Many things to talk about....

So much has gone on in the past few weeks, besides the gas leak, I'm not sure where to begin.

Justin is rolling quite a bit now. Still not as much as the Timothy S. or Ryan T. You can't even put him on his belly now because he automatically rolls to his back. He began clapping 2 weeks ago, but is really into it now. Even when someone starts saying "patty cake patty cake" he puts his little hands up and starts clapping. Last Monday he started having a runny nose. By Wednesday night he had a fever. Tonight it looks like we might have turned the corner, as he is back to eating solid foods and was able to fall asleep laying down instead of being propped up. However, this past week of him being miserable brought about consistent calls for "ma ma ma ma."
Great Grandma Sue picked a 20# bag of Jonna Golds for us Sat. morn. We were suppose to go, but Justin was to sick. This apple is almost as big as his head! He doesn't seem to mind.


Austin is starting to play with puzzles and shape toys correctly. His new funny thing to say is, "I had that/did that/saw that yesterday." Yesterday refers to any time frame in his past. 1 hour ago, last night, 2 days ago, 1 week ago, 1 month ago, etc. Poor kid needs to wear 24 month/2T pants for the length, but the waist is to big on most of them, so they fall right down. I have been saying, what seems like forever, that I need to find a baby belt. However, with a potty training toddler, that's probably not such a good idea.

Our Sunday school group went to Circle S Farms Friday night. Altho chilly as the sun went down, the scrummcious doughnut made up for it. It looked like all the kids had a blast. There was a corn maze, sunflower maze, hay bale cave, hay ride to pick out your own pumpkin, petting zoo, apple juice, and many many photo opps. They have their own bakery on site and they make the BEST glazed pumpkin doughnuts anywhere!!!

The Bauer family w/grandma Paula May.












Austin and his cousin Eamon.














The Knudsen's














"What do we do with it now?"













Future farmer of America.










All of the kids in the hay bale barn/cave.











"THE HAND OF GOD WAS KEEPING US SAFE DURING OUR JOURNEY THROUGH THE PUMPKIN PATCH!" Ok, maybe not exactly like that. But isn't it a beautiful pic? Thanks grandma Paula!











Some of the Steven's Clan, all of the Schmidjel's, and most of the Joesph's.












That's Cassie Blevin's with her little blondie Tony.









The Prince's.










Who is that girl in the braided pigtails and glasses? I've seen her in other blog posts. I think she was the one who was sick at a Clippers game from eating to many hotdogs. :)


I have started reading a new book w/a group of women from church. I will probably use this as my source for "spiritual" blogging over the next 9 weeks. It is called Feminine Appeal, 7 Virtues of a Godly Wife & Mother by Carolyn Mahaney, and it is just what I have been praying for lately. Chapter 2 is about loving your husband. I'm not sure if I ever have really loved Matt, but I have been praying fervently for some time that I will. After reading chapter 2, not only was it convicting, but I genuinely felt differently about Matt. Don't get me wrong, I have a long way to go, but I decided to write him a note each night and put it some place where he would see it each morning (and that was before the chapter actually suggested doing something like that!). I was skeptical if I could feel something sincerely nice enough to write, and would he perceive it sincerely. I discovered that the Holy Spirit has control over my heart during those few minutes of note writing. I haven't felt that it was forced or made up. I have written 3 so far. Tonight will be 4. The first morning I was asleep in the l.r. in the recliner w/Justin, and as he was leaving for work he kissed my cheek (I assumed he must have found the note in his lunch box.) The second day I was awake when he left and he came into the bedroom to tell me "thank you for the love notes", and that he liked them. The third one was this morning, and I put it on his wallet. I added a p.s. that included a reminder/to do list. I didn't hear anything about that note. Maybe I should just stick w/the "love note" part of it. Earlier tonight I thought note #4 was going to be hard, if not impossible, to write. We had a little disagreement/tif. My first thought was, "no note tonight for you!" But as I prayed, I realized that I would still be able to leave a love filled note, regardless of my black, sinful, vengeful, prideful heart. This is going to be an exciting study!