A New Friend

   Hunter has made a very sweet friend here in South Dakota. His name is Christian and they met at Friday morning bible study. Every morning I usually give Hunter a reason to get up and get dressed. Like "Lets get up so we can make a craft!" or "lets go to church so you can play with Andrew and Maddy!", but nothing excites him more and gets him up then me saying "okay today we get to go to Christian's house and play".
   So Wednesday night we had the opportunity to have Christian and his little brother Brandon over. It was a blast to have 4 little guys running around the house. Here are some pictures of the sweethearts. Enjoy! : D

Leaf Prints

Fall is in the air! This week we are learning about leaves. Why they change colors and their beauty.

What you need:

*piece of paper

*crayons without wrapper
*leaves

    Put the leaves under the piece of paper and then color with the side of the crayon, it's that simple! Have Fun.

Spoooky Spider

A fun way to sproose up your outdoor halloween decor is with this giant spider.

You will need:                                      
10 black trash bags
8 wire hangers
2 red plastice cups
leaves or newspaper
black electric tape

       You start out by filling one trash bag full with newspaper or leaves. Then tie it off. Fill another bag only 1/3 full for the head. Tie the bag off and then tie together. You now have your body.

       Take 1 trash bag, unfold and place a straightend hanger on top, roll the bag with the wire inside.

Tape off the top and bottom off the bag. Then tape 2 parts of the leg to create joints. Do these steps with the next 7 legs. Cut tiny slits into the body of the spider and put the legs in, then tape to secure. 4 on each side.

      Cut out the circles on the bottom on the red truck. Tape those on as the eyes. Then cut 2 triangles out of the cup and tape the them on as the fangs. I put weights in the bottom of my trash bags before I tied them off, so the wind wouldn't take them off. So you place your spider where you want it and then stick the wire into the ground so the spider's legs are standing up. Have Fun!


PS you can always put 2 bags instead of one on the legs and they will look fuller. I didn't have enough bags so I just used one for each leg and I think it looks fine.

Jonah (navigating a life interrupted)

       The Holy Spirit's job is to sanctify us. The more vast the consequence you've had to bear, the more vast the work He has planned for you afterward.  God isn't out to hurt you; He's out to redeem you.

"Then Jonah prayed to the Lord his God from the stomach of the fish" Jonah 2:1
The stomach of the fish is really the stomach of grace. Jonah was running in the furthest direction from God and was caught red handed. He had two choices once he was caught, to either face away from God and keep running, or face him. Look him in the face and get personal, pray and plead to God.

"For those whom the Lord loves he disciplines, and he scourges every son whom he receives"  Heb.12:6
Its good to get caught, at the time you feel, scared, nervous, sick, and helpless. Later you will see that God was doing that  to help you.

      "For You had cast me into the deep, into the heart of the seas, and the current engulfed me. All Your breakers and billows passed over me. So I said, 'I have been expelled from Your sight. Nevertheless I will look again toward Your holy temple' Water encompassed me to the point of death. The great deep engulfed me, weeds were wrapped around my head. I descended to the roots of the mountains. The earth with its bars was around me forever, but You have brought up my life from the pit, O LORD my God" Jonah 2:3-6

  Now is your opportunity to call out to God.
The Holy Spirit extends to you an opportunity to be back in relationship with Him.

"And he said, 'I called out of my distress to the LORD, and He answered me. I cried for help from the depth of Sheol; You heard my voice'"  Jonah 2:2

  Your tears are falling into the palm of His hands
You serve a God who is waiting to hear from you, and He can't wait to respond.

"Therefore the LORD longs to be gracious to you, and therefore He waits on high to have compassion on you. For the Lord is a God of justice; how blessed are all those who long for Him. O people of Zion, inhabitant in Jerusalem, you will weep no longer. He will surely be gracious to you at the sound of your cry; when He hears it, He will answer you" Isa. 30:18-19

When God shakes up your life, that is when you truly see what is in you, what kind of person you really are. Everything that is coming out of you is because that's what and who you are. The great thing about this, is that once you see this and aren't happy with what your full of. You can change it, to what you should be filled with! The world doesn't need just "Christians" they need people that have been redeemed and changed. People that will follow through with Gods word. That will talk to complete strangers about him and his grace. I don't care what you've done or who you are, a godly person will take you and hold you through your pain. They will let you know that God is there. We should not judge. That's not out gig. Listen to what God is telling you and take his had while you walk in faith with him. Thanks for listening. Have a blessed day.

Your New Identity In Christ

 
An ugly worm goes through a transformation in a cocoon and emerges a beautiful butterfly. It is now designed to fly. It has new desires and abilities.

  The butterfly is no longer a worm and should not be called a worm. It is no longer something ugly but has been made into something beautiful. We never call a butterfly a converted worm; yet some Christians make the mistake of saying, "I'm just a sinner saved by grace." The believer is rarely called a sinner in Scripture, but a saint, a new creation, complete in Christ!

   A butterfly can act like a worm, but it is inconsistent with what it is. It was designed to fly, not crawl; it is free to soar above the lowly life of a worm. If a butterfly insisted on acting like a worm, the best way to change it would be to hold up a mirror and show it what it really is. When it fully understands what it is, it will act like a butterfly. When we understand who we are in Christ, we will change our way of living. We are going to look into God's Word, which is a mirror, and see how we can be transformed into who we are in Christ: "And we, who with unveiled faces all reflect the Lord's glory, are being transformed into his likeness with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit" 2 Corinthians 3:18  The Holy Spirit that dwells within the believer take God's Word and change him more and more into Christ's likeness.

    You are a new creation, when you are born again through Christ. You have a new identity, you are no longer dead sin. You are fresh and living through Christ. Who you were doesn't exist anymore, we have a living new life with Christ. You are a Saint.

My BIG (but still little) Helper

Today we didn't do any crafts or games. Instead we baked. This is one of Hunters favorite things to help mommy with. He helps mommy everyday in big ways... in the mornings he feeds Cash, he cleans up the playroom when its messy, he helps me switch out the laundry from washer to dryer, vacuums, and just recently started helping make his bed.

He helps out even when he doesn't get rewarded, like keeping Connor happy while I'm making lunch. He is such a sweet big boy.

Im not sure why he was leaning???

 For every chore he does we give him a coin. He values them so much and at the end of the week we plan on going to the Dollar Tree so he can spend it. (if he wants)  Today he helped mommy in the kitchen, licking spoons is what he does best. He also counts the cups, tsp and so on. So we decided to make a few things, Hunter chose brownies, I wanted chocolate chip cookies, and daddy's favorite are whatever is currently in the cookie jar (hehe) so we made peanut butter too.(-=

as you can tell Hunter snuck a few licks

he did such a great job at the fork pressing

My sweetie pie!

October Fest

     Saturday morning we sat in the back of our van in front of our house to watch the firefighter parade.

Then we went down to the Rapid City October Fest.
 It was full of fun and pumpkins. We decided to wait and buy our pumpkins from a patch. We did see pumpkins well over 600 lbs.

Hunter had more fun petting every single dog that we came across. They were having a dog contest so there were plenty.

Hunter colored a festive color sheet from the church, and painted a mask that the library provided.

Connor had his first pumpkin latte, JK.  We waited in line for the face painting and balloons, but the wind took off with the tent it was under.They had a really neat area with a circle of chairs. Each chair had a unique instrament on it and you could just sit down and start playing.

We had a great time just walking around spending precious time with each other.