Take it to the Lord in PRAYER

Chad's mom is doing ok. Thanks to those of you have expressed words of comfort and PRAYERS!!! It is amazing what a few minutes with God can help you through! Continue to pray that her recovery is not too painful and that the doctor's knowledge is in our favor. We will let you know when we have any new information.

Our Halloween Fun

Calla had a great Halloween! Before Daddy came home from work we visited a few houses and then we came home to eat and visit with Grandma and Grandpa Ripp. They tried to convince her to wear her duck outfit, but she would not comply even for them...better luck next year! After supper we met our friends Andy, Amber, and Elly at the Light in the Night Carnival. There were many games to play and some jump houses to try out. Calla and Elly got special treatment and got to go up close to play the games. Several times they wanted to keep the balls or beanbags rather then throw them, but with a candy prize they decided to give it back! Yesterday all things Halloween at Target were 1/2 off so we bought her outfit for next year already...I can't wait! Thanks for checking in to see how our Halloween went!

Checking to make sure the tunnel was safe before she entered!

There were so many things to see so she would not look at me for a pic with Daddy!

Loper in the making?!?!

Playing a bean bag toss game!

Elly and her Mommy throwing the balls through the holes!

We sat the girls on the outside of the jump house so the big kids could not trample them.

Calla trapped in the contraption Andy built!

Posing with the pumpkins in her orange outfit!

Happy Halloween 2008!

Calla is ready for her 2nd Halloween! She is going to be a very cute duck this year and even says "quack, quack!" We will be visiting a few houses tonight and then going to the Light in the Night Carnival with the Spracklen family. With 2 babies we decided it would be fun to not take them in and out of a carseat multiple times, but just let them run around and play games and maybe even go into the jump house! We will try to post more pics later this weekend! Have a safe and Happy Halloween!!

Here is a pic of Calla from last year!

Room Progress and the Pumpkin Patch

Calla is back at home after spending the week with Grandma Jules and Papa Bryan. She had a great time, but did miss her Mom and Dad a little! Chad and I did some work on the house while she was gone, so finally we are finished with everything inside!!!! We painted our bedroom and put in a new floor. We are so, so thankful that Chad's Dad, Mike, has all the tools and expertise we need in order to make our house what we want it to be! It is so helpful that he lives close so that we can borrow his tools and his truck! Thanks Mike!
We ended up taking the curtains from Calla's room for our room and got different sheer curtains for Calla's room...it is so PINK when the shades are up and the sun shines in. We love it! We added a brown stripe to our walls so that we could tie in our brown sheets with our black duvet. The laminate floors make the rooms look so much nicer and actually a place we want to be! Most of Calla's toys are in her room so she enjoys playing in there.

Saturday we met my parents, Shane and Burlynn at the Pumpkin Patch near Hastings. It is a great little patch with plenty to do and we just had a blast following the girls around. The loved to jump in the big jump house and the big slides were also fun. The goats were attacking Grandpa and that was entertaining to watch as well. They added a new duck pump race and Burlynn had fun pumping the water to get the ducks going and Calla loved to put the ducks in the trough so that they could float down to the end.

Grandma Carolyn is back in the hospital and needs some prayers that her strength is restored.

Thanks for checking in on us!

Calla really liked the corn box again this year!

Here she is last year in the corn box...wow she has grown!

She really liked the wooden train...she kept saying "Choo, Choo!!"

Crawling through the train!

This year she was big enough to go down the slide into the corn!

The girls wanted to challenge Papa to a game of checkers!

B was pumping the water for the ducks...and getting herself all wet!!

Calla and her Daddy playing Guitar Hero.

Calla's room with a new chair and the new curtains.

Here is the other window and her star coat hooks!

Here is a view of our room!

And another view!

I have been tagged!

I have been tagged by Brenda to post the 6th picture in the 6th folder. This is me at 36 weeks pregnant...wow this was a long time ago! I posed for Chad every week so that I could put a picture up here. This is close to the end, but Calla was still up pretty high as she had not dropped any yet. Thanks for bringing me back to this time Brenda!
I am supposed to tag 6 people, but I don't know 6 other people who have a website, so Becky is the only one for me to tag! Come on Becky post a good pic for us to see.




In other news, Calla has been with my parents all week. Our daycare provider's mother-in-law passed away Monday and so she took the rest of the week off. Chad's parents are in Florida on vacation so we called Grandma Jules to fill in! Calla has been having a blast breaking all the rules at daycare...hopefully Shirley does not have too tough of a time Monday getting her to remember the rules again. Thanks for checking in!

The (almost) Finished Product!!!

Chad has busted his tail every night this week in Calla's bedroom! On Monday night, we took Calla to Grandma Karma and Papa Mike's to hang out so that we could paint the ceiling and touch up the white stripe. Tuesday night, Chad bought all the trim and touched up all the paint. On Wednesday night, they played in the park while I went to church and then Chad touched up the brown. Tonight he cut most of the trim strips and hung those. As you can see from the pics there is still a little more to do. Calla is in there tonight and some of her things are put back away. We decided to rearrange the furniture, so there will be a few kinks to iron out before we decide for sure which way it will stay.

I do want to ask for prayers for my Grandma Carolyn, she has been in the hospital this week and came home today to finish recuperating. Grandpa Roy is also struggling with his health and also needs prayers.

Let us know what you think of our bedroom creation!

Calla's cute pigtails!

This is where Calla thought she should sleep tonight...we changed her diaper and put her in her bed with her pillow and blanket, she was happy then!

A quick peek!!

Chad and his Dad have worked really hard so far this weekend updating Calla's bedroom. Her room had water damage after our roof leaked from the tornado in May.
Papa Mike patched the ceiling yesterday and also the floor. Then last night, they put in the new wood laminate floor...and we love it!!!!!! Today they mudded the ceiling some more and the holes in the walls left from everything we had hung up.

Tonight Chad is finishing up the texturing of the ceiling and has started painting the pink stripe. Yesterday at Target I found this rug that will look awesome with the brown that will be on the bottom of the walls. I will update again in a few days with the finished project!

Chad does such good work! We are leaving the white at the top and then the pink with the bottom brown!!

Calla insists on being in there with her Dad while he is painting tonight. The floor is covered with drywall dust, but you can see the general color.

Here is the rug I found for $6.00 at Target!!

It has been so much fun!

Lots has happened since we last met up! Calla is still learning so much all the time...it seems like there is about something everyday! Right now she is playing on the new slide she got from Grandma and Grandpa. When we brought it home she would not crawl up and insisted that I help. After two helps she wanted to do it alone and now she crawls up and down, up and down, up and down all by herself! The dolls are even going up and down with a little help from Calla.

We went to Lincoln this weekend and hung out with Grandma and Grandpa Williams, Uncle Shane, Uncle Jed, and Little B! We even got to see Gina and Gavin while we were at the zoo, and we got to meet Harvey and Amanda's new guy, Lane.
Yesterday we went to the zoo and Gavin and the girls had lots of fun checking out all the animals. We got to feed the goats and llamas. It was so fun seeing Gina again and getting to know Gavin a little bit more.
After lunch we went to an indoor playground, Lost in Fun. www.lostinfun.com It was a blast! The girls loved climbing in and out of the house and cooking all they could find inside. We even played a little basketball there and went on the jump house. We went to the motel and watched the game and had a picnic on the floor while we all hung out.
Today we got to meet Lane. He is so cute and so alert at such a young age.

Grandma Carolyn came through surgery well and is working on healing now. At this point she is not going to do any chemo or radiation. Grandpa is having a harder time with his health and they still need prayers. Stephanie's mom, Cheryl, had surgery last week and also needs prayers as she continues to heal.

Thanks for coming back to see how things were going in our world!

Of course, Calla loved the balls!

In the ball pit

A swinging B!

B and Daddy shooting hoops!

B was being "crabby!"

She found her swimming suit last weekend when Grandma Karma was here and insisted on wearing it...so Grandma put it on her. This will be a nice blackmail picture someday.

Tired Girl.

Gavin, Burlynn, and Calla at the zoo.

Checking out the turtles.

Gavin on the spider web

Calla's World!

What a busy week we have had! Last week my kiddos started back to school so I have been spending much more time thinking about work then I am getting paid for, but life happens sometimes. Calla has spent lots of time with her Daddy and they always have a great time. I am also helping with Awana at our church this year so that too started last week.
Over the weekend Calla and I went to see my parents, and brothers, and Burlynn. We had a short trip, but a great time! As much as Calla wants to be like Burlynn, Burlynn tries to copy Calla as well. It is almost comical at times.
My Grandma Carolyn was diagnosed with breast cancer last week. We are unsure of treatment at this time, but know that HE has a plan and we will do our best to follow it. Thanks for checking in on us and enjoy all of the Calla pics!

She took her 'snacks' into her bedroom to sit in the chair and eat. I am not for sure how she climbed into the chair without spilling :)

Monkey see, Monkey do!

Calla was really concerned as to why her Daddy was laying on the floor looking at the bottom of the cabinets. (He was finishing up the mop boards.)

Calla & Uncle Shane