Thanksgiving

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving filled with food and family. We spent Thanksgiving day at my In-laws and had a wonderful Thanksgiving meal (thanks again for cooking Jude!). Ethan of course loved playing with Kyle (Jeremy's brother's dog) and when I turned my head for a quick second I found Kyle licking Gracelyn's face....LOVELY! Not a fan of dog's licking my children's faces. Gross. Anyhow, it was nice to be together.

I had mentioned to Jer later that night that we could drive down to Bair Lake for just the day on Friday if we were up for it but we never really talked more about it and watched a movie and went to bed. I awoke Friday morning to Jer saying, "I thought we could go to Bair Lake today if you want". I was definitely up for it so we packed the kids up and made the 2 1/2 hour drive. I'm so glad we did! We didn't tell anyone we were coming so it was such a fun surprise and it was so nice to see all of my family. The Petke's are the most fun family and being with all of them is always one of my favorite times. We left around 9:30, got home at midnight and we were all ready for bed!

We have so much to be thankful for yet again this year. I feel so blessed with all the wonderful things God has given us and I couldn't be more thankful. I have a husband who I am in love with, 2 beautiful kids, great friends, great family, a place to live, clothes to wear, a car to drive, hot showers every morning and the list goes on and on. Thank you Jesus for your love and for blessing our lives with so much!

I will leave you with a small sneak peek from our Christmas photo shoot. This is the only picture I have seen so far and of course I am in love with it! Christina does a fantastic job, she is my favorite photographer! I can't wait to see the rest of the pictures!



Love to all,
Momma Keri

What's new with us...

Have I mentioned that our baby girl is scooting now? She pushes her one foot off the ground to move forward and she gets around quite easily now. She's been doing this for a couple weeks. It's hard to believe she's already at that age. Ethan never scooted or crawled so it's fun to see her go through these stages. She can almost get up on all fours, she keeps trying! I'm pretty sure she will be crawling in the near future:)

Ethan had her laughing so hard the other day and he wasn't even trying to make her laugh or doing anything funny. I got some of it on video but it was kinda dark so it's not the best video. She just loves to watch him and he loves playing with her. I just love how much they already love each other, and I think the fact that they are so close in age is definitely so fun! They will be best friends, I can already tell.

We've had a couple play dates this week and Ethan loves to play with other kids. He's still not adjusted to being left in the nursery at church but we keep trying every week. He loves being with the kids but he doesn't like when mom and dad try and sneak away into service. So, we will continue to go and eventually he will feel comfortable and understand that we are coming back for him.

The four of us went to take dinner to some friends of ours last night who just had their 3rd baby and Ethan loved playing with the girls and all their toys. They had a vacuum and dustbuster that actually makes noise so he was in heaven! We have one that he plays with a lot but it doesn't make the sounds this one did, it was pretty neat. Our friends have a cat (achooo!) and so mom left all stuffed up, itching and just not breathing the same. We all got into new clothes when we got home and I stayed outside for a bit to breathe in the fresh air. We definitely could never have a cat!

Speaking of animals, Ethan sure loves dogs! He laughs so hard when he plays with a dog, chases it's tail, etc. It's his hardest laugh. It's so funny because I begged my parents for a dog growing up. I remember thinking if they let me get one they would never have to buy me another Christmas gift (haha, so funny as a kid how badly you can want something). Now that I have my own kids I have NO desire for a dog. I'm a clean person and the thought of dog hair (or any animal hair for that matter) on my carpet and my kids rolling around and playing on the carpet really is not appealing to me. Plus they smell and are expensive and a lot of work. Ethan will have to enjoy other people's dogs because I'm pretty confident we won't be getting one any time soon:)

Well, Jeremy and I have decided we won't be going to Bair Lake this year for Thanksgiving. We are super bummed out as it's always a lot of fun and really the only time we have with the Petke side of the family. We went back and forth a million times about it but we just know that Ethan doesn't sleep well away from home and if he doesn't sleep for us then we won't enjoy ourselves anyways so we are taking a year off. Next year should be easier as he will probably be in a big kid bed by then and so he can sleep with daddy when we go away. We will go over to Jeremy's parents instead for the day and then just enjoy the rest of the days off together as a family and just relaxing. Perhaps a bit of Christmas shopping also.

So, I am really excited about my latest steal of a deal! I bought Gracelyn her toddler car seat yesterday. I found out about a deal on a Britax car seat (one of the very best, we wanted this one for Ethan but it was just too much $). Anyhow, it's a Britax Boulevard and it runs $309.99 and I got it for $189.99!! Free shipping too! I am so excited and I love the fabric it's so girly and fun! Here's what it looks like:


Oh the fun things you can buy for a little girl :)

We are getting our pictures done on Sunday and I am really excited. The photographer that did Gracelyn's newborn pictures is coming to do Christmas pictures for us. I am going to have her make me 100 5x7 Christmas Card pictures to sent out with my newsletter this year, they will be adorable:) I even splurged (which I never do on clothes) and bought them both an adorable Christmas outfit. I can't wait to see how stinkin' cute they look in them, it will be Ethan's fanciest outfit to date :) Be ready to see some adorable pictures and don't worry Grandma's, you will be able to buy the pictures individually if you would like! I hope to get some good ones of each of the kids separately as well as some of them together and some family shots. Should be fun.


Have a blessed weekend!
Momma Keri

Psalm 37:3-5

I was feeling a little discouraged this morning about some things and I knew I needed to get my Bible out and soak up some scripture.

I read these verses this morning and they blessed me. I thank God for His Word and that we are able to read it and meditate on it whenever we want. What a blessing.

"Trust in the Lord and do good. Then you will live safely in the land and prosper. Take delight in the Lord, and he will give you your heart's desires. Commit everything you do to the Lord. Trust him, and he will help you." Psalm 37:3-5, NLT.

Good stuff huh? So that is what I am choosing to do today. I'm going to keep trusting Him, do good, taking delight in Him, committing my life and desires to Him and he will help me and give me the desires of my heart.

Plus it's hard to feel down long when I have these healthy, beautiful, little people following me around all day :)

My little boy and girl who adore each other...so precious!



Ethan eating his first chocolate chip cookie out of the oven, ha!

Ethan showing off his joyful self and fun personality

And now, pictures of the sweetest and most beautiful baby girl in the universe!

5 months ago today...

Our sweet baby girl was born! Wow, I really cannot believe it's already been that long. She's almost a half a year old! What a wonderful addition she has been to our family...I'm not quite sure yet if she makes our family complete but she will definitely be the baby of the family for awhile. She's so sweet and I just couldn't be more blessed to have a healthy little boy and girl. I just love them!! Here is a picture of Gracelyn that I took this morning and then Ethan's 5 month picture. They really don't look that much alike if you ask me....but I've said that all along:)

And Here is our little man at 5 months

I think Ethan looks more like a Harrison and Gracelyn more like a Petke....although most people say they both look just like me, lol. Jeremy says he prefers it that way;) We think Ethan's hair color will be similar to Jer's color now, maybe a little lighter but he definitely seems to have some red in it. So Jude, you just may have your little red headed grandchild after all:) Time will tell. I didn't realize how much lighter Ethan's skin is then Gracelyn's until I put these pictures up. Ethan definitely has his daddy's light skin and Gracelyn has mine.

Now, here are a few pictures of Ethan's newest favorite thing to do.



He has decided that taking each toy out of his toy bin one by one and piling them on the couch is fun. We just let him do it and laugh. He also likes to pile as many toys in Gracelyn's exersaucer as possible when she's IN it. Lovely.

And finally, my last and most favorite picture to leave you with. We had just put both kids to bed and Jeremy went into our room and said, "Ker, come here for a sec." He then takes me into the bathroom and shows me this:


I died laughing. We have no idea what happened. Our assumption is that Ethan somehow threw something in the toilet when we weren't watching and one of us used the bathroom and flushed it without looking? It obviously was something of soap substance but we cannot figure out for the life of us what it was. It smelled good...like apples or pears, lol. It will remain an unsolved mystery but as I mentioned we do have a suspect in mind but have decided to close the case and drop all charges.

Oh the adventures with little ones:)

Momma Keri

iHeart Revolution

Wow. What an incredible and powerful movie. Jeremy and I went last night and it was awesome. Hillsong United has been working on putting together a movie for the past 3 to 4 years and it aired last night. They did a live performance from Australia for the first 30 minutes which was way cool! Then the actual iHeart movie started at 8 and went until 10:00. It was a one night thing and 500 movie theaters in the US were showing it as well as Canada and then of course Australia. It was super neat. The movie was just powerful. It was full of clips from the past 4 years of their travels from all over the world and all the hurt and needs in the world....and in the end it was the story of love and redemption and how Jesus is love and how he gave his life and died for us so we could live and how he gives hope to the hopeless! I could go on and on but I highly recommend for you to watch it once it comes out on DVD so you can see for yourself.

I have a new favorite song which is on the newest United CD and I have been playing it over and over today. It is SO powerful. You don't have to go to Africa to change the world. We can be His hands and His feet right where we are. On our streets ya know?

Check out i-heart.org for more info on the movie if you're interested and here's the best song EVER! Turn your speakers up!

Look what Mommy did!

So Daddy has been bugging me for awhile now to cut Ethan's hair. I have been putting it off because I like his little curls in the back even though they are a bit wild and out of control. It took him forever to get hair and he still doesn't have a ton of it so I have been putting it off. Well, I gave him a bath last night and decided to trim it in the back just a little bit. I can't believe how different he looks to me just by a little trim, he looks like a little boy! I saved his hair in a ziploc and Jer was making fun of me, wondering how long I would hold on to it. I told him forever! :) I will take him to get a real haircut soon as it isn't super even but hey not bad for my first haircut :)

The Lion & The Lamb :)

Well, this Halloween was definitely colder and a lot more windy than the previous year. It did not go exactly as I imagined it but Ethan still had a great time which is all that matters right? Instead of taking his little pumpkin basket to the houses and getting candy for mom he just ran and ran and ran. He seriously never stopped! His costume suited him well this year....a wild and roaming lion! (In the middle of the street too, gotta love it!) We got all of 8 pieces of candy and 5 of the 8 were from Grandma and Grandpa, ha! I suppose this is better anyways since I am dieting :)

He wasn't a big fan of his mane but I knew once we let him run wild outside he would forget about it and he did. We took some video of the kids so that will be fun to have and watch when they are teenagers...you know, clips to show at their weddings:)

Gracelyn our little lamb was so adorable. I got her in her costume and she was content as could be and didn't put up a fuss...it was pretty warm and cozy though:) I was trying to hard so get a really cute shot of them together but it just didn't happen. Maybe next year!

Here are a couple pics of our fun night!