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.