Santa.........Who? Where? When?

While taking the whirlwind tour of the Southeast United States from FL, NC to AR in less than 3 days, we managed to make a little time for Luke to meet the "Gift Giver", the "Cookie Thief" or as most call him Jolly 'Ole St. Nick. It is a fact that he currently resides in Pine Bluff, AR, well at least that weekend he did. Who knew? Well, Mr. Luke had several first impressions of the Jolly Guy.

1st-smiling happy

2nd-dazed & confused by the beard

3rd-100% fear

That's the last time Santa ignores daddy's request to not talk to the baby and just smile for the camera. Luke only cried for a moment and was back to smiling and questioning whether or not the white-bearded-guy was safe or not. No amber alert needed, he was no Billy-Bob Thorton. AKA "Bad Santa"...

As most with fine tastes and first Christmas' it was requested by mommy that we take some "professional" Christmas photos of Luke. Well, with a mind for creativity and a budget for a miser: a white sheet, some red wrapping paper and a Santa hat and wallah', instant professionals!!! Luke did great in our 10 minute session. Those Lil blue eyes are going to be lady killers some day. Lucky him.

Now back to our Southeast journey over the Thanksgiving Holiday. To our joyous delight, my mother and father gave in to "baby-pressure" and traveled to meet us for several days during the Turkey Holiday. The choirs of duck calls in sweet melody were just too much to resist I would assume, so they made the 10hr trek to the 'Rice and Duck Capital of the World', Stuttgart, AR.

We did many things in Stuttgart during the Wings over the Prairie Festival that week. We visited famed Mack's Prairie Wings and the RNT call shop, burnt waffles at the Best Western, hung with the locals at Walmart on Black Friday and enjoyed the 2nd Annual Raulie Brunch at the Harbor Oaks Golf Club in Pine Bluff. We enjoyed a parade of lights through the park on the lake that night and the thrilling aroma of the Pine Bluff paper mill......again.

Besides qualifying for the 73rd World Duck Calling Contest, Zach worked his calling savvy on some wary acorn-fed mallards at the Prairie Wings Hunt Club with his friend Brad Thomas(GM at the Harbor Oaks C-Club and Prairie Wings family member). Hunting was good and this was the first time that Zach and Holly have hunted the famed Arkansas Flooded Timber! It was a real treat and again we realize how deprived we are in Florida.

Holly, awaiting her call to retrieve the next timber mallard.

Jenn and Luke with the Festival Mascot "Mall R Duck", the original duck caller.

Jenn and Luke, as well as Grandma and Grandpa Raulie braved the Arkansas wet and chilly evening to watch 66 duck callers try their best to impress 5 judges. All-in-all, Zach did well, better than last year, almost making the cut to the 3rd round. He did make it into the 2nd Round, the first time any caller from Florida has done so. Zach's 2nd round routine was less than stellar and he was cut after such and achieved 33rd place out of 66. Good luck next year daddy!

Luke and mommy all bundled up during the contest.

Luke and mommy post Santa visit. He loves his momma'.

It is evident here that Grandma and Grandpa enjoyed every minute of their trip with their Grandson. They even gave Zach and Jenn a night on the town for the Callers VIP Party while they tackled baby-duty for an evening.

On a sad note, while Mom and Dad were with us in Arkansas, their lab 'Beau' passed away after almost 12 years of age. For those of us that knew him or had hunted with him. He had the birdy nose of a field champion pointer, the enormous block head of a grizzly, the stubborness of a mule, yet the heart of a best friend, son, brother and companion. As mom tells, he was very well behaved these past few years, a joy to have, but in the beginning he was as had-headed as they come. He will be missed dearly, but we know life is good on Haugen's 100 where he will spend the rest of his days in pheasant filled fields and waterfowl filled skies.

Upon our return from Arkansas, Nov 30th, Jenn celebrated her golden birthday in a truck full of 3 guys and 2 dogs for 12+ hours. Unbeknown to her, one week later we suprised her with a party full of family and friends. Here, Mommy and Luke take time for a quick photo before Luke grabs his first handful of cake:) Likely not to be the last!

We hope that the Holiday's find all of you safe & warm, with the loved ones and friends you most dearly wish to see.

Merry Christmas,

Zach, Jenn, Luke, Zoi(soon to be pregnant) and Holly

4months...5....6months strong

Even when we are sure we are finally getting to a point when life will start slowing down we find ourselves fighting for more free time. We made it back to Minneapolis in late September to visit friends and family and to also join one of our best friends, Adam Anderson and his fiance' Lindsey at their wedding back in Iowa. We got to see all Jenn's mother's family at a BBQ hosted for our visit at Denise's home. We also got to see Nate, Jamie & Madeline for an evening. The leaves true fall colors were just starting to show signs of the shortened daylight and the winter soon to come.

Once we returned from our too short Northern Exposure we hurriedly made it back to FL to join in another wedding for our friends Janet and Fred in Salt Springs, FL. Don't they look good together. They had a great wedding setting at their "tree house" on Lake Kerr and a nice reception that followed.

After a quick week's travel to NC and back for work, I made it back just in time to meet Jenn's very good friend Scarlett, her husband Brandon and their two children Carter and Campbell. They were visiting FL for a family occasion and decided to hang out with us for the weekend. Our main plans were to just relax and enjoy the weekend and go to a pumpkin patch with the children. Though these are great plans, Brandon and I conspired to enjoy a little time on the dark swamps looking for red-eyes. I promised you all a follow up to a past post on this blog.....even Luke was ready for a gator too. We lucked out and arrowed a 8'0" gator around 5a.m. that next morning. Lucky us, and at least we got to spend part of Saturday catching up on our 28hrs without sleep.

Well, one pumpkin patch wasn't enough, so the next day we all (the Schleif/Raulie/Renberg families) went to the pumpkin patch nearer to our house to enjoy another photo session with Luke and Baron.

The Halloween spirit is alive, now that the unforgiving heat has subsided some and the chill is back in the morning/evening air. We had a good time at the local pumpkin patch and took lots of photos. In the spirit of Halloween Jenn and Luke visited Angie and Baron and they got to dress up for a little photo action at the Renberg's.

Since we haven't yet had a break we looked at the calendar and realized that this next weekend we'd be spending the majority of it at a dog trail in Jacksonville with our local retriever club. It was a nice weekend and we had great "cool" weather finally pushing in from the places where dreams come true(up north;) Luke informed Jenn and I that if we were 'real pro trainers' we would have a cool Polaris Ranger like our friends Mark and Kraig were using.

Luke's latest visit to the Dr. provided these stats:

18lbs....50%

27".......75%

He recieved his 6mo shots and his 1st flu shot for this seaoson. I'm sure he was playing it off that the shots hurt worse than they really were just so he could get a warm bottle of milk.

Real Food and Fun

I'm sure your eyes aren't lying, when you view the joy from Luke's face as he anxiously gorges himself of rice cereal and formula with a side of peaches. Yes, Luke got his first taste of what I call quasi-human food. No cornpops, french toast or bacon today buddy, you get blah followed with blah with a side of semi peach tasting muck. Man he can't wait to have some more of this food of the future.













After his long battle in the rice and peach fields it was off for a round of 'clean-up', but Luke wasn't quite ready, so Jenn improvised and killed 2 birds with 1 stone. They got cleaned up and read a new book while in the tub. You can see how serious Luke is taking his book reading.















(Here, Luke is testing mommy's strength for Dr. Garrett)

Recently we took Luke in for his 4month check up and for a nice dosage of shots for good measure. Luke, at16lbs, and just over 25 inches in length, is officially in the 75 percentile. He did very well, but it was tough to watch the needles do their job while he helplessly screamed for dear life. We managed through it and cheered him on, but needless to say our hearts for one moment, hurt more than 1,000 more days in FL. After his shots he did only manage to do 15 pull-ups and 32 push-ups and sit-ups in 32 seconds and is starting to read at the 12th grade level just that day. Wow, boosters shots are good :)

At least he makes going to the pediatrician look good.















Luke is gaining strength everyday. He now can sit up very well with some support and can stand for some time with only light assistance from us holding his hands. He is strengthening his balance daily with a routine of strength and condition classes from mommy as well as rudimentary tasks that a person of 120+ days would be doing, like Attemptive Crawling and Rolling Over Clinics. He also is making attempts to pull himself up towards us while he is laying on the floor or our laps.





























Recently, Jenn and I have challenged each other to find more economic ways of living in our household/lifestyle. Here's one clear example and now you know, fancy gifts aren't always needed. Anything that makes noise or shines will work just fine! Yes, that means Aluminum foil and rocks in a bucket from Santa, better than a stick in the eye, right?

(Before, fancy/technical child-attention getter device)













(Now, good ole 'bang on the drum, can')













(Before, Fancy high-tech internet video games)

(Now, Dollar Bin "inflato-frog")















Luke ventured out this past weekend with Mommy to attend a birthday party for the family Jenn used to nanny for. It was at their local community pool and Luke got his feet wet! Totally not fair that he gets to wear bibs and no shirt in FL and Jenn will not approve of that for me.















Today, Luke and Baron played in their own pool at Grandma Schleifs and after all the crying and tears subsided Luke realized that water was his friend and he and Baron continued to try and catch the amazing falling water drops from the towel trick.














We might have a teether-attemptive-thumb-sucker on our hands.........

..........stay tuned!