Halloween Party

One of my friends at work had a Halloween Party-- Brent and I were inspired by the kids hanging outside of Taco Bell to be "Alternateens".

The Haunted House:

Host and Hostess, aka. Dog the Bounty Hunter and Beth:

Posing with the creepy head girl:

What a fun night!

Luke is ONE!

Oh, my heart skips a beat every time I say that!

Brent and I walked into Luke's room this morning singing "Happy Birthday" at 6:03am (his birth minute!)-- here is the big boy we saw!

Just 365 days ago, Mommy and Daddy were rushing to the hospital, so excited to meet you. You decided to make your appearance right as Mommy laid down for the night. I got up, took a shower, put on makeup and then Daddy drove us across town at midnight. I didn't want to go in the hospital without him, so he parked the car while I held onto a light post by the hospital door, having contractions. We knew this drill well... you had tried to come 4 other times before now! But this time was different-- full of anticipation, now we would finally meet you!

Your were perfect-- a full head of hair, a button nose and soft, soft skin. Your Grandparents rushed in town to meet you and just adored you. We all thanked God when the Dr. told us you were healthy and no one could take their eyes off of you!

Now, one year later, we know you and your are a joy to our lives! We are so thankful for this past year and thankful for the years to come... they will all be special, but we will never forget this one! Some of our favorite moments with you were:

-Your wonderful giggles at the "sock thief"

-The first time you rolled over on your own- we cheered and cheered

-Your first Astros game

-You had so many ear infections when you were a baby, one night we were sitting in the ER, just you me and Daddy, waiting for the Dr.- you had not slept all night and you finally fell asleep in my arms as Daddy and I watched a show on the discovery channel about blind squids in the ocean.

-You have just started humming when you are eating food you like- especially with pop tarts, grated cheese, and Chick Fil A

-You have always wanted to eat on your terms, so our first attempt at solids didn't go well. We waited a few weeks, tried again, and you were hooked! Oh how happy it made me to fill your belly with substance!

-Your happy face as you crawl across the room to be hugged when we pick you up at day care

-Naked Baby Dance

-Pointing at birds and airplanes and saying "da"

-Chasing you around the house on all fours- you laugh when we get close and slow down for us to "get" you

Here are some of the things you have been up to this past month:

Throwing your ball:

"on" "off", "on" "off". Thankfully, you have not found the hot water side yet.

"Reading" The Economist:

Watching the Blue Angles fly over our house during the Air Show (Daddy was holding your ears because the loud noises were scary):

You LOVE all trucks, buses, cars, airplanes...

Playing in boxes:

Wearing Daddy's hat:

*SAPPY MOM ALERT*

I read a parenting book that said your whole life as a parent is spent preparing your child to be independent and giving him all of the tools to be successful without you. This last month, we have seen some independence and I have had to consciously LET Luke push away. Oh, my achy breaky heart! For example in the morning, after his bottle, I usually pick him up and we walk to my room to tell Daddy good morning. One morning, Luke didn't want to be picked up and crawled all the way from his room to ours going full speed... I was cheering him on and so excited to see him race for Daddy, but a little sad I wasn't holding him close to see his face light up when he finally locked eyes on his Daddy! I think we have savored all of these moments as much as we could and now, we are thrilled Luke is exploring without us pushing it. I am excited that he is almost done with bottles so we don't have to wash them every night, but kind of sad he doesn't need me to hold them, or sippy cups, anymore. Thrilled to see him eat a piece of chicken off of his highchair tray (this truly is a victory!) because it is one less scoop of stinky liquid meat I have to shovel in his face acting like it is yummy! It's not. As proud as I am to see him succeed, understand and obey, it makes me wonder how much more excited God is when we, His children, do the same. How His heart must swell with joy when we run to Him after a long day or when we have integrity and tell the truth when no one else would know a lie. I also think about the times when Luke doesn't obey us-- the heaviness I feel must be so magnified when we disappoint God. The broken relationship where God just sits and waits until His children choose to turn from their sin and return to fellowship. I pray we do not have many of these moments, but I know we will. I just hope we choose to respond in a way that would build in Luke a foundation to succeed without us. Oh, my achy breaky heart.

Luke, your Daddy and I love you very much. Happy birthday, sweet, sweet boy.

Lost and Found

If these are your sunglasses, Luke is taking good care of them until they can be returned! They have been in the back of Brent's car door forever. Luke really thinks they are cool!

Keeping our little guy busy!

This weekend, we went downtown to the Log Cabin Village Exhibit... these cabins were located in different parts of Texas in the 1850's and were relocated to this park to preserve their history.

This is one of the homes... a family of 10 occupied this space! If you look closely, you can see the stairs in the back left of the house that go up to the 2nd floor. Boy, this made me appreciate my house!

We visited the school house- the rules were posted:

Luke rang the school bell:

They have volunteers that run the site in period dress... they were cooking over a fire and it smelled delicious! The lady was putting carmelized nuts over twice baked sweet potatoes, they had cornbread from milled corn, and the guy in the back was pulling their main course off of the fire.

After seeing all of this, we were hungry, so we headed on over to our #2 favorite BBQ joint, Railhead. Luke had his first bite of chopped beef and really liked the french fries! He is a Brewer, through and through!

Pumpkin Patch

All is well at the Brewers!

We took Luke to Penny's to get pictures last weekend... he cried through the whole thing (not like our Luke), we got him home (after rescheduling our apt.) and realized he was burning up... took his temp-102 and went on to Care Now. Luke had strep-- nothing a little Amoxicillin won't cure... and it has-- here is how I know:

Making blowing sounds on balloons with Daddy:

By Tuesday, Luke was back up to no good... at dinner time, he threw Cheerios over his highchair to Allie on the floor and I had to get on him... he laughed in my face and did it again... that is how I know he is feeling better!!! And that is how I know we are born with sin nature!!! Ha! It took all I had to not smile, knowing I did the same thing to my parents... OH, the irony!

On a side note, yet parallel, if I can just keep Cheerios anywhere in the house but IN HIS BED, I will consider my role as Luke's mother a success! I do not know how they hitch a ride on Luke, but somehow they do. Cheerios... I love em, but I hate em!

Week 1 of Financial Peace

Well, Brent and I have come to the decision that we would try Dave Ramsey's Financial Peace University course and this was our first official week to "work the plan". Dave's philosophy is "Live like no one else now (cash only, no credit, and plan purchases) so later you can live like no one else (let your savings multiply over time and be your wealth, not owing money every month and choosing where you want to use money, give money, etc.)" This week has been an amazing one with little victories all along the way that I take to mean God has planted those victories to keep us moving toward our goals AND His goals for our lives. As I began to think about this week and count up the good, I thought I better document our little victories at the start of our journey so we can give thanks when we should give thanks!

- Verizon sent us a letter this week telling us they reviewed our cell phone account and we can reduce our plan because we are not coming close to our monthly minutes... I am serious!
- We budgeted $50 this month for Luke's clothes- it turned cold on Monday, so I headed to Target with my $50, and walked out spending $44.65 and lots of new items! I got home and realized Luke needed size 12 jeans, not size 18 but I didn't want to take back the 18 because he will need those too and I may not be able to find them when he needs them (after all, they were just $7)... well, the next day, I was cleaning out my wallet-- don't need it now because I am not toting around credit cards and found 2 gift cards from last Christmas with $1.61 and $2.54 on them... that was the exact difference I needed to buy an extra pair of jeans and stay under $50!!!
- Brent and I were calculating out if buying formula at Sams without a coupon or at Walmart with a $5 coupon would be cheaper... we concluded either was the exact same, but I went on to Sams and there was a bonus 12 extra servings included! That is 3 days of bottles!
- Luke is getting his pictures this weekend at JC Pennys and I needed a cake for his "smash cake" shot-- I checked Sam's- too big, checked Walmart- to theme-y, thought I could make one myself- no time, called Albertsons and apparently, they give away smash cakes FOR FREE!
- I went to McDonald's today and they started Monopoly-- I peeled back my game piece on my french fries and I won a FREE small coke or coffee!

I know all of these things are silly, but I wrote all of this to say, these things never happen to us but we are excited to continue to watch every dollar so that we can feel some financial freedom and move toward the goals God has placed in our hearts for our family... wish us luck!

Helllloooo Fall!

I have been waiting to unveil this t-shirt since early September! This pretty much sums up my deepest, darkest feelings about little Luke. "My Mummy Says I am Sweeter Than This Candy" Uh huh. No lie! Doesn't he look like a highlighter just burst all over him?! I'll have to check if he glows in the dark :)

Luke's New Ride

Luke has been getting a little restless and has been going strait for the "no" areas lately, so Brent and I decided to go ahead and give him his birthday present early so he could get some fun out of it now and so we could keep him busy! Here was the highlight of Luke's weekend:

"Helping Daddy". I swear we didn't pose this!

Taking his coupe for a spin!

Giving Monkey a turn:

Crusin'

"open" and "close" the door- he thought that was the funnest part!

The hightlight of our weekend was celebrating Tim's birthday (and Maggie's week of being ant free). We love our friends and the food Holly cooked up was excellent!

My Dumpster Diver

Brent went to an informational MBA program session on Sat., got all the way home and realized he wasn't wearing his wedding ring. After retracing his steps and turning the kitchen and our bedroom upside down, he remembered his rings clanking together when he was washing his hands at the informational. He drove back to the school and thought he would strike the bathroom, take the trash liner and go through it in his car-- the last thing he would want was an admissions counselor to see him rifling through trash, right?! Well, Brent got to the bathroom and what do you know... the trash can had been emptied. He headed for the nearest dumpster and began the search. As he got to the bottom, he had no luck. As he was turning away to go home, head hanging low, upset and mad at himself for loosing what we couldn't replace right now, he looked up and saw a janitor coming out with more trash. He dug through all of it and wouldn't you know that the last bag, the last crumpled piece paper is where his ring fell out! He said he hugged the janitor three times and drove home beaming wearing that dirty ring proudly! He wouldn't pose for a picture, so I had to reinact what I thought his ring might have looked like in the trash :)

Injury Report

I went to pick up Luke at Day Care and had to sign a second injury report... this time, not self inflicted. Some kid bit him on the hand (it didn't break the skin). What do I do with this information?!!!