Thankful for so many things...

Thanksgiving is tomorrow. And while I told Brandon I was heading to bed, I am up here just thinking about all that we really are truely grateful for. Mostly that God blessed us to be parents. But it's not just that we are parents, but we are to one of the sweetest little boys we have ever known.

Luke we are so thankful for your smile and laughter at the simple things in life. The way you always yell your sweet little "yeah!!" whenever something really excites you. We love how sensitive you have become and how much you love to have your time alone with daddy. How you hold your little hand up to your ear and say "hewoh??" and pretend it's a phone. How every night before bed you are very much into your routine of a book, prayer, and song. How you love to have your stuffed "friends" pray with us and then maul them over with kisses afterwards. How you love to dance, at even the littlest bit of music, and how your little body moves with the beat. You are so creative. We are so thankful for each and everyone of your sweet hugs and kisses and love how your little hands fit into ours when we walk somewhere.

You are such an amazing gift to us and to everyone you meet. You light up any room you walk into (but I always knew you would... ) We thank God everyday that He has given us...US!!...the front row to watch you grow into a young man who will do amazing things. You, our son, are what we are most thankful for this Thanksgiving. We love you buddy!

new camera and Thanksgiving pictures..yes I said Thanksgiving!

Well, I got a wonderful little Christmas present early this year! A new Digital SLR camera from my mom and stepdad! I LOVE LOVE LOVE it and the pictures are so great. I just have to figure out all the cool stuff it does now. I've only had it since Friday, but have been snapping up a storm. Here are just a couple of ones I took the first day.

Luke waking up from his nap.


and watching his new favorite movie, Cars.



And here are some of our Thanksgiving dinners this past weekend.
Sunday we spent the day over at my mom's house for a wonderful feast of Turkey and all the goodies that goe with it! It was so good mom and we had so much fun.

Luke playing band with Grammy and Auntie...

Eating his Kraft Mac N Cheese because you know this kid won't eat homemade macaroni..I don't know where he gets that from! Who doesn't like homemade macaroni and cheese??

Saturday (yes I know, I posted them backwards..sorry!) we had Thanksgiving with the Mayo family and it too was sooo yummy. Thanks Mamaw! We had so much fun!

Mamaw and her 2 great grandbabies, Luke and Jayden.

Enjoying some very tasty ice cream...

Sitting with Grandpa Mayo

And THIS is my seriously adorable handsome little nephew Jayden. Don't ya just want to kiss those cheeks?!?! Oh and he smelled sooooooooo good too! I can't wait for more baby smells when our peanut comes. You just want to breathe them all in....

And my first ever Belly Shot (well that I have posted) of me and this little peanut. So here I am in all my glory at 15 weeks 1 day.

well

I haven't been that great at keeping up this week with posts. Or taking very many pictures. We have been super busy and just enjoying time with each other as a family. We have been going swimming a lot at our local indoor pool to pass away the, what seems like, long evenings now that Daylight Saving's Time has taken full effect. Luke LOVES it. And it wears him out too...so he ends up sleeping very well. Which is good for all of us. :)

We have another busy weekend planned full of visiting family and eating lots of yummy Thanksgiving food, so be on the lookout for some pictures very soon.

I will leave you with another quick story:

Every night before bed, as part of Luke's routine (and before naptime too) we say a prayer together. He sits in front of us holding our hands and tilts his adorable little head to the side while squinting his eyes and listens to our prayers. Sometimes he wants to keep going and going on with them...and thanks God for all sorts of things. (well, some we can understand and others...not so much). But lately he has been wanting his "friends" to pray with us. He grabs his overly big Pooh Bear and his Gator and puts them so that we all have to hold hands like in a circle. It really is the cutest thing ever. Fortunately Pooh and Gator haven't had to hold hands because I'm not quite sure how that would work out. :) But it's just so neat to see his little mind working and always thinking. He doesn't want his "friends" left out of prayer time!

I will also leave you with a couple pictures of him doing our Halloween crafts. I know I know...it's a week before Thanksgiving and I am just now posting these, but I have been wanting to show you how he loves to do his crafts. He also painted 3 ghosts that we hung across a piece of yarn in his room which he thought was the absolute coolest thing. I didn't get a picture of it though! bummer. Anyway, enjoy these couple of pictures.

"ME MU"

Our son has found a new favorite thing. He is in love with watching Disney Pixar's Finding Nemo. He will sit and watch the entire movie...start to finish....without taking his eyes of the screen for a second. He even asks to watch it every night before bed..."mommy, me mu....I want me mu" "Me mu" is what he calls Nemo. how cute is that??

anyway, I tell you all this, and well, because I never want to forget last Thursday night because my son showed us a new side of his personality that we knew....but didn't know the extent of. Luke is apparently a very sensitive little man. We always knew that because he will dwell on things when he does something bad...or goes to time out...or gets told no. He repeats to us over and over again, "das a no no" or "no no dada say no no" or walk over and point to where he had to sit in time out and say "no no" while shaking that adorable little finger at us. But, last Thursday night after getting to the end of Nemo, Luke showed us how sweet of a boy he really is.

I'm sure most of you have seen the movie, but if you haven't and don't want to know the end don't read on. :) But at the end (which isn't eve a sad ending by the way!) Nemo is getting ready to take off and go to school, but forgets to give his dad a hug, he stops the class swims, to his dad and tells him how much he loves him. Then swims off to his teacher and class to have some adventure that day...all while his dad is yelling goodbye to him.

Well, we think Luke thought he was actually leaving his dad again because at that moment he burst into tears. When I say burst....I mean BURST! He had his little lip going and crocodile tears streaming down his sweet little face. We think he then got embarrassed that did that because he acted like his head hurt. awww!!! But we know it was the movie. Especially because we watched it again today and he did the same thing at the end at the exact same moment, except this time he tried to hold it in. He had tears welling in his eyes and his little lips were quivering and when we told him (yet again) that Nemo was coming back to his daddy that he was just going to school for the day, he said "yeah" in the sweetest little cry voice you have seriously ever heard.

So our boy, is, well, so sweet and innocent. I will never forget that look on his face when he got so upset about it and wondering what in the world his little mind thought Nemo was doing. It's moments like these when our son's personality shines through that we are reminded of the innocence and sweetness he has right now and how he is coming to understand all the different emotions we are capable of feeling. Thank you God for, once again, giving us the front row to witness it all.

Boys will be Boys...

These were too cute NOT to share. They are a couple months old and I almost forgot about them! But we were over visiting Uncle Dustin and Aunt Kayla (when Jayden was still in her belly) and Luke and his uncles and daddy decided it was time for a dance party....

Now you can see where Luke gets all his sweet skills from. He enjoyed every minute of it with his uncles and dad. Hopefully they can all do it again soon....and maybe Jayden can join in this time?? well...maybe in a few months.

Uncle Cory, Luke, and Uncle Dustin (is there any family resemblence???)

update on our next peanut

Hey everyone. I just thought I would let you all know how our baby appointment went on Monday. We got to hear the heartbeat again and this time it was around 155-160 which is really good! I was 13 weeks and 2 days on Monday so my due date is still May 16. We got some video of the heartbeat so when I get a chance I will try to upload it so you all can hear one of the best sounds in the whole world!

Luke also got to go with us and he did pretty good at the office. He heard the heartbeat, but we aren't too convinced that he knew what it really was. We still can't believe we are going to have another kid this time next year! The fact that Luke is going to be a big brother is still surreal to us.

We also made our BIG ultrasound appointment....you know the one where we can see if this little peanut is a boy or girl...for December 10 at 8am. We are excited. So in about 27 days we should know! Make a guess to the right on our poll to let us know what you think it will be. We have no idea right now...yesterday I felt like it could be a boy...but today I'm not so sure. It changes everyday. :)

and a total sidenote, but a question I am wondering....
who in the world eats ketchup on their grilled cheese sandwich??? I am sitting here at my sisters and she just sat down to her sandwich and dipped it in ketchup. DISGUSTING! hahahaha...just curious if anyone else has ever done this. Because I don't think I ever will.
and Luke just reached over and grabbed a five dollar bill off the table to use as a napkin...oh boy...what day. I better go.

Luke's Sweet Skills

Our son, the dancer. We have been having these dance parties for what seems like forever...more like 2 years...but he LIVES for it. It's like the music moves through his veins and he just can't help but get down with it. Even when I was pregnant with him, and music would come on, he would constantly kick my belly. Should have known then that this kid would be a mover and a shaker. Now, let's hope our next kid will love music half as much as him because I don't think our dance parties are going to stop anytime soon!

Enjoy his sweet moves!

wanna know what my days were like when...

I wasn't feeling that great because of this pregnancy?? I caught Luke in "rare" form one afternoon...PRE nap....and don't worry...he ended up being okay at the end...it sounded worse than it was. (but doesn't it always?) ENJOY! :)

Trick or Treat

As promised, pics from trick or treating! (I didn't get as many as I thought I did! sorry, I guess I was too busy looking for double bubble gum in Luke's loot....man I have been craving that!)



Picking up all the candy he dropped with Auntie, grandpa Jeff, and Terry.





Trick or Treating with Auntie's Boyfriend Terry




And with Daddy.




Posing outside of great grandma Fish's with his 2nd (or 3rd?? anyone know??) cousins Gavin and Brayden.




He had sooo much fun carrying around that pumpkin....he would walk up to the doors and say "treat treat" and then grab at their bowls. It was funny. We had to remind him to only take one...but he pretty much always came back with more than that.

Pictures!

We went up to the hospital on Halloween night after trick or treating so that Luke could meet his new little cousin. (that is why Luke is dressed up as a police man :) )

so here they are meeting for the first time!!!






Giving Kisses!!




One Proud DADDY!


and Auntie!


and Uncle!


and here is Jayden laying on his mommy on Saturday night.


how cute are those cheeks??!!?


We are so blessed to have another sweet little blessing join our family. Luke and Jayden will have so much fun together as they get older. Now we are just waiting our our sequel!


**stay tuned for some seriously adorable trick or treating pictures** Luke loved it!