Summertime Fun

Brotherly Love

Happy Birthday Andrew!

Our big boy is one year old today! Here's some shots from the weekend birthday festivities:

We had a fun weekend celebrating Andrew's first year of life, and December will always be a month of memories for us. This month we'll be rembering....

...when we got "the call" about Andrew (the 16th )

...the first time we saw Andrew (the 18th)

...the day we brought him home(the 23rd)

It's been a wonderful year, and we are so thankful for God's goodness to us in bringing this little boy into our family!

Fall Fun

Piano Shopping

We haven't posted many pictures lately because we bought a new camera and have been trying to figure out how to use it. (I am taking a photography class this fall to help me really learn how to use the new camera.) Hopefully I will soon be taking amazing pictures and posting them regularly on our blog!

One of the things we like about our new camera is that it also takes video. Since we were very bad about taking videos of our boys with our old camcorder, this is perfect for us. We take our camera with us often, so now we can capture moments on video that we normally wouldn't have gotten. For example, a couple weeks ago we were at the music store shopping for a piano. This was not an occasion I would normally have dragged our camcorder to, but I did happen to have the new camera in my diaper bag! I was able to capture the boys having a jam session on one of the keyboards:



Can you tell who the show-off is in our family?

Guess who's standing up?

Well, sort of. He hasn't been pulling up by himself, we've been helping him get up there. But he loves to stand up now and hold onto things. I think it makes him feel like he's more part of the action when Isaac and Caleb are playing. Here's a couple shots of him showing off his new moves:

Last Friday, we went to a spray park with a group of friends and after a couple hours he decided he had enough and took a little snooze. It was such a beautiful day I think he would slept the day away if I had just left him there.

Boys will be boys

What do you get when you leave three rowdy boys unsupervised in a field full of mud?

At our church picnic Saturday evening, Luke and I participated in the adult softball game while the boys played with their friends in the nearby fields and playground. Towards the end of the game, Luke and I noticed Isaac, Caleb and their buddy Ryker had managed to find a softball field/mud pit and were having a mud wrestling extravaganza. They were having so much fun (and since they were dressed in playclothes and we were just going home afterwards) we let them just go at it. They were a mess to clean up, but the fun they had was priceless.

The Official Baseball Pic

There is a tradition in Luke's family that we have decided to carry on with our boys. Luke's grandma made a baseball outfit for Luke's Dad, Terry, when Terry was an infant. When Luke's parents had their three sons, they had each of the boys photographed in the same outfit Luke's grandma had made. Believe it or not, Luke's mom still had the outfit when Isaac was born so we decided to continue the tradition and have each of our sons photographed in it. I'm sure when Luke's grandma made the outfit for Terry she had no idea that her great-grandchildren would be photographed in it 55 years later!

Andrew had his turn with the baseball outfit last week. Lindsey came over and took some of these adorable pictures:

The Fisherman

Our neighborhood had it's annual Trout Fishing Tournament this morning, so Luke and the boys headed out to the lake around 9:00 this morning. Isaac was so excited to go, and told Luke "I've never caught a fish before, Dad." He so badly wanted to catch one, so Luke told him, "Why don't you pray?" So Isaac prayed that God would help him catch a fish, and one minute later this is what he caught:
2 lbs. 13 oz. !

He was so excited! We're still waiting to see if he wins any of the tournament prizes. When they got home, Luke showed him how to clean it and they are planning on eating it for lunch. I'm not too excited about eating fried fish, but I was happy to see Isaac catch something.

I need to go scrub the kitchen sink now to get that lovely fish smell out of our house...

We're almost done!

I'm a little late posting this, but we got our court date last week for Andrew's adoption finalization. On July 1st, we will travel to St. Louis for the hearing where he will officially, legally and finally (!) be a member of our family. What an exciting day that will be!

Andrew has been such a blessing to our family! Isaac and Caleb love him so much, and it has been so fun to watch them interact with him. Especially now that Andrew is smiling and laughing. They love trying to make him laugh! Luke and I fall more in love with him every day. It's amazing what God has done in our hearts through his adoption. We are so thankful that God added him to our family.

One of our favorite things lately has been watching Andrew in his "jumperoo." Grammy bought this for him and he loves it. Isaac and Caleb get very excited when we put him in it because they enjoy watching him and helping him play with the toys. Here' s a picture of our little man showing off his keen jumping abilities:


And here's a little snapshot of brotherly love I took this morning:


There's the latest happenings with our crew. Now we're going to hunker down inside for the day and see if we really get this foot of now they have forecasted. We are so ready for Spring!

Our "Big Boy"

Andrew has officially been given the nickname of "Big Boy" around our house. I think Luke is the one who started calling him that, and the name has just stuck. "Big Boy" turned three months old yesterday, and we decided we had to take an official three-month picture:

Isn't he adorable? This was taken right after his haircut. We finally got brave enough yesterday to use the clippers on his hair. Prior to this, we had just tried to trim his hair with scissors. That didn't work so well, so we decided to try the clippers. They worked beautifully and he was so good while we cut it. Isaac and Caleb stood by to give him moral support, and he wasn't bothered at all by the big noisy thing buzzing around his head. What a trooper!

A trip to remember...

Isaac celebrated his sixth birthday this week, and we decided to surprise him with a special trip with just him and Daddy. Isaac has been begging for months to ride on an airplane (we had never flown with the boys before), and so when we began thinking of ideas for his birthday I was reminded of all the frequent flier miles Luke stored up last year with his trip to India. We also had loads of Marriott points from all his work travel last year so we decided to put them to use and give Isaac a special birthday memory.

Since Chicago is pretty close to us (about a one hour flight) and there are some really cool science museums there, we decided that would be a great place for them to go. We bought the tickets about a month ago, but decided we wanted Isaac to be completely surprised so we didn't tell anyone what we were planning until right before the trip.

Tuesday evening I put the boys to bed a little early, and after they were sleeping Luke and I got all their things packed and ready to go. They had to be ready to board by 5:40, so Luke got up at 4 a.m. to get himself ready before we woke Isaac. At 4:15 Luke woke Isaac up and brought him into our bedroom. He told Isaac that for his birthday present they were going to go on a plane ride to Chicago and they were leaving right now. The look on Isaac's face was priceless (although he was still half-awake) and he was very excited. We got him dressed and they hurried out the door!

They had a great time. Isaac loved flying and enjoyed seeing a big city. They went to the Science and Industry Museum and the Field Museum. While Isaac really enjoyed these museums, one of his favorite things about the trip was the "L" train and the city buses! He had never experienced public transportation before and that was quite an experience for him. Here's some pics from their trip:

Here they are getting ready to leave for their fun time!

Isaac at the corner of Lake Shore Drive.

Standing in front of the coal mine at the Science and Industry Museum

He has always wanted to be an astronaut!

One of his favorite things at the museum was this incubator where he got to watch a baby chick hatch.

Isaac the rock climber

Devouring a cheeseburger at McDonald's

He loved the dinosaurs at the Field History Museum

He also really liked Lake Michigan and said they should have named it Ocean Michigan.

One of his favorite things--riding a city bus.

In case anyone is wondering about poor Caleb feeling left out, we have told Caleb (and Andrew) that when they are six they will get to go on a trip with Daddy too. We decided to start this as fun Father/Son tradition that Luke will do with all the boys. We want Luke to make some really fun memories of quality one-on-one time with all our sons, and the 6th birthday trip with Daddy will be a great way to do that. I think the boys all agree!

Caleb's birthday fun

We had a small party for Caleb this past Saturday with the immediate family (grandparents, uncles, cousins, etc.) Here's some pics from his big night:


Since he has been Candyland-obsessed over the past year, I thought it was only fitting to make him a Candyland birthday cake. I think he liked it. (Of course, what kid wouldn't like a birthday cake with 50 pounds of candy piled on it?)

Here he is patiently waiting to open his presents.

And just so you can see how big Andrew is getting, here he is at the party. He will be two months old this Saturday. He is smiling, talking, and interacting with us quite a bit now. He's such a fun baby!

Happy Birthday Caleb!

Caleb is four years old today!

Our future photographer

Caleb has recently taken an interest in photography. I have taught him how to take pictures with our digital camera, and now he is always asking if he can "take a picture." Here are some of the masterpieces he has come up with:

A lovely close-up of our pantry doors

A wonderfully intense color shot of our kitchen walls
(please overlook the greasy handprints I need to wipe off)

An extreme close-up of Mommy and Andrew

A nice still-life shot of our kitchen table

And with a little help from his mom, he was able to take this family picture.

If he keeps up his good work, maybe we'll send him to do an internship with Lindsey!