Christmas at the Allison's...

It was short, but sweet!

Sisters ;)

Honey and Granna holding Luke Christmas Day:

Melody learned how to make Honey's famous Banana Pudding... nothing in this world compares!

Visiting our long time friends, the Ducks/Brannans:

Santa Came:

Poor Allie has had half of a newspaper for 2 months now... Granna had her a new one sitting on the tree skirt-- it didn't take Allie ten minutes to find it... lucky dog!

Luke watched his first UFC fights:

Sitting with Daddy:

LOTS of Texas Hold Em in my parent's pool house... we spent most of our time right here! Loosers had to go play pool :)

Luke met his Aunt Melody:

Luke met his Uncle Justin:

Granna and Pops got one last hug in before we left:

2 Months Old

Our sweet baby boy is 2 months old! What he has been up to:

- He tracks us with his eyes when we walk around
- He LOVES ceiling fans... if they have a light on there, even better. He is so content laying on the bed looking up and we have caught many, many smiles here.
- His eye lashes finally got darker and they are long!
- His hair is getting thicker in the back and has a little curl to it when it is wet... it still dries spiky, strait
- His newborn diapers are really snug and we are finishing out the last box before promoting to Size 1!
- He is extremely fussy at night... from what we read, this is normal at this point and goes away by 3 months. He pretty much has to wear himself out, but a bath seems to be the best way to calm him, along with lots of holding and burping.

We get his official weight stats on Monday at the Pediatrician, so I will post those then.

Christmas at the Brewers

Our first leg of Christmas was at Brent's parent's house... we had lots to celebrate this Christmas with his family:
Luke's First Road trip!

Making Sugar Cookies for Santa (well, more for Brent... Jamie took 1/3 of the batch to her boyfriend WHO DOESN'T EVEN LIKE SWEETS, so Debbie made Brent another double batch to ice):

Brent making stripes on the trees:

Brent and I had a date night to see Handel's Messiah at the Houston Symphony-- it was beautiful... it chronicles the life of Christ from birth to death using scripture from old and new testaments- a choir and soloists accompanied the symphony- it was a very moving performance.

Granddaddy and Grandma babysat for us:

Brothers and their puppies:

A visit to Houston would not be complete without a trip to LUPE TORTILLAS! We also got to meet Jamie's boyfriend, Chad. Dinner was followed by the largest card game of Hand and Foot ever played! 10 people total. Somehow, Debbie and I ended up sitting next to Chad, so we got to ask all of our questions :) We really like him and love the way Jamie lights up around him.

Christmas Eve Service:

Chris and Christy right before HE PROPOSED!!! Our family is enlarging and we are thrilled he has found such a sweet, tenderhearted lady to share his life with. She fits in this family perfectly!

After proposal... the look of love!

Granddaddy reading Luke his first Christmas story on Christmas Eve:

Jamie closing the night out with a traditional reading from "Twas the Night Before Christmas":

Christmas at our House

It seems like Christmas came so fast this year... we have been enjoying the season and the decorations... here is what our house looked like this year:

Luke Meets Santa Claus

Week 7

Lots of fun this week:
- Luke has discovered the mobile that hangs over his bed and loves to watch it go round and round
- He has started watching the lights and movement in his rain forest bouncer (before now, he would just go to sleep)
- I was feeding him with a towel rapped around my wet hair and he thought it was so funny looking-- he kept looking up at the towel with the cutest grin on his face... I would love to know what he was thinking
- Luke recognises his voice- he will let out a loud (and happy) "ahhhh" on his play mat

Dare I admit this?

Our nightly routiene is down to a science... Luke wakes up to eat around 12:30 am and I usually feed him and go right back to bed, loosing as little sleep as possible. Last night, however, I woke up extreamly hungry, so headed sleepily toward the kitchen... as I scarffed down half of a muffin (leaning over the kitchen sink so I wouldn't leave crumbs), I thought "This must be what it feels like to be a binge eater!" Not satisfied with my half muffin, I went back to the refrigerator for something else... fruit in a cup! That worked... so back to the sink I went to polish off the fruit-- all of this taking about 1 minute, tops. Back to bed I went laughing to myself with a satisfied belly!

How do I love thee...

Let me count the ways!

1. I got out of the shower and heard Brent reading to Luke in the living room... this is what I saw when I rounded the corner:

This book "Guess How Much I Love You" has so much meaning to us because when we were in the hospital, a nurse gave it to us in a diaper bag and Brent would take it with us to the nursery to read to Luke at our feedings every three hours when Luke was having light therapy. I would nurse Luke with tears in my eyes as Brent would read to our sweet boy. It was the only way at the time we knew how to comfort our baby when we could hold him for those precious 30 minutes that he was not under lights.

2. When Brent gets home from work every night, he gives me a kiss and goes strait for Luke. They exchange smiles and lovies and it is so fun to watch:

3. Even though Luke has been our biggest priority, Brent still makes Allie feel loved:

Out and About

When Sarah and I were both pregnant, we looked forward to my maternity leave and said we would have SO MUCH time to hang out and run around with our babies... well, that didn't really happen with the holidays upon us, trying to keep her 3 year old on a normal schedule, me learning how to be a mom (and get a shower before noon!)... needless to say, the play dates just haven't happened. Well, we finally had one and it was a hoot. The boys sat in their swings and gruntted at each other pretty much the whole time that they weren't napping.

Weeks 5 & 6

Here are the ways Luke is changing this week:
- He is smiling! We don't think these are fluke smiles anymore-- he smiles when we blow on his belly, when you talk in a high voice (Leah Hunt found this out :), after he is fed and full (this indicates that in about 2 minutes later, we can put him in bed and he is out).
- He is growing! We moved from the infant sling in his bathtub to the tub tub-- he sits in water now and really likes bath time; we took the infant padding out of his car seat (tear), his arms are long like daddy's and don't fit some of his newborn clothes anymore.
- He is vocal! The coo's have begun and they are so sweet. We can also distinguish his cry's (I had always heard this and never understood "different" cries). The 'feed me' cry is pouty with an occasional "Uh-huh" in there, the 'I am wet' is an all out wail, and the 'hold me' cry is a whimper. We don't have many other cries... he is a really good baby.
- We had our first 6 hour sleeping stretch last night- I think is was a fluke, we will see tonight, but it was GLORIOUS!

Pictures from this week:

Proud Parents:

B35 Sunday School babies (our Treat twins were not there, so pretend there are 2 more in the line-up :):

Granna spends the night:

Meeting Great Aunts and Honey visits:

Meeting Cousin, Lindsay: