November

We have been so busy lately that we have hardly had time to write about what we've been doing! November flew by, and we are already half way through December. Here is the last month in review:

Grandma and Grandpa Holthe came to visit us the weekend of November 15th and 16th. We watched the Husker game and played with Luke. It was lots of fun to have them stay with us.

The next weekend Luke and I made a trip to Omaha to go shopping with my Mom and Grandma. It was our annual Christmas shopping weekend. We did lots of shopping and had lots of fun in the hotel room.

After that was Thanksgiving. On Wednesday afternoon we drove to Fullerton to Grandma and Grandpa Krings' house. On Thanksgiving Day, Grandma and Grandpa Holthe joined us for lunch and an afternoon of football and Wii Sports. Everyone had a lot of fun! The next day we watched the Husker game with Grandma and Grandpa Krings, then drove to York to spend Saturday with the Holthes. Aunt Becky and Uncle Paul came from Lincoln for lunch and to see Luke and all his new tricks.

Since we got back from Thanksgiving, Matt and I have been trying to catch up on mountains of laundry, homework, and lots of spending time with Luke. We are also preparing for Christmas! The tree is up and decorated, presents are wrapped, and we have told Santa what we want for Christmas. (Santa came to daycare on Dec. 5th to see all the kids there.) We even had our first snow on the ground for this year! (No days off of school yet though.) We are getting very excited to spend Christmas with family and friends!

We have also had another new baby on our block. That makes 7 since March!! Addison joined us on November 12th.

Luke is now able to sit up on his own and can giggle! He loves to jump in his activity center and play with his toys. He has started to eat veggies - he loves the carrots and sweet potatoes that he has tried so far. We still have a few more to try, but so far he's eating really well. He will be 6 months old on the 12th!

Here are some pictures from the last month!

Grandma and Grandpa Krings came to visit!

This weekend Grandma and Grandpa Krings came all the way to Kansas City to visit! We tried as hard as we could to wait up for them on Friday night, but Luke didn't make it. He did wake up bright and early (4:30 am) to spend some time with Grandma and Grandpa on Saturday morning. My Grandma and Grandpa also came for the afternoon from Iowa. Luke had a great time, and kept everyone entertained by big smiles and showing off new skills. We also enjoyed a Husker win!! Go Big Red!!

Unfortunately the weekend was way too short and Grandma and Grandpa had to leave, but we are looking forward to a visit from Grandma and Grandpa Holthe next weekend.

The Holthes have enjoyed the past few weekends at home. Luke is getting bigger by the day! Our fun new toy is an activity bouncer with lots of fun things to play with - Luke loves it! Luke has also started eating cereal at supper time, and is finally getting the hang of it. Most of it actually gets eaten now, although a lot of it still ends up on his bib, the floor, and mom and dad!

Here's a few pictures of the last few weeks.

Charlie Brown's 1st Halloween

Luke had his first Halloween - he went as Charlie Brown! He got to wear his costume to daycare for a big parade and party. After that, we came home and handed out candy to trick-or-treaters in our neighborhood, then went across the street to a party! We had a fun night - here are the pictures from our day!

Luke and Olivia at daycare Halloween party.

Luke and Liam. Liam is dressed as Frankenstein.

We caught him!

We finally caught Luke rolling over on video today! He makes it look so easy now, although he only does it when he chooses to. Enjoy the video!

Today Luke is 4 months old. I can't believe it's going so fast!

The Holthe family enjoyed a weekend at home this week. We went shopping, watched Nebraska almost win, and spent lots of time playing. We had a great time!





Here is a cute picture of Luke enjoying the Husker game.

The weekend after Uncle Tommy came up, the Holthes traveled to Red Oak, IA to see Great Grandma and Great Grandpa Holm to celebrate Great Grandpa's birthday. It's difficult to get everyone together, especially when working around Luke's schedule. :) We all had a good time and Luke got to meet more family.

The last two weekends we spent in Kansas City! It was a nice change to spend some time at home. Luke was able to get on a schedule and has slept through the night several times! Lately, it's been a 50/50 chance of a full night sleep. What tonight will bring, no one knows!

We had a chance to hang out with Travis, Jen, & Olivia Fucich for a nice evening of burgers and football at their house in Olathe during the Husker's off week. Travis had been out of town for work for quite some time. It was nice to catch up with them. We invited them to our house the following weekend for the Nebraska/Virginia Tech game. The game didn't turn out in the way we wanted, but at least the taco dip was good!

This weekend, the Holthes travel back to Nebraska. Sarah & I are going to take in the Nebraska/Missouri game. There are 2 piece of Valentino's pizza that don't stand a chance...hopefully, the Huskers do! Luke is going to spend the evening (and possibly the early morning) with Grandma & Grandpa Holthe. That's what happens when the game STARTS at 8!

That's all for now. Below is the most recent gallery of Luke's pictures. Enjoy!

Videos of Luke

Here are some videos of Luke! Right now he loves playing in his bouncy seat and holding onto rattles. And he LOVES talking to Mom and Dad. :) Today he rolled over for the first time! We found him in his crib on his tummy this morning, and he has rolled over twice since then! We are still trying to capture that on video, but once we do it will be on here!

Never A Dull Moment

Since our last post, we've been to 2 weddings. Chris & Erin Moses were married August 23 in Lincoln. We had a blast! Matt was the best man and Sarah was a personal attendent. It was also the first night Luke spent away from mom and dad. That's ok, he was in the capable hands of Grandma Krings & Uncle Tommy. It's ok, Luke didn't throw any wild parties at Uncle Tommy's place. Lisa and Oscar Mendez were married August 31st in Omaha. Luke got to meet the rest of the Krings side of the family including: Aunt Betty from AZ, Cousin Felicia and her husband Mark, Cousin Kelly and her husband Matt, and of course the newest addition to the family, Oscar!

Last weekend, Uncle Tommy came up to watch his girlfriend Kelly play soccer against Ottawa University. It was a convenient 20 minutes away from our place. We enjoyed watching the game through the patches of drizzle. Afterwards, we all came back to our house and ordered pizza and had a good time. It was nice to be home for a weekend!

Luke is growing like a weed right now. He is constantly smiling and HAS to be so close to giggling. He can also almost roll over from his back to his belly. He gets to his right side and his shoulder and legs get in the way. He'll get it figured out soon. He's also working on his using his arms while on his tummy. He doesn't like to spend a whole lot of time there so this is more of a challenge. He also coos even more than 3 weeks ago!

Sarah and I are doing well. Sarah started back to work the day after Labor Day and Luke started day care the same day. Luke does very well at day care. The teachers say he's very alert, happy, and only cries when he's hungry or tired. But, we knew that already!! :) Sarah had a hard time adjusting to Luke being at day care at first. Everyday it gets better and better. But, that doesn't keep us from picking Luke up as soon as we can at the end of the day!

That's all for now....except for the pictures!! Enjoy!

Busy Busy!

We have had 2 very busy weekends lately! Last weekend (Aug. 9) was Grandma Krings' 50th birthday party. We drove to Fullerton to help her celebrate - by surprising her with a party! The suprise was a success - she had no idea. :) Luke got to meet lots of mommy's aunts, uncles, cousins, and 2nd cousins on the Krings side. Uncle Don and Melissa came from Wisconson, so Luke got to meet them too.

Today (Aug. 17th) was baptism. Both Grandmas and Grandpas came as well as Uncle Tommy, Aunt Becky, her fiancee Paul, and his kids Garrison and Julia. We had a full house all weekend! We had lots of fun holding Luke and watching him smile and coo. He cried a little during the baptism, but did pretty good the rest of the service.

I decided it was time for me to write something on here. So, here's what has been happening since we last wrote.

Luke has been getting bigger and bigger, finally!! We are excited that he is finally gaining some weight. He is smiling in his sleep, and we think we've seen a couple little grins. He is also starting to coo a little, mostly to his animals while he sits in his bouncy seat. :) Our next task is to get him to sleep in his crib. Easier said than done, especially when Mom and Dad like to hold him all the time!

Grandma Krings came to visit last week. We spent the week making birth announcements (finally) and shopping. Luke was a very good boy while we were shopping. He loves to sleep in his stroller. We had lots of fun spending time with Grandma!

We spent a quiet weekend here at home, which has been nice. We are very busy for the next month! Next weekend we are headed to Fullerton to celebrate Grandma Krings' birthday!

We have some new pictures of Luke, but I'll let Matt handle those. I don't have that part figured out yet.

We Survived!

I can't believe it. Luke was a GREAT traveler. He pretty much slept the entire time while we were on the road. However, when he woke up he was hungry....so that automatically makes him mad. That made the trip to Grandma and Grandpa Krings' 8 hours instead of the normal 5 hours.

Cole and Erin's wedding was fun. Luke was a good boy and slept through the entire wedding! At the reception, he got to meet lots of new people from Sarah's hometown. The part Sarah wasn't happy about was when Uncle Tommy took Luke down to the smokey bar. Yep, he got the full small-town wedding experience.

One the way home, we stopped through York and saw Grandma and Grandpa Holthe, Aunt Becky and her boyfriend, Paul. We grilled out for lunch and took him to meet my neighbors growing up in York: Vera, and Steve and Claudia.

Today, Luke is 6 weeks old! It's hard to believe it's been that long! He's putting on some good weight...even getting a little gut.

Luke even has a couple of new friends in the neighborhood. Kenzie was born on Saturday, and Liam was born on Tuesday. Whatever you do.....if you're avoiding kids....don't drink the water in our subdivision. In our short 2 block radius we have 2 one-year-olds, 5 kids born since March, and 2 more on the way! That's only the ones we know about. We noticed there are plenty of other so-to-be parents in our subdivision that we don't even know yet. Craziness!

In all the hoopla in the last few weeks, I found some time to put together a small batch of peach brandy. I found a recipe online that is really close to the one Sarah's grandparents use for cherry brandy. I hope it's good!!

Ok, enough about me, now for what everyone really wants....pictures of Luke from the last month!!

Pictures of Luke

Ok, we are 'settled in' and have time to post the pictures we've unloaded from our camera. Here are all the pictures we've taken of Luke in the past 3 weeks. Really! He's 3 weeks old today! Crazy!

Enjoy!

So, Sarah and I are going to try this blog-thing again. Again? Yeah, we tried once. We have one whole post on the old blog. You can even check it out if you want at http://holthe.blogspot.com. But, we (I) forgot what the password was for that account, so we start anew!

The biggest excitment and time consumer for us right now is getting Luke's room ready. T minus 108 days and counting until the little guy arrives! He lets us know he's around by kicking Sarah whenever possible. Especially when he's uncomfortable. I'm looking forward to painting Luke's room (NOT!!!). At least I have all the furniture put together! We will put updates and pictures on this site/blog as they come along!