Birthday Pictures!

Here are the many pictures from Luke's busy birthday weekend. He had a wonderful birthday and enjoyed all the cool new gifts he got, including more cars, videos, a real golf club, and a bat, ball and tee set.

Showing everyone how old he is now!

One picture of my birthday thrown in for fun. :)

Aunt Emily working hard on the amazing cake.

Luke loved his Elmo train cake!! Thanks so much Auntie Em!!!

The finished product--looks awesome!!

We can't believe he's two!!

He was debating about whether or not to blow out the candles...

This is just the little dessert we had on his actual birthday...he's still not too sure about those candles. :)

"I'll have seconds please!"

"Mmmm, this is pretty good!"

Playing in the pool with Aunt Emily.

Luke was so glad Auntie Em and Uncle Jacob came to celebrate!

Relaxing in the hammock with grandpa.

Enjoying a twizzler.

Reading some good Bible stories with Uncle Jacob.

Opening his new golf club from grandma and grandpa.

And of course some golf balls, too!

Trying it out...(we told him that this would be the only time he ever got to play golf in the house!)

Getting some help from Uncle Jacob...

Anxiously waiting for his new tee to get put together.

Luke turned two on Thursday. He decided that day not to take a nap. He also decided that he can now climb out of his crib. Yikes! Not only did he not nap Thursday, but he refused to nap Friday, Saturday, and Sunday! This video was taken Sunday evening at 5:30 shortly after my family left. Thankfully, he is taking a nap right now as I write this. :)

Luke is 2!!!!!

It is so hard to believe that our little boy is two today!! We are so blessed and grateful that God has allowed us to be his parents. He is such a sweet, amazing boy and we love watching him learn and grow. I tried to get his annual birthday picture in the chair, but he wasn't cooperating, so I will have to try again later today. I'll be sure to post it then. Luke's party is Saturday afternoon and most of his cousins and aunts and uncles will be there, including my family. Aunt Emily--the cake master--is going to try her hand at another awesome cake this year. I'll leave you in suspense as to what she's going to make! :) Here are some stats about Luke at two:
* has a vocabulary so big, I have no idea how many words he knows--easily a couple hundred I would guess
* knows tons of animals and animal sounds
* knows his main body parts (arms, legs, elbows, knees, nose, eyes, mouth, chin, cheeks, etc. etc.)
* still LOVES to read
* absolutely loves anything with wheels--cars, trains, planes, buses, tractors, motorcycles, etc.
* is becoming a little more picky when it comes to food--things he used to eat he now turns his nose up at.
* enjoys watching Sesame Street and Veggie Tales (though we limit his tv to just an hour or two per week, if that)
* imitates everything we do--it's made us really careful what we do and say around him! ;)
* can jump and dance
* has an amazing memory
* can count from 1 to 10, though he still usually skips 5 for some reason
* whenever we pull into our subdivision after going somewhere, he says, "Yea! We made it!"
* is not really into potty training yet. Jonathan can almost always get him to go before a bath, but I just haven't had the energy to really crack down on it yet and I honestly don't think he's ready.
* points to my belly and says, "baby sister"
* makes us SOOOO very happy!!

4th of July

We headed to my family's lake place in northern Indiana for the 4th this year. It's actually over an hour closer to our house than Jonathan's parent's lake place. Obviously, this was my last trip anywhere outside of the Grand Rapids area until after this baby comes! :) We had a fun--but chilly--time watching fireworks, going for boat rides, and celebrating my dad's birthday. Enjoy the pictures!

Luke with the birthday boy--aka Grandpa. :)

Luke and Daddy.

Giving Uncle Jacob some pointers on his cornhole throwing.

Enjoying some marshmallows by the fire.

He really enjoyed "driving" the boat!

What a ham! :)

Aunt Emily spoiled him with some early birthday presents.

Trying to figure out how it works...

"Are you sure you know what you're doing Auntie Em??"

Luke and Uncle Jacob.

Baby Girl's Ultrasound

I had my ultrasound last night and everything is looking good. It was so amazing to see her!! I've not had an ultrasound this late in my pregnancy before, so to see how much she had grown and changed since three months ago was truly awesome! She is still a girl (whew--we can keep all the girl clothes out!) and she's head down. Although not completely accurate, she is measuring 5 pounds 15 ounces!! I still have about six weeks left and I thought I read somewhere that the baby gains about a half pound a week?? If that's true, I'm looking at another nine pounder! Yikes!! But, the technician did say that I was measuring more like 35 1/2 to 36 weeks, putting my due date at August 2nd instead of the 10th. I like that a lot better! I go back to my doctor on the 13th, so we'll see what he says. In the meantime, enjoy these new pictures we got last night. They are both of her face. The top of her head is on the right and her face is sideways. The picture on the left you can mainly see her forehead (and what I like to imagine is a head full of dark hair--haha!). The one on the right you can see her nose, lips, and chin. Part of her face is obscured by the placenta in both of them. I just think she's the most beautiful little girl ever...but I'm not biased or anything! ;)

Baby Update

I had my 34 week check-up today and all is well with our little girl. Her heartbeat was 142. I go this Wednesday for another ultrasound to check her position and size. My doctor is going to keep an eye on her size since I don't really want to have another 9 pounder! :) We'll let you know how the ultrasound goes Wednesday...

Lets Go to the Beach!

Yesterday we headed to Saugatuck for a beautiful day at the beach! Fortunately, there was a cool breeze for me and I managed not to melt in the heat! :) Luke was a little timid at first, but it didn't take long before he and daddy were playing in the waves and building sand castles!

Vacation!

Wow, what a busy week and a half it's been! We took a ten day vacation that was lots of fun and very relaxing! My cousins live in Georgia, just north of Atlanta, so we went down to see them, making stops in Indiana both ways to break up the trip. Luke did amazingly well on the 10+ hour trip from Indiana to Georgia--largely due in part to the dvd player we bought right before we left. I think he watched more Veggie Tales on this trip than he has in his entire life! My family actually got to come to Georgia, too (minus my sister). It was great to just be able to hang out. I didn't, however, enjoy the 100 degree weather Georgia had, but at least my cousins have central air! :)

Luke and daddy playing some Mario Kart on the Wii.

Luke discovered a new love: butter. We gave him an almost empty tub to dip his bread in and, well, he ditched the bread and decided licking the butter out was better!

Apparently Luke's story wasn't interesting enough for Grandpa! ;)

Luke and Grandma enjoying my cousin's backyard and the Georgia heat!

I love this picture of him!

Standing next to the beautiful hydrangeas.

All that traveling wears a boy out!

We took a day to go to downtown Atlanta and see the Coke museum.

Luke enjoying the museum.

The museum had a section with every kind of drink Coca-Cola has made from all over the world! It was interesting trying everything, but at the end, I just wanted a good 'ole American Coke!

Surprise Party!!

Recently my parents celebrated their 30th anniversary. We decided to throw them a surprise party at the church--I think we were successful! They had no idea!! :)

Still in love after all these years!

What a great family!

Luke could only handle so much partying!

Here's a video of them coming in...they thought they were coming to a surprise birthday party for someone else!

Chocolate Pudding!

This boy loves his "chockut mooney"!

Lets Go Camping!

This past weekend Jonathan's family all decided to do some camping...in his parents' backyard! It was cheap, close, and lots of fun! I have to admit, though, we did not spend the night. I have a hard time choosing a tent when my bed is a mile away! Especially when I'm this pregnant! But we did have a great time grilling out burgers, playing outside, and enjoying smores around the campfire. :)

Looks like a fun campground, huh? :)

Luke and Julia got tired of waiting for the burgers to be done, so they helped themselves to some of Aunt Michelle's homemade salsa. Mmmm!

The people across the street have horses that we got to feed. Luke was excited about the horses from a distance. Up close...not so much.

He was pointing out the airplane to me that was flying overhead!

Even Peyton had a great time!

We saw these baby raccoons walking around the yard. They were sooo cute! Hopefully their momma was close by and didn't get turned into roadkill. :(

Reading with Luke

The other morning Luke decided to read to me out of some of his favorite books. His vocabulary continues to expand and amazes both Jonathan and I! Here are some videos I took--I couldn't pick just one. I know my mom will be thrilled to watch all of them! :)

Hamming it Up in the Hammock

The other night, Jonathan did a little photo shoot with Luke playing outside. He got some really cute pictures! Luke absolutely loves playing outside. He has learned two new words from his daddy~frisbee and hammock!