Moving on through October 2011

This has been a fun week!  Do I say that every week?  We started off by learning about fall leaf raking in Indiana.  Our neighbor and good friends (Lisa & Tarah Clark...no relation) called us down to experience fun in the leaves.  At first the Josh & Cate thought they were there to work and rake leaves.  Funny thing is they were ok with that.  They just kept working  away raking and we kept trying to explain to rake them all into one big pile for jumping.  Well they didn't get it so Tarah (6th grader) had to show them what it was all about.  They quickly caught on and the fun began. 

Later in the week, Lola Clark came to visit and stay a few days.  We celebrated her birthday plus she got to have fun with Josh & Cate and meet her new great grandson, Nolan Denham Clark.  Zoe also loved have Grandma Joan visit. 

Luke & Susi came on Friday night and spent the night.  That was great fun for the kids.  They treated Josh & Cate to their birthday gifts early.  Yay!  for Purdue sweatshirts plus a few other fun things.  Even though that snake that grows in the bathtub is not cool!

Some of the men in the family went up to the lake cottage to help take out the pier on Saturday morning.  It was cold and windy and not an easy job but they "got  er' done".  Jeff is the freezing wet guy in the water with the waders on.  Luke and Nick are the strong guys on the pier.  The learned that the new pier is very very heavy!  Josh was the official camera man for that event.

The Clark ladies were hosting a baby shower for baby Nolan.  We were very excited to have many family members and friends join us.  It was a fun afternoon and Nolan was the perfect guest of honor.  Thanks Mom Autumn for sharing him with us.

After the shower we just sort of hung out and enjoyed having family around us.  Here's a few more shots of the fun weekend.

We had a few more birthday celebrations.  Nick and Autumn both have October birthdays plus Aunt Dawn treated Josh & Cate to their gifts early.  It was lots of fun! 

You can see it's been a jam  packed week with lots of family around.  We love those times the most.  Courtney & Zach were not able to join us and we really really missed not seeing their smiling faces.  Thanks again for all of your support.  And as always.... our 2 favorite sayings at this house are

"God is good!"  and " You can do it!"