good smilin' kiddo

spoonfeeding and various faces

Ameila's a really good eater -- she must be to maintain that physique.
She just opens wide and we shovel it in as fast as we can...even if
she doesn't really like it, she still eats pretty well.

pony ride

We waited forever and she almost didn't get one she wanted...

first bath together

If she could just stay like this forever...

...then her high school years will be a lot less stressful for me.

I seem to have this...octopus...on my back...

We're not sure why the frog is in the box

kid in a playstation

With a big ol' bushy head of hair, still.

Barbie, a hard hat and a tractor

We're hoping Barbie met a very timely demise...but Ellie's not a
toy-breaker. (Read: she's a girl.)

two kiddos

We think Amelia said "papa" just now.

She did it a few times in a row.

--
Soli Deo Gloria

Ellie and Amelia being baptized

Here are the girls being baptized on August 31. Ellie wasn't baptized before -- our church then did a believer's baptism, not infant (covenantal) baptism. Our current church, Grace Bible Presbyterian, is more firmly in the Presbyterian & Reformed position, and does the infant baptism of believing parents. So both girls were baptized by Pastor Tim Miessler.

Glory to God for His provision of and for our family, and for His grace, that he "breaks the power of cancelled sin, and sets the sinner free." It's frightening to think of the implications of sin -- our kids are, though baptized, guilty with Adam of sin against God, and in need of a Savior. And so it is our comfort that in Christ, God forgives sins and reconciles sinners to Himself. I pray regularly for the salvation of those whom I love -- for outside of Christ, all are guilty, no matter how good we think we are, or how little we care to hear of God's wrath upon sinners. The following is adapted from www.romansroad.com/id50.htm. (More importantly, it's an exposition of a portion of the Bible, which means it's God's Word spoken to you.)

Romans 3:23

"For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God."

We all have sin in our hearts. We all were born with sin. We were born under the power of sin's control.

Romans 6:23a

"...The wages of sin is death..."

Sin has an ending. It results in death. We all face physical death, which is a result of sin.

But a worse death is spiritual death that alienates us from God, and will last for all eternity.

The Bible does plainly teach that there is a place called the Lake of Fire where lost people will be in torment forever.

It is the place where people end up that remain spiritually dead.

Romans 6:23b

"...But the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord."

Salvation is a free gift from God to you! We can't earn this gift, but we must reach out and receive it.

Romans 5:8

"God demonstrates His own love for us, in that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us!"

When Jesus died on the cross He paid sin's penalty. He paid the price for all sin, and when He took all the sins of the world on Himself on the cross, He bought us out of slavery to sin and death! Therefore, believe in Him and what He has done for us, understanding that we are now joined with Him, and that He is our life. Because He loved us and gave Himself for us!

Romans 10:13

"Whoever will call on the name of the Lord will be saved!"

Call out to God in the name of Jesus!

Romans 10:9,10

"...If you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Jesus from the dead, you shall be saved; for with the heart man believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation."

Jesus said, Revelation 3:20a

"Behold I stand at the door and knock, if anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him..."

Believe in Him. Ask Him to reveal Himself to you. Open the bible to the gospel of John and read what God says about Jesus, about you, and about being born again. God will help you. He loves you. You need to look for a local church where God's word is preached. The bible says that we are to desire God's word like a newborn baby desires mother's milk.

John 1:12

"As many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God,

even to those who believe in His name!"

More AJ updates

Junebuggy is on an anti-spit-up formula (Enfamil AR; apparently other formulas are pro-spit-up) which actually works well enough when we don't try to cram more than four ounces of formula into her four-ounce tummy.

She's still a happy enough kid mornings and afternoons, and a fairly unhappy one in the evening of the day. Not as screamy as she was, but really whiny. Really really whiny.

She's sort of sitting up, as the pics below testify. She can also pretty much stand up on her own -- not balancing, but she can hold her whole weight up for a few seconds, then when I say "Kerplunk" she falls herself down. (I know that's horrible grammar, but I think it describes what goes on.) It's a fun game for about forty-nine minutes.

She's eating cereal with various purees, and she got some straight pears today. When she's hungry, she opens her mouth and lunges her head (more bad grammar) toward the spoon, creating a moving-target scenario. So I (Christian) have started to gently hold her head in place when I feed her cereal -- so now she won't open her mouth for me unless my hand's on her head. I hope that doesn't last too long. It'll get kinda awkward in a few years.

What do YOU think? HMMMM?????

we all fall down

4 phases of Tiger Moon

Contemplative

Mischevious

Scary

Vomitous

Rock ON!

no comment

must FIENDISHLY unwrap chocolate....

Must unwrap chocolate...must unwrap chocolate...

Ellie with some actual Cleveland Rocks

By a Cincinnati Tree.

But you can't write a song called "Cincinnati Tree."

Well, you could, but it would be lame.

A little green frog and a cherry tree

woo-hoo

woo-hoo

No, no, no, no, you're not the one for me.

(with apologies to KT Tunstall)

(Nobody will get this.)

This is not what it looks like.

She didn't eat them -- she was just unwrapping them for those great
peanut-butter-and-kiss cookies.

Really really weird

This is some odd combination of Elvis, Roy Orbison, Gene Simmons and Yoko Ono.

And Amelia.

Bizarro.

Day 3 of no power

Ellie's still all smiles.

Papa, not so much. Sort of tired of eating untoasted poptarts.

Amelia -- spitting up as usual, power or no power.

Ellie made her first sandwich

Ellie made herself a PB&J sandwich for dinner.

Why did she make herself a sandwich for dinner? Because we had a
stinkin' hurricane in Cincinnati! Ike came through last Sunday (the
14th), slightly weakened but still hurricane-force winds, and knocked
out our power for a few days. This was the first day of it, and to
keep Ellie occupied we taught her how to make a sandwich. She had fun.
The flash on the camera obliterates the actual darkness in which we
were working. (See the candle right above the strawberries?)

First day of (pre-)school

Here's Ellie, hair all slicked down, backpack on her back, on her way
to preschool. No truth to the rumor that Mama combed Ellie's hair down
with her own free-flowing tears.

Ellie did great -- Mama, not so much. We need to get Mama used to
Ellie socializing outside her immediate reach...she's making progress.

This is what a big baby looks like

Amelia June is 27 inches and 16 pounds plus. That's literally off the
charts for her height. Most people who see her think she's like twelve
years old...well, more like 8 months. But really, man, she's just
like, huge, ginormous, dude.

All that at just over four months. Monstrosity.

Pregnancy Care Walk for Life

Hi all,

Tina and I are participating in and raising pledges for the 2008 Walk for Life event to benefit the PregnancyCare of Cincinnati.  The PregnancyCare of Cincinnati is a local nonprofit that gives caring support to young mothers struggling with an unintended pregnancy. ALL of your money goes to provide free services such as counseling, pregnancy tests, ultrasound exams and -- best of all -- spiritual truth to the many women who visit the PregnancyCare of Cincinnati each year!

Will you make a tax-deductible donation to this organization by sponsoring us? It is not a per-mile pledge but instead your pledge is a flat amount. We also have a corporate sponsor who'll match all our contributions at 50 cents on the dollar -- making your donation go even farther.

You can sponsor me by visiting one (or both!) of our personal Web pages:
 http://pcc.ewalk.org/mcmastilak
 http://pcc.ewalk.org/tinamastilak

Thanks very much for your help & support! Also, please feel free to pass this email on to anyone you know who might be willing to help out.

Thanks again, and God bless,

Tina & Christian Mastilak

--

Sola Scriptura - Sola Fide - Sola Gratia - Solus Christus - Soli Deo Gloria

Ellie swinging

She said to me, "when I swing high, my butt's in your face." Indeedy.