Luke's 3rd birthday...the party!

Luke turns 3!! Oh my where does time go?

Luke wanted a sports themed birthday party and I wanted to make sure he had a party before his baby brother was born, so the weekend before his actual birthday we gave Luke a sports themed party at the house. We invited a few of his good buddies over. The morning of the party Ansev and I iced the basketball cake and Neil and Josh set up for the party in our front yard.









Luke and uncle Neil



We made hot dogs and crock pot macaroni and cheese, it was low key but delicious!





They thought it was fun to wear the cones on their heads!





Blowing out the candles



Pinata fun! (I couldn't find a sports themed pinata, being nearly Halloween I was lucky to find this jeep!)





This little guy Oliver had a very impressive swing, but in the end Josh had to whack it with a golf club to get the candy out :)



We had a good time, I hope Luke loved his 3rd birthday party!

Fall Festival

Fall is apparently the time for festivals here in Atlanta. Every church and/or school seemed to be having them every weekend. One Saturday afternoon we were out in our front yard and our neighbor invited us to stop by the festival his son's school was having that afternoon, so we did :) Luke had a great time, there were lots of blow-up attractions at the festival and they had a specific little kids area. Luke, who is usually very wary of such things, eventually warmed up to the bouncy houses in the kids section and tried all 3 of them! Josh and I were so proud :) It was a nice break from the usual that day, next year I think we'll have to plan out a fall festival route and take advantage of the cheap entertainment every weekend!
Some pictures of Luke on/in the bouncy houses.

Brad's baby shower (Sept 2010)

In September Josh's office staff threw us a baby shower for Brad. It was a lot of fun. Josh was on call that morning and sure enough, he had to go in to the hospital for something so Luke came with me to the shower and Josh joined us at the tail end. It was so nice for his coworkers to do this for us as we still are relatively new to the area and don't know a lot of people. Luke and I had a great time. Sheila and Jennifer hosted the shower at Sheila's house. Luke had a blast playing with all the toys Sheila has for her grandchildren at her house. I think Sheila also reminds him of Josh's mom because he has always gone to her without any fuss like she is his grandma too :)
Here are some pictures from the shower:

We played a guess how big is the belly game. Luke is helping me determine the winner by seeing who was closest to measuring out the actual size of my belly. The 7-year old daughter of one of Josh's partners was the winner :)



Josh's great co-workers





Luke looking at the gifts



What Josh and Luke were doing at the end of the shower



Pictures of us, the shower was on 9/19 so I was just one month away from having Brad!

Deja Vu

We noticed the similarities immediately...

Luke's newborn photo



Brad's newborn photo



And if I had one of Josh, I bet it would look the same :)

Trip to Gainesville

We trekked on down to Gainesville to watch the Gators take on USF (where Josh went to med school) for the first time ever. We had a nice weekend away from Atlanta and Josh even took the day off on Friday so we had a 3 day weekend. We stayed with his aunt and uncle in Ocala and Josh's brother Matt also joined us for the weekend. On Saturday everyone but me and Luke headed to the game. I just didn't think sitting outside in the hot sun as pregnant as I was then and also with a 3 year old who can't really sit through a game yet was a good idea. So Luke and I headed to Gainesville to meet up with my doctoral mentor Ann and her family. My friend from UF Melissa and her son Logan also met up with us at Ann's house and we had a great afternoon watching the game and having a delicious lunch. We took the boys to the playground in the neighborhood and it was so hot that I couldn't keep Luke out of the pool so I stripped his clothes and he went in in his pull-up! I can't believe I never once took out the camera and I have no pictures of the fun afternoon :(
The Gators won so everyone was happy! We went back to Ocala and met up with my parents and my brother and his fiancee Ansev for dinner. It was back to Atlanta on Sunday. Quick, but fun weekend away!

Josh's uncle David works with the Florida Highway Patrol and has a cruiser of his own. Luke was so enthralled with it and he just had to get in it. This I did take a couple of pictures of :)

Labor Day Weekend

Labor Day weekend, Josh's parents and brother came up for a visit. We had never taken Luke to the Atlanta Zoo and so we all decided it would be fun to do. It was a hot day and the zoo parking lot was full so I was worried this was going to be a crowded place and really hot for pregnant me, but surprisingly, it didn't seem very crowded once we got inside. It is a pretty big zoo and had a great kids area.

Looking at lions



Our family by the giraffes



Searching for apes (we were looking at the apes forever!)



Luke's favorite (and mine) the orangutans. These two were hilarious, the little one kept trying to get the big one to play with him and the big one just kept pushing him away!



Luke for the first time ever in life climbed into a tube! He has been terrified of such things in the past, but he got in this one several times...a big deal!!






Josh, Luke, and Grammy



Petting Zoo! Luke loved brushing all the goats and sheep, I think he would have stayed there forever.







Luke got to ride on the carousel with Grammy. This was his reward for using the toilet in public for the first time ever. The zoo has great little toddler toilets in the women's bathroom. Another big deal!



We had a great time, just had to get going to get Luke home for a nap. We didn't quite make it to see all the animals that day so I guess we'll have to go back :)

Due Date

So if you haven't heard the news, baby Brad was born 13 days ago already! Today was my original due date with him. I'll get to the telling of his birth in time, but it is odd how my need to go in order on this blog is preventing me from skipping ahead to the present. We have lots of new pictures of Brad but I haven't uploaded them to the computer yet. It is good enough for me that I am finding this time to get on the computer and that I feel well enough today to do it. So I leave you with one picture of the new little guy and a classic picture of Luke and his silliness :)

Brad:




Silly man Luke (8/30/10):