Sorry for being gone so long!!

WOW! I can't believe (well yeah I can) that's it' been so long since I posted a decent post. Between my computer crashing and having facebook to keep in touch, I have been very lax on keeping my blog updated.

As many know, our basment is officially done!! David put in a lot of hard work in Feb and we can now enjoy our Buckeye-esqe room. I never cease to be impressed by his talent! :) You can check those pictures out on facebook for now. I will post some here as well. Our furniture arrived a week ago and we just bought some shelving for Luke's toys. I still need to wipe down the walls and do a little touch up painting where the walls/trim were scuffed with the carpet installation.

Luke is as ornery as ever. He gets more and more independent every day! Everything is "Luke David do it". He climbs up everything and jumps OFF everything! He loves to run and have us chase him, or have us run carrying him so the dogs will chase us both! He's a good eater (even ate some of my fish and spinach (with vinegar on it), the other night! LOVES LOVES LOVES fruit though....blueberries, grapes, bananas, and pineapple are among the favorites. He is STILL sleeping in his crib......cause mommy isn't ready to deal with a toddler in and out of bed at all hours! Since I'm still working nights half the time and really like the naps with Luke before I go in the evening, I'm not ready to give that up! He loves to climb into his bed for nap/bedtime, but has never climbed out. That'll be my sign I guess! He uses the potty on ocassion, but seems to have lost a little interest unless he's bribed with a sticker or food. Since he loves to go outside, we're looking into finally buying a swingset for him so he actually has something to do when we got out. Hopefully we'll get the area mulched in for him and put his sand and water table there as well. Just waiting for it to get a tad warmer out! Since Luke talks all the time now, I'll have to get some on video and post it soon.

Other than that, we've been very slow in the NICU for the last month or so. It was certainly a welcome change at the beginning but now has become a little more scary. Since we have adequate staff now, there are a lot of nurses typically scheduled for each shift and we're having to call off (either voluntarily or mandate) 3+ nurses each shift. Again, it was nice to be able to take of a day or two here and there, but now we're being forced to sometimes twice a week. We can opt to just stay home for 4 hours (which means I could come and work for the other 8) and that counts as my turn. But people are running out of holiday/vacation time and are having to take the time unpaid. I have been 12 hours short on my last 3 pays. Aultman is making some big cutbacks right now anyhow....have not had to let go of staff yet, but they're doing everything but. Just say a prayer that our unit picks up enough for most of the nurses to get their hours in. At least David has been working fairly steadily the past 3 weeks or so which has been wonderful!

In Family News - I can't believe my baby sister is getting married in 3 months!!! Isn't she still 4?
David's sis Dana is closing in on the end of her 2nd trimester and will be registering this week!! YIPEE :)

Heather's hubby David accepted a pharmacy teaching position at Ohio Northern which will allow them to live in the Perrysburg area (Toledo) and commute to the University and allow Heather to keep her current teaching postion in Michigan. They're in the process of house hunting!! Yeah :) Totally not fair that they BOTH will have their summers off TOGETHER!!


Enjoy the Luke pictures below.....I'm doing the "Biggest Loser" at work and am trying to win the thing so I can get some money!! If that happens, I plan to purchase (I think) a new Digital SLR camera. A Canon Rebel Xsi - I know several people who have it and LOVE it. So in the next few months hopefully my pictures will be even better!! :) We'll see......lost 15 lbs so far, which doesn't seem like a lot, but there have been quite a few who have slacked off! haha. It ends April 15, so I'll let you know how it turns out!! Now on to the pictures!

Took Luke to Chucky Cheese's for the first time the week after his bday. It was very crowded but he LOVED it!!

Playing at the sink.....washing his dinosaurs.

Daddy made Luke a towel hat.

OCD?? All of these bottles started out in the box and before I knew it, Luke had stacked them neatly on my partyware boxes! What a little weirdo!! :)



Visiting a friend of mine Rachel and her 3 month old Lily. Luke was enamored with her (for about 10 minutes) and wanted to hold her. Being very gentle :)

"Baby Yily" - so excited to have her.

New girlfriend - giving kisses!

Luke wanted to show Lily his "bracelet" (mommy's hair band), She actually seemed quite intrigued!

My recent facebook profile pic....after the visit with Lily, he wanted some spaghetios. So we stripped down and let him eat on the counter. Sauce ended up on the walls, floor, dogs, chairs etc. Guess who will never let her son do that again??? (Not that I didn't see it coming in the first place!!)

The hunting buddies

"Ooops you caught me!!"

Climbing into his bed

Rock rockin with "big blue bear"

Common bedtime position!

Mmmm, nothin beats some yummy bath water!

Bathtub posing





Actually he pretends to lay down and go "night night" :)

Smelling his stinky feet

Lovin bath time!

Went for an over due visit to see Luke's great great grandma and grandpa! They really got a kick out of him of course!



The boys adorable, but I can't get him to smile with his eyes open anymore!! :)

Goofball!

Another favorite activity....climbing barefoot up the side of the steps.

That's all folks....till next time. I'll post some basement photos is a few days!

Better late than never! My sweetie pie is 2!

First of all, my deepest apologies for such a belated post! I don't know how many of you check my blog periodically for updates, but I'm sorry that you haven't found anything for quite some time

Unfortunately now, as I have a minute to post the past few weeks (months!), my computer is dead (hopefully only temporarily) and I can't access my pictures at the moment to post the most recent ones. I still have them on my card, but don't want to bombard David's computer with any extras since it's a GUARANTEE that if ANYTHING would happen to his computer ANYTIME in the next 10 years, ALL blame would be on me. So I am trying not to do anything that would put his computer at risk. I had uploaded a few pictures about 2 weeks ago (a few that are already on facebook), and that's all I have for you now.

We've been quite busy with the basement the past month or so. David hasn't had much work at all during that time, so although our income has suffered, it HAS provided time for him to get the basement completed. We are actually supposed to get the carpet insalled tomorrow! It was supposed to be next Tues, but they called and wanted to move the time up.... still lots of touch up painting that needs done first, so we'll be busting our butts to get that done before they come tomorrow. There will definitely be pictures to follow. It'll be WONDERFUL to have a new space that I can store Luke's toys and he can play! I'll have my living room back! YIPEE! It's the little things in life folks.

Luke turned 2 on January 21 and we had a small party for him the 17th. He seemed to enjoy all the balloons, the present of course and the cake! It was cute to watch him get excited about the gifts he was opening and wanting to play with them. I just can't believe the little guy is 2! When I look back at his baby pictures, it seems like I'm looking at some other child...could my doodlebug have possibly been that small? It seems like a lifetime ago, yet just like yesterday that he was a 7 pound infant. He's talking all the time and has even referred to me as "Angela"! Ornery little booger, that's for sure. He has been using the potty on a semi-regular basis...around bed/bath time especially. If I let him run around with his diaper off he is more likely to pee in the potty then. Sometimes it's with mention of needing to go from me, and other times he does it completely on his own then comes to tell me. On Valentine's Day he went poopy for the first time on it! I was so excited for him!! He had his 2 year check up in late Jan and got a clean bill of health! I've certainly lucked out in that regard with the litte guy. He's only had a few little colds in his 2 years of life. No awful upper respiratory illnesses, no ear infections, no GI flu....praise the Lord for that! Surprising with all the furry creatures we have around this place :) Anyhow his new measurements are....

Weight: 29 lbs (with clothes and wet diaper on)
Height: 34 inches.

His ht and wt are now closer to the same percentile. His first year his wt was always lower than the Dr. wanted, but he's certainly caught up! The kid can eat! So now he's around 55-65% for both :).

Luke loves dinosaurs, Clifford, Nemo, hitting balls, getting dizzy (or as he says "get busy"), jumping off of things, "playing" Wii, reading books, coloring...all the typical toddleresque things. He pretty much will eat anything we do. LOVES pancakes and PB and J sandwiches, but also green beans, cottage cheese, and just about any kind of fruit! I don't know how long his tastes for these things will last, but hopefully forever.....good luck with that I know.

That's about it for now from my end. The only thing I want to say is....I'm SICK of winter! Although it IS a good excuse to stay in my jammies all day with Luke when I'm off, I'm certainly beyond ready for some warm, sunny, DRY, days! I'm sure many of you feel the same way. I'll hopefully get my computer back up and running before long and can provide some updated shots of my ornery son.

Sneaking some icing

Blowin out the candles



Drunk on cake!

Hmmm...I think I may be close to finishing.....


Some evening homemade popcorn courtesy of Grandpa Kandel to top off the day!

Playing hide-and-seek on the platform at church.

Our little Mozart.....you can start purchasing tickets now.





Luke's new bowling set! Since he loved the Wii bowling so much, we thought he'd enjoy the real thing!

Ready to roll....

Gonna be a strike! Anytime he knocks some pins down he says "nice spare"!

Just some tid bits

My naked little monkey dancing on the desk

I had a few things to share so I'm writing a brief post to share my over the top excitement about Luke the past two days. When he woke up in the morning on Thursday, his poor little behind was itchy and had some red spots on it, so I let the little guy run around without a diaper on for awhile. While playing on mommy's bed, I asked if he had to go pee pee and he said no, but then proceeded to climb down and go into the bathroom and pee on his potty! The most he's ever gone :) He got much praise of course

Then about an hour and a half later when asked if he needed to use the potty he said no again. This time he was pretty certain.....until offered a Skittle. I know I know...we're not supposed to reward and punish our children with food, but scold me if you must, I rewarded. He indeed went pee again (about the same amount) as last time.

Yesterday with the promise (again) of an animal cracker Luke used his small toilet one more time! YEAH!! :) The kicker came at bedtime lastnight though. When I told him it was time for bed, on his own he said "use potty" as he climbed down off the bed and wandered into the main bathroom (where his potty chair is NOT) so I had to correct him and tell him to come in mommy's bathroom to use his potty. He pointed at the large toilet and said "big potty". Sure enough I held him on it and he peed and peed away, wiped, flushed it, and PUT THE SEAT DOWN!!! Look at that, he's already ahead of his daddy! :) Call me crazy I know, but I almost got teary eyed as my not-even-two-year-old used the adult potty for the first time!

I know it was a long story....about a kid peeing, so thanks for bearing with me.

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I also found a couple of long lost Christmas pics I wanted to post two of them and some from yesterday and today.

Luke partaking in Aunt Dana's "graham cracker house" - eating the M and M's off the top.

Taking a quick break

Daddy and Luke taking a nap together

Fell asleep on the couch in the afternoon. Guess it was nap time.

Getting ready to climb on the desk

Doing some more Wii bowling......he scored an 85 by the 7th frame! It took him 1/2 an hour but hey....who's counting.

Found him walking around in my new boots. No idea how he got them on!

And a new year begins....

Happy New Year Everyone!! I have no doubt that 2009 will be a year to remember! Hope everyone rang in the new year with friends an family and have enjoyed the first few days of the 365 to come. I myself had festivities at work as a few of us gathered quickly to watch the ball drop in between feedings and alarms. I really don't think the babies really cared so much, but we wished them Happy New Year anyhow! David was with the youth group up in NY skiing, so we were definitely far apart! I called and left a quick voicemail seconds after the ball fell...of course he had turned his phone off to conserve battery life since he forgot his charger. It's the thought that counts right? He's home safe and sound now and we're looking forward to sharing 2009 as a family.

Anyhow, now that the holidays are FINALLY over (man I LOVE all the family and celebration, but it's quite draining.....I'm sure you'll all agree) the tree is down, the decorations put away, and the smell of cookies and gingerbread are long gone. Who am I kidding, those smells were never here to begin with! Such a bad mommy and wife! :) Luke was quite a trooper making the holiday rounds....pulling many a LATE nights (but thankfully following that with sleeping in).

The weekend before Christmas we were blessed to go see the Radio City Rockette's at the State Theater in Cleveland with my whole family courtesy of my Grandma and Grandpa Kandel! A HUGE thank you to them for lunch at Stancato's and a great performance. We had a really nice time together and thankfully there was no snow storm as in years past. My only complaint was the bitter bitter cold (it was 3 degrees when we left).

Christmas was my holiday off this year (although I worked the Tues before and then Friday/Sat/Sun) so we went to the Christmas Eve service at church, and then headed over the the Estes' for some fondu with Dana and Steve. From there ran over to my mom and dad's to visit and play some Wii. Good times for all! Came home to put Luke to bed and set out the presents under the tree....even loaded up the ones to take back to grandma and grandpa's in the morning.

Christmas Day brought a lazy morning with us all forced to get up at 8am so we could get back to Grandma and Grandpa Kandels' house. Oh how I don't look forward to the Christmas mornings when the kids are up at 4 am rarin to go! haha :) Got to my parent's about 9:30, had our yummy marshmallow crescent rolls (SO delicious...if you want the recipe, leave a comment). My grandparents were there as well to join in the festivities! Took our time and watched each other open gifts. It's so nice because we do it in such a relaxed fashion and get to enjoy the experience. Luke participated some of the time and enjoyed playing with one of the first gifts he opened...the fire hose ball shooter from grandma! After a yummy lunch there, we ran to the Estes'. Had more food while Luke napped and then we were able to open our gifts while he slept. When he got up, there were some visitors and Luke was being rather grumpy - not wanting to open his gifts. So with much prodding (and assistance), we managed! Lots more goodies. This kid isn't spoiled or anything! Left about 6:30ish to head back to our house for Christmas there. I was keeping my fingers crossed that Luke would want to participate in the opening of Santa's presents, and sure enough he was! He helped open nearly each one and LOVED his stretchy worms, drums, and dinos the best I think. About 10 we had to call it quits so I could shower and get to bed for my 3 day stretch at work. I got to surprise David with 2 pretty good gifts which was nice, since he usually spoils me!

So needless to say we had an incredibly blessed Christmas season this year. Along the way keeping in mind the birth of our Savior over 2000 years ago and that HE is the reason we celebrate! It is only with his birth and death that we have will be able to spend eternity with Him. How awesome!

Before the pictures come, I wanted to share this amazing and touching video with you below. Some coworkers showed it to me on New Year's and it is so cool that I wanted to pass it on. The actual video takes place from 1969/1970 but was aired a few months back on "The View". I had never heard about it until now, but it's about Christian the Lion who was adopted and released back into the wild. It's about 2 minutes so grab a tissue and enjoy :)



Cleveland to see the Rockette's

David and I at Stancato's Italian Resturant

Passing Jacob's Field....well, what USED to be Jacob's Field. Stupid Progressive!

(not a bad picture since we're driving AND it's through the windshield!)

The BEAUTIFUL ceiling in the State Theatre



My naked boy "fixing" (hammering) the fridge



Opening his tool set from Aunt Denise....sawing the wood.




Checking out his remote dinosaur....not too sure about it at first so he was checking it out from farther away :)

Looking back at Great Grandma :)

Playing with Reggie...cousin Sam's puppy

Rockin with Reggie


Christmas Eve

Cutest smile EVER :)

Kandel family picture....not the best, but hey we're all there!

Sweepin Grandma Estes' floor

In our stockings every year, Sheree gets us punching balloons. Luke LOVED trying to blow them up and hitting them all around.

playing the Wii with Aunt Julie

CHRISTMAS DAY

(pictures are out of order)

Grandma and Grandpa Estes'

The stocking hung by the fire with glee....

Some gifts by the tree

Haha....Sheree thought it would be funny to get Dave a JUMBO remote since he has a harder time seeing now :) Like his goofy grin?

Luke LOVES coffee! NOT something I starte (ahem....daddy). He drank half of grandpa's cup!

Cuddle time with grandma

His "giant" T Rex



Our house

Diggin into his stocking

Shooting his wormies with the machine gun (and NO I would NEVER buy my 2 year old a gun) Oops.

An updated "oldie but goodie"....the viewfinder. This one is a discover channel one and has some disks that have audio too! Very cool!

TBall set from Aunt Carol! He plays with is ALL the time :)

climbin on daddy's back.

He spent at least 15 minutes vacuuming with the sweeper, and using his broom and dustpan!

This was his high pitched "eeeeeee" face when he opened the dinosaur set! It was SOO cute!

Kissing T Rex

The next rock star. Daddy told him how to say "Rock On" when he plays

A TRUE look of surprise when he opened a mysterious last gift while he was on the phone talking to his dad. It was something he'd really really wanted for his bow to hunt with.

Our tree with all the presents!



In the dark




Luke having 1 on 1 time with Great Grandma




Great face! Trying his first sour patch kid!

Still recovering from the taste

Great G and G's present from Heather, Julie, and myself

Hmmmm....what's in here?

Veggie Tales DVD

New hat and Dick's gift card!

Kisses for papa Gene

We left the kid alone in the kitchen for 2 minutes and he snuck himself some powdered donuts.....can ya tell?

A Wii for mom and dad!! Ever since playing Heather and David's at Thanksgiving they've really been into it! They're both pretty competetive though, we'll be hearing about a divorce by May. Haha, just kidding!

Napping with Aunt Heather

Chillin in the box that our chest was in



Post Christmas Visit

I was thankfully able to meet with a few girlfriends from highschool one evening after work (as you can tell by the scrubs). It was especially nice cause Sarah (in black) married a Canadian and is living up there now, so we rarely get to see her :( Had a nice time chatting and playing with the dog and cats!

Here's to 2009! Love to all!