of our Thanksgiving break. 

Highlight #1- The Wilkers

Nick’s cousin Dimetri, his wife Adrienne and two daughters Nova and Madi spent three nights with us.  We had the best time hanging out with them and watching lots of puppet shows.  It was amazing (sing song voice)….right Nick!  Here is a picture of Nova helping Jake as he attempts to roller skate and the rest of the Wilkers below at the parade.  Love you guys!  Our house is open anytime and we have these super cool bar stools you can sit on too!

Highlight #2- Thanksgiving Parade with friends and family

My family has gone to the parade since I was a little girl and now we continue the tradition with our kids.  I love that we are adding more and more families each year to the tradition.  This year the Wilders, Millers, Breys, and Hubatkas also enjoyed the parade.  Here is a picture of Nick and Larry that made me laugh!

Highlight #3- Turkey craft at Mo and Joe’s house.  Mo had all the kids make these cute turkey’s with oreo’s, icing, candy corn, malt balls and red hots.  Amazing…..

Highlight #4- Christmas Tree Trip

Another tradition is a day trip to the mountains to cut down our Christmas tree!  Last year it was cold and rainy but this year the weather was great!  We sang Christmas carols as we drank apple cider and then took a hayride.  We have been going to the same place for years but this was their last year, anyone have any suggestions for a new place for us to go?

Highlight #5-  Another Dooley baby is on the way….

No, not us!!  This Dooley clan is complete.  Nick’s younger brother Casey and his wife Sara announced they are expecting their second child!  Not only are they expecting but so are Jared and Shannon, Nick’s older brother and his wife.  More Dooley babies!!!!  Hooray!!

We asked a question in small group on Sunday night that I have continued to ponder on all week….”What scripture verses have been important to you/helped you get through certain seasons of your life and why?”  As I reflected back over my life I realized there are so many verses that have strengthened and encouraged me in different seasons of my life. 

“Do not fear for I am with you, Do not anxiously look about you.  For I am your God and will strengthen you, surely I will help you, surely I will uphold you with my righteous right hand”.  Isaiah 41:10 (not the exact wording but this is how we sing it!)

Starting at an early age, my mom would sing this scripture verse to me whenever I was scared.  This particular song helped me deal with being scared of the dark, monsters under my bed at night, the first day of school, etc.  This was how she began to teach me the value of quoting scripture to myself and how having God’s word memorized can comfort you.

“Trust in the Lord with all thine heart and lean not unto your own understanding but it all your ways acknowledge him and he will direct your paths my friend”.  Prov 3: 5-6

This is another verse that I can remember singing to myself as early as elementary school.  It helped me find peace in otherwise uncertain situations.

“For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you a hope and a future”. Jer 29 :11

This verse became important to me my senior year in high school when I was fearful of what the future held.  I attended the same Christian school for 12 years and was taking a leap of faith by going to a huge, secular university!  I remember quoting this verse to myself many times that first year of college when I wondered if I made the right decision.

Romans 12:1-2   Therefore, I urge you brothers, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God- this is your spiritual act of worship.  Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.  Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is- his good, pleasing and perfect will.”

During our pre-marriage counseling, the pastor encouraged Nick and I to pick out a verse for our marriage and this is the one we chose.  We memorized it and discussed the importance of it to our future as husband and wife.  It is good to be reminded that we ultimately have the same goal and it helps us to prioritize our life decisions.

It is amazing how just one question from small group can get you thinking about important spiritual truths.  What a great reminder of how important it is to KNOW God’s word.  This week I have been convicted to teach my kids scripture or even sing it to them as my mom did for me.  I realized as I read through the book of Psalms a couple months ago how many verses I could sing.  Who else can sing along?

- Create in me a clean heart, Oh God and renew a right spirit within me………….Ps 51:10

- My soul finds rest in God alone, my salvation comes from him………………….. Ps 62:1

- This is the day, This is the day, that the Lord has made, that the Lord has made…………..Ps 118:24

- Thy word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path…………………………. Ps 119: 105

“I have hidden your word in my heart that I might not sin against you.” Ps 119: 11

- my second child.

- the best at cuddling.

- the most caring and self-less friend.

- into horses, piano, singing and Barbies.

- great at helping take care of her crazy little brother!

- best friends with her sister…I love to hear them laughing and talking in their room at night.  It brings back such fond memories for me of when Holly and I used to share a room (we actually shared a bed too…a King-sized water-bed with a mirror as the head-board.  Seriously, Mom and Dad what were you thinking?)

- into clothes, jewelry and has an eye for what looks good!  She makes sure Nick and I are stylish.

- planning to have her hair cut short tomorrow.  She has awesome hair so it will look good with any cut, in my opinion at least!

- soft-spoken.

- “scared of boys”, or at least that is what she says.

- 6 YEARS OLD and I am blessed to have her as a daughter!

a little late…but we have been the sick house for past 3 weeks!!  Here are some pictures from our festivities.  We did not carve our pumpkins until Oct 31st this year because the kids were all sick the week before.  It wasn’t the same without you Altmeyers!  Notice our kids are still in their pj’s and Jake doesn’t have a shirt on.  He does not like to wear clothes, especially his shirt- I wonder where he gets that from?

Jake- the UNC football player, Ada Grace- Jasmine, Maddie- fairy (she is reading the rainbow fairy books by Daisy Meadows and decided she wanted to be one of them for Halloween.  She is Lauren the puppy fairy that is why she is holding the puppy stuffed animal.)

We trick or treated with the Altmeyers and Hubatka’s this year….here is our crazy crew!  Jake and the ladies!

We let the kids ride in the back of the minivan since it ended up raining on us!

We are in the middle of a series at church called ‘The  Joy Genome,  a study in Philippians’.  It has proven to be a very powerful series for me and our entire family.  Last Sunday our pastor discussed Phil 2:14, “Do everything without complaining or arguing, so that you may become blameless and pure children of God..”   Not only was this verse the focus of the sermon Nick and I heard, but the ekidz ministry also had lessons for the kids that were focused on it.  During their class the kids made ‘Ugly Jars’ for each family to bring home.  It was the size of a peanut butter jar with probably the ‘Ugliest’ paint job you can imagine.  Each family headed home after being encouraged to fast from complaining or arguing for a week with the challenge that for each time you were unable to control yourself, you had to put money in your ‘Ugly Jar’.   This Sunday we brought the jar back to church and all the money collected  is going to go to one of our outreach partners in the city of Charlotte.  Wow, has this week been an eye opening, insightful journey for our family!!  Here are some of our take aways…..the girls are so innocent and honest.  Ada Grace came home from school on Wed and put money in the jar because she argued with a friend at school.  Later that afternoon, Maddie and Ada Grace were playing outside and got into an argument and they both came inside to put money in the jar!!   They are at an age they can understand the simple truths of God’s word and put it into action.  I realized I complain the most when I am at work.  Other people are complaining so I go ahead jump right in, instead of being a light in the darkness!!  Such a convicting realization!  What an insightful exercise for our family.  I am proud to be a part of a church that not only preaches God’s word but encourages us to walk it out in our life!!

- Thanking God we are all finally healthy!

- Gearing up for Upward basketball season for Maddie.

- Preparing for birthday celebrations for Ada Gracie this week!

- Trying not to complain or argue this week so I don’t have to put money in the ugly jar (Phil  2:14).  Another post explaining this more coming soon.

- Starting to think about Christmas shopping…making my list

- Continuing to read through my bible, however did not finish in 90 days.  I am more on the B120X plan instead, but am determined to do it!

- Cracking up at my beatboxer and break dancer….I love my family and boy do they make me laugh…..take a look at their skills…get ready to be amazed!

Last Thursday was the first day of the girl’s fall break from school so we decided to have a “girls day”.  Jake had preschool that morning, after dropping him off I let the girls decide what we would do together.  They wanted to go shopping for Halloween costumes and then to Chic-fil-a for lunch.   When we got into the car after shopping and as we were headed to lunch Maddie said, “I want to go get my ears pierced.”  That might seem like an innocent little comment, but let me explain the back story.  We have been twice to get her ear pierced and she has chickened out.  The last time was in July for her birthday and she was in the chair with the dots on her ears and she freaked out….I mean really freaked.  Hiding behind store displays, crying uncontrollably, freaked out.   After that experience I had told her she would have to wait until she was a teenager, and she was fine with that timeline.  So after she made this statement in the car, Ada Grace quickly responded, “I want to get my ears pierced too, for my birthday.” – which is only a couple weeks away.  Given our previous experiences, I made Maddie PROMISE that she would go through with it this time.  After the fiasco in July, Maddie and I had a conversation about over coming your fears, which is a lifelong skill that she must learn.  We talked about how she had overcome fear in the past…riding her bike without training wheels, learning to dive into the pool, and pulling her loose baby teeth.  In order to move forward sometimes you have to overcome your fear and with God’s help it’s possible.  She reminded me of this conversation and said, “Mom I can do this, I know God will walk with me.”  I know all this may seem a bit cheesy and a little too deep for a simple ear-piercing procedure, however in these seemingly insignificant decisions and situations in life, I believe I have the opportunity to teach my children important spiritual truths. 

So on to our adventure….we skipped Chic-fil-a and ran by the house to get the video camera before heading to Concord Mills.  Maddie was first to climb in the chair and although it took three trips she finally did it!  Her reaction is priceless!!  Check it out….

Then it was Ada Grace’s turn.  She was hesitant but had the courage to go through with it.  I was so proud of her.

This video is for you Papa.  We did a song for you and we hope you like it.  Hope you get better soon.

Love, Riley

That’s what Maddie said when she found out the Hubatka girls would be spending the weekend with us.  Kelly decided to fly to home to Seattle Washington to be with her father who is in the hospital so we offered to have a weekend slumber party at the Dooley House!  The highlight today was attending a local fall festival.  There were plenty of activities to keep the kids entertained, the weather was perfect and best of all everything was FREE!!!  Here are some of the  pictures from our day……

Of course we had to start out with a dose of sugar for everyone…..

Then onto face-painting or “arm painting” in this case.  Maddie and Riley have adopted the term BFFL- best friends for life….

Pumpkin Painting….or for these two it ended in body painting

Audrey surprised me and came down not only head first but on her back….please no one can get hurt under my watchful eye….

 In this picture, Maddie is trying to show us her arm, Jake looks angry, Lucy has her vitamin water in front of her, Audrey has her hands clasped so nicely and that is Nick in the background with the video camera and Halloween bags hanging from it.  He makes me laugh with the ways he will rig anything so he doesn’t have to carry it! 

So there you have it….Nick and Heather Plus seven.  And no worries our marriage is still intact!