Children's Museum

Last week, Luke and I headed to the children's museum downtown with grandma and some cousins. It was Luke's second visit, and I think he enjoyed it much more this time since he's walking now and can actually explore everything! I took tons of pictures and videos, so enjoy! There are a couple more videos which for some reason I'm having trouble uploading, so I will try to get those on another post this week hopefully.

Doing a little fishing with Grandma.

I loved just watching him play and figure out how things worked!

Of course he fell in love with this stuffed puppy!

We spent a good 10 minutes or so at this peg board. Luke loved just putting all these things on one hook. It didn't look that exciting to me, but he was fascinated by it! :)

Getting ready to crawl through the triangle mirror tunnel!

They had an area all about penguins. You can tell what Luke thought of the penguin costume we put on him...

The best shot I could get of Luke and his cousins.

Luke trying to run away with Lydia's shopping cart. She was not happy about that!

Loading up his shopping cart with lots of fruits and veggies!

Is this not the face of someone who got caught with his hand in the cookie jar??

Luke and Taylor checking things out.

Out of all the things at the museum, Luke kept coming back to this: the water fountain!

For Mom :)

This post is mainly for my mom. She wanted to see our Christmas lights that we put up outside. And I know she loves seeing video of Luke! :)

Go Griffins!

Last Friday night we went to a Grand Rapids Griffins hockey game. It was dollar hot dog night, too. Mmmmm! ;) We had a fun time and it was a good game overall, even though the Griffins lost in overtime.

Luke is crazy about hockey! :)

Merry Christmas from the Athearns (and Auntie Em!)

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

Video of Luke

Here are some random videos of Luke and what he's up to these days:

We have really been working with him on his manners. I hate whining and want him to learn quickly that whining will get him nothing! ;)



Last week I let Luke give Peyton a dog treat for the first time. He loves doing it now and often points to her treats and says, "pease?" This video cracks me up--Luke has Peyton doing a new trick! I never knew she could sneeze on cue...



And finally, here is a video I forgot to post with the Thanksgiving stuff. Grandpa put up the Christmas tree and got out his train. Luke was mesmorized by it!

So Much to Be Thankful For

We were fortunate enough to be able to spend Thanksgiving with both our families. We had Thanksgiving lunch with Jonathan's entire family and then headed down to Indiana for the rest of the weekend. We have so much to be thankful for this year. For those of you who didn't hear, the Geo Metro is no more. :( Last Tuesday on his way to work, Jonathan slid in some icy slush and went off the road into a 10 foot ditch, rolling the car. Praise the Lord he crawled out the back without a scratch. It just makes me so grateful because I know how very different this Thanksgiving could have been. So now we are in the market for a new (used) car! Here are some pictures and video from our time in Indiana. Hope you enjoy them and remember...never take a single day for granted and always thank our Father above for the gifts He blesses upon us.

We took Luke to the zoo for the first time! There's a small zoo in Randolph County (ME's Zoo) that puts thousands of lights up at Christmas time so we decided to venture out in the cold to let Luke experience the animals! He was pretty content in the stroller while we walked through the zoo. When we got to the petting area, though, he was ready to get out! I was surprised the goats didn't scare him, considering they were right in his face, but I guess when you grow up with a dog that size, you get used to it! :)

Luke and Grandpa checking out Omar the camel.

Luke also got to go bowling for the first time! I think he did better than me...

"I want this one Grandma!"

These Are a Few of My Favorite Things!

Luke's two favorite toys at the moment are his big Elmo (which was a Christmas present last year from second cousin Brooke) and his ride-on train (which was a hand-me-down from the neighbors). I love watching him play with this train. He is all boy, that's for sure! :)

Silly Luke

Luke loves to play with my kitchen towels. I am always finding them around the house somewhere, or in this case, on his head. He is such a ham! :)

Building a tower (and yes, those are Christmas lights).

Talking on his "phone", which is actually a remote control. Luke can turn just about anything into a phone.

Luke's newest toy~the dome hockey table. Jonathan discovered that Luke loves sitting on the ledge watching us play. And Luke is getting really good at dropping the puck in the hole for us! Check out the video at the bottom for proof...

We received a package from UPS and the box was a hit with Luke and Peyton! By the way, the box contained free diapers--just ask and I'll let you know how I scored those! :)

Sitting in the box was completely Luke's idea!

I've heard of having a frog in your throat but this is something new...

"Hey Peyton, can you help me get this frog out of my shirt?"

He is such a silly boy!

Video of our little helper...

Eight Years!

It's hard to believe eight years ago today Jonathan and I started dating. Ahh, memories! What I remember most about that day was that I wasn't sure about putting our friendship on the line to start a romantic relationship. I asked Jonathan, "What if it doesn't work?" and he simply replied, "What if it does?" And eight years later....here we are happily married with the most adorable son in the entire world! I definitely feel blessed beyond measure!! As a sort of celebration, and just to get away, we got a hotel room last Friday night through Priceline (love that site!). Jonathan's parents were kind enough to take Luke for his first overnight visit. I thought it would be harder on me to leave him overnight for the first time, but I did okay. And of course, he did fine too! :) We had the entire hotel to ourselves practically. We were able to swim in the pool and relax in the hot tub just the two of us--so fun! I told Jonathan we should make it a weekly thing...alright, maybe monthly. ;)

Here are some cute pictures of Luke from after church last Sunday. He looked so handsome! Here he is eating some of daddy's KitKat bar. This boy has a chocolate radar or something...he can hear a candy bar being opened a mile away! :)

I know the bathroom is a weird place for a picture, but he just looks so handsome here I couldn't resist!

Aw, these two love each other so much!

Some Pictures and a Funny Story

Jonathan was fortunate enough to have yesterday off (yea for working for the State of Michigan!) and since it was such a gorgeous day (sunny and in the lower 70s!) we decided to take a nice bike ride--16 1/2 miles. I was feeling it the last five miles, that's for sure! :) Anyway, we biked to downtown Rockford which is a really nice area and ate lunch next to the river and let Luke play at the playground. It was such a wonderful afternoon! After eating lunch, we walked down by the river and Luke was able to see some ducks, which thrilled him to pieces!

After church on Sunday, Luke somehow managed to get away when we were changing his clothes. I think every little boy loves running around in his underwear sometimes! haha

Here's Luke before he stripped down to his diaper! He and daddy decided to match for church. So cute!

And here's some video of Luke and the "quackies"...

And now for the funny story: I apologize if this offends anyone, but it just cracked us up! This evening, Jonathan was in the bathroom--ahem--doing his business and Luke decided to bring his daddy some reading material since he was going to be there a while. And of course, what better literature for such an occasion than "The Toddler's Potty Book"?? I about died when he brought that book to Jonathan. He's such a smart boy! :)

Trick-or-Treat!

Poor Peyton puts up with a lot! I think she secretly enjoys it though! :)

Getting ready to hit up all the houses in our subdivision!

We had to carry the banana around so people would know Luke was a monkey--some people thought he was a lion and someone else thought he was a bear! ;)