Gulbranson's: 2009

No excuses here...

8:47 PM by Josh and Erica

This post is not going to start out with me saying anything about how long it's been since I've last blogged, how I really have to make up for lost time, or even that I'm going to do any better from now on. I am not going to make excuses because we have been really busy... I mean really, really busy... And I just haven't had time to blog.

We can start back at the first half of October, with the Georgia National Fair. We didn't have the weather that we were blessed with last year for the fair. We eventually got rained out and just went home. But we did support our local conservatives by buying merchandise, and we were able to get our fried cheese, turkey leg, and corn dogs.

Luke didn't seem interested in much of the stuff that we wanted to look at, but he did love the little chickies. And who could blame him, I wanted to pet the little chickies too... They are just too cute!

Now we can move on to pumpkin carving.

Since we knew we were going to be in Minnesota for Halloween, I wanted a chance to do a little family activity before we left Georgia. I wanted to give Luke a chance to really dig into the guts of the pumpkin and get dirty...

He didn't want to do that.

He did however take a few slices that I shaved off the pumpkin and eat them... And I don't mean just taste them and be done... he ate the whole thing.

These are pumpkin seeds.

We flew home to Minnesota and Luke did very well on the airplane. He took a little nap, which is my favorite part or the flight, and we arrived in one piece.

Here we are at Lego Land in the Mall of America.

Here is Luke playing with a boat at the children's museum.

Now as you can see... From the picture of my adorable Elmo... We are just about to get too Halloween time. Well, on the evening of October 29th we took Luke for his first time to the emergency room because he had a temperature of 102.4.

Luke had the flu... and pink eye.

The next evening Josh developed a fever as well... And pink eye...

I had a sore throat, and a general disagreeable feeling about me, but no fever, and no pink eye.

For Trick-or-Treating we visited all of the grandparents, great and normal, and then we went to bed.

Luke wasn't really sure what he was supposed to do in a pile of leaves...

Luke at Emma Crumbies, in Belle Plaine, MN.

There is no real story to go with these photos... They are just some of my new favorites.

Just to make sure we covered all our bases, we had to make one more trip to the ER with Luke before our trip ended...

Luke had an ear infection, in both ears...

When the trip finally came to an end we were tired from being sick, and tried because Josh never really got to stop working, and tired because we knew that when we got home we would only have 9 days to get moved into a new house...

But our flight was delayed...

And so we had to sit and wait...

And we used up all of Luke's good sitting and waiting time up in the airport.

Our flight home was in the evening, we were delayed almost 2 hours. Luke hadn't had a nap all day. On the plane he was tired, hungry, bored and hot... And Josh and I couldn't wait for the flight to end.

And to add one more worry and complication to everything we've had to do...

We're having another baby!!

I'm not trying to make it sound like a bad thing... It is the very reason we've done most of these things...

Now that I'm almost finished with this post I don't feel like I've told you about even half of the things that have happened.

Like I mentioned, we've moved, and we're so happy that process is over. But I feel like we still have a thousand more things on our plates that need to be done, like yesterday.

Somehow we'll get through it, as a family, we always do.

Birthdays, babies, and baseball

6:58 PM by Josh and Erica

We had a busy couple of weekends last week and the week before. First here are just a few pictures of Luke being his crazy self while we're hanging out at home.

The first thing that we did was help Luke's buddy Austin celebrate his first birthday... He had a boy party. Here is a picture of him with Austin, Blake, Austin's daddy Eric and Austin's uncle Eugene. The boys all seemed to have a really great time, and made a total mess of the house... So they pretty much just acted like boys!

Here is Austin with his cake...

I guess the pressure to be adorable got to him... It's a tough gig.

We spent the rest of the week waiting for Luke's friend Isabelle to get a new brother or sister... we didn't know at the time...
To pass some time on a beautiful day we took the kiddos to Luna Lake on base and fed the fishes and turtles some bread... Luke decided to keep his bread all for himself.

It was the coolest thing... I didn't think that turtles would come out to eat bread.

Here Luke is with Isabelle... She likes to take his hand and lead him around. He is always resistant... but always seems to give in.
Later the next day the waiting was over! Isabelle got a new baby brother! Yay for more boys...
Now here's hoping that my blogging about her baby will inspire Joy to put up some pictures and tell us all about it!! If she has the time... I mean, she does have a brand new baby...

Now moving on to a Luke first... Luke attended not only his first baseball game, but his first sporting event of any kind.
It was a beautiful day, not a cloud in the sky, cool with a little breeze... Perfect.

And Luke actually seemed to have a really good time!!

Seventh inning stretch time he needed to get up and walk around... But who doesn't.

The game lasted 11 innings and he was in good spirits for all of them.

Josh's Fallon TDY in August

2:11 PM by Josh and Erica

Mommy's little hero

11:01 AM by Josh and Erica

In an attempt to take more pictures of our life I have taken the camera with me to a few different places. And I suppose I have potential post in the pictures Josh has brought back from his journeys... I just thought of that, I should have put up some just picture posts... But I still only managed to take pictures at one event, and that was a baby shower for my friend Joy. However I didn't actually get any pictures of the baby shower, just pictures of my baby, er, toddler...

This is Luke wearing a mask from the kids show 'Super Why,' which he loves, even though he can't spell, and is no where close to learning how. He likes me to put these things on him... hats, glasses, this mask... But seems to have the urge to take them right back off and get me to put them on again. However, I am happy to announce that this is neither a laughing or crying face, he is, in fact, mugging for the camera... It's adorable!!

Another of Luke's favorite new things is dogs. This is the first small dog he has encountered. He loves the big, gentle ones... He loves to chase after them, and has even met a few who will chase after him in return.

This puppy was so tiny I was afraid that he might hurt it, he's not always careful where he walks.

Giant, talking dinosaurs = hours of entertainment for my son....

I don't have many pictures of Luke and his friends, but here he is with his bestest buddy Isabelle, who will soon be a big sister! Very exciting!

I am very pleased with how this post turned out... Maybe the answer is more coffee!!

Blogging is the new black...

12:36 PM by Josh and Erica

Luke has started crawling under the guest bed... where we store odds and ends... He crawls under there because that's where the cats go to hide from him...

Where the cats used to go to hide from him...

These are the only pictures I've taken in the last month and a half... Pretty sad right.

I have been reading other peoples blogs and I have to say that I feel untalented, untraveled and without hobbies.

I wish I knew how to blog my funny stories... For that I suppose I would have to have some funny stories... Complete with pictures and punchlines...

We haven't done anything since Luke's birthday. Josh did go on two separate TDY's and I feel like all I did was sit around the house with our dear boy.

The only new thing I have to tell is that my little baby is turning into a toddler and will no longer take two naps a day... Just one, and it seems to be getting shorter every day.

I need a hobby, something that gets me outdoors maybe. It will be nice here in Georgia soon and I think I would like to spend our pleasant season outdoors... What should my new hobby be?

Birthday Pandemonium

1:58 PM by Josh and Erica

For Luke's first birthday I wanted to get some 1 year portraits. I decided the place to take them that was the most fitting for our family and our boy was the Air Museum right next to base. I didn't remember how dark it was in there until it was already too late. Even though I didn't get as many pictures as I wanted I am still pleases with the way they turned out, and as always, our little man was a trooper and didn't hardly complain one bit.

He has really started to love buttons...

Our little cowboy!

Wait for Dad to assemble his new truck. He loves this thing and actually uses it for all of it's intended purposes!

Here Luke is, exactly one year from the minute he was born. I feel like I have started a new birthday tradition of recording what you're doing the moment you were born... however many years later... could be fun...