Snow!!!

We're having our first snow...before Halloween! Josiah and Benjamin are taking full advantage of this premature winter weather. :)

Daddy and Abbey staying warm.

The boys' snowman is between them, if you look closely.

Moosehead Coffee Beans

I've been working on updating the Moosehead Coffee website for my parents. Take a look! http://www.mooseheadcoffee.com/

My Utmost for His Highest

My roommate in college, Charis, introduced me to Oswald Chamber's excellent devotional, My Utmost for His Highest. It is not a "Meet God in Two Minutes" type of devotional...it makes you think and needs to be digested slowly. It is not designed to make you feel better, but to make you a better disciple. I just found an online version, and would like to highly recommend this to my Christian friends and family! http://utmost.org/

Here is today's devotional:

But you, beloved, building yourselves up on your most holy faith . . . —Jude 20

There was nothing of the nature of impulsive or thoughtless action about our Lord, but only a calm strength that never got into a panic. Most of us develop our Christianity along the lines of our own nature, not along the lines of God’s nature. Impulsiveness is a trait of the natural life, and our Lord always ignores it, because it hinders the development of the life of a disciple. Watch how the Spirit of God gives a sense of restraint to impulsiveness, suddenly bringing us a feeling of self-conscious foolishness, which makes us instantly want to vindicate ourselves. Impulsiveness is all right in a child, but is disastrous in a man or woman—an impulsive adult is always a spoiled person. Impulsiveness needs to be trained into intuition through discipline.

Discipleship is built entirely on the supernatural grace of God. Walking on water is easy to someone with impulsive boldness, but walking on dry land as a disciple of Jesus Christ is something altogether different. Peter walked on the water to go to Jesus, but he “followed Him at a distance” on dry land (Mark 14:54). We do not need the grace of God to withstand crises—human nature and pride are sufficient for us to face the stress and strain magnificently. But it does require the supernatural grace of God to live twenty-four hours of every day as a saint, going through drudgery, and living an ordinary, unnoticed, and ignored existence as a disciple of Jesus. It is ingrained in us that we have to do exceptional things for God—but we do not. We have to be exceptional in the ordinary things of life, and holy on the ordinary streets, among ordinary people—and this is not learned in five minutes.

Our Favorite 'Store'

We aren't "Dump Divers" like some locals, but every once in awhile, we've scored something fantastic from the "Waste Management Department." :) Last week, Logan picked up this bunk bed! The boys are so excited! We're just in need of a twin mattress, and then we're in business. The first night it was set up, Josiah could hardly go to sleep. :)Similarly, I've become somewhat of a Frugal Fanny. A deal isn't a deal unless you need it...and if you need it, you can wait until you find a deal! I can't even go into a thrift store until the 'Sale' sign goes up in the window! One of the results of trying to be a single income family with three small children, I guess. :)

Birthday Hayride

We went to a very fun birthday party Sunday afternoon. The highlight of the afternoon was a hayride, pulled by a fantastic orange tractor. Of course, the boys were thrilled. My camera's battery was low and died halfway through the ride, so these are the only pictures I have to share from the party. Well done, Jenn! Cole is growing up fast! Everyone ready to start the adventure.

Josiah and Zaid.

Sweet Abigail was the only girl-guest. :)

Benjamin having fun. :)

Pumpkin Patch Kids

Saturday was the annual Pumpkin Patch at the Railway Village, so we dished out the extra dough (no membership freebie this time!) and got onboard the train for a pumpkin adventure of epic proportions.Of course, the boys wanted to attend in costume, and insisted that Abigail also don her Ladybug gear we found at Young'uns a couple weeks ago. So cute!
After our train ride, we caught a hayride over to the other side of the tracks where the pumpkin patch was set up. The boys enjoyed sitting beside their buddy Mathias, and we almost got a good family picture! At the pumpkin patch, we all picked out our favorite and then the boys drew faces on theirs.

There were cookies and cider for everyone, and barrel train rides for the kiddos. Such fun!

After our hayride back to the main museum, we needed the boys to take turns carrying the smallest pumpkin back to the car, but you would have thought by their whining that we were asking them to carry the weight of the world on their shoulders. This kind gentlemen overheard their complaints and saved the day with a ride in his Model T over to our van. Lucky boys!
As always, we had a wonderful time at the Railway Village. Now that it is closed for daily admission, we are missing it terribly.

Fall Foliage Festival, Pumpkinfest and Rocktide Party

This past weekend was a big one for us: the Fall Foliage Festival at the Railway Village on Saturday, and Pumpkinfest in Damariscotta on Sunday. Plus, this was my last weekend working at the Rocktide, so we were busy, busy, busy! I'm still recovering from the weekend/busiest-summer-ever. My body is so conditioned to sleeping 5-6 hours a night (with at least two wakings with the baby), that I'm stuck in a zombie state of being.....no energy, splitting headache, 0 patience with the daily challenges of motherhood. But I digress! I was supposed to share fun pictures from the weekend!!! :)

The Fall Foliage Festival is the best fair our area has during the year, in my humble opinion. Beautiful crafts, live music, yummy food = a great time! I took Josiah and Benji while Abigail napped at home and Logan was working on our porch rails. The boys always love it when the caboose is on the train for special occasions, so that's where we had our ride.

Then Sunday, we went over to Damariscotta for the Pumpkinfest Pumpkin Boat Regatta. So much fun! Main Street is lined with huge pumpkins, carved and painted oh-so-creatively. There was a street with kids' activities, and the regatta was a lot of fun to see.

Here's what a Pumpkin Boat Regatta entails:

And then, after two busy weekend nights (Saturday and Sunday I had two sections all to myself...talk about a crazy finish!), the Rocktide staff had an end-of-season party. Here's two snapshots I stole from KK's FB album:

Girl Power! Some of the lovely ladies from the dining room staff:

And the kitchen crew, plus Phil & Mary Lou, the best bosses ever! It was a great pleasure to work for and with such wonderful people. I miss everyone already!

A Homeschool Group Hike

We went on a fun hike last week with the local homeschool group. There were 22 kiddos in tow, from months old to teenagers. The boys had a blast, and it was breathtakingly beautiful.

Not all of the kids could be coerced into this photo. :)

Miscellaneous Kodak Moments

Helping Daddy with the new porch rails. Lookin' good!

While Benji naps, Josiah plays with the next-best buddy: Abigail! Here he's dressed her up like a princess, and he's her guard:

"If you're happy and you know it, clap your hands!"

Benji opening wide for the dentist, and Josiah showing off his clean teeth. :)
A bad accident resulted in two vehicles in our neighbor's woods...and Josiah to the rescue! We were having a playdate at the time, and got to see Lily's daddy on the job.

Abigail is One!

Our Abigail turned one October 4th! This is a cute little video of her I made a couple weeks ago:

We had her birthday party this past Sunday, with my family and with Logan's family, via Skype! It was very cool to share Abigail's celebration with dear ones so far away. Here are a couple pictures of the princess with her cupcake, and then a video:

I took these pictures on Monday of Abigail looking out the window at her "Bubbas" playing with their neighbor friend Ashton:

On Tuesday, her actual birthday, we got to turn her seat around! Very exciting new perspective for Cutie. Logan ended up bringing the kids in for pizza at the Rocktide that night, and the waitstaff sang happy birthday with a sparkler in chocolate ice cream. Very sweet!

Yesterday was Abigail's one year check-up. Her growth flat-lined since her 9 month check-up, so she was finally on her growth chart. Dr. Feder said she was the average size of a nineteen month old. She got two live shots yesterday, so last night was miserable for her and for Logan and I. She even threw up at 1 a.m., then I put her in bed with us and she was sweating like a pig in her fleece pajamas all snuggled up to me. So she woke up at 3 a.m. wide awake and playful, and it took me almost two hours to get her back to sleep, mostly with her crying it out in her crib. Yuck! :(

When we got home from the Doctor's office, Abigail had a package full of goodies from her Papa & Grandma, Great Grandma and Great Aunt Emily! The kids were so excited. Abigail especially seemed to enjoy her new mug, which she kept holding up to her ear and talking to like a phone. Thank you everyone for the generous birthday gifts!

It is very hard to believe that a year has already passed. Abigail is a lot like me, but not as 'easy-going and compliant,' according to Grandma. I call her "persnickity." She is mostly giggly and happy until you take something away from her, and then it is instant rage! Which is just cute in a one year old. When she's smiling, she reminds me of her Great-Grandma Small. Happy Birthday, Cutie Pie! We love you!!!