Easter Weekend!

For Easter Weekend, we celebrated Christ's resurrection by traveling to Oklahoma to visit family.  We were very excited to see everyone, but especially excited to meet the newest member of the family, little Linnea.  Linnea Gretchen was born on Friday, March 5th at 1:55 p.m. She weighed 7lbs 4oz and was 19 inches long.  My sister, Holly, brother-in-law, Ryan, and niece, Lilly, are so excited about the newest addition to the family.

Luke was especially excited to be around so many kids his age.   Luke turned 6-months old on Easter, so he is really at the perfect age to begin playing with other kids.  Here are some pictures from the weekend.  We took a lot of pictures--if you would like to see more, please visit our picasaweb album:  Easter 2010.

Here is Luke checking out what the Easter Bunny brought to him:

A Family Picture:

A picture of all of the Cousins:

Daddy & Luke:

Grandma, Grandpa & Luke:

Here are some pictures from the Easter Egg Hunt:

After the egg hunt, Drew took a picture of Luke and I:

There are a lot of fun places for kids to play at my parents' house.  Emily, Jason, Dad (Grandpa), Brody, Luke and I went to see their horses and do a little fishing in the pond.  Here is a cute picture that Emily took of Grandpa, Brody & Luke in the boat:

Here is a sweet picture of Lilly and the newest addition to the family, Linnea. 

Of course, I had to get a picture with Linnea also:

We had a great time and are already missing everyone!  We're looking forward to getting everyone together again soon!

Our Trip to Houston for Mitchell's Birthday Party

We visited Houston a couple of weekends ago to celebrate Mitchell's 9th birthday with him.  I can't believe he is 9 years old.   Mitchell is Luke's cousin on Drew's side of the family.  We had a lot of fun celebrating.  As you can see, the theme of the party was "Houston Astros."  We even bought Luke a couple of jerseys that were on clearance so that he could join in the fun.  Here are some fun pics from the party and the weekend.

We also played some fun games.  Here, we are playing musical chairs.  I hate this picture, but it is a good one of me beating out Drew for one of the final two chairs.   I ended up coming in second place. 

I had to sit the next game out because it involved balloons.  Some of you may not know I have an intense fear of balloons.  I must have had a scary childhood experience with one of those balloon games where you race to sit on the balloon and pop it--or perhaps it was an incident with a punch balloon.  Here is a picture of Drew participating in the balloon game.  The object of the game was to keep your balloon inflated while you chased others to pop theirs.  Drew was pretty good at this game--but, Mitchell ended up sneaking up on Drew while Drew was going in for an attack on another balloon.  While Drew celebrated his victory, Mitchell popped Drew's balloon.  Drew got 2nd place---2nd was our thing that day!

Here is a picture of Mitchell's cool cake:

We took a walk later that day.  Audrey & Lauren (Luke's other cousins and Mitchell's sisters) were all tuckered out after the day's events:

On Sunday, we went to church with the family.  Here are some good pictures of the family after church:

Some Recent Pics

I was getting ready to take Luke for a walk---he was looking too cute so I had to grab the camera for a quick pic.

He was enjoying his tummy time and looking cute--so again, I had to grab the camera for a quick pic.  :-)

The obligatory after-the-bath hooded towel photo.

Here's Luke trying his very first sweet potatoes that mommy made him.   Daddy asks him to open wide before each bite, and I must say he does that very well! 

All Done!!!!  He REALLY likes his sweet potatoes.

We're trying to catch up on blog posts.  The pics above were from early March. Stay tuned for some pics and a blog post from our adventures in Houston last weekend!

Luke discovers it has been he in the mirror all along!

Last night, after Luke had his first cereal, we sat Luke down in front of the stand-up mirror.  This time, Luke realized it was he who he has been seeing in the mirror.  The pictures are pretty funny!

Luke has been really good about taking his naps lately.  He takes a really good morning and afternoon nap.  Here is a picture of the little guy all tuckered out from jumping on his jumperoo.   I guess he was ready for his nap.  

Luke loves his feet lately.  He keeps trying to stick them in his mouth--he can stick his right toes in his mouth, but hasn't quite mastered the left one.

This picture was just too cute not to share!

Luke's First Solids--well, rice cereal, that is.

I'm not sure I would call 1 tablespoon of rice cereal mixed with 4-5 tablespoons of breast milk a solid, but Luke had his first cereal yesterday evening.  It was a lot of fun watching him eat with a spoon.  Luke has always been a very eager eater.  In fact, when he is fed with a bottle, he will actually reach for it now and bring it into his mouth.  He holds the bottle with a death grip and scolds you with his cry for taking it away before he is ready.  He is not like this as much with nursing--I guess because he does more self-regulating and I have no way of telling how much he is eating.  Well, Luke was no different with the cereal.  You can see a progression of his first cereal meal below.

Here, he is trying to figure out what is going on--why is mommy putting milk in a bowl and mixing it with a spoon--I am hungry--let's get this show on the road! 

Mmmmmm...that was pretty good, but here, let me help you get it in my mouth faster.

 

OK...I'm not so sure about these little bitty bites with many seconds in between each.  Can we just pour it into my mouth please?

Here, let me help you again.

 

It was a lot of fun, but a little messy since Luke tried to help us.  It is difficult to keep a very thin liquid on an itty bitty spoon.  I think we'll try a little thicker concoction next time.

Working with Daddy, Valentine's Day, Baby Dedication and more!

What a title!!!  When you wait way too long between postings, you have to combine titles!  We've been so busy, that it is just so hard to post more regularly.  We have lots of pictures to post, so I'll get started!

First, I just had to get a picture of this--Drew was working one night, and I had to set Luke down for a second.  So, I sat him by his Daddy, started to walk away, and realized that these two guys had the same concentrating look.  I had to grab the camera.  I took several pictures, but this one is the first I took.

Luke just loves his bath time.  After his bath, we always wrap him up in one of his favorite fluffy hooded towels.  He was looking too cute, so I had to snap a picture.

Luke loves to sit up like a big boy now.  In fact, we probably place him in his bumbo to play with his musical gym more than we place him on his back underneath it.  Any time he is in a lying position, he tries to sit up--so sitting up is definitely his preference.  Drew took this picture one day.  He is facing away from the TV, but he is so intrigued with the moving pictures on the TV that he is trying so hard to see what's on. 

My parents came down on Friday night for the weekend (Valentine's weekend) and Drew's parents came down on Saturday night.  We started the day on Saturday with my parents at Round Rock donuts.  We've actually never been there, but have heard about these donuts.  I couldn't believe this place--you would think they were giving away money if you saw the line.   There was a HUGE line in the drive through, and a line that weaved around several times in the store and continued out the door.  The guy behind us was a true Austinite and a regular at this place.  He told us all about the 2 lb donut, which is what he ordered for himself.  He also said this place has been on the discovery channel, so it's pretty famous.  I will say, the glazed donut pretty much melted in my mouth!  Then, during the rest of the day on Saturday, we shopped 'til we dropped with my parents.  We only bought a couple of things while we were out, but it was just so nice to get out.    Because it was a beautiful day, we also took a nice, long walk.  We were able to use the sunglasses we bought for Luke while shopping.   

Later, we met Drew's parents and headed to Main Street Grill in Round Rock, where Drew's parent's treated us all to dinner.  It is a really cool place for those of you who live in the Austin area and have never been there.  It is actually an old bank building--they have converted the vault into a wine-room, which has one table in it.  So, you can eat in the old vault (they still have the old vault door attached).  

Valentine's day on Sunday was extra special, because it was the day that Luke was dedicated at church and it was spent with both sets of parents.  For Luke's life verse, we chose Luke 10:27, which says, "He answered: " 'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind'; and, 'Love your neighbor as yourself'."  We received a parenting book, a kids' Bible for Luke and a letter to Luke from our Pastor, Matt Carter, which we will give him when he accepts Jesus Christ as his personal savior.  The letter tells Luke about this day, the love that we and the rest of the church have for him, and the prayers that are being prayed that he will someday come to know the Lord.  Once we arrived home, we took some family pictures with Luke. 

Drew's parents had to head back to Houston right after lunch, so we weren't able get pictures with them.  So, I posted a picture above of them with Luke after Luke's first trip to church when he was 6 weeks old--my how he has grown!  It is a special week for Drew's parents, as they headed to Guatemala today for a mission trip with Living Water International.  More than 884 million people lack safe drinking water; Living Water International exists to demonstrate the love of God by helping communities acquire desperately needed clean water, and to experience "living water”—the gospel of Jesus Christ.  So they will be in Guatemala sporting hard hats and digging wells!  We look forward to hearing all about their trip!

It was so nice to spend Valentine's weekend with our parents and are looking forward to seeing them again soon!

4 months old!!

I know it seems like I say this every week, but it has been a busy week! It seems like time is flying by....and LUKE IS ALREADY 4 MONTHS OLD! That's right--can you believe it? Where has the time gone? Luke is doing so many fun things now, and we definitely do not take enough pictures or video. But, we captured some moments of the past week or so.


Last weekend, we attended Jeremy and Jordan's first birthday party. It was great to see the boys and Frank and Holly, as well as many other friends!  Happy Birthday! Here are a couple of pictures I took of the boys enjoying their birthday cake:

Adam, Jessi and Sarah (who is anxiously awaiting the birth of Ford, who is due today (2/7/10)!

Here are a couple of random pictures of Luke from this past week or so.

Luke is really liking sitting up like a big boy. He likes the bumbo because he knows we don't have to help him sit up. When he sits up by himself without the bumbo we have to be near him in case he falls over. But, he can sit up by himself for about 30 seconds or more.

Luke is growing so quickly!  He is beginning to outgrow some of his 3-6 month clothes!  Here is he in a 6-9 month Ohio State outfit that his Great Aunt Beth and Uncle John gave him.