luke's 1st trip to the lincoln park zoo!

luke, gram, and i had a great time at the lincoln park zoo last week. luke's favorite animals were the giraffes and the polar bear. we can't wait to make many trips to the lincoln park zoo this summer. after all, it's free and downtown!

luke posing with the real live giraffes and showing off his own sophie giraffe toy.

luke sporting his new lincoln park zoo baseball hat. gosh, he looks so grown up with that hat on!

stuff a sock in it

luke loves to take off his socks and put them in his mouth. we find him like this at least once a day. he is hilarious!

my first mother's day

i had a great first mother's day! it was such a special day and luke and eric made me feel like the most important mom in the world. we had a nice breakfast at home with my parents and then made our way out to schaumburg later that afternoon to celebrate with eric's mom and sister christine. it was a wonderful day and i am so blessed to be a mom this year. being a mom is an indescribable experience filled with joy, worry (who me?), happiness, laughter, tears and an immense amount of love that i never knew i had. i am just so thankful that i have a God who walks with me through it all and loves me unconditionally.

me and the sweet little boy who made me a mom.

our little family

luke and the army...

...army crawl that is! luke is on the move and he's discovering lots of new things in our condo! he's also getting up on his knees a lot and rocking back and forth, so i have a feeling, the "real" crawling is coming soon! gotta baby proof and fast!

dedicated to the Lord

Over the Mother's Day weekend we presented Luke to God to formally ask for God's blessing upon him. We, as parents, publicly committed that we would raise Luke in accordance with the teachings of scripture and that we will provide Luke with a loving, caring, and nurturing environment that will help Luke grow in Christ.

We already know that God has great plans for Luke - plans to prosper and not harm him. We have seen God's work in Luke's life and how he answers our prayers and heals. We picked out a special verse that we dedicate to Luke so that he will grow to put his hope and trust in Jesus.

Romans 15:13

May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.

Luke with his prayer sponsors, our own moms, who commit to praying for Luke during his Christian journey.

The entire family who supported Luke on his special day.

luke meets his wisconsin relatives

luke's traveling adventures continued as we made a way overdue trip up to oshkosh, wisconsin to meet his great grandma crowe (ggc) and all of his "crowe" relatives (great uncles, great aunts, second cousins, second cousins once removed, etc!). we had a great trip and it was wonderful to finally introduce luke to the family. now we just need to get to iowa so luke can meet his great grandma johnson (ggj).

here's luke with his ggc, gram and gramps.

luke is 7 months old! 5.6.10

luke is 7 months old! and he's such a happy, silly little guy. his personality is really starting to come out.

georgia on luke's mind

luke and i just spent 12 whole days in georgia with gram and gramps while eric traveled for work. we had a great, relaxing time - most of which was spent enjoying the warm weather out on the swing set. this picture just about sums up our trip.