Luke's 4th Birthday

Luke enjoyed a great 4th birthday. It is so hard for me to believe that he is already 4, but as he tells me often...he is getting big! We started celebrating the evening before the big day when Grandma Patti, Grandpa Fred, and Aunt Andrea came over to open presents and to go out to dinner. We had a great time celebrating with them. Grandpa Ron & Grandma Kay came down for the big day and took Luke out to dinner and had more presents for him. Luke said before he went to bed on his birthday, "I am a lucky boy." He truly enjoyed his special day for many reasons.

Unfortunately for Luke, he had a bad day at school on Friday. He wouldn't take his nap and was loud and rude to his teachers during naptime. Luke is now earning back his birthday presents one by one if he has good days at school and takes his naps. He must also remember to be nice to his teachers! Hopefully, that is a lesson learned. He had a great day today and we'll hope that will continue.

Reflecting Before Luke's Birthday

Every year around March 30, I reflect back to the year I had Luke. As most of you who read this know, Luke came a bit earlier than expected...8 weeks to be exact. So, about the time I went into the hospital I start thinking through what happened in those days. When I think about it now, it is with such a sense of amazement of how God was with us throughout our journey. After the initial fear, disbelief, and frustration that they could not stop my labor, I was filled with a sense of peace like I've never experienced before or since. I can only say that I knew, without a shadow of a doubt, that even though things weren't going as I expected, they were going exactly the way God had planned. I remember being in the hospital the night they moved me to St. Luke's downtown. Brandon had gone home to eat and let Ginger out and I was alone with my thoughts. I remember clearly that throughout that time, the song "How Great Thou Art" just kept running & running through my mind like it was on a repeat reel. Growing up a good Baptist girl, I knew lots of hymns, and that one was never a favorite, but it sure is now. I now see clearly God's hand on me and on my precious child who was born without one problem. I don't know why God chose to make my little one safe and whole when others are born with so many problems, but I am grateful every day for this precious gift I've been given. "Every good & perfect gift comes from above, coming down from the Father of Heavenly Lights..." (James 1:17). Happy 4th birthday (tomorrow), Luke! :)

Spring Snow!

It's almost April & we got lots of snow yesterday! It melted quickly today, but we had a little fun before it all went away...

Skiing in Utah

Brandon & I were blessed to get away to Utah for a few days at the end of my spring break and at the beginning of his. My parents invited us along on a business trip they were taking to Park City, Utah. We enjoyed 3 great days of skiing...well, definitely 2 of the 3 were great. On the first day, Brandon had to learn to ski, which presented a few difficulties, but he made it through! The first day was 60+ degrees, which made for pleasant weather, but just okay skiing. The next day was cooler, and by the last day, we had been treated to a new snowfall overnight. It was a great time and we were really thankful to get to go. We were especially thankful to get home to Luke & Ginger after a truly terrifying landing in Kansas City on the Monday night we returned...the night of the really strong winds. The girl sitting next to us on the plan said it was like riding a roller coaster & she was right! God was good, though, and brought us down safely.

Happy Valentine's Day!

Luke celebrated Valentine's Day a little early today with a party in his class. We decorated his box and got all his valentines ready for his classmates on Tuesday night, and he could hardly stand the wait until today to bring them to school. Ah...the anticipation of your first Valentine's Day party! He loved all the cards he got from his friend in class, but I'm pretty sure his favorite part was all the candy he raked in with the valentines.

Enjoying a Beautiful Saturday

Wow! What an amazing day it was today. Luke and I took advantage of his first healthy weekend in what seems like forever and spent some time outside blowing bubbles and trying out his new bike. We are so ready for spring to be here and these little tastes will make it all the more painful when the cold returns once again. Thank goodness we're getting closer and closer to longer days and nicer weather. Can't wait!

Tough Times in the Spaeth House

Since right after Christmas, Luke has been fighting illnesses left & right. It started with a sinus infection that led to a terrible cough. So, off to the doctor we went. His only previous 2 visits had been his 2-year & 3-year checkups, so we were due. After a round of antibiotics, things were looking good. Until 2 weekends later when we ran through a bout with the stomach flu. That was not pretty & the carpet in Brandon's office will likely never be the same! We made it through that one and thought surely we'd seen enough for awhile. It was not to be. Last Sunday night, Luke came upstairs and when he looked at me, his right eye was bright red. I thought, "Oh no - now we have pink eye!" When he woke up the next morning, it had all cleared out, so we kind of took the wait and see route. When he woke up from his nap, it was red again, so we called the doctor's office. It turned out, he had an ear infection that had backed up into his eye. Yuck! So, off we were to the pharmacy for another round of antibiotics. Well, take a look at some pictures to see how that turned out for Luke:

Poor Grandma & Grandpa Jackson were taking care of Luke when he started breaking out yesterday. They tried calling us last night while we were out bowling with friends, but neither of us looked at the cell phone to check to see if anyone called us (usually no one does!). We got the message around 11:30 last night & worried through the night about him. After talking to a nurse and his doctor this morning, we are pretty sure he has a Penicillin allergy, though, he wasn't affected by the first round for the sinus infection. This one was a little different from that and apparently not a good choice for Luke! He is itchy and uncomfortable, but hopefully, that will pass soon. We have another trip to the doctor in store for us tomorrow. We're praying that this might be the last one for awhile.

Merry Christmas!

We had a wonderful Christmas celebrating with our families. We have been very busy with lots of family dinners. Luke was totally into opening presents this year - he always knows when it is his turn to open one. We are truly blessed in this family and are so thankful to the One who has provided us with all the good gifts we have.

Ready to open presents on Christmas Eve

Look what Santa brought!

Playing with cousin Brady

Cousinly Love

Luke with Aunt Ashley & Uncle Kyle

Grandpa Ron, Luke, Grandma Kay, & Brady

Luke with Grandpa Fred & Shelby

Luke's Holiday Program

Today we had the pleasure of seeing Luke in his first program. His class and several others performed 3 songs for us - "Over the River and Through the Woods," "Jingle Bells", and "I'm a Little Snowman". The performance lasted all of about 4 minutes, but it was a pleasure to see. Brandon said we should only be so lucky that every program we go to only lasts that long! After the program, we had a reception in Luke's class. The kids got to unwrap presents that would be for their class, which was lots of fun for them. Each kid also had a special present for their parents - a pair of cut-out mittens with their handprints on them pasted on a big heart. That is something that I will be sure to treasure for a long time. I'm attaching a video of the kids singing "Jingle Bells". I wasn't sitting in a great spot to get great pictures/video, but you can see Luke occasionally singing along. What a blessing to see my child having so much fun!

New Family Traditions

Brandon thought it would be fun to start a family tradition of building a gingerbread house for the holidays. None of us had ever done it before, so it was a new experience for everyone. Thank goodness it wasn't as hard as we thought it might be - we can continue the tradition next year!

Fun in the Snow

As it looks like we might get lots of winter weather this week, I think it is appropriate to show Luke having a great time in the 1/2 inch we received last Tuesday. It's amazing how much fun you can have in so little snow. :)

"Building" the Christmas Tree

Luke & I had a fantastic time "building" (as Luke says) the Christmas tree today. Brandon even helped out too (if you know Brandon, you know he is an advocate of only putting out the Christmas tree every other year, if that!). You might notice in some of the pictures that Luke's shirt appears to be on backwards - it is. He is learning to dress himself & somehow always manages to put his shirt on backwards and then tells us it is "backwards day". Enjoy the pictures.

New Pictures

Luke & I braved the crowds on Wednesday to get his pictures taken. It had been a year, so it needed to be done. After a bad experience trying to get Luke's picture taken when he was two, I always am a little nervous to get it done. Even though we've done it successfully since then, I still have visions of him screaming bloody murder in fear, of what, I'll never know! Thankfully, despite the large volume of interesting people at Portrait Innovations, we had a good time and came away with a picture we were very happy with.

Funnies from Luke

Luke constantly amuses me with the things he thinks of. Earlier this week as he and I were walking Ginger we were talking about the Pledge of Allegiance. Actually, I was trying to get him to recite it for me since I know they say it every day in his class. He wasn't very accommodating, but as I was kind of saying some lines of it to encourage him, he tells me, "I am under God, you are indivisible, Dad is liberty, and Ginger is justice for all." How cute!

Tonight as I was tucking him into bed, we had a fun conversation about dreams. We had just read a story and at the end the teddy bear in the story is asleep in his bed. Well, the bed is on a cloud and there are stars around it. Luke says, "How can that be? That's not right." I said, "Well, the bear is dreaming." Then I try to explain..."you know, when you see pictures in your head while you're sleeping." He gives me this puzzled look and says, "No, mom, you can't take the hair off your head. That would not be good and that would make a mess." I guess he thought you'd have to take your hair off to see the pictures inside your head! Apparently, the topic of dreams is a little too abstract for now.

Count your blessings

Over last weekend, Luke had his first homework assignment from school. We had to find 5 beautiful fall leaves so he could make a "count your blessings" tree at school this week. So, we spent some time Sunday sifting through the mostly brown leaves and found 5 pretty ones to bring. When I arrived to pick Luke up from school Monday afternoon I saw the trees hanging on the bulletin board outside his class. I couldn't resist checking his out before I went into his class to get him. His 5 leaves said he was thankful for: 1. Dad, 2. Mom, 3. school, 4. making spiders at school, and 5. deer. I was like, "deer?" I mean, I know he knows what a deer is, but we don't see a lot of deer and don't talk about deer, so I'm really wondering where that came from. So I ask him about it as we're putting his coat on and gathering his things, and his response is "the deer on the road." I'm still like, "what?" I mean, we see dead deer on the road all the time, but we don't point them out to him or anything. Before we left, another boy in the class comes over to us and tells us about how he saw two dead deer in the road, and I finally had my answer to where the deer came from. I'm guessing that the teacher amended "deer in the road" to just "deer". It is so funny the ideas they come up with. I'm glad he has things he is thankful for.

Halloween Fun

Luke with the pumpkin he got at school. Dad helped him color it.

Trick or Treating with cousin Brady was fun...unfortunately,
we couldn't get them to smile at the same time!

Luke's First Fall Party

Luke celebrated Halloween with his first Fall Party yesterday at his preschool. He loves preschool every day as it is, so to have a party was icing on the cake for him. The preschool had a parade before the party began and the kids all wore their costumes. I had parent-teacher conferences yesterday, so I missed the parade, but my lunch break fell around the time of the party, so I was able to join in for a few minutes and get some pictures. He loves his firefighter costume. Brandon said Luke was the only kid still wearing his costume when he picked Luke up from school yesterday afternoon. He finally convinced him to take it off when they got to the car!




Luke is very excited to do some Trick or Treating tonight. It is his first time doing it and I have to say it is fun to see how excited he is to go. I am glad that we haven't done it before now, because I don't think he would have appreciated what was going on nearly as much as he does now.