Once again, we are long overdue for an update, so I thought while John and I watch Prince Caspian for the second time tonight, I could catch everyone up on pictures from the last few months. Luke has been an absolute joy the past several months. Not that he wasn't before, but he is becoming quite the little entertainer these days and he is saying the funniest things as his language and conversation skills continue to grow. We are getting very spoiled with his increased independence, to the point that we know if and when we get to have baby #2, it will be a huge adjustment for us all over again. Speaking of a second kiddo, we get asked A LOT what our plans are with that and if we're only planning to have one, so I thought we would answer everyone now on that one. Yes, we would LOVE to have another little one and we're just waiting for God to answer that prayer. We know God's timing is perfect as is His answer and will. We ask that you would also join us in praying for God to grow our family in His time and that we would have patience in waiting.
Now on to the pictures! I tried to pick out highlights of each month to keep the pictures down to a minimum but that is tough because there are so many cute ones to choose from. To see more pictures, click
here:
February
Pepaw's Valentine's Birthday with his 4 grandsons
You guessed it...Marbles Museum again, and now Luke is a very big fan of dinosaurs!
Luke ran up to this phone, picked it up and said, "Hello, Magic School Bus?" Funny boy! He had been watching a Magic School Bus video a few weeks before and remembered the kids at the end of the video calling the Magic School Bus.
This was a very impressive food sculpture of our fave Veggie Tales, Larry & Bob. What was really cool is that you couldn't really make out the image with the naked eye, but looking through the camera lens, it all came together.
Posing with Luke after a Mommy & Daddy date night
January
We made a spontaneous decision to go to KY for New Year's to visit with John's family in northern KY. It worked out that he could get off work and we could stay with Grandma Kay (GG), so off we went. It was refreshing to get away and visit with family we had not seen in a while. We also met up with Grammy, Pappy, Leigh Ann, Woody & Hope while we were there. Luke is playing on the playground at GG's in this pic.
We also visited the Creation Museum with Woody while there. We loved it and highly recommend it. John and I would like to go back to look more closely. There is a lot to read within the exhibits, but the reading pace is way too slow for a 3 year old!
They also had their last weekend of Christmas lights and the nativity display while we were there. This was great for us since evidently Christmas lights are sparse in our part of NC and we missed seeing the beautiful displays so familiar to us in KY.
Luke and Uncle Woody - trying to remember what they were doing here, but I think they were about to blast off???
A very memorable first visit to the dentist office for Luke - You may look at this picture and say, "Wow! He's doing great and look at how attentive he is!" Don't let the picture fool you. Terror and tears soon followed this picture. After this display of the "magic tickling toothbrush" the chances of anything getting into Luke's mouth on this day were slim to none. In the end, he did let me brush his teeth for the hygienist, and we are going to have to try this again later this year.
Luke's first big snow and our first big NC snow - We woke up one morning in January to around 5 inches of snow. This is a pretty amazing and unusual occurrence in these parts. Families were out everywhere in the neighborhood playing in the white stuff which is pretty foreign to a lot of these folks from the deep south. We had so much fun on our snow days.
Luke and Mommy built a snowman (AKA "The Diesel Doctor"). Pappy should recognize this hat!
December
Happy 3rd Birthday Luke - December 6, 2008
We had a small family celebration at our place: Nana & Pepaw, Jeremy, Jennifer, Hunter, Cole, and Ethan. Luke had so much fun with this birthday. I made the big cake and Aunt Jennifer made Luke a bear cake which he requested after seeing Ethan's first birthday cake. This was my first attempt at cake decorating. Hopefully I'll get some future training so I can improve my skills:)
Luke and his ladies (our neighbors) - We were out to Applebees for a building Christmas party
Luke, Jeannie and Nathan after blowing out her birthday candles.
John and I have very different ideas on how to make and decorate Christmas cookies. Can you guess who lives life a little more "outside of the box" between the two of us?? I admire his creativity. Here you see on the top left, a key to John's heart (that's for me), a cross, a roller skate, a bicycle, UK football player, gingerbread man, snow ghost, and Christy in a bikini
Christy's cookies
Christmas Eve dinner at our pastor's house
No, Luke didn't jump out of a cake and dance for everyone here. Shortly after Luke was complimented on how well he could hold his adult sized cup of tea and drink, he spilled the drink all over his clothes. Fortunately, we could launder his clothes while there since we were in between Christmas Eve services at the church. Luke ran around in his underwear and some reindeer antlers while his clothes were being cleaned. That will be a Christmas memory forever etched in our minds.
Punishment for Luke has become pretty severe these days. No, this is a joke! Just for fun Daddy lifted him up on top of the dresser while Luke was playing in the crate. We aren't cruel and unusual parents!
NovemberA beautiful shot John took at Flaherty Park near our housing complex.
Out for pizza with our neighbors. Luke LOVES Nathan, Natalie and Noel! So sweet and so cute!
Our amazingly strong son!! John and I love this picture because after we took it we realized that it looks like Luke is holding up his body weight and so perfectly balancing those legs. In reality, there is a seat underneath him! Great illusion though!
Out for a fall walk at Durant Nature Park
Ahhh....we loved the Bayleaf Toy Chest. It was a tremendous blessing for our Christmas with Luke. This church in Raleigh has an annual Toy Chest to help offset the costs of Christmas and it is exclusively for full-time seminary families. The members donate money/toys/etc all new and current products and seminary families shop for 10% of the total cost of the toy. We had a $7 spending limit per child and there were also legal raffles (meaning we all got a ticket and you paid $10 for a big item if your ticket was drawn). There was also a special $.25 area with gently used and leftover toys from last year. We did well in that area! You had to have a strategy in doing this, especially parents with multiple kiddos. You would be amazed at how quickly these tables full of toys were emptied. The "shopping" was over in 10 minutes tops. The proceeds the church makes from this are for their Lottie Moon offering. Luke ended up with a nicer Christmas than he has ever had!
Luke and his new cousin Baby Hope at the cabin in the Smokies where we celebrated Thanksgiving/Luke's Birthday/Christmas with Grammy, Big Pappy, Leigh Ann & Woody
A very proud Big Pappy2008 Family Photo Shoot
We had our family pictures taken by a neighbor who started her own photography business and we were the guinea pigs for some advertising photos. This worked out to be a great deal for us and we ended up with some beautiful photos. Here are some of our favorites!
2 comments:
I love the railroad track picture! And of course the date night picture...it's my favorite 'Christy outfit'! wink! We love you all!
I love those fall pictures of the lake. They are beautiful.I love the one of John and Luke. The snow pictures are great too. Luke looked like he had a lot of fun.
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