I'm at Gramma & Grampa's

Luke with Great Grandma Einck

Great Grandpa & Grandma Hackman and second cousin Mia

So fresh-So clean

Hi Big Boy

Mommy & Luke reunited after a LONG couple days apart

Saturday morning: Luke and Uncle Mitch watching TV
Uncle Mitch came home to visit

Luke has been hanging out at his gramma & grampa's house this week while Sean and I both traveled. I had to be in Memphis for a manager's meeting and Sean was in Montana skiing with some college friends. I flew in Thursday night and headed straight for Waukon to see my little guy! I missed him SO SO much. I find myself thinking about him nonstop, "what would he be doing right now?" Sean has been having a great time skiing Big Sky, they have had fresh snow the past couple of days!
Gramma took a few days off of work to stay home and watch Luke. They had so much fun having Luke 24-7 all to themselves. While he was visiting, Great Grandpa & Grandma Hackman, Great Grandma Einck, and Great Aunt Kathy visited him one afternoon! He is growing and changing so much!
Friday morning I had him laying in the living room while I got his cereal ready, when I came back he was half way across the room! He had rolled four-five times!!! Lately, he is grunting and blowing bubbles like it is his job!
Who is ready for Spring!?!!??! We are so ready for spring time, longer days, and just to get outside for some fresh air! Sean and I just booked a 4-day trip to Mexico for my 30th birthday! Our good friends, Heath & Alicia Christians are going with and we can't wait for some fun in the sun! We opted for 4 days only because we just can't be away from our precious little boy that long!
We will head home tomorrow from Waukon and anxiously await Sean's arrival home tomorrow afternoon!
Have a great weekend!

Little Valentine

Our little boy is getting so big!

"I love mommy's kisses"

Luke enjoying his Valentine gifts

Luke loves Gunner, he reaches for him all the time

They are going to be Best Friends!

We had a great Valentine's weekend. Sean arrived home from NJ Friday night, we spent Saturday hanging out, went to the mall just to get out of the house, and Sunday after church we went out for brunch to celebrate our first Valentine's with Luke. We call Luke our "bubble boy" we realized last Saturday as we were putting him in his car seat, he is averaging about once a week leaving the house! Our little Bubble doesn't leave the house too often being our babysitter comes to us! It has just been so darn cold to really take him out and do much, so his weekly outing is usually church, and if he is lucky he might take a trip to Target with me!

Sean and I have been gone a lot this month, mostly him, but when he is home it seems that I am heading out. This is not the lifestyle that we ever imagined having, nor do we enjoy it or want it to continue. This month we will be home together 9 days! Yes...NINE days:(

We are really looking forward to having this weekend together and even got a babysitter so Sean and I could spend some much needed time together! We both have such a feeling of guilt getting a babysitter for Luke on the weekends or evenings because we aren't with him all day long, but also know that our relationship needs "our" time together! We have the BEST babysitters, so it makes it so much easier to enjoy a night out!

Have a great weekend! Stay warm!

teething baby

So our fabulous little night sleeper has gone south...due to teething! Poor little Luke is really having a hard time with these teeth that want to pop through. During the day he is fine because he has a chew toy in his mouth 100% of the time. Night time is a totally different story. Luke has been sleeping 10-11 hours solid since he was 11 weeks old, so this up every few hours is a little hard on us these past few nights. Last night we broke out the whiskey! I heard from a few different people to dip my finger in whiskey and rub on his gums...it didn't really work but we tried!
We are taking ANY and ALL suggestions to help Luke and us get a good night sleep again! I will say that despite my lack of sleep these days, I do enjoy our "quite hours" together when I am up with him. After I get him soothed, I can't think of anything better than a sleeping baby resting so innocently in my arms:)
Needless to say...just a quick post. More to come! I have some pictures of Luke enjoying his first Valentine's! He might have gotten it confused with Christmas with all the gifts he received!

crazy jumper

Luke is getting quite crazy in his jumper these days! He use to hop from side to side, now it is a full out jump...sometimes I think he is going to jump right out!

"I love my cereal"

Uncle Mitch stopped by for a visit tonight, enjoyed dinner, and he caught some great footage of Luke enjoying his cereal. Luke has really taken to eating off a spoon. He now gets rice cereal in the morning and evening. I just couldn't feed him fast enough, he was getting so inpatient with me!

Surviving

We are surviving another week without Sean, however we all miss him so much! Mother Nature dumped on us again today, which makes for real pleasant walks with Gunner.

Sunday while Luke was sleeping, I went back and read some of our blog from the beginning, it was about one year ago that I started blogging. My purpose of starting a blog was to keep our family and friends updated on our "Baby Love" and my pregnancy. Let me just tell you, I thoroughly enjoyed reading all the posts, its like that day was yesterday. I can vividly remember each day as I read it with a smile on face. It is wonderful to capture those moments, whether it was a nice Spring day taking Gunner for a walk in the neighborhood, to feeling little Luke toss and turn in my tummy! I am thankful for having started this blog, I hope you have enjoyed it as well. I am hopeful that we will use this blog to share with Luke on all of his happenings, funny stories, and recent developments!

Speaking of Luke's developments...feet to mouth...that's all I have to say! This little guy has discovered he can put his feet in his mouth! I promise I will capture a picture or video one of these days. He is rolling from his back to his tummy more and more everyday, he does not stay still. I have to laugh, I have him laying one way on his playmat and when I return to the room he is completely turned around...I always new I had a mover and a shaker on our hands!

Luke has also got his mommy wrapped around his finger and he now knows it! So nap time...he was crying pretty hard, so I went into his room just to make sure he was ok, he saw me, stopped crying and started smiling at me. When I turned to walk away he started crying again. When I walked over to his crib he started smiling and talking to me...I couldn't help myself but laugh...how can you not! I can just see myself down the road trying so hard not to laugh when I shouldn't be.

We are counting down the days until Sean comes home and are looking for a nice, relaxing family weekend!

Stay warm, safe travels! I am suppose to drive to Des Moines tomorrow, however it is suppose to be blizzard like conditions with all the high winds. After my last experience I am a little gunshy, so I will be stalking weather.com tomorrow before I take off!

Kalamazoo to Timbuktu

"Here we are in Kalamazoo..."

Our great friends, The Eliuk's, gave Luke this book the day we left. It is one of my favorites to read to Luke and will continue to be, as this special place was where he was born. I have been having a lot of "home sick" feelings for Kalamazoo these days. I miss our friends, neighborhood, our home, and just Kalamazoo! For those of you who know me well, are probably surprised to read this, as the first several months that we lived there, all we talked about was the day we would be able to move back closer to family and many great friends. While we feel very blessed to be closer to our family, especially Luke's grandparents, I wouldn't be honest if I didn't share just how much I miss it. When Sean and I made the decision to move to Kalamazoo, we knew that it would be hard and that eventually in three to five years we would be hoping to move back. This would be the first time both of us were moving that far from family, we didn't know a single soul in Kalamazoo, and I was still "hoping" my job would work out. As it turns out, everything fell into place perfectly. We moved into the most wonderful neighborhood, met GREAT people, my job worked out, and we found a house that we made our first HOME. While there were days that we missed our family and the convenience of being closer, we found ourselves enjoying all the amenities Western Michigan had to offer. When the opportunities for both Sean and I to move back to Iowa presented themselves, we felt so blessed and couldn't believe that we were moving back "home" so soon. Yet, we were loving our life in Kalamazoo! Both of us thought this transition 'back' would be seamless...NOT so much! Now that we have been living in Iowa City for three months, we are still adjusting, searching for a new house to make a home, and finding that network of friends. One of my best friends from college lives here as well, so that has helped me quite a bit! This weekend I have been reminiscing about our short time in Kalamazoo and am so thankful, but miss it so much!

To all our Kalamazoo friends..."We miss you!!!"

5 months old

Luke is 5 months old

Luke's monthly picture with his "Bryan Bear" Quite the big boy!

Fun times trying to take his monthly bear picture. He is getting more & more entertaining trying to take his picture!

Luke turned 5 months old yesterday, 2.04.10!!! We can barely believe our little Luke is growing up so fast. He is the love of our lives and the joy of our everyday! There is nothing better than starting my morning off, seeing this cute little boy smile at me when I go in to get him in the morning. Regardless of the time, my day is made the minute I see his smiling face...he warms me, he melts my heart! I will say this past month he has become so much fun. Looking back at videos from January 1st, he has grown so much, more vocal, smiling a ton, grabbing everything, including mommy's hair and earrings! He is always looking around checking everyone and everything out...afraid he is going to miss something! Luke makes us appreciate all the small things in life...like his simple little laugh!

Here is what our Sweet Little Luke is up to these days:

-you are still wearing a size 2 diaper

-you are into 6 month clothes

-loving your bath, splashing like crazy, and trying to drink the water

-spending lots of time on your tummy

-rolling from tummy to back, and back to tummy

-you love to sit up

-you starting eating a tbsp of rice cereal every other night

-you are going to bed around 7:30 pm and waking up anywhere from 5am-6am

-you are nursing 6 times a day

-you started getting a little bit of formula mixed into one bottle everyday

-you smile at yourself in the mirror

-you are watching Gunner a lot

-you recognize mommy & daddy's voices

-you started this cute little body wiggle

-you don't really like your swing anymore

-you started sitting in your high chair

-you don't like to be held like a baby, you always want to be straight up so you can see everything

We love you so much Sweet Little Luke, you melt your mommy & daddy's hearts! Everyday is so exciting to learn what new things you are going to do.

Here is a little clip of our "little ham"

Just recently he started smiling the minute I get the video camera out!

Enjoying rice cereal for dinner in his big boy high chair!

Luke lunges towards to spoon anticipating the next bite

In honor of daddy this week...Luke misses his daddy while he is in New Jersey for work

This is the most precious smile I just can't get enough of:)

Luke's pictures

Last Sunday we had a some pictures taken of Luke by a a friend, Meghann Woods Photography. She was so good with Luke and captures some great photos. He wasn't super cooperative, he didn't want to share too many of his sweet smiles. He was mesmerized by the click of the camera he just stared at Meghann.

Here's a peek of his photos:
http://www.meghannwoodsphotoblog.com/darkroom/share/
Password: Merrick