Estes Park

To celebrate Luke turning one month old we headed up to Estes Park for a one night get-a-way. It was beautiful Fall weather and Luke enjoyed the trip. He even slept 6 hours straight that night! Bryan and I aren't holding our breath for that every night, but we sure thought we could get use to it. :)

Luke wanted to wave hello to celebrate turning a month old.





The elk were bugling like crazy in the park. It was music to Luke's ears and lulled him off to sleep.




We went on a little hike around Bear Lake, it was gorgeous.





Beautiful Fall weather. I hope that we are able to enjoy Fall a little longer before Winter comes along.

2 years ago...

Just 2 years ago Bryan and I were sealed for time and all eternity in the Salt Lake Temple. I can't believe how quickly time has flown by! I consider myself to be the luckiest gal to have snagged Bryan. He is so wonderful to me and I have loved seeing him as Luke's father (I know mushy-mushy). Happy Anniversary!

2 WEEK STATS

A week ago Luke had his follow up visit with the pediatrician. Luke is doing rather well for himself. His stats are as follows:

Height: 22.5 inches (96 %tile)
Weight: 9 lbs 14 oz (81 %tile)

He is definitely growing so quickly! Every day brings something new. We have loved having Luke in our home, he is such a sweet boy. Here are some pictures to prove it. :)


He loved snuggling with Grandma Carrie.
Thanks so much for coming and spending time with us!


The multi-purpose binki.



After many months of planning the nursery, Luke spends zero time in it sleeping, he has a few other favorite sleeping spots...



The carseat



The floor, it is soft carpet :)




And his favorite spot??? The bathroom with the fan on. He is his father's son, and LOVES white noise. Could we be a little more white trash than putting our kid in a bouncer, in the bathroom with a t-shirt as a blanket? Probably, but it might be hard to beat. I guess we will just about try anything for a few hours of sleep. :)



Luke sported his baseball outfit to support Bryan at his softball game.



Our first family picture.

LUKE

Luke Bryan Nielson joined our family on September 15th at 1:07 pm! He weighed in at 8 lbs 10 oz and was 22 inches! He decided to throw a few "kinks" into the labor and delivery plans, but he made it safely. We have loved having his spirit in our home. It is amazing how fast life changes with these little ones. To say that the past week and a half has felt like a blur would be an understatement. I'll keep the words short and post what everyone wants to really see, pictures! :)

Headed in to be induced-the little stinker decided to hang around an extra week.

All smiles and thumbs ups??? I had absolutely NO idea what was about to transpire in the next 18 hours.



Proud papa




Grandma Mona made it out the day after Luke was born. We wouldn't have survived without her here. Let the anxiety build for when she leaves Wednesday... uh-oh.




Our favorite nurse, Trish. She was wonderful, not only to me and baby Luke, but also to Bryan. She even put a chocolate on his pillow, such service!




Going home.

Luke's first bath, he wasn't too sure about the whole experience...

Enjoying some time with mom , or rather, mom enjoying time with Luke.

Sweet sleep

(Bryan and I should also be sleeping and not taking pics, but how could we miss this???)

Welcome Baby Luke.

Labor Day Weekend

We went down to Colorado Springs over Labor Day. It is about 45 minutes south of where we live. Bryan ran the Colorado Springs Marathon on Monday, but we decided to go down the day before and stay overnight. That way, we wouldn't have to wake up as early to make the start time of 6:30. Bryan did awesome on the marathon course! He was running so fast that this is the only picture I managed to snap of him running. Oops.



Here he is after completing 26.2 miles. Wowzers, what a man!



Sunday night, there was a hot air balloon festival at one of the parks in Colorado Springs. The picture doesn't do it justice how amazing the balloons look at night, but it does capture my balloon belly at 9 months pregnant! :)

Steamboat Springs

As the clock continues to count down until Luke makes his presence known, we try to cram in as much as we can. We took a little overnight trip up to Steamboat Springs. It is gorgeous up there. We enjoyed some relaxing, going out to breakfast and squeezed in a little hiking. It was the perfect "mini" getaway.

"Hermano"

Well, baby boy has decided to make a later arrival. My official due date was yesterday, but he must run on the same time frame as his parents--late. :) After some debate, I decided to begin my maternity leave early. It has been a wonderful decision. I am enjoying having time to myself and wrapping up a few loose ends.

A few weeks ago Tom, my brother, came out to help with some projects around the house. I don't think he fully understood what he was getting himself into when he offered his help. We greatly appreciated him coming out. Below are some of the projects and adventures we had while he was out visiting/slaving away.

The first project actually started a few weeks ago when we found a couple of " gems" (cabinets) in the trash. What can I say? We are resourceful. Steven, our neighbor, was kind of enough to help us get our treasures home. Again, we have nothing but class at our house. So much for keeping a low profile in the neighborhood.




Tom and Bryan made quick work finding the perfect locations for the cabinets in our garage.



The second project involved repainting a nightstand that I wanted in the nursery. I thought it would be just slapping a coat of paint on the thing, but Tom took all of it apart and even sanded it down. It received some much needed TLC from Tom and now looks great in the nursery.



The third project was getting a fridge out of the garage and into our basement. To say that we've neglected it would be an understatement. Tom had the misfortune of opening the fridge (after who knows how much time) and experiencing a sensory overload of smells. After a good scrub down, it was off to the basement. Steve came over to help out again, poor guy.



The fourth project (again, Tom had no idea what he was getting himself into) involved doing some decorating in the nursery. The measurements might have been "slightly" off.


The fifth and final project was the biggest of them all. Bryan and Tom painted the master bedroom, put up chair rail and crown molding. I love how it turned out...



We decided that maybe we should let Tom out of the house after he worked so hard. We made it to the Rockies vs. Braves games that just happened to coincide with Tom's visit. Coincidence?? Hardly. This was maybe the best view we had for the first 5 innings due to a rather "difficult" Braves' fan...

There was a slight incident at the game involving the other Braves' fan, but everyone made it home safely. I debated whether or not to post more details, but I'll leave it at that. If your curiosity is killing you, give one of us a call, even better, give Tom a call and he'll give you quite the story. :)

Tom and Bryan also went fly fishing one morning. While they worked the river, I worked on my tan and snapped a photo or two of the action.


We really appreciated Tom coming out and helping us get things done around the house!