Benefit Dinner

Last Friday our church held a benefit dinner/silent auction event. :) It was a wonderful evening of fellowship.

There were so many unique and diverse objects in the auction. Everything from specialty cupcakes, to rounds of ammo. :)

Knives, puzzles, train sets, scarves, gift baskets, a cheesecake... Truly something for everybody.

There was quite a bit of friendly competitive bidding going on. We even had some false names used, for anonymity ! :)

We had a Chili Dinner, and there were many interesting variations, including some chicken chili's and a pineapple one.

It was a delightful evening, and we went home with some interesting objects, and many memories.

~Chs

Like Son Like Father

Josiah has been wearing overalls exclusively (barring Church and some special events and occasions) for the past 5 years or so.  Well Dad finally joined the club. :) And whenever he wears them, I keep thinking I am seeing 2 Josiahs walking around....

~Chs

Squeezing in the Gatherings

 Somehow, over the past year, we have not had the opportunity of having as many families and people over as we would like. Life gets busy and if you don't make time for it, it doesn't happen. So for some reason we have had the urge to have company recently, of course we waited until we are right in the middle of packing up and moving out! (promise more on that later) But maybe that is kind of a reason... having as many happy memories in this house as we can, before we leave it! 

 We were blessed to discover and start attending Reformation Bible Church around 3 months ago. We thoroughly enjoy the firm Biblical preaching, and wonderful Christian fellowship.  

Last week we were so happy to be able to have Pastor and Mrs. Long over for dinner.

We are so grateful for their ministry and friendship!

~Chs

Friends Forever

Sadie Rose and Pumpkin Spice Lottie (aka Kitten) have a very interesting relationship. We honestly never expected Sadie to be super close to any cat, and of course didn't know what kind of cat it would take to put up with some of Sadie's craziness.  Well apparently Kitten is that cat.

Kitten adores Sadie Rose, in a possessive, lordly fashion, and Sadie Rose is amused by, and tolerates the little feline.

"We'll be friends forever, right Todd?"

"Yeah, forever."

~Fox and the Hound

A Thankful Celebration!

This year one of the things we were thankful for was the house that we have lived in for over 7 years now, and were delighted to be able to host Thanksgiving in this house for the last time.

Josiah was put in charge of making our annual nut cups... lets just say they were way more detailed then we have ever had before! We have had everything from Turkeys, apples, cornucopias, and leaves. Oh, and one year we had a pathetic version of the "Mayflower" which really more resembled a little round tub, or a floating crows nest with a mast in it. :)

So Josiah decided to make a Ship nut cup again. This time though he started out with a historically correct drawing of a ship of the time period, and began his draft.

This was the final result. The details are impressive.

The kitchen was very full Wednesday, between, Gingerbread cookies, our traditional spiced nuts, a variety of Cranberry sauces,

Plus of course pies...

Faith is the Queen of pie making, and this year she over did herself (truly, we ate pies for breakfast and snack that weekend. Which was really just fine! :).

1 plain Apple pie, a decadent Sour Cream Apple pie, a tangy Cranberry Apple, and 2 Pumpkin pies.

I had way to much fun decorating our tables this year.

Thursday morning, Josiah had finished his whole fleet of ships (with help from Faith, Mom and Dad). He said it was a Spanish Armada... or since this was Thanksgiving, a "Pilgrim Frittata" :P

We each have our "thing" that we are in charge of for Thanksgiving. For Faith it's the pies, Mother of course.. it's her famous Rolls.

Another major thing we were grateful for this year was being able to have Aunt Myrt join us!!

Enough food? :)

We were also happy to have Aunt Pat (Uncle Tim's sister) with us to this Thanksgiving!

In addition to the 5 pies Faith made, we had a Sweet Potato Pie, a Peanut Butter Chocolate Pie, and Aunt Lucy's famous Chocolate Pecan Pie! Uhuh.. too much goodness.

Charming Baby Gabe was a little put off by all the new faces at first, but after a nap he was his own smiley goofy self.

"Squishy"

Piggy Back rides from Uncle Josiah.. only the beginning.

We have so much to be thankful for all year round, but it was wonderful to be able to gather with family for a special Thanksgiving celebration!

~Chs

First Few Flurries.

The first few flurries came early this year. It's been a long time since we have had snow in October, and sure enough on October 31st the first lovely little snowflakes came.

Since then there has been quite a few days of flurries, some actually resulting in quite a layer of snow.

Last week we had nearly 3 inches, and at the farm I was working at in Oxford there was at least 5!!! 

Unfortunately I was busy, and didn't get any photos of the major dump of snow... these photos are all from the earlier little dusting we had.

The first snow is always an exciting thing! I know by the end of the winter I will cease, or at least have a VERY hard time appreciating it, so I try to enjoy it as much as possible now, while it is fresh, new and beautiful.

~Chs

Dog Days

A couple of weeks ago, we babysat two fun canines for a week.

This is Sweet Sassy, a beautiful laid back standard Collie.

And this is adorable little Miss Maggie, a tiny little ummm... I'm not exactly sure what.

Sadie wasn't so sure about her company at first, but by the end of the time they got used to each other a little.

Little Maggie was definitely a lap/couch dog, so she had to fight over laps with....

Kitten, who quite preferred "her" dog Sadie over the visitors.

Maggie loved to dance for treats. She was so much fun to play with.

It was quite the week, and we enjoyed our furry visitors very much.

~Chs

October Days

October is a visually stunning month.  Here are some random photos of our October.

{The last garden bouquet}

{Fallen Leaves}

{Berries are abundant}

{Autumn walks}

{Fields of dry corn}

While "fleeing the house" during one of our house showings, Faith Sadie and I went for a lovely October walk. The trees were gorgeous, and the weather perfect.

The mums suffered from the hard winter last year, but the flowers that did blossom were as stunning and lovely as always.

Kitten quite enjoys being outside with us and pouncing at nothing and anything.

We are enjoying these October days, and believe it or not, there aren't very many left! So we had better make the most of them!

~Chs