Prep work

Luke has a real interest in the kitchen and is always willing to help out when I am cooking. We hosted out parents for a holiday dinner of pork tenderloin, pistaccio pasta, salad and soup and strawberries & cream for dessert on the 22nd. There was lots of prep work so I had Luke and my dad helping me which made it double the fun and double the adventure. I can be pretty bossy and these two kept me on my toes, but also made the prep work much more fun! 

 You can tell Luke was really into shelling the nuts. He was reall yinto throwing said shells into the backyard when the bowl was full :)

 He was also interested in taking things out of the fridge that were needed for his 'recipe' - really, these are all 'ingredients on my list, mommy'. So, he stayed busy with his dish and we stayed busy with dinner prep :)

 Then....we put together our first gingerbread house.

 I am glad that the icing that came with it was kind of gross (and really glue like) because Luke did focus on decorating it and not just eating it. He was really frustrated with me all afternoon, though, because he wanted to nibble at it and I told him not until his grandmas both saw it. When Steve got home that afternoon, his greeting from Luke was "YOU CAN'T EAT THE HOUSE, DADDY!"

Pretty cute! This is hopefully a holiday tradition I can keep up with each year :)

PS - Dinner was a blast, everything tasted good and the company was EXCELLENT!

Slowing down

Sometimes I need to remember to slow down and enjoy a homemade bracelet that my little 4am snugglebug made for me out of a Toys 'R' Us ad. And then I need to wear it all day :)
And sometimes, I need to slow down because a state police officer tells me to. I did tell him that he was making my son's day when he came to my window. Thank you, officer, for the written warning. I have not gone more than 5 mph over since. Seriously, Luke loved this. Steve, not so much :)

For the next two weeks, we all get to slow down and enjoy being together. School is out. I am leaving to meet my boys for lunch and see what break brings. Deep breath. Smile. Life is good. Holiday Break is GREAT!

Friday Photos

The week's entries include; double fisting Larry's cookies! enjoying Grandma Jackie's Christmas display with lots of lights and buttons to push, fun at an Arena basketball game with family and friends, waking up next to Luke's sweet face, surprise fun at Giant City and NOT running out of gas - thanks DAD! - the magic of scotch tape, Luke uses it as "Christmas lights" on his lego creations and on parts of the house, booth fun at Pag's "I am doing some Yoga, mommy" and early morning fun with our chunky letter puzzle. We have squeezed some other fun in that went pictureless and have all survived minor colds, etc...oh yeah, we have a contract on our house, too! Let's pass the inspection and close and then we will really celebrate! HAPPY WEEKEND. Hey, Steve, NO FILTERS were used for this post - xo

Just Awesome

Above are several shots of Luke during his Pre-K 'Construction Unit Presentation' today. A couple are of him hiding in the shingles at the Lowe's field trip earlier this week and the bottom right is proof of our family fun at the bowling alley on Tues. We went to watch the CCHS bowling teams and ended up getting a game in ourselves. Steve and I loved using the bumper guards!

On to the important stuff, CDL did an amazing job of working with the Pre-K students for the past 15 weeks on a construction unit. Today the parents and family members got to hear about what the curriculum consisted of and watch each student present a piece of their work from the unit. Luke presented his house. It is tall and he is very proud of all of the parts. Even the tube for the 'bad guys to slide down and crack their heads'. That part is just off of the rooftop pool with a diving board and everything. Gma Jackie was getting kisses blown at her, Gpa Paul was getting kung fu moves aimed at him, and by the end he was whispering across the room to me 'Mommy, can I give you a hug?' He had to wait a minute, but as soon as the show was over, I was so proud to hold him in my arms.

Love you, Luke. I am so lucky to be a witness to your life.

And...just for the record, I awoke to the fridge light on at 3am as Luke had gotten up to get his cup of chocolate milk and settle in between me and Steve. I was squished between Luke and Star, who so cozily takes up half of the bed, so I left to sleep in Luke's room. Before I got the blankets on me, Luke was diving in with me and not far behind was Star. So, I 'slept' in between my little snugglebug/wiggleworm child and my bedhog snuggler dog anyway. At 4am, I was laying in bed wishing for sleep with a really happy smile on my face. Off to pick up my general contractor now! It is probably a good day to get a cookie from Larry's.

Battle Mode

It is on...

Luke is always finding a 'bad guy' to battle.

I feel very safe with him on guard!

Even when his battle plans lead to a wreck of a house - he will explain his plan and that he is fighting off the bad guys! Hi-Yah...

Those two army guys are in for it...Team Luke & Mater!

Birthday Lovin'

Happy Birthday to Grandpa Nick and Grandma Jackie! This photo was taken at lunch by Luke. You can tell my dad does not think he is really getting his photo taken, but my mom knows better :) Mom ordered a cake with their combined ages...Luke just wanted to blow out the candles and eat the icing.

Lunch at the Yellow Moon as part of the "Christmas in Cobden" festivities. YUM! Luke loves their grilled cheese and bacon sandwich. He had to guard it, too, b/c Steve and Dad were done with their meals first and started to eye the rest of the food on the table for leftovers...

Tractor ride on a BEAUTIFUL day! Sunny and not too cold!

Sheep to pet. Luke ran up, pet the sheep and ran back saying "I'm all done with the sheep" Back on the tractor ride!

Happy!

Day!

Tickle time fun. I felt the way I look in this picture. Loving life!

We have never taken Luke to see Santa, and I am not sure what he thinks of him because we don't talk about him like he is real, but he RAN to his lap and was awesome about a Santa meeting Saturday.
He was super comfy, and Santa was really nice. Luke didn't really talk to him and wouldn't really look at him, but he was eyeing the goody bags that he had to hand out for sure!

"Wonder when he gives me some of that candy?" This is about when Santa was telling Luke that he needs to be sure to listen to his mommy and daddy and eat all of his vegetables. If the veggie part is true, he won't have any gifts on Christmas. All veggies are 'yucky' - ha!

Gpa Paul was a fun part of our brunch celebration for my mom, yesterday, too! It was a great meal with great company! Then, we all took naps! Yippee!

Love you Gma and Gpa! Glad we got to do so much celebrating this weekend!

Christmas is coming

Can you tell that we have someone in the Christmas spirit?

He loves to plug in the tree.

And he can't wait for those stockings to be full of 'candy'.

He arranged them in their 'permanent until Christmas spots' after yanking one of the stocking holders down and freaking me out. We had a talk about being safe (Uncle Glenn would have been proud) and not playing with the stockings until we open them on the 25th. So far, so good.