Valentine's Day Fun

I had to share these pictures and video clip of Lucas' Valentine's Day party at school last Friday. I was stoked to get to leave work early and go share in the fun with him and all of is friends. They are all so sweet and we love to see them interact. I have been wanting to get pictures of everyone for his scrapbook...They have all been together for the most part for the last year and will stay that way as long as he is at TLC :)
Even at his age, he really does have buddies and loves to play with them and have a great time. Tyler and Jack seem to be his best buds, although Kaden is a new arrival and we are good friends with his mommy and daddy so we hope they become pals too :) Briana and Cee-Cee seem to be his little girlfriends :) But they all are precious!!! Although, just like us big kids, they have their moments in which they need some space. Those are funny moments to watch too! I think it is too funny when one of Lucas' buddies come up to give me a hug in the afternoon and he quickly lets Jack know- "That is my mommy, lay off!" :) It is so great to be loved but I hope he learns to share one day ;)
As for the party, can I just say sugar and goodies galore! I think the cheese doodles and Oreo were fan favorites ;) They all loved the special treats. A great big thanks to Ms. Sylvia, Sue, Hallie, and Brianna for throwing this great party!

Lucas, Jack, and Tyler
Kellen, Patch, Cee-Cee, and KennedyBri and Mrs. Sue

Yummy!!!

After the festivities Friday at school we laid low and had a fun family night at home. Todd and I got to enjoy Valentine's Day by going on a date to one of his co-workers weddings. It was such a small, beautiful ceremony and reception. It was great to have a few hours out and get to see his friends outside of work. We really enjoyed ourselves! Lucas had a great day too and spent it with his "Valentine" Miss Karen. She is one of his favorite teachers (although I think he loves them all!). They played hard and had so much fun that he cried when she left! Isn't that fantastic? ;) It definitely made us feel great and we can't wait for her to come and play again!

We enjoyed Sunday at church and spent the rest of the afternoon with Dad, John, and Karen watching the Daytona 500. I can't believe that it is already time for Nascar to start again! Where the heck did winter go? We all had fun and stuffed ourselves...Sorry for the lack of pictures the camera was out of sight out of mind! Hope you all had a great Valentine's Day weekend with those that you love!!!

Our Little Bruiser

Well the inevitable happened...Our little guy got his first bad boo-boo last weekend(guess it has been a week and a half ago). Well actually it was an eventful weekend all around for Lucas. Let's just say it was FULL of true toddler mayhem. Poor Lucas got sick all over his crib Friday evening-mind you, he did not wake up or cry at all. We discovered it the following morning by following the smell. Poor thing, he seemed OK just in dire need of fresh sheets and a nice warm bath :) Other than being a little finicky with his food you would have never known he wasn't feeling so hot. We actually were excited to get to spend the evening with Matt, Shannon, and Scarlett! I forgot my camera so I apologize for the lack of fun pictures of our great evening. Scarlett was such a gracious host and shared all of her toys so nicely with Lucas. I think he might even have a little crush ;) Look out Matt!!!

The rest of the weekend we relaxed and enjoyed spending time together, my favorite kind of weekend. Sunday night was capped off with THE fall. Well Lucas was playing in the kitchen while Todd and I worked on dinner and cleaning up. All of a sudden we had a screaming little monkey on our hands. Apparently he was pushing his pop toy and ran into the kitchen chairs and fell. Well his poor little eye took the brunt of the fall. The outside corner hit on the chair rung and instantly swelled up around a small cut. Well after a little TLC and ice he was good as new :) I was just happy that we didn't need stitches or worse. Todd on the other hand was a basket case! Poor daddy took it harder than Lucas I think. It was so sweet of him to want to take away the pain but unfortunately the reality is, kids get boo-boo's and I'm sure this is not the last one Lucas will see in his day! But we will try to keep them from being too bad hopefully. So here are some pictures to commemorate his first war wound, hey we made it 16 months before a bad one, that is pretty good, right ;)?

Birthday Celebration

This is a little past due but... I know that you all know me so you know that that is to be expected at times, right? ;) I couldn't not post these pictures from our adventurous dinner a few weekends ago with the birthday boys.

January and February have always been full of birthday celebrations in my immediate family growing up. Mom started the festivities on January 19th- I think we always had a cake with hers ;), the John (my brother) followed close behind on Jan. 30th, of course he too got a cake, what kid doesn't? And last but, certainly NOT least was Dad on Feb. 5th :) Well, by the time dad's rolled around I think we tended to be caked out so we would get creative...I remember a few unique years- a donut cake (a dozen or so stacked with candles on top), a Twinkie cake (same idea), and other fun takes on the festive birthday dessert.

Well over the years we have started combining the celebrations to cut back on the number of cakes and goodies that we all consume and to make it more of a big gathering I guess. And this year was no exception... We decided on dinner and a good time together so our option was eat out or in. Well, we opted for out (sounded great to me since obviously I would have been the cook!) and with Lucas these days this can be quite interesting. An adventurous toddler and a restaurant don't always mix. Some nights he is great and we get all kinds of wonderful comments from other diners around us about how good he is. But then we have the NOT so great nights in which one of us doesn't eat, spends the time chasing him up and down the restaurant AFTER he has pitched ALL of his food on the floor, and we end up basically getting dinner TO GO and hightailing it out of there BEFORE the meltdown ensues. Can anyone else relate? Maybe it is just us.... Especially when we are talking about late dinner (7ish). So we started thinking about our options and came up with a favorite of John's, a Japanese Steakhouse. Perfect! Good food that we don't get too often AND fantastic entertainment for our little adventurer :) Maybe we will actually get to enjoy dinner and time with everyone.

So off we went and I have to admit overall, it was a great night. We had a great company, yummy food, and fantastic entertainment. Lucas was mesmerized by the show, but...the fire was a little scary. With mommy nearby he quickly came back around after the flames died down and kept watching/eating. He really had fun with his big cousin Justin, he always loves to play with him :) And of course getting to see Grandpa, uncle John, and Karen was great too! I think we all had a great evening and enjoyed celebrating two special birthdays, well- guess it was really three in spirit. :) We'll have to think of another excuse to do it again soon!

a new found hobby

Lucas has found a wonderful new world, the world of climbing! He has mastered the stairs for quite a few months now so I guess it is time to move on to bigger and better things. Which, as always- keeps mommy and daddy on their toes!

We have heard tales of his climbing abilities at school each day. All of his classmates including Lucas like to climb on the shelves and attempt to scale the tables. Of course they are quickly stopped but that doesn't mean they don't give up without a fight! They actually are working on teaching them time-out for misbehaving and I am curious to see how this approach works on our little guy :)

While visiting Grandpa last weekend he quickly figured out how to scale the hearth- YIKES! I must admit I used to wish we had one of those, I loved ours growing up. We sat there and roasted marshmallows, stayed toasty by the fire on cold winter days and nights, and this was where Santa always left goodies for John and I and the rest of the family over the years. But NOW, mommy brain kicks in and I am not quite sure how my mom maintained her sanity and John and I came out of childhood without gashes from the harsh bricks! I am VERY happy that our fireplace is hearth-less ;)

Well Lucas has found other avenues to test out his new skill set. He enthusiastically scaled the couch at home the other night in his quest to reach the blind opener thingy (you know, the rod that opens and closes them..). He crawled over Todd and up the back of the cushy couch with great joy and certainty! You could see the look of pure accomplishment and excitement once he made he. He recently decided it was fun to climb into the refrigerator at home. I haven't captured that one on film yet...;) He is one persistent little munchkin, that is for sure. Determination and fervor for life are great qualities to have- and Lucas has demonstrated that already for sure - I think that is part of being a toddler, right moms?

PS- notice the hair- I gave in and we cut it a few weeks ago. Of course I saved it for his baby book. He still has wild static days though thanks to the beauty of winter and cute little hats ;)