Anna has been talking all month about how when it got to be Halloween she was really going to fly. So today when I put on her costume she took her hands back and flapped her wings as fast as she could, and then with a great sigh said, "I guess I'm not going to fly yet". LOL

The lady answered the door and said, "oh you are a pretty tinker bell", she replied, "I'm not tinker bell I'm just a fairy".

Across the street they decorated a house like a haunted house the adults dressed up very scary like the grim reaper and a skeleton. She said, Mommy lets go over there so all the way over I was telling her the people were just dressed up and it just looked scary. The adults hide b/c they knew they were so scary and sent there daughter to give Anna some candy. When I said well she wanted to come and see the skeleton the mom dressed up came out and she said, "Happy Halloween Skeleton" and they said, "Happy Halloween" she said, "See mommy it's not scary!" LOL

We carved pumpkins Sunday because in the FL heat you can't carve early. Anna picked out piglet and Ariel the Disney Mermaid. Daddy did Trick or Treat and his famous Cyclops.

A group of professional people posed this question to a group of 4 to 8 year-olds, "What does love mean?"The answers they got were broader and deeper than anyone could have imagined. See what you think:
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"When my grandmother got arthritis, she couldn't bend over and paint her toenails anymore.So my gran dfather does it for her all the time, even when his hands got arthritis too. That's love."Rebecca- age 8
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"When someone loves you, the way they say your name is different. You just know that your name is safe in their mouth."Billy - age 4
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"Love is when a girl puts on perfume and a boy puts on shaving cologne and they go out and smell each other."Karl - age 5
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"Love is when you go out to eat and give somebody most of your French fries without making them give you any of theirs."Chrissy - age 6
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"Love is what makes you smile when you're tired."Terri - age 4
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"Love is when my mommy makes coffee for my daddy and she takes a sip before giving it to him, to make sure the taste is OK."Danny - age 7
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"Love is when you kiss all the time. Then when you get tired of kissing, you still want t o be together and you talk more.My Mommy and Daddy are like that. They look gross when they kiss"Emily - age 8
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"Love is what's in the room with you at Christmas if you stop opening presents and listen."Bobby - age 7
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"If you want to learn to love better, you should start with a friend who you hate,"Nikka - age 6
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"Love is when you tell a guy you like his shirt, then he wears it everyday."Noelle - age 7
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"Love is like a little old woman and a little old man who are still friends even after they know each other so well."Tommy - age 6
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"Love is when Mommy gives Daddy the best piece of chicken."Elaine-age 5
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"Love is when Mommy sees Daddy smelly and sweaty and still says he is handsomer than Robert Redford."Chris - age 7
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"Love is when your puppy licks your face even after you left him alone all day."Mary Ann - age 4
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"I know my older sister loves me because she gives me all her old clothes and h as to go out and buy new ones."Lauren - age 4
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"When you lov e somebody, your eyelashes go up and down and little stars come out of you." Karen - age 7
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"Love is when Mommy sees Daddy on the toilet and she doesn't think it's gross."Mark - age 6
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"You really shouldn't say 'I love you' unless you mean it. But if you mean it, you should say it a lot. People forget."Jessica - age 8
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And the final one -- Author and lecturer Leo Buscaglia once talked about a contest he was asked to judge.The purpose of the contest was to find the most caring child.

The winner was a four year old child whose next door neighbor was an elderly gentleman who had recently lost his wife.Upon seeing the man cry, the little boy went into the old gentleman's yard, climbed onto his lap, and just sat there.When his Mother asked what he had said to the neighbor, the little boy said,"Nothing, I just helped him cry . "

I borrowed this from another site, I thought it was worth reposting.

I use to have a pen pal who lived in various places in Australia. I lost touch with her when she had a divorce and I mailed her a letter and instead of forwarding it to her, her husband sent it back to me. I was thinking today since this is world wide maybe in some small weird way I could find the pen pal I'd had since I was in the 4th grade. Her name was Carmelina Nelson. She got married and had a daughter and her last name changed to Pashalis I am not sure of the spelling on that last name but her married name was something like that. So if you per chance come across this and know her can you drop her my blog. I often wonder about her and her little girl. She lived in Melbourne, Sidney, and Brisbane over the years we wrote to each other. I know this is far fetched in trying to reach someone but I thought I'd give it a shot.

I am currently doing the bible study Creative Correction by Lisa Whelchel. It's filled with ways to get your kids focused on relating correction with biblical principals. I am almost finished with it and I highly recommended it.

Anna is almost 3 and at the stage where she's been saying, "I can't do it!" followed by a whiny crying. I'll say try again but it's just a cycle of I can't!! So in my bible study today it says you should tell your children the verse, "I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me." So today when Anna took all the pillows off the couch. I said put those back please. She replied with I can't. I said well the bible says, I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me, so Christ will give you the strength to get those pillows back from where you got them. To my surprise she was wide eyed and said, Jesus will give me strength? I said, yes and she began to put all the pillows back exclaiming Jesus gives me lots of strength mommy!! She put every pillow back without whining! I was very very happy!

It's amazing how many teachable moments pass us by without us even realizing it. I am so thankful for bible studies geared towards mommies that help us recognize those moments.

My friend mailed me a huge amount of clothes for Anna and she is just starting to be able to wear them. Thanks and here's this outfits second go round!

Today of course Anna slept until 9am and I had to wake her. She's usually up at 7:30am unless we have somewhere to be like today. She woke up we got dressed and were off to the pumpkin patch. I grabbed my camera to take some cute pictures. We got there at 9:30 just as it was beginning. They read a story and let the kids roam the pumpkin patch. They had fun and Anna picked out 3 baby gourd pumpkins. I went to take the first picture and my battery died. Then my friend goes here's some batteries I carry extra for my son. So I said, "thanks" quickly putting them in my camera and then shot several pictures of Anna at the hay stack, with the pumpkins, with her friends. I was doing good. Then I came home to download them and noticed my camera card in the printer!! I was taking pictures on the internal memory of my camera!! Some would say not a big deal just hook up the cords. This camera is about 5 years old and survived 3 moves but the cords well they just didn't make it.
So hopefully my friends will send me some cool pictures from the event.

Then we've been making paper mache pumpkins with my friend and her little boy who is about 9 months older than Anna. They play great together and we've been working on our pumpkins for about a month now. One week we made them then it took about the same about of time for them to dry. Then we re wrapped them to make them sturdy and then again waited for them to dry. Today we finally get to paint the pumpkins. So they were both excited and they loved painting them and did a great job with the orange body and green stem. Then we decided to paint faces on them well that's where the trouble began.. Anna loved this part too so much I had to make her stop before she painted the entire pumpkin black!! She was crying and didn't want to stop and of course it was beyond reasoning with a 2 1/2 year old.

The other pumpkin in the picture is the Princess Ms. Potato Head she picked out to make from Target. We punched the parts in it today when we got home. Here she is with her creations!

This is a picture of my new niece!! Her name is Mia Elizabeth Howard. I don't know where my photo's are of her they are underneath all my scrapbooking supplies. I will find them when I get to the parky farm scrapbooking page.lol Anyway until then here is a picture Nana sent to us of her. She is so cute and I am so glad Anna and I got to see her last time we were home. She is precious! Congrats Gene, Shella, and Max!

Anna and her Happy Halloween Hat that Nana bought her.

Well mom here it is my new hair cut! ahhh! The beauty of a self portrait.lol

Anna's Great Great Aunt Sandra knitted her a hat for when she was born but it came out very large and she laughed and said perhaps she can wear it to kindergarten! Little did she know it would one day become the "magic hat". For whatever reason Anna put it on and called it the magic hat and it's been magic ever since seeing her have so much fun from something handmade by a family member.





It was really quiet today and I went to see what was going on upstairs. When I reached the top of the steps this is what I found Anna in her magic hat and all her stuffed animal gathered around a dishrag with pretend food all over it. She said, Mommy me, lambkin, Bibble, rabbit, and lamb are having a picnic. So ofcourse I had to run for the camera!

Anna at Indian Rocks with her Uncle Bruce and Aunt Rebecca. I am learning how to post pictures in a new way. Yeah me!!

Hearing Anna say the Lords Prayer

Seeing her get so excited over the sunset at night and yelling "mommy, mommy the sunset! The sunset!" (kind of like tattoo with "the plane, the plane!" on the old show fantasy island! lol)Then she'll say, "lets just sit and watch the sunset mommy, and we'll do just that we'll sit infront of the window of my bedroom and watch the sun as it sets at night and be perfectly content for the wonderful moment God has provided."

When she says, "mommy, I love you." for no reason at all.

When she gets so excited about picking me flowers.

When she raises her hands up in church during the time of praise songs.

When she bows her head and folds her hands to pray in church.

When she thanks Jesus for making the sky pink her favorite color!

It's hard to believe that at other times she can be sooo opposite..

Like looking at me and saying, "No" without caring that she will be corrected.

Or throwing a kicking screaming fit if not given her way at a moments notice.

The other morning after being corrected twice for not doing what I had told her I ask her if she needed further correction? In which she looked me directly in the eyes and said, very defiantly "yes". I said, are you just trying to see how much trouble you can get into this morning and she grinned and said, yes! Who is this child I thought???

It almost amazed me how she can have such drastic personality changes until I realized that as adults we are the same way but we've figured out the consequences and usually choose the right path. However, she's just learning the consequences and having to figure things out on her own. It's during these times I reflect on the things I am proud of, the things that make me smile.

Raising children isn't easy but I'd much rather her suffer the consequences now under my authority than later as a adult under the authority of the law. I know all these baby steps will help with giant steps later. But all prayers are welcomed in this time on the anvil :)
Stephanie

The Chronicles of a Crayon Princess is currently getting a new site compliments of Susie at bluebird blogs. Susie has been great to work with and is really trying to do all I ask of her which has been a lot. lol So keep checking back to see our new site.

Home is a wonderful place we find comfort, strength, hope, encouragement, and relaxation. Home is a place we can be ourselves feel safe and put away the worries of the outside world. In our homes we have blankets to keep us warm, food to keep us fed, things that we like to keep us occupied.

However, sometimes we are asked or perhaps made to leave our home. We are asked to leave the place that we love that has provided us with comfort and safety and go elsewhere. We may have to go out into the world to work, or leave home for school, or perhaps we have to leave simply because God has ask us to go. Perhaps God wants us out of our comfort zones. Some world say no God provided me with this comfort he doesn't want me to leave. Or I hold bible studies in my home God uses my home and me. But what if.... what if God does want you leave it all behind and 'go ye therefore to teach all nations'? Would you be willing to go? Would you be willing to follow? Or would you choose to make an excuse to stay in the worldly comfort zone God has provided to you instead of working on improving your heavenly comfort zone?

Do you ever wonder what happens to yourself?? Do you ever wonder why you seem to get so close to God reading his word, talking to him, and going to church only to stop it all at a moments notice and turn away from Him and fall back into your old habits? Its because having a relationship with God is live having a relationship. Think about it.. when we have a relationship with the opposite sex it usually starts out casually as friends. Then as time goes on and the relationship progresses you may say something like this, "I really think I am starting to feel some deeper feeling s for you and I would like us to be exclusive to see where that takes us".

You got closer in your relationship and asked a little more of your partner such as you only want him/her to see you and no one else. Well as time moves on and you see that the exclusive thing is working you may move onto marriage, which is a closer relationship. In this relationship there are more demands which are usually no longer living like you are single not being at parties without your spouse and even the parties that you go to change from the kind of parties you went to as a single person. There are daily commitments like helping each other keep the house in order and raise the children. These are all added duties you never had or possibly never thought about before you met each other.

It's the same way with God. The deeper our relationship with him grows the more He wants to spend time with us and the more he wants us to want to spend that time with Him. The more He will ask of us. God says, "To whom much is given much is required". However, sometimes in our relationship with God and with others this commitment scares us and we begin to run. We become overwhelmed and bogged down with the demands of everyday life not stopping to realize that the person we are in the relationship with loves us. They don't want us to feel bogged down and stressed they desire a true love relationship with us and just want us to ask them for help so they will know how to help ease our load.

It's the same with God He is our partner. He is not going to ask us to do something we can't handle or something he's not gong t to be there to help us with. He wants us to keep moving forward and doing great things with us and through us. However, sometimes with like any relationship we get scared of commitment and instead of doing the work to keep it going we chose to just walk our an away from what we see as too overwhelming instead of asking for help and receiving the blessings from it.

Are you running away from home? If so like the prodigal son God wants you to come back home. He wants to see you running towards him not away from him so the He can give you all the best things he has for you at his kingdom. His love for you hasn't changed, he hasn't changed his mind he's simply been waiting for you to change yours and come back home.

As humans sometimes we do things that make no sense at all. Take on e of my friends for instance we'll call her "Clara". Clara was an independent single, attractive, female. She was successful but always felt she was lacking something or someone. One day she met someone we'll call him "Joe". Well she had never met anyone like Joe before and Joe simply turned her world upside down. When I say upside down I mean Joe put the "UP" in upside down!! He completely changed her world. He was so in love with Clara. You could feel the love when he looked at her. He gave her anything she asked for and was always there for her. Clara loved him so much too. Well at first... but she was sue to being independent and he wanted to be with her all the time. She was use to being alone and although Joe was everything she could ever hope for the closer they got the more withdrawn she became until finally she left Joe broken hearted. Joe wept because he wanted the best for Clara and he knew he could have provided it for her if she had wanted him too. Clara began to look for someone else to be with that wasn't so demanding on her time. Joe kept waiting patiently on Clara to change her mind and come back to him.

Do you know how the story ends?? Does it sound familiar? Is this not how we treat God? Is this not what we do when He get s to close to us? All He wants is a loving relationship with us. All he wants is the very best His kingdom can offer us. However, like Clara we run away when God demands to much of our time. We run from the person that loves us more than anyone can or ever will. We run from the one who can meet all our needs and fulfill all our dreams and while we are out searching for someone or something Else to full our time we occasionally stop and wonder where God is when there is a mishap in our lives. Like Joe God is sitting patiently waiting on us to come back to him and invite him back into our lives for the relationship that we gave up on but he kept pursuing . God is waiting for us to ask for his help. He's begging and pleading with us to come back home and renew our love relationship with him .

Walk in my way seek my face. Allow your light to shine for others that you may be their beacon of hope in a dark world. Seek me so that others will seek me also and direct their paths by allowing me to direct yours. I will give to you more than what you can ever imagine or desire. Remember I will not put on you more than you can handle and all good gifts come from the Lord. Seek me and I will answer you, knock and doors shall be open unto you, ask and it shall be given unto you. Hide my word in your heart so that you may be protected from the enemy. You have a long wondrous journey ahead. Don't lose sight of who I am and don't try to understand my ways because my ways are not the ways of the world but the ways of the Father and he sees the road ahead even when we cannot. Have faith do not despair for I hold the weak and the weary, the road is long but I go with you and when you need me I will carry you if you ask me too. Your journey is drawing nigh it is long. You need rest and time in my word. You need this not only for endurance but for direction as well. Please heed what I say because I do not speak useless words to fill time or space I speak only what needs to be said, I stress only what needs to be stressed. And I can't say enough how much you need to seek and keep me in your heart. Allow my thoughts to become your thoughts and my words to be spoken through you to all who will listen. The harvest is plentiful and the workers are few. Go with me to bring the harvest home.

The other night Jason was putting Anna to bed and felt his chin and said, hmm what is that on your chin dada? Jason said, it's the hair to my beard Anna. Anna then felt his head and said, hmm you don't have hair on your head but you have hair on your chin. Well don't worry dada mommy is going to take me to get my hair cut tomorrow and will save you my hair and you can put it on top of your head. Okay dada?? Ahh the precious moments we don't want to forget.

The other day we took Anna to Dino world with some friends. They are all starting to show interest in dinosaurs so we knew they would have a great time. It was miserable!! The kids were all whining, and defiant we wondered did we really just pay to do this?? Luckily it was only 12 bucks. Anna complained to go home the entire time until she discovered a playground as we were leaving. Then they were all happy of course. We finished the day with lunch at Costco a quick shopping trip and then we all rushed home before both children and mommies had a nervous breakdown!

God revealed this all to me several years ago. I am sharing it to the public today because I think it could help someone out there.
Steph


Marriage is like the game of life. The people who created the Milton and Bradley game of life first had to have a plan. Then they had to construct some rules to make the game go smoothly. The rules are there so that when the game gets confusing for one of the players and there is a disagreement one can refer back to the rules. The game also list the number of players that may play the game at the same time. Then the game provides you with all the pieces one needs to play the game.

God created marriage in much of the same way. God provides us with the pieces to play the game like the love and friendship of another person of the opposite sex. Then God gives us the rules we need to follow to make the game go smoothly. There can only be two players. Marriage doesn't work with an outside player. You and your partner can only play the game with each other. God states the rules that the man is the head of the household. That means in order to receive the blessings God has given us we must play by the rules of the game or we don't get to pass go and collect our two hundred dollars. The man has to be the head. The man also has other rules he has to follow. He has to be a Godly man a man who seeks God before he makes his decisions. The wife is to be his helpmate. Her purpose is to see what the man needs and help make sure he gets it. This in turn will make the man happy and again you will reap the blessings of it. However, if we don't include the creator of the game in the game by following his rules the game simply does not work!

Now some where in life someone is going to see you playing your game and like the kid who didn't get chosen to play kick ball at recess this person is going to become resentful of you and the good time you are having playing your game. This person is Satan. Satan will try to destroy all that God has created. He will do anything he can to disrupt the game. During these times you need to refer back to the rules of the game. Satan wants the game to end because if you make the game look like to much fun or look like it goes smoothly when playing then others may want to start their own games and once again Satan will be ignored by even more people. So Satan devises plans to get us to turn on our game partners. He whispers in our ears they are cheating, you should just quit playing no one want to play with a cheater. Or they are playing unfairly if they can't treat you fairly you should just walk away from the game altogether. Or they are boring do you really want to keep laying this game with this person and die of boredom? Or he is doing better and gaining more then you are at this game you could do better playing another game with someone else. So we hear these lies and unfortunately instead of referring back to our rulebook a lot of us start to believe the lies that Satan has whispered in our heads. We start to become suspicious of our partners we forget that we both have all the same pieces we both own the game we are playing and received this game from our Father so that we could enjoy it and have fun. Satan takes the gift the Father has given us and uses it against us. He uses it for his benefit as he whispers the doubts and suspicions into our ears. We begin to look around at other people playing the same game and they look like they are having fun and Satan whispers they are having more fun perhaps their game partner is more fun and maybe you could have more fun with someone else. What we don't realize is the couple that is having so much fun is playing the exact same game we are they just haven't lost sight of the rules. They are playing the game like the creator of the game intended it to be played. This is why they are so happy they have heard the whispers of Satan but instead of pausing to consider a lie they referred to the rules and realized that one of the rules was to block out the voices of the ruler of the world and follow the ruler of all creation.

Satan uses the smallest form of doubt to create a pathway for him to squeeze his way into our hearts and into our marriages. Any part of our body he finds isn't covered with the full armor of God he begins to attack. He makes a stab here and a punch there until part of you begins to feel bruised and weak. We start to feel hurt and worn down. And it's in this moment that Satan begins to smile because he is breaking down a barrier and finding a pathway through. He knows if he can effect your thoughts he can eventually get through to your heart. The rules say: "Guard your heart it is the wellspring of life" If we'd read the rules we wouldn't have a had a hole in our armor. When the Devil hit us his hand would have gotten bruised instead of our heart. And maybe, just maybe he would've moved on to someone with not quite as much armor on that he could hurt.

This brings me to another point. Since as married couples we really are all playing the same game of life. When your game is going good and you look around and see other playing the same game but they have included to many players and perhaps allowed Satan to join their game then it's your job to refer them back to the rules. It's your job to report them to the creator and tell him to remind them how the game is played.

Satan will attack any part of our marriage that we will allow him to attack. Marriage is a sacred sacrament created by God for those in love with God. It was created as a gift from our Father. If after getting married our earthly father presented us with a brand new house we wouldn't just let someone come in who was an enemy of our father and start destroying the house we would protect it. We would build it up and take care of it to make our father even more proud to say I gave this to my children. We wouldn't allow someone to come in and spray graffiti all on the outside of our home. Or if they did spray it with graffiti we wouldn't leave it there. We would be out repainting the house working to make it what is was in the beginning or perhaps better than before. We have a gift from our Heavenly Father a gift called marriage. Yes, the gift does take maintenance and sometimes it is not easy to keep up but the things it provides when it's taken care of and nurtured is well worth the rewards. When our home and our marriage is taken care of it's our place of refuge. It's our place of peace from the outside world. It's where we go to weather the storms of life. It's where we go to find rest, food, and comfort from the world.

So when you are in your home playing the game of marriage be sure to follow the rules. Be sure to refer to what the creator of the game says on a daily basis. Remember to take care of your home if you don't you won't have a place to play your game. Last but not least receive your Father's gift with a thankful heart doing all you can to maintain His gift and make Him proud.

Anna and I made ghost the other day. It was a fun craft. She wanted me to take a picture of her messy hands. She's been talking about seeing ghost ever since. She told her daddy this morning that a noise going whoooo whooo whooo woke her up. He said was it a car outside? She said no it was a ghost. It had a white head and big eyes and it was scary! lol Anyway here are the ghost she and I made from beginning to end.

Yesterday we were visiting our neighbor and when the neighbor picked her up she said, "oh, you smell so good!" Anna replied, "that's because I take a bath." lol Then she kept trying to get out of her arms and she said, "Anna what's wrong?" Anna replied, "you are wrinkling my dress!" lol Yes, she is truly a little princess. lol


A few days ago we were riding down the road and we pasted some construction. She said, look mom what are those. I couldn't remember the exact name for them even though she'd picked a book out of the library about them the month before so I said, "dozers". She replied, "No mommy that's a backhoe!" A two year old has a better memory than I do.. scary scary! Perhaps if I start now I can find a nice home for myself. lol

Earlier today I said let me see if I can find you some more coloring book in this cabinet. She replied, "lay it on me!" lol Where does she come up with this stuff??

Reflecting today I realized that my husband have been together going on 5 years of marriage next year. That means we've been together 6 years. We've been acquaintances, friends on and off, dating and then married. That means we've known each other 16 years over half our lives. Time flies and people grow! Marriage like stew gets better after it simmers for awhile.

I remember when we first started dating and he would do things that were so hurtful that I would ask people if they really thought someone could be so thoughtless and not mean it and they replied, "normally not, but with Jason yes!" (Don't get mad at him yet you haven't heard the ending.) I also remember when we first started dating he was so happy to learn that I had to stay slim in order to keep my back out of pain so he determined that I'd always have to be in shape.

However, we had a baby and I put on weight and he still calls me beautiful even when I feel far from it at times. He is patient with me at times when I can't stand myself so I know he can't stand me but he still stands by me. He still makes me laugh. He still makes me smile and he still gets mad and protective if he thinks someone has hurt my feelings. No girls the story didn't end but with time it did get a lot better!

I remember early in our relationship I would not do some things he asked because I felt taken for granted. I felt like he was taking to much and not giving enough. I realize now it was my selfishness getting in the way of a blessing I might have received if I'd perceived it differently. I now try my best to put what he ask on the top of my to do list. Although I don't get it all done at times I do make a honest attempt because as his wife it is my job to be his helpmate. To try and make him the best he can be, and he does his best to support and provide me with every thing I need or want.

Through the years we've been stretched pencil thin at times and at others filled to overflowing at the blessings God has given us. We've learned to lean on God and each other as we watch how God transforms us and our relationship with time. With God we know that it will only get better if we continue to lean not on our understanding but on His. God has taught us to be helpmates and friends. He's a keeper!

Stephanie