And Grace Carries Us Through

This weekend has continued to go quite well and I just continue to thank the Lord for his mercy!  Some huge answers to prayer include solid health all weekend, particularly for the pastor who preached 5 times this weekend, then the fact that the boys, especially Koen, have been in great spirits has made my job a lot more enjoyable.  Thank you, Lord!  Here's a few more pictures I grabbed from the remainder of our weekend.

On Saturday afternoon, Koen and I carved the pumpkin he had picked out that morning.  Doug had asked me to cut the top off for Koen so that he could scoop it out as an afternoon activity and then it would be all prepped for them to carve the face into in a day or two.  I was intimidated initially by the size of the pumpkin and fearful I wouldn't be able to handle the task, but thankfully the Henkel knife and I managed just fine.  And once Koen and I had cleaned out the inside I was so curious to see it all lit up that I asked him if he wanted to just go ahead and make the face with me.  He was super happy to continue the project, so we went for it.  Check it out!  Not too bad, huh?  (And don't worry, Doug didn't mind at all, he was happy we could do the whole thing and have the satisfaction of completing the project).  Doesn't Koen look proud?  He drew the lines for me to cut for the mouth as he specifically requested it to be "spooky."

My attempt to get Koen, the huge pumpkin and me in the same shot.  =)

After our pumpkin carving, we settled into the relaxing part of the afternoon and then were all rested and ready for Miss Kylie to stop by after the little guys were up from their naps.  We love Miss Kylie.  She often stops in to catch up and then offers Doug and I a chance to go out after the little guys are in bed (yes, please!).  This was such a night and perfect timing since we had been invited to dinner at a friend's house after the Saturday night service.  The boys and I enjoyed Miss Kylie's company (as seen here) while I prepped dinner and they played with macaroni.

After dinner Miss Kylie helped me keep the peace so I could get things cleaned up and then get the little guys to bed before my dinner out with Doug.  Thanks so much, Kylie!  It was a fun change of pace to have you join us for that often crazy time of day!

Today Doug had the car, so the boys and I walked to the East End campus.  This provides us a more relaxed start to our Sunday morning routine since the service doesn't start until 10am and we don't have to leave until 9:30am (our usual routine includes the 9am service at Oakland).  Anyways, we enjoyed a pancake breakfast, some Lincoln Logs in the living room and then headed upstairs for outfits.  Koen insisted on wearing a tie like Daddy and how could a Mommy turn that request down?  Then, of course, Tav wanted to also be like Daddy and wear a tie.  Finally, I had to dress Penn up so that he went with the brothers and this was the final product (as seen in this super fast smartphone attempt at a photo shoot).

Penn would not sit still and fought, but Koen held on for dear life while posing like a pro.

Oh boy, really losing it now!

Utter defeat.  He's given up.  Yet Koen is still pleased with himself to be wearing that tie.

We had a nice morning at church (including the fact that Penn survived the whole time in nursery again!).  The boys and I walked home, but first with a stop at Target, which although quick, pretty much put Penn over the edge.  Thankfully he sprang back after lunchtime.  Koen and Tavin did an awesome job playing together much of the remaining time after we got home and before nap (with one intense blow-up).  We are just now coming off of naptime and hopefully things will continue running smoothly.  Only a few hours til bedtime though and I'm looking forward to enjoying some more of these little guys before they are out for the night.  The days do fly and on ones like these, sometimes I really mind. =)