I know, I know...

...it's been way too long since we last posted. It's a travesty. Our e-stalkers have been left with nothing to do for the past two weeks (yes, we know you're out there, and we love you).

Suffice it to say that we have been busier than we've been in a long time. In the past week we moved out of our apartment, I had finals, I have three papers, we moved in with Mark and Rondi Lauterbach (our pastor and his wife) for the rest of the semester, we stored all our stuff at Kathy's Dad's place, Kathy and I have both been working at night, I've been applying for jobs in San Francisco, and Jonas is plenty of work all by himself.

So yeah, we've been busy.

Thankfully, it looks like life will begin to settle down soon. Once my January term for school finishes next week and the new semester begins, life will return to a normal pace.

Right before we left our apartment, we had no furniture except a table, a bed, and various toys for Jonas to play with. For your viewing pleasure, here is our son playing in our almost empty apartment.

(Here's Jonas, free to roam...)

(...and play with noisy toys while Mommy and Daddy do other things...)


(...and then sometimes Mommy and Daddy just watch Jonas play...)


(...and take pictures of him because we like him way too much and need to have another baby soon so our firstborn doesn't get so spoiled! At least, that's what we keep telling ourselves.)

Busy...

It seems that January 2009 will be a busy month for the Lockes:

-We found someone to take over our lease on our apartment, which means that we will be moving in to the Lauterbachs at the end of the month!

-This means that we need to pack up and store EVERYTHING that we won't need in the next few month. (Basically, we'll be taking Jonas's crib, our clothes and ourselves to the Lauterbachs.)

-Jeff's in the middle of the intense winter "quarter"-- classes Tuesday through Saturday all day, for the next couple of weeks.

-Jeff has also taken up SAT tutoring again, most of which (sadly) takes place on the weekends.

In the midst of all the busyness, we're definitely excited for the upcoming changes and are looking forward to the last couple of months we have in Escondido.

PS. Jonas is starting to eat real food. Here he is enjoying a mini whole-wheat bagel!

Just like his mommy...

Jonas loves shoes. We even have matching Minnetonka moccasins! :)

(I can't wait till he can wear boots!)

Our East Coast Adventures!

On New Year's Eve, Jeff, Jonas and I took a 5+hour flight to NY. Though I was stressed about Jonas's first cross-country flight, it turned out to be pretty easy. Jonas hung out on our laps and slept most of the way there, and was even better on our way back from DC. :)

We spent a couple of nights in Brooklyn, at Claudio and Lulu's, and pretty much just hung out. It was very relaxing and just what we needed after a rather hectic holiday season. We didn't even go into the city (except to get on the train to go to DC) and only took the subway once! We got to relive our former Park Slope days and spent most of our time catching up with Claudio and Lulu (and Tic'tic!) and the Gillens and got to see most of our NY friends. (Sorry-- we don't have many  pictures from the NY part of our trip because it was THAT relaxing.)

Then, we took the Amtrak to DC where we met up with some of Jeff's William and Mary friends for lunch before heading off to see Karen and Dave. Here's Jonas on the train:

It seems that our little boy loves all forms of transportation!

The rest of our weekend was filled with hanging out with Karen and Dave, seeing some of the sights of DC, visiting Capitol Hill Baptist, and walking. (Sorry Karen for all the walking!) Jonas seemed to enjoy his time in DC. He helped Jeff pick out what we should see at the National Gallery of Art...

...and slept peacefully in the Baby Bjorn at the Natural History Museum.

The Lockes in DC!

Is Jonas really already 7 months old???

It appears that as of Sunday, he is. :)

As a 7-month-old, he has taken his first cross-country trip (visiting Brooklyn and Washington DC with a baby was a whole new experience for us!), is crawling and pulling himself up on everything (including the floor-- picture Jonas in the "downward dog" yoga position), says "dada", "baba", and, my favorite, "mama" (though it seems that he is still saying these things indiscriminately), and eats anything that we give him (which included pizza crust and french fries this past weekend!)

We're so happy that he got to meet our dear friends in NY (thanks Claudio and Lulu for letting us stay with you and thanks Tim and Claire for stuffing us with pork!) and that we got to hang out with Dave and Karen in DC. Though he won't remember it, he can officially say that he spent his first New Year's Eve in New York!

There will be pictures of our trip coming soon, but until then, here's a picture of what Jonas looked like for most of the trip (stolen from Lulu's blog-- thanks!):

Jeff's First Sermon

Hi everyone. I preached this past Sunday for the first time. If you would like to give it a listen, you can go here and stream it or just download it. I preached from James 4:1-10. The sermon is entitled "Christ Our Humility."

No, I do not use the word "whore" from the pulpit. My mom was really worried about that.

Right now, Kathy and Jonas and I are in NY staying with friends and enjoying our old neighborhood. We're having a great time, and Jonas has gotten to see snow for the first time. He's doing quite well with the below-freezing temperatures (Kathy bundles him up pretty good).

Tomorrow we go to DC. We'll have lunch with some old friends of mine from college and then meet up with Karen and Dave (Kathy's sister and her husband). Then we're back on Monday so I can go to class on Tuesday. Good times.