Decorating for Christmas!

We put our Christmas tree up today! Nate and I worked on it while Luke was napping. I wish I had taken a picture of his face when he came around the corner after he woke up and found a tree in our house - it was pure joy and excitement. He loves trees these days and he was SO excited to have one not only inside, but it also had LIGHTS on it! He was in heaven.

We waited to put the ornaments on after he woke up, though. The first ornament on the tree was his keepsake ornament that my parents gave him last year. We hung it front and center!


Putting on the rest of the ornaments wore him out so he took a break to watch a little tv with his daddy. He's chewing on one of the Christmas spoons I got him last year. And his shirt says "Mommy's Favorite Present".

Everything is still a work in progress, though, so no final pictures until we're all done!! :)

A-G-G-I-E-S

Yes, we're starting the brainwashing early! Check out our future yell leader! He's doing the yell that goes "A-G-G-I-E-S! AAAAA! GIG 'EM AGGIES!"

Ready for Christmas!

I couldn't resist these reindeer antler-wearing dog pjs for Luke this Christmas. Tonight was the first night he wore them to bed so I had to take pictures!



I guess holding the candy cane required some intense concentration on Luke's part (hence the tongue)


Being silly!

Pictures from Thanksgiving!

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving holiday with the Stroder family. It was so nice spending time with Nate's parents, all of his sisters and brothers, brothers in law, nephews and niece. I was very nervous how Luke would behave since he would not have a nap that day, but he did really well. He's going through a major separation anxiety phase right now and it took him probably two hours to really warm up to everyone and not have to have Nate or me in his sight at all times. He loved to watch the fish pond and fountain by the house; he was constanly pointing out the "fishies" to everyone who would pay attention. He enjoyed Thanksgiving dinner, too - he ate a little bit of turkey and green beans but he TORE UP the macaroni and cheese. He also had lots of fun playing with his cousins and he spent as much time as possible outside with his daddy.

It was a nice change from last year when he was five months old and SO overstimulated that he cried the whole time!

Here are some pictures from our day:

Happy Thanksgiving 2008

Love,

Nathan, Becky & Luke

Supporting Our Troops

With Thanksgiving coming up, I know a lot of us take this time to reflect on what we are thankful for in our lives. I'm thankful for a lot of things, including the fact that the men and women in our armed forces are all over the world, risking their lives to keep our country safe and free.

A friend of mine told me about this website, www.LetsSayThanks.com , where you can pick out a card to be sent to a soldier overseas. You pick the design, personalize it by adding your name and hometown, and select the message you want to be attached. After you submit the card, Xerox will print it and send it to a soldier. I did one from Nate, Luke and myself.

This is a great way to say thank you to our soldiers. It's simple, fast, and free. There is no good reason why all of us shouldn't take this time to say thank you and support our troops.

Our Weekend Recap...

It's deer season so once again we lost Nate to the deer lease. (I say that like he goes all the time, this is only his second time to go this year.) Luke and I headed to Dallas on Saturday because I don't like to stay by myself when Nate is gone. Being alone Friday night was pushing it! Plus with Luke cutting teeth (see previous post) I did NOT want to solo it all weekend. So we went to my parent's house!

Saturday was a pretty big day for us. We went to Plano to check out a craft fair in hopes of finding some cool Christmas things, but it was pretty much a bust. But on the way we got to eat at Campisi's and that was YUMMY! It's been so long since I've had a Campisi's pizza! After the craft fair we went to visit Trigger since it was literally right around the corner from his barn. My mom got Trigger in 1994 and the three of us - Mom, Beth & I - used to take riding lessons and participate in horse shows back in the day. I stopped really riding and showing my freshman year of high school and since then I've ridden sporadically. I like to ride, I just never had the love for it that my mom has. In the last five years I think I've seen Trigger maybe three times, including yesterday. It's hard to get over there to see him because his barn is probably over an hour from my house!

Anyway while we were there, I got the urge to ride. I haven't ridden since before Nate and I got married so I wasn't expecting much, but I figured what the heck?!

I'm happy to say that it all came back - like riding a bike! Trigger has always been the kind of horse who will obey if you know the right cues, but if you don't he will make your life (or ride) miserable. He started to dink with me at first and as soon as he realized that he couldn't, I could almost feel him go "Oh, crap!" It was a lot of fun and it made me wish I lived closer so I could do it more often! Luke got to ride, too. I was so excited that he finally got to ride with me and not just my mom!



He thought it was cool for about a minute and then he wanted back down to run around and play.


Afterwards, Grammie and Luke gave Trigger a carrot for being a good boy.

Luke didn't want to hold the carrot himself!


We ran by Super Target on the way to my parent's house. By the time we got back it was after 3:30 pm, meaning that Luke was WAY overdue for a nap. He fell right to sleep, but didn't sleep long in his pack n play. When he woke up he was still pretty groggy so I cashed in on some rare Luke snuggles while we watched some college football.

He "woke up" when Oreo decided to join us. Here he is giving Oreo a hug.

Then he decided he wanted a snack so he ate some Teddy Grahams and Craisins with Big Papi while they watched some more football.


The next morning, Luke was fascinated by my dad's electric razor. So Dad let him "shave".

Luke decided he could do it himself.

And then he had to put on "aftershave".


Then we headed out in the backyard to play. Luke and I had a blast in the sandbox making sand castles. He also got to play in a pile of leaves! We don't really get falling leaves at our house so this was a real treat!


And he played fetch with Jewels.


My little ham bone decided to pose for some pictures. I just hope he decides to be this photogenic when I attempt Christmas pictures!


After all that fun, we headed out for some errands. But on the way we stopped by a pond in the neighborhood to feed the ducks and geese! I was very thankful that they were behind the fence.


It was a very fun weekend for Luke and me - but we both were very happy to see Nate when he got home on Sunday night!

A Mouth Full!

Two teeth broke through Luke's gums over the weekend! His right lateral incisor (the tooth next to his center teeth) officially came in on Friday. His fourth molar (the bottom left) has been threatening for over a week and it broke through on Saturday. It seems like odd teeth to come in at the same time, but we'll take what we can get!

This makes 10 teeth now...and 10 more to go!

Pease!

Luke's newest word is "pease". It's hit or miss whether or not he will say "pease" or sign it by whacking himself in the head. But he has caught on pretty quickly that if he wants something and says "pease", he pretty much gets it.

That has backfired on us, though. He's currently walking around the house going, "Pease! Mama! Pease! Mama!" and I have no idea what he is asking for.

Ring Around the Rosey

Over the past month or so, Luke has developed a fascination with twirling in circles. He thinks he is big stuff whenever he does this. I started doing "Ring Around the Rosey" with him and he loved it. Now he will spin whenever I start singing the song, whether he's holding hands with me or not. He'll also continue singing "ashes, ashes" over and over again and then he will fall down. It's pretty funny...see for yourself!!

(And I apologize in advance that you have to listen to my singing!)

Handprint Turkeys!

I decided to do a Thanksgiving craft with Luke today. I'm just starting to get into doing crafts with him. I found a handprint turkey craft online (you can see it here).

Basically, you trace a handprint on brown paper and then cut out "feathers" out of colorful construction paper to glue where the fingers go. Then you draw a little eye and mouth on the thumb and put a piece of red construction paper on the neck.

I thought it was fun and that they turned out really cute! My neighbor Jamie came over with her kids and all of us made turkey handprints - including Jamie and me! Luke wasn't so much a fan of me holding his hand down to trace it, and he wouldn't sit still to "help" with the feathers, but what can I expect from a 17 month old? At least I have a little Luke handprint turkey! I even made Nate do one when he got home so we have a turkey family on our mantle - our only Thanksgiving decorations!

You want me to do what, Mommy?!


The Three Stroder Turkeys

Spaghetti Monster!

This is the first time I've been able to capture Luke saying "cheese" - he says it every time he sees a camera now, but I've never been able to snap a picture mid-"cheese". It's a bonus that he's covered in spaghetti sauce!!

This Little Piggy Ate Roast Beef...

Actually, he ate lasagna and breakfast tacos.

We went to College Station to celebrate Beth's birthday over the weekend. Luke is finally feeling better and he seems to be coming out of his extremely picky stage when it comes to food. Saturday night we ate my mom's lasagna and Luke GOBBLED it up. He even used the fork and did really well with it!







Sunday morning Beth and Justin made breakfast tacos and Luke couldn't get enough of those, either! At first we just gave him the egg/sausage/cheese mixture, but my little copy cat wanted to eat like everyone else...so we gave him the taco!





Not only was the food good this weekend, but so was the company! We had a good time with my family in College Station, and we got to go by and see Sarah and Hannah in Huntsville, too! That was a very special treat!

Silly Dogs

Daisy and Lily have new places to sleep when they are outside.

I always make them stay outside while Luke naps because I don't want to risk them (and by them I mean Lily) being too rambunctious and waking him up. Well it's been cooler here during the days and my dogs are big weather wimps. I have to hand it to these dogs - they aren't stupid.

They are each curled up in a patio chair - seat cushion and all. I wish I could get a picture of them without disturbing the peace. This is the third day they've decided the chairs would make nice beds and I just think it is so smart and so funny at the same time.

Luke Funny of the Day

Today is my sister Beth's 24th birthday. When Luke woke up from his nap, we called "Aunt Bee" so he could tell her happy birthday. When she was actually on the phone, he barely said a word. He did say, "Bee" when I asked him who we were talking to, but when I tried to get him to say "happy birthday", he was silent and he gave me a look like "you've got to be kidding me".

After we had said our goodbyes, Luke went and found Nate's old phone that we let him play with. And he walked around the house with the phone up to his ear and had a conversation with an imaginary person. About halfway through his conversation, I heard him say, "Bee? Bee!" over and over again. So I guess he decided to 'call' Aunt Bee himself to tell her happy birthday.

Luke's Vacation

While we were laying on the beach in Puerto Vallarta, Luke and the dogs spent the week vacationing in Dallas with my mom and dad. I think everyone had a pretty good time. There were parts that I think everyone wishes were different - mainly the fact that Luke got sick while we were gone. Talk about the worst timing ever! He was pretty fussy on Monday before we left, but we all thought it was a combination of a big weekend with minimal naps and his molars coming in. By Wednesday my parents decided he needed to go see the doctor because he wasn't sleeping very well and his runny nose had gotten so much worse. They came back to Mansfield on Thursday to bring him to the pediatrician and my poor kid had a DOUBLE ear infection!! He hasn't had an ear infection since LAST October, so it kind of shocked everyone. I felt HORRIBLE that my baby was sick at home and didn't have his mommy to comfort him, and that my poor parents were having to take care of a sick kid! Ugh.

But even though all that went on, I think Luke really enjoyed his time with "Mammie" and "Papa". My dad just got finished re-doing the play area he built for Beth and me back in 1985 so Luke had lots of fun on it. He also got to play in the "log cabin" that used to be our playhouse. My mom kept our old kitchen set so he got to play with that, too. Plus they went on a walk to the duck pond in the neighborhood and Luke got to feed the ducks and the geese. And to top it all off, they also went out to the barn to visit Trigger and Luke got to ride the horse all by himself! So even though he had a rough time in the wellness department, they were not lacking in the fun department!

I think everyone was glad for us to get back on Saturday, though. Nate and I missed Luke like crazy - we were gone way too long. By Thursday we were ready to come home. Luke has been so glad to see us, too. And I'm sure my parents are glad to be able to sleep through the night again!

Here are some pictures that my dad took of their fun times last week:
Playing on the play area






Playing in the log cabin










Visiting Trigger