Yeah, I know... I am a bad blogger. Oh well. My identity/value is not in my blogging, thankfully.
Lots has happened this fall.
Joab had another very successful football season with GMS, finishing undefeated for the 3rd season in a row. While it takes him away from our family a lot of evenings, it is a great outlet for him and gives him tons of opportunities to love kids and share the Gospel with them. It has been a joy to watch so many young men get to know the Lord in the last few years, many of them through their devotional times on the football field. God sure does work in surprising ways and his Word never returns void.
Still, I was happy when the season ended and Daddy was home again! :)
We had a fun halloween this year, gathering with several other families and their cute children. Isaiah was Robin Hood, Mercy was Maid Merian, and Daniel was a fierce lion. Ha.

Actually, we almost made Daniel be Frankenstein because the day before, he pulled a heavy metal bar stool down into his face and split his forehead pretty badly.


My Dad called his friend and plastic surgeon, Sam Richwine, who promptly saw us in his office and stitched Daniel up. 30+ stitches later, we headed home and nursed a sad, sore little boy, grateful for good plastic surgeons!
Thanksgiving came and we enjoyed fun time with all the cousins and family. We fried our turkey and everyone brought food and a good time was had by all! Unfortunately, that weekend, Daniel attempted another dangerous feat, jumping off the end of a recliner but hit a toy box face first, with his mouth open. I knew as soon as he was airborne that we were going to be making a second visit to the plastic surgeon. Sure enough, his mouth was messed up inside and out and within 10 minutes, Dad again had us on our way to the same surgeon's office. Richwine's partner met us there and did a great job sewing up sweet little Daniel's mouth. And thankfully, despite the fact that Daniel pulled every stitch out within 48 hours (which, yes, freaked me out!), his lips and mouth healed well and now you can't tell it even happened.

And since this post is mostly about Daniel now, I should add that he successfully potty trained at the beginning of November, at 21 months. I was anticipating he would be my most difficult child to train, but he actually turned out to be the easiest. After 2 days of accidents, he was virtually accident free. And he is so proud of himself.
Isaiah has been enjoying Kindergarten and has learned to read. He is LOVING his new reading skills. Many days my Mom picks him up from school and they stop by my grandparents. Sometimes Mom will leave him there reading stories to them. He loves it and I think they love getting to have that time with him. It is really sweet that my children are getting to know their great grandparents.

Well, I guess that is enough for now. Maybe I'll try to blog again before another 6 months has passed. :)