Gobble, Gobble, Gobble

We have so much to be thankful for this year, most especially our little turkey Luke.  We'd like to give thanks also for our fabulous family and friends, who make our lives so meaningful.  Thank you for everything!

On Tuesday Donna, Luke and I had the chance to meet baby Jackson Alexander Warner, Kelly & Drew's new baby boy.  For those of you following the blog, you may remember me attending Kelly's shower the other week.  Their little boy is so precious, and Luke looked like a behemoth next to him!

This week was the last week of my maternity leave, and Isolene was here too, so I thought it was the perfect year to host the Baranko side Thanksgiving for the very first time.  Yes, it was the first time I cooked a turkey.  I thought everything turned out great!  We had 9 people over and it was really fun.  Luke enjoyed his first Thanksgiving immensely, and didn't seem to mind that he couldn't partake in the gluttony.  He is such a good baby, he even slept during dinner so the rest of us could eat!

Luke's Thanksgiving outfit #1 with tiny turkeys on it - thanks Grandma Mackus!

Matt's ingenious table extension

Uncle Garry and Luke

On Saturday we drove up to have a post-Thanksgiving celebration with the Mackus side.  Mom and Dad made a delicious lobster, steak and lamb chops dinner and we had a fun weekend.

Everyone IS thankful for Paige Jane

Sisters with their babies:)

PJ helping Grandma Mary sew (sort of)

After dinner snooze

So today was my first day back at work and it went well.  I made it!  Everyone made me feel very welcome back at Walgreens, and Isolene sent me a picture of Luke on my phone and gave me updates on what he was doing - so with all of that the day went by really fast.  I couldn't wait to get home to squeeze Luke though, and was relieved that even with a full day of work I was able to spend a few hours playing and spending time with my baby before bed.  I think this is going to be ok!

Helping Daddy enjoy his morning cup of Joe

Mommy's Little Monster:)

Cutie pie playing with spools of thread

Blowing bubbles of excitement over my toy

Big Boy Lukers

Take a look at Luke's passport photo!  Isn't it hilarious?  He looks like a little man instead of a 2 1/2 month old. We got that taken last week.  I had to renew my passport so thought we should go ahead and get him one too, just in case we need to go anywhere.  Thanks Walgreens photo department!

Luke is hitting the milestones like nobody's business.  He is so strong and getting so big.  He is wearing some of his 6 month old outfits already if you can believe it!  Luke is grabbing his toys and doing some tug of war type games.  He has found his hands are very fun toys as well, his left hand likes to play with his right hand and vice versa almost all day long.  They also like to go in his mouth a lot, I'm talking almost a whole fist at a time.  I also am very happy to report that he is officially the world's best sleeper.  For the past 2 nights he has slept TEN hours straight at night.  Crazy, right?  I kept checking to see if he was still breathing.  The first night I thought it was a fluke, but last night it happened again so I'm hoping it is here to stay.  We were thinking that weaning him of his night feeding would be quite the project (Ferber method, etc.) but we seemed to have skipped all that drama.  At least for now:)  Knock on wood.

The other big news is that our nanny started!  Isolene started last Monday, the 15th, so we could have some transitional time where we're both home.  Isolene is amazing, very loving and very organized.  She's already organized all of our closets and Luke smiles when he sees her every morning!  As wonderful as she is, I'm not going to lie, the first couple days were pretty hard for me.  It really hit home that I was going to have to give up my precious Luke to someone else's care for most of the day and that makes me really sad.  I thought I was going to take this much better than I am, I'm surprised by my emotions.  But I've had some great talks with several of my incredibly supportive friends and they are making me feel much better about my decision to go back to work.  Thank you guys!

This week's activities are chronicled below.

At Middlefork Farm with Kristin and PJ on Monday

He loved the zoo:)

Luke's first trip to the zoo!

Kristin and Sassy Pants

Cousin Jason's 22nd BD Party on Fri nite

Grandpa and Luke

Grandma and me

Fun visit with the Conklin's on Sat, Drew is getting so big!

Little peanut in his crib

Sleepy boy

A Good Week

This week flew by with some fun events.  Tuesday we had lunch with the Walgreens ladies Kate, Kristin and Patrice.  We finally had an introduction to delightful Ms. Morgan Frederick, born the same week as Luke.  

Patrice with her daughter Morgan and Luke

On Thursday Luke and I headed up to WI for a visit with our Great Aunt Barbara, my mother's aunt, with Kristin, PJ and Mom.  She is such a wonderful lady and so great with the kids.  She has so many similarities to my grandmother, it brought back happy memories of my Grandma and made my heart smile that perhaps my grandmother was looking down on us.

Thursday night we had a fun dinner at Mom and Dad's house.  Luke sat in their high chair for the first time (although he didn't eat anything, he watched us!).  

On Friday, I had a nice visit with Lindsey and Andrea and their children.  Lindsey was in town from MN and has a 2 year old daughter, Silvia, and a 2 month old daughter, Cecilia.  Andrea's daughter Josie was born on 9/1, Cecilia was born on 9/2 and Luke was supposed to have been born on 9/3 to complete the trifecta.  Oh well, 9/4 isn't bad!

Isabelle, Silvie, Lindsey and Cecilia

Josie

Cece

Saturday Kathryn hosted a beautiful baby shower for Luke at her home.  Delicious food, beautiful decorations, fun games, generous gifts and great company for sure!  Thanks Kathryn!

Valerie and her boys Nathan and Ben

Kathryn and TJ

Madeline doing one of the games with TJ

Sunday we went to a baby shower for my cousin Dave and his wife Kristina in Indiana.  Kristin, PJ, Mom, Luke and I drove down together. It was a perfect opportunity for Luke to meet his Kurz side family.  The shower was lovely and our time with our Kurz relatives seemed far too short!

Dave and Kristina

Anne, Tracy, A Penny, me, Lukers

Dana, Lisa, A Barbara

Luke's FIRST Trip!

We have just returned from a fabulous trip to Idaho!  We had a fun-filled visit with Luke's favorite Uncle Ben and Aunt Linda at their beautiful new home in Idaho Falls, ID.  Grandma & Grandpa Baranko joined us for a couple days too, because they just happened to be driving through ID on their way back home to IL from a trip to Washington State.  We were so glad to be able to celebrate Emil's 65th birthday all together, albeit a little belated.

Luke was just a pro on the flights, either sleeping or looking around and smiling at the other passengers.  There was so much to see and do in Idaho, our 4 days there went by too fast!  Ben and Linda were perfect hosts, showing us the sights and feeding us like kings.  Thanks guys!  Loved being out there with you and hope to do it again soon.  Here are a few photos to give you a taste of our trip.

On my first plane trip

Hanging with A Linda and U Ben

Moose sightings at Big Springs in Targhee

At Mesa Falls

Views of the Tetons

B&L's house is surrounded by horse pastures, so they have lots of horse neighbors who like to say hello (and eat the apples from their apple tree)

Baranko boys with their "New Baranko"

Proud Grandpa

Hike in the volcanic fields of "Hell's Half Acre", on the edge of the Craters of the Moon

Ben and Matt drive the MG to the hike

Hike consisted of climbing over volcanic rock

Matt "cruising" around the grounds

Sunset views from their backyard

Birthday Boy with his tractor topped cake

Emil's BD delicious birthday dinner (thanks to Linda!) before our rousing games of Uno

Goodbye!