and there was great joy

 I should probably be writing about Christmas, but the object of my focus has been completing another semester…and it is!! By the grace of God we (and I do mean we) have survived another round-o-learning. So, 3 1/2 years in, 97 hours completed, and still going strong…okay, still going. The journey is still exciting, though the energy is waning. But the adventure continues!! Next semester we begin writing the thesis…more on that later.

In other news, Luke is 18 months old today Lots of funny things to say here, but they too must wait till another day. And if you have not yet heard (via the world of Facebook), baby#2 is a GIRL!!! The doctor asked if we had any questions for him, so trying to be the funny guy I said,

“Yeah. What do we do with a girl?”

“Start saving.”

he’s a charmer

we know Luke can put on a show for complete strangers – handing out smiles like tickets to a show, cocking his head and lowering his chin in feigned bashfulness, waving goodbye in anticipation of leaving – but we are only learning the power of his hypnotic charm.

the venue – Kroger
the victim – sweet, elderly employee
the result – “Ma’am, would you mind if I buy your son a toy?”

Yes, that’s right…Luke charmed his way into a matchbox car…bought buy a store employee!!!

Oh boy…what are we up against??

changing of the guard

…sort of…

As we have journeyed into parenthood, there are times and things that come along that we whole-heartedly embrace as opportunities to create our own family traditions, which in some sense are unique to us. The uniqueness stems from the melding of “his” and “hers,” not necessarily something new or innovative. What a treasure to share the meaningful moments of childhood!! Though 5 years into marriage, the addition of Luke has probably added even more depth to these moments! It is a fun, entertaining, revealing, challenging, wonderful, exciting adventure

Yet, there are moments (as odd as some of them are) when we realize we prefer our nostalgia-laden familial customs…continuing the old faithful, rather than composing a new.

end or beginning?…definitely a BEGINNING!!!

A few weeks ago I philosophized (here) about ends and beginnings, depending on the hour and context. Well, I feel quite confident that this is a BEGINNING, regardless of what hour or context you catch me in

memorial weekend fun

hiking & biking, 4-wheelers & water-balloon weilders – that’s what memorial weekend fun is made of!!

5 years ago

Some of you may wonder why this was not posted on friday…but I ask you, is it better to be with one’s loved one with total attention & care or sitting in front of the computer???

Friday we celebrated 5 years of marriage!!!

Much has happened in these fast, short years, and much more than we could have anticipated. God has been SO good, merciful, loving, and generous to us, mostly through those of you who may happen to peruse our blog. I have the privilege to spend every day with a beautiful, caring woman! Thanks sweetie!!!

developments

kids’ minds are GENIUS!! It is truly amazing to watch Luke develop…at times I think I can see those neurons racing around in his head, synapses firing like pistons on a dragster…just beautiful! So, as you can see in the vid below, Luke has become motivated to go after things. This “going after” involves physical moves as well as emotional/cognitive. We have noticed this increasing cough/cry act when he wants something but doesn’t get it, or if we set him down and he doesn’t want to be left there – cute but conniving.

What else…
…seemingly every time, when one of us opens his diaper to find poop, there comes a quiet (though sometimes not quiet) little chuckle
…he has figured out that he can pull the crib bumper down and see out (we recently lowered the mattress level to thwart his attempts at looking out). Because of this, he has discovered the neighboring stand that has cd’s and player on top. He can reach between the rails and flip through the cd’s making a clicking sound – this in opposition to sleeping.
…luke has discovered how to turn his jumper (a seat and spring that hangs from a door frame) into a jumping swing…i hope to catch this on video and post for you to see, lots of fun
…strangers/less familiar people than mama & papa are now scary and reason for the cutest pouty lip and tears; it takes a little bit to warm up and then he is back to his normal carefree self
…the first tooth has FINALLY pushed through! Just one and Luke is not a fan of letting you touch or see it, but it’s there.

8 months

I know, I know…I’m slow getting this up. Luke is now 8 months! He weighed in at almost 23 lbs and 29 inches long.

7 months

Just a few weeks late…

 

 

I weighed in at 21 lbs and 28.5″ long

Here’s my new trick I just learned…

A Merry Christmas to All…

…and to all lots-of-fun-with-toys!!!

 

 

(I apologize for the small picture size…having technical difficulties with wordpress)
figured it out…not sure why I have to manually tell it that I want to link this thumbnail to the original pic file when I inserted the pic as a thumbnail…seems redundant…why would I insert as a thumbnail if I really just wanted a small pic??