Happy Thanksgiving

This year I had to work on Thanksgiving, which was a blessing in itself.  All throughout my pregnancy I had this feeling I wouldn't make it to Thanksgiving to work my shift (which could have put a real damper on someone else's holiday).  But thankfully, I made it through the holiday swimmingly. 

While I was working Andy took Luke to my Nana's house for round 1 and then to Grandma's house for round 2.  I was able to get off in enough time to make it for round 2 before everyone was finished eating -- yet another thing I was thankful for.  My mom was also thoughtful enough to pack up some left overs from Nana's house so that I was able to get some of my favorite things :)

I have several things to be thankful for this year, so I thought I would share some of them with you all. 

1.  Baby brother Benjamin.  We are so grateful to have been blessed again and cannot wait to meet him very, very soon.

2.  Family and Friends.  We are so lucky to have such a supportive family so close.  We depend on them a great deal and I know we would not be able to do it without them.  I can also say the same thing for all of our friends, but especially the Usserys and Johansens -- we love you very much and wish that we didn't live so far apart (even though we all live within the boundaries of the DFW area).

3.  Jobs.  I am thankful that God has blessed both Andy and I with great jobs.  For those of you who don't know, Andy lost his job in October.  Without getting into too many details, Andy was only off of work for 6 days.  We have God to thank for His perfect timing and what this job change has meant for our family.

4.  Our new church home.  We miss our friends at APBC, but are thankful to have made new friends at Northwood.  We have already been blessed immensely and I cannot wait to see what God has in store for us in 2012.

5.  My husband.  Andy is such a great dad and husband. Enough.Said.

Because Andy was on his own he wasn't really able to take many pictures of the holiday celebration, but he did manage to get this one of Makayla and Luke.  Why yes, that is a pickle in his mouth!!

Yogurt

We recently started letting Luke eat his yogurt all by himself.  I don't know why it took us so long to cut the cord because he really does a great job.  He gets his face a little messy, but not as messy as I had first anticipated.  Here are some pictures from the first time we let him go at it alone.

Baby Jack's Shower

Ginger, Christina, and I threw Sarah a shower earlier this month to celebrate the future arrival of baby cousin Jack.  We decided on a rubber duckie theme that, with the help of Mom's creativity, turned out fabulous!  Baby Jack is due in early February and we are super excited to meet him.  I have loved being pregnant at the same time as Sarah and I cannot wait to meet the little guy.  Here are few pictures of the centerpieces, punch, and cupcakes from the shower.

Helping Daddy

Luke really is a Daddy's boy.  He loves to be with Daddy and help him out with lots of things around the house.  Andy was getting down some glassware for me from above the refrigerator and, of course, Luke was by his side "helping."  Wouldn't you say he is the cutest helper around?

Lounging

This is what I found in my bed one Saturday morning!  He was kicked back, relaxed, enjoying some milk!  Must be nice :)

Happy Birthday Daddy!

We celebrated Andy's 31st birthday earlier this month and then mine a couple of weeks later.  I don't have any pictures from my birthday, but we were able to get a few at Andy's mini-party.  We picked up some Chicken Express for dinner and Luke, once again, loved the corn on the cob!  He is not interested in any help figuring out where to bite -- just let him be!  Uncle Bub left his Homer Simpson mask at Ginger's on Halloween so, of course, it made an appearance at Andy's birthday party!  I was surprised that Luke put it on.....too cute!

Happy Halloweeeeen!

Luke really enjoyed Halloweeeeen this year (Luke really emphasizes the eeeeeen part of Halloween).  He dressed up as Rex the dinosaur from the Toy Story movie (no, he has never seen the movie and he really doesn't even know what a dinosaur is).  I was worried that he wouldn't wear the costume, much less the head piece, but turns out he loved it!  He caught onto the whole trick-or-treating thing very quickly.  As soon as he realized a dum-dum/sucker was in his future he was all over it!  He didn't always get trick-or-treat out, but he said "dank-du" at each and every house.  One thing that Luke has taken away from the entire halloween experience was that Gigi dressed up as a clown.  In fact, Luke has been scarred by Gigi the clown.  When she showed up at the house it took a good 10 minutes before he would even look at her.  Now, 22 days later, Luke is still saying "Gigi clown" at a minimum of one per day.  I am curious to see how long he is going to keep it up ;)  

Hoot n Howl

We took Luke to the annual Hoot 'n Howl that is put on by the city of NRH.  Luke was a bit overwhelmed by all of the people (as was I) so we pretty much just walked around and then rode the hay ride.  Luke did manage to muster up enough courage to stop by the booth handing out footballs though :)  One thing that Luke did enjoy was seeing all of the little kiddos in their costumes....maybe next year we will put Luke in his costume, too.  Here are a few pics from the short time we were there.



Suitcase Fun

Luke reminds me so much of Andy.  We recently had a garage sale and Andy got some old suitcases out of the closet for us to sale.  Luke found the suitcases and immediately had to figure out how they worked.  He examined them closely and then proceeded to unzip them to the best of his ability.  Little did I know that the set of suitcases would provide hours of entertainment while he examined them like a little engineer.  Why did I get rid of them again??

Loving Outside

Now that the weather has cooled off we have been spending a lot more time outside (comfortably).  I figure we should soak up the sun while we can, because before too long it will be too cold (not to mention we will have a newborn on our hands).  Here are a couple of pictures from a recent trip to the park with Makayla and Luke.

 Luke loves to eat ice!

 I love this picture of Makayla.