Seven Olive Plants: Saruday night ramblings....

It is late Saturday evening and I'm waiting for some things to finish baking. I'm trying a new sugar free recipe in hopes of finding some more things to fill up Myles. :)

Here are a few pictures from a fall church party we went to this year. My younger kids have never participated in any fall alternatives to Halloween. We've always just sort of ignored it and done something fun at home. When my oldest two were little we lived in the same town with my parents. My mom always made amazing costumes for my kids and went with me to the "Harvest Party" as they called it at that church. The kids had fun, she loved doing it, and I treasure those memories with her. Once we moved away we just never did that tradition anymore. McKenzie had the idea of putting Elizabeth in one of Madeline's old costumes (that my mom made) and taking the kids. Myles had some sort of turtle costume that a neighbor passed down to him, Macheus wore his brothers jersey and helmet and we put converse tennis shoes on Malachi and made him a 50's guy. Very little effort went into it and off we went.

Oh, and this was the first time Mariah ever dressed up and she is 14. :) She was a "show girl" showing her "cow" Elizabeth. It was pretty cute!

My boys were so confused. They kept calling it the "dress up party".

They were pretty cute though!

They had tons of games, music, candy and this cool rock climbing wall. Malachi was the only one that made it to the top. The little boys tried their hardest though. I didn't think they were ever going to come back down.

Sweet boys....

We took them by for grandpa to see them. After losing Macheus for what seemed like an eternity and battling crowds we all decided next year we were going to cook hotdogs over the fire pit and stay home.

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Marc has had a lot of travel for work this fall. We took different kids with us on the past two. This week he had a two day conference in Atlanta. That is my least favorite place to go because there really isn't a lot for us to do. We've taken the kids to most of the places we care to see multiple times, so this time he talked me into just the two of us going. It was so much fun and SO relaxing!

Madeline was off from teaching the majority of the time we were gone so she and Matthew were with the younger kids.

It was a beautiful hotel with lots of walking trails around it.

We typically don't get king size beds when we travel because we always have the need for more "sleep spots". :) I walked into the bathroom and said, "What's this! Three towels for two people!" #largefamilyprobs

Our fist evening there we walked the trails and then went out to dinner. We shared a steak dinner and blooming onion and still brought back half the food. Matthew thoroughly enjoyed our leftovers. :)

One of my favorite parts was getting to talk with no interruptions. We have a lot of changes going on in our family right now and it was so nice to recharge.

The second night we hit the mall. It was kind of a high end mall and I went straight to the clearance racks in each store. I got $70 shoes for Madeline for $20 and a $65 coat for Malachi for $12. I love a bargain! We picked up some unique Christmas gifts while we were there. Ugh.... I wish I was done with my shopping and I'm barely started good.

We took this home and shared it in bed. We didn't finish it either! Good grief! I couldn't eat like that all the time!

This was so sweet.... McKenzie had given me a bath bomb a long time ago and kept telling me how nice they were. I just never took the time to use it. Our first evening there, it was so cold and rainy that we went back to the hotel by 8:00. I soaked in a hot tub with my bath bomb and it was wonderful! I often go to bed with some pretty stinky EO's on, so this was a nice switch. :) When I got out, Marc was laying there watching really old sermons on youtube. We are such party animals. :) I wouldn't want it any other way!

I literally stayed in the bed until noon! I watched HGTV, drank my bottled smoothie and ate chocolate covered peanuts. I decided I had been a slob long enough so I went to the hotel gym and worked out for a couple of hours. THAT was fun! Really, it was! :)

We came home rested, refreshed and ready to jump back into our crazy, hectic schedule!

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This dog..... I am not an animal lover but this is the best dog ever! We got him as a puppy three years ago. We were very hard on him with his training and it has paid off. Macheus is his constant (and not very gentle) companion. Barnabas has never shown any aggression towards him even when he probably deserved it. He herds the goats, gets the chickens back into their coop and one terrible day when Mac was smaller he stayed with him when he slipped off and went across the street to the cotton field. This is his rocking chair (or so he thinks.) He literally knows how to rock himself and it is almost creepy looking.