We have a lot to catch up on, as usual. Mom does this thing called "homework" in the evening sometimes, and that really cuts into blogging time. She's in a Masters program earning one little credit at a time. She takes a class once a month that takes up a full Friday and a full Saturday. Class time isn't so bad, it's the prep work ahead of time that creeps into our lives. In any case, we have had two full weekends of activities with work and school during the week between.
From Luke:
Two weekends ago we had my first Birthday Party! Mom and Dad thought they wanted to do something small to celebrate, but the party quickly escalated into a guest list rivaling that of Preston's 1st birthday - 40 people and counting. Preston and I were so excited to have our cousins, Liora and Talia, at our house. We got to have a sleepover!! Talia loved having a baby around who was younger than her! She loved to give me hugs and kisses, and also push me around if I had a toy she was interested in. She also wanted to be with me ALL the time. If a grown-up was holding me that same grown-up had to hold her, too! She was super silly.
My favorite part of the party was when I got to smash my birthday cake! Mom let me have 2 spoons, and I loved jamming them into the cake. I even ate a few bites! Here are some pictures (we stole some of Grandpa's for blog-archival purposes).
I was SO excited to have Liora at my house for a sleep-over. We got to play all day long, eat dinner together, race to get our jammies on, and eat breakfast together! Mommy and Daddy got to sleep my room on the big bed on the lower bunk. It was silly to wake up to see them down there. I hope Liora and Talia can sleep over again, soon!
After the day after Lukey's birthday party (and after Talia and Liora and Uncle Ted and Aunt Rachel went home) Grandma and Grandpa picked me up to go look for trains before heading down to meet at a restaurant for Poppop's 88th Birthday! Mom and Dad and Luke met us at the restaurant along with Mema and Poppop, Aunt Merideth, Uncle Chuck and Aunt Kim. We had a late lunch before heading back to Mema and Poppop's new apartment for cake! Then it was time to go home and regroup for the week. Mom and Dad were exhausted.
So then this past weekend I had class. Go ahead, ask me what happens leading up to when a company makes it initial public offering. I know ALL about it now. I'm really enjoying my classes, but man is it going to take me forever to get a Masters Degree. Since the credits are free - so far - I'm just doing what seems reasonable for now. My poor little Cherry Lane business is really suffering right now, so I need to try to focus a little more time back on that. It's so crazy how much my life has changed in the last year! Anyway, after class all day Friday and Saturday, I finally had a day to rest on Sunday. It felt good to have no additional responsibilities outside of playing with the boys and folding the volcano of clean laundry that had appeared out of nowhere (I have a pretty awesome husband who just does these things!). I even let John take a break for the afternoon to pick up his latest Craiglist find. He said it was a blissfully quiet trip. He's my hero for watching the boys while I was at class.
A silly story to end this post:
Tonight we asked Preston if it would be ok to get a new house. He said "sure." And when we asked him what our new house would be like he put together fun wishlist:
- 3 garages
- A swimming pool
- Refrigerator
- Toys
- Yellow [exterior]
- and a yard to plant trees
And some more pictures - just for fun: