Jump Jump

Some of you saw the link for the gazette when Sarah was on the front page of the Sunday paper last week, and for those that didn't; this isn't the picture that was in, but it a pic of her jumping. We attended a free Day of Play in town last weekend. It really was a great event, and the girls had a blast...jumping.

and running across the dots and bouncing around. This bouncer looked like a giant Twister board...it was so cool...and HUGE!!

And speaking of bouncing, Tigger was there too.

And then after all that bouncing, we needed to take a little break.

I was tagged

I'll start this post out with the reason behind the title! We were tagged by our cousins in Illinois, Sarah and Jeff. http://normalsarahandjeff.blogspot.com/ We were tagged to share the story behind how we chose our daughters name. I loved reading about how they picked the name for their daughter, and thought it would be fun to "play" along...so here it goes.

When we found out we were expecting, we immediately started thinking of names. We wanted to use a family name as well as try to find something biblical. Before we found out the sex of our child, we picked out both a girls name and a boys name. Mary Elizabeth was picked for a girl, and Joshua Alan was picked if it was a boy. Mary is a family name on both sides of our family. My grandmothers name is Mary (Louise), Judes grandmothers name was also Mary (Rose). Jude also has a great aunt named Mary, and I found out (after naming our daughter) that my Pap Martin's grandmothers name was Mary Elizabeth. And obviously, Mary and Elizabeth are both biblical names, so it just fit perfect.

Had we had a boy, Joshua Alan was picked because of the initials. We wanted our boy to have the same initials as Jude, so that anything Jude had with his initials on, could have been passed down to him. We liked the name Joshua (didn't want to use a name that was already used in his immediate family) and Alan would have been after his great uncle Bud (real name being Alan Draper)

When we were expecting our second child, we knew the boys name we picked would still be our original choice, but we really liked the name Sarah for a girl. Sarah is biblical and it was Jude's other grandmothers name as well as Jude's cousin. We picked Elaine after my great aunt Elaine. I just always thought it was such a pretty name, and it went well with Sarah.

Another thing we thought about in naming our children was we didn't want "extremely unique" names, but we also didn't want over-popular names. Mary was a bit of an old fashion name, and Sarah used to be popular, but isn't so much now.

We couldn't imagine having other than our Mary and Sarah...their names are just PERFECT for them. And if you haven't picked up on it, their nicknames are Boo and Bee (respectively). Boo was given to Mary by Jude right after she was born, he sang a little lullaby to her all the time and it was about his Gabba-BOO. Sarah was called Sarah Bear for a long time, but Mary one day shortened bear to B and it just stuck...for a while she would even tell people her name was Bee Elaine.

Thanks for tagging us Sarah (our cousin) and now I will tag RITA and LAURA. If any of my "followers" would like to play along, they can leave their reason for picking certain names in the comment section. (and Dad feel free to include how I was named)

God's Paintbrush

Our God is truly an amazing God...and I am especially reminded of this in the fall; which happens to be my favorite season.
Have you ever really looked at the beautiful colors God paints for us? They are astonishing this time of year, and when I see them, I am reminded of how great our God is. I hope the next time you are in the northeast, especially, in the fall and you see the leaves changing, that you take a moment to enjoy the beauty of them and remind yourself that this was all given to us by God and thank Him for this wonderful gift.

I couldn't begin to paint a picture as pretty as this one that God has painted for us.

Red, orange, green, yellow, pink, coral, peach, plum...you name it, God is using it.

And then sometimes you have to sit back and say "WOW"! I don't know about you, but the picture below is just breathtaking to me. And I find all too often, for those of us that live in the northeast, so many people take this for granted. So many times we go through our daily lives in the fall (and year round for that matter) so quickly and we don't take the time to stop and take it all in. SO...go for a drive, check out the scenery and thank God for the picture he has given you. You may be surprised how pretty your "area" really is when you take the time to look at it and enjoy it. Thank you God for reminding me of this through your paintbrush.

And on that note, all of these pictures are taken within probably 15 miles of my house...this last one in particular is within 5. (and it was raining...but still worth photographing God's masterpieces)

Kintersburg Covered Bridge

I love covered bridges...especially in the fall.

I love seeing them tucked in amongst God's beautiful handiwork.

And we are lucky to have not only 1, but I believe a total of 4 covered bridges within just a few miles of our house.

It was raining on this particular day, so I didn't photograph each of them...just the one closest to where my family lives. (I was picking up straw from my Uncle, so was in the neighborhood)

Freezing Fall Friends

Mary's class recently had their fall outing at Getty Heights Park. It wasn't raining, so they still had it, but boy was it freezing. They rushed through everything so they could "dismiss' the kids to go home early. It took us ALL day to thaw out.

But we had fun despite the temps. (Sarah's class had a similar outing the week before, but Mary was sick, so I couldn't take Sarah. Thankfully they have the same teachers aid...so she brought enough stuff to Mary's party to include Sarah)

story time

they iced and sprinkled a pumpkin cookie

and of course had to eat it.

Fall Photos

Mary wanted to pose at different spots. Of course I obliged...and they were just too pretty not to share.

Fall Favorites

The same day we went to the pumpkin patch last week, we also came home and played in the leaves in the yard...we finally had a few dry days to dry up the leaves, so it was perfect.

The girls buried one of their new pumpkins in the leaves, and were trying to find it.

"Cheese"

I just love them to pieces!!