Luke is Recognized as a Pastor

Romans 12:1 "Therefore I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship." My husband has been living sacrificially for others for as long as I have know him. I get the privilege of seeing him respond to God's mercy in his life by serving and sacrificing for me, the kids, our church, family and even strangers. This past Sunday, March 27th, 2011, Luke was recognized as a pastor at our church. It's a powerful experince to have such godly men pray over your husband and your family! We are so thankful to be serving alongside these great men and their wives and their children. We are encrouaged by their faith, challenged by their examples, and just plain enjoy their company. What a delight and joy these pastors and their families are to us.

I am so proud of him.

Grandma and McCabe

McCabe and Grandma Ludemann enjoying each others company! My mom and dad came to Des Moines to support Luke as he became a pastor! A quick trip from Minnesota to Des Moines, Iowa all in one day! Thanks mom!

Leighton Turns 3

Happy 3rd Brithday Leighton. I have a 3 year old! Wow! I am so honored to be Leighton's Mother. He is such a blessing to us. Leighton's life and the joy he brings to us are really impossible to explain in words. I thought I would share a little bit about his life so you can get a small picture of how wonderful, intelligent and fun he is.

My 3 Year Old's Top 3s

His 3 most obvious Personality Traits. 1. Cautious 2. Contemplative 3. Perfectionist

3 things that amaze me about him 1. His memory - it is serisouly so sharp! He'll remember seemingly insignificant things from days that occured 6+ months ago. 2. His willingness to help 3. That he can sit still on a blanket and be quite (with his quite train set of course!) for church or bible study

His 3 Favorite Toys. 1. Thomas the Train 2. Legos 3. Puzzles

The 3 most likely statements to come out of his mouth first thing in the morning. 1. "milk" 2. "goodmorning mommy" 3. ''are we going bye-bye today?"

His 3 Favorite things to read in his bible. 1. "Baby Jesus" - he loves to read about bethlehem, Christ's birth, and the shephards and wise men that go visit him. 2. "Dirty Feet" - this is the story about Jesus washing the disciples feet as a way to serve them and symbolize that they would need to be spiritually cleansed of sins. 3. "Noah's Ark" - he mostly like the end when the rainbow gets put in the sky

The 3 things he most often thanks God for in his prayers. 1. Mommy & Daddy 2. Brooksy & Cabby 3. That Jesus died on the Cross for our sins

His 3 most used phrases. 1. "Mommy can you build me a big train track" 2. "are we going bye-bye?" 3. "can I help you?" - this refers to him wanted to help me cook

The 3 verses most recognizable to him. 1. "Do everything without complaining or arguing" 2. "When I am afraid I will trust in you" 3. "Rejoice/Be Thankful Always"

His 3 favorite pairs of underware. 1. Green Percy from his Thomas Collection 2. Red James from his Thomas Collection 3. Blue Thomas from his Thomas Collection

Top 3 Fruits 1. Strawberries 2. Grapes 3. Pears

Top 3 Unusual Foods (for his age) that he likes. 1. Green and Red Peppers (with ranch dressing) 2. Lettuce Salads (with ranch dressing) 3. BLT's

Favorite 3 things to watch on TV/DVDs. 1. Thomas 2. Clifford 3. Cake Boss

Favorite 3 Books 1. Zacchaeus 2. Moo Baa LaLaLa (a baby book but he knows it by heart and reads it to McCabe) 3. Thomas gets a snow plow

His 3 favorite meals. 1. Peanut Butter and Jelly 2. Spaghetti and Meatballs 3. BLT's

The 3 modes of transportation he is most fascinated with. 1. Trains 2. FireTrucks 3. PickUp Trucks And that is my baby boy in a nutshell. Now onto the parties ...

Friday Night was Celebration #1

Papa and Grandma Ludemann took us all out to Pf Changs. This was serisouly Leighton's choice! Then on the way home we stoped at church for a party with a couple bible studies to celebrates Leighton's birthday (also JP's Bday and Ashlyn's Bday). Then at home Leighton opened lots of wonderful gifts. He got a windmill and a bridge to go with his ever exapnding Thomas track. He got flower and vegetable seeds with planters! He got a new Veggies Tales DVD and lots of love!

Birthday Celebration #2

Saturday, Luke and I gave Leighton our gifts and we all got to eat ice cream cake after Lunch.

Birthday Celebration #3

Sunday, we went to Papa and Grandma Hukee's house to grill out and open, you guessed it, more gifts: a soccer net and a Bike!

Monday, March 21st, which was Leighton's actual birthday, he got a fever, slept a lot, and had no idea it was it actually his brithday.

I am so amazed to have a 3 year old and even more amazed to have such an amazing 3 year old.

We love you so much Leighton!

Brooks' Ride

The weather is finally warm enough for Brooks to play outside. For a while we would bundle him and keep him in his car seat so he wouldn't get cold. Usually I hold him, but sometimes, Leighton or McCabe needs some assistance so Brooks' gets to lounge in one of our push toys.

I enjoy this little man so much. He is so wonderful!

Zoo

We took our frist trip to the zoo for the season. It was perfectly cool weather and it was not busy at all! McCabe, who thought the goats were 'doggies', was not interested in feeding them, but was very interested in holding little rocks as if it were goat food.

Leighton trying to get the big Llama to eat out of his dish.
Feeding the nice, patient goat ...

Feeding the mean, aggressive goat ... And last but not least, Brooks enjoying an outdoor nap in the stroller.

Our first trip to the zoo this year was a blast.

Sunglasses

We are gearing up for summer!

First Basketball Game

Papa Bruce was honored as Administrator of the Year at the state basketball championship game. This is very exciting and we sure are proud of Papa Bruce!

So we all went to the game.
I was a little nervious.
Three Kids.
A large Purse.
No Stroller.

However, the boys did wonderfully! Leighton and McCabe loved watching the basketball game. They made it through the entire 3A game, they applauded Papa down on the court at half time, and then they even stayed for the first quarter of the 4A game! Content Brooks put himself to sleep in his car seat without even a whimper!

My two love birds are sharing a smoothy. They enjoyed their dinner which included: homemade peanut butter sandwiches topped off with stadium french fries and a smoothy!

Brooks and Mommy enjoying the game.

Nap Time Adjustments

Leighton, McCabe and Brooks all sleep from 2-5 in the afternoon. It is a wonderful time for me to get to read, clean, and catch up on some news! However, the last month or so, as Leighton has approached the age of 3, he has not needed quite as much nap time. This could potentially be a very sad realization but I am really looking forward to getting to spend one on one time with Leighton. Below you will see McCabe sleeping very very well and then you will see Leighton, standing on his window sill behind his shade looking outside and obviously NOT sleeping!



I decided that I needed to embrace the change in Leighton's sleeping needs. Having 3 kids so close together means a lot of shared mommy time amongst the kids, so I am so excited about having this new one on one time. For the first 45 minutes of nap time, Leighton and I have color time and then he joins McCabe and Brooks for nap time around 3 o'clock for a shorter nap. I really enjoy getting to watch Leighton learn and work on his new coloring book. He still lays awake for another half hour to hour until he falls alseep. I am convinced he is tired but he just has a very contemplative and imaginative brain that he doesn't know how to turn off!

This coloring book is awesome. The background is colored and then there are several white images outlined in the color you are supposed to color them. Then there are corresponding stickers to enhance the page even more. Thanks Grandma and Grandpa Ludemann for this wonderful coloring book.Below are his latest coloring pages. I am so proud! He does a pretty good job at staying in the lines.

Surprise, It's Papa!

Monday morning the boys and I were playing in the house. Out of no where Papa Phil showed up on our doorstep! He came with news that he took a 10 week job in Des Moines, IA! He will spend Monday -Thursday in Iowa and the weekend back at home in Minnesota with Grandma! We are all looking forward to seeing Papa more often over these next few weeks. Wrestling is one of their favorite activities these days. They take each other down from standing position and surpisingly no one gets hurt. I like watching it as long as both are in the mood for it. If one of them doesn't want to wrestle then there are a lot of tears. Leighton also loves to wrestle Daddy every night before bed, but he does NOT like to lose!