All Hallows' Eve!

Happy Halloween and Reformation Day! We had such nice weather for Trick-or-Treating tonight. It was still pretty chilly so I had to dress the girls a little warmer but considering how it has been up here, it was great!

I'm ignoring the prohibition on "tons of pictures" for this post cuz we got so many cute ones!


Phil's little inner engineer really got to shine when carving our pumpkins!

I was just the clean out/up crew.

Clara as the sweetest UT cheerleader ever!

Lily as the sweetest fairy ever!

We took the girls downtown to Trick-or-Treat our local businesses. (Sorry, this picture has been modified to spare all the horror that is me. Apparently sunglasses add 100 pounds...I know it couldn't be all the "Skinny Cows" I've been eating lately.)

We stopped by the Munderlohs to see how we made out. I say "we" knowing you all know I mean Phil.



The pumpkins turned out really well!

This one was my favorite.

Ok, time for bed!

A Swing Set.

Some of our neighbors are moving and offered to give us their old swing set. With a little cleaning and some tightening up it'll be good as newish and I think the girls will love it when they get a little bigger! We're going to get a baby swing to hang for Clara and see how Lily does on the big girl swing. Thankfully we have really soft grass.

Moody Girl!

Girls...happy one minute, mad the next! Phil better start praying for a boy.

Growing girls!

Just wanted to note that today Lily is 15 months old! And Clara rolled from her back to her tummy and I've missed it two times now!

Sermon on Homosexuality

Actually Posted by Phil

No, it's not my sermon, but one that was preached at an Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) congregation in a neighboring town. A couple has started coming to my church because of the ELCA's recent decision to allow practicing homosexuals to be pastors. Their pastor preached this sermon and they gave me a copy of it, since they were bothered by it. I thought it was interesting how this ELCA pastor made his arguments. I have excerpted his sermon and provided a critique. Here is a taste:

But what if, somewhere in the turbulence of puberty, the child discovers that he or she is gay or lesbian? Do we send them away? Maybe it is as simple as: Do your believe or do you not believe in Jesus Christ?

• What if a child discovers he likes to get drunk, steal, and kill others’ pets? Shall we send him away? No, we tell him he cannot do those sins and must stop. He is not forgiven as long as he continues in those sins.
  
  
• All sin can be forgiven, but by accepting sin and willfully living in sin, that one drives out the Holy Spirit and faith. The Holy God does not abide with those who consciously chose to sin (I Corinthians 6:9-10; Galatians 5:21). “We died to sin: how can we live in it any longer?” (Romans 6:2) To wallow in sin and call it good is to nullify Christ’s sacrifice for sin.

• Faith is not a generic feeling or statement of God’s existence, but a confidence in God’s mercy—that we are forgiven because of Christ for our sin. Those who sin and refuse to call it sin, by definition, do not believe in Christ for the forgiveness of sin.

Download the whole file Here

Our 2nd Anniversary!

Two years ago today Phil and I entered into the estate of Holy Matrimony! We had no idea on that night all the blessing the Lord had in store for us. I'm so thankful for such a loving, faithful and wise husband and two precious little girls. Our Father is so good.

“God’s word is actually inscribed on one’s spouse. When a man looks at his wife as if she were the only woman on earth, and when a woman looks at her husband if he were the only man on earth; yes, if no king or queen, not even the sun itself sparkles any more brightly and lights up your eyes more than your own husband or wife, then right there you are face to face with God speaking. God promises to you your wife or husband, actually gives your spouse to you saying, ‘The man shall be yours. I am pleased beyond measure! Creatures earthly and heavenly are jumping for joy.’ For there is no jewelry more precious than God’s Word; through it you come to regard your spouse as a gift of God and, as long as you do that, you have no regrets”
-Martin Luther

You know you live in NE when...

Phil and I had our first "They must not be from around here" moment today. We were parked next to a family getting out of their van, all of them wearing "winter" coats. It's only in the 50s. Phil's in a short sleeve shirt and I'm bear legged in a skirt. At about the same time we said/thought the aforementioned phrase. They shut the van's hatch and we glanced at their plate, sure enough it said Florida. Can we spot 'em or what? After two years up here I do believe we've gone native.

4 Months Old.

Clara is 4 months old now. Her favorite pass times include; kicking her feet, grabbing objects and not letting go, finding out all the different sounds she can make as loud as she can, smiling at everyone, laughing at sister, Mama and Daddy, eating rice and oatmeal, taking catnaps, waking up very early and melting hearts.

For more pictures of Clara please visit:
http://thehalefamilyphotos.shutterfly.com

At our house this week.

Lily had lots of fun for a long time playing with rice.





Getting better at eating with a spoon!



And coloring on the paper.



Clara's getting better at being cute.

New pictures.

New amazing family photos and videos are available here:

http://thehalefamilyphotos.shutterfly.com

So many pears, so little time.

If like me you have bags of pears laying around your kitchen counter and wonder what to do with them I have a solution, Poached Pear Surprise! So good!

Ingredients

• 4 medium ripe pears
• 1 cup water
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/3 cup finely chopped walnuts
• 2 tablespoons confectioners' sugar
• 1 teaspoon milk
• CHOCOLATE SAUCE:
• 1/3 cup water
• 1/3 cup sugar
• 1/4 cup butter
• 1-1/3 cups Semi-Sweet Chocolate Chips

Directions

• Core pears from bottom, leaving stems intact. Peel pears. Cut 1/4 in. from bottom to level if necessary. In a saucepan, bring water and sugar to a boil. Add pears; reduce heat. Cover and simmer for 10-15 minutes or until tender. Remove from the heat; stir vanilla into sugar syrup. Spoon over pears. Cover and refrigerate until chilled.
• Meanwhile, combine walnuts, confectioners' sugar and milk; set aside. For chocolate sauce, in a small saucepan, bring the water, sugar and butter to a boil. Remove from the heat; add chocolate chips, stirring until melted.
• To serve, drain pears well; spoon nut mixture into cavities. Place on dessert plates; top with some of the chocolate sauce. Insert a mint leaf near stem if desired. Serve with the remaining chocolate sauce. Yield: 4 servings.

Today we had.....

Blueberry pancakes....

Cavities filled, yuk, and......



SNOW!!!!

What???

Uh, we're supposed to get snow on Sunday.....

At The Parsonage

We're getting the last of peoples harvest. Look at these carrots!! Short and fat like little Clara.

Phil thought this was pretty cool. We threw a lot of our corn cobs into the garden. Here is one with new corn growing out of the kernels!

More attempts to get Lily eating her veggies. Here is a carrot and cheese muffin and some baked carrots. Though she doesn't eat much (unless it Mac-N-Cheese or corn on the cob) I have really been enjoying baking for her.

Yes, it's time for warm hats! And two pictures of me for aunt Leah!


Lily is her father's daughter.

This is Phil with his brother.....

Old habits die hard.


Lily got squeaky shoes from Grandmere! Thank you Grandmere! Now we always know where Lily is.






Our days of playing outside without two sweaters, a hat, gloves and a goose down coat are numbered.

Backyard fun.

More photos of our cuties here: http://thehalefamilyphotos.shutterfly.com/

LiLYTUNES.

You Were Always Too??




Mama's rock star days....http://www.myspace.com/youwerealways

Music.

I've really enjoyed some of the children's music I've been coming across. Lily likes it too.

Little Sack of Sugar - Elizabeth Mitchell

I love this song by Elizabeth Mitchell (a little cannibalistic but cute). She and Lisa Loeb have a cute album called Catch the Moon.

A Crib for Clara.

We've moved Clara into the room with Lily. We've been using our Pac-n-Play for her but finally got a crib from some church members which my back is very thankful for! Clara sleeps much better (all night!) in the swing but we didn't want to make that a habit. We've had her in a bed for a couple weeks now. She squawks around for her pacifier a couple times a night and I rush in afraid of her waking Lily up, then she's up for a bottle around 5:30 or 6 in the morning which I'm not fond of, but she's doing pretty well. I guess I got spoiled with Lily who has slept 12 hours a night from the time she was 11 weeks old! Clara is much more "typical" of other babies in her sleeping patterns I've learned.

Here's our new set up.