Fall Fun: Event 1

We have done many exciting things so far this fall season!

The first one was the Tulsa State Fair!!  Nick and I hadn't been in a few years and Lucas had never been!  Nick's mom (Gammy) came down, my mom and Tim (Mimi and Poppy) and Nick's dad and step-mom (Papa Rock and Nana) all came too:)  I was so glad he got to see all his grandparents!  That boy is loved:)

Of course, Uncle Callen and Aunt Cassie were there and my Aunt Rhonda and all my cousins:)

I don't think I got any pictures of our food, but I'll just list it off:)  Funnel cake, fried pickles, cheese on a stick, corn dogs, hot dogs (for Lucas), fried chicken and shrimp, lemonade, chocolate-covered cheesecake on a stick, and a friend Snickers!  It was all delicious:)  I absolutely loved the lemonade and the fried Snickers.  The batter on the fried pickles was pretty amazing, too!

The first thing we did was head inside to see the animals.  Here's Lucas looking at the piggies!

Then the chicks.  It looks like he's getting kissed by one, but they were actually separated by glass:)

We then headed outside and Lucas and Mommy rode the carousel!  It was his first time and he really loved it:)

Then, he and Gammy rode a train/roller coaster!

He had a hot dog.  The first time to ever eat it like this:)  That is, without me tearing it into pieces!  I was so proud of him:)

Then we went back outside and Lucas and Daddy rode a shark inflatable slide!  It went really fast and they both enjoyed it!  And we took a pretty good family picture:)

The last thing we did was go inside to a kiddie area where they had a wooden horse!  He is obsessed with farm animals right now.

He had a great time, but boy was he tired afterward!  We all were.  It was pretty cold and we walked a lot!  He was such a good boy and he is so fun.  It's amazing to explore these seemingly mundane things through his eyes!  It makes it feel new and exciting!

Can't wait to make this a fall family tradition!

21 Months

Dear Lucas,

You are now 21 months!  I cannot believe how big you are getting...please stop!  Although, it's just an amazing thing to watch you grow and change and I'm blessed that I get to do that everyday.  You are so smart and so sweet:)

This month we moved to Aunt Cassie's and Uncle Callen's!  We are much closer to school and to your sitter.  It's much easier on you in the mornings and in the afternoons.  It only takes us about 15 minutes to get places, instead of 45!!  You are absolutely loving seeing Aunt Cassie everyday.  We wish to see Uncle Callen everyday too, but he's really busy with football.  It will be over soon, though.  Speaking of football, you went with us to the Union/Jenks football game.  You loved seeing the balls and you liked hearing the bands play.

You love sitting in this chair at Aunt Cassie's and because of Mrs. Kelly's, you love to color!  On your magna doodle or with chalk:)  You have made several more crafts at Mrs. Kelly's and you are really learning your colors.  You know orange, yellow, purple, pink, white, and black really well.  Blue, green and red are hard, though.  I don't know why?!  You'll figure it out, I'm sure!!

This month your biggest change has been speaking in full sentences and being able to tell us what you want!  It's amazing.  It just started in the past few weeks.  You'll tell Mama, "I want juice" or "I want chalk" or "I want more" or "I want to go night-night".  It's amazing!  When you get home from Mrs. Kelly's with your craft, you go through and tell me everything you made.  You'll say, "Mama, I paint leaves" or "Daddy, I make a mouse".  It's precious and I hope you are always this excited to tell us what you did at school:)

You make us laugh everyday.  You get so excited about things you see or things you've played with or things you done and sometimes it's hard for you to get it out!  You're just so excited so you'll say, "I see, I see, I see, I see...BALLS!"  It's funny:)  You love exploring and you've started to love climbing.  You love bath time and you love your toys.

You have gone up to size 18-24 months in clothes and size 5 in diapers.  You are definitely getting taller and when Daddy weighed you, you weighed 25 lbs!!!  You are still sleeping great, and like it says earlier, you sometimes ask to go night-night.  You get your paci, Geoffrey and your blanket and you'll walk toward your room.  It's the sweetest thing in life.  You're just such a good boy.

We've gone to a couple of different churches since moving to BA and you've done great in the nurseries.  When we go to pick you up, they want you to stay!  They talk about what a good boy you are and how cute you are...they don't even know you and they love you.  We hope you always stay sweet and lovable.  You are learning boundaries, though, and we are trying to teach you patience.  Because you can tell us what you want, you want it right then and we are learning that important Fruit of the Spirit.

You are all boy!  You love playing outside, any type of ball, eating ice-cream, getting messy, crawling under things, riding on Daddy's shoulders, wrestling, looking at things upside-down, pumpkins, and playing peek-a-boo!!

You are sweet too, though.  You love holding Mama's hand, you say "yuv you" all the time, you give kisses and hugs without us even asking, and you still love to sit in my lap and listen to Mama sing.  Your favorite right now is "The Wheels on the Bus".  You also love helping with little chores around the house.  You always put up your chalk or another toy when you want to get a new one out, you love using the broom, and you love helping Mama move clothes from the washer to the dryer.  You're such a good helper and we hope you always keep those traits.

We know we say this in every letter, but we are so proud of you!  You are a great toddler and we are lucky to have you.  We know God entrusted your life to ours and we couldn't be more honored.  We love you so much, little man!

All our love,
Mommy and Daddy

20 Months

**I'm really behind on all my blog posts!  I haven't done Lucas' 20 month letter and now he's 21 months!!!  I have many posts ready, but I will not try to overwhelm you with pictures all at once:)  I'll try to separate them out a little bit! **



My dear sweet Lucas,

I can't believe you are 20 months!  A lot of changes have taken place in your life this month:)

You moved to a new home...Mimi and Poppy's!!!  They absolutely loved having you and you are having a blast with them too:)

You get to eat yummy snacks

You get to act really silly

And you get to play with their toys

**I don't know why some of these pictures are small?**

You also started a new sitter.  You love her and so do we:)  You color everyday, you play so hard, you learn so much!  You have learned to count to 10 and you know so many of your colors:)  It's amazing!  You are just talking so much!

You are still wearing the same size diapers and clothes, but I have a feeling that will change soon.  You are growing like a weed!  You still don't eat many vegetables, so we have started giving you veggie pouches and you love them.  You call them "applesauce"!  Haha:)

You are still sleeping great.  Ms. Kelly (your sitter) says you don't use your paci and you sleep on a mat.  I cannot imagine this!  I think at home you'd roll all over the place, but I guess since all the other kids sleep like that, so do you!  You're such a sweet angel!

Mommy's new school starts at 7:20a, so I have to get you up at 6a!  We leave the house at 6:15a and get home about 4:30p!  It makes for such a long day:(  You are taking it like a champ, though.  Sometimes dinner time is tricky.  You are hungry when we get home at 4:30p, but if we give you a snack at that time, you don't want to eat much dinner.  We need to figure something out.  Hopefully this won't last too much longer.  Uncle Callen and Aunt Cassie just moved into their house and they want us to move in.  We'll give them some time to get settled, then we'll head that way:)  It will be easier on you and you transition so well, I know it'll be good.

You still love Mickey Mouse, you still love your books, you still love your puzzles, and you still love playing outside.  We water flowers with Mimi every night and you run all over the yard!  You usually end up coming in with your clothes all wet:)  You love taking baths in Mimi and Poppy's special bathtub and you still love Mommy to sing to you at night.

Mommy and Daddy just love going on this journey with you.  I know it's a little crazy right now, but it won't last long!  We will find a home of our very own soon, little man.  This too shall pass.

Until then, we are living each day to it's fullest and eating you up!  You are a special little boy and we are so thankful for your little life.  We love you so much and are so proud of you.

All our love,

Mommy and Daddy

11 Years Ago

11 Years Ago, I was in high school.

11 Years Ago, I was still grieving the loss of my daddy.

11 Years Ago, I was about to be crowned home-coming queen.

11 Years Ago, I was learning to live with just Mom and Cassie.

11 Years Ago, I was in Biology when my teacher got a call.

11 Years Ago, I was in Biology when my teacher turned on the T.V.

11 Years Ago, I thought the pilot of a plane had fallen asleep at the wheel or had a heart attack.

11 Years Ago, I was in Biology when we watched a second plane hit.

11 Years Ago, I walked to Physics in shock.

11 Years Ago, I was in Physics when the towers fell.

11 Years Ago, my mom left school in a hurry to get me gas.

11 Years Ago, I sat in class after class glued to the T.V.

11 Years Ago, I was scared...

11 Years Ago, I didn't know the future.

Now I sit 11 years later, typing this in my mom's house with a husband, a little boy, a house for sale in a different town...I still don't know the future.

I am confident that God delivers time and time again.  He provides and He is my Refuge.  He loves me and He cares for me.

I'll trust in that.

19 Months

****Sorry for the overload of pictures!  I combined his 19 month letter with our trip to Florida;)

Oh sweet Lucas,

How time has flown?!  We can't believe you are over 1 1/2 years old!!!  It just doesn't seem real.  In a huge way, we want time to slow down, but you are just too much fun.  You are growing and learning faster than we can think and you just amaze us:)

We can't even count how many words you know!  We tried one day and we got over a hundred and we forgot so many!  It's just mind-blowing.  You are putting sentences together, you point to what you want and actually say the word instead of just grunting and whining, and you are starting to use some manners, which is amazing.  You say "more, please" and "thank you" and your little voice is just so cute.  We love it:)

You are really tall.  A lot of your 12-18 month shirts are getting too short!  You take after Momma though with your short legs.  Your 12-18 month jeans are just right now:)  You are still a little finicky about your meals though.  If you eat a good lunch, you won't eat a good dinner.  If you don't eat a good lunch, you eat a great dinner!  That isn't always the case, though.  Some days we can't feed you enough!  You still love cookies, teddy grahams, fruit snacks and fig newtons for snacks.  You will always eat chicken, green beans, mashed potatoes, turkey, applesauce, yogurt and bananas too.  You have also learned to love mandarin oranges and pineapples.  If you see french fries or chips first, you won't eat anything else!!!  We had a rough time at Applebees because of this very thing.  From then on, we decided to not order fries or to just have our waitress bring them out later on during the meal:)  Oh the things we will do to make you happy!!!

You are still sleeping great.  Going to bed at 7:30p and waking up at 7:30a (sometimes 8a)!!  You don't sleep well in a pack 'n play anymore, but you are just getting bigger so I'm sure it's not near as comfortable.  We're with ya, though, we sleep much better in our own bed too:)

You still love reading books, throwing balls (mostly with your right hand), playing with your farm animals, and doing puzzles and toys.  You absolutely love to play outside!!!!  You want to be out there all day every day.  You love to step in puddles (when it happens to rain), you love to pop bubbles, you love to run, you love to chase Jovie, you love to run through the sprinkler and take drinks out of the hose, you love to "water" flowers.  You're such a boy and it's just great!

Two big events that happened this month for you were a big vacation and a big move!  We drove 16 hours to Florida for a vacation with Daddy's family!  Papa, Nana, Uncle Josh, Aunt Jana, cousin Colt, Aung Megan, Uncle Bo and lots of other aunts, uncles and cousins:)

You absolutely loved the sand!!!!!!!  You would just sit in it and pick some up with your hands and pour it all over you:)  It was awesome.  We were a little worried about it, but you took to it like a champ!

You did great in the car, too.  You watched a lot of "Mickey Mouse" and we practiced words in your 100 book, but we were surprised to see you knew most of them already:)

You had so much fun with cousin Colt while we were there!  You guys would just stare at each other and laugh at each other and follow each other around:)  I couldn't quit taking pictures!!

You even kissed each other:)  Well, Colt kissed you!  But you definitely kissed back!  It's just so sweet your love for each other.  I can't wait to watch it grow:)

Some other highlights of our trip were:

flying a kite!

licking the cinnamon roll spoon with Noah!

reading books with Nana and Owen!

 and just being with family:)

You made our trip so special and wonderful!  We hope to take many with you just like that one!

At the end of our trip, we did something extra fun when we stayed the night with your Great-Uncle Greg, Great-Aunt Debby, cousin Melissa;)  We even got to see cousins Kim and Steve!  You had a great time:)  We don't get to see them very often, so we take any chance we can!

We had such a great time with you, and we always have a great time with you!  We hope you know just how much fun you make our life.  You give us meaning and purpose and we thank you for that!

These past few weeks since Florida have been extra crazy.  Mommy and Daddy got new jobs, so we moved out of the house we brought you home to and moved in with Mimi and Poppy for now.  We were sad to leave our friends and the little friends you have, but we think this is best for now.  We are doing this for you because we are constantly thinking of your future.  We want it to be bright and good and we think this is a step in the right direction.  You are adjusting beautifully.  You love Poppy (because he gives you lots of marshmallows) and you love cuddling with Mimi.  You are also doing great at your new sitter, Mrs. Kelly.  You are drawing, coloring, painting and doing lots of playing outside.  You are also taking great naps (on mats and sometimes without your paci!).  So proud of you:)

You are such a good boy and so easy:)  We pray constantly for your continued obedience and continued easy-going personality.  You are the bright part of our day and we just love you to pieces!!

We thank God everyday for giving us you!!

All our love,
Mommy and Daddy

Giveaway

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Life Happened

I know it's been awhile since I've posted...a lot has happened with the three of us!

We went to Florida, made some last minute/much needed updates on our house, packed up our clothes and a few important belongings, moved to Mom's, had new teacher orientation, etc.

Can you believe how much has happened in the last few weeks???  We can't either.  But until I figure it out, I can't really update!

I will be posting our Florida trip, Summer Weeks 10 and 11, the updates on my classroom, and our life in this transition.

Soon....very soon!