It’s kinda exciting to feel the baby moving. She’s been telling me for months “He’s flipping somersaults in there!” but to actually experience it for myself, that’s something entirely new to me!

When I last wrote, gas prices were killing our budget. Now the cost to fill the car is going down, but there have been lovely car repairs to keep us feeling desperate.

Another big change that came through – I have been called as the new Ward Mission Leader. I had an inkling this was coming, but didn’t want to say anything in case Murphy was listening. I guess he has ESP, ’cause I was called anyway.

Actually, I am really excited about the calling.

Another huge event was when Johanna and I spent every weekend in September painting the downstairs room which is now OFFICIALLY FINISHED!!! It’s a project that has been over a year in the works, and it is soooooooo good to have it done! It looks great. See for yourself!

Aiden is doing very well in school. When he can focus on his work, he consistently does very well on math, and is getting better at wring. But his mind wanders so frequently, we have to do his homework in 5 minute segments, or else nothing happens.

James is pretty much potty trained. He still has accidents when we don’t invite him to use the potty, so I guess we’re 90% there, he just needs to get the ‘do it myself’ part down.

And finally, just this past weekend Johanna and I officially enlisted the help of a lawyer so that I can adopt Aiden and James. In June/July of this year, their biological father mentioned that if I wanted to formally adopt them, he would not be opposed – it would be better for the kids. We had to wait for a while because some legal requirement states that the kids would have to be living with me for 6 months before we could get started. Now that we have a lawyer, we will start getting things moving forward.

And so, life moves on and is generally pretty good to us. On Monday we will go to the Pumpkin Patch (one of our new favorite traditions) and choose pumpkins to carve. It is sure to be a blast, and will be well documented with more pictures to upload. Now, if I can just remember to keep this blog up to date…

On a really good note, last night was opening night for me. It was so fun! Practicing day in and day out got kind of old, but the end result was totally worth it. I won’t be doing this very often, because it is hard on the kids when I have to devote so much time to it, but I will defiantly be doing it again in the late future.

That is about it for now. Hope you liked this blog of mine, and Mike if you are reading this, I love you so much, thank you for being so totally awesome!!!!!!!

Hopefully we will be starting to upload pictures of Vegas sometime soon, but they were so grainy or dark, I don’t know how much I will be able to rescue. Only time will tell.

Today we moved the bunk-bed from Johanna’s old apartment to our house, and the kids were excited. We also went to the optometrist so Johanna could get some contacts (her prescription was OLD, now she is seeing me clearly for the first time…and she didn’t run screaming!) We have to give mad thanks to AJ for helping us out. My insurance doesn’t cover the family until April, but we needed these immediately. AJ saved us over $100 at his store. Anyone wanting great glasses/contacts, fast service, and a quality experience should go to Eyeglass World on 6100 S. and State.

In other news, work is going great. My cousin Allan is interviewing with Love next week to see if they will hire him on as a “Final Cut Pro” guru for some big stuff they have coming. Rehearsals for “The Hasty Heart” are going very well, and I will have complimentary tickets soon for those of you who are interested. The number will be limited, so if you don’t get one from me fast, then please buy some tickets. Johanna’s rehearsals are going well also, but you will have to read her post (if she makes one) for the lowdown on that.