Tuesday, December 30, 2008

Family Pictures

Ok. Here they are....the results of our family pictures taken on Saturday!
Let me know which ones you love! I need help deciding which ones to have printed for around our house!












Friday, December 26, 2008

Merry Christmas!


Pictures of Lukey's first Christmas morning!


This is Luke with his Great Grandma NiNi and his 3 week old cousin Talan.
Luke looks like a TANK next to Talan!


3 Generations...sort of. ha ha Cory's Grandma Virginia, Cory & Luke - so cute.


I'm pretty sure this is our first somewhat legitimate family picture! Ignore my double chin and Lukes VERY sad face! ha


I hope everyone had a Merry Christmas! Ours was so fun and I can hardly wait to celebrate more holidays with Luke - especially when he'll have a clue what's going on! We had a fun time visiting Cory's family and spending time with them. This is my very first Christmas away from my family, and I am happy to say that I didn't cry all day! Now the days before on the other hand......:) Anyway, it was so fun to see Cory having such a fun time with his aunts, uncles and cousins.

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Wednesday, December 24, 2008

January-December

January

The typical, slightly depressing month it usually is...I remember working A LOT. I had just started some new responsibilities and was completely stressed out about them. I just remember really looking forward to February.

February

We found out I was pregnant this month. SO EXCITING! I was actually at work and had just finished working out when I decided to take the test. Amber was working at the time, and due to my complete shock - I made her look at the positive result just to make sure it was true. I went into the locker room and called Cory. I can only vaguely remember his response. ha. I then called my mom. I can only vaguely remember her response as well. We also had our 1 year anniversary this month. I had gotten 2 snowboarding passes for me and Cory...turns out we had to discreetly figure out how to get Cory's friend Nate to go without him and have a semi-valid reason that I couldn't go on our anniversary date anymore....

March

This was probably the worst month of "morning sickness". It was really only bad when I had dairy products...I figured that out the hard way. My life became much less crazy this month too because the Winter League at work was over. PHEW.

April

This was the month we announced our pregnancy to everyone we knew. How exciting!

May

If I remember correctly this was the month we found out we were having a boy! After playing a SO not nice trick on us during the ultrasound and making us think he was a girl....We called our parents to tell them the exciting news. This is when my mom pulled the name Luke out of thin air. It was a name we had totally never even thought a little about, and yet, it is the one that stuck! Then came many discussions about whether to name him Lucas or just Luke. I couldn't do just Luke...I couldn't name my kid a nickname name. I just couldn't.

June

I was definitely looking pregnant this month. I finally wasn't just questionably gaining weight. What a relief. I also started being able to feel Luke move around. He has always been a crazy mover. It just kept getting more and more realy.

July

I really can't remember a single thing of this month....

August

Tyler and Katy got married!! FINALLY! It was SO fun to go out and visit my family too! Too bad I was like 7 months pregnant and totally swollen in the heat of humid-wisconsin-summer. I couldn't even wear great heels. How sad. I am so happy for the two of them. They belong together and it was such an incredible time for me. Sitting in the sealing room, crying my eyes out, reminiscing about what it took for them to get there; the sacrifices that Katy had to make, all of it. I am so happy that they chose to get married in the temple and be sealed to each other forever.

September

Only one more month before Lukey! I definitely started feeling like a whale this month. Sadly, our lives were pretty much the same every day this entire year. A lot of work.

October

My mom came out on the 22nd (my actual due date) and sadly, Luke wasn't born until A WEEK later. To be optimistic (which we all know isn't my strong trait...) I was at least able to spend some great quality time with my mom and sister and sister in law during that week. Finally, on the 29th, after 12 hours of labor and an emergency c-section, Luke decided to grace us with his presence. He has been ruling the roost ever since. My mom stayed for 3 weeks, my sister basically moved in, my dad and brothers came out for a week, we blessed Luke when he was 3 days old (I only made it through thanks to the ibuprofen/percocet combo I had inside me). This was quite the month.

November

Amber still lived with us; our house was a little crowded but full of life. I had the month off of work, and oh man - I really got used to that freedom! Ha. After a few weeks of recover, I was able to carry Luke around on my own so there was a lot of time filled by walking around Target and the mall. It actually kind of gets boring just chillin at home all the time. Not boring enough to wish I could work though....

December

Work started again, although this time it's MUCH less than it used to be and much easier to handle. Luke is growing and growing and I am consistently torn between loving every minute of it or hating it and wishing it would stop. It has been incredible how quickly he learns things and how fast he changes. If he is awake, he has to be sitting up so he can look around and see the world. He is a very curious little boy...I can only imagine what this will be like in a few months when he can control where he goes and when he goes there! It is quite convenient being able to lay him on the couch, come back 5 minutes later, and have him still be in the same place! He is the sweetest little boy. He smiles at me everytime he sees me. He LOVES to be with Cory when he's home from work. I love that he can hear either one of us talking across the room and he will look around until he finds us. There is nothing quite like having him search, make eye contact, and smile - with basically his whole body. What an angel.

I can only imagine what the next year has to bring. This one will be a hard one to beat! Although, in 2 months Cory and I will celebrate our 2 year anniversary! (seems totally weak though - I swear we have been married longer than that!...and I mean that in a good way:) ) In July we will be going to Canada for the first time in like 3 years. I am so excited to introduce both Cory and Luke to the Canadian side of my family. Ryan graduates from college in April, Jared turns 16 in February, Katy graduates in April/May, Jake starts high school, Luke will turn 1, Amber will turn the big 2-1 and Tyler will complete his fire fighter/army training.

We are in for a good year and I am really excited about all the joy it will bring!

Monday, December 22, 2008

Christmas Sunday

Here are some pictures of cute Lukey in his Christmas outfit from Grandma!



And really - I have no idea why his hair looks so red in these pictures! For those that don't see in real life - it is more blonde than red. So funny.

Saturday, December 20, 2008

Dear Sister



It was your birthday yesterday - I hope it was great! Now to reminisce about birthday's past...

Starting with the original - there are only things that I vaguely remember, like that I was somewhere between excited and pissed to have another girl in the family - I could have ruled the roost as the only sister if it wasn't for you! Ha. Or I could have fun sharing my toys and shoes with you. Looking back, I'm happy you weren't just another boy.

There are many birthdays that passed that I am sure I wasn't even nice to you. Remember that time in life when we hated each other? And we lived in COMPLETELY different worlds? That went on for way too long. I played with Barbies, you pretended you were Magic. Magic ate Barbies - hence the beginning of the hatred. ha ha

I am sorry for all of those years I let go without cherishing and celebrating every passing year with you. I am sorry for missing your 18th birthday - the biggest one of them all. I am sorry for missing your graduation - another huge moment in life. I am sorry for screaming and yelling when you wore my shoes without asking, and then stealing yours the next day.

I love you very much sister. You are my greatest friend. You make me laugh like no one else. You make me feel comfortable with being weird. Because you are always one level of weirdness above me. You are beautiful and smart and wittier than I will ever be.

I hope your birthday was as spectacular as you wanted it to be! Welcome to the "adult" world.


and yes megan evans - another blog about one person. you won't hate it so much when it's your turn to be the focus! :)

Thursday, December 18, 2008

here's to you cotter


you spoke...i listened :)

Tuesday, December 16, 2008

talents

I know I mentioned before that we have a talented little boy. Well...here's some more good news.

Luke can puke out his nose and mouth now! It's just such great fun getting to experience all the "firsts" of life with him......

Sunday, December 14, 2008

Christmas Party

So, we had our work Christmas party tonight. This is the first time in the 3 Christmas's I have worked there that we've had a Christmas party. I guess that's what happens you have peppy cheerleader types that start working there.....

Check out our sweet outfits! and ignore that i look ghostly white. and the terrible angle the pictures were taken from - thanks sis! :)









It was funny because the lady that hosted it couldn't figure out if we were serious or not because we acted like we were, but then other people all made fun of them and we just laughed. ha. it was great. and one of the more awkward dinners I've ever eaten.

Wednesday, December 10, 2008

Growing Up

It's official...Luke is a big boy now. He slept in his very own room for the first time last night! And get this - HE LOVED IT!

I was totally worried that I wouldn't be able to sleep thinking that he might stop breathing or something. I am proud to say, I only checked on him twice. He slept for almost 5 hours too - went like 7 hours without eating. A serious accomplishment. And the best part - I just got to lay him back down and didn't have to listen to him getting himself back to sleep. And believe me - listening to that would keep most people awake. He is so noisy.

Anyway, he is 6 weeks old today and officially a big boy. Good job Lukey. Let's just hope he keeps up the good work. He's been in there for an hour now and seems to be going strong.....keep your fingers crossed.

Tuesday, December 9, 2008

Dear Santa

I definitely just found what I want for Christmas...


https://www.keyboardforblondes.com/index.cfm

Friday, December 5, 2008

3,2,1 BLAST OFF

I am sitting here FINALLY doing some laundry and I just have to start out by saying that I am SO grateful for our washer and dryer...drier...however you spell it. Until about like April-ish of this year we were doing laundry at friends houses, parents houses or the laundromat.

Can I tell you what a drag that is? It's just so inconvenient to have to only do laundry once a week and spend the entire day/night at someone elses house just waiting for the machines to do their jobs.

So, like I said, in about April I had had enough of that. We had a drier...dryer...whatever...for a while just wishing for it's second half. So, I went on ksl classifieds (one of my favorite places to buy things) and found a washer for $100! SWEET! So, we splurge and buy it.

One minor detail...the seller failed to mention that the machine sounds like a ROCKET when on the spin cycle. No joke. I have guilt doing laundry at night because it is so loud I think our neighbors can hear it. Seriously.

The best part is, I don't even care. I L O V E the washer and the fact that I can wash things WHENEVER I WANT that it really doesn't even bother me. I just love it.