Some December Pics

Indoor Sledding

HO, HO, HO MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Hope everyone has a very Merry Christmas!
Love - Todd, Melissa and Owen

The Answer

A friend asked me lastnight if Owen is crawling on all fours now. Guess the video answers that question! He got started on November 9 (two days before his 6 month b-day) and in the last two weeks he's picked up some decent speed :)!

The Sounds O Makes!

Just Pics :)!

Thanksgivings!

Thanksgivings...yes plural. This year we attended 3. The first one was on Thanksgiving and in Bennington at my parents. Owen was basically a chic magnet to my youngest girl cousins. And Mommy and Daddy ate and ate and fought Owen to go down for a nap....must not of wanted to miss out on any excitement. The second Thanksgiving was on Friday and in Aulne at Todd's Grandma and Grandpa Just's. Owen was not at his best for some reason and Mommy and Daddy battled him over a nap almost all day...ugh! Oh and of course we ate and ate! The third Thanksgiving was in Newton at a church with Todd's Mom's side (the Bowers). Owen had a super day...whoo-hoo! And of course we ate and ate again!

Owen Stats

Owen now weighs 17 lbs. 14 oz. and is 27 inches long.
He is in the 55th percentile for weight and 75th percentile for height.
Just a little FYI :)!

Keepin' It Short!

I was inspired by another blog I visit, she keeps things nice and short and you don't feel like you've read a novel by the end so here goes my attempt at "short and sweet"!



Owen's first experience with " real? food happened today we discovered likes sweet potatoes both mouth surrounding area ;)! His latest thing pulling up, he does it on everything....especially me! Todd is done calling football games...yea, and he?s downhill with master?s....only few weeks go whoo-pee! As for me, not much report.. just trying establish some kind of schedule so I can workout, read Bible, do laundry, etc. on a regular basis....unfortunately Owen doesn?t seem to have the word ?schedule? in his vocabulary yet :).

Owen Update - 1st Halloween, he was a fireman if you couldn't tell :). Thanks to Gavin and Stace for letting him borrow the outfit! He "trick or treated" in Bennington at Grandma and Grandpa's and then at his Mommy's best friend's old house. Surprisingly with only hitting two houses he made out really well :)! Grammy and Gramps came to visit along with Uncle Eric, Aunt Andrea and cousin Brayden. Owen wasn't too much for socializing and slept almost the enitre afternoon. Later, Sat. afternoon he went to stay with Grandma and Grandpa in Bennington. Let's see... he now sits up and still has his funky style of army crawling, but he's gotten much faster at it. And just this morning Daddy discovered two teeth poking through on the bottom! We figure he must be able to handle teething fairly well, because he really wasn't too fussy, hopefully it's that way for the rest of them too! Sleeping through the night you may wonder? The answer is still "NO!". He goes to bed around 8:00 and is up at around 2:00 to eat and then again at 6:30 to eat and stay up. Car rides have taken a sudden turn for the worse lately. It seems about 75% of the time now he's not really enjoying them. The crazy thing is now he cries when the van is moving and stops at stop lights...wierd!

Todd and Melissa Update - We celebrated our 2nd anniversary! It was fantastic! Todd did a great job of surprising me and took me to a B&B in Wichita. We ate at a great seafood restaurant and then headed back to the B&B to catch the Texas vs. Texas Tech game, which unfortunately I could not stay awake for the end :(. The next day was Sunday so we attended Chapel Hill church and heard an amazing guest speaker named Jerry Traylor. We got some lunch at a place called Doc Green, it's this awesome sandwhich and salad place...we highly recommend it. On Sundays they give you a 15% discount if you have your church bulletin with you, how cool is that! After that we spent the rest of the day shopping and then of course had to eat one more time at good ol' Chipotle. I realize with each and every time we getaway how much I love to be with Todd and it doesn't matter what we're doing...I'm very blessed!

I told you awhile ago that I'd update on how our "Fireproof" study is going and I'm happy to say it's going quite well. I really feel God is blessing this study. Just tonight we had a little time to share and two couples already have seen major changes in their marriage....Praise the Lord! I'm really excited to see what He has in store for the next 4 weeks of the study. It has also been a blessing to work with Todd on getting the lessons ready and doing our homework for it. I still highly recommend seeing the film and if it's made available to you doing the study as well. Well, I think that takes care of the highlights from the last week and a half!

Monday Night Laughs and Workout!

Owen's big workout before he takes a bath! Dad wants to make sure that everyone understands that his hands are not on O and that O's feet weren't holding much his weight. Mom wants everyone to understand she was scared to death!!!

This is O's laugh, ran out of time on the video otherwise it would have been longer! Gotta love hearing baby laughs....they are contagious ;)!

This is what Owen has been working on today (10/22)! Not sure what you call this method of moving from one place to the another, but I'm sure it will someday evolve into a crawl!

I just keep waiting for that one week where there was nothing going on and life was just boring. Pretty sure that's never going to happen! Todd turned 29 on Wednesday....I know, must be nice! We went out to eat Tuesday night with my folks to celebrate. Wednesday he had youth group so Owen and I went over to the church to have supper and give him his presents from "O". Thursday night I had the second half of my massage (a baby shower gift....the best ever!) and then went to see Sacred Heart play VB over at Central. Afterwards went to The Scheme to catch up with old coaching buddies and their kids...good times! Friday was the big South v. Central football game. Todd did color for this game instead of play-by-play. Owen slept the first half, with a few startles from erruptions of fans cheering. He made it all the way through the 3rd quarter and into some of the 4th before we headed home. As for the game....didn't turn out the way we would have liked it, the Stangs lost by a touchdown :(. Saturday marked the first day of baking in our new house ...whoo-hoo! When we moved in the stove was pretty ancient, and we decided around August we should look for a new one. First we got a gas range, it didn't work out to be what we wanted. So had to take that back and get an electric which was installed on Friday...yeah! I never thought I'd be so excited to bake and cook :)! We wrapped up the week with a trip to Sunny Side Pumpkin Patch with some church friends. It was a great day to be outside and Todd enjoyed his yearly corn maze challenge. Owen got to see goats and ducks, stand on a pumpkin and shoot a gourd....oh so fun!

Did This One All By Myself :)!

So...did this one all by myself....my husband will fall off his chair at work he'll be so impressed :)! Let's see our weekly update... Owen laughed for the first time on Saturday night while we were playing peek-a-boo! He hasn't done it again since, kind of like the rollover he did it one day and didn't do it again for a few days afterward....strange :)! This was a big week of firsts for "O". He had his first tractor ride with Grandpa. Grandma rode too, and said "O" was into watching the tire out the window and the drill, but eventually gave into the steady hum of the tractor and fell asleep. After the farming adventure we headed to Pastor Troy's for their open house and "O" went on his first hay-rack ride. No idea if I spelled hay-rack right, but it didn't have a little red line under it so must be somewhere in the neighborhood of right :). Saturday, we went to Bethany for Homecoming. We walked all over campus...they have put some major improvements in! Then we went to the game and saw BC's first win...we must be good luck for them. Owen did great at the game didn't fuss once, just hung out with Dad and his old baseball buddies. Well, I'm trying to shorten these up a little, I can get a little long-winded so there's the latest week of Just life!

Catching Up!

Well, as I anticipated I wouldn't be able to keep up a once a week update! Oh well, we all just do the best we can..right? On Saturday, September 20th Todd lost his Grandpa Bowers and we had his funeral the following Tuesday. It was a very nice service and it was good to see family. Friday Todd and I drove to Goddard with Tyler and Elina (the color guy and wife) to call the football game. We had a good time chatting and look forward to some more road trips with them. Owen spent his first night at Grandma and Grandpa's while we were at the ballgame. And I must say that was the best night of sleep I've ever had! You don't know know what you're missin' til you get it back :)! Saturday, Todd and I went to the movie "Fireproof". Excellent, an absolute must see for all married couples, engaged couples, those who hope to be married someday, etc. ! We are going to be leading a small group study based on it at our church, I'll keep you posted on how that goes.

The following week found Todd and I making a pretty spontaneous trip to Hutchinson to see "Shane and Shane" in concert (Todd's favorite group). It ended up being a "Pastor Appreciation" gift...bonus :) thanks Pam! And luckily we have a grandma on stand by that is always ready to spend time with her grandson. A plug for "Shane and Shane"....they're awesome!! Two genuine, authentic, humble, godly men that are very talented and have a great message in their music, so if you ever get a chance check em' out! Tuesday we ate at Gutierrez for staff appreciation dinner...mmm,mmm good! Thursday Todd went to a conference at COR (church of the resurrection) so Grandma came over after work to keep us company and take us out to eat...well, not Owen he doesn't eat anything but cereal. Uncle Kyle drove up from Southwestern college Friday to stay the night and ride out with us to surprise Gramps for his 50th birthday. I'd say mission was accomplished with the surprise, Rick had no idea :)! You can see Owen is up to a few new things in the pictures. He still LOVES walking (with someone's hands) he's even added a little hop/jump when he's super excited to get to his destination. He talks like Donald Duck now, he's closer to doing a somersault than crawling, he's losing a little of his "love for the road", and he got his first ear infection...but loves the amoxicillan :) Well, there you have it!

Out and About In The Great September Weather!

The Just's took advantage of the fabulous weather that God has provided this week and got outside! Tuesday night Todd played two softball games with the church team while Owen and I cheered :). Owen has become a challenge to hold (he moves, and moves and moves) especially for two ballgames so Pam gave my muscles a break (she's who is holding him in the first picture). Friday night we attended Owen's first Salina South football game. He was pretty tuckered out by halftime so we watched the band and headed back home to eat some cereal and head to bed. Saturday found us at the Rolling Hills Refuge zoo. As you can see Owen wasn't super enthused with the animals, but Mommy and Daddy enjoyed them. At one point Owen was sleeping, but was awoken by the sweet smell of rhino poo :)! The picture of Todd watching the giraffes is the "G" rated one, they were feeling pretty frisky that day. We were worried we were going to have to give Owen "the talk" :). Other events this week included getting a new stove...woohoo! It's offically in the house and should be hooked up tomorrow by my handy dandy husband. The one that came with the house was ancient, and put out a few smells we weren't entirely comfortable with. Let's see, I lost another pregnancy pound, but am still 5 from being to my pre-preggo weight. I'm just waiting for Owen to take off and then I know it'll be gone in no time. And to wrap it up, today Owen spent the afternoon with the Jones' and had a great time!

I've Gone Blog Crazy Tonight!

Owen's Favorite Place To Sleep

The Room Is Finally Complete

We have been in our new house for 2 months and 13 days and we can now say Owen's room is finished! Painting projects seem to make their way to the back burner easily. But finally over Labor Day weekend we put it at the top of the list (still didn't get it finished that week), but did put a good enough dent in it that we were able to finish the next weekend. Projects complete were: diamonds painted on the wall, letters painted and hung, and bookshelf painted. Doesn't sound like much when I type it out, but it took a long time!

"Just" What We've Been Up To!

The pun can never get old right? Let me know when I've overdone it :). We've had a busy week here at the Just house. Todd has been out of town since Thursday afternoon, first to a youth pastor retreat (which he enjoyed very much), then straight to Hutch to call a football game Friday, then home just long enough to catch a few zzz's before we left this morning at 5:30 a.m. for Kansas City/Liberty, MO. Todd went to a conference while I spent time with Bryan and Heather in K.C. I too have had a busy week, just not as busy as Todd's with cleaning two houses, cleaning my own house to get ready to host a baby shower for a Sunday School friend, taking "O" to his Dr. and shot appointments. I have to confess I was in the same building for the shots appointment, but I left the room during the "stabbing". It was too hard for me last time so Todd took care of it this time, what a great Daddy :). As for Owen you already know he had appointments, he's now 75th% for height and 50th% for weight. He stayed in the nursurey for the first time Wednesday night and then again Thursday morning. Grandma came to visit for most of the day Friday, where she got to see his latest.... trying to escape from his bouncy seat , chewing on his socks and eating cereal (see pics and video)! And Owen will not continue to eat this way, Todd just had to see the way he ate the first time when I didn't know what I was doing ;)! Finally, Saturday he made the trip to K.C., he's a good little traveler :)! That was our week!

My First Mustang Game!

Owen attended his first Mustang game last night and loved every minute of it! He had the best seat in the house up in the press box next to Daddy who was doing play-by-play for the game. He watched so intensely that he had to take a cat nap during the 3rd quarter. The Mustangs won so everybody left happy :)!

The First Post

Welcome to our new "family" blog! I will do my best to keep everyone up to date on life in the Just household. Most recently our little guy decided he likes taking steps with assistance (although Dad does not define it that way, yet he has no definition of it so that will have to do for now). Actually to be exact I believe he started doing this 2 weeks ago, but we just got around to filming it. He's doing well as are the rest of us, Todd just started calling high school football games and I am loving not teaching and being a Mommy! Well, check this video clip out and maybe you can identify what exactly he's doing :)!