And Now We Have 'Happy Feet'

These past two weeks have been pretty eventful, but thankfully they've been growing and faith-building experiences. To start off, two weeks ago, Steve's backpack was stolen from a gas station where he was filling up. His backpack was basically his entire school life. It had his notebook, his books for law school, and his laptop with all of his notes and outlines on it, so he was really in trouble. He asked everyone in the parking lot, no one knew anything (of course). He went inside the gas station, and what do you know, there's two cops inside that are stationed there, but they didn't see anything. So Steve files a report, then drives around looking at everyone walking the streets, looking in dumpsters, he drove to the library and walked around inside, wondering if someone may have taken his laptop there to try it out, just doing anything he could think of. After realizing that there was nothing he could do, he drove home. The whole time he was praying to find his backpack, but as he drove home, he felt hopeless, which is hard for Steve, since he loves feeling in control of himself and situations (those of you who know him, know exactly what I'm talking about, and I love him for it :) ). Suddenly he had this thought that he shouldn't be praying to find his backpack, but he should be praying that the goodness that is inherent in all of God's children be stimulated in the person that had taken his bag. He thought about the 'light of Christ', that's in all of us, and how God really does have power to influence His children to to good. He prayed that God would use his power to stimulate the goodness that was in this person and they would feel the need to return the bag. The spirit really confirmed that that was exactly what he needed to pray for. Anyway, so when he told me this, me, being the completely supportive wife that I am, said, "that's great honey", when inside I was thinking 'yeah right, there's no way that's going to happen.' I know, I'm awful. So the next morning, Saturday, I talked him into to going to buy another laptop, since it's required for his school, and he reluctantly agreed, so we bought that, a new backpack, new law books, etc. We then continued to go through the process of filing a claim with our insurance company, putting a fraud alert out on our credit, and all that fun stuff. Steve also emailed all of his classmates, explained what happened, and asked if they would be willing to send him their notes. He wasn't expecting anything, since law school is really cut-throat, but the next morning, he had so many emails where people had not only sent him their notes, but their outlines and stuff as well, so that was pretty amazing. Also, that Sunday, as a side-note, Steve was asked to speak the following Sunday on Unity and how we're all connected. Well, that Wednesday, Steve gets a call from the police officer saying that his backpack was turned in, and not only that, EVERYTHING was in it!!! I know, it's a miracle!!! All of his books, his notebook, and most importantly, his laptop, were all there and intact. The only things missing was a dollar in change and his ipod's headphones. And the weirdest thing of all, in his laptop was the movie 'Happy Feet', which we don't own, (but we do now, and the kids absolutely love dancing too it!), so we know someone was at least trying to get into his laptop, but because of security features, they weren't able to. (Good old Windows Vista) Isn't that so amazing? Luckily we were able to return everything, so we aren't out any money. So, to sum it all up, for whatever reason, maybe the person's 'light of Christ' was 'lit', they turned it in, and Steve was able to give his talk about how we all have the 'light of Christ' within us and we're all connected. We definitely learned a lot and grew from this experience, especially me! (I need to have a lot more faith and be more supportive of my husband :) )
Well, so I realize this is a really long post, so I'll the post the rest of our eventful week later! Love you all!

News, News, and More News!

Wow, talk about an eventful couple of weeks! So much has happened, I feel bad I haven't been keeping more on top of things.

~First off, how amazing was last night? Even though I didn't vote for Obama, I couldn't help but feel excited and proud to be an American and to have been able to take part in a major piece of history. I can't remember who said it, but on some show they said that there wasn't really a loser last night, everyone won.(Whoever it was said it a lot more eloquently than I did :) It was also really cool to be here in Illinois when it happened. Steve and I were so close to driving up to Chicago just to be part of the excitement! We didn't, but a little part of me wished we had. :)
~On to an equally important and exciting announcement, Auston started crawling for real yesterday! Break out the baby-proofing! I say for real, because he's been a professional army crawler for a long time now. Also, not to be left out, Audrey's our professional scooter. She'll sit and scoot around on the floor with her legs, or if she's on her tummy, she only goes in reverse, but with both, she's really fast!
~They both have also been teething almost constantly for the last month or so, and they both each have 8 teeth now, and I swear there could be more, with the way they're carrying on! (It's been a really rough time!)
~Also, our little family has a new addition! Last week, we got a dog. I know, we're crazy, but we always said if we found the perfect dog, we'd consider it. Well, we found him. :) He's a two-year-old Miniature Australian Shepherd named Maximus. He's out of the puppy stage, so he doesn't bark or whine a ton, he's already house-broken, he's trained, he's small, and he's so gentle and cute with the kids. We just love him!
~Also, Halloween was a ton of fun here, we had a big Halloween party with all the LDS law students, and our ward trunk-or-treat, so it was non-stop fun! Audrey was an adorable ladybug, Auston was a freakin' cute bumble bee, I was a witch, and Steve was,....Captain America! You know, because he really is Captain America, since Captain America's alias is Steve Rogers. :) At our Halloween party, we had dinner with "mashed brains and eyeballs" (spaghetti and meatballs), "bones" (breadsticks cut like bones), a skeleton veggie tray, spider cupcakes, cookies, and other treats! After dinner, we had a haunted ghost "walk" and story, (the kids walked up our stairs that we had covered in spider webs, and then we set up our little tent in our guest bedroom and had our friend, James, dress up like a ghost and tell a spooky story. It was totally cute! Then we decorated cookies and trick-or-treat bags, so all in all, it was pretty fun! Thanks so much to everyone who helped out and brought food!
~Another exciting bit of news, is that in the past couple of weeks, Steve and our friend James partnered up and took part in their school negotiation competition, of which they took FIRST! So exciting! As a result, they had to go to ST. Louis this past weekend and take part in the regional competition, which included other law schools from Nebraska, Missouri, Illinois, and Wisconsin. They did really well, and ended getting 8th! We're really proud of both of them! ~After Steve's competition, we drove up to Chicago and stayed with Steve's dad, who was in town for some meetings. It was so great to see him, and it's getting us more excited for Christmas break! We stayed over night with him and had breakfast with him in the morning, before his flight left. Afterwards, we drove and walked around Chicago, seeing the different sites. It was so fun, I really love that city.
~Steve's law school softball team was in the tournament, and out of 30 teams, they made it to the top 8, a little better than his last softball team. :) His team was made up of all the other LDS law students, so we were known as the Mormon team, known by the facts that we were pretty much the only sober team and the only team with kids! Our friend Zach made everyone on the team baseball cards, so I've included Steve's on here. His nickname is 'Captain', after Captain America. Well, that's about all the news of our family for the next little while. Hope you enjoy the pictures! Sorry so long!

Where to Mom?How cool am I?

My head's too big for my shirt!Our newest addition, Max!

Getting Ready for the donut eating contest at the trunk-or-treat

Chowing Down

The Avengers, led by Captain America (or something like it)

The kids lined up, once again, on our couch R-L: Ellis (John McCain), Auston (bumble bee), Grant (lion), Charlotte (kitty), Eliza (princess), Audrey (ladybug), Laney (skunk), Jack (eggs), Cadence (toast)The kids (and parents) decorating their Trick-or-Treat bags

Audrey chowing down on our friend Tanner's necklace (he and his wife Carli dressed up as each other for Halloween, hence the necklace)

Captain America and Laney showing off the cookie they decorated

Our Day in Chi-Town (pronounced shy-town, just in case you were wondering)

Wrigley Field

Bleachers on houses across from Wrigley

Navy Pier