Luke's Mobile

No, Luke didn't get a cell phone- Luke is now mobile- as in, he is crawling. He came to my office today and when I put him on the floor in my boss's office, he crawled. Repeat performance about 20 min later when mom was around.
The girls took the motivation of food, Cheetos if I recall correctly, but look only took a shiny pen.

So those of you who voted in the poll to the left, well, too late now and we were all wrong. No one had voted for Wed.

Pictures, perhaps video of the crawler coming soon.

Regional Santa's & Luke's Forward Motion

Ashley and I were having breakfast the other morning (Nicole was still sleeping and Mom was taking care of Luke). I asked her what she was thinking about and her answer was, "Well, when I grow up, I don't know what I want to be, but Nicole is going to be Santa Claus. .... I know there is already a Santa Clause, but he can take care of all the far away people and Nicole can do all the close by people."

I think she is on to something there. Perhaps we can even extend the idea such that each town, or street- maybe even each house has their own Santa.

Oh, and feel free to place your bet on which day Luke will be crawling in the poll to the left. He has made forward progress but mostly by doing a push up and collapsing forward again and again. For the sake of the poll an official "crawl" consists of forward motion using his arms - while not crying. Scouts honor on which you vote for as it is all anonymous.

Perspective

 

 

We are enjoying some peaceful snowfalls recently. This morning we were outside finishing up the driveway and Nicole looked down the street to see someone using a snowblower (takes all the fun out if it if you ask me). She said "LOOK! Sprinkler!" Don't think it would be as much fun to run through as the neighbors sprinkler in August, but fun to see how a kids mind works.
Then Ashley looked down the street the other way, laughed and said "She's using a spatula to clean the snow off her car."

So hope your spatulas and sprinklers are doing a good job of clearing your snow and you are able to enjoy it this weekend.

Nicole (2), Ashley (4)

Being the older sisters, we share a room and we also are going to
share this post. We have had a great fall. We had a great time in
the leaves and a few times dad set up a zip line across the length of
the backyard (from maple tree to swing set) and it has been lots of
fun. We just "turn scared into fun" as dad keeps reminding us.
We love drawing and paiting and maybe dad will scan and post some of
artwork. Ashley loves to draw the family- It looks like 5 smiley
faces of appropriate sizes for each family members with legs and arms
coming out of the circle that is the head. On special days, we get
bodies, but mostly we look like M&M's.
Nicole loves to laugh and keeps the rest of us laughing. I can't
think of a story that would tell well on here, but she has a way of
saying things in the few words she knows that makes it very clear what
she is trying to express.
Oh, and as long as we are writing, Dad is all about Christmas music
this year and is very excited to have found the mp3 stream of Moody
Christmas at http://www.moodyradio.org/brd_AudioMin.aspx?id=13144 If
time allows this afternoon we may start decorating the house! 1st
week of Advent this weekend- we are getting excited.

Luke- 7 months

The much awaited post on Luke. He has been one of the main reasons we
have not been posting as much on here. He had a tough time from 2-6
months old. Turns out he doesn't like his monther eating dairy- his
skin would break out and without the coordination to scratch was
pretty much miserable. Now that Missy has been (or at least given her
best effort at) not eating dairy he is a new kid. Very cute, happy,
smily and loves to play with his sisters(and be played with). He
isn't quite crawling yet, though it feels like that could happen soon.
He is still eating well and not at all small. Mom is getting a nice
upper body workout hauling him around.

Happy Thanksgiving

I'm sitting, with laptop, by a fire in my backyard and thankful for a beautiful star lit sky, a warm fire, plenty of wood and even a leaf free back yard thanks to sunny, warm weather this morning. I'm also thankful for the new Fernando Ortega album, Christmas Songs It is great, but that brings up my question that I'd like to pose: When is it too early for Christmas music? I suppose i could make a poll on the blog, but I doubt canned answers will do. So give me your comments, but also, let me tell you why I'm all for it now that Thanksgiving is over, well, nearly.

The bottom line is, that Christmas Music stirs up all sorts of emotions in most everybody- the good songs at least, and it stirs my heart to Worship. The words of some of these songs are so filled with scripture, Joy, excitement, beauty. Take for example, "What Child is this?" This, This is Christ the King! Whom Shepards guard and angels sing. Haste haste to bring Him Love, the Babe, the Son of Mary.

To some, just lyrics I suppose, but to me, a call to remember the price that God was willing to pay to reach out to us to show us love so we can know and worship Him. I guess I say all this on Thanksgiving to say, I'm thankful for a God who knows us, desires us to know Him and give us a purpose. So you, my facebook and blog readers, join me around the fire on this perfect night as best you can; cold enough to need a fire, not so cold it hurts, stars that shine from mind-blowingly far away-
to reflect on what you are thankful for- something my mom always tries to get us to do around a table of food that I always had a hard time getting into but now wish I did more often- God has blessed us in so many ways. And since I'm going first this year I'll take the best answer- I'm thankful for what this music is so reminding me of- The ultimate Gift of God sending his only son to walk this earth, die on the cross and rise again so that we may have Life and have it abundantly.

Oh, and thought I'd apologize for the lack of postings to this blog in a long time at the bottom of this post, not the top. Luke has kept us busy and I'll tell the full story on that shortly. He is doing well now and i'll leave it at that as my hands are cold and the fire could use some attention. Happy Thanksgiving and God bless.

You Bet

Ashley has started her second year of pre-school.  This year she is going to Harvest Christian Academy (Church School as she calls it) on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday.  She loves it and arrives to school eager to see her friends and has big smiles when we pick her up.  We are thrilled with her excitement to learn, make friends and worship the Lord.  She comes home singing songs from the Thursday morning chapel and last night even used it as her excuse for why she couldn't go to bed, "Dad, I've got to worship God"  We still made her go to bed- I didn't take the time to explain that we can worship God in all that we do, even sleep- now there is a nice thought.

Yesterday, I asked her if she is well behaved for her teacher, Mrs. Zievel.  "You bet" was her response- wow that story doesn't tell as funny as it reads- so to fully appreciate the wit of a near 4 year old, stop by sometime- hope to see you soon.

Sorry it has been so long since I've posted to this blog. The camera doesn't come out quite as much when we are not on vacation.  I'm posting a recent picture of the girls and a posting about Luke will be coming along shortly.

More Fun on the Beach

I am not typically the "author" of our blog, but I feel it is
necessary to step up to the plate and make an entry. From viewing the
blog, it appears that the only highlights on our vacation to the beach
occured on the kayak which is definitely not the case. Nicole and
Ashley were incredibly brave in the water. It took some time learning
how to brave the waves, but Nicole by the end was saying "another one,
another one" after each wave she jumped. It was great! Luke and my
dad became great buddies. My dad had the magic touch with Luke
whenever he would begin yet another screaming fit--oh the fun of
newborns. It was a great time with the family...such a unique
experience that so many do not get to experience with their families
and we thank God for that daily. Now, enjoy some pictures that are
not kayak related :)

I was there

I have now received a few concerned (one proud) inquiry into the
validity of the previous picture. Was that really Ashley out there
alone in the boat?

Of course not- do you really think i'd allow a 3 year old to take my
kayak out into the open waters of the Atlantic ocean? Not a chance
I'd risk my boat like that. I was holding on to her the whole time.
Oh, and Ashley was safely secured, having a blast and felt like
royalty as I maneuvered her through, over and with the waves. Here are
a few more pictures of when I was not hiding behind the backside of the boat.

Home safe

We arrived safely at home yesterday afternoon after a great drive
through the night.

Before we left, Ashley got some kayking in. We are so proud of her
for getting so much braver during the time we were there. She had a
blast.

Ashley, the kayaker

Mom and Luke are back and it's great to be all together again. Nicole seems to still be battling a teething fever, so pray for her, and us. The waves were just the right size for Ashley and me to get out and play in the kayak. She got over her fear and had a blast. I even convinced her to jump off the boat into the water at about 4 ft depth. Good times.

Morning Paddle

Here are a few pictures I took this morning just before I left for a
sunrise paddle on a ocean of glass. It was pretty amazing. I kept
the flag in view for most of the shots because, well, "I'm proud to be
an american!" Sorry, I'm back from bursting into song- enjoy the
pictures. I owe a thanks to Matt and Stacy who came over at 5:30 to
sleep in my house with the girls so I could get the paddle in. Thanks
guys!

Yesterday and today are going pretty well though we really miss Mom.
She comes back tonight and we are looking forward to having her back.
Nicole is running a fever, which we think is teething related, so when
that is running high she really needs a lot of attention- but all is
well and we are making do.

These pictures were sent with Picasa, from Google. Try it out here:
http://picasa.google.com/

Update

Well, I've posted a few more pictures in our MA album and am adding the below video of Luke laughing. Very cute kid.

He is on his first airplane ride right now; headed back to IL with his mom for his great grandfather's funeral. They will be back tomorrow. In the mean time, Ashley, Nicole and Dad are on the beach with some of the cousins. So far, so good but we miss having the full "team" around.

Vacation and nice wearther arrive together

I wrapped up my time in the Wakefield office friday and came back to
the beach and perfect beach weather.
We had a fun weekend on the beach and had our good friends, the
Bradley's and jeff visit this weekend. The bummer of the trip however
is the passing of Missy's grandpa Sunday morning. It really is a
blessing and it was his time but now Missy, Luke and some of the rest
of her family is flying back to Il for tuesday and wed. Just thought
I'd check in with the b log and let you all know what is going on and
we will posr some new pictures soon. Please pray for safe travels and
that God will comfort our family in this time.

The weather man was wrong

Well I posted a few more pictures last night of our gorgeous day, see the album to the left.  There are more pictures from the morning when it was still cloudy and once it got perfect out we were too busy playing in the waves, kayaking and enjoying the day to remember to take pictures.  The weather called for last night and today to be rainy- it was supposed to be easy for me to leave for work in 20 min and be in an office all day.  Well, the weather man was wrong.  I'm squinting in the sunlight as I write this, watching a beautiful morning.  I'll manage to get to work I suppose.

It has been a great morning so far and thought I'd share a link to today's Truth for Life devotional.  Check it out if you get a chance as it talks, in words far more eloquent than what I can come up with of God's amazing grace and greatness.  But as i sit here looking at the ocean and read the hymn at the bottom, to look at the sea and think not of God's greatness as I tend to, but to use it as an analogy of the greatness of my sin, it makes God's greatness that much greater because He has concurred death and my sin which means He is far greater still. Romans 8:2  "For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death."  Freedom is amazing!

Photos posted

We have not had the best weather, but that is all a part of the fun. Great thunderstorms have rolled through almost every day. Anyone can have a great vacation at one of those spots where the weather is good, but it takes character to enjoy Rockport weather.
Check out the photos we have posted.

Beach Front Naps

We had so much fun on the beach that we are WIPED OUT. Great beach day and more pics coming soon.

22 hours

Well, we have arrived safely in ma.
It took 22 hours in total but 3 of that was stopping at our good
friends house a little over an hour from here and a few hours in
stops. 16 hrs driving time.

We left home at 9pm thursday night after a beautiful (though week long
packing) job. Missy did an amazing job of preparing and it was great
to put the full utility of the minivan to use. We brought everything.
The kids fell asleep around the IN state line and slept till just east
of Buffalo. It was great driving through and making good time. Hard
but great and reminded me of college drives btwn chicago and out east.

The we stopped for a stretch and Missy took over driving while I
napped. 45 min later I woke up to help the girls pick up some stuff
they dropped and a min later Ashley was getting car sick. Sparing you
the details it was bad but not too hard to clean up and we took a few
more breaks medicated and moved the girls to the middle row (sorry
luke). The rest of the drive was a little more stressful but event
free- the best kind of driving.

Well, off to play on the beach but thank you all for your prayers.
Will send pics soon.

--
Sent from Gmail for mobile | mobile.google.com

Happy Mat Genius

So I think my son may in fact be smarter than me. They say true
genius is being able to focus on the task at hand. Luke can focus on
the star [see photo] on his "happy mat" activity map for 45 minutes.
That is 44 minutes longer than I've ever been able to focus on
anything.

Additionally, Luke here is wanting to give out a fist bump [see photo]
to the blog readers, show how big he is getting and let the world know
that while Dad and formula will make do, Mom's amazing in that she
takes care of him and his sisters solo most every day. Dad's just
proud of himself for having the time to get a photo and post a blog
all while Mom is out- for a mere 3 well deserved hours. (I wonder,
will I always refer to myself in the third person as Dad? Any parents
of older kids care to let me know when/if that goes away?)

Swim lessons and Thunder

With our trip to beach less than 2 weeks away we thought it would be a great idea to get the girls more used to the water. So we had our first swim class at the park district on Tuesday. Ashley is old enough to go to class by herself, but Nicole needs a parent with her. Ashley's class had 5 kids in it, Nicole (and Brandon) was the only one in her class- which would be great 1:1 instruction, had the instructor ever worked with "little kids" before. Nicole was having a blast till the instructor told me to put her face in the water and thinking she knew what she was doing I, mistakenly, obliged. She cried the rest of the time; which had the added benefit of convincing Ashley that she should be scared too (we were after all in the same pool). So day 1 didn't go great, but we talked up day two like crazy, but I guess God heard the prayers of our Girls and brought a huge thunderstorm through right at the beginning of class- so class was canceled and the girls bought themselves another 24 hours to prepare. Wish us luck!
Here is a picture of Nicole pre-dunk:

Smiling Video

We took Luke for a walk and he was all smiles. Here is a video of his smiles.

(Facebook readers, I think to see the video you will have to visit our blog http://5brown.blogspot.com to view)

Smiles and Tummy Time

As you can see, Luke is geting bigger and more interactive by the day.
The second picture here is of "tummy time" which he takes as an
opportunity to nap on his stomach, not sit up and get the excercise it
is supposed to be.

Related to Tummy time yesterday, we heard Ashley walking through the
house singing "Duh nu nu nu.. nu nu Tummy time. Du nu....." I looked
at Missy and she explained that one time, in trying to get Luke
excited/awake about it she sang about tummy time to Luke to the theme
of Hammer time.

Oops... Spoke too soon.

Luke read the posting from yesterday and decided that he'd make me insert my foot squarely in my mouth. He was up yesterday afternoon and cat napped some, but was mostly up till 1am. But he was for the most part happy and while his parents were not all that happy to be awake much later than we would have liked, he did sleep from 1 till 8 this morning.

Not really a blog worthy piece of news but thought I'd mention it out of fair "reporting".

Those of you reading this on facebook: Missy and I are both now importing this blog to our facebook notes application, so you may see this duplicated if we are both on your friend list.

Not about Luke

So, since this blog has been pretty much all about Luke recently, and sometimes his sisters, thought I should warn you that this post isn't really about the kids.

This week I finally got around converting 6 cd's of the Psalms to mp3. It's this really great recording my Mike Kellogg (Moody radio) but when I pulled it to MP3, the track names were not found, so I had Unknown artist, Unknown Album, Track 1, Track 2...track 37, so when I got to work, I decided to fix that. I opened up the properties window and had to fill out the properties for the mp3. Okay, Artist. I was floored.

It seemed too amazing to me to put "God" as the artist... but it was right. Sure, David may have been the composer and Mike Kellogg was the one reading it, but "artist" on audio books is the author, right? It made me realize that the God of the universe wrote a book, wanted to express a message to the people He created and I even had the opportunity to hear God's Word spoken. It is an amazing thing. And best of all, God's Word is living and active, which means it is a message for me today just as much as it was to David 3000 years ago. I listened to the Psalms all the way home as I biked through the woods and they never looked so good.

I also have to give thanks to Matthew Westerholm (Friend from church and author of retro-evangelical.blogspot.com) who through that blog introduced me to Bob Kauflin's work and in his 75min interview (link) his discussion of the Psalms- to realize that Jesus is the only one who can say so many of the Psalms in the entirely. So prophetic. So relevant. So alive. Check it out. (link)

Our sleeper

At the risk of making those of you with young children a bit jealous- and at the risk of jinksing ourselves, thought we'd share the "news" in Luke's life, which is, he sleeps a lot. We have not figured out a "schedule" yet, but have just tried to roll with it. Yesterday he woke up at around 4 pm (yes, I mean pm) after having slept from 11pm the night before, only waking for a morning and midday feedings. Then he napped from 6-10, ate again, then slept till 5am this morning. He and I went for a run, then he was back to sleep by 6:45, sleeping now.
He is growing like a weed, so that is what all the sleep is about we guess. When he is awake he is sometimes a bit fussy, but there are times he is wide awake, alert and smiling, even working to make eye contact, so that is fun.

Bunking It

Nicole is out of her crib now. Both girls in the bunk bed resting
soundly. They also did a great job last night at both staying in bed
and falling asleep in a decent amount of time.

First smiles

Luke is smiling now and Missy tried to catch a picture of it. The timing with the digital camera was not ideal, but we will take what we can get with these first smiles.

Getting big quick

So many of you have commented that we have not had an updated picture
of luke in a while. He is doing quite well. If I say he is sleeping
well, then he will be up all night. He loves his changing pad and
there are times he just wants us to put him down, but he is a pretty
good cuddeler too.

Tandem Swingy Ball World Champions

Ashley and Nicole are the world's best tandem swingy ball players. I have installed the "Big Swing" and the girls are loving it.

PanCan 5K Walk, Chicago

The PanCan walk went well. The weather was a bit rough (50 degrees or
so and a really strong wind with some occasional drizzel) but it beat
the forcast and we made the 5K walk. We were walking in memory of Sue
Brown (Luke's grandma) and all of her grandkids (and kids) were there.
It was good to see everyone and the walk was fun, though a bit
anti-climatic and disorganized- evidenced by the fact that we didn't
get a picture with everyone or many pictures at all, but for having a
18 day old at an event of this size, we did prety well. Luke held up
great and slept through the whole thing.
Alli and Missy set up camp under a bridge and hung out with Luke while
the rest of us did the walk. Thanks to everyone who donated to
PanCan... it was a huge turnout and it was good to be together with so
many people who's lifes have been affected by Pancreatic cancer and
remind us and them that we/they are not alone. Nicer weather may have
allow a bit more socializing, but we'll take what we can- thanks to
all who were there.

We survied another week

Luke is doing really well. The girls are really enjoying him. Today Ashley said that she really loves her little brother...but she loves him a lot more when he is awake. His parents kind of feel the opposite, especially in the middle of the night. Luke will be walking his first 5K in memory of Luke's grandma tomorrow morning down at Grant Park: PanCan Walk. It should be quite wet, so that will be interesting. We'll keep you all posted with how it goes.

He's got mad skills

So in order to keep you up to date on all of his "skills" here is a video of his Pacifier sucking ability. His other skill is creating a lot of heavy diapers, but no one wants to see a video of that.

Almost a week at home

Luke is doing well. We have been home a week tomorrow and I think
everyone has begun to adjust.

Melissa is recovering quickly but also being good about taking it
easy. Her sisters have been taking turns helping out by watching the
girls ever since my mom left on Tuesday. The pain from the c-section
is all but gone and while she does get tired a bit more quickly it is
perhaps the best recovery so far.

Luke is eating, sleeping and growing like crazy. He had is 1 week
check up and he was already 1/2 a pound over his birth weight. (Target
is to reach birth weight by 2 weeks) He started off this week being
up a lot at night and on Tuesday night only let us get 15-30 minute
blocks of sleep. He did better wednesday and then last night he did
great, but unfortunaltly that is because his tear ducts are clogged so
opening his eyes is hard; so he sleeps. It is getting better already
though, so that is good.

Ashley and Nicole really like having a "babee" in the house and will
randomly decide they need to find him to give him a kiss. Luckily he
is a good sleeper because when they find him sleeping in his bassinet
and nearly tip it over he grunts some and then goes back to sleeping.
There is some natural jealously going on and on occasion they are a
bit more needy than regular, but overall they love the extra visitors
who swing by and all the excitement. The nice weather has helped out
a lot in terms of giving them something new to do.

Luke's Homecoming

Saturday Morning Luke decided it was time to leave the hospital and go hang out with his sisters and grandparents. Everything really smoothly but it was a very tiring 15 minute drive home so Luke slept almost all day.

The first night was not so bad. He was up to feed every 3 hours but is very happy. I've posted more pictures on our photo site and more are on the way.

Paparazzi

I'm getting the hang of this stuff. Things are going really well today. I let my parents sleep a little, so did I, my sisters came over too. Check out a few more photos (will it ever stop- every time I turn my head someone has a camera- you'd think I was a first kid or something) on the bottom of my album

How life is like a construction site

So I'm only 30 hours old and I have not had much of a chance to get out, but as I stare out the window at this construction site (see a picture of my view, click here), I'd like to draw some parallels.

1) Both are pretty scary: Whether it's learning how to breath or walk across an I beam, you get the hang of it pretty quick though and then it's just old hat.
2) A good team is important: Lots of guys on the construction site make it all come together; a great mom and an okay dad, great doctors and a talented nursing staff in here and my life is coming together nicely too.
3) Communication is key: outside they have a cool little radio gizmo they use to communicate with the crane operator. Pretty high tech looking. My communication is a bit simpler. If I want something I cry till all these people figure out what it is I want. Pretty sweet gig :)
4) There is clearly a designer with a plan: So it's amazing to watch this building outside come together- such coordination and clearly a designer. And as i stare at my hand an watch all this amazing stuff happen with my body and my mom's, pretty undeniable that there is a Designer. *Romans 1:20 For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse.
5) Sometimes things don't work out right the first time but with a little effort it ends up working: The guys outside put these pieces of steel into place and then have to use the torches and chains and brute force to get them to set right. Kinda like when I wasn't breathing quite right; just took a little effort to clear out my lungs and get back on track.
6) Life can be pretty gross at times: Whether that is a flying port-a-potty(click here for a picture of that) or one of my diapers, things get gross at times, but it is all a part of life.

Twice as old as my last blog

Just wanted to give an update on Luke and Mom. He was just complaining that he had not been blogged about for half of his life. He is now twice as old as he was when we last gave you an update on his condition.

He is sleeping a lot today. He has done a good job of getting his lungs clear of fluid and has been a good eater. Visitors are coming by and he seems to like all of them, especially his sisters.

Mom is recovering amazingly. She is now "cable" free and only on tylenol for pain control. She is up and walking around. The only bummer is that she can not seem to fall asleep. Please be praying that she can get more than just rest, but actually fall sleep.

There is a construction project out the window that Dad and Grandpa are watching so that is making the time pass quickly (that and the internet access- which is how you are all kept up to speed on the day in the life of Luke.

More Pictures

Take a look at the photos on our Picasa site (link to the left or here) for even more pictures.
Here are some of our favorites.

The girls had a blast seeing their brother.  They couldn't get enough of holding him.  He slept the whole time, but that made it easier to hold.  He is eating well and very cute.