11 Months Old....Pics from the past few weeks :)

As I'm typing, only 4 days until Christmas and I still have about 2/3 the gifts to wrap :( Very difficult to do with a baby around, just as I thought! Thank goodness I'm off the rest of the weekend too and can HOPEFULLY get it done! Not too much new around here regarding Luke. He's growing and getting more ornery by the second! The most exciting news is he is FINALLY GETTING A TOOTH!!! His bottom left tooth is coming in. So it looks like he won't turn a year old toothless afterall! We're all just working, getting ready for Christmas. Housework has gone by the wayside a little bit, but oh well, there's always time after the holidays right? I hope that everyone reading this has a wonderful Christmas this year, and a blessed upcoming 2008! I have to work Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, but I will still be able to go to the Christmas Eve service and then celebrate after work on Christmas Day with us and David's family. It actually works out that my sis and her hubby won't be in till the day after, so we'll be getting together the 26th or 27th, which takes some of the business out of the actual holiday :) Enjoy this round of pics....a couple of funny ones :)Grandma Estes caught this one at her house. When he gets excited about things, he makes a funny face and puts his hands out and "shivers".

I've already got an exhibitionist on my hands! Who eats like that?
"Grandma, why does this bear have no face?" :)

Not so happy...I think he looks like a Simpsons character with that mouth!
Praise God for spill proof cups!

Cute little booger!

Little wrinkled up nose....looks just like his mommy at that age

Discovering the lights on the Christmas tree.
"Look what I can do mom!, this baby food lid fits in my mouth!"

But that's funny, not up my nose :(

Just a cute picture :)

Luke's Great Grandma and Grandpa got him a beautiful new red wagon for Christmas (we celebrated Sun the 16th) It was filled with a bunch of stuff for our dogs! Plus David and I got some gifts. So everyone in the family was included (except the cats....but they don't know any different :)

He kept trying to sneak any food he could get his hands on.

He also got a "Little People" Noah's Ark from his great aunt and my cousins. He loved it right away and started playing with the animals.

He loves to take these "bowls" and put them up to his mouth and go "oooh, oooh, oooh, oooh"

Christmas....what? I'm just now getting Thanksgiving pics up!

Well, we're definitely on our way to Christmas and I sure have a lot of shopping to do! I finished my Christmas cards today with is a huge load of my back, but now housework is staring me in the face like it does all the time! The recent weeks have been kind of busy. David had been gone quite a bit hunting (he got 3 doe this season), and I was keeping watch over our ornery guy and working :) Thanksgiving was really nice as I was off the holiday and miraculously even granted off the day after!!! Perfect timing. We spent a lot of time with family in town and ate lots of good but oh so bad food! Luke still has the toothless grin. He points at everything and has endless conversations with himself or his stuffed animals. The only distiguishable word is still dada. He loves to mimick sounds and some animal noises and still thinks its cute to play in the dogs water bowl and now in the toilet! Not much interest in walking right now since he can get around like a speed demon crawling. He'll occasionally let go of things while he's standing and is able to keep balance for a few seconds, but that's about it. It's okay, I'm in no hurry for it...he gets in enough trouble as it is! Looking forward to the holidays even though I have to work Christmas, but even just spending time as a family is all I want!

Luke enjoying his Thanksgiving meal with all the fixins.....corn casserole, green bean casserole, mashed potatoes, homemade noodles, sweet potatoes, and applesauce! He won't have another meal like that for a LONG time!

Here with David's 3 cousins from all over the country....Jason (Seattle), Chad (Nashville), and Chip (Texas). The first time they met Luke.

Chad's wife Aubrey who is a 1st grade teacher and their dog Buckeye :) He was scared of Luke by the way!

Love this picture. He doesn't know what a camera is does he? One of his MANY bites of pumpkin pie that day!

With Aunt Dana on Thanksgiving!

Crawling around Grandma and Grandpa Kandel's house.


First piggy back ride on Grandpa's back :)


Family photo for my mom and dad's Christmas cards. We all brought our special change of clothes so we could all match. How sweet ;)


Aunt Heather with an exhausted Luke....he was SUCH a good boy over the few days we were all over creation.


Visiting the log home that daddy has been working on building since summer. Almost done.... "Great job dad....can you build me one too?"

"Dadada gardaa oooooh, dooodooo ahhhh" = "Hi puppy" Abby is so patient when Luke is petting (hitting, pulling, pinching) her.

More stories great grandpa, more stories!


Dazed and confused!

He looks like he's ready to throw the shot put!

"Kisses anyone??" Ya know you want me!


The Saturday after Thanksgiving we went out in the freezing cold to find ourselves a real tree. Didn't think we'd have any luck until.....


Tada....Luke's first tree! He picked it out himself. We were looking at it and he was bouncing up and down in the Snugli, pointing and oooohing at it. Maybe that's just because he was thinking "it's flippin freezing out here....just pick a flippin tree and leave!" Daddy did a good job cutting it down, even when his saw broke and he had to pull a MacGyver to fix it!

The whole experience (which I believe really only took 15-20 minutes start to finish) took a lot out of the kid!


A picture of the tree up with lights. Not the best, but you get the idea!


Enjoying the KFC macaronni and cheese container after we ate it all and the dogs licked it spotless. "Where's mine big meanies?"


See, even the best of us have cottage cheese! Couldn't resist this pic!

The ornery booger banging on the toilet.....


Then getting into the trash can and air freshener.


He had spaghetti for the first time the other night and rather enjoyed it....figured he needed a bath anyhow, have at it!


Kinda hard to hold a sippy cup with slickery fingers!

"For Pete's sake mom, let me eat in peace!"

Beautiful Fall and Luke is 9 months!

It's been over a month since I've updated. My apologies!! I will backtrack for a moment. The very last weekend in September, David and I got to spend a weekend alone together. We spent it doing random things like shopping at Lodi, and going to Cedar Point...which by the way was great! Hardly had to wait in line for any rides! :) Anyhow, we enjoyed our time together, but left Cedar Point earlier than we were planning cause we missed our little guy so much!! Since then Luke has been growing and is on the move ALL the time! He will NOT sit still. This does not give mommy much opportunity to do things that need done around the house on her days off from work! It's a very difficult adjustment to make. I'm used to being able to get anything done that needed done in a short period of time and now I find it taking me several days to get done what I could in one. I still wouldn't trade my time with Lukers for ANYTHING! He had is 9 month appointment last week and checked out good, except the Dr was slightly concerned about his weight. He said it's kind of tapered off and barely following the bottom of the curve. (The little guy looks healthy to me when you see his little belly and chunky legs :) He was 17lb 3oz which the Doc said was in the 6-7th % I had cut his formula calories just a tiny bit when he was eating all the baby food at meals too, but I guess I need to bump him back up and put some more meat on the child! He was 28 inches long (near the 50th %) and head is 44.2cm finally around the 20%!! Otherwise he said that he looks great. My only concern is that he has now pulled this trick of crying and not breathing 4 times now. Over the weekend 3 times he would fall down and start crying. I would pick him up and the crying sound would stop but his mouth would be open and look like he was crying. His face would turn red and then start to get dusky. I shook him and called his name and he let out a little gaspy cry and I held him close to me but could tell he still wasn't breathing so I pulled away from me to look at him and his eyes get glazed over in a blank stare and he's blue! I had to lay him on the floor and shake him and rub his chest and he finally snaps out of it and is scared. All hot and sweaty then. SCARES ME TO DEATH!!! If anyone else has had this happen with their little one please let me know. I may have to give the Dr. a call and make sure it's nothing to worry about. Poor little guy :( Moving on...... the next 4 pictures are of trick or treat day (Sunday the 28th) at Grandma and Grandpa Estes house. We went over and Luke helped hand out candy (and had a sucker of his own!!) David's mom had surgery for some back/leg pain she's been having for 2 years now. She is recovering well and was immediately having almost none of the pain she had been! What a blessing! She is still sore and having some numbness but PRAISE THE LORD that she is for the most part healed! :)

He's doing his "SO BIG" - Ask him "How big is Luke?" and he raises both hands up and then smiles and claps.



Grandma Estes holding the little teddy bear.

Such a sweet little face - wouldn't know he's so ornery!

Enjoying his yummy grape Tootsie Roll Pop from the neighbors...he ate the whole darn thing. Lucky he got to cause Grandpa was SOOOO afraid he was gonna choke on it!



So vain....loves to look at himself in the mirror and give himself open mouth kisses :)

I had stripped the bed one day and he was playing with Oscar.

Mr. Mohawk - "mommy why must you embarass me so?"

Holly sleeping with the two puppies that David won for Luke at Cedar Point

Eating the letters...why not?

Hmmm....I've used both hands and my mouth....any other options?

Splashing and giggling :)

I's sleepy mamma!


Just crawlin around


"Why won't this round one go in the square one?"

First time he actually fell asleep in his bouncer. I took him out and up to bed and he never woke up! He actually slept from 10:30 - 2:30 that day!! 5 hours!


Ta da! My dinosaur!

Not a happy camper! 9 months old and still no stinkin teeth!

Talking to the dogs' mini frisbee.

"Mamma, pick me up!!!"

"OOOOOOH"

At David's aunt's house for dinner last Saturday and to watch the OSU/PENN ST game. We couldn't stay though cause Mr. grumpy pants had to go to bed!

We were all in our gear - GO BUCKEYES!!



Just some footage of Luke enjoying his jumper still! :)