Bapa's (translation: Grandpa's) Birthday

Grandpa Emil's birthday was Sunday, happy birthday!  

Some pictures from the past week are below.  Not much new news to report other than Luke's talking explosion.  He repeats almost everything we say now, and is getting slightly better at pronunciation.  He also is starting to have verbal manners.  When we give him something he says "Tank you" and when accidentally hitting me with his toy today he said "sowwy Momma".  He also tells us "I love you", which really warms the ole heart.  

Dinner with Grandma & Grandpa on Monday night

Halloween costume day at music class.

Indian Summer - a gorgeous warm night we enjoyed outside.

hard to ride the big wheel on the grass...

Luke wanted all of us to wear helmets

Visit to the Botanic Garden on Saturday

Last weekend that the train garden is open until May.  It was spookified, see the cobwebs?

Luke's hat matched the volunteer train masters, this volunteer was showing Luke the different train cars.

Nice sunny day, even if it was only 45 degrees.

Isolene made this car out of a diaper box, then Matt turned the box inside out and into a fire truck so that Luke could  color on it.  Luke loves his fire truck

Vroom vroom!

Matt carving his pumpkin, an Elmo holding a pumpkin!

Visiting G&G B for Grandpa's bd.  Had to wear his overalls and sit on his tractor to be like Grandpa.

Walking in downtown Downers Grove after breakfast to see the Halloween theme painted store windows.  Ben and Matt used to paint windows when they were kids.  

Luke has started to learn how to "fake smile" when asked to smile for the camera - a turning point in a child's life I think:)

birthday present - tractor made out of spare parts

We went out to the Lake Forest Beach tonight to see the 15 ft waves, a result of Hurricane Sandy that impacted the East Coast so much over the last 24 hours.

Out for sushi after our beach visit.  Luke likes miso soup and sushi, but I think mostly likes the chopsticks.  

Pumpkin Mania

The past two weekends we have been in town and partaking in all the Fall activities around our home.  Fall is my favorite time of year, so I for one really enjoyed soaking it all in, and we all loved so much family time.  

Luke is pretty much the cutest little boy of all time lately.  All of this talking is awesome.  He is starting to point out everything he sees, like "moon!" and "airplane!", and things he would like to see, like"apple bread" (he helped me make some yummy apple bread yesterday), "more spin" (this one is his new fave, I get dizzy after spinning him only once though!), "mama read" (he is choosing more books these days before bath time instead of iPad time, it is astounding!).  A funny thing he's doing these days is that he is getting "me" and "you" mixed up.  Luke when he wants something he'll say "Cheese! You!" and then pat his own chest to further emphasize that he wants it.  Very confusing because it is already hard to understand what he's saying because his pronunciation is at the early stages, then you have to interpret it too.  It IS kind of a hard concept to explain, we're like "No, Luke, you're "me" and I'm "you."  What?  Part of all the fun of this new stage:)  He also is getting so smart and remembers so much.  Last night Donna was over (Emil is visiting Uncle George in Washington DC), and so she gave him a bath and put him to bed before heading home.  This morning when I got Luke up the first thing he said is "Gram?" and ran into the guest room to see if she was in there.  Super cute!

Our little pumpkin in the pumpkin pile - Isolene took him to the Botanic Gardens

Highlights from two weekends ago...

At the dog park with Grandpa and Gram last weekend.

New dog beach and the dog park - Spumoni loved it

Trying to get back to the car before the rain storm hit.  We made it!

painting a little pumpkin, although he had a brush, it was more like finger painting

Carving his first pumpkin!  Getting all the innards out.

Luke loves to take the top on and off and fit the shape of it back on AND peek into the  inside of the pumpkin.

Hello?!  How is that lighting up?  

And now this past weekend's highlights.....

Donna, Matt, Luke and I hit the Highwood Pumpkin Festival.  Anyone who goes carves a pumpkin and their goal was to have 32,000 pumpkins!  It was simply amazing.  HGTV was even there to feature the festival on one of their shows.

Luke is really into fire trucks these days.  He loved the fire truck and the free plastic fire hat from the local firefighters.

Sun setting on the Pumpkin Fest, time to get Chinese food with Gram!

Mom and Dad came for breakfast and a visit this morning on their way to Chicago to see a show.  Mom read books to Lukers with great enthusiasm!

We went for a little spin on the boat.  Cool hand Luke.

Matt cruisin'

Throwing stones into the water.

Running up the ramp.

Big News

It's official - we're pregnant!  Luke is going to have a baby SISTER around February 19th:)  

Baby girl waving hello

Profile pic

Wearing his Big Brother shirt proudly

Luke is so excited that he did this little dance, take a look:

Ga-lorious Galena

Last weekend Matt and I went on our first full weekend getaway since Luke was born to celebrate our 8th anniversary. We chose Galena as our getaway destination, eager to experience the quaint town, Fall colors and some fun hiking. It did not disappoint! Thank you so much Gram and Grandpa B. for watching the Dukerson while we were away.

We both took the day off of work on Friday to get a head start to Galena (about 4 hours away).  Before we left we couldn't resist an outing with our little stinkers to Didier Farms.  We went there last year for their fall festival, but Luke was too little to do the activities.  This year he was a great age for all of them, and we had our fill of everything they had to offer.

While in Galena we relished two full days of relaxation and togetherness:)  We stayed in a luxurious bed and breakfast called the Goldmoor Inn, we went to two gourmet dinners, we shopped 'til we dropped in Galena and at the local fair that was going on, we raced down an alpine slide, had breakfast served in our room, we both got massages and then went hiking at two gorgeous places soaking up those Fall colors that I can't ever get enough of.  It felt like we were gone for a week!  We had a great time.

Feeding all the animals carrot sticks.  This was a favorite activity for Luke.

Matt and Luke must have gone down this slide 10 times.  Luke kept saying "more!".

We were a little worried about him going on these rides by himself, but he loved  them all and did great!

Picking out pumpkins, what a Hercules!

Seriously, he pulled that wagon with 4 pumpkins on it all by himself.

We got little pumpkins and paint for Luke and Kira (Isolene's niece) to make some masterpieces. 

The view from our B&B in Galena was gorgeous!  That is the Mississippi River.

Flaming tree outside our room at the inn.

Anniversary lovebirds:)

Downtown Galena, super cute!  Like going back in time.

President Grant lived here - pretty interesting museum

That looks like Pres. Grant himself!

The Galena County Fair was going on, which we learned makes that weekend the most crowded of the year!  We just happened to pick that weekend because of our anniversary.  It was about 20 degrees cooler than normal, thus my hat and scarf.

pretty Galena River and downtown

Alpine slide at Chestnut Mountain

Breakfast in our room on Sunday morning before our couples massage  - so relaxing!

Hiking around Galena.

Hiking in Apple River Canyon State Park on our way back home.

Super pretty!!

On our actual anniversay, October 9th, Matt made us a campfire and we ate dinner outside.

Burritos al fresco.