Halloween... such an interestingly fun time of the year. There are a number of stories about the origin and evolution of the holiday. Most agree that Halloween (All Hallows' Eve to the religious sector) began hundreds of years ago by the Celtics in the wake of the end of harvest. November 1st was their New Year, and they believed that on October 31st a "bridge" opened for a short time allowing the spirts of the dead to mingle with that of the living. The Celtics actually had the first Halloween costumes as many would dress up and walk around the cities moaning as a way to ward of the spirits. Whatever the history of Halloween truly is... I hope this year we have less teenagers in street clothes showing up with their pillowcases! It's often scarier than the kids in costumes... :)

So, in the spirit of Halloween, I gave in to the girls' request to go to their first "Night of the Living Zoo". It was a busy place, but the girls had a ball playing games and looking at all of the cool decorations. We ran into some great friends and just spent some time playing! By the time we made our way to the "Candy Land" pathway... no costume around could manage to scare our princesses!

It has been a wonderful weekend around these parts. And this was a wonderful end! However, we cannot forget how the weekend began... with Dalton suited up for his FIRST Varsity football game. The best part for us was seeing the huge grin on Dalton's face when he came running out of the tunnel to meet mid-field. I'm sure he was saying to himself "I can get used to this!". It was Senior night for the annual "rivalry" game and that made everything even more rewarding for all of the team. What a great preview it was to the years ahead. As an added surprise, Grandpa Larry and Aunt Kamie & her family made the long trip out just for the night to join us in watching the game. Dalton said afterwards that the only thing that could have made it better was if he would have made it out of the post-game talk and locker room in time to watch the last inning of the World Series!

That is all I have time to post tonight... lots to do before bed. We hope everyone has a safe and happy Halloween! Until next time...

WOW!! What a great school year we are having with the kids this year! It is off to such a good and exciting start...! The first nine weeks have officially ended, with both Emmalie and Dalton at the head of their respective classes. Dalton has managed to sustain a 4.0 GPA to start his high school years... this through football practice and games each week. Oh, and NO Dalton isn't taking all foods and gym classes either :-) Miss Emmalie has managed 98% high marks (which for a first grader is "4's") and she is in the most advanced reading group. Tonight she finished reading enough books to earn her first Book It pizza, which has made her day!

NEWS FLASH!!!!!

The latest news around our house is that of Dalton. He has worked hard enough to suit up for play at the final Varsity football game of the season this Friday night. And it's a "home" game...! Up until now, he has practiced with the Varsity and traveled with them all season but without being fully suited up. Dalton knows he probably will get little to no playing time. But you should have seen the look on Dalton's face when the Defense Coach of the Varsity team called him on his cell phone to personally let Dalton know he would be suited up for play. I sooooo wish I had a camera for that!!! Dalton says he's just happy that his hard work has been noticed... and he's really excited about what is to come for him next year.

The only thing left to pass along is our "sneak peak" of the girls in their Halloween costumes. Their parties start on Friday and run almost every day through Monday, so they will get a LOT of use out of these princess dresses.

Until next time...

It is finally starting to feel like fall. Leaves have started to fall from our trees and the fall flowers are in full bloom. So what a better way to spend our day than doing all things October-esque :-)

We started off the morning sleeping in... which is something we NEVER get to do these days. It was such a welcome way to spend a cool Saturday morning! But it didn't last long, because the girls and I had to keep to a schedule of fun activities. Beginning with a trip to Cheri's (our favorite baking friends) to take part in their kids' cookie decorating event. Then it was off to the farm for some pumpkin patch fun...

Let me explain the picture of Bethanie in distress above... That is what happens when one of our little girls sees a bee! (It wasn't even near her, but she saw it and still went balistic). Aside from that small "buzzzzz" to our day... it has been wonderful! Well, I'm sure you all can guess how the rest of it has been spent! Of course, it has involved food and football to complete our afternoon (and our evening, too!). We can't think of a better way to spend our Saturday.

In other wonderful news around our home... we found out yesterday that Dalton's football season will NOT be ending with the final Freshman game this Monday. The Varsity head coach has asked him (and five other Freshman players) to continue practicing as part of the Varsity team for the rest of their season... two more weeks. He's already been traveling with the Varsity team since their second game. Dalton is being his usual, humble self about this. But the few underclass boys who were hand-selected for this last year have been key players for the Varsity this year. Needless to say, Tony and I are extremely proud of Dalton!

The remainder of our weekend will be much slower... Tony had to miss our activities today because he has been home sick with pneumonia. And tomorrow is supposed to be a colder day in the area. So it will be a stay-home, cleaning, yard work kind of Sunday after church!

We'll leave you with a George Cooper poem that my mother introduced me to.

October gave a party
The leaves by hundreds came.
The chestnuts, oaks and maples
And leaves of every name.
The sunshine spread a carpet,
And everything was grand
Miss Weather led the dancing...
Professor Wind the band.

Happy Weekend all... !

HAPPY BIRTHDAY BETHANIE! We love you little one!

Humility... the quality or virtue of being grounded, egoless, modest and respectful. A word synonymous with being "humble".

This is one trait that Dalton has exhibited endlessly since he was a mere third grade athlete just starting to find his way in football and baseball. We could not be more proud of Dalton for his cognizent choice to be humble, despite how much success he achieves. It is the one thing that sets him aside from many athletes his age... and, in the long-run, has turned out to be the one thing that always helps keep him open to being better. Both on and off the field.

Our example of this humility would be yesterday's Freshman football game. Dalton (#13) had an offensive TD, 37-yards rushing on five carries, one forced fumble, an "almost" take-away (ruled halt of forward progress just as he stripped the ball), a 50-yard punt and numerous great tackles. He also helped lead the defense to stop a 6'2"-210# RB who plays Varsity... holding him to no touchdowns for an opposing team that averages nearly 30-points a game. (They had 6 yesterday!). Despite all of this, Dalton's first words to us after he got off the field was "I played like s**t!!!". No matter how well he performs or what big contribution he makes to the team, Dalton has never let it go to his head and manages to always practice humility. It is through this that he sees areas for his own improvement. How deep is that for a 14-year-old?!

Watching Dalton (this season especially) has taught us all a lot about the need to stay "grounded" in life. Be it work, home, sports or fun... it is always important to take the good with a grain of salt and learn from every little imperfection. For there is always something we could do just a little bit better next time. What a great lesson we have learned by witnessing Dalton's humility! No wonder his coaches call him their "most coachable athlete" :-)

We'll close with a little highlight video of yesterday's game. (It SOOOOOO doesn't even begin to compare with actually being there to watch the games, though!)

Hope you are having a wonderful week thus far. Happy Tuesday all!!!

So much to do... so little time. That is the mantra that I have been hearing a lot from those around me. Friends, family, neighbors... etc. Though there is some truth to this, it is not entirely the fact. The truth is that life is what YOU make it! Tony and I have been instilling this philosophy into our own lives and that of our children over recent months... because if you put off making the most of life (like important memories) today, you might find that a lot of days passed you by and you're past there being a tomorrow.

So... despite our preparations for a very busy week ahead and housework to be done, we have managed to fit some fun into our weekend.

• Reading! Emmalie has started reading her first "Chapter Book" (Unheard of for a fresh 6-year-old... but don't tell her that! All things are possible in her eyes!). Devin has been enthrawled in his first thriller novel by none other than Glenn Beck. Dalton worked on finishing another baseball history book. And Bethanie learned to read a portion of "Go Dog Go"! (Not bad for a 3-year-old!). Tonight I will finish reading them one of my favorite children books (Throw Away Bear) to close our weekend at bedtime.


• Football! In the midst of doing loads of laundry, dishes, sweeping and toy organizing... we made sure to at least listen to the football games. The girls pranced around in their KSU cheerleading outfits. Oh! But the boys were able to escape the housework by traveling to Manhattan with Grandpa Rupp to watch the game in person... what a memory they'll have after that nail biter!


• "Miss Priss" It is an every weekend attempt that I make with the girls to either try something new with their hair, dress up or do our nails together. (I have had more Hello Kitty pink nails with kitten faces in the past five months than any other adult in this area, I'm sure!). This weekend, we took it a step further and I taught the girls the basics to creating their own hair bows. The bows turned out wonderfully... and they will wear them to Bethie's birthday party next Sunday!

Our coming week is sure to have enough excitement to last all month ;-)

Dalton's football team is ranked #1 in the league and they play against the #2 team at home on Monday. It should be an exciting one... and a true test of how well Dalton leads his fellow defense. Oh, and did I ever mention that I have a new job and I also start it on Monday?!?! Or that Tony has his first web design customer?!?! Then there are all of the school-related events (like some state testing going on this week). It all culminates on Friday when we celebrate Bethanie's fourth birthday! However, between varsity football on Friday and the KSU game on Saturday... the poor girl has to wait for her party until Sunday. (She doesn't mind though, because she got to plan the event this year!). I'm just glad that Emmalie doesn't have religion class on Wednesday. That gives us a little more time to spend together in the busy week!

That's all we have for this quick update. I promise new pictures will be added.... sometime! Until then... We hope everyone has a great start to their week! As for us, we are off to the playground to meet up with some friends and share more laughs and smiles :-)