Gulbranson's

Happy Halloween!

12:07 PM by Josh and Erica

This is Luke's First Halloween, and although he's not going to be trick-or-treating we still wanted to do something to celebrate. We would have let him carve the pumpkin, but he still doesn't quite have a good handle on how to use those hands.

We did let him take a good look at those pumpkin guts, and we tried to get him to decide what kind of face the pumpkin should have.

This is a picture of Luke right up next to the pumpkin in the dark. I know it's hard to tell but if you look closely you can see his hands and face.

Three months old already!

3:15 PM by Josh and Erica

I can't believe that he's 3 months old already! (well technically not until tomorrow) Our little boy is growing up, he's already gotten to do and see so many things, it's just to bad he was asleep for most of them. In September we drove up to Minnesota so that he could meet his whole family! It was a 19 hour drive and we stayed there for more then three weeks, it was a lot of fun!

Here are some pictures of Luke just a few days before he turns 3 months old.

He's started to know that he has hands, but he's still not very good with them. He will look at them a lot, and he will grab my fingers if I hold them where he can reach and then look at my hands. The only thing I wish he would get the hang of is toys, so that I don't have to think up new games to keep him from getting bored.

He hasn't laughed yet, but he does smile often! The trick is trying to catch the smiles on camera. Once you pick the camera up and hold it in front of him he gets distracted from what he was smiling at and is curious about the camera... This picture I just happened to snap in the right place at the right time.

is the best baby!

We are trying to teach him to sit up, but he's not very good at balancing yet.

As for Josh and I, we are doing really well. About 2 weeks ago Josh started his training, he will have a few months of academics and then he will actually start flying. By the beginning of next year he will have his wings. Luke and I spend our days talking, taking pictures, napping and playing games. I feel really blessed to be able to have this time with him. And I promise that I will get better about this blogging thing. I have so many pictures and we have done so many things, I'm not in need of topics yet!

He's here

10:10 PM by Josh and Erica

I know this is a little late... Actully one month late, but Luke Joshua Gulbranson is here. He was born July 24th, 2008 at 5:35pm. He weighed 6lbs 14oz and was 21in long.

Even though he was due August 7th, my doctor had told me that she wanted to deliver early because I had high blood pressure. On the afternoon of July 23rd Josh and I were having a typical day, he had come home from work and I had been feeling fine all day. Shortly after he came home I noticed that my ankles were more swollen then normal and upon further examination I noticed that it could be preeclampsia... I called the doctors office and they had me come in that afternoon. Pretty much the first thing out of her mouth was, 'I don't like this... let's have a baby.' I felt shock for one moment and then my mind was flooded with questions.
Once we arrived at the hospital things seemed to slow down. Even though I was contracting on my own nothing seemed to be moving along, after 8 hours I was only 4cm, at 12 the next afternoon I was finally ready to get started. To my dissapointment my doctor was in surgery somewhere and I was forced to be patient. Finally after 22 hours and 58 minutes Luke offically became a part of our family, and I was glad he decided to join us.

Peaches!!!

10:43 PM by Josh and Erica

We've been in Georgia now for half a month and it's about time we try some authentic Georgia peaches. We went to the Lane Packing Peach Orchard to see what it was all about. We went on a self-guided tour of the plant and watched peaches go from crates off the tree to crates that go to the grocery store. They have a "you pick" but it's only for strawberries and they're not in season right now so we bought some fresh peaches to take home and some peach cider to try.

Peaches come in from the orchard

Then they're washed and waxed

Then each peach gets its own sticker and its picture taken to determine color and size

Then, based on the size and/or color the peaches are pushed through specific holes in this conveyor so that they can be boxed up with similar peaches.

This is where they go after they fall through the belt and then they're boxed up from here

Off to the grocery store

4th of July

10:22 PM by Josh and Erica

For the 4th of July we went across the street to the high school football stadium for a free concert and fireworks. The Air Force Reserve band played some songs and than Lonestar played. It was pretty good and they played all of their popular songs. The fireworks were good too and they were timed to music. When it was all over we watched everyone get in their cars and try to get out of the parking lots and sit in traffic. We just walked home!

The Air Force Reserve Band

Lonestar

Museum of Aviation

10:16 PM by Josh and Erica

We went to the Museum of Aviation close to our house. They have quite a few airplanes outside but we didn't look at them because a storm was coming and it was really hot outside. Supposedly it's the second largest museum in the Air Force and it's only 5 minutes from our house!

It's A Boy!!!

1:59 PM by Josh and Erica