Some cute fun

I have to post some Halloween pics. They were so cute! Our church's theme was "through the years."

So, I suggested Sophia could be like a prairie woman, or someone from Little House on the Prairie. She immediately wanted to be Mary (the oldest, not Laura). It so suits her. She LOVED looking like she was from a different era. She loved that she could kind of hide under her bonnet, and look like the matron-sort. She was a sweet heart, and every time I said how beautiful she looked, she'd get the biggest smile and throw her arms around me.

Jossie had seen the pink poodle idea in a magazine and wanted to do it. It cost maybe $10 to do, and wasn't even that time-consuming. She was such a hit. She won first place for her costume at church. Yea!! She didn't care, but I did. She gets to spend $25 at Wal-mart for it, so I think she will care when that happens. :-)

And Norah, well, I didn't have the energy for another "new" costume. So, I pulled the smallest princess dress I could find out of our dress-up box, and bought her a princess crown and wand at the dollar store, and Voila! Cutie-patootie! Princess Cinderella Norah!

It was fun. The big girls both declared the next morning, that they wanted to be each other's costumes next year.

The Diabetes clinic gave me a sheet with all of the carbs for the fun-size candy that they got. So, I can work in the candy to her meals, and she doesn't have to really miss out on much. I'm not the type to let them just gorge on several pieces anyway. Our Halloween bags are usually still being picked through like 6 months after the fact, so her illness won't change much of that.

I did a fun new invention for a sweet, healthy treat tonight. I mixed 1/4 cup part-skim ricotta with a packet of splenda and a heavy shaking of cinnamon, and it tasted like snickerdoodle cookie dough. They both scarfed it down with dinner, and I thought it seemed like something I would even want to snack on.

Hope you enjoy the pics.

As I look at the past month's blogs...Wow! It's been a long and wild month. It makes me sad that "Spann Laughs" hasn't been very funny. Thank you for letting me tell you how it's really going, and not sugar-coating our lives. Thank you for loving us regardless. I hope that "you" actually exist, and that "you" actually read this from time to time.

Joe's parents babysat tonight so we could go on a date. It was such a needed night. I can't even explain. They, by all reasonable means, should not have had the energy to come do that tonight, as they both had a really long day today. But, they did anyway, and we got to escape and come home with fresh perspective and renewed energy for tackling life.

We pray that we continue to grow as a family through this. We hope to be more intentional and fierce in our pursuit of the Lord through this. I want to feel passionate about God's ability to get us through the most difficult of times. I want to learn this now, and not years from now.

He is real. He does love me no matter what. I'm so grateful. (Same goes for "you.")