Preschool Christmas Party

Lucas's preschool class had a little Christmas party on the last day of school. Both Phil and I were able to attend. (Translation: show up, play with Lucas, watch him eat, go home. HAH!) I didn't get too many pictures, but wanted to share there. Lucas loves his school and his teachers, so we were thankful to celebrate with them :)

Lucas's favorite part of the party was the Capri Sun. He'd never had one before, and managed to completely drain two full ones while we were there.

Lucas's (CUTE) little friend Harper. She is apparently a chocoholic.

There were the "creepy/cute" angels the kids made. (That was his teacher's term...I can only imagine walking around a classroom with 8 of these little heads floating around). Anyway, Lucas's totally cracks me up, and it has a place of honor on our tree.

Visiting Santa

We made our first official "visit" to Santa on Monday. We had really been talking it up with Lucas, and he was all ready to ask Santa for a bicycle. (I wish I could type that word as cute as he says it!) Well, of course, once we got there, he was a little intimidated by the Big Guy. Here was Santa's solution...

I'm pretty sure it's been awhile since Phil got to sit on Santa's lap, so that was a bonus for our morning :)  Lucas DID enjoy eating the candy cane he got from Santa, and I am still trying to get it out of his pants.  Haha.

Our friend Ally met us at the Santa picture stop. As you can see, she really enjoyed seeing him, too.

Merry Christmas 2011!

Pregnancy Pics

So...I pretty much HATE posting pics of myself, especially pregnant ones, but since so many have asked, here are a couple pics from around 18 weeks...They are from our Christmas card shots, hence, the candy canes.

"The Shark", Junior

Lucas found an old hat of Phil's the other day, plopped it on his head and said "Lucas GOLF!" I have NO idea where he got the idea that it was a golfing hat, but we pretty much think he looks like Greg Norman, Junior. Hah!

I'm A Big Kid Now!

So...last year, I took this shot of Lucas standing with two snowmen while I decorated for Christmas...

When we were getting the decorations out this year, he decided to come and play with the snowmen again, so I just had to snap another shot to see how much he had grown!

Not a baby anymore!  He is definitely a big boy now! He has moved out of his crib and out of the nursery into his new big boy room. We got so lucky with him as far as sleeping goes. The transition out of the crib was a total breeze. He hasn't woken up or gotten out of the bed ONCE!  As soon as we finish getting all the decor up on the walls, I will be sure to post pics b/c I think his new room is CUTE!!! 

Just a couple other updates on his progress.  He knows all (the major) colors now and is working very hard on his alphabet. He knows all of the letters, but on any given day, he gets about 20 out of 26 right...it's never the same ones, though. We are pretty proud that he has learned them all on his own, though!  He loves to tell us what every letter he sees is called and describe all the colors of everything. He is starting to form short little sentences (and occasionally really long garbled ones that make no sense to anyone but him).

His favorite things right now are golf, "football kick", Sesame Street, reading dinosaur books, going to school, eating goldfish crackers, and milk. He does not like green food, being told "no, or when Phil leaves his sight :)

We are so proud of our big boy and can't believe that next Christmas we will have two little ones to pose with the snowmen!

Quick Update on the Newest Family Member

Just wanted to post our latest sonogram pictures for those of you who haven't seen it yet. Baby is doing well...he or she was rocking and rolling during "camera time." Right now, the baby measures EXACTLY the same length as Lucas, so we are right on track :)  Can wait to find out if it is a girl or boy at the January sonogram!!

Halloween 2011 - Elmo

We had LOTS of Halloween celebrations with Lucas this year. He got an Elmo costume, and seeing his face when he saw himself in the mirror for the first time was TOTALLY worth every penny :) I was really impressed at home Lucas did with all the people on Halloween. I think he enjoyed handing out candy to the neighborhood kids more than anything else. He still says "people outside candy" quite often and goes to check the door to see if someone is there!  Here are some highlights from our many, many Halloween adventures this year...

Lucas at his preschool Halloween. I love this picture because the only thing he has told me about school in three months is "Goldfish." Apparently, this is why...

Costumes off...time to eat cookies :)

This was at our church's Trunk or Treat. He wasn't sure about the crowds of people at first, but quickly warmed up.

He loved playing all the games, and the people were so nice about helping him "win". He especially loved this throwing game and the golfing one.

Phil and Lucas with Lucas' good friend Ally and her Daddy.

Lucas and Mommy in front of the balloon. I think he watched them blowing it up ("Woah!  Fire!") for about 25 minutes.

Carving pumpkins with Daddy.

Love that smile!!!!

Ready to hand out candy to the Trick or Treaters!!

Pumpkin Party

Soooo...it's been a month since I have posted - YIKES!  Sorry about that little fall off the wagon. It's been a crazy few weeks around here. I have big hopes to get caught up over the next couple of weeks, so brace yourselves for a bunch of posts :)

Anyway, back in October, we hosted a "Pumpkins and Pizza" party for our Sunday School class. We had about 8 families come over to carve pumpkins, decorate cookies, eat pizza, and generally create chaos!  It was crazy, but fun, and we hope that the tradition continues in years to come.

Lucas and Mommy, ready to party!

Ashlea and Ally decorating a pumpkin cookie.

Lucas hard at work on his pumpkin

Some of the kids with their masterpieces

Petting Zoo

On Tuesday, Lucas's school hosted a small petting zoo for all of the kids. I went up to take pictures, and it was pretty funny to watch a bunch of under 2s play with all the animals. One of them ended up in the water trough, and there was lots of chaos, but it was really fun. Lucas got to feed a baby goat a bottle, pet a rabbit, hold a guinea pig, and pet a duck.  All in all, a pretty big adventure for our little guy :)

Feeding the goat with a bottle...practice for baby brother or sister?!?

Kiss for the bunny.

He liked playing in the guinea pig wood shavings better than with the actual animals, but they finally managed a pet out of him!

DUCK!  He still loves ducks!

Miss Missy is apparently the chicken whisperer.

Fun at Home

Here are some of the fun things we have been up to at our house lately:

GOLF!  Lucas is SUPER into playing golf lately. It started with the cleaning hose/tube on the vacuum cleaner. When Phil and I got tired of him losing that, we got him a little golf kit from Walmart that he LOVES. He gets it out every day. It came with two "holes" to putt into, but Lucas has found a better use for them.

PAINT!  We are in the process of getting ready to move Lucas to his "big boy room". We are going to keep the nursery as a nursery for the new baby and move Lucas next door to the room that was our office. Since he is already climbing out of his crib, this needs to happen sooner rather than later. Here is Lucas "helping" Daddy paint his new room. I will post pics when all the cute decorating is complete.

COLORING! Lucas loves to color with his crayons. Usually, he is quite good about sitting at his little table with the crayons. The other day, however, he decided to branch out and color the inside of Clara's dog crate.  A little Michelangelo?  Or.....not so much.

Wii!  Phil and I introduced Lucas to playing the Wii last week. He LOVES it. He can't really do much unless we help him, but he thinks it is SOOO fun. He can pitch when we play baseball and loves to yell "SWING" every time he swings his arms. We also play tennis with him. Now, when he wants to play Wii, he points to the cabinet where we keep the remotes and says "Tes-sis"?  "Peeze"? It's very cute and hard to resist :)

Big Orange Pumpkin Patch

Last week we headed out to the Big Orange Pumpkin Farm in Plano with a group of moms and toddlers from church. Although we wish we hadn't shown up at the exact same time as 5 school buses full of elementary kids, Lucas had a super time playing with the pumpkins and seeing all the animals. He wasn't quite brave enough to feed the goats this year, but he liked to look at them. We also got to take a short hayride and eat a picnic lunch with all our friends!  And, by the way, only in Texas would we be sweating in our shorts and t-shirts (and worrying about sunburns) during a Halloween trip to the pumpkin farm!!!

Lucas and Ally checking out the animals.

Mommy! Bunny!

Lucas picked out his very own pumpkin to take home.

Well...at least Ally looks cute and is looking at the camera, right?

Lucas's favorite activity of the day. He dropped his pumpkin and it rolled down the hill into the maze. This was so amazing and fun that he proceeded to climb the hill about 10 more times and roll pumpkin after pumpkin down so he could chase them. I'm sure the owners loved it.

Preparing to bowl another pumpkin.

Typical...climbing on everything!

Boobie Muffies

One of Lucas' preschool classmates had a birthday yesterday, and his mom brought blueberry muffins for everyone in class. Lucas came home saying the following, and has not stopped since. Phil and I absolutely CANNOT keep a straight face...just wish I could get it on video for posterity:

Ryder. Birfday. Boobie Muffie. Boobies!!!

Love my little talker :)

Bikes and Buses

Last weekend, the weather was beautiful, so we geared up to go for a family bike ride to the park in our neighborhood. Lucas was very into trying on Daddy's "hat" this time. He also got to try riding on the big bike. (Though he was more than happy to hang out in his trailer once we got going.) We are thinking that Santa might be bringing him a tricycle for Christmas :)

As we were heading down our street, we came across this AWESOME Aggie bus parked at a nearby house. The back of the bus says that these folks are the "Aggie Parents of the Year" and has stickers from all the bowls they have been to. I'll bet they are a great group to tailgate with!  Needless to say, we had to stop and take a picture :)