Merry Christmas 2009!

Our Christmas Card... finally arrived after New Years!
Picture taken by Kelly Hornberger

Walkers 1

Luke is transitioning into Walkers 1 at day care... they are much more structured and have activities that he loves! The past week or so they have said he was REALLY bored in Infants 2... I am not in the least surprised! So, his first full day was yesterday and it always take me longer to adjust than him, but he came home with scratches all over his face from falling in the playground (my boy LOVES to be outside, so this was no real shock) hence an injury report on his first day, he has major diaper rash, he was in his spare clothes, and they didn't feed him his yogurt. Breathe, Abbey... they are not fully staffed on a holiday week! He did make his first art project:

And here is is first report card in Walkers 1:

They reviewed animal flash cards... I would love to be a fly on the wall watching that with kids walking everywhere! And SOMEHOW, they got luke to take his nap ON A NAP MAT!!!

When Luke and I were leaving, I said bye to Miss Eden and the 3 kids still there all screamed "Bye!" in response! Melted my heart!

I am adding these non related pictures because they are so cute :) Do boys just know how to sit like that?!!!

Our Christmas Cards Will Be Late

One of my girlfriends told us about a website that prints 5*7 photos for 0.12 cents!!! We all thought we would take advantage of what we knew to be a website misprint and ordered through the magical website! Well, we just found out that the printer is in HONG KONG and the shipment takes 8-15 business days. So, you will probably get your Christmas card for New Years! Here is a picture we took that didn't make the cut, but I thought it would tide you over until a tangible one can be delivered!

We absolutely LOVE getting your Christmas cards and run to the mailbox every night to see who's came that day!

In other news, Santa sent Luke a private message from the Portable North Pole:
http://portablenorthpole.tv/watch/c1ece635ddd268001a3828f7c2d3160a
Pretty neat, huh?!!!

It MUST be LOVE

Walmart doesn't have 'em.

Albertsons doesn't have 'em.

Kroger-nope.

Tom Thumb. Yay! They had 'em!

Blueberries.

When a teething child runs out of his favorite food, you too would run all over town at 8:30 on a Monday night to make sure he went to day care tomorrow armed with the one comfort food that will soothe those gums, fill that belly, and reduce the drool... if only for a moment.

It is neat to finally be on this side of the giving after all of those years of my mom doing the same for me.

It must be love.

Christmas Advent

There are a few times I have been floored with awe this Christmas season...

1. The song "You're Here" by Francesca Battistelli is a beautiful reminder of the humbleness through which Christ entered the earth... a wonderful song, sang from Mary's perspective. Give it a listen HERE. It is such a wonderful reminder that our Savior is a personal God-- no other god is! Jesus who walked on this earth WITH us and left it FOR us. An overwhelming thought that Mary physically touched her Savior understanding God choose her to be a part of His plan. Wow.

2. The book "Touching Wonder: Recapturing the Awe of Christmas" by John Blaste is a short twelve chapter book that is told from the human perspective of the participants: their hopes, fears and feelings. It shows the reality of Christ's birth, their uncertainty, their faith, and awe.

3. Luke 2:39-52 talks about when Mary and Joseph accidentally left Jesus in the temple at age 12. When they realized, they returned in a panic, to find Jesus. His response to them was:
'Why were you searching for me?' he asked. 'Didn't you know I had to be in my Father's house?'. To me, this is such an honest answer to be in His literal Father's house learning all he could from these teachers. Mary's response? She 'treasured all these things in her heart'. It makes me hope for the day that Luke earnestly seeks his Father's face- what pure joy for a mother's heart to see her children understand the Father's love.

It is hard to push through business of the season and remember why we celebrate it, but I pray you do!

Ice, Ice Baby!

After weeks of scheming for a birthday surprise, we made it to:

Catching fake snow on their tongues-- it was 9 degrees cold!

Parka Pose!

Celebrating Holly's 30th birthday in a winter wonderland

I think you pulled it off, Tim! Even down to the vanilla and amaretto flavored Tiffany cake!

Happy birthday, sweet Holly! We all love you dearly.

First Haircut

Sitting still in Daddy's lap at the Barber shop:

Significantly reducing the mullet:

Almost done!

Handsome boy!

Santa 2009

I took a day off of work to have a Luke Day! We went to see Santa. The USB we paid $30 for is blank, so these are what I was able to snap until we get the USB thing worked out.

Waiting in line to see Santa:

His cheeks are red because he was running a 102.7 fever-- we just didn't realize it until that night :( Ear infections are back-- his right tube fell out over Thanksgiving.

We also visited Daddy and friends at work! Some of these folks are my most loyal blog followers! Thank you for taking an interest in our lives!

Laura taught Luke how to kick a ball!

Favorite Christmas Moment So Far?

Sitting with my girlfriends on a Monday night, talking about nothing, sipping on Gingerbread Lattes and Peppermint Mochas.

Uh-OH... Cheerios!

Luke likes digging into cereal boxes, moving his hand around and pulling out a fist full of cereal... here is what happens when he holds the box:

The floor had just been cleaned, so Luke, Allie, and I sat there and ate them all off of the floor-- they had a ball! (My mom just gasped!) Hey, you pick you battles :)

Honey turns 75!

I guess she won't mind me announcing her age!!! Honey is 75 and making it look good! To celebrate, her best buds and daughters went to Kiepersol winery for a fancy lunch:

Luke "colored" Honey a birthday card... Brent read that at this age you introduce jumbo crayons to kids so they can see the effects hand movements- what a good Daddy!

Honey, happy birthday! We are honored to celebrate with you!

Naughty Seat

Yep, we need one.

This is a hard age for us because we know Luke understands what "no" is, we know he likes to push boundaries, we just don't know how far to take the punishment part.

Sunday night, he got his first spanking when he pulled bows out of our Christmas tree after I told him no 3 times in a row-- after cocking his head back and laughing in my face, he received 2 pops and looked at me with a startled look on his face. I think it worked.

Yesterday at day care, Luke was sitting at the table next to sweet and shy Kate-- His teacher, Debbie, told him not to take her sippy and turned her back for a second to see he had stolen Kate's cup, turned it upside down banging it on the table, and had milk all over the table. Debbie grabbed his hands and said no, no, no. He understood. She told him to hold his hands up (he knows how to do this) until she could reach for paper towels to clean it up. Luke then rubbed his hands all in it and laughed at her. This prompted him getting a time out in his crib where he proceeded to take his shoes AND PANTS off, screaming for 30 minutes. I am so thankful Stepping Stones won't put up with this behavior!

I don't want to be a Mommy that tells my kid no all of the time, but when I do, I want him to fall in line to our authority... to that end, we will try the naughty seat and hope we can get a positive response. I will admit that a little piece of me is glad Luke has a strong personality because after all-- he is a boy and should act like one. We just need to get on top of this ugly streak- pronto! My sweet baby just turned toddler and now our parenting needs to change with him.

My friend, Sarah, just can't believe "sweet angel baby" Luke would act this way, but I am here to tell you he does. She told me about a traveling naughty seat-- a place mat-- that you can roll up in your purse and take with you everywhere you go... so, hello place mat, I mean naughty seat-- you and I are going to be best friends!

Dirty Jobs

48 bags of mulch

= LOADS of fun!

(Well, for Granna and Luke, anyway!) The high was 48, so Granna covered Luke's ears with his Lemur costume to come out and play-- she is resourceful :)

Here is one of my favorite pictures of Granna and Luke:

Spaghetti Night is the best night!

Christmas Came Early!

We woke up this week, opened the door to let Allie out and there was SNOW everywhere!!! The snowflakes were huge! We hurried to get Luke bundled up to show him... he pointed to the lights (where you could really see it falling in the dark) and he smiled so big!

Here is our little guy snug as a bug in his coat from his Aunt Melody and Uncle Justin...

This is the first year we have had a Christmas tree that is over 6 feet tall :)

Here is Luke's Elf, lovingly named Durdle, hanging out in the banana bin

We are gearing up for Christmas and hope you are too!

Door Decorating Contest

My company had a Door Decorating contest this year and this is our sensory door... we are going to WIN!!! (possibly by default... we put ours up too early and noone wants to compete- bah humbug!)

The pretty letters were cut by Sarah.

Santa's Naughty list is growing! The nice list contains all of the contest judges names :)

My wonderful technician, Tram, and snow globe mastermind.

Thanksgiving 2009

Road tripping to Mississippi-- Luke did GREAT! I was shocked!

Stretching our legs in Texarkana

All piled in the suburban, Mississippi bridge in the background

When we got to Aunt Freddie and Uncle Bobby's house, they had a winter wonderland set up for Luke with stuffed animals, a singing Christmas tree, a choo choo train, the works! They were such gracious host(ess)es!

Luke went strait to the train.

Thankful for my boys-- the only picture I took on Thanksgiving Day... Luke had an ear infection that we were dealing with, so we had a cranky boy on our hands-- since then, we have learned one of his ear tubes is out of place, so we will be starting that process over again :(

We ate and ate- Freddie makes stuffing with her home grown sage... a real treat! Bobby made a coconut cake complete with coconut milk that I requested months ago! Luke showed us how much chicken he can put away at Fireside Grill!

We watched football

Played football

Luke found a grocery cart and had a ball pushing it around the living room and kitchen

Luke helped Aunt Jamie put on her makeup and played with naked Barbies

The boys played Wack-A-Mole on Jaime's I Phone

We had a great time, got spoiled, took naps, read magazines, played hard, and ate hard! We are a thankful bunch.