Part II

I just realized that this post lists as being published on July 4. It is NOW July 10... I have been working on this/trying to get it posted since July 4, wow.
I honestly thought that I would get around to posting "Part II" a LOT sooner than this - where does the time go? In my defense, I have been a bit busy enjoying time with family and getting back in the swing of things at work (sort of) -that and our computer has not been cooperating with me lately. Anyway, enough of my excuses.... Part II, coming at ya.

Blog worthy event #4: Grandma DeBoer and Aunt Andrea return!
Matt's mom and sister came back to CA on Saturday (June 27). We had hoped that his brother, Eric, would have been able to come too but it didn't work out. It was fun to see Mom DeBoer and Andrea's reaction to how much Luke has grown/changed since they were here last.

Proud Grandma and Luke

Luke (wearing his Broncos jersey - Thanks Stummers!) sitting on Andrea's lap and loving it!

The Grandma Jan's playing on the floor with Luke. It was so funny to watch how a baby can make grown ups do such silly things - making faces, goofy noises, etc.!

Blog worthy event #5: Meeting Great Grandpa and Great Grandma DeBoer!
Matt's grandparents drove down from Denver, CO to be here for Luke's baptism. We were SO thrilled that they were willing to make the trek out here for this special occasion. It was great to be able to introduce Luke to them - a very proud moment indeed.

Great Grandpa DeBoer and Luke The DeBoer Men

One big happy family!

Luke had fun playing with his feet on Great Grandpa's lap
Great Grandma, Aunt Andrea and Luke

Blog worthy event #6: Meeting the Schalliols!

My Aunt Marilyn and Uncle Mark drove out from the Phoenix, AZ area. Their daughters, Heather and Kristen, both live in CA - Heather is in LA (for a few more months) and Kristen is finishing up college in San Diego - so they met up with the fam here in Beaumont too. We used to see each other maybe once a year when the Schalliols would come to IL to see family. Now that Matt and I live in CA we have been able to see them more often, which has been great! It really meant a lot to us that they were able to be here for Luke's baptism as well.

Great Aunt Marilyn and Luke

The cousins and... second cousins...? First cousins once removed?...how does that go again?

The WHOLE group went out to dinner at Gourmet Pizza Shoppe for dinner on Saturday night. That is probably our favorite place to go to eat when people are visiting- it's fun to watch them study the menu and ask "on a pizza?". We ordered a bunch of different pizzas and had a jolly good time sampling all the variations.

Blog worthy event #7: THE MAIN EVENT!!! LUKE'S BAPTISM!

Sunday, June 28 we had Luke baptized. It was a really special event for us. Matt's mom brought us the outfit that Matt wore when he was baptized so that Luke could wear it also. And if that isn't special enough - Matt's mom made the outfit out of her wedding dress! We also had a baptism bonnet made from my mom's wedding dress. Luke didn't wear it at church since a bonnet goes on the head and, well, the head gets wet in a baptism so we opted out of that one (and the bonnet made Luke look kinda girly) Luke's Denver Broncos socks finished off his outfit - we couldn't resist. :)

Our pastor, Will VerHoef, baptized Luke with our family surrounding us and the church family looking on. It went perfectly. Luke didn't even flinch when the water was poured on his head. All those 'practices' in the bath really paid off!

We had a total of 10 family members (all from out of state) come in for Luke's Baptism...how awesome is that!

After church we were able to take some pictures of our family
Proud parents, proud grandparents, sleepy -freshly baptized-baby

Luke in his baptism outfit. The quilt behind him was made by Carrie DeBoer - a labor of love!

He was a bit sleepy so we didn't really get a good smile. oh well

I'm bummed this picture turned out blurry - I am not much of a photographer, sorry. But you can see the bonnet... and how it makes Luke look a little feminine. Matt kept apologizing to Luke, saying "mommy makes you look like a girl" and predicting that these pictures may come back to haunt him in years to come. I don't care. It is special that he is wearing both our mom's wedding dresses...ok that is a bit weird to say, but special nonetheless. :)

Later we changed Luke into some more 'boyish' clothes. Matt was much more comfortable with Luke looking like a golfer than like a girl. We were given an outfit and a pair of baby shoes from a woman from church and HAD to put them on him. He kept looking at his feet as if he was questioning what these strange objects were. So cute.
And, of course, no outfit is complete without a Broncos hat or some Broncos gear.

We had hoped that Uncle Bill Bierling (who happens to be a pastor at our church) would be able to perform the baptism. Unfortunately, Bill and Harriet were on their way home from an incredible trip to Isreal so they missed it. However, Bill brought back water from the Jordan River (the river Jesus was baptized in) and we had our own 'private' ceremony, so to speak, on Monday where Bill washed Luke's feet with Jordan River water. It was the coolest thing - I still get the chills thinking about it. Bill talked briefly about a passage in 1st Peter that talks about 'walking in the ways of the Lord' and following in Jesus' footsteps. He then prayed over Luke and our whole family and blessed Luke. It was a really incredible moment. We are so blessed to have be surrounded by such amazing believers!

The washing of Luke's feet

Such a beautiful sunset to top it all off

Thanks so much Bill and Harriet for doing that for Luke and for us. It really meant SO much to us. (and we still have the Jordan water frozen in our freezer...waiting for babies yet to come!)

Blog Worthy Event #8: A week with Grandma DeBoer and Aunt Andrea!

After the Baptism we said goodbye (again) to Grandma and Pops Thomson, Great Grandma and Great Grandpa DeBoer and the Schalliol family. BUT we still had another week to spend with Grandma DeBoer and Andrea! It was so great to have them out again, this time for a longer period of time. We are really getting spoiled with having family come out this frequently!

Monday Matt's mom and grandparents went "Birding" out in Palm Springs, my parents left for the airport, Matt and Andrea went golfing, Luke slept most of the afternoon and I was able to relax at home a bit. Then we had the washing of the feet that night.

Tuesday Matt's grandparents took off back for Denver. The rest of us (Matt's mom, sister and our little family) went down to Newport Beach for the afternoon. It was Luke's first visit to the ocean. We walked around a bit and took naps on the beach. I think we all dozed at least a little.

Luke napped in his stroller - the rest of us napped on blankets in the sand.

Luke sporting his sun hat. Its a bit on the big side, even for Luke's enormous melon.

Wednesday and Thursday I had to work. Matt, Mom DeBoer, and Andrea spent the days relaxing at home, entertaining Luke. Thursday night we went out to visit more with Bill and Harriet Bierling. It just so happens that the Bierlings live on a golf course where they (and guests) can play for free. Sooo, Matt, Andrea and Bill enjoyed a nice round (9 holes) before dinner. The Bierling's back porch faces the 8th hole so Mom DeBoer, Harriet and I were able to watch them play that hole. Luke and I ventured out when they were done putting and posed for a few fun pictures.

Luke's first golfing experience.. Tiger, eat your heart out.

I think I may have officially lost BOTH my boys to the golf course.

On Friday, I had the day off work (for the 4th of July) so our clan went down to Temecula for some wine tasting! We went to a Vineyard/Winery/Resturant called Ponte. For $12 a person we each received a complementary wine glass and tastes of 6 wines of our choice. It was pretty crowded - I guess it must be a popular thing to do on holidays. Matt and I had never gone wine tasting before, we've talked about it alot, but never actually went. It was a lot of fun. We have decided that we'll need to go back sometime when it's less busy...and preferably without a baby in tow. :)

Tasting the wines...delish. (notice the wet spot on my shoulder where Luke spit up on me...very classy)

On July 4 we went to a park here in Beaumont and basically camped out all afternoon. I bought a little half tent/ sun shelter thing so we set that up and had some relief from the hot sun... although it really wasn't that hot . It was nice to have a place to lay Luke down when he fell asleep, however, he didn't really do well with taking naps that day - it was MUCH too loud. I ended up holding him and basically covering his ears as I rocked him in order to get him to sleep at least a little. He did alright - probably napped for about 45 minutes or so. We packed a picinic dinner and brought along my new favorite game - Dirty Board (aka Joker, aka Heartland Strategy).

In the park, waiting for the fireworks, playing dirty board- Matt and I were partners and completely dominated.... which redeemed us a little since Andrea and Mom DB swept us the night before.

Ok, now for the most exciting part of our 4th of July adventure in the park... AIR SUPPLY. Yes, that's right, Air Supply - rock band from the 80's - performed for us, live, in Beaumont CA. We enjoyed listening to some amazing love ballads such as "All Out of Love", "Lost in Love", "Making Love Out of Nothing at All" and many more. Matt was particularly pumped about Air Supply... which, in all honest, really surprised me. When I read that Air Supply was going to be performing I envisioned Matt rolling his eyes and saying it would be lame. Boy was I wrong! Matt went right to Pandora.com and started playing Air Supply songs, just to wet his pallate. I guess that just goes to show that I still have much to learn about this husband of mine. :)

Luke and Aunt Andrea - Dancing away to Air Supply songs

All that dancing tuckered Luke out.

Listening to the love ballads on Andrea's shoulder is a pretty good deal

After Air Supply finished their set we were ready for the fireworks display. It has to be said that Air Supply did a good job but I was seriously distracted by the fact that these guys are probably my parents age, yet they were dressed in jean jackets with sequin (yes, sequins) and leaping around the stage - as if they were still trying to be 21 year old rock stars. Very amusing.

Luke was all decked out in red, white and blue. We even found some baby socks with stars on them - very patriotic.

The fireworks weren't set to start until after Luke's bedtime. It was a bit of a challenge to get him to sleep during Air Supply's performance, but we did it. Luke then slept through the fireworks, right up until the grand finale. It helped that he was 'sheltered' a bit by my sweatshirt. I think it helped muffle the noise a bit and kept him nice and snug.

phew... I think that's about it. It took me long enough to get this post finished! I honestly think I've sat down at the computer 7 different times to get this sucker done. seriously.