Our gingerbread house, baby Jesus' birthday cake, and our advent candle wreath :)

Sitting nicely with cousin Genevieve & Daddy

Christmas Eve - the traditions begin

Christmas Morning

Yippee - Santa brought cardboard boxes, and wrapping paper, and some tupperware too!!

Christmas tree, O Christmas tree

Picking out the tree - at a nursery right in our little town!

Luke loves the pine needles!!

All decorated...

And all dressed up for Christmas

Merry Christmas and Happy Bowl Game

four generations!!
Go Ducks!

sunday night's snow at our house

Santa

St. Nick visited the kids after Mass

nine months old!

i can't believe our baby is already nine months old!!
here's one of his newest tricks - i mean developmental milestones....

vital stats as of yesterday:

height - 28 1/4 inches

weight - 26 pounds, 10 ounces (not a typo!)

head circ. - 18 1/2 inches

he's a big boy and definitely exhibited stranger anxiety at the dr.'s office. dr. says he is doing extremely well in all areas! also, his first word is "WOW"

its 3:45am - been up almost 2 hours with Luke - no problems sleeping, as long as he is in my arms and neither of us are laying down - very convenient
p.s. he's nearly 26 pounds

p.p.s. and i honestly would not trade places with anyone in the world!

walk to the mailbox

.6 miles to our mailbox and back :) Luke loves it outside and I enjoy the exercise (its quite hilly here!) Its a nice picture of his cute two bottom teeth too... he's got one coming through on the top right now too... its been a fun week!

stay at home Mom

"If I identify myself as the culture does, as a “stay at home Mom”, one who has no intellectual contribution, gross-national product contribution or status symbol contribution, I become just that: a woman who sees herself as one who has grunted and groaned out another human being and now stays behind her four walls, in self-imposed seclusion. Not much of a vision there---it actually sounds strangely psychotic.If I deem myself as a woman employed by the Creator of everything ever created, as on work assignment in a sacred domain for the sculpting of souls that will exist forever and forever without end, I have a burning passion of purpose. And a paycheck that is said to be beyond what eye or ear can even comprehend!How does an engaged, vibrant, passionate woman forever vanquish the nagging, satanic lies that she is nothing more than a stay at home Mom?Get Perspective:~Hold a sleeping babe in your arms, mouth agape and warm breath drifting, and stand before a map of this world. Which would you rather have? Paris, New York, Tokyo, London------or this flesh lying against yours, this one made in the image and likeness of the very Divine? This world is going to burn up, cinders for the universe….but your child is a soul without end, forever and ever existence. The world has pitifully, laughably little to offer in comparison to this holy opportunity to raise up a child."

read the article

Happy Thanksgiving - so much to be thankful for!!

food!

this was from about a month ago - trying new foods - he loves it

our Goo and Tigger

Luke (one of his nicknames is Goo) got the chance to visit his beloved Tigger when we were at Disneyland last month :) he really enjoyed it!

fun with friends

we had the fun opportunity to spend some quality time with our dear friends in oregon... here are our sons sharing toys after mass... just in case you were wondering, Luke is just 5 days older than his friend

to make Emily a little jealous...

fun visiting with Emily's mom (Easton's Grandma) (also known as Carol!) It was great to catch up and spend some time in a house that has not changed very much since I was in elementary school -comforting since my parents have moved so many times!!



Luke was willing to sit with Carol even though he wasn't feeling too well and he hasn't done very well with strangers lately - but Carol definitely has the touch with little kids!!

new pictures!

so, Luke will be 8 months old tomorrow!!!
here's a rambling update: he sits alone, he crawls backwards and forwards, he eats rice cereal, oatmeal, sweet potatoes, carrots, peas, green beans, and bananas (he still primarily nurses!!), he loves to play with toys, he loves to bounce, he is very strong, we get stopped in stores with people telling us how cute he is, he's well over 24 pounds - we need to weigh him again, he wears 18 month clothes, we still use cloth diapers, he loves his daddy, he says dadadadadada, bababababa, mamamama, and other sounds...
here he is playing football

sitting with my Aunt Bonnie

At cousin Stephanie's wedding

trying bananas for the first time

the whole fam

bananas again, different bib - gotta cheer on those Oregon Ducks! (although from my shirt, you'll see I was more interested in the Texas game)

at Steph's rehersal dinner