Fear the Lord ~ Halloween 2015

The motor cooler is back in business!

Farewell Beach Days until next year! This picture was taken at the NC Aquarium pier.

Pirate Gabe....Arrrr!

Pirate Gabe (again) and Superhero Chase

This is the same Spiderman costume Chase wore for Halloween 3 years ago

Double dose of Spiderman

Look who can drive the John Deere Gater now!

Batman and Robin (this year's costumes)

First Day of School

My last blog posting was towards the end of summer and here we are almost halfway through fall. I'm not sure where time has gone over the past few months, but we've evolved from beach days and afternoons at the pool to school days and Saturday mornings on the soccer field.  We went from eating fresh tomatoes out of our backyard to incorporating pumpkin spice into nearly everything. Although leaves haven't changed colors yet, the cooler, crisp air reminds us that summer is long behind us.

We kicked off the school year at Faith Outreach Education Center (FOEC) right after Labor Day. Thankfully, it was an easy transition for both boys since they attended summer camp at FOEC. I remain proud of Chase as he's writing in cursive, learning basic math, doing sign language, taking drum lessons, reading, playing soccer, and citing 6 bible verses at a time. He's a sharp kid not lacking in social skills or the gift of gab.

On the other hand, Gabriel has had to work harder at mastering speech even though he wants to be as social as his brother.  He's attending 30-minute speech classes twice a week with Miss Hopkins at Hardy Elementary in Smithfield. Miss Hopkins isn't in a position to officially diagnose Gabe, but she thinks his symptoms point to apraxia more so than just a typical speech delay that some children have in their younger years. (I posted details on Childhood Apraxia of Speech (CAS) earlier this year.)  It's not easy for me having to leave work early twice a week and be the "mommy bus" driving Gabe from Hampton all the way into the heart of Smithfield for speech class, but it's worth the peace of mind knowing that I'm doing all I can to ensure that he's getting the help he needs. Between the speech classes and K3 preschool curriculum, Gabe has already improved his speech and learned more than I anticipated. We still have a long road ahead of us to truck, but at least we've made progress. He's still not 100% potty trained, but he's trying and has only had one accident at school (knock on wood).

As happy as I'll be to reach the day when Gabe won't require speech therapy and when I won't have to buy pull-ups anymore, it's bittersweet reflecting on how quickly my boys are growing. I still call Gabe my baby and he often corrects me and says, "I'm not a baby. I'm a big boy." I even called him "pumpkin" the other day and he said, "I'm not a pumpkin. I'm a big boy." I told him just a couple weeks ago that he'll always be my baby and he replied with, "and you'll always be my big boy." I cracked up at that remark! He's totally convinced we're all "big boys!"

Speaking of cracking up over remarks, Tim, the boys, and I were heading to our soccer game last Sat morning and we drove past a lady walking. Chase said, "aww, she must not have a car or a home." Even though that remark was far from the truth as it was just a woman enjoying a morning walk in our neighborhood, it depicts how big Chase's heart is and how easily he sympathizes with others. He also exercises faith better than I do at times. He's had a slight cold for the past week and refuses to take cough medicine. For one, he hates the taste of any kind of medicine (even the children's flavored syrups). Two, he claims in faith and says: "I don't need any medicine because Jesus will heal me." Gotta love child-like faith (even if it is an underlying conspiracy to avoid nasty tasting medicine).

Now for soccer...Tim graciously volunteered to coach the 6/7 year-old bracket again through Isle of Wight Parks and Recreation. Our team this season is the Buccaneers (we were the Sharks last season; and, yes, we enjoy nautical themes). Our team colors are red and black. We have several talented kids on our team, but we've only won one game so far this season. We still have tournament game(s) ahead of us, so I'm keeping my fingers crossed that we can pull off another win. More importantly, we're just enjoying getting to be a part of the community. Chase has enjoyed playing goalie for most games and has saved several goals (and let a few by too, but we try to focus on the positive).

Aside from school and soccer, we have Halloween creeping up on us. Every day at our house is Halloween with as often as the boys try on costumes and get into superhero mode. We plan to go trick or treating with the Batman theme this year; Chase as Batman, Gabe as Robin, Tim as the Joker, and me as Catwoman. Hearing Chase talk in his Batman voice is hilarious.

As for the rest of our family, everyone is staying understandably busy, but doing well. We just celebrated fall birthdays for Kenden, Jaycee, Bella, Emily, and Ruthie. You'd hardly recognize my newest nephew now at 3 months old vs the newborn picture I posted of him in my last blog posting.  Our family continues to grow with Dawn expecting Baby Charlie in just a couple more months. Laurie and I are throwing a very small scale shower for her on November 7th.

As everyone gears up for Halloween and we tend to focus on scary things as a society, I'd like to conclude with one of Chase's (KJV) bible verses on how we should fear the Lord. However, this Bible verse isn't about the scary kind of fear; it's about respecting, trusting, and obeying our Lord so that we live a fulfilled life through Him:

"O fear the Lord, ye his saints: for there is no want to them that fear Him." -Psalm 34:9 

Happy Halloween to everyone!