Lukes 1st Christmas

This Christmas was too much fun! Luke made this year a blast! We ended up having to take a break opening presents due to Luke getting sooo excited that he was in need of a nap. Santa brought him a tractor that he loves-woo hoo! Kevin and I also had a wonderful Christmas -Santa brought Kevin a nice watch and myself the Cricut Cake Machine. As a family we joined the rest of the "cool kids" and got an IPad that is being enjoyed by all!
Kevin made a wonderful breakfast and we had our friend Brandon join us for breakfast and opening presents. It was a wonderful day! I don't think I could have asked for better Christmas!

2011 Christmas Card

We had a lot of fun taking this years pictures for our Christmas Card. Luke was such a little ham! He was so cute and excited during the actual picture taking processes.

55 inches of Excitement

We finally updated from our brick of a hand-me-down 1990's TV. We decided-mostly Kevin, to go all out and do a 55 inch LED
Smart HGTV with 3D. I don't think I've seen kevin so excited before-I'm sure he was just as gity as he was when he was a little kid on Christmas morning. I wasn't sure of the whole 3D thing at first, but once we had it all set up we put in the latest Pirates of the Caribbean movie and it was FUN! Luke was thrilled to see everything so bright. Kevin and I have always been a movie watching couple so this was a great investment for us-when you're busy with work, school, and parenting its sometimes the only ay to have a date night!

4 years ago...

4 years ago I was released from severing an 18 month mission for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints in the Oregon Portland Mission. The decision I made to serve a mission was the best decision I ever made and mapped out my life as I know it today. I have been able to accomplish a lot within those four years of being home, but my love for the people I served in Portland hasn't dwindled. I'm truly greatful for the oppertunity I had 4 years ago to serve in Portland. I love that Kevin and I both can not only relate to each others mission experience, as we both served in Portland, but I'm grateful that we sat the example of serving missions for Luke and our future children. Portland Oregon will always hold a special place in the hearts of our household. Miss you Portland and more importantly the people of Portland! (picture taken in my last area of Forest Grove, OR-can't beat Portland in the fall.)

Luke: 9 months

Our little monster is just that, growing so fast! Its so amazing to watch how fast he has developed in the last 9 months. Its truly a miracle seeing him become little person and develop his own personality and characteristics. Its always fun going places as a whole family and having people comment on how much he looks like Kevin-I see so many little things of Kevin in Luke, the saying "like father, like son" is so true with them two. I also see a little of myself in him, but I'm happy that Luke is such a Daddy's boy and that they have a special relationship already.

Here's Luke at 9 months:
- Weighs 21 lbs and is 27.5 inches long (surprisingly he's only in the 20th percentile for his weight...what does the 100th percentile look like...yikes!)
- Crawls! He got that one down quick and he's a speedy one!
- Wears 18-24mnth clothes.
- Has started pulling himself up to stand up, still needs to hang on to things for balance.
- Loves watching the Mickey Mouse Clubhouse
- Loves the "Peanut Butter Jelly Time" song, best "stop crying" tool!
- Him and Roxy (our Boxer) have a special bond, he loves playing with her paws and her "jingles" (tags on her collar).
- He loves having daddy tickle him every night
- He's eating more solids and he started eating "crunches" (little puff snacks).
- He graduated from the infant car seat (thank goodness, he was getting so heavy) to the "big boy" chair.
- His pouty face has gone from just the bottom lip sticking out to both lips, its hard not to laugh at his cute little duck face.
- Diaper changes have become challenging, he gets excited to be nakey and crawls away while trying to put the clean diaper on him.

Finished...well, almost

So our table is finally useable! It took a lot of hard work from Kevin and I but it was worth it! We are currently using the old table top with a table cloth to disguise the ugliness. Hopefully we can get the new table top made soon and be completely done with this project.

Trunk or Treat!

Luke's first Halloween was celebrated by going to Kevin's family wards Trunk or Treat. While at target we let him pick his costume and we thought it very appropriate that he picked the Monkey costume, we call him our little monkey and he loves all his monkey toys!
He had a lot of fun taking in the sights of all the costumes and the Halloween decor. It was a fun night had by all!