Cereal Blob

Abby's been eating cereal for a few weeks now, and absolutely loves it! She cries if I don't feed her fast enough in between bites and always wants more. So far, this cereal thing has worked out well for us. She's a happy baby at night and sleeps about 6 hours in a row now. It's wonderful.

Something happened during cereal feeding time that I can't figure out. I was wondering if you all could give some suggestions about how this might have happened. I was feeding Abby in the bouncer while Jenna was in the bathtub. I put a spoonful of cereal in Abby's mouth and then turned around to turn the water off in the tub for Jenna. When I turned back around I saw this big blob of cereal on Abby's head. (See the top left picture).

Now, I'm pretty sure that there wasn't any cereal on the spoon that might have fallen off and landed on her forehead when I turned around to help Jenna and I just can't figure out how this cereal blob got on Abby's forehead. Any thoughts?

Needless to say, Abby wasn't happy about the cereal blob. I included another picture of her being cute to offset the screaming cereal blob picture.

Any thoughts on how this could have happened would be much appreciated.

Happy 30th Birthday Nate!

Yesterday was Nate's 30th birthday and we celebrated by going up to San Francisco and seeing the musical Rent with some friends. Tonight, we're going with a bunch of our friends for swing dance lessons and dancing afterwards! Should be an awesome time!

Here are a few pictures of Nate as a baby. Isn't he so cute?


Happy birthday sweetheart and I thank God for your dedication to Him and for the wonderful life we have together with Jenna and Abby. You are a gift to us!

Gotta love 2 1/2 year olds

The other day, I told Jenna that I loved her. She said, "Oh, thank you Mommy. That's way cool!" Where did she learn "way cool" from?

Today, Jenna was eating lunch at the table which consisted of chicken nuggets, with ketchup of course, and applesauce. I was doing other things and not really paying much attention to her. She asked me if she could go in the bathtub and I said that bathtub time was for later.

Maybe not.

When I got a look at her, she had ketchup and applesauce all up and down her arms and legs. Apparently she was putting "sunscreen" on:)

Bathtime just got moved up.

Weather Anger

I swore that I'd never write about the weather, but the heat is getting a little bit ridiculous in these parts. We've been hovering right around 100 degrees for about a week now, and when I checked the weather for the next week, the next few days are going to be between 103 and 105. That flat out just makes me angry, especially since we don't have air-conditioning in our house.

When we moved here, everyone said that it rarely gets above 85 and that living here doesn't requre air-conditioning because even if it gets hotter than that, we don't have any humidity and it's just never unbearable. Well . . . it's been unbearable for a week and there's no break in sight.

I shouldn't complain though. Our friends in Arizona and Texas deal with this stuff all the time. And even though we don't have air conditioning for these few miserable weeks, we don't have to cool our house any other time of the summer. I think I've just become spoiled by such awesome weather here in San Jose.

I still want air conditioning though.

I still think it's too blazing hot.

And I think this warrants a trip to Target or the mall (or both) to get out of the heat:)

A big change in our lives

We've been here in San Jose for about a year now. And for that year, we've had the privilege to know the Gibsons. Mike, who was the Sr. Pastor here for 19 years (give or take), recently accepted a call to Southern California. Mt. Olive has been incredibly blessed by his love for God, the lost, and his awesome leadership skills. Christ Lutheran Church in Costa Mesa will be equally as blessed as he begins his service there in the coming month. Mike and Kathy have been mentors to us in so many ways, but especially to Nate as he evolves and grows as a leader.

So, what's the big change? We're not entirely sure. We do know that Nate is the only pastor here for a while and our lives are a lot busier! Nate is excited about the challenge and the opportunity to work with such an awesome staff. (All the program staff are females and younger than he is!)

Please pray for us in this transition and for the Gibsons as they continue to faithfully serve God in a new place.

Blossom Came Home!

As many of you know, Jenna has had her "Blossom" since she was born and loves her dearly. Blossom goes most everywhere that Jenna goes and has a special place in the Hartke family. Last Friday, we went out to run some errands and when we got home I realized that Blossom was no where to be found. I searched high and low, but no Blossom. I finally concluded that Blossom must have been lost in our grocery store, Safeway, or possibly in the parking lot of Safeway. We were all so sad--I think Nate and I just as much as Jenna!

Luckily, Blossom is a form of a Beanie Baby, and although she is retired, I was able to order one. So, for the week that Blossom was gone, we told Jenna that she was on vacation and was coming home in the airplane. She arrived via UPS today, and when Jenna first saw Blossom, she was beside herself with joy! She said, "Look Mommy, Blossom came home to me!"

How precious.

Welcome home Blossom!

Here We Go!

Okay, so I have been thinking about creating a blog for a long time now, but have been afraid to do it. I'm afraid that I won't have anything interesting to write about. Then we went on vacation. The first week was great, but the second week was not so great. Two words--stomach flu. We were so happy to be home! We're really starting to feel like this is home and comfortable for us. I am no longer thinking every second of how far we live from everyone we know and being upset about it. God placed us here, we are in a great church, and we are happy. We'd like to share our lives with friends and family members who are so far away, and this seemed like a great way. So, enjoy!