Aunt Teresa's visit

Today is the first chance I have had to sit at the computer and work on a post....and I am having trouble loading pictures. I am not sure what is going on, but most of the pictures I have loaded are sideways. So for now, this is what I have. 

We had a wonderful time with Teresa. She was here when Aurora was 3 weeks old. She stayed for about 10 days! We kept her busy the whole time.

Teresa and Nathan took the boys on lots of bike rides. The first day Teresa was here, she wore the kids out. The boys never fall asleep on the couch and rarely fall asleep at the same time!

Teresa hanging out with Leaf and Aurora. Everest took the picture. Not too bad.

FYI- Thank you to everyone for thinking about us and my grama. She passed away September 23. We were able to make the 10 hour drive for the viewing. It was a VERY quick trip, but we got to say good bye and see most of my mom's family. 

Aurora does have hip dysplasia, she is being fitted for the Pavlik harness on Friday. We asked if we could double diaper her, but as is the norm for my kids, she doesn't have a classic case. Hopefully the harness will do the trick. We will know more in a month when she has another ultra sound. 

Thanks for checking on us. Things have been very busy with 3. I am trying to get the hang of it.

Fountains in Charlotte

This was my first visit to Charlotte NC, even though I lived in NC for 5 years (many eons ago). If you have never been there, it is a beautiful city. They are doing a lot of construction, reconstruction and beautification. It was a great place for the family or alone. We found plenty to do with the kids and Nathan and I got to enjoy a little of the night life (thanks to Teresa-we love you).

We went to dinner at a place that had lights all around the building. When you touched them, they lit up and played different sounds or music. The boys had a great time exploring all the different sounds.

This was a raised seating area near a lot of food places. Everest thought it was great. He pretended it was his firetruck...surprise, surprise.

Everywhere we went there was art or fountains. Everest wanted to touch the water of every fountain we passed. I am sure if it would have been a little warmer, he would have "accidentally" gotten into each and every one of them.
Everest and Mama, enjoying a walk and the sites of Charlotte.
This one, he actually tried to lick while I was taking the picture. When he was younger, I would have freaked, but now...well I have 2 with another on the way. I have learned that nagging him about things isn't the way to go, dirty water might make him sick, but maybe he won't do it again. Then again, he is 4, it might take a few times to get it through his head.

He liked this fountain, he wanted to walk up it. The other side has holes where the water runs down the wall. A fountain that looks totally different from each side, how cool is that!
This fountain is in front of the NASCAR hall of fame. We stayed in a hotel right beside it. It is not open yet, but even to a non race fan, it looks cool. If it was open, we would have checked it out.
We have a lot more fountain pictures, and a lot of fountains we didn't photograph. There was so much to do, I would love to go again. But next time we are flying, I don't care if the tickets are triple what they usually are (just because of spring break). If you get a chance to visit Charlotte Let me know what you think.

More hiking in Raleigh

We hiked around a local lake by Teresa's house, fed the ducks and played at the playground. Bailey (Teresa's dog) had a great time walking with the boys.

A blue heron (I think) in the lake.


Teresa, Nathan, Everest, Leaf, Bailey and the blue heron at Lake Lynn.

Leaf's first time down the slide alone.

Daddy waiting at the bottom. Yeah Leaf! He was so proud of himself. He went down the slide at least 20 times.
Everest showing off his new racing shoes. They are the exact same shoes he had last year, just a different color.
Going down the big curvy slide. Both boys are there, if you look closely, you can see Everest's legs. Nathan held Everest and Everest (and Nathan) held Leaf.

Hurricanes Hockey Game

One of the things I LOVED about living in Raleigh was being able to go to a major league Hockey game. Hockey is by far my favorite sport to watch. There is nothing better than being at the game. Teresa got us tickets to go to a game. Everest LOVED the game. Leaf enjoyed it, but he had REFUSED to take a nap that afternoon, so he was CRANKY.
We had good seats. We enjoyed the game even though the Canes lost. They played the Bruins, I was surprised at how many Bruin fans were at the game. One guy had a Bruins jersey and the B had blinking lights on it. Every time they scored, he would stand up and his shirt would blink.


Everest was very animated. He wore his Purdue shirt, because it was the only black shirt we had. Notice Leaf at the bottom, throwing a fit about something.

This was the only mistake we made. We promised Everest some ice cream, this was the smallest cone they had (no wonder so many people are over weight these days). We all ate a little of the ice cream, but Everest got most of it. (more ice cream than he has every had) He did well until the sugar kicked in. He had a very difficult time keeping it under control after that. But boy was he happy to be eating his ice cream at a hockey game!
Aunt Teresa had a wonderful time with the boys.

When we got to the arena,Everest got a poster of all the Canes who played in the Olympics. He saw people holding up signs to cheer for the Canes and wanted to make one of his own. He missed the point a little, his sign was construction trucks and rocket ships. Ahh the life of a 4 year old.

Go Canes!
Thanks Aunt Teresa, we had so much fun at the game. And hanging out with you. We love you and miss you.

Visit to Raleigh

We left Friday afternoon for Spring Break. We were ambitious and hoped to reach Raleigh (11 hours away) at the wee hours in the morning. Nathan had to drive to Chicago that morning to visit a student teacher. When we started our journey, Nathan had already logged 3 1/2 hours of driving. Needless to say, we did not make it to Raleigh on Friday.
Saturday morning, we were ready to go and thought we would be there by noon. We should know better. Traveling with 2 kids, a tired daddy and a pregnant mama, doesn't make for a quick trip. We finally arrived in Raleigh Saturday around 5pm.
One of our goals while we were in Raleigh, was to get Everest some new shoes at REI (the closest REI to us is in Chicago). Sunday we got up and went hiking at the Art museum. Everest was all decked out in his sweater that Grami made, strobe light (that we keep in the car for emergencies) and his fox boots (the only shoe-boot that fits him right now).

Nathan and I actually got a chance to talk on our walk. We had Aunt Teresa to "look at this", "run over here", and "watch me do this". It was a very nice break.

As we walked the sun got higher, brighter and hotter (something we do not see much in Indiana). Teresa and Leaf hanging out.
The family at the whisper bench.
Leaf learning how the whisper bench works.
Everest listened intently to Leaf babbling on and on. He really is a good big brother...most of the time.

While in Raleigh, I got together with my wonderful friend Jen Super. We were supposed to get the kids together to play (Jen had a baby boy in Nov., Sofia and Everest are about 6 months apart). We planned on meeting at a playground, but after a long day walking both boys zonked out and slept for 3 hours (we finally woke Everest up). They missed all but the last 15 minutes of the play date.

Sofia and Everest still enjoyed playing for a short while.

My little reindeer

Sorry I have been absent for so long. We did not have an internet connection for a few weeks. (which makes blogging and email, a lot more difficult). We are up and running again, thanks to my wonderful husband. I am slowly catching up with the blog and all my emails =)

Christmas this year was very nice. Here are my little reindeer on Christmas day. (Why are my kids faces always dirty in pictures?)


The reindeer family.
Leaf surprised Grami with a big pot for brewing beer. It is just his size!
Leaf had another surprise for us. He started walking Christmas eve! Of course, it was a little wobbly at first because he had to have his fingers in his mouth instead of out for balance.
No, I am not purposely favoring my younger child...Everest rarely lets me take his picture anymore. He always looks away or makes a really goofy face. Does anyone else's 4 year old do this?

He was cool enough to get his picture with aunt Teresa (after 3 or 4 shots), doing his VERY favorite thing....playing with Legos! He can not get enough of them. We build and rebuild and rebuild again.

NYC

Last year, on my mom's 59th birthday all she asked for was that we go with her to NYC to see the Nutcracker for her 60th birthday. She said she was asking a year in advance so we could plan. We could not make it on her birthday (Dec. 7), but went December 22. Nathan and Bernie were on kid patrol all day. We left Elizabethtown, PA on the 8:15 train.


We arrived in time for lunch and a little site seeing. We had planned on what we were wearing for days. We didn't want to freeze while walking around, but we didn't want to sweat in the theater or restaurants. We also wanted to be somewhat dressed up. Our first thoughts were courdory skirts with tights, but even a long skirt would not have kept us warm. We ended up with dress pants and cuddleduds (long underwear). I wore thick socks and hiking shoes (I only have my sorrell boots and they are anything but dressy or comfortable walking in.)

We found this nutcracker on the way. Mom was so excited, so Teresa and I got our pictures taken with him.
We did not have much of a game plan. We wanted to, but there is so much to do in NYC, especially at Christmas time. We tried to see Cirque Du Soleil, they had a show at 7, but we never would have made the last train home. We tried to go to MoMA, but it is closed on Tuesdays. Who would have thought, especially during the holidays.Even though the kids were not with us, we gravitated towards things the kids would have loved. We went to FAO Swartz to look for Legos. It was a pretty lame display for FOA. We ran into ToysRus and had to go in. They have a Ferris Wheel and all the cars are different (firetruck, ScoobyDoo bus, Lego truck, etc.)
Just having fun being in NYC, but always thinking of my kids. This is for you Everest.
Mom and I at Times Square. Teresa really wanted to see Times Square. It was so busy. We almost missed our train. I looked at the map and found Grand Central (only a few blocks away). When we got there we realized we were at the bus station and NOT the train station! We ran about 8 blocks in 20 minutes. When we got there, our train was delayed by 45 minutes!
We had a really good time. We arrived in Elizabethtown around 12:30am. Mom had a great time. The ballet was beautiful. And we got to spend some girl time together. We said we would try it again in a few years, and who knows, we may get to see Cirque Du Soleil.

Cookies for a shelter

Early December 2009

Lisa and Doug invited us over to make Christmas cookies for a local shelter. Aunt Teresa was visiting so she got to help out too.


This is Leaf's favorite place to be at the Louks household. (Leaf says "Go away Rowen, this is my space." Poor Rowen!)
So proud of himself. He found an apple and chewed on it most of the time.He finally came out of the dog crate, only to "un-decorate" the Purdue Christmas tree.
Doug trying to keep Leaf occupied.
Everest got to decorate some cookies. They spread out in the baking process and turned into HUGE cookies. We had fun decorating...and eating a couple!