He is Risen!

He is risen indeed! Our family of 3 enjoyed our three day weekend together, especially since we got to introduce Luke to the celebration of Easter. We enjoyed the beautiful weather by exploring another nearby park, hung out with grandparents, attended the early service at Wilshire on Easter morning, ate brunch at Iron Cactus, hunted for Easter eggs left by the Easter Bunny, visited Luke's grandpa in the hospital, and dined in Frisco to wrap the weekend up with more family time. It's amazing how quickly those long weekends seem to fly by!

Mr. Luke is loving exploring new areas! We are enjoying going on walks to enjoy God's creation and to get out and get some fresh air. Our window of pretty days in Texas doesn't seem to be too big, so we have to take advantage of them while we can!

Sophie had a front row seat for our walk!

Saturday night we headed to Frisco for dinner and spent some time with Luke's Jammie and Grandad. 

Smiling with Dad

Luke loves his new toys he got for Easter!

Playing with Grandad

After checking out what the Easter Bunny left for baby Luke, we headed to the 8:30 service at Wilshire so that we could beat the lunch crowd. Luke slept through most of his time at church, but we managed to get a few sleepy pictures in before he was ready to eat!

Look what the Easter Bunny left me! (How can you not smile looking at this sweet face?)

 

In front of Wilshire's Easter cross

Look at those beautiful lilies!

Sleepy baby! Thank goodness for monkey!

I love my Aunt Vicki!

Uncle Scott's hand looks huge!

After lunch we headed back to Luke's Nana and Grandpa's house to hunt for Easter eggs and take a few more pictures. 

Happy Easter!

Blue-eyed baby!

Standing up with my Nana!

Next, we headed to see Luke's Grandpa in the hospital. He has had an infection in his back that the doctors were trying to clear up. Unfortunately, he didn't get to join us for church or for Luke's first Easter egg hunt, but we're glad we got to visit him! Hopefully he will be home next year when our little guy is walking around and hunting for his own eggs!

Luke loves touching faces!

Easter basket from Nana and Grandpa

So happy with all of his presents!

We loved ending our night reading Luke the Easter story from his new book he got from the Easter Bunny. As much fun as it is to get wrapped up in dying Easter eggs, finding what the Easter Bunny has left, and going on egg hunts, I hope that we are able to help Luke appreciate the true meaning of Easter. We hope that he will come to love our God and appreciate Jesus' love for us in dying on the cross to save us. We hope that he will fall in love with hymns with words like "Christ the Lord is risen today...alleluia!" and the symbolism of the shutters in Wilshire's sanctuary opening on Easter morning. 

Handsome little man

Happy Easter!

My How Time Flies!

Our little man turned 6 months old on March 17th (St. Patrick's Day). I cannot believe that he is already half a year old! Where has the time gone? All of a sudden he is starting to look like a little boy and not a newborn. I am loving the changes, but I miss my tiny little baby that we started with! 

I wish I had kept up with what has happened each month of our little one's life, but I honestly haven't jotted down every little change that we have noticed. At times I feel guilty for not doing this, but I am proud of the fact that we have taken TONS of pictures to track Mr. Luke's growth and progress. 

Here is a recap of his month by month pictures we have taken in his first 6 months:
 

Meeting Luke on hisbirthday

1 Month Old

2 Months Old

3 Months Old

4 Months Old

5 Months Old

6 Months Old 

For someone who struggled to gain weight during the few few months of his life, this little one is as healthy as can be! I love all of his little rolls and his Michelin-man arms! He is a happy little man who brings so much joy to us every day! His smile is infectious, especially when his whole face lights up! 

Some of the things Luke has mastered in his first 6 months are:

* He is sitting up pretty well, but still needs us to be close by. This week he  
   sneezed himself out of the sitting position!
* He loves to eat! We are excited that we have started some pureed veggies...     
   first up was sweet potatoes and now we are on to green beans.
* He loves to bounce in his jumperoo! We've learned our lesson about letting 
   him bounce too soon after he eats!
* He reacts to our voices and smiles when we see him.
* He is a smiley little man.
* He likes when we play peek-a-boo and "Where's Luke?" in the mirror.
* The boy loves looking at himself in the mirror.
* He is currently working on strengthening his neck and head control in 
   Physical Therapy. (Who knew they had PT for babies?)
* He is not a fan of tummy time on the floor, but is a champ at tummy time on an 
   exercise ball. 
* He likes to hit things with his hand (it's really a whole arm experience). 
* He loves his monkey pacifier and Miss Sophie, the giraffe!
* He wants to put EVERYTHING in his mouth! 
* He likes to reach his hand up for us to kiss it. 
* He likes to touch our faces...so sweet. 
* He is starting to want to explore everything! We are enjoying pulling out new toys 
   for him to try!
 * We love his baby laughs!

It's amazing to me how much he has accomplished in his 6 month little life! I am falling more and more in love with this perfect gift God has given us!

Spring Break "Staycation"

I loved every minute of my Spring Break "staycation" with my little guy this year! Now that Mr. Luke is awake more, smiling all the time, making sweet sounds, and learning so much every day, I was looking forward to being home with him for the week. I miss spending my days with him while I am at work, so this was a nice treat! 

Here are a few highlights from our break...

Bouncing is what babies do best!

Sweet smile!

Playtime with Miss Kerbey

Even this little girl loved me being home!

On Thursday, we ventured out to see the tulips at the Arboretum with some of our good friends. Mr. Luke was a champ and managed to stay away the whole time we were there. As soon as we got in the car, he passed right out. He is definitely starting to stay awake for longer periods of time, but almost 3 hours was pretty impressive!

Happy little man!

Look at those blue eyes!

Luke (almost 6 months), Lily (almost 1 year), Aaron (almost 2 years

)

It kind of looks like they are holding hands...too cute!

Someone wanted to play with the flowers...

Miss Lily was making this little guy laugh...love his baby shades!

Hanging out with mom.

Beautiful tulips!

 

We also went on a few walks throughout the week since the weather was so beautiful! I love this time of year when the season is changing and the trees and flowers are starting to bloom.

 

Beautiful trees at Owens Park.

 

Ridin' in style!

What's up?

Happy puppy

Baby Luke also got to hang out with his Aunt Susannah!
 

Luke and Susannah

 We also got to go to two first year birthday parties for Miss Ruthie and Miss Lily on Saturday. We party hopped all day between these two special friends' celebrations!

Happy 1st birthday, Miss Ruthie!

Happy 1st birthday, Miss Lily!

Party hats

Happy baby

 What a fun and adventurous break! I am thankful that I have a job that gives me these much needed breaks with family and friends. This week made me even more anxious for my summer break that is coming soon!

 

 

Turning 33

How does time seem to keep flying by so quickly? Last week I turned 33 and am feeling very blessed for the life I have been given. Every birthday, my only request is to spend time with family and friends. I don't really get sad or upset about turning another year older, thankfully. I could dwell on the fact that I am over half way to turning 40, 50, and 60, but let's not do that. Instead, I'd rather focus on the fact that I have a wonderful husband, a beautiful baby boy, and the best family and friends anyone could ask for. 

In celebrating my birthday this year, we invited some of our friends over for a grill night. Everyone brought whatever meat they wanted to grill and whatever drinks they wanted to indulge in for the evening, and we just hung out. It's amazing how times have changed! We used to go out for dinner with friends, but now that there are so many tiny people around, it seems to be easier to have everyone over. We ended up with 7 little ones for the night. I can't imagine what the restaurant experience would have been like this year! 

The Ladies

4 Out of 7 Little Ones (Our little guy was pooped! He only slept for about 30 minutes in a 6 hour time span. That was a first!)

 

During my birthday week I found out that I was medically released from the doctor for my fractured shoulder. It is healing well and I should not have to have surgery. Huge praise! I was struggling with the thought that the 20 sessions of physical therapy I had finished would have been for nothing if the doctor wanted me to have surgery. I guess my PT and I worked hard enough that this is no longer the case!

  Here is what we sent my PT to say thank you. The little guy was getting restless, so this is the best shot we could capture.

Here is another sweet picture we sent to my PT to show off my healed shoulder!