this face...

...it seriously melts my heart into absolute mush. I know he is mine so I think the world of him, but he's so darn cute to me. I am actually amazed every sunday at all the beautiful children at our church. Of course, I am pretty partial to a few, but they are all little angels and I love that one of them is mine!

Advent Conspiracy

My good, no great, friend Eva posted some info on her blog this week on an idea that our church and us personally have begun to embrace,Advent Conspiracy ...check it out! You can also check out Eva's Blog, for alot more details. It's an awesome opportunity for us all to do things a little differently at Christmas time, give more meaningful gifts, and even give outside of our families and friends, to some who really need it more.

So check out the website with an open heart and think about how your family could change up Christmas this year. Even if it is just a few less gifts then you would have normally done, and with that saved money, give to someone in need, whether it be someone in your church or work, or even someone on the other side of the world. Eva suggested some great organizations you can support overseas such as Blood Water Mission, Compassion International, or World Vision. Adam and I support a beautiful little girl in Ethiopia, and I have loved getting sweet letters and updates from her. Amazing opportunities that I never even new were out there! Through World Vision you can actually purchase cows, chickens, goats and other animals for families to get their source of food from, or provide them with a fishing pond. I think that is so cool! From all the way over here, we can give food to families in need! Money is tight for our household being that we just purchased a house, but we can literally afford to do so, just by buying a few less gifts. Sometimes it doesn't take much to help others.

This is definitely something that I have not been well aquainted with growing up. It is very new, and "outside of the box" for me, and something that somedays I struggle with really grasping, but I look forward to moving forward in it, and seeing how our household can do christmas differently this year by giving to others and seeing their lives changed as a result.

la casa...

New roof, new doors, new AC, new balcony! So exciting to see all the renovations. Now if I can only decide on paint colors, the outside could be painted and we could get to work re-doing our cabinets. I can't quite get the color on the outside to be exactly what I want. And the cabinets are another story! I'm a little scared to be painting them such a bold shade, probably going to be a cross between teal and turqoise. We did pick out some awesome black and grey slate flooring for the kitchen which I LOVE because it is so different. Looking forward to how it all comes together in the kitchen. It could be one crazy room full of color!

We love the zoo!

We have an amazing zoo! So nice, tons of animals...really fun! Now that it has cooled down, we plan on several more trips to the zoo this year. It was sweet to see Noah point and stare at all the animals. He was so good the entire time we were there and crashed one minute before we made it home.

Feeding the giraffe.

He really wanted to see those things!

Love this guy!

getting sleepy...

We also got Noah his second haircut this week, which he was not too excited about but he looks so cute!

Loved the lollie-pop at the end!

Ribbit

Halloween was lots of fun! Noah was pretty crabby all day (and the days before!), too many teeth at the same time. But, he still looked adorable in his frog costume, and we had a great time hanging out with friends and their adorable children. Some of my favorite pics of the night....I had a very hard time getting Noah to actually smile in a picture...