Hellooooo!

Well since I last wrote obviously life has gone on and Titus just keeps developing into the cutest baby boy I have ever loved, which has not been a whole lot in my life, Sior (pronounced like shore) and Jayce to name the ones I think of immediately. Oh I remember when Sior was a baby and I would hold him and I just remember thinking I want one these precious baby boys of my own. Now he is five years old and I do have one of my own! Anyway we had a busy day on Halloween since it was Sunday, there was of course church, then we did family pictures and then Sior had his birthday party which was a harvest party. His birthday was on the 29th and we were supposed to come dressed up but Tom and I both refuse to participate in teaching our child anything that has to do with Halloween, even if it is made as simple as a harvest party. We both participated in it when we were children but it is interesting that both of us on our own had decided that was something we did not want for our kids. Anyway it was a fun party with great food and company and fun for the birthday boy and that is what matters.

We went to one of our favorite places up the Rattlesnake for our family pictures. Some pictures were taken on the this bridge that we have played cribbage on a couple of times up there. I was very nervous because I think my smile is always fake but what a blessing it was to get them back and find that you couldn't tell that and most of them turned out awesome. Our photographer was a girl from our church who really got into it once she started having kids and she did a great job with posing us and making it comfortable and natural feeling. She spent a little over an hour with us and then she goes through all the poses and pics out her favorite one in each pose and sharpens it in color and then pics out her second favorite in each pose and turns it black and white and then erases the rest of the shots and gives all of them to you on a cd for you to do what you want with them. So we actually got about 58 pictures back, which I think is awesome. And she was very affordable!

Oh the total proceeds of the pumpkin patch ended up being over $18,000 to go towards the Great Commission Fund of the Alliance Missionaries! How awesome is that?!

Titus now always sleeps on his belly, we initially start him on his back but he always rolls over now. Which is awesome because now his little bald patches can grow back fully that his mattress has rubbed off.

Tom went hunting this last Saturday with Brian and Ronnie but they did not have any luck. They are going to go again next Saturday and we will be praying they get something between the three of them. Titus and I hung out with Rachelle and her kids and Dawn and her boys at Brian and Rachelle's house while the boys hunted. That was fun for the all and good soup for dinner.

Oh Tom and I did get to go on our first date also on the 30th. Thanks to Brian and Rachelle, they not only sponsored our date by giving towards pretty much the whole meal but they watched Titus for us. I was so relieved, I knew that he was in good hands and I was able to fully enjoy myself and time with Tom. We went to Johnny Carino's and I got my favorite eggplant dish there! Then we also went to Starbucks and got some non coffee beverages and then we went for a short walk in a park near Brian and Rachelle's house and when we pulled up to the park we got a text from Brian that said "no hurry but he is starting to get fussy." So we did our short walk and got over there and he was crying really hard and his face was all red and he just looked mad. He was hungry which I knew he would be getting, we were out about 2 hours and he ate before we left their house but that is about how long he lasts before he is hungry again. Otherwise he did great and he didn't complain or anything till he got hungry and he loved playing with Kezia, Shaelie and Jayce. And Rachelle was so sweet, she knew he was hungry and she couldn't do anything about it and she just tried to comfort him till we got there.

Anyway that is about it, I do have most of the family pictures uploaded to Costco.com, if you want to see them and possibly order some, I can send you an email invite to view them. They will have you set up an account to view them but that does NOT require a membership to Costco. Just let me know by email, tom.carrie.johnson@gmail.com, and if you don't have a Costco near you to order some to pick up I can upload to WalMart and you would be able to pick them up there, I have done that for my sister and Tom's parents already and WalMart online is pretty easy to work with also. Otherwise we will probably send out one for a Christmas card but it may most likely have typing on it.

20 Weeks & Counting....

Tom with the pack and Titus back at the car after the hike.

Titus sleeping on trail on the way back down.

Our little guy is now almost 5 months old! That is crazy. I have found him 3 times now awake in his crib on his belly this last week! One of those times just being this morning. He isn't too happy about it yet but for some reason he does it.

This last weekend the students were off of school Thursday and Friday and what our youth group does every year with that 4 day weekend is plan a 3 day/2 night "Missoula missions trip." Giving 32 of our high school students the opportunity to experience missions right here in their home town by staying at the church and serving our community in different ways for the past 9 years! They usually always get to go to the Poverello Center, a local homeless shelter, where they organize their clothes closet for the homeless people, many times wipe down the mattresses that the homeless people sleep on and serve the homeless lunch and usually get to eat lunch and visit with the homeless people themselves. They also usually go to Missoula 3:16 Rescue Mission, a local Rescue Mission that also serves the homeless by providing lunch for them and opportunities for them to overcome addictions that many of them face and they provide a place for them to study the Bible. The students normally get to organize their food pantry, rake leaves and serve lunch and get to eat lunch with the homeless there also. The students always get to go to Burlington Square Apartments too, an apartment place for the elderly in our community. Here they get to clean apartments for those who have said yes to the opportunity for the students to help them in that way. They also were able to play Wii bowling with these elderly residents who beat the students badly I might add and have dinner with them and visit. The last day of the missions trip the students load up and go to each one of the high schools that is represented in our youth group, Missoula has about 3 public High Schools and 2 private High Schools, and they split up into groups and prayer walk around the schools. Those 4 events are usually things they do every year, there are other things throughout the weekend that they do that may change every year like Random Acts of Kindness or they did spend an afternoon this year helping with the City Parks and Recs Department, working on a local park in town. So many of the students are blessed by helping their community and realizing that there are people right here that they can help and I think it hugely helps them realize how blessed they are.

Well Tom and I usually have always helped as volunteer staff, Tom has all 9 years and this year I really felt like I couldn't with Titus. So Tom helped as much as he could and he was planning to help all 3 days but I was having a difficult time with Titus on Friday, he would not nap all afternoon and was very crabby and it was making me really crabby to say the least. Tom had helped all day on Thursday and came home for a couple hours in the evening and then went back and stayed at the church and helped all day Friday and didn't get home until 11 pm and then he stayed home with us and never went back on Saturday morning as he had planned. I felt very selfish when he came home and said he was done and wasn't going back on Saturday but it was good I think. Brian, the youth pastor, did have someone there to help on Saturday, but Tom has always helped all 3 days, he takes off work every year to do this and here I was not able to handle our 4 month old by myself for 3 days! Anyway, it was ok, Tom had said the Lord had showed him that He didn't need him for that last day and he was ok with that, so I needed to be ok with that.

Saturday we decided to go for a hike with Titus and we went down the Bitterroot and went hiking almost all the way to Bear Creek Overlook but Titus was just not going to make it that long. It was about 2 1/2 to 3 miles each way and we made it almost to the top but he was crying about half of the way up and it got a little late and we didn't want to be hiking back down in the dark so we ate our little lunch and turned around. A friend of Tom's at work has given us a Kelty K.I.D.S. pack for Titus. Something for us to use while we attempt hiking with him. I think what we found is he is still a little small to enjoy it, he lasted a little while on our way up and then we needed to take him out and carry him the rest of the way.

Sunday after church we decided to take some pictures of Titus in our church's Pumpkin Patch. This is the 4th year our church has sold pumpkins in our Great Pumpkin Patch they set up on the hill just below the church. All the money goes to missions each year and this year it is going towards the Great Commission Fund of the Alliance Missionaries. Members of the church have grown and harvested pumpkins this year for the patch and your family can go pick out pumpkins to purchase and they also sell many donated baked goods too. We happen to get a delicious pumpkin pie there yesterday. This year we had a "pumpkin slasher" come through the patch one late night and the story was in the newspaper and a gentleman, who doesn't even go to our church, decided to come get all the damaged pumpkins and make pies with all of them which was about 20 hrs. worth of work and he brought the pies back to the patch for them to be sold! God is amazing! They started selling pumpkins on the 10th and will sell thru the 31st and already the report on the 17th was that they had sold $8,000! So anyway we wanted some cute pics of our punkin with the pumpkins.

Last week at BSF I helped in the children's program and I loved it. What a blessing, they have a little story time and the babies and those under 2 learned that 'God always keeps His promises' based on the prophecy in Isaiah "The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and will call Him Immanuel" Isaiah 7:14. They sang a little song and had a snack and then those ladies just stay busy keeping those little ones happy. But I think I will wait to put Titus in there until he can crawl, there was this little boy in there who I think might be 1 but is just starting to walk and he can be rough on the little ones around him if you are not watching him every second. I want Titus to be able to flee if Mason comes after him. Ha!