Parent Orientation ???

I am very excited that Jeremy will be attending preschool this year. It is only one morning each week, but it will be great for him to play with other children his age. He will be going to Little School, which is the preschool program at our church. It is a very well respected program within the community.

So, last night was parent orientation. As the Director was going over the handbook, a mom raised her hand to ask a question. She voiced concerns about the curriculum, stating she doesn't want religion pounded into her child's head.

Uh.....you do realize that this is a Christian Preschool....right??? OF COURSE they will talk about Jesus and pray, learn bible stories and songs. The world gets dumber every day. I often wonder what our kids future will look like at this rate of increasing stupidity. **sigh**

Number 2?

My college girlfriends will tell you, that I always said I wanted 10 kids. Yes, 10. Granted, getting a later start on marriage, dealing with infertility, I think 10 is most definitely NOT in my future. Matt and I did pare down the 10 to just 4 when we were first married, but, given the same above circumstances, unless I have some multiples, 4 probably won't happen either.

The dilemma: when you have one absolutely perfect child, how do you take the plunge to add another. What are the chances that kid number 2 will be as equally good of a child? My reasoning, chances aren't good and we are treading on thin ice. Our number 2 would likely be a wild child, rocking the peaceful little boat we are so happily floating on. But, we do have that desire for more children.

I guess you just have to take the plunge.

Summer

This has been most certainly the best summer of recent years. I love it HOT, and it has been HOT! I love spending time at the lake, and we've done quite a lot of that. Although, not enough. I would go every weekend if it were up to me. Unfortunately, Matt works on Sunday and he has had a lot of stuff happening this summer. Here are a few pictures of our summer, as it quickly is approaching it's end.

This was our first swim of the season. Memorial Day weekend. It has literally been YEARS, possible even a DECADE since I have entered the lake on Memorial Day. It has always been too cold. It was a wonderful weekend. Jeremy became acquainted with his favorite floatation device from last year. He is PRO at stearing and kicking himself around in this little boat.Jeremy was posing for a lot of pictures in Mommy's sun hat. Everyone needs a little sun protection! Jeremy is a big fan of driving the "Water Airplane". At first, he didn't mind going fast. Uncle David did a fast turn and got him wet, so now we must drive slow.

Aunt Nan brought her Kayak up one weekend. Jeremy really enjoyed this ride! I would too if I could have just sat in front and not paddle!He also loves swimming. Here he sits, waiting patiently, until we are ready to get in.

Last, but not least, we must look for fish. We bought a Jr. fishing pole this year, but unfortunately, I don't have any pictures of him actually using it! So, he lays on the pier, with anyone he can sucker into laying with him, to look for the fish.

Facebook made me a bad blogger

Matt and I used to do a good job updating our blog. Then, Laura (my sister-in-law) introduced me to this lovely thing called Facebook. Facebook has led to our lack in blogging since we can instantly post pictures from our phone and post status updates whenever something interesting (or not so interesting) happens. It's faster and easier, plain and simple.

I miss blogging though. Blogging let's me write as much or as little as I want. People make fun of me when I do a status update that is a paragraph. So, I'm setting a goal. I will add to my blog at least once a week. There is always something new to post about since Jeremy is now 2.5, and doing many fun and silly things. So, blog followers, I'll do my best to keep it up!

Extreme Home Makeover: Bunker Hill

Jeremy and I had the opportunity to go to the site of Extreme Home Makeover: Bunker Hill today. He got a little bored while waiting. We did a lot of waiting. But, once those tractors started tearing down the house, he was glued! He keeps saying "House, Boom!" now. It's pretty funny.

Jeremy's Dictionary

Jeremy is really beginning to say a lot. Matt and I get a huge chuckle out of some of his words. And, we love that because we are his parents, we understand much more than the general population:)

Shish=fish, or if he is pointing at the TV, he wants to watch Finding Nemo He LOVES that movie!

Lock=Shrek, another movie he seems to like. He also has two stuffed Shrek's he carries around.

Nilk=Milk

PoopTarts=PopTarts

Nea=Tea, or anything in a cup with a straw (Daddy and Mommy are addicted to tea, half sweet, half unsweet, easy on the ice)

Ice=Water with ice in his sippy cup

Noc or Nanox=Sonic (Our pet hedgehog)

hissing sound= Cat

Roars or roar roar=animal crackers

That is all I can think of right now. My son is so stinking cute!

CAR WASH!

Something that Daddy and Who like to do together is wash Mommy's car. He was unsure about it the first week...but as you will see, he is ALL about helping now. Here is a picture and a video for you to laugh with.





When mommy asked him about how he was helping...this was his response:



Obviously, you don't want to interupt Who when he is working.

Jeremy and his Fish

Jeremy loves to fish. Not only fish...but fish with Grandpa. Here are some GREAT pictures of them fishing.


When Jeremy isn't fishing, he HAS to be watching fish. Right now...all he wants to watch is Finding Nemo. At the lake this weekend, he watched it EVERY time he was inside. Here he is watching it with Grandma.

Summer Vacation Week 1

This was our first week of vacation where we went to Ohio for Uncle Jon's wedding and to see everyone from Matt's side of the family for the first time in a LONG time. Here were the highlights of the week...mostly the pictures we took from the Great Wolf Lodge.


Jeremy took a nap after sleeping at the water park at the Great Wolf Lodge and was a little groggy. He woke up to Uncle Andy holding him...and Jeremy was looking for milk. It made all of us ROFL!


After Jeremy was done swimming, we all went back to our rooms to shower before dinner...or in Who's case BATHE IN THE SINK!!!


In the game room, Jeremy found a Sesame Street car!! He loved it...for about a minute and then was screaming for mommy.



Here is all the cousin's together after a long day of swimming. In this picture you will see everyone smiling except for Who. He really does love his family...he was just tired.



When you get all the Hartke's together, WIFFLEBALL must be played. This was Jeremy's first experience with Wiffleball, and he picked up a bat and was swinging like a pro on his own. He made daddy smile BIG.

Summer Vacation Week 2

This was summer vacation week 2 with our soul mate family from Texas. This week was a BLAST and here are some of the highlights:


This is Julie corrupting my son with Micah's favorite drink, the ICEE:


This is all of us at the Miami 4H fair. Let me just say, Jay and Misty don't sweat. Matt and Julie were sweating in places that cannot be mentioned here. I don't know how they do it, but it makes me mad.



On the night that we didn't want to give Jeremy a bath in the lake, we made do with what we had and Jeremy had a bath in the cooler. YES...we are that ghetto.



This was Jay in his CALMEST moment on the wave runner. I have to say...every DROP of gas that we had at the lake was consumed by Jay's thirst for pulling off tricks on the wave runner. I think the wave runner has now officially been broken in.




This is Jay in the water with Micah and Makenna during the times that Jay couldn't be contributing to the hoax of global warming. It was so crazy hot the majority of the time we were there that week that this is what we all did.



This is our Indiana family picture. This is Pat and Carl (Misty's parents) with Matt, Misty and Who.



This is Jay and Juju (we REALLY miss you guys...i mean ya'll).



AND THE HIGHLIGHT OF THE WEEK...this is Micah giving in to what it REALLY means to be a lake kid and taking a bath in the lake. BUT, he didn't stop there...HE HELPED GIVE MISTY A BATH!!!



See you all next year...we are counting down the days.

Our new FAVORITE Jeremy pic

We were at the Ski Club here in Kokomo for the Summer Lake Retreat the first weekend of June. While we were there, THIS became our favorite picture of Jeremy this year.




This was a first for Jeremy too...Kayaking with mommy! And yes...he really was enjoying it.

Jeremy Hunts for Eggs and Crashes HARD

These were some of the great pics from Easter. He had not 1...not 2...but THREE egg hunts. Yes, he thoroughly enjoyed the fact that he could hunt for the BABALLS (the eggs). The major story of one of the hunts was the fact that he found out that if you suck on a 3 Musketeers wrapper long enough that there will be some chocolate that leaks out. KNOWING THIS INFO, he ended up going for the individually wrapped chocolates instead of the eggs. Man...our Who is so smart.


This was Who at church checking out the flowers at the front



This was who taking time to smell the flowers



This was Who getting his Easter Basket from the Bunny who left JUST prior to getting back from church. *SHOCKER*



This was Jeremy getting some eggs

Still hunting...


And after a hard day of Easter...he passes out at the dinner table.

The One Year Family Pictures

Of course with the first Birthday comes the trip to the photo studio. Here are our favorite pics...

Jeremy playing Mario Kart

This one slays daddy as we were playing Mario Kart together.

Christmas 2008

Hey everyone!

Sorry this is so late in getting posted but it was just one of those things that kept getting pushed back. Well...below you will find pictures of Jeremy's first Christmas!



This is Who excited about getting to open presents BEFORE Christmas morning.


This is Who having his Christmas morning breakfast, Biscuits and Gravy. He loved it!


Who wasn't really sure what to do with the boxes...so he danced with them.


Then he took about 30 minutes per box opening the presents and handing the TINY pieces of paper to mommy and daddy.


By about noon...this was Who and daddy. We were tired.


That was Christmas morning. But the kicker of all of it was when daddy got a Wii. Not only did daddy like to play, but Who decided it would be fun too! Who likes to play in his own way and with his own contoller (THANKS UNCLE JEREMY!).

This will make you ROFL...says Matt.

Christmas Tree Hunting

Here are some pictures of Jeremy's first Christmas tree hunt. This one is him telling us he is ready to go:

and him all bundled up and looking adroable as always...

At first he thought it would be good to get a Jeremy sized tree:

He THEN found the PERFECT tree for us!

Then he thought it should be his job to supervise the removal of the tree...

Jeremy telling daddy to grab the tree so we can get it home...

The morning ended in Jeremy helping pick out the PERFECT decorations.

All in all...the PERFECT first Christmas Tree Hunting day. It then all ended in a big nap (for Jeremy that is).

Merry Christmas Tree Hunting Day!