Apples of Gold

A few weeks ago we had our celebration dinner after completing the program Apples of Gold. I am really behind at getting this in here, but better late than never!

Apples of Gold is a study started in 1995 by a lady named Betty Huizenga. It was created as a way for the older women and younger women in a church to connect and is based on two passages of scripture:

"A word aptly spoken is like apples of gold in a setting of silver." --Proverbs 25:11

"Bid the older women likewise to be reverent in behavior, not to be slanderers or slaves to drink. They are to teach what is good, and so train the young women to love their husbands and children, to be sensible, chaste, domestic, kind, and submissive to their husbands, that the word of God may not be discredited." --Titus 2:3-5

It is a six week program and the lessons come from that passage in Titus.

1. Kindness


2. Loving Your Husband


3. Loving Your Children


4. Submission


5. Purity


6. Hospitality

The lessons have been incredible, but it has been so much more than that. The mentors involved are so obviously kind, generous, hospitable and virtuous and definitely love the Lord with all their heart.

The lesson each week was held at a different mentor's house and we were pampered and spoiled beyond belief. We were always greeted at the door with a nametag, drink and appetizer. We usually then had a cooking demonstration before the lesson. One week, we had a flower arranging demonstration. The ladies' houses were so beautiful and they always had fresh flowers and candles. After the lesson, we had a sit-down dinner and were served wonderful meals by the mentors and previous "Apples" graduates. I am so grateful to everyone involved in this study. They all gave so generously of their time, effort and money and I hope they know how much we appreciate it! One of the greatest things about it for me is that through it, I have gotten to know so many wonderful people at our church.

Thanks, Denise, for encouraging Mitzi to get this together for us! And thank you, Mitzi, for all your hardwork and organizing. I hope to share some of what I learned in the lessons with you, but you see how long it took me just to get this much posted. We'll see...

So Cute It's Scary

This Halloween several moms got together to take the cutest picture ever of 6 infants and a toddler in their costumes. It didn't go quite as perfectly as we had hoped, but it was memorable nonetheless. After the photoshoot on our elaborate backdrop involving about a ton of candy, we spent the afternoon creating picture frames using Deborah's cricut machine. Our friend Alicia pasted "So cute it's scary" on hers, so that's where my title came from. I love it. It is so Alicia!

I'm sure everyone driving by thought we were insane.



This is about the best we could do. We've got Luke (headless monkey), Colt Parrish (bear), Ava Yates (ladybug), Julia Blank (peapod), Jack Peacock (puppy), Canon Moss (lion) and Alex Blank (spiderman).



We spent the entire day at the Moss's house in Grove Park. We got there around 10:30 to get the pictures done and really didn't leave until 12 hours later. It's a good thing we got there early, though, because at trick-or-treat time it took an act of Congress to get into that neighborhood. They had cops at the entrance checking ID's to be sure you really lived there. Otherwise, you were not allowed to drive in. I bet there were about a thousand kids! We were actually toward the back, so we didn't see quite as much action.

Overall, the babies did pretty good in their costumes. Luke still refused to wear the monkey head and since he was actually pretty entertained by looking at all the candy, I had to use it to get him to join in the fussing for this shot:



Here is the finished product of our entire day's work. The dad's were so sweet to babysit while we crafted, even though they thought our project was ridiculous.



Speaking of dads, Kyle joined in the fun, too. He was dressed as someone from the 60's and always likes to sport his 'stache. Julia and Alex's dad, Will, dressed up, too, but I don't have a picture! Didn't you take one, Mary??




By that night we didn't even try to get the babies in their costumes again. They were much happier without them, for sure.






Halloween at this age is much more fun for Mom than baby!

Happy Halloween!

It's Luke's first Halloween! We went with the monkey costume, though there is no way he is going to wear that thing on his head. Why do they even make costumes like that for babies? We're getting together this morning with some of his baby friends, so there should be some more pictures for you later.

I wanted to show you the scary house in our neighborhood. These pictures really don't do it justice. I had planned to take some better ones today, but it's raining!




Yesterday we went to the Dothan Area Botanical Gardens to see their annual scarecrow exhibit/competition. Denise and the girls and Kristen and Owen went, too. Luke is not really popular with the ladies, yet. I guess he is still in the stage of having more fun with the guys. We'll see today, I guess, when we hang out with Canon and Colt.







This was one of my favorites. Notice that it is called "Desperate Housewife." It reminds me of something...



On the way home from the Gardens, Luke started saying "mamamamama" out of the blue and that has replaced "dadadadada" as his babble of choice. It kind of makes me feel more like a mom than I did before!

Why haven't we done this before now?

Tonight we gave Luke his first bath in the sink. That is so much easier because you don't have to bend over and you can rinse him off with the sprayer! Well, Kyle is the one who actually bathed him, but it looked easier, for sure. And Luke loved it! He was drinking water out of the faucet and clapping and splashing. He screamed bloody murder when we took him out. So, baths will be in the sink from now on. Oh, and by the way, he's TEN months old today!

I also have some pictures from the weekend. Friday night our sunday school class went to the Corn Dodgers Farm in Headland. We had a really good time and it was an excuse for Luke to sport his new Carhartt overalls! We had fun getting the babies together, but I'm afraid this bunch is not helping to encourage the childless members of our class to get started. (Well, Luke isn't, for sure!)

This farm had two corn mazes. We thought we were so smart when we made it out of phaze one, but not so much when we came out in that same spot when we tried to go through phaze two. After the maze, the guys took turns with the corn cannon (hence the name Corn Dodgers Farm?). Except for Kyle, because the loud noise was too scary for Luke. We went over and played in the pumpkins instead. This is Luke with Abby Bancroft and Collins Martin.

On saturday night we went over to the fall festival at Grove Park with Eddie and Emily Jones and their kids Ava and Rafe. Emily is one of Kyle's partners at Primecare and Rafe was born about 12 hours after Luke.

Rafe is Darth Vader and Luke is supposed to be a monkey. He will NOT wear the head part, though. Sitting next to Darth he looks like Yoda. Both of these guys look older than 10 months to me.



We'll try to get some pictures with the whole monkey outfit this weekend. Some of Luke's other friends are going to be animals, too. It should be an interesting Halloween.

Random thoughts

This is kind of random, but has anyone else noticed the madness that has been created in the supermarket world since Publix decided to come to town?? Every grocery store in Dothan has had a total make-over complete with hardwood flooring in at least one section. And this includes Wal-Mart. I mean, I thought the manager at Southern Family Markets was going to hug my neck before I got out of there. I'm not complaining. I just think it is an interesting phenomenon. It just goes to show you what a little competition will do in a FREE MARKET economy! When is Publix going to be built, by the way? I still think it is a myth.

Also on a random note, does anyone else like to assign a letter grade to your child's report you get from Mother's Day Out? For example, today, Luke gets an A+ (and a high-five) because he pooped while there and his nap was less than 45 minutes. That means one less poopie diaper for me to change and a longer afternoon nap at home! Maybe this is just me...

Here is a random picture for you, too. He can really fly behind that thing! Oh, and he will sometimes let go and take several steps on his own now. I really need to get a video, but my camera memory is full :(

Aplin Farms

Denise has a long list of places that she wants us to go before she moves...or is it my list? Anyway, I know Aplin Farms was on her list, so last week we went on the search for pumpkin shirts for Luke and the girls to wear to the pumpkin patch. And after 3 trips to Wal-mart, 2 trips to Target and 3 trips to a little shop in Headland, we didn't even get a picture of the three of them in their matching pumpkin shirts. I think the picture above is as close as we got, but I forgot to take off the bib. How cute is that? From left to right is Mary Selwyn Nichols, Luke, Owen Thompson, Anna Clare Thompson, and Adeline Nichols. (The Thompsons are in the sunday school class that Denise stole us from.)

When we got to the farm, we first went to see the animals. Luke seemed to like the cows, but he was much more interested in climbing the fence than petting any of them.

After the animals, we looked around the market then loaded up on the wagon and headed to the pumpkin patch. Luke's grandaddy will be happy to know that he loved the tractor ride! There were tons of pumpkins of all shapes, colors and sizes in the patch. We decided just to pick one up in the little market when we got back since we had so many children to hold on to. Kyle did manage to cut a pretty bouquet of sunflowers. Steve (Thompson) was very impressed that he has such a knack for creating a bouquet...

It was a big day for Luke. So tired!




Kyle didn't miss an opportunity to build a fire when we got home.

My First Real Boo-Boo :(

I guess it just comes with learning to walk, or climb actually. And I'm sure it is only the first of many. He was trying to climb on the basket filled with magazines and it tipped over and he smacked his head on the baseboard. Thankfully, Kyle was working this morning because if Matt Krista had been there, Luke would have probably gotten his first set of stitches. Probably just one stitch. But since it was just Kyle and me, we cleaned it up and stuck some steri-strips and a band-aid on it. Good as new!

Maybe the bump on the head triggered something, because today was also a big day for milestones. For some reason, while I was trying to get a picture he figured out how to clap and he's been clapping all day. He also took TWO WHOLE STEPS, all by himself!! He's still not doing that consistently enough to catch on video, but I did get the clapping: