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Happy Fall!

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If there's one thing I absolutely LOVE to do in my spare time, it's decorating, designing and photography. The delicious, changing color of leaves and the refreshing crispness of the air has given me a new found energy to put into such delicacies. I have quite the appetite for holiday decorating so yesterday, I took the time to pick up some pumpkins, gourds, squash and cornstalks and set them into place to serve the purpose of celebrating this autumn season and pleasing my starving eyes!

Happy Fall to all!

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Clarity-Johnny Nash

"I can see clearly now the rain blur is gone...

I can see all obstacles in my way...

Gone is the dark cloud astigmatism that had me blind...

It's gonna be a bright, bright Sun-Shiney day!"

Abundance

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Soup!

I call this colorful concoction "Abundant Garden vegetable soup with Chicken". Beautiful red and yellow potatoes from my mother-in-law's garden, rich zucchini, yellow squash and one spicy red pepper, just to flavor it up, from my Grandmother's garden along with a chicken breast, broth, carrots, celery, minced garlic and olive oil make up this soothing meal. Mhmm, topped with some freshly grated Parmesan, and paired with sliced and diced fresh-from-the-garden Honeydew melon, it makes for a delightful treat! And I must say, quite an abundance of beauty. I always strive to create colorful, healthy meals for my family because when it's pleasing to the eye, it begs to be eaten.





The overflow of praise and thanksgiving from our grateful hearts has already begun as we reflect on and enjoy the abundant blessings of this summer's gardens. The renewed sense of Fall is in the air today. Beautiful.

Great Grandma's Oatmeal cookies

(tweaked just a tad to my liking)

Set oven to 350 degrees.

1 cup butter flavored shortening

1 1/2 cups organic brown sugar

1/2 cup organic cane sugar

2 large brown eggs, slightly beaten

1 t real vanilla

1 1/2 cups organic flour

1 t baking soda

1 t sea salt

3 cups oats

Butterscotch chips (optional)

Mix sugars and shortening. Add eggs and vanilla, mix well. Add flour, soda and salt, mixing slightly. Lastly, add in the oats and butterscotch chips, stirring well. Drop by big Teaspoon full onto baking stone and bake for 10 minutes. Then enjoy!

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Highlights

Now that school has begun, we longingly look forward to fall; pumpkins, jumping in leaves, cool weather, beautiful sunsets, camp fires, candles burning, rain falling, kids trick-or-treating(not that I absolutely love that holiday) and that awesome corn maze! Then from Thanksgiving, to snowy days filled with indoor crafts and projects of the sort and Christmas with all of it's gift giving around the cozy fire... so much comfort, fellowship, sledding, Holiday baking and eating, along with snowman building, awaits! We look forward to each new, changing season with renewed delight but also, appreciate and fondly remember this past summer season and ALL of it's blessings.

This summer was a busy, yet beautiful one for our family. Some of the highlights include of course our fifth little blessing who joined our family on June 5th.

What an amazing adventure, and one God surely wanted us to trek upon. If it wasn't for Him and His plan for our lives, we wouldn't have this little sweetheart. What a blessing and it's good to know that God knows what's best!

Another spectacular blessing was how much my kiddos were able to play, visit and camp with their out-of-town cousins! Spread from Oregon to Utah, soon to be Cali, and Colorado, these cousins absolutely delight in being together and supremely adore each other. They seriously have to be tearfully pried from one another's loving grips when the time to leave inevitably comes.

Many Hannah Montana concerts, Princess dress-up, slumber parties, splashing in the pool, tree house adventures, picnics and even weddings took place between these little ones this summer! There's just something about the outdoors that brings out childhood imagination in droves!

Here are some of the happy bunch while camping at Crater Lake this past July. I stayed home with our new little one and my darling husband, their awesome daddy took his four older kids to enjoy God's beautiful creation.

Although, we are still testing, trying and dabbling in many activities, my kids do have their own favorites; such as my little man and DIRT, my first born and soccer, my second in command and her beloved gymnastics. My little angel is trying out gymnastics as well. She started this summer and they had a performance at Fruitland Fun Days in Fruitland, ID just a few weeks ago! Don't they just look adorable in their matching T-shirts and hair ribbons? I certainly think so but I may be biased.

We also made a stop at the bouncy house, obstacle course and blow-up slide(My eldest won fairly when we raced through the obstacle course... I still can't believe it-smile).

This was also where one of my new fave photos of Ella and I was taken.

Which resembles in beauty and closeness to this shot of daddy and his littlest girly that I took this morning.

These days, in school, we are enjoying ALL being involved, whether it be my little man and his play dough, puzzles, sidewalk chalk and blocks or my oldest daughter and her endless writing projects, math problems, book reading or newspaper hat making to keep the sun off of our face; it's all for the sake of learning and we sure are enjoying embarking on it together!

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Oh, yes, and we give ALL glory to our God and Savior Jesus for the blessing of our days together as a family and the growth, the daily change that is taking place in each of our walks with our Lord. What a gift!!

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"Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ. For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love He predestined us to be adopted as his sons through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will— to the praise of his glorious grace, which he has freely given us in the One he loves." Ephesians 1:3-6