Chunky Monkey

So Luke has no problem eating! He got off to a slow start during his first few weeks, but has definately made up for lost time! At his 6 month appointment Dr. B said that he is bigger and longer (taller?) than 95% of babies his age. He described him as an average 9 month old! Seriously.... that is why none of his cute 6-9 month clothes fit him! He has now eaten rice cereal, apples, carrots, green beans, pears, banannas, and sweet potatoes! He makes a face the first bite and then chows down! We have also discovered the greatest things ever... Baby Mum Mums... they are just these rice husk things that disolve in his mouth, but he loves them and they keep him entertained for a while! They are sticky and gross, but we go through a box a week! Luke is also sitting up now and smiles ALL the time! He is such a sweet little guy and just goes with the flow with our crazy lives! :)

East Texas

This past weekend we were able to get away for a much needed few days of R&R. We headed to my parents house in Gladewater on Thursday evening and were able to let Luke sleep much of the way. On Friday my parents played with Luke all day while Mark and I went to Canton all day. It was like 110 degrees, but we had a great time and was nice to hang out just the two of us. I LOVE Canton Weekend because of all the unique treasures you can find shopping and Mark likes it ok because he gets to eat lots of fun food! We ordered some barstools for our house. I will look forward to going back when it is cooler! We then spent Saturday and part of Sunday on Lake Cypress...it was sooo great!! My aunt's boyfriend, Steve, has a fabulous 3 bedroom house right on the lake, beautiful pine trees, huge deck, rocking chairs, 2 jet skis, boat, tube... it was so great!! We got to spend lots of time with my cousins, aunts, uncles, grandma, brother, and his girlfriend, Sarah! Luke was well taken care of the whole time and we all were very sad to leave. It was a long trip back to LJ on Sunday and much discussion of buying our own lake house (yeah right!!), building a deck (possibly) and getting a pool (again yeah right!!). We can't wait to go back... if we are invited!

Luke with grandma "Honey" and great grandma Hall. Luke is not spoiled at all!

The lake was beautiful!!

Just chillin'

So sweet...like father, like son!

Yes they match!

Too cool! His little blue eyes and fair skin are so sensitive!

He did NOT like wearing this!! haha

Tubing! I still have bruises on my legs, but it was so much fun! Think I could do this everyday!

Luke had so much fun!

Relaxin' in the Hammock!

Preteen Camp

And Natalie and Matt flew out Sunday night and preteen camp started the next weekend! Preteen Camp is so fun!! I LOVE camp so much!! We had another great year down in Palacios! Great kids and counselors!!! 3 kids accepted Christ, 2 kids won campers of the week, of course we won the spirit stick! Lots of sunburns, tired kids, changed lives and lots of fun! Mark brought Luke down for one of the days and he had lots of fun!

Visit from my Family

Well, VBS ended on a Wednesday night and Thursday my sister, Natalie, and her husband

Matt flew in from Los Angeles. They had not seen Luke since he was born, so it was a great weekend for them to hang out with him! My brother and parents came down on Friday night, so we had a house full! It was a lot of fun! We went out to the beach to a great new restaurant on the beach and the guys all went to the Astros vs. Rangers game for Father's Day...including Luke! It was sad when they all had to go home!

VBS

We did VBS Outside the Walls again this year and it went awesome!! We had incredible families at our church get super involved and we had the opportunity to meet many new people in our community! Prayerfully relationships will continue! I was running around like crazy, Mark was teaching large group time at the apartments (which he is AMAZING at by the way) and Luke was having quality time with the grandparents! GREAT week! God is good!

First Mother's Day

My first Mother's Day was wonderful! I got to spend it with my little man and my mom! It is a little harder to juggle your own mother's day when you are the children's minister and have parent/child commitment, but it worked out pretty good. I sure was tired at the end of the day though! My parents came in town for the weekend and watched Luke during the morning when Mark and I went to church early. They got him ready and met us at church.

Mark and I spoke together for a few minutes to our families and parents about the role they play in their child's "God Story." We also told a few funny stories of our first few months of being parents. We challenged all parents to write a letter to their child by Father's Day to be given to them at some point in the future (wedding, graduation, when become a Christian, etc.)
Mark and Luke....aren't they cute!?!

We could never get Luke to smile in pics with me, but got him to do it here! LOVE this one!

Luke and Honey

He was very tired!

A Long Time

I know my New Year's Resolution was to blog more. Obviously I stink at resolutions! Life has been a little crazy the past few months and a lot has gone on. I returned to work a at the beginning of April and Mark's sweet mom, "Grammy" has been keeping Luke at our house during the day. This sure makes things a lot easier on everyone and Luke gets to be in a normal environment during the day! Over the past few months Luke has grown a LOT and now weighs 16 pounds 6 ounces and is 3.5 months old! It really has flown by!! We had family retreat with our church at Pine Cove, went to watch Baylor play in the Sweet 16 and Elite 8 and then I spent my last week of maternity leave at my parents in East Texas (Honey & Papa). We celebrated Easter on Saturday in Tyler and then drove back to spend Easter here at our church and the afternoon with Mark's side of the family. Since then we have pretty much just stayed here working and playing! I am gearing up for lots of Summer Activities at church! It sure takes a lot more creative thinking and planning to get all my stuff done around Luke's schedule! Good thing I have an AMAZING husband who is a HUGE help!!

Photoshoot

We celebrated Luke turning 1 week old with a photoshoot at our house. A local photographer (and now friend) Jenny Hintze took these amazing pics of Luke!! There are more to come, but these are the one's on her blog right now! I LOVE them!! She is an amazingly talented photographer and her love for newborns shows so much through her patience with Luke (and his parents). He was supposed to close his eyes a lot more, but he definately likes to stay awake and be a part of all the action, especially at night right now. We are working on teaching him the difference between sleeping at night and day and how better it is to sleep at night! I'll post more pics when she gets them up.