Home Sweet Home

It feels so wonderful to be back with my boys! I flew into the Quad Cities last night around 5:30 and enjoyed an evening with Sean, Luke, and our great friends Heath & Alicia Christians at their house. We watched some football, enjoyed our favorite mexican, and of course, ran after Luke! Anyone that has had the pleasure of spending numerous hours with Luke would agree that he is one busy boy! It's always nice to arrive home after a long business trip, or anytime away from home, but I can't describe just how wonderful it feels to see the smile on Luke's face as he ran to me when I walked in the door. His smile lit up the room and he kept giving me hugs, how wonderful does that sound? AMAZING!

Sean and Luke had a great few days together, they enjoyed playing outside til the street lights came on, Luke slept in until 8:00 a.m. for Sean Saturday morning, and they enjoyed some time at the park. Although it is so hard to be away from them both, it is such a special time for the two of them. They must have been working on "dada" because that's all Luke is saying!

This is one of my favorite pictures of my two boys, taken when Luke was 4 1/2 months old

Off to Atlanta & some random thoughts

This early morning, I write from the Moline airport, waiting for my plane to Atlanta, where I will be through Saturday afternoon for meetings. The alarm went off at 3 a.m, much to my resistance, I had to rise and shine long before the sun would shine! Unfortunately, Sean followed right behind me, as he had to head out early for a surgery in Charles City. So what about Luke? Luke has his Uncle Mitch sleeping over with him. We felt bad asking Ms. Judi to come at 4:30 a.m so Mitch stayed with us last night and will be there if Luke needs him. I am crossing my fingers that Luke doesn't test his Uncle Mitch!

Luke has been sleeping until 7:15-7:30 consistently for nearly a month! He has always been a very early riser, so we are loving this, especially on the weekends. We get to "sleep in".

Everyday is truly like Christmas in our house. I love going into Luke's room every morning to see a HUGE smile on his face, he reaches out and gives the biggest hug. He is really into giving hugs, so if you are in need...this little boy will melt your heart! Some of the things Luke is doing now...he started saying "please or peas", he started going down the stairs backwards. It is hilarious, he gets down against the wall onto his tummy and then slides backwards until he gets to the stairs. He is obsessed with climbing, he pushes his toys up to the couch and chair to climb on it so he can jump. Luke loves to dance, anytime he hears music he starts to dance, and by dance I mean, swings his arms, and acts like he is jumping but his feet don't leave the ground. I think he gets his dance moves from his daddy! Most recent animal sound is a kitty, and his version of a "meow" is humming really high pitch, pretty darn cute if you ask me! I laugh so hard I cry.

I have loved every stage of Luke's growing, the cuddling phase to the wild, rambunctious toddler he is today. He still loves to cuddle with me, just not as often. It's funny to watch him, already at one, he is definitely more rough when he plays with his daddy, and when he needs some comfort he runs to me! Love him to pieces.

Ms. Judi asked me yesterday if it is harder to be away now than when he was an infant. I said, it is definitely less work on my end now because I don't have to prep so much before I leave, as far as his feedings, etc, but I will say it has gotten harder and harder as he has gotten older because he is so interactive and changes so much daily, I feel I miss so much. It also breaks my heart to know that he looks for me around the house:( So it is definitely hard one way or another, just a different kind of hard.

On a side note, I want to wish Ms. Judi a very HAPPY BIRTHDAY! Her birthday was yesterday, so we took her out to dinner Monday night to celebrate, had birthday cake/balloons waiting for her and Luke gave her a little gift yesterday. They spent the morning playing together and we gave her the afternoon off to enjoy some time with her sisters.

Lastly, please keep my sister-in-law Kate, brother Bryan, and the Jankowski/Batterman family in your thoughts and prayers. Tuesday they said good-bye to their wonderful, loving Grandma Marie. I know there is a very special angel looking down so proudly on you Kate, and the rest of your family. It doesn't matter the age, it is always hard to say good-bye to someone you love so dearly. Thoughts and prayers to all as you remember and treasure the wonderful memories of your sweet Grandma.

Now, I will leave you with a couple pictures I took of Luke from my phone yesterday!

Baby Blues that melt my heart

Luke loves Gunner so much. This is a pretty typical picture in our house

Weekend of fun

We had a fun filled weekend at home this weekend. Friday night we were invited to our new neighborhood block party. It was a perfect evening for a BBQ, cold drinks, and kids galore! Luke met a lot of neighborhood kids just his size and had a blast playing with the big kids and little kids! It was great to get out and meet some of our new neighbors before everyone goes into hibernation. We are one of 6 new families moving in on our corner of the subdivision so everyone was anxious to get out and meet one another. We are so excited to get moved in, settled, and enjoy the friendly neighborhood. We have a tentative closing date of November 15th! Calling ALL friends and family to help us move! Beer provided:)
Saturday, good friends of ours, Randy & Megan Laing, hosted the 1st Annual Trail Run. It was a gorgeous morning for a good 2 mile run through their woods/pasture. After the race we all enjoyed a great breakfast, wonderful company, and again lots of little kiddos for Luke to play with! For the first time, we went without a morning nap. He was having so much fun playing he forgot all about it. However, we did pay for it later Saturday. We attempted Church Saturday night, Luke and I made to the 1st reading:( Needless to say, Luke was in bed at 7 pm Saturday night and he slept til 8 am Sunday!
Sunday we enjoyed a beautiful drive to Dubuque to meet Sebastian James Steiner. Our great friends, Scott and Rachel Steiner welcomed their little boy a few weeks ago, and we were dying to meet him. Luke liked to look at Baby Sebastian, touch his toes, and push him in his swing (with caution) . We enjoyed another beautiful afternoon with great friends!
We had a great weekend, enjoyed the beautiful Fall weather and spent a lot of time outside playing! Luke has started the "kicking and screaming" when we bring him in the house. He would play outside ALL day if we would let him. Luke loves to hold his hand out for us to grab, then he walks us to the door. He even started bringing us our shoes!
I hope you are all enjoying this beautiful "summer-like" Fall weather.

House Update

It's been awhile since I have updated on the progress of our home. As you can from the photos below, it is coming along quite quickly. We have locked in our mortgage rate and will for sure be moved in by December 1st, if not sooner! They painted the front of the house today, what's left? One more coat of paint, paint the garage doors, add shutters, put up the columns on the porch, and finish the the stonework under the porch. It may sound like a lot, but quite honestly, at the past these guys work, it will be ready in no time.

Our new house!

driving up to our house

The side of the house
We will enjoy our screened in porch and deck quite a bit

Getting the backyard cleaned up

Our basement

Luke's room

toy room above the garage

main living room from the entrance

wood burning fireplace

167 Auburn East Lane

What is Luke doing?

Loves driving, pushing, and pulling his car

He loves to play "peek a boo"

LOVES to swing

Sunday afternoon I took Luke to a park near by, he ran to the swing immediately and I pushed and pushed, and pushed some more. He just sits and watches all the other kids play. He will raise his hands up and shake them when he is "all done"

Iowa Homecoming

Black & Gold Spirit night

This is truly amazing, so impressed at how this turned out.

Don't be surprised if you see something similar to this in our basement

We took Luke down to the Iowa Homecoming parade Friday night

It was a gorgeous night to enjoy the parade, although we were not that impressed with it

....clearly Luke was not that into it!

We enjoyed the weekend celebrating an Iowa victory with many great friends. This was the first time that Sean and I hosted the tailgate and we were pretty happy with how it turned out, although it is a lot of work. We usually just bum around hoping from place to place visiting all the people we know. This weekend we decided it was time to plant ourselves and enjoy the day and let people come to us! We used my parents canopy, set up a nice table display of food, had some music, and grilled twice! Fortunately, the "neighbor tailgaters" had a plasma and dish network so the guys camped out with them to watch all the Saturday football games. The best of both worlds!

Fall=Apple Pie

The gorgeous apples we picked from Wilson's Orchard

Double crusted homemade Apple Pie

I new it was going to be a long week, as I had a lot of travel for work and late nights, so I made this for Sean Monday night before I left. He is a sucker for Apple Pie and he enjoyed it greatly while he played Mr. Mom this week! Thanks Babe!