Giving Thanks

We spent a wonderful Thanksgiving weekend in Pennsylvania with my family, full of great food, visits from friends, and lots of attention for Luke! We realize how much we have to be thankful for this year, and holidays seem to have special significance as we watch Luke experience so many things for the first time.



Luke donned his Thanksgiving outfits proudly, although I'm not sure Winnie was thrilled with her turkey scarf!




Luke also loved playing with his Mimi and Grandpa...




...and posed proudly with some of his favorite girls!




Another magical "first" occurred when Luke saw Santa Claus arrive on his sleigh at the Macy's Thanksgiving parade. Look at that face full of wonder!




A new tradition for Baby Luke:

Opening "Pre-Christmas" presents on Thanksgiving Day




Below is a slideshow of some of our other favorite pictures from our Thanksgiving weekend:

Luke's 7-month portraits

We had Luke's 7-month pictures professionally taken today, and love them! He looks like such a big boy compared to his 3-month portraits, and once again we bought way too many pictures. The studio also took lots of cute Christmas pictures of Luke, but we are saving those to share on a future blog post closer to the holidays. We hope you enjoy these poses of our cutie!

Our Little Turkey!

As we prepare for Thanksgiving this week, we give thanks for our many blessings.
We are thankful for our family, friends, health, and especially for our dear little Butterball, Luke! We wish you all a very happy holiday on Thursday!

BB Birthday Weekend

This weekend, we went to Charlottesville, VA to meet my college friends, the BBs, for a joint birthday celebration. All of the BBs turned 30 this year, and as our present to each other, we decided to plan a fun weekend getaway at the Boar's Head Inn. We had a wonderful time dining, wine tasting, and visiting. My boys stayed with Mark's brother and his family, (who also live in Charlottesville) and we were fortunate to also be able attend a Winterhoff family celebration for our niece's upcoming 5th birthday. We had such a fantastic visit with everyone, and although the weekend seemed to fly by, we created great memories and loved spending time with so many of the people who are most special to us!


The BBs pose with the first BB baby


Our big boy with Mommy and Daddy


Luke loves hugging BB Ang!



BB aunts Cary, Emily, and Jessica all adore Luke


Luke also loved meeting BB Krissy for the first time!


We are all Wake Forest Alumni (with 2 Demon Deacon babies!),
& cheered for WFU while watching the game on Saturday


Here's our slideshow from Maya's family birthday party, too!

New Discoveries

For the past few weeks, Luke seems to have discovered something new every day. We love seeing the world through a child's eyes, and revel at the wonder that Luke finds in everything as he develops new skills. Here are a few of our favorite recent family discoveries:




Luke learned that finding his toes is quite tasty!



Tall Daddy discovered how fun it is to have a sidekick
join him in seeing the world from up high!




Mommy found that folding clothes isn't even
a chore with this cutie in the laundry basket!



Mark and I realized that as joyous as it is watching Luke
become more independent, it still tugs at our heartstrings a little.



And best of all, this video shows our children discovering how much fun it is to have a sibling!

Election Day

Hello from Luke and Happy Election Day to all!
My mom and I went to vote today, and it got me thinking about my civic duties as a baby and my potential future in politics. I think I may run for office someday, and I'm currently working on my platform. Here are a few of the issues I feel passionately about and will work toward as your future leader:

1) Elimination of the importation and distribution of any pureed or strained green vegetables.

2) Redistribution of toys through mandatory consignment sales, toy swaps, and recycling programs. We need to spread the wealth!

3) Giving veto power to all babies when their parents dress them up in costumes, holiday garb, or any clothing categorized as "festive".

4) Investment of unlimited funds to create a universal vaccine for all babies. We need to combine all of our vaccinations into one single shot, so that we don't have to be stuck multiple times at each doctor's visit.

5) Repeal the Bush tax cuts and replace them with nap time for everyone.

My platform will be based on Change.
Change bedtime to 10 p.m.!
Change your tone of voice- no more Baby Talk (we understand everything you say)!
and last but not least,
Change my diaper, please!

Happy Halloween!

Happy Halloween from the Winterhoffs!!