Spoiled

For living several states away from any immediate family members we are certainly spoiled when it comes to others helping to care for our child. Luke is now 17 months old and we have not yet had to pay for a babysitter. It's not that we haven't gone out without the little one and it's not like we haven't tried to pay our sitters... they refuse, calling themselves "surrogate grandparents" or "good friends" and allowing us to return the favor by watching their kids. It is amazing really. We are so blessed by this incredible community it blows me away.

Just last week we were seriously spoiled, but this time by the legit grandparents. Matt and I were able to go along on a middle school retreat for two days with RCS so we were looking for someone to watch Luke for two days, one night. Grannie Jannie and Pops to the rescue! My parents scored an awesome deal on plane tickets and flew across the country to be with Luke while we were gone. Awesome. It was so great to know that Luke was in such capable hands (they did a pretty good job raising me after all :) ) and knowing that Luke was in his house, his bed, with his toys, and getting quality time with his grandparents really made it that much easier for us to enjoy the retreat. So, thanks again Mom and Dad T for EVERYTHING! We can't tell you how much we appreciate it.

Luckily for our loyal blog followers, my parents are avid picture-takers - at least when it comes to their grandchildren- so we have them to thank for this posts illustrations.

Luke clearly had a terrific time while we were gone....

Showing Pops all the latest fashion trends

Playing with the latest in technology

Taking naps

Catching up on some reading

Getting a night on the town... mmm, Applebee's - Even Jung got in on that action - He's thrilled, in case you can't tell.

Nights out really wear out a toddler

Scoring some great finds at some local thrift stores - the golf sweater was just too awesome to resist and the football book has John Elway in it, like I could pass that up!

Who needs to go to the playground when you've got Grannie and Pops to swing you around?!?

Thanks so much Grannie and Pops!

We love you!!

Chef Luke

We hosted our small group last week, which means a few things.... good friends, good conversation, good lesson. It also means I have to get my rear in gear and have the house clean and some tasty treats to offer. I didn't plan ahead so instead of trying out some new fancy recipe I opted for the "add a cup of water and an egg" type of cookie mix. Luke, of course, had to be smack in the middle of all the baking preparations.

He quickly declared himself the official taste-tester

The next morning Luke pushed a chair over to the kitchen island and kept pointing to our spice cupboard saying, "pwese. pwese." (that's please in Luke language) I had a few empty containers that I filled with corn meal, oatmeal and flour. He entertained himself mixing and stirring and shaking containers for the majority of the morning. That's the upside. The downside is that now that is ALL he wants to do.

If he's not experimenting with his culinary skills he's re-organizing the kitchen.

Starting with the spice cupboard

McCormick spices make excellent stacking blocks!

once he'd mastered the spices he set out to re-organize the pantry as well. This mostly consisted of throwing away all of Jung's Korean food - like father like son! :)