Fun With Family and Friends

We went to Nana, Papa and Aunt Jen's this past weekend. It is always fun to be able to go home. Although we never get to stay long enough. Luke was able to meet Nana and Aunt Jen's new students. I think he passed the test. On Friday night we were able to have dinner with the Homan's and Perryman's. It was their Forever Family Day. We ate at a Vietnamese restaurant.
After dinner Michael and Daniel went to the Jenks-Union football game. You would have thought that Daniel was in heaven. He has thanked me profusely for allowing him to go. He said that was the best HS football game he has ever seen. The game went into overtime. Luke and Sarah were both up past their bed times, but they had fun playing.
We got Luke's 2 year old pictures taken on Saturday. He did a really good job. I can't wait to get the pictures in. We left to come home Saturday evening. Luke gets so upset when he has to leave. It is so sad it makes me cry every time. He cries for Nana and Papa. He cried for about 20 minutes so we called Nana. He talked to her for a long time. After he hung up he went to sleep. He slept for a couple of hours. When he woke up it wasn't long before I heard - Nana! Papa! I wished we were able to live closer to them. I know he would be more spoiled than he already is if that was the case though. Jen - He loves you too!

Our Labor Day Weekend

Our Labor Day Weekend was a busy one. Dad, Mom and Aunt Jen came in on Friday night. We hit our first Friday night high school football game. Our team lost... I meant to take a picture but didn't.

On Saturday morning Dad and Daniel went to work on the toilets in our new house. We ended up getting a new toilet in Luke's bathroom and new insides in the toilet for the teen room (Why we have a teen room at our house is for another post!). So now we have three working toilets! Yay! When we downgraded our TV we lost Fox Sports so we had to go to a friends house to watch the OU game. Luke is still the source of Sooner Magic! He got a new OU t-shirt on Saturday too!!!

Hey Heather - Are you sure Andrew can't wear my OU clothes? -Lukas

On Sunday my dad got to preach and I had to miss it. I've been filling in for the 2 and 3 year old class. The boys got the utility room tiled to Sunday though and finished it up on Monday. I didn't get my cabinets painted like I wanted to so if anybody wants to come help....

I didn't do good about taking pictures this weekend. Here is a few...

This boy likes to be like his Daddy!

A Visit from Granny

On a more positive note - Granny came to spend the weekend with us. This was the first time that it was just Luke and Granny around. Normally there is Aunt Jen or Nana also so Granny doesn't get as much one on one time. Luke loved her being here. They played and cuddled. It was pretty sweet.

I may get in trouble with Granny for posting a picture of her eating, but here is Luke and Granny eating at Pizza Hut. Luke learned that if he would sit with Granny he would get away with more than if he sat with mom and dad. We were going to go to the County Fair after we ate but couldn't find anything at the Fair Grounds. That was pretty weird. We'll have to see about taking Luke to the State Fair.In other news - I started back to school last week. You know I would really like to have a degree without working for it. That sounds pretty lazy, doesn't it. I'm only taking one class on Tuesday and Thursday mornings so it's not too bad. Luke goes to work with his Daddy. I'm really not worried about finishing until we are finished having kids. We don't want me to go back to work full time until all our kids are in school. My major is Early Childhood Education. I'd really like to teach K-4. Then I will have my summers off too!

We also have more exciting news...Lukas is learning to potty in the potty!!! He thinks it's great fun. He has an Elmo potty seat that he enjoys sitting on. When we flush he says, "Bye! Bye! See ya!"
Luke has also decided he doesn't need to be rocked to sleep anymore. Last week he was squirming when I was rocking him to sleep and I asked him if he wanted to lay down in his bed. He said yes. He has gone to bed on his own ever since then. I think he is pretty amazing!

I'll end with a slide show of us celebrating Luke's Forever Family Day. Keep in mind we had closed on our house the week before and were in the midst of major renovations. We didn't get to go to dinner as we had previously planned but we did have cookie cake and ice cream.

Happy First Forever Family Day Lukas!!!

What a special day! I can't believe that it has been a whole year since Luke was officially ours! In some ways it feels like it was only yesterday that we were in Vietnam picking him up. And then there are other days that I don't remember what it was like to not have him around. He is such a special little boy. It is amazing how much he has grown and changed this year. He has gone from a quiet baby boy that wasn't so sure of things to a confident toddler. He has blessed us so much.
Over the last month I have been reflecting a lot on our journey to become parents. I was remembering one of my lowest moments when we were doing infertility treatments. I had just found out that a friend was going to have a baby. I remember crying and crying that night - not because I was bitter that my friend was pregnant. I just wanted to be a mother to a child so badly. I was thinking about that night a few weeks ago and remembered that my friends baby was born three days before Luke. And I realized that at the same time this was happening to me there was a brave, loving woman half way around the world that could have been scared and confused as she was finding out that she was going to have a baby. I thank her so much for giving our son life and for loving our child so much to make an adoption plan for him. She is definitely a hero in my book.
Lukas has brought us so much happiness and joy. We are so thankful that God blessed us with him. He is definitely the right kid for our family.
I chose some pictures to do a Year-in-Review slide show. Enjoy! And for your viewing pleasure a little video clip. Most of you know that we were sick the night that we got Luke. Well, Daniel did a Luke documentary while we were in Vietnam. So here is Day 7's video clip. It is so funny! Note for future travelers: Please do not get scared about getting sick. We ate grapes and shouldn't have. Just make sure that you don't eat any fruit that was rinsed in the water!

Vacation Bible School and Other Stuff

This was the last night of Vacation Bible School. We had a great time. The crafts all turned out great and it was lots of fun watching the kids make them. Luke had an accident on Tuesday evening. He fell and busted his lip really bad. It bled and bled and bled. Now he has a really fat lip. He still enjoyed his first Vacation Bible School though.
Every night of Bible School the largest class got to throw water balloons at Daniel and another Daniel. The first night it was so funny because they were holding themselves. (See the slide show for a picture). They got smart and every other night put a blow up tube around their middle.
Tonight I was getting Luke's clothes changed to go play in the water. I put a swim diaper and swim shorts on him and we were walking over to the water. I felt all this water on me. I asked my mom if it was raining. Well, the swim diaper leaked and I was covered in pee. We got a kick out of that. I had on the same shirt that Luke pooped on almost a year ago! Fun times!
Dad, Mom and Jennifer came in yesterday. We aren't able to close on the house until tomorrow so we are going to try to get as much done as possible while they are still here.
In other news it was one year ago yesterday that we left for Vietnam to pick up our boy! Tuesday is our big day! Stay tuned for the blog update. I hope to have something for your viewing pleasure (if Daniel has time to do it)! Enjoy the pics from this week.

Crazy! Crazy! Crazy!

Okay, this is one of those things that I think could only happen to us. This morning I got a call from our loan place reminding us that we have a closing today. A couple hours later I got another call saying that the mortgage company our loan was going through was filing bankruptcy and we were not going to close today. The lady is locating a new lender and hopefully we will be able to close next week. So hopefully we will be home owners again next week!

The Dillon Run & A Visit to Nana & Papa's House

We went to Nana, Papa and Aunt Jen's this weekend for the Dillon Run and our monthly haircuts. When we got to mom & dad's they had gotten a slide for Luke and had it set up in the living room. His eyes lit up and that was the first place that he went. He slid and slid and slid some more. It was a hit!
On Friday we met some friends at the Dillon Run. We walked the 1K Fun Run/Walk. Daniel and Dad ran in the 5K. Dad ran the 5K in 25 minutes. Daniel ran it in 33 minutes and some seconds. He hadn't ran all summer. His face was as red as his shirt when he crossed the finished line but he did it! I was proud of them both.
In other news- We close on our house tomorrow. Mom, Dad and Jennifer are coming in to help us paint and lay tile. Before I knew we were buying a house I volunteered to do crafts at Vacation Bible School. So VBS is the following week. I am scrambling to get everything together. Some very nice ladies met at the church today and got one of the crafts all ready to go so I just have two more to go. You might pray that we stay sane through this process. I don't even have one box packed!!! I'll keep y'all informed as to how all this goes!
Oh, something else funny happened. Mom bought Luke an Elmo backpack for his birthday on Saturday. She made the mistake of showing it to Luke and couldn't get it back. So he has a new backpack that he has to take everyone. He looks pretty cute with it on his back! Pictures will come!