Tuesday, January 26, 2016

"How I Wonder What You Are" {Luke 2 Years}

Happy 2nd Birthday, Sweet Luke!

We love this boy! I hope someday he knows just how blessed I feel to be his Mama.  He captured my heart pretty early and may or may not have me wrapped around his precious little finger.


I can't even begin to describe the complexity of this boy's mind.  Brian and I look at each other in complete awe and utter confusion as to what is going on in that head of his.  He's pretty sharp these days...and we can't get much by him...but he seems to get a whole lot by us!  I think both of us would still describe him as "charming" but we may put "stinker" in there somewhere. ;)  Luke has some opinions! About everything.  Go-with-the-flow is not his favorite thing.  But do you know what is? Snuggling.  He's so affectionate.  He's so loving.  My favorite thing about Luke may be that we have this mutual agreement that if one of us needs a snuggle at any moment--the other one is always on board to give some love.  It's the perfect little arrangement.

All About Lukey-Boy:

  1. Snuggles.  Please do this until you are a teenager.  Then just give me super great son hugs. ;)
  2. Sleep.  Thank you, son, for giving me the gift of rest! When he's having a growth spurt (which is still like every 6 weeks) he will sleep until 9am.  It provides extra time for working out, drinking coffee, reading scripture & hanging with C.
  3. He is always up for an adventure! Especially to the park or in the backyard. ;)
  4. His sweet spirit is SO afraid of animals.  We can't quite figure out why his heart pounds outside of his body anytime we are near an animal, but it's endearing.
  5. Food.  He enjoys eating...and will eat most things. Holding strong with a love for tuna & olives but his FAVORITE food is a nice NY Strip Steak.  Naturally, that's what we served him for his birthday meal.
  6. Speaking of food, Luke is a little chef! We got the kids a hand-me-down kitchen for Christmas and put it in Luke's room.  He builds fabric sandwiches daily!
  7. He loves to read.  Someday we will start bedtime early enough to actually get through all the books he requests.  He loves to choose random images on the page to point to and reading is very much helping his learning.  Now if it could just help his speech.
  8. Luke loves trains.  It's so endearing to see him wheel his trains all over the house.  We asked family for trains this Christmas so he has a few different tracks to choose from and plays with all of them.  He has an incredibly long attention span.
  9. Luke adoooores babies. He loves them so so much.  He is so nurturing to his baby doll, always points to babies in books, can say the word (one of the few)!  He will not leave baby Cameron's (currently the only baby friend he has) side during a play date.  
  10. Thank you, Luke, for having such an interest in music.  This little guy sings all day long.  Can you guess what song he's got down based on the the title of this post?

I guess he's TWO...but STILL:

  1. Why are we still pulling hair?  I thought we decided that's not cool.
  2. Whining.  It's not great.  We hear it a bit too frequently.
  3. I agree that it's fun to hide in cabinets, play in the toilet, turn on the tub, eat laundry detergent and color on your face...but you can't do those things.  
  4. The carseat.  Every time we get in the car, that's where you have to sit.  Arching your back & making it a fight is not always ideal.
  5. Discipline.  This kid requires so much discipline.  Brian & I get so weary of constantly having to spank or sit in time out, but he truly asks for it.  It's so cute that he runs away, but also fairly naughty.  We are actually taking a parenting class right now because we have a great desire to be intentional with this kiddo and ultimately want to "Grow Him God's Way." For some reason it's just so much harder to convince Luke to abide by the standard than it was to convince his big sister.  That's okay though, by the grace of God his strong willed nature will someday be a service to society rather than an annoyance. 
Did I mention Luke sings "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star" on a regular basis (and hooray that he does it on key!)?  I thought this line went well with the post as we are still navigating being the parents of this loveable, charming, smart, precious little boy.




Monday, January 18, 2016

"Jingle Bell Rock"

Is it too late to document our blissful holiday season? I mean...it's nearly February.  So yes, it's too late.  None of my faithful readers are in the mood to hear about the come-and-gone holiday season; but maybe those readers would enjoy a few pictures?  I know that the blogs I frequent most from years past are typically the ones I posted about Christmas...so hear it goes for 2015!

Christmas Parties
We have a wonderful, wonderful, wonderful church family in Central Florida...and a few groups of people we've become especially close to this past year.  It brought us (particularly the social butterflies of the house--me & C--) much joy to celebrate the season with people we cherish.






Disney Decor
Yes we all know each year we try to do as much Disney sight-seeing during the holidays as we can. We missed A LOT this year.  And that was okay.  We snapped a few Christmas Tree photos, saw the castle light up and bid farewell to the Osborne lights.  We missed Christmas at the Grand and sadly didn't see Santa & and his Mrs at EPCOT or the beloved Candlelight Processional.  But truth be told...that was okay.







Deck the Halls
We added a few Christmas decor pieces to our house and I have to say of the few years I've been decorating, I was most pleased with how this year turned out.  I didn't capture it via still image, but I did send these photos to Carley expressing that I "think" I've found my holiday decor style. ;)




Carly REALLY enjoyed decorating as well, and was thrilled to have her own tree. I saw these cute reindeer on our neighborhood re-sale site, and she gave her stamp of approval on snatching them up as well.




Simple Activities
Whether it was decorating sugar cones at Miss Kim's house, ornaments at Miss Robyn's, or salt-dough prints with Miss Carrie, we had so much fun being crafty this Christmas!  We also enjoyed baking...and eating sugar.




Christmas Sunday @ Harvest Bible Chapel
Christmas at church...well it's pretty important.  Ultimately, we believe that One Omniscient Heavenly Father sent his only son to be born in the humblest of ways.  A Messiah.  Who would save the World.  It's something to be cherished and celebrated.  So seeing our church provide opportunities for our little ones, elementary-aged, middle-school & high-school students to all lead us into worship in various ways...it actually brought tears to my eyes.  I had to tell myself to pull it together during the Christmas play the elementary kids did...and then again when the middle-schoolers led the congregation in worship.  Can we just do it again, already?  THANK YOU to everyone who helped.  I'd love to help! Someday. It's just not the season for me quite yet.

Where's Carly? :)
Middle Schoolers & their drums.

Christmas Eve
This day is my favorite day of the year.  It just is.  I look forward to a service that swells my heart and produces a steady stream of tears down my cheeks, I look forward to sharing soup together in honor of the tradition that was set when Brian was a boy, I look forward to the anticipation of presents and opening one before bed and I look forward to the moments I share with Brian once our little ones are tucked away for the evening.  Carly just looks forward to the petting zoo each year... ;)


Christmas Day
Waffles for breakfast!  Presents, galore! A few FaceTime conversations...play time & work time!  I always sign up to work Christmas afternoon because I think it's important to show my support to all those who don't totally have a choice in the matter.  Not ideal, but worth it.




I must document the Christmas menu Brian and I decided on last minute while standing in the aisles at the grocery store: Ham, Collard Greens + Bacon & Glazed Carrots.  I shared our menu with a coworker and she affirmed that we couldn't have possibly been more Southern.  We've officially diversified ourselves. Score.



Christmas in Minneapolis 
Thank you Ma, Pa, Trey & Tiffy for being willing to postpone your Christmas for us once again!  It's so special to share a big breakfast with you all and open thoughtful gifts from people who mean the world to me.  Thanks for making our time in Minneapolis so so special. ;)

Tiff got Carly some makeup!

She's been asking for Tiana since Princess life began! She only
comes in the box so mommy refused but Nana came through!

Classic Bapa...Carly really was his present. :)


A White Christmas!

Thanks for the makeup, Aunt Tiff. ;)

Santa Babies
My Favorite pic from the season...