Busy Busy Busy

(So you know, this post is dated Aug. 22 - that was the date that I started uploading pictures. It is now Tuesday, Aug. 25 and I am finally getting around to publishing this. sorry for the delay.)

These last two weeks have been something of a blur. Is summer really over and another school year here already? Wow. We have been quite busy these past few weeks - filling our days with all sorts of projects, activities, visitors, etc.
First up... Matt's mom and friend, Fran, came to visit. I think I mentioned that in the last blog entry but I could be wrong (my memory is not what it used to be. I blame pregnancy/motherhood). They stayed with us for a few days before going on a weekend cruise in Mexico. It was so great to have them here. Luke got some quality time with Grammie. We enjoyed good meals, great conversations, walks around Redlands, and of course, some riveting games of Dirty Board! It was so fun simply just being together again.

We were told about a restaurant in Redlands that serves Chicago style pizza - the deep dish, stuffed kind. Mmmmm. Delicious! Luke didn't get any pizza but he seemed happy enough to eat his fists.

We went to Market Night in Redlands and walked around looking at the various booths. It was fun just to 'people watch' and walk around after stuffing ourselves with Chicago Pizza.

Luke didn't care so much about Market Night.

We had a good competition of Dirty Board. Mom and Fran gave us a run for our money but in the end Matt and I pulled through and took the winner's title. :)

Grammie gave Luke a little plastic ball. He LOVES it! It is perfect for him to grab and can be squished and can even go in the dishwasher for cleaning, how great is that?!

Mom DeBoer and Fran left on Friday (August 14). We had the weekend to ourselves. We spent the time getting the house cleaned up again, relaxing and visiting with friends. Then Monday (August 17) my sister, Erika, came out for a visit! I tell you we are getting so spoiled with all this family time! I guess now that Luke is here he is like bait - getting all the family from far away to want to come more frequently. We'll fish for family anytime. :)

Erika is now about 20 weeks pregnant and is doing so well! She looks fantastic and now that the first trimester is over with she is feeling fantastic as well. We didn't do anything too exciting (I have this thing about needing to be a good host and entertain our out of town guests with various activities around Southern California) but Erika assured me that she was happy to just hang out, so that's exactly what we did. We got a set of bibs that have a cross stitch pattern on them that we worked on throughout the week. We went shopping, helped Matt set up his classroom, cooked, played with Luke and relaxed. It was such a perfect time! I miss having my sister close by. We really need to have these kind of get togethers more often. Although, now that we'll each have infants/toddlers that might be something of a challenge.


You can't really see Erika's baby bump in this picture but it's there...cute little belly

Playing with Luke on the floor. Good thing that she came out now before she gets too big in the belly or getting on the floor for playtime could have been tough.

Erika got an arm workout playing 'airplane' with Luke. He's also wearing the Snoopy onesie that Uncle Aaron gave him. It's nice and slobbered on in the second pic.

I think they were talking to Uncle Aaron on speaker phone when I snapped this picture. You can see that Luke is quite interested in the voice coming out of the phone.

Chill time with Auntie Erika. I think Erika was more ready for a nap than Luke was.

Erika got a taste of what life is going to be like for her as a mom in just a few short months!

Luke was a good 'tester baby'.

Thanks for coming to see us Auntie Erika! We love you!

This would usually be the part where I say that life is returning to 'normal' for the DeBoer house. However, that is not the case. For those of you who may not know this... our family has grown! No, I'm not expecting another baby and NO, we did not get a pet of any sort. We currently have two foreign exchange students living with us! They arrived last week. Jung is from Korea. He is a junior in high school. He has been going to ACA now for three years so he is pretty well adjusted to our culture and the community. Charles is from China. He is a freshman and this is his first year at ACA and in the United States. He has attended a boarding school in Taiwan for the past two years (I think) so he's used to being away from home but this is a new transition for him. Actually, its a transition for us all. Matt and I were realizing that we have been catapulted 15 years into the future! We now have to assume the position of "Parent of a Teenager"! My, My how things have changed in the DeBoer house! We went from just the two of us to having a house full in just a matter of months! So far things have been going very well. The boys started school yesterday. They are very nice and polite young men. Although, we have been told that this is the 'honeymoon stage'. We'll see how things go. We have done a lot of thinking, talking and praying about this and truly feel that this was God's plan for us this year. It will be exciting to see Him work in all of our lives this upcoming school year.

I don't have any pictures of our students yet.... I thought that might be a bit weird/invasive - "Hi, welcome to America! Let me take a picture of you to post all over our blog!" I'm sure that we'll get some pics eventually but let's let them settle in a bit and feel a little more comfortable first. :)

Our Little Old Man

This post is going to be short but sweet...I am typing with one hand since Luke is sleeping on the other arm. I don't normally hold him during naps but poor baby has a bit of a stuffy nose and hasn't been napping well so I'm going to let him sleep when he can. Yesterday he fell asleep in the car and actually stayed asleep when I took his carrier out of the car (he normally wakes up once the engine is turned off). I put his carseat on the floor of the kitchen while I decorated a cake I baked earlier(more on that later). Before long I realized that Luke was snoring! Such a cute side effect of his stuffy nose. He reminded me of a little old man, snoring away in his lazy boy. Luke would snore so loud at times that he'd startle himself awake, look around like 'did anyone hear that", then sink back into slumberland. So sweet. I couldn't help but grab the camera and capture the moment. :)



Matt's mom and her good friend, Fran, got into town yesterday. We are getting seriously spoiled seeing our family this often and loving every minute! Mom DeBoer and Fran are going on a weekend Mexico cruise -lucky ladies- that sets sail out of Long Beach so it worked out well for them to come for a longer trip and see us again. Matt and his mom both have August birthdays (and Luke is officially 4 months old today) so we planned to celebrate the birthdays together - thus the reason for decorating the aforementioned cake. We went out to eat last night after their arrival and no one saved room for dessert so we'll have to enjoy our cake later. Hopefully I'll remember to take some pictures.
Ok,that's it for now. I'm hoping to find another time soon to update with more pics but that will have to wait until a time when I can use both hands. :)

How time flies!

I cannot believe that it is already August! Wow. Where has the time gone? Matt starts up at school again in just a few short weeks. I know we've been busier this summer with a baby and having lots of visitors but still this summer seems to have really flown by!
We finally got around to taking some pictures of Luke at 3 months. I kept meaning to get some pictures of him at 2 months but never followed through. It was a busy month with his baptism, me back at work, and family in town so I'm cutting myself a little slack. He's wearing the same outfit that I took his 1 month pictures in. I was hoping to take pictures in this outfit each month to really capture how much he's grown. I'm thinking this might be the last month he fits into these shorts unfortunately. Luke continues to get bigger and bigger every day! There are times that I look at him and think he is such a little boy, no longer an infant! We know that's not really the case but it does feel that way at times.
Here are some of the pictures we took. We are NOT claiming to be very good photographers, in fact, we confess that we're pretty bad photographers but whatever. One of these days we'll have Luke's pictures taken professionally (Leny, maybe you can schedule us in sometime in the future) but until then, these will have to do.

3 months old already!

Luke was much more interested in eating the paper than having his picture taken - figures
He's so darn cute but really doesn't cooperate very well with us when the camera comes out

Last weekend my cousin Heather and her fiance, Nate, stopped by for dinner on their way to AZ. It was great to be able to see them and hang out for a bit. We went to The Gourmet Pizza Shoppe (as is our tradition) for dinner. Nate had never been so we really felt obligated to expose him to cashews, mashed potatoes, and shrimp on pizza (not on the same pizza of course, that would be gross). They had to get on the road pretty quickly after dinner so it was a short but sweet visit. They are getting married next summer and we are really looking forward to celebrating with them then!

Heather, Lisa and Luke

The happy couple - aren't they adorable!

Luke has really figured out that he can reach for and grab things lately. We will watch as he zones in on an object and literally lunges for it with both arms outstretched. This picture shows his amazing talents of grabbing onto his mobile with one hand while shoving his foot in his mouth with the other hand. We're so proud. (sidenote: the ladybug that he's grabbing onto plays the song 'If You're Happy and You Know It" - he grabbed onto it and wouldn't let go, playing the song a minimum of 13 times...driving us nuts. We ended up having to release his grip from the thing in order to save our sanity)

Luke and I went to our first 'play date' at a friend's house. There were a bunch of other moms and their kids there. It was so great to get out of the house and be able to chat with friends and let Luke play. Ok, so Luke didn't really play with the other babies - he did take a bit of a nap and enjoyed some tummy time while we were there, does that count? I forgot that I had brought my camera until just a few minutes before we left but I did get this sweet picture of Aliyah (Luke's first girlfriend) giving him kisses on his head. So adorable!
Rude Awakening....

(I had to put this on the blog, sorry Matt, I couldn't resist). NO, that's not Matt's drool in this picture. Earlier this week I got up with Luke in the morning and let Matt sleep in a bit. Luke ate, we played for awhile and then figured it was time to go wake daddy up. I thought it would be fun for Luke to wake Matt up by giving him kisses on his cheek (Luke has taken to sucking on our cheeks which we like to think is him giving us kisses). Well, I leaned Luke over and BLAGH-SPLAT- He pukes all over, missing Matt's nose by an inch! Matt's reaction - "What the heck kind of an alarm clock is THAT?!" HA! Luke was pretty proud of himself too... that, or he just felt relieved. :) The picture is a 'reinactment' - that's where Matt was laying and the wet mark - that's where the spit up landed. heehee.