2008: A Year in Review

January:
*Luke giggles and rolls over
*Weighed 12lbs 8oz at 3 months
*Luke begins sleeping through the night
*Kyle estimates I've fed Luke over 750 times.

February:
*Rachel turns 19 + 8!

March:
*Kyle goes skiing with his friends for his 30th! birthday.
*Weighs 14 lbs 12oz at 5 months

April:
*Latricia here for a visit
*Jeremy and Hannah visit
*Fist visit to the park
*Luke sleeps from 8pm to 8-8:30 am
*Luke gets his first tooth and eats rice cereal
*Weighs 15lbs 8oz

May:
*Visit Nebraska
*Hays family reunion in Kremlin, OK and visit Dana
*Enjoy many paddle boat rides
*Kyle purchases and revamps a new website

June:
*Luke crawls and pulls up

July:
*Visit from the Herringtons and the Vardemans
*Love affair with CVS begins
*At 9 months Luke weighs 17lbs 8oz

August:
*Trip to San Fransisco and Sancramento
*Rachel becomes official Body and Soul instructor
*Luke's first haircut
*Got a boat
*Luke begins pointing

September:
*Visit Dana
*Boating
*Luke becomes onery
*Lake house framed
*Dad flys himself down for a visit

October:
*Luke turns 1!!! and weighs 18lbs 8oz.
*Trip to the pumpkin patch and is a Chinaman for Halloween
*Luke takes steps
*Luke and I go to Nebraska

November:
*Family pictures
*Thanksgiving in Hobbs

December:
*Christmas is Nebraska
*Luke doesn't like Santa Clause

You better watch out, you better not cry

Luke with Santa 2007
Luke with Santa 2008

We went to Quail Springs Mall today to get Luke's picture taken with Santa Clause. It didn't go as well as last year. But what I really can't believe, is how much he's changed. He almost doesn't even look like the same baby.

On the way to Sam's

Kyle: Have you been to Sam's recently?
Me: No
Kyle: Well, you won't believe all the awesome stuff they have now.

Heard today

"I love Sam's. If I could have a shopping spree anywhere, it would be Sam's. I could spend a million dollars in that store."
---spoken with reverence, Kyle Soper

Luke is a BAD BABY!

Does this pose look familiar, Audra?

He refused to eat lunch today. And by refused to eat, I mean, he ate not a single bite. NOT ONE! So I tried again an hour later and all he would eat were his peas. So, now he has to wait for supper. (He doesn't have a temp) I don't know what to do. Give him the same thing he refused as lunch (he's eaten it before) or try something different. I emailed Luke's pediatrician. We'll see what he says.

SO

I HAVE A HEADACHE AND NOTHING TO TAKE BECAUSE THE 6 BOTTLES OF EXCEDRINE (THAT I GOT FOR FREE) I CAN'T TAKE BECAUSE THEY UPSET MY TUMMY!

Shh!

So I got the greatest thing ever in the mail today. It's a Christmas gift for someone. Thus the secret. I like it so much I'm almost tempted to keep it for myself. But then I'd have to come up with another idea. I love it when something turns out better than you'd hoped.

Anyway, Luke has been sick/teething lately. He's had a fever since Saturday. Pretty low grade, but enough to make him not sleep well for his naps, so he's been extra cranky. Today, no temp and he's acting like himself again. He basically hasn't played with toys since Saturday. He's been very clingy. Hopefully we're over the hump and he'll have a tooth to show for all this. Otherwise, that means he's been for real sick...and we've still got the same amount of teeth on the way to crank him out in the future.

Mr. Universe

So, after my last post, Kyle received a "fan mail" for being great and helping out with that kind of horrible poop mess. I'm thinking after yesterday, he might just deserve SOME fan mail. Like maybe 2 or something.

Last night we were getting ready for bed and Kyle says -out of the blue-, "OU has a by tomorrow, so why don't I watch Luke and you see what Shanna is doing. You guys could go shopping or something." I have to admit, I was stunned speachless. I was so excited I literally had dreams all night long about all the things I could get done today sans Luke. This morning I told Kyle I was greedy (see how I repay kindness? There's no question who the better person is in this relationship!) and that I needed 2 days of him watching Luke, that I had too long of a To Do list to just go have fun with Shanna (sorry Shanna! But from the sound of it there will TOTALLY be a next time!! Start saving your Shanna dollars now!!!). So today I went and did almost all of my Christmas shopping. I have just a handful of people left (the ones I didn't have ideas for). I left at 10:30 and didn't get home until 4. I made 12 stops. Today would have been completely impossible without Kyle. Isn't this the greatest story you've ever heard? Fun day with Shanna...TBA.

Sorry ladies, he is SO taken. =)

We had an emergency.

He looks sweet and inocent. Things are seldom what they seem.

A poop emergency. I have to leave for my bible study at 6:10. So at 6pm I went back to change Luke's dirty diaper and gather up my things to head out the door. Unknown to me, he had pooped out of his diaper, so when I took of his pants it got all over his leg and his sock...big mess. However, I've dealt with the likes of THAT before. But then he kicked. And not just a little kick, an all out spazoid kick. Poop flew everywhere. My clothes, my hair...my face. So I stood there and yelled for Kyle. The poor guy. What a mess to walk in on. He took over and I hopped in the shower...and I was still out the door at 6:10 and made it to Precepts on time. That's right. I'm fast like that.

Happy Halloween!

The pictures don't really do Luke's costume justice. We had the hardest time getting a picture. He didn't want to stand, and he REALLY wanted to take his hat and shoes off. You can't really see, but his hat has a long black braid in the back. Kyle hasn't had a chance to fix the red eye yet so ignore that, and also ignore my face. I'm not really on drugs. I promise.

We went Trick-or-Treating to the other 4 houses in our neighborhood. Only Rick and Davida Taylor across the street were home. Luke got some candy corns. I'm sure Kyle and I will have to eat them for him. The sacrifices we make for our child are incredible.

Dear Ol' Nebraska

Luke and I had big fun in Nebraska once we got there. Our flight out of OKC was delayed so we didn't get to Michael and Audra's until 10:45pm. Mom and dad drove to Omaha to get us on Friday and we went back to their place and Michael and Audra came about a half hour later.

Saturday we didn't do a whole lot. Luke did help Grandpa with chores. He had big fun. They were gone for a long time. They rode the tractor and saw the horses and cows. Luke and Grandpa are best buds. They also spent quite a while swinging later that day.

Here is Solomon playing outside on Saturday. He liked to swing around that orange pole. He is one cute little boy. He is talking SO MUCH. It's incredible. He's pretty far ahead on the verbal skills. He's also very obsessed with "moneys".

Sunday we went to church and then ate afterwards and came home. Luke finally got used to Solomon and really began coming out of his shell. Friday and Saturday if Solomon wanted to take a toy from Luke, he would just let him and then wait for him to put it down and then he'd go and get it back. But on Sunday...Luke was gripping onto his toys. He also layed down on top of Solomon and patted his head and hugged and kissed him. Solomon just lay on his back and let Luke poke and prod at him. Luke about poked his eyeballs out and then Solomon decided he'd had enough and got up. Sunday night (I think) they played peek-a-boo with each other. They each hid around a corner and then would come out and peek at the other and yell. It was so sweet to watch them play together. We will miss them when they move even farther away in a few months.

Luke wearing Solomon's sunglasses. Luke seems to think he's from the west-side. We're really from the east side. We will work on correcting this error.

The boys also loved to stand on my moms step and look out the window together. Here they are on Sunday. Solomon is 5 months older than Luke.

Monday mom took me back to M&A's and my friend Jill Poyzer came over for supper. I haven't seen her in almost a year, so it was nice to catch up. Tuesday M&A both had to go to work so I watched Luke and Solomon. We danced and played bubbles and played on Solomon's slide. Solomon hit Luke on the head with a book, pushed him down the slide, Luke fell down the stairs...yeah...I'd say I'm not quite ready for two!!

Luke really did pretty well. His naps weren't the greatest and he had trouble going down for some of them and had trouble going down 2 nights, but overall did great.

I did have another adventure trying to get home. Our flight from Omaha was delayed for about 15 minutes, so we were late arriving in Chicago. I was supposed to arrive at 4 with my next flight boarding at 4:50 and departing at 5. Well we arrived at 4:15. No big deal. I wasn't stressing. Then we sat in the plane waiting for a gate. And sat some more. And some more. I finally got off the plane at 4:45ish, praying my next gate was close. Not so much. After running like a crazy woman through the Chicago airport (seriously I ran at least 3/4 mi.), I made it to my gate at 4:59 according to my watch. The door is closed. I started to cry. There was a pilot sitting close by eating his supper so I asked him if the plane to OKC had already left. They hadn't pulled away from the gate yet so we went to see what he could do. He finally came back and said they'd already taken down the ramp but that it wouldn't be a problem and someone would be out shortly to get me. I cry some more...out of relief. I thanked that wonderful man for helping me and then I gave him a huge hug. I think he thinks I'm a little disturbed, but I DON'T CARE!!! It wasn't a big deal to him to help me out, but it was a HUGE deal to me. Turns out I was so late getting on the plane that I didn't even make it onto the manifest, so United thought I'd missed my flight and called Kyle and told him I wouldn't be arriving until the next morning. I would have had to have spent the night in the airport if I would've missed my flight. But it all worked out. I am one thankful girl.

Luke and I are trying to get back on schedule. We're really working to get adjusted to the time change. He stayed up until 8:30 tonight. It was a rough evening. He was pretty cranky. Hopefully he'll sleep late.

Another Great Deal!

Luke playing outside with the pecan shells and his "bucket".

So, I won't even mention the great deals I got at CVS and Walgreens this week, and skip right to the 20, yes 20! steak hamburgers I got from Omaha Steaks for $1.98.

Luke had hot dog (aka Turkey Dogs) bites today for lunch. Loved them! And since we're not putting that tiny guy on a diet anytime soon, Eat up kid!

1 year well baby check up!

Here is a picture of Luke with the horse his Grandpa Dana got him for his birthday. He loves it. He decided to name it Buddy after Granpa Olson's horse.

We took Luke to the the doctor this morning. He did fine. He threw the HUGEST cry fit when Dr. Stephens picked him up. He cried more about that than he did the two shots he got! He weighs 18lbs 8oz (the bottom 3%) and is 28 1/2 inches long (bottom 10%). Dr. Stephens said he certainly isn't the biggest kid on the block, but he's doing fine. He's just a little man. I think that even though he looks like his daddy, that he must have some Olson in him size-wise!

Luke is very excited to leave for Nebraska on Thursday!!!

Parkhurst Pumpkin Patch

There was a lot to do at the Pumpkin patch. We had a good time. We went right after Luke woke up from his nap. The pumpkin patch was only about a 5 minute drive from our house, so that was nice. We started off at the petting zoo. Luke really liked to see the animals up close and was very excited, kicking, squealing and bobbing around like a crazy man. He was hard to keep a hold of. However, he was also pretty timid of them and not really sure if he wanted to touch them or not, especially the larger animals. Someone there had their pet ferret and he really enjoyed petting that as well as the bunnies. He liked to try to step on the bunnies.
After the petting zoo we went for a hay ride. We got really lucky, we didn't have to stand in line at all. The hay ride was nice. We went in a big circle around the property. It wasn't much to look at but they had hidden pumpkins along the path so they were fun to look for. Luke liked chewing on the piece of straw I gave him so he could be a "real farmer". He did a lot of pointing at the tractor.
Here's Luke sitting among their large pumpkins. They were really neat, a lot of different colors. I really liked how these shots of Luke turned out. Watch out Johnny! Here I come!
Here is Luke with the small pumpkin he picked out. It will be decoration for a while and then I plan on roasting it and pureeing it for Luke. So, he'll be eating that pumpkin in a few weeks! We had a good time. It was fun to see him see different animals up close for the first time. We might need to hit the zoo one more time on a nice day sometime soon.

Today is a sad day.

HAPPY 1st BIRTHDAY, LUKE!!

We started off today with a round of Happy Birthday. Then we had a bath. This was right before he got out...I had already begun to dry his hair. A boy just has to smell good on his bid day. Pardon the red eye. I'm posting this before Kyle has had a chance to fix the red eye in this batch of pictures.
Here is Luke's birthday cupcake. Lowfat. With just a little frosting. I was going to not do any frosting, but then I decided, Hey, the kid's only one once...so I put on enough to just barely cover the top. Yeah, I'm crazy like that.
Here we are eating the cupcake! Yum yum! He didn't go crazy or anything. He hadn't eaten his lunch all that long before this so he wasn't hungry. He mostly like to hold the whole thing in his hand and shake it around.

We had a good crowd for his birthday. Kyle's dad came from Pond Creek and my grandparents came from Ponca City. Johnny and Cindy came with the boys (and it was a good thing, Luke needed help with all those presents!). Grandpa WT and Gigi came and so did Traver.

Damian and Isaac had a lot of fun helping Luke with his presents. They liked to choose which one he was to open next and help him open it ect. Cindy kept reminding the boys to let Luke help and one time Damian (age 4) replied, "Well if he's not going to do it, I have to do it for him!" Cute. Luke loves all his presents. I'll post more pictures of that later once the red eye gets fixed, but I thought Luke's public would need a few NOW!
Grandpa Wilbur thought it was too bad that nobody liked Luke enough to bring him any presents =) (This was said in the middle of the living room that looked like it got hit by a tornado. I haven't picked it up yet because I don't know where it's all going to go!)

I did end today on a sad note. I'm sad that Luke's birthday day is over. He's one. I teared up (I did NOT cry...that would be silly) thinking about how my little baby is growing up. He's a whole year old. His first birthday day is over and he'll never have another one. Kyle tried to cheer me up, but I just want to wallow for a while.

We're planning on going to the Pumpkin Patch tomorrow east of Arcadia (less than 5 miles from our house). So I'll have a post soon about that. And then Luke has his well baby appointment on Tuesday. See what you all have to look forward to? I'm glad I'm here to give your lives meaning again.

House Update

Here's the latest pictures of the house. We got them today. Ironically, Kyle went to the lake house today and forgot the camera. The neighborhood developer just happened to take these and email them to us! Happy day!

Kyle went up and met with the builder to discuss exciting things like outlets. And phone jacks. Doesn't that just give you chills of excitement??!?!?!?! Yeah. Me neither. But the house is coming along great, and that IS exciting.

Luke took 1 45 minute nap yesterday. He was a bad baby. He did better today, but not by much. He took a 1 hr 10 min morning nap and a 20! minute afternoon nap, followed by an hour crying session, interrupted by periods of screaming when I would go up, lay him back down and say, go to sleep Luke, naptime isn't over. It didn't work, but I tried. On a happy note, Luke turns one on Saturday. His birthday party is at 1pm. He's very excited for his cupcake.

I also joined a coupon swap website today. We'll see. Bring on those Pampers coupons! I need 'em!

Let the people have Madness

Luke pushing his car 9/22

Dancing 9/26

Laundry 10/4

Riding horsie 10/4

Madness. We need more madness!

Dancing 9/9


Belly Button 9/9

Blink 9/13

Luke and Grandpa Olson 9/19

The Madness Continues

7/10

7/11 Upside Down

7/12 Tickle Torture

Peek-a-boo! 7/17

8/19 Tunnel

Pointing 8/29

More Madness

Playing Toys-6/16

Doesn't like cottage cheese!

6/19

6/25

6/26

October Video Madness

Pulling up in May

Just learning to crawl-May

Pulling up on Stairs-June

Playing toys-June

Haircut

Luke riding on Brandon's remote control Hummer this past Sunday evening.

So. I tried to trim Luke's hair while he was in the bath the other day. Just a little...around the ears, his forhead and his neck. Kyle saw him on Sunday and made me promise to never touch his hair with scissors again. I'm no Chandra!

Updates!!

Luke: Is taking steps! His max is 7. He will mostly walk between Kyle and I, but will occasionally walk between two close objects.

Kyle: Is busy getting our old house ready to sell. No more renting =). We're putting in granite counter tops, recarpeting and repainting. We're also stripping off all the old wallpaper and painting instead. And by "we" here, I, of course, mean Kyle. We also got in Luke's new carseats. Kyle's been messing with them tonight.

Me: I made contact with an interior decorator to help us...well, decorationally challenged Soper's with the new house. I haven't been doing anything new or great shakes. I'm enjoying my Precepts class on Monday nights. I'm taking a meal to some friends tomorrow so I baked a cake to take to them today.

Traver: Traver has been coming only 2 days a week now, Monday and Wednesday and only eats with us on Monday nights. He's too good for us on Wednesday's now...he has to eat $3 hamburgers instead. He's been working hard on VTR and sometimes at the end of the day he's working on his website http://www.foregolftournament.com/ . He and his roomie got a new dog, an Akita, named Tasha.

This is a long one!

Dad visits! This past weekend my dad came to visit. It was a quick trip. We picked him up at the airport in Guthrie Friday afternoon and we dropped him off Sunday morning at 9am. He flew the smallest 2 seater I've ever seen. And by that I mean the smallest two seater they had sitting outside at the Guthrie airport when I was there. It was fun to be able to watch him take off Sunday morning. Luke likes airplanes so he enjoyed our visits to the airport as well.

We didn't do a whole lot on Friday except watch Luke play toys. He did a good job showing off his tricks to dad. He blinked and scooted backwards on the hardwood. We also went for a walk Friday. We took Luke out in his new wagon that his Great-Grandpa Olson made him. It turned out great and Luke likes riding in it better than his stroller. It's a hit with all of us. Luke did reach a milestone. He took two steps while dad was watching. A first for him...that hasn't been repeated. I wrote in his baby book that he took steps, but he isn't walking yet!

Luke eating lunch today. Sorry this picture is out of order.
Saturday we played more toys and dad babysat Luke that evening while Kyle and I went out to eat. Since it was a special occassion (the second time we've gone out without Luke in 11 months...) Kyle made reservations at the Melting Pot and we got to use the Gift Card the Cress family (THANKS BRIDGET!) got Kyle for his 30th birthday. It was wonderful. It's definately my new favorite special-occasion-only restaurant. We ordered a meal package that included cheese fondue (with apples, veggies, and various breads for dippers), a salad, the entree (lobster, filet mignon, chicken, pork, shrimp, salmon and tortellini along with veggies and potatoes for dippers and too many sauces to name), and dessert (Snickers fondue-chocolate, chuncky peanut butter and carmel-with fruit, brownies, cheesecake, rice-crispie treats, marshmellows and pound cake for dippers). We both ate WAY too much. I definately enjoyed an evening out. Don't worry, we were home by 8:00 so I could nurse Luke and put him to bed.

Sunday we dropped dad off and Luke had fun watching the airplanes at the airport. He especially liked watching his Grandpa take off.

Luke is on a crazy learning curve right now. It's fun to be able to see what he is actually learning. He can point to his head when asked and he can point to the farmer on his See and Say and his dog and fish on his puzzle. He clapped Sunday afternoon for the first time. (Dad you barely missed that one!) He's only done it a few times. And this morning !cute story! he was looking at one if his books that has a mirror in the back. He kept pointing at himself and then he'd take his hand away and do it again. He did this several times. So I asked him, "Luke, who's is that?" pointing at him in the mirror, and then he pointed at himself! While he's learning new tricks, he's also learning to be onery.

Example 1: Today he was sitting next to and pointing at our artificial tree (which he knows he's not allowed to touch). When he would point at it I would say, "That's the tree that we do not touch." Luke points, I say...Luke points, I say etc. We do this several times and then while pointing at the tree but not touching with his finger he inched his big toe over and touched the tree with it. I died laughing...and then went over and swatted his foot.

Example 2: Tonight on our walk, Luke was riding on his wagon. He kept wanting to chew on the side so I would tell him not to and push his head back etc. After a sufficient amount of reminders I started thumping him lightly on his little mouth. So then he would turn and try to chew on the other side of the wagon-- the one I wasn't on. So I moved around. Thump. He goes to the other side. I move around. Thump. We do this several times. Then. He leans over, puts his thumb in his mouth (while holding onto the wagon). This is perfectly fine. Then he slowly pulls out his thumb so his mouth is now back on the wood. Like I wouldn't catch him. You guessed it. Laughter...and then a thump. I may be sending mixed messages. He's smart, but so far...I'm smarter. I predict this arrangement lasts at least a week. yeah.

Progress on our lake house! Kyle is going to Grove on Thursday to check things out for himself. More pictures when he returns.

Michael--don't bother reading this post...you'll just whine about it.

Today's I *heart* CVS deal. I got all of this ( 1 L'Oreal Revitalift, 4 cans of Progresso Chicken Noodle Soup Lite, 4 bags of Chex Mix, 2 Colgate Toothpastes and 2- 12ct boxes of Alavert) for $5.52 cents INCLUDING TAX. Plus! I got $5.99 ECB's back to use at a later date.
This weeks Walgreen's deal. All of this will be Free after I receive my rebate in the mail. Plus and additional 10% since I chose to get my rebate in the form of a Walgreens Gift Card.
Luke's 18mo. clothes.
Luke's 12 mo. clothes. Hopefully he won't have to go naked this winter!

Updates

It's time for updates on everyone! (Not just Luke) I'll put his at the end...saving the best for last.

Kyle: Kyle has been very busy looking for, finding, buying and learning about his new boat. He's taken it out a few time trying to get comfortable with it. He also recently bought a third website. It was an Orlando, FL rental website, but he's planning on taking it nation-wide. He's been sure busy lately recoding it into "his" code. He's given it a whole new look.

Me: I've been hopping around like mad everytime Luke goes down for a nap. I've learned all but one of the songs for this session, now. I've been calling half of the songs and Ruth Ann (my partner) calls the other half. Today we switched halves. I was NOT as good at these songs as I was the other. I have a LOT of work to do tomorrow. Today is laundry and errands and the grocery store so, no practice today.

Last week I went to a local baby/children's consignment sale and bought enough clothes to get Luke through this winter...I think =) I bought 12 month clothes and some 18 month clothes. We'll see if we make it through the winter or if I have to make emergency shopping runs like I did this summer.

I also signed up for a Precept Upon Precepts inductive bible study at a nearby church. I'd been doing these studies at our church, but decided I liked going to class with Kyle on Wednesday nights so I'd dropped Precepts. I've been missing it, so looked for an evening class. I go tonight for the first time at 6:30. It goes 'til 8:30, so I'll just leave early so I can put Luke to bed.

Luke: Loves to point. Ate a dead moth off the kitchen floor last week. Likes to swing and slide on his new "big toy" (found it on Craigs List and it's up in the game room). Can blink on purpose. (Is super cute..I'll attempt to get a picture) Can locate my belly button when asked.

This n That

A couple of weeks ago Luke's girl friend Hannah came over to play. She is about 2 1/2 months younger than Luke. They're almost the same size. ha. ha. They spent the afternoon stealing each others toys and not being mad about it. It was pretty cute.
A week ago Sunday, Kyle and I took Luke to the park. He had fun swinging. We know this because he smiled, unlike last time, when he didn't realize he was having a blast. We also went down the slide, but that wasn't as good as swinging. It started to sprinkle so we left a few minutes early. It was a nice evening and a nice way to spend it. AND! How cute is this picture of Luke and Kyle?

Last Thursday we went boating with the Hayes' on our new boat...The Sope Float. Luke had to wear his too big life jacket. It's a miracle the thing didn't choke him to death. And here we were worried about drowning. Luke liked the boat, he wasn't scared at all and he liked when the wind blew in his face. Luke and I are #1. So he says.
Luke and I went tubing. Kyle drove slow and we had a good time. There were lots of things for Luke to point at...the water, the sky, the trees, and other boats.
Then Kyle and I went tubing. Brandon had specific instructions that I did NOT want to be thrown off.
We spent Labor Day at Dana's. Again, Luke LOVED his dogs. He spent the day crawling around after them. They spent the day trying to escape.
My CVS deal of the week. I got all this for $0.48. Yea, that's right. Who's your daddy now?

Oh. My. Goodness.

Luke has been asleep for 3 hours. He hasn't done this since he was 2 months old or had a fever. I'm taking his temperature as soon as he wakes up. I didn't let him fall asleep on the car ride home from church today since last week he did and then thought he'd had his nap and didn't need a real one.

This is huge at our house. I guess today will be a one nap day.

There it is!

Luke has been pointing for about a week or so now. He's very good at running that little pointer finger of his these days. Everytime we go get him from his crib he always points at his OU mobile (ug.) that Georgeanne got him, then he points at his magnets and board he got from Vicki and sometimes he'll turn around and point at his toy in his crib and then he starts all over. Mobile, magnets, mobile, magnets... you get the picture. I tried to get a video the other day but he woke up cranky and wanted me to hold him while he pointed at everything. I'll have to try again when he wakes up from this nap.

Luke also got another tooth on Tuesday. His bottom left incisor. He's up to 7 teeth now. He's been kinda cranked out lately (and it didn't quit with the arrival of tooth #7) so hopefully it's because his 8th tooth in on the way.

Last night. For the first time... Luke stayed in the nursery at church the entire time and was HAPPY AND PLAYING! when Kyle and I picked him up. I think the nursery staff was more relieved than I was. I'm sure they just love it when Luke comes. Maybe last night will change their minds. He found a few favorite toys that he liked to play with and he appearantly laid down on top of another girl and then looked at everyone with his storty face smile, very proud of himself. So maybe he's cheating on his girlfriend, Hannah. Who knows. He's such a playa'.

He's also thinks it's fun to stand all by himself, but so far he's not willing to take any steps. I'm working on it. Don't you worry. You'll be the first to know.

Also, Luke and I have a trip to Nebraska planned (I'm going to email you and let you know mom, don't worry. hahah!) Luke and I will be flying to Omaha October 23rd and then flying back the 28th. It will be our first big trip by ourselves. Kyle decided he needed to stay home and work since we'll be traveling in November and December. I thought it would be easier to fly that far with him rather than drive. There are a lot of details that need ironed out, but we'll get it figured out soon.

We're taking the boat out this evening. It'll be Lukes first trip (and mine) in the boat. Maybe we'll remember the camera and take pictures.

Boat

Here's our boat. Kyle named it The Sope Float.

I have joined the rest of the known world.

I bought an ipod.

First Haircut!

Luke had his first haircut today. We went to Chandra Sisson (Traver's sister). She did a great job on a very wiggly Luke. He just got a little trim. His hair looks much nicer now.