Moran Family Fun

We had some lovely late fall days in October complete with sunshine, warm temperatures, and colorful leaves.  Madison, Emily and Abigail were lucky enough to have a random Thursday off from school on one of those perfect days.  Instead of wasting the day and sleeping in and then laying around the house we went out and visited the Gartenschau, a botanical garden in Kaiserslautern. Madison was being a little goofy, but she was ready to get moving through the gardens.  Every fall the Gartenschau has a pumpkin festival.  There is a contest for the largest pumpkin and there are sculptures built from pumpkins.  This year the sculptures had an aquatic theme.    These are the first place and second place pumpkins.  They certainly were big, but they sure weren't pretty. There were tons of pumpkin sculptures, but everyone had a favorite.  Emily's was this clown fish because she loves the movie Finding Nemo.  Madison liked this...

After the great time we had at the Air Force Ball last year, we had to go again this year.  Jared wasn't the MC this time around so I was able to spend more of the night with him.  This year's event was almost exactly the same as last year's - same venue, same table arrangement, same photographer taking photos next to a jet, and the same performance by Tops in Blue. It was really nice to get all dressed up and go out on a date together.  Our usual date nights consists of going to a movie and sometimes even going grocery shopping together so this was a big departure from the norm. I brought a camera with me this time, but we only ended up taking this one picture.  I love it because Jared is actually smiling!  I think the last picture I have of him smiling (for real smiling and not some silly fake smile) is from our wedding day.

Having a house full of girls, most people assume that it's tears, drama, and hormones all the time.  That can be true, especially when clothes are involved.  Some of our girls care more about clothes than others.  Madison and Abigail are happy to just be comfortable and covered.  Emily, Samantha, and Natalie have to look just right and have strong opinions about what makes up a good outfit. Recently Samantha grew a few inches and needed new longer pants.  Because Abigail is rough on her clothes, there wasn't much to pass down to Sam.  But don't worry, Samantha was more than happy to bypass the hand-me-downs and go to the store for new clothes.  The only kind of pants Samantha wants to wear are skinny jeans.  I was happy to stick with regular skinny jeans but Samantha really, really, really wanted a pair of colored skinny jeans.  She was so excited when she found a purple pair hanging on the rack that I couldn't say no and the purple skinny ...

At the end of September when we sat down for our family council we made some goals for the month of October and one of them was to run a 5K as a family.  Over the summer we would have the girls run a few times a week and we wanted them to have the chance to see that there was a reason behind all the running.  I think the only people who were excited about this particular goal for the month were Jared and I - the girls haven't been quite as on board about the running as we'd like them to be.  So this past Saturday our family (minus Em who had a soccer game) ran in a 5K together.  In fact, we ran the same 5K that Jared and Emily ran three years ago. It was a cold morning on Saturday so we all got jackets, hats and gloves to keep us warm and then headed out the door to register for the race.  Registration started an hour and a half before the race so once we were signed up and had our bibs we headed back to the car so we wouldn't freeze to death before the race ...

I'm going to start out by saying that I do not like fried chicken because it has skin and bones and skin and bones are too much of a reminder that I am eating what used to be a living, breathing animal.  Don't get me wrong, meat is delicious and I have zero desire to cut it out of my diet.  I just don't like thinking about where that bacon, steak, or schnitzel came from.  Because she is my complete opposite, Natalie loves fried chicken.  Except that she calls it "bone chicken" because the bones are her favorite.  Well really, the skin is her favorite part - but I'm not sure she knows it's actual skin.  She just likes the "slimy part" of the bone chicken best.  Gross. Anyway, because I don't enjoy fried chicken and because I plan and prepare most of our meals, Natalie doesn't get to eat her favorite food very often.  Occasionally, we'll go out to Popeye's for lunch and she will be in five-year-old heaven.  "Mom, I love bone ...

I heard from Madison's seminary teacher today that she was talking about me in class.  They were discussing the difference between worship and idolatry and Madison, wanting to give an example of idolatry, mentioned that all I do every day while she's at school is sew and cook.  Yep, I worship my sewing machine and stand mixer.  I did do a fair amount of both sewing and cooking in September, but I only took pictures of the things in created in my sewing space - not in my kitchen. First, I made this bag that I just love.  It's roomy, it has a bow, and the flowers and colors make me happy every time I look at it.  I've made this same bag before, but with a solid fabric for the outside.  If you're interested in making your own, I used this tutorial at I Am Momma Hear Me Roar I didn't make that beautiful knitted infinity scarf, but I really wish I had.  Knitting is not a skill I have been blessed with.  I tried once and all I could figure o...

Last year Jared ran his first marathon and afterwards he vowed he would never run one again.  This year Jared ran his second marathon and is planning on running the same one again next year.  He was lucky enough to catch a military flight to the states and then he drove to West Virginia to visit with his family before heading up to Pennsylvania to meet his best friend John, with whom he would be running the marathon.  John's wife Larisa wrote all about Jared's arrival at their house on her blog.  I'd recommend you hop over to their blog and read her post as Larisa's a really good writer and it's a fun story. Jared had a good race and finished the 26.2 miles twenty minutes faster than last year, with an official race time of 5:22:11.  Here's the race day in pictures. Jared and John pre-race Jared nearing the finish line Finisher - with a medal and everything And finally, Jared and John post-race