Halloween 2009!

Carving pumpkins-

This year, Sarah carved a pumpkin ALL BY HERSELF!!!!! She did great!!!

Mummy dogs for dinner!!!!!!

Sarah's pumpkin!

October Fun!

We went to the pumpkin patch on Friday, Oct. 30. Ben was smitten with all of the tractors - this isn't the greatest picture, but it's the only one with a tractor and he loved them!

I love, love this picture!!

Family Soccer Picture! Sarah's team won! YAY!

A Haunted Story

Sarah's homework assignment tonight was to write a Halloween story with her spelling words. We were so impressed with the results! I thought I would share!! I have kept ALL of the punctuation and spelling the way it appears on her paper - check out her use of semi-colons!! I have many high schoolers who can't use semi-colons (some who don't know what they are!!!!). Sarah, you rock!

The Haunted House
By Sarah Lingenfelter, 8 years

One scary Halloween night all the trick or treaters were having lots of fun. My friends and I wre going to the best decorated houses on our street, and we found one that actually looked like a haunted house. We went to ring the doorbell and we got a high pitched scream instead! So, we cried for help, but everybody had already gone home, and no sign of our parents either! We wanted to cry but, we knew we had to be brave, so we all stepped inside on my lead. It was amazing on the inside, but wierd and creapy on the outside; we thought the people's decorations were really in style! There was a striped carpet, and it was red and black for a reason I don't know. We didn't admire the ceiling because it looked like blood was dripping down. We went up in the attic and .......BOO! A ghost was right there in front of us! Until, the ghost took off his white, slick sheet; it was only my dad! But, where were my friend's mom's and dad's? Out came four more ghosts and then they took off their sheets. Oh, there they are!

The End

Sleeping Beauties

Tonight, I walked into my children's rooms to give them a final tuck before I headed off to bed. I was struck by the beauty , innocence, wisdom, and love that was captured in both of their faces. I just sat there and stared at them for a long few minutes. It is amazing when these little moments hit you and how much you can love someone else.

Fall = Football!

Ben loves wearing his football uniform (thanks grandma!!) and watching the game with daddy!

I missed this shot, but Ben was in a three point stance - dad was proud! :)

Football player by day, construction worker by night!

September 2009

It's been a while since my last post! September was one busy month for us!
Here are some shots from the last month that captures what we have been up to:

Ben and Papa hanging out at Sarah's soccer game
Mommy and Ben apple picking

Sarah picking apples

Ben playing with his trucks

Ben finally got his Raiders Helmet from Grandma!

Ben has learned how to take off his shirt - this is how he spent the day at Sarah's soccer game!

Soccer 09!

Yucaipa Fire 2009

It has been a couple of scary days here in Yucaipa. On Sunday, we received texts from our neighbor that Oak Glen was on fire - only a mile or so from our home - we raced home to see the hills directly behind our house burning. That fire burned it's way up through Oak Glen and over on the other side of the ridge.
Yesterday, (Monday, Aug. 31) another fire was started a mile to the north of us. This fire is threatening many more homes and is causing horrid smells and air quality in our little town. We are very thankful that our house is safe, but we continue to pray for our friends that are displaced.

The view from our back yard

The view from the top of our little slope in the backyard.

Ben kept telling me "more picture helicopter mama"
So, we have lots of cool helicopter pictures.

The view from the end of our cul-de-sac

As we were leaving our house to go run a few errands, we were stopped by police to let a motorcade go by. I knew that Arnold was in Yucaipa doing press related to the fires. We followed the motorcade to the freeway, where they stopped at a Starbucks to get coffee!!

When we stopped at a red light, Arnold, who is sitting in the back seat, had his window rolled down and he waved to my kids! I gave Sarah my camera to take a picture, but he had rolled up his window by that time. Sarah was excited to have seen him! :)