It's officially Fall!

I absolutely love Fall - the weather is just the right temperature, the leaves are so colorful, it's a great time to take outdoor pictures, and there are so many neat fall decorations! I love mums and scarecrows and was anxious to get these out this year. These are on the front porch:

and this little guy is on the back porch:

Since I could not sleep this afternoon (which is nothing new these days (but I only have 12 more days to go until my due date!), I decided to make caramel apple dip. That's another thing I love about Fall - all the incredible fall foods and caramel apples have to rank right up there at the top! This is a super easy recipe (thanks, Jana) that is the absolute best! I even like to eat the caramel plain too, right Dana! :-)


Caramel Apple Dip
8 T butter
1/2 cup corn syrup
3/4 cup brown sugar
1 can sweetened condensed milk

Bring the first 3 ingredients to a boil, then add the can of sweetened condensed milk. Transfer to a small crockpot and let simmer. It will thicken and turn a darker brown. Serve warm over sliced apples. Delicious!

(I think I've always doubled the recipe - it doesn't last long around our house!)

Fun at the Museum!

We recently enjoyed the "free day" at the Museum Center with my brother, Jeff and his children (except for Emme who was out of town with her mommy). It's too bad that we had never been there before since it's nearly in our back yard. They have some really neat exhibits - and we didn't even get to see them all.

The biggest tree I've ever seen!

Camen was a little scared in the Ice Age area. No wonder - it was cold and dark in there!

He did a little better once he could see all of us!

These animals looked a little too real for me, but Caleb and Kaley sure enjoyed them...

...but Camen wasn't too sure.

Camen was fascinated by the sand/water exhibit.

Have you hugged your refrigerator today?

We are STILL in the dark! I have never gone this long without electricity before and sure will be glad when the power comes back on. Who would have thought that here in Ohio we would experience part of the hurricane??!!

We took out 5 bags of trash from our refrigerator. It was so sad to simply throw your good food away, but of course you can't keep it without a way to keep it cold. Our dear friends Ron and Jennee did let us put some of our food in their freezer since they have power, and I was so thankful to be able to save the 3 full bags of chicken and 2 roasts I had just bought.

I am REALLY thankful for the hot water that we do have. I also have found a new appreciation for Downy spray. It's this handy little bottle that you can use to smooth out wrinkles from your clothes. It has actually worked quite well on Aaron's clothes this week since he still has to go to work and I can't iron.

I was having withdrawals from the internet and not being able to check my email for 5 days, so I headed out for the library today (glad they have power). So, this is probably my first post without pictures (gasp!). It feels so good to type! :-)

Church Kids

I haven't been blogging recently because I've been working very diligently on a directory for our church. I had no idea it would take this many hours and this long to do, but hopefully the end is in sight!

I loved taking all the photos of the great families in our church, although it was hard to track some of them down. In fact, a couple simply refused to be photographed, which makes me very sad. Pictures are wonderful - and such a great piece of history! Oh well, you can lead a horse to water, but . . .

We also have some really cute kids in our church and of course I couldn't pass up an opportunity to get some individual photographs of them as well. This is certainly not all the kids in our church, but here's a few . . .

Zachary Waits

Lauren Lambeth

Michael Lambeth

Caleb Lambeth

Emily Durkee

Kerianna & Parker Brown (inseparable brother/sister)

Nicholas Cassity

The Frederick kids - not really "kids" anymore - but still very cute siblings!

Hannah Welch