love for his son to that of our Heavenly Father's for us. If you aren't familiar with the Hoyt's story, I encourage you to check it out. You will be inspired. And just think, God will do immeasurably more for you.

http://www.teamhoyt.com/

Sylvia's Princess Canopy

A year and a half ago, Sylvia got a pink princess canopy for her third birthday. We put it up then, but the hook came out of the ceiling and we didn't fix it right away. She has been patiently waiting for us to install a proper ceiling hook since then! Last night as we were tucking her in bed, she asked for the hundredth time if Daddy could put it up for her. He promised her he would do it as soon as he came home from work tonight.

She waited patiently with her siblings in Caeden's room as we told her we'd try to put up the canopy. At one point Jeremy went into Caeden's room and told her we were working on it. She said, "Daddy, I really want it up, but if you can't do it, it's okay. I will still love you so much." Ain't no way she wasn't getting a canopy up after that! As you can see, she's pretty happy with it. She got ready for bed quicker than I've ever seen her and jumped in and soaked up all the pink princessiness!

Packing Peanuts Are From the Devil

Why are kids so tempted and fascinated by packing peanuts?!?! Yesterday the UPS man brought me a big box from http://www.scrapbook.com/ (I won a gift card to their store in a drawing because I wrote a review about my favorite scrapbooking products. Cool store, huh?!) It had my new paper trimmer, and some paper in it, but mostly it was filled with PACKING PEANUTS!! Ugh, I hate those things!!!

Of course, Caeden and Sylvia were nearly drooling looking at them. Caeden was bored today while Sylvia was at school and I let him sit in the box (I know; what was I thinking?!?!) and told him to keep them all in the box. He actually did pretty well for a few minutes, and was in sheer heaven, as you can see. No, the grin is not exaggerated; he was really THAT happy.

Well, we won't talk about the MESS that soon ensued, except to say that once I got out the broom and gave Caeden the dustpan, he thought it was fun to clean up. He actually said, "Mommy I'm so glad you helping me clean up. This is really, really fun!" I'm glad HE thought so! ;)

Annah Can Whistle!

Annah has learned how to whistle over the past week or so! Now she practices it all the time and can change notes!

Sorry for the sideways video. I take most of my photos vertically, and also don't think I have any video editing software on this new computer.

Picnicking

It seems summer is still on for a bit more this week, as we are back up into the 80's. It's nice and fair though. We decided to have a picnic in the backyard today for lunch. I love that Sylvie & Caeden are so excited about simple things like backyard picnics.

Crash.

Ick. Our hard drive crashed Friday. Most of you know how much we (okay, especially I) depend on our computer...and how much other people depend on us to use it! This little blog being the least of it all, Jeremy is the Treasurer for the preschool Sylvia attends, I am the Publicist and create their monthly newsletter; I also do a lot of work on our church newsletter, as well as design and do maintance on a couple other websites for businesses/organizations. So, we can't go long without a computer.

So, the Lopshire family is coming to you now from our new laptop. We are mobile now! AND, one of the best parts of it all is that we got a high speed connection!!!! We are using a Verizon air card, which means all we needed was a good cellular signal. It's like we have a 3rd cell phone line that is this little gadget we plug into the computer and we are off and running at 3GB/second! Whoohoo!!! We thought we'd never get a highspeed connection where we live, as Broadband is nowhere near us yet. So, it is a real blessing! AND, we are actually saving money this way!!! Thank you Lord!!!

Along that line, we will be disconnecting our home landline phone within the next few days, so please make sure you have our cell phone numbers to contact us! If you need them, just shoot us an e-mail: tarynleah@yahoo.com or jlopshire@yahoo.com.

I hadn't backed up our photos from August on yet, so we are hoping things from the crashed hard drive will be able to be recovered. We were told they should be able to be "for a fee," so we'll see.

So, the moral of the story is...BACK UP YOUR FILES!!!!!!

Friends Old & New

My friend Laurie, whom I hadn't seen since we graduated from high school, was working near Normal this week, and we were able to meet for a short time today! We had lunch at McDonald's and then chatted for a while as the kids played on the playplace. She works for Life Action Revival Ministries, and part of her job is to travel around and meet up with traveling ministry teams. It was so wonderful to see her, to know she is doing well. She is so obviously grounded and in love with the Lord! Talking with her for just a couple hours just ministered to my heart!

Caeden and Sylvia were with me, and thought Sylvia was quite shy, Caeden thought it was cool to meet Laurie. After we left he told me, "Now your friend Laurie is my friend too!"

Open House

Tonight we attended the fall Open House at Annah's school. We were able to meet her new teacher and talk with her a bit. (Well, I should say I was able to talk with her a bit. Jeremy spent pretty much the entire time we were at the school restraining Caeden. He is totally out of control in social situations these days.)
Mrs. Ayers seems nice. Annah showed us around her classroom very thoroughly. There is a lot to see! She has a brand new desk, which she's very proud of. Unfortunately our digital camera is not working very well any more, so I didn't get a photo. She also showed us her big social studies book, the helper board, classroom library, center stations, and projects she has done that are displayed in the classroom and the hall. Per Annah's request, we also visited with her music, art, and P.E. teachers.

Here are Annah & Mrs. Ayers next to a project Annah did about her art teacher.

Sylvia's 1st day of Preschool in the 4-year-old Class

Sylvia started back to preschool today! She is very excited to be in the 4's class! Last night she was skipping around saying, "I'm so excited to go to school! I'm so excited!" She picked out her dress last night, and we had to use extra care doing her hair today.

We made use of the self-timer on the camera today. I wasn't about to let Caeden try it! ;)

Sylvie talked to Daddy on the phone on her way to school. I gave her the phone (with him already on it) and he wished her well. Then she handed the phone back to me and said, "Who is that?" I guess Jeremy thought she would recognize his voice, but she didn't. So, I gave the phone back to her and they talked again--with Sylvia knowing it was him! She talked to him again after school to tell him all about her day.Sylvia said school was really good. Her teachers said she was quiet and seemed tired. That's the usual report we get about her after school.

Bother!

Today, I was loading up the dishwasher and Caeden came into the kitchen looking for Jeremy...

C: Mommy, where's Daddy?
M: [point to the bathroom door]
C: Unh! I want to bother him!!