Merry Christmas!

Well, we just got news about our camera. Turns out Kodak doesn't fix our model any more...so next week, Scott said we're gonna get a new camera. So we only missed like 4 or 5 months of Luke's life.

Anywho, Grandma H. has graciously provided some pictures for your viewing enjoyment. Here's Christmas in St. Charles...

Santa stopped by Great Grandma's house on the 23rd...you know, before his big night. He seems to make an appearance the years that we're in town so Luke lucks out. The kids eat up every bit of Santa's vist. Hopefully I'll be able to get my hands on a picture of Santa and Great Grandma soon. Piece of advice though, don't turn the curling iron up very high when helping Santa groom his beard.

Here's our only picture of Luke in his Christmas outfit.

Aunt Jen, if you've got any good ones, ship them our way.

Christmas Morning...

We put Luke's gifts under the tree. We then told him to pick a gift to open. This was his first choice...I think he's starting to figure out the whole present idea. (editor's note: that big green one belonged to Grandpa...all of the gifts we bought Luke were small enough to hide behind it.)

Opening

And enjoying I think he looks like he's reading the morning paper.

Some other things we've done at Grandma and Grandpa's house...

Found a new way to watch our movies

Found out we still like the bouncey seat.

Found out Mya is able to fall asleep while just lying on the floor.

Found out Grandma's camera takes really cute pictures!

Yeah, pictures!

No, they're not from our camera. Jen has the greatest pictures from our weekend down in St. Charles last month. Click on her blog link to the right to see all the great cousin action. Here's a couple teasers...

Our boy

Sorry, no pictures. I still haven't sent the camera in. Hope to get it fixed before Christmas, but I doubt it.
Anyway, I thought I'd catch you up on what Luke's been up to. And I do mean UP to. Aparently spending Thanksgiving climbing Grandpa and Grandma's stairs has made Luke yearn for higher altitude. Since we've been home his new favorite thing is to push his little chair around and stand on it. That wouldn't be huge, except that now he's discovered if you push the chair up against things, it makes a great stool. His other favorite climbing spot is the gate in the kitchen door. There's about a half an inch of "ledge" that he can get his little feet set on and with the height of the gate when he steps up his little mouth can clamp onto the top of the gate. Now, it's cute and all until....the gate slips off the wall and pins him to the floor. Now if he'd take a moment from panicking he'd realize that the gate is very light and he could move it off of himself...instead he lays under it and screams till he is rescued.
And yesterday, on a different note, Luke thought it looked like fun to be in the box that his new fisherprice manger scene came in...so out went the toys and Luke squeezed himself in...his feet didn't quite fit so after some careful squirming he managed to get his feet to stick out the top. He looked quite comfortable, until he couldn't get out. What a character!

Our trip to Dollinger Farms

I've been waiting to have a kid so I have an excuse to enjoy one of fall's greatest pastimes, going to a pumpkin farm. We took Luke when Grandma and Grandpa came up to visit two weekends ago. It was so much fun. Just a little cold, but Luke didn't seem to notice cause there were too many kids and animals to watch.

He loved the petting farm but wasn't so sure about actually touching the animals...he prefered standing at the fence "ohhing" at them.

Grandma showed him how soft the sheep was. But I think Luke was more intrigued by the baby calf.
Hmmm...pigs, they've got the right idea.

Daddy, Luke, and the Sheep.
Grandma tried to get Luke to take advantage of the all the photo ops...he wasn't having it.

He did take the pumpkin choosing part very seriously. He tried a number of times to get that pumpkin in to wagon. He did get to take a ride in the wagon with the pumpkins, but Grandma's camera ran out of battery before we could get a picture. Luke also got two little pumpkins painted on his face. They were very cute but didn't last past our lunch at Culver's afterwards. Thanks for coming with us, Grandma and Grandpa. And sorry about the giant corn stalks you had to share your seat with on the ride home, Grandma. They looked great at G.L.O.W.

G.L.O.W.

I was inspired by our years of fall festivals at Trinity in Cedar Rapids, so instead of spending our Wednesday evening dragging our one year old around a dark neighborhood, we spent our day and night running "G.L.O.W." (God lights our way). We had about 75 kids show up and as my siblings know, they came, they played games, they got prizes, and they left with big bags of candy. It was a great first try. And we have already figured out what to change for next year. Here's our "Halloween".

Our monkey
My favorite part, his tail.

We found another wild animal. Our front hall turned into a jungle!
Thanks for coming...see ya next year!

Chad Daniel, you've been served.

Happy Birthday!

To Grandpa!

We hope you have a great day!

We love you and miss you!

(sorry, it was supposed to be up on Sunday!)

Birthday Party!

We had a beautiful day and a great time at Luke's birthday party. Here are the photos as promised. Daddy and Luke after a long day of cleaning.
Luke and Grandpa
Chewing on Great Grandma before the party.

A gift bag...that MOO!!!! Note the pleasantly shocked look on Luke's face.

Oh No! Not sure what the drama is, but Luke seems to have picked up a dramatic gene from somewhere.
Safety First!
Ha ha! I've got a digger!

This picture is for Uncle Chad...I just thought he looked very Jim Carey. ps...nice job trying to stay out of the picture, Aunt Kendra!

Uncle Ben, when Luke saw this picture today, he started dancing and even clapped for you...without any prompting...he's a fan.

BRING IT ON!!!!

The origin of the dramatic gene is a little clearer.

Ya know, Dad, I'm looking and I just don't think there's enough to share. (after this picture, he actually shook his head when Scott asked for some)

Elmo before

Poor monster never saw it coming.

I'M SORRY

Well, we're back into the swing of August. That means long hot days in the school building coupled with me freaking out because I don't have enough Sunday School teachers. Ahhhhh, summertime. I know it's been forever since my last post...and as Erin has pointed out, who wants to look at Chad that long? Anyway, here's what's up.

1. My camera is broken and it looks like I'll be sending it in to Kodak, so the pictures I post are from a month ago.

2. Today is the first day of school so we're hot, sweaty, and looking forward to June.

3. We had a great summer.

Since my last post we took a nice long trip to Florida for the National Youth Gathering. It was a blast. We got to be our own little family group of Janetzkes so it was a different experience with no teenagers to watch. Luke did very well in the car there and back. It helped to have his aunts and uncle entertain help when they weren't sleeping. Saw lots of friends at the Gathering. The theme was Chosen and everything was done very well. Props to Kate and Nate who worked very hard on the media end of things. And Anna and Shawn for their dedication to the stage and of course Beth for all around support. It's a little funny going to a gathering and running into so many "important" people who we know.

This is the only picture I have from the Gathering, our camera died the day before we left. I stole this off Kendra's facebook. A classic look on Luke's face. Don't worry, he gives it to every teenager.

This summer was also filled with some trips to the Moses's pool. Luke loved being out in the water and we were glad to have the chance to take Kurt swimming twice while he was with us. These are swimming pictures from July, the ones from August are coming soon.

Just relaxing, and holding Marty's beer.

Swimming with Daddy, he's gotten very brave and tried to climb out of his floatie.

After the pool it was time to bother Murphy.

Boy, it seems everything Luke wants is behind glass.

Since Florida we've been busy getting ready for school. We've also had a few doctors appointments. You see, people make plans and map out their life and God laughs and then gives you another kid. That's right, there will be another little one Feb. 8. All is well right now, we will keep you updated.

This post is dedicated to Erin, and I promise to keep up, the best I can.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

Uncle Chad, you're a funny guy and we love you!

Happy 28th!

Trip to Wisconsin

Well, we HAD to be there for the fireworks, oh and Aunt Kendra's graduation party.

Luke got to play with all his aunts and uncles and his Texas cousins who he never sees. I didn't think to take the camera out for the fireworks because I figured after one boom Luke would want to be inside. Boy, was I wrong. He loved them! He oohed and ahhed and even tried to reach out and grab them (which he could have since we were so close.) Anyway, here are some pictures of our week in WI.

Luke LOVED listening to Uncle Ben play and sing. Luke even tried a little air guitar while he danced to the music.

Getting ready to go fishin'

Cousin Emma

And Cousin Maddie

the Zoo!

I know...there's been a couple of weeks since my last post and this post is really just a continuation of our trip to MO....so here's Luke's first trip to the Zoo.

Daddy and Luke at the Monkey house...they all came right up to the glass.

Luke was a little nervous that they might actually touch him!

Luke and Daddy in front of the Penguins. They were boring but the Puffins flew right by Luke and splashed him.

That bear listened very well when I said get in the shot.

Here's Luke and Mommy. Luke was practicing his animal noises that Daddy had been teaching him.