Sending Prayers

We're sending special prayers to Florida as Andrew begins chemo in the morning.

Peek-a-boo

Look at me!

This is pretty comfy!

Luke has figured out how to climb in and out of the trunk in the bonus room. He thinks he is so cool. He opens the lid and climbs in and plays then climbs out again. He just laughs and laughs!

Old Friends, Fun Time

Caleb and Katie are all smiles

Luke was about to fall asleep by
this point!

Yesterday two of my college friends came over for brunch. We had not seen each other in over 2 years and we live within 30 minutes of each other! We had a great time catching up. It was like no time had past. Both Allison and Katie are expecting their second children. Luke decided he did not need a morning nap yesterday. That made it really hard for me to get ready for our visit. He wanted to be held all morning. He was a little shy at first but ended up doing great! He and Caleb played really well together. He was tired when they left. We were both asleep in the recliner within a few minutes!

Happy Boy!

Loving the b-b-q!

We went to eat at Center Point B-B-Q last weekend. Luke loved it! He loves to people watch; must get that from Mom. He takes it all in wherever we go. Luke eats most anything we do now and seems to like it all!

The Yardstick

One of Luke's new favorite toys is the yardstick. He picks it up and walks around with it running into and hitting stuff with it. Here is a video showing his adventures.

In to Everything!

Hmmm...what's in here?

Really Mom...these books go on the floor!

It is official....Luke leaves no stone unturned! He loves to get in drawers, cabinets, boxes, etc. He loves to take everything out. He usually puts it back in with encouragement from Mom and Dad.

Our weekend was pretty blah mainly due to the weather. Luke had been whining off and on for most of the weekend which is very unlike him. We went to the 150th anniversary celebration at Gallatin First Baptist Sunday hoping Luke would sit through worship for part of the time. Unfortunately he lasted about 10 minutes. He and I left and went out to Nana and Grandpa's. I couldn't get him calmed down until we went outside and rocked in the swing were he fell asleep! He was running a temp when we got home and still not very happy. Paul took him to the doctor yesterday and found out he had a mild ear infection in both ears. He stayed the rest of the day with the Troutt's. He is much better today and is back to his usual mischevious self! We are very much looking forward to the warmer spring weather ahead.

Perfect Weekend

Hmmm...this grass is yummy!

Last weekend was wonderful. I think everyone would agree that the weather has a huge impact on your mood and attitude. It was so warm and beautiful in Nashville this weekend. We decided to take advantage of it and stay outside a lot. Luke loves the outdoors! If you take him inside he whines until he goes out again. I snapped these pictures yesterday afternoon. Luke is quite the explorer. He wants to go all over the yard, down the driveway and back up again. He puts most everything in his mouth which freaks me out! Paul says "boys will be boys".

Saturday afternoon I went to the movies with Virginia. We saw a chick flick and it was so good! I dropped Luke off at Mom's before the movie so Paul and Bill could do some work in our yard. It is hard to get much accomplished with a toddler running around these days! Nonna loved her time with Luke and said they stayed outside most of the time he was there.

If you look close you can see the remains of Luke's first black eye. Within about a 2 day time frame he fell in the bathtub twice and hit is eye on the foot board our bed...ouch! It seems like it is taking forever to fade. I know this is just the first of many bumps and bruises we will encounter.

Long Time

My cousins Ellen and Christy
and Christy's daughter.

My grandmother on my father's side was one of 13 siblings! Unfortunately we did not see them much while I was growing up. We did get to hang out with some of our cousins from time to time. One of my great aunts died last week in Mississippi. She was buried in Tennessee and I was able to go to the service. I had not seen her two granddaughters since we were young. It was so great to reconnect with them even under the sad circumstances. We always thought it was neat that our grandmothers were sisters and our grandfathers were brothers. So we were double cousins or something like that. Everyone got a kick out of Luke running around and playing. He even went to complete strangers which is very unusual. After the service we all had lunch and visited for awhile.

Sunday Woes

Not wanting to cooperate with the
picture taking

A little happier

Since leaving Hermitage Hills Baptist in September we have been looking for a new church home. We finally settled on Hendersonville First Baptist. It is rather large but is still traditional in worship style and preaching. Our only drawback has been Luke not enjoying the nursery, at all! We literally have been visiting regularly since November and he cries every time. Sometimes he cries as soon as we walk in the building! We usually cave and take him to worship with us. This is what happened the Sunday before last. He does great during the singing but when the preaching starts he loves to babble--very loudly! He never gets fussy just rambles on and on in agreement with the pastor. Last week it was my turn to take him to the lobby so Paul could listen to Dr. Stetzer. Luke and I had a lovely time playing with all of his toys and running back and forth from one end of the lobby to the other. I snapped a couple of pictures. Not sure if that was appropriate or not....oh well!

During this past week Paul and I decided we were going to take him to the nursery every week for 4 weeks and if he still wasn't used to it we would start looking at other churches. Paul found the lady in charge and told her our dilemma. She was more than accommodating and said this happens all the time but they want all the children to think of church as a happy place to come to. She suggested we try a different room since Luke is walking well now. He still cried but did much better. The new teachers called us twice to give us an update and even offered to text us next week to let us know how he is doing. We don't know if we have turned the corner or not but it does look promising!!! Maybe we can eventually go back to the Sunday School class we liked.

Story Time

We have tried to read to Luke since he was a newborn. Lately he has been more in to it. He will give us a book to read to him and he actually makes it through most of the book before he is ready to move on to something else. My mom took these tonight while she was here. Thanks to the Books from Birth campaign we always have a new book to read!

Life has been pretty normal lately and we have been horrible about taking pictures the last week or so that is why there haven't been any recent blog updates.

Congratulations to my cousin James and his wife Jamie on the birth of their daughter today, Sara Beth Cartwright! My mom was pretty excited to know she will be sharing her birthday with Sara Beth!

Nonna's Birthday

Today was Nonna's birthday! She came over tonight for Mexican. We had a good time. Luke is always good entertainment for us. Since I was off today I made some appointments. Nana and Grandpa came and watched Luke for me this morning. I think they loved it and can't believe how much he is getting in to these days!

Pancakes for Breakfast!

Luke's first time to order from the menu!

These are yummy!

I have lived in Nashville my entire life and had never been to the famous Pancake Pantry! We thought it would be fun to meet there this morning for breakfast. Mom and Luke joined us which was even more fun. We missed that little guy last night!

This was the first time we had ever ordered Luke his own food from a menu. He usually eats off of our plates or we bring him something. I ordered the sugar and spice pancakes and Paul ordered chocolate chip ones. We weren't sure if Luke would like either one of those so we got him his own little silver dollar pancakes. The were more the size of a regular pancake but that did not stop him. He loved them!!! He could pick them up and eat them all on his own. He got quite a bit on the floor but something tells me the staff is used to it. We waited in line about 40 minutes which wasn't bad considering it is a holiday weekend morning. We meet some nice people from Alabama and struck up an interesting conversation with them. I would say the food is definitely worth the wait!

Tonight we are going to my mom's to see Andrew and Mandi one last time before they leave. We are also going to celebrate mine and my mom's birthdays which are the end of the month. Hopefully Andrew and Mandi won't live so far away forever!!!

Our View

We had a great view from our room. We were on the 20th floor and directly in line with the Capitol. We were directly above the Downtown Library. I was surprised at how contemporary the Renaissance is. It was decorated very cool!

Joint Valentine's Day

Mandi and Andrew at Ben and Jerry's

Lovin' our ice cream!

Paul and I are usually low-key for Valentine's festivities. In the past we have usually cooked for each other or gone out for a quick casual bite. Well, this year was a little different. Paul started planning an overnight outing in Downtown Nashville. My mom gave us a hotel gift card for our anniversary last year. So, Paul checked to see if Mom could keep Luke while we stayed at the Renaissance Hotel. In the meantime Andrew was planning a similar outing for he and Mandi for this weekend. Once they realized they were planning the same things they got together and planned the night for the 4 of us. They tried to keep it a surprise from me but that didn't happen!

We went to dinner at F. Scotts which was fabulous!!! The food was excellent as well as the atmosphere. We wanted to enjoy the live jazz at the bar following dinner but it was pretty crowded. After realizing no one seemed to be getting up from their tables anytime soon we decided to try to find somewhere else to go. We walked across to the Cheesecake Factory hoping to just grab a couple of pieces of dessert to go. That place was madness!!! You could barely get in the door. So we headed to Rumba to try our luck there. We parked illegally and went in only to find there was an hour wait even though there were several empty tables in plain sight. After much deliberation we ended up at Ben and Jerry's for ice cream. You can never go wrong with ice cream!!!

After this last stop we parted ways. Andrew and Mandi were staying at a different hotel from us. Paul and I both agreed that a night out for Valentine's is fun and hope to do it again!

Valentine's Visit

Luke and Uncle Andrew

Enjoying some family time

We were so excited that Uncle Andrew and Aunt Mandi came up this weekend! They both get President's Day off so it is a good time to travel. Luke seemed to quickly remember who they were and loved showing them his new walking skills!

Fun Times

Luke now has 12 teeth!

This past week I got to be home with Luke 2 days! Ms. Terri was sick on Tuesday so I stayed home with Luke. We had so much fun both Tuesday and Wednesday. We just played, ran errands and had fun. The questionable weather canceled our lunch plans with friends Wednesday. The weather turned out not to be as bad as was forecasted. We also went to proof his 12-month pictures. This was the photo session where Luke wasn't completely cooperative but she was able to capture some good ones to choose from.

Luke is walking so well now! He basically goes wherever he wants in the house. He has been crawling up and down the stairs for awhile but now he thinks he should be able to walk them. He has taken a couple of tumbles that haven't been pretty. It is amazing how fast things are progressing!

Walking!!!

Ok...I finally got this video to load. Bear with us, it is a little long and wobbly! This was taken over a week ago. Luke is getting better walking everyday. It is so cute and fun to watch!

Family Baby Shower

Luke and Anna Marie (the Aunt-to-be)

Keeping himself entertained

The mommy-to-be

Nanny and Aunt Mattie with Lukey

Luke made a friend. She liked to take his toys.

Aunt Sheila, Me and Luke

This past Sunday my Mom, Luke and I went to Manchester for a baby shower. My cousin James and his wife are expecting a little girl in March. Luke did so well! He slept all the way there and back. He played with all the toys I packed and even let other people hold him!!! I was so relieved that he was well behaved. He made a little friend who thought he was cute. She kept taking his toys but he did not seem to mind. We do not get to see our extended family too often so it is always fun to catch up.

Belated Congratulations!

I am a little behind on my well wishes. Two of our friends extended their family recently. The Carver's new addition is Caroline Elizabeth! We can't wait to meet her! With our track record we will be lucky if we meet her before her 1st birthday!

Secondly, congratulations to Brian and Kim Hammond on the birth of Parker Frost! We also can't wait to meet little Parker. What a fun time for everyone!