When superman crashes...

Luke has unfortunately not been in the mood for naps lately, but we still try to put him in his room for "rest" time. After playing in his room for awhile today (still in his superman p.j.s that he didn't want to take off), we found him like this when he finally crashed on the floor :-) I don't know how he even found enough space on the carpet to sleep from all the toys he had gotten out!

Merry Christmas!

We had a wonderful Christmas this year, I think Luke and Abby are still tired from opening all their presents! It was definitely crazier having 2 kids this year, but so much fun. Here are some pictures.

Christmas Eve - for the first time since Vic and I have been married, we stayed at our own house for Christmas Eve and had a wonderful evening going to our church and then coming home to eat and open one present, decorate a birthday cake for Jesus, setting out cookies for Santa and food for the reindeer. This is the best picture we could get while we were still dressed in our church clothes, oh well.

Luke set out cookies for Santa, but then decided he would sneak a bite!

Christmas Day - Vic's parents came over in the morning and then my family came over in the evening, we appreciate them all coming to our house this year - that made things much easier for us with 2 little kids!

Luke got a tool bench from Santa, I have hardly seen him without a tool in his hand since!

Abby got her first baby doll from Santa, it is as big as she is!

I am not sure who enjoyed the tools more, PaPa or Luke?!

After several hours of present opening, Luke began to show signs of tiring, that was short lived though...

All dressed up for the job!

Having birthday cake for Jesus....even though we have talked LOTS about Christmas being about celebrating Jesus' birthday, I think between the presents and cake, Luke thought it was his birthday!

The aftermath....I don't know if our house will ever be the same.

3 months!

Abby turned 3 months old a few days ago, I can't believe she is growing so fast! She is about 12 pounds and still sleeping great, from around 9 p.m. to 7 a.m. - often better than Luke sleeps! She is getting stronger and able to hold her head up pretty well. We just tried putting her in the bumbo and she seems to like it, it just makes her look so much older to be sitting up! We took Abby for her first trip to the zoo today, along with Uncle Andy and the White's, I think she enjoyed it :-)

The only picture I could get of Luke and Trinity was of the back of their heads while they looked at the alligator!

After the zoo, Luke helped Vic put together a bookshelf for Abby's room, Luke is quite the good helper with a screwdriver in hand!

We're #1!!

I just have to post this because I am really proud of Vic....due to his hard work in putting out Christmas decorations this year, we won first place in our neighborhood decorating contest!! I honestly don't know if I have ever seen Vic get so excited when they came to our door last night to tell us, way to go Vic! Now we have this really big lighted "1" in our yard that they gave us....I am afraid our neighbors won't know what this is for and just think we put it out out there to brag about ourselves, I hope not!

Has anyone ever seen Vic look so happy?

And because most people really just care about the kids, here are a few pictures of them from this weekend...

Abby in her rufflebutts :-)

Luke playing with his new bubble gun at Nana's house

The kids playing outside today, Luke loves (to mess up) big piles of leaves!

Getting ready for Christmas!

Getting ready for Christmas was fun the last 2 years with Luke of course, but this year is SO much more fun with him. Luke is getting excited about Santa, points out Baby Jesus whenever we see a manger scene, and has really embraced Christmas parties and treats!! Luke had his school party this week, followed the next day by our MOPS Christmas party, and then today we spent all day baking treats. He has pretty much been on a week long sugar high and I don't think it is going to get any better before Christmas. Here are some pictures from our week...

Luke's school party started out by decorating ornaments (or themselves)!

I knew when I saw those cupcakes that bright green icing was going to be a bad idea for 2 year olds....

I was correct

Our MOPS Christmas party for the kids was lots of fun - there were different stations for the kids to do an activity. Vic was off friday so he got to join in on the party too :-) They made jingle bell bracelets, cards for a mission project, nativity scenes with stickers and decorated cookies.

That is Luke under there showing off his nativity scene

Granddad and Grandma watched the kids last night so Vic and I could go to a party, and this is what Luke and Granddad worked on, it turned out awesome!

Luke was obviously very proud of his work!

Cutting out cookies this morning, Luke was very particular about which shapes he wanted to use!

Daddy made a big mistake of telling Luke he could eat a piece of the dough while we were cutting out the cookies....we are lucky there was any dough left after that to actually bake cookies with!

Hmmm, Luke seems to really like to show me what is inside his mouth when I take pictures of him, we will have to work on that.

Have I mentioned that Luke likes sprinkles?

Candy monster

If this isn't a scary sight, I don't know what is. This is what happened today when Luke woke up way too early from his nap while I was trying to address Christmas cards....mommy didn't realize she had left some hershey kisses on the floor, I am not even sure how many he ate, oops.

The Man Store

Tonight, we were all in the car together and we drove past home depot. Somehow, Vic and I mentioned this store and referred to it as the "man store". I didn't even know Luke was listening to us, but about an hour later on our way home, Luke saw home depot and started yelling "THE MAN STORE!!" at the top of his lungs. Vic has taken him there several times when he needed to get something, apparently Luke is a big fan! So if you hear Luke talking about the "man store", please know he is referring to home depot :-)

Ready for cold weather!

My grandmother Chipper made this beautiful sweater and cap when I was pregnant with Luke....of course she did not give it to me then since he turned out to be a boy! I am so glad I have a baby girl now that can wear it because it is just perfect for Abigail. Thanks Chipper!!

SNOW!

I can't believe I grew up in Houston and hardly ever saw snow, and we have now seen it 2 years in a row! So today when we got home from MOPS, I did what any good mother would do.....I tossed my newborn into the swing where she was warm and snug, threw a jacket on Luke and dragged him outside so we could play in the snow!! Although Luke was more interested in playing with the Christmas lights than the snow, I did get him to throw snowballs with me and we had a great time!

Luke's 1st snowball!!

Abby was scared I might try to drag her outside to play in the snow too!

Happy Thanksgiving!

We have enjoyed 2 days of thanskgiving, on wednesday with all of my family and then thursday with both sets of our parents. Luke woke up this morning very disappointed that there are no grandparents or uncles here today!! We are thankful for so much this year and enjoyed being able to spend lots of time this week with our families, here are some pictures....

Abigail with Uncle Matt

Luke with Uncle Andy and his girlfriend Stephanie

Luke and I made turkey cupcakes, he was lots of help in between eating lots of candy corn and icing!!

Luke loves to play in this house outside, unfortunately he doesn't like to be alone in the house and it is not made for adults to fit in! Uncle Andy was nice enough to go along with Luke's demands to have company inside :-)

Vic put up the new nativity scene he has worked on for several months now....Luke likes to hide behind the characters...can you find him?


Here is the whole thing at night, Vic did a great job! And while the main reason for putting this up is to remember why we celebrate Christmas - it also doubles as outdoor entertainment for Luke!

No more pictures!

We took the kids to attempt a family Christmas picture this morning - it was torture. After a long wait and multiple bribes, we managed to get 1 decent picture of our family. This is the picture everyone will be receiving in our Christmas card because there is no way we will attempt to go through that again.

For some reason, after the first picture fiasco, we decided we should also try to get a picture with Santa since there was no line and the kids were already dressed up. We found out that Luke is completely terrified of Santa and refused to go anywhere near him for a LONG time. Finally, we managed to get him close enough to get a picture, but only if we were holding him. In case you can't tell, Santa is holding Abby - she blends in to his suit!

As if the first two picture events of the day weren't traumatic enough, when we got home from the mall, I decided I really needed to try to get a picture of the kids together. I have now completely driven my children and husband crazy today and have come to the realization that there will not be a perfect picture with a newborn and a 2-year-old....but that is ok because I am just so blessed to be celebrating this coming Christmas season with a wonderful husband and two beautiful children!!!