The count down continues...

We have a week from Friday until our due date. The doctor seems to think that's about right. I have an appointment on Thursday morning, they want to do a quick ultrasound because they aren't sure of the baby's position. I'll let you know what they find. Anyway, we're as prepared as one can be for a newborn to come. Now it's just enjoying our parent to child ratio for the moment...and believe me, Luke gives us a run for our money. Here are some random pics from the week.

Getting ready for work (he's trying to hide from the camera)

He's got his tie and his shape bucket, off to work he goes.

Watching some Shrek...Mommy loves that her little boy will sit through a whole movie without getting bored.

We folded his tent up and put it away to make room for baby stuff. He can't figure out why his feet stick out of the door when he sits in the tent.

Anyone who knew me about 20 years ago will understand the irony of this picture.

New Camera!

It's finally happened. 7 months later and we have a working camera. We would still be camera-less if it weren't for the very nice young man at Target who actually offered customer service to us. Anyway, here are the first pictures off the new camera, just a little taste of how life is these days at our house.

Luke was trying to get his diaper off to get in the tub...lucky for us, he hasn't figured out that there are tabs on the front.

His hair has definately grown out since July.

Last night Luke got another Christmas gift. Marty (the preschool teacher's husband) made Luke a wooden airplane. It's very cool. Luke had a great time running around the living room making engine noises as he flew through the air.

So there's a little look. Everything else is going well. We had a doctor's appointment yesterday, she thinks we've still got three weeks which puts us right at our due date. As of today I am officially "full term". I'm feeling tired and sore, but nothing different than every other pregnant mother who is at 37 weeks. I'm sure Erin can remember the joy of chasing a little one around at this stage, and Jamie, make sure you are taking naps when Naomi does!

Scott starts Dinner Theatre season next week with auditions. I hope to be as involved as possible but I have a feeling he'll be relying A LOT on Anne, another teacher who has been roped into helping with the production. We'll be doing Elves and the Shoemaker and the Prince who wouldn't talk. We like the fairy tale genre...it's what we know. =P Plenty of schtick...no serious acting. Anyone who has seen Scott or I on stage knows that is what we do. If you're in town April 11th and 12th, stop by and see the show!

Now that we've got a camera, I'm sure there will be more posted. I'm POSITIVE I can at least keep up with my brother (November, really?) We'll keep you all up to date when Junior arrives!

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.