Good stuff.

When I'm done following around Perry Noble, I may just turn my target of nodding and agreeing onto Clayton King. He rocks. Yep.

Check out his post on the Pitfalls for Loung Lions. Awesomeness.

That was good, right? How about his Dangers for Seasoned Veteran's post? More awesomeness.

Good stuff to keep in mind, and to be on guard against. I admire how he brings these (tough and often defensive) topics up, but does it in love. I'm amazingly grateful to be in a marriage and in a ministry with a young lion, but also led in church by a seasoned veteran. We have a lot to learn from each other, and a lot to hold each other accountable for!

God knows what He's doing by putting these two (Not only Tucker and Jim, but other random ministry pairings) together. There's a purpose and a place for each. How awesome is that?

Camping...again.

I meant to post about this, but never did. Whoops!

A few weekends ago we joined the Hendries on another camping trip. (I told them that we're coming on every camping trip they go on, invited or not. I think they thought I was kidding...)

It was Josh's birthday, and we couldn't think of a better way to celebrate than camping, swimming (Indoor water park thing. Pretty cool. My camera died as soon as I snapped the first picture there. So, bummer. No pictures of that! The kids loved it, though!), a few cold beverages, and some good food. (I hear there was a cake, but have yet to actually see it. Phyll's holding out on us...) We had a wonderful time! It was, however, very cold. See?Thanks again, Hendries. We love you guys!

Shades.

So apparently, it's "Too bright!!" at our kitchen table...

Pain.

Should I ever meet Perry Noble, I may just walk around behind him nodding, with a sign that says "Yeah, that."

He might find that strange. Or awesome. Whatever.

Seriously. He just hits all the nails right on their heads. He words things very well, and really gets into the heart of the issue he's talking about.

I was hesitant to post this one, mostly because I don't want people to think I'm whining, or something silly like we're miserable. We're absolutely not! (Well, I do whine some, but I'm not whining here. Honest. You'd know if I was whining...) Anyway, I decided to post this because it really spoke to us...but really, more so to Tucker.

This past year has been an amazing one! Both wonderful things and awful things have happened. We've experienced immense happiness and incredible sadness. What's left in the calm moments, the valleys, like now, is just this: Joy and Pain. The joy is great, and the pain deep. We've learned (And what a lesson it was!) to embrace the pain and be open to learning amazing things from it.

Perry Noble addresses the pain part of it all...

*Nods* Yeah, that.

Zoo.

Tucker took Monday off for some much needed family time, and we put our zoo membership to good use! Much fun was had.

Pumpkin Carving.

Rory does her very best "Mad Pumpkin" imitation.

Rock on.

Halloween.

We had a great time trick-or-treating with some friends last night!

Tate was a bit fussy, but it's perfectly understandable as to why. We stuffed him into a hot monkey suit and made him sit in a stroller while his sister got to run around and get fun food. But dang. He looked so cute!

Roar-y? She got the hang of the whole thing pretty quickly. Candy? Free candy? Buckets of it? Yeah. She's been asking all day if we can go again tonight!