Christmas

Luke opened a few gifts on Christmas morning, including this talking Buzz Lightyear toy that's supposed to be film accurate – so he has features such as the laser on his arm, wings that pop out, and karate chop action.

Mark spoiled me this year, since it's also my 30th birthday next month, and he got me some jewelry.

I also got a new camera and a telephoto lens that was from Mark, his parents, and my parents. I used it Christmas evening when the kids were opening their gifts and absolutely love it.

Mark did a test shot with the camera while I was cooking.

 One of Luke's gifts from Grandma and Grandpa was a hula hoop.

Kaitlin showed us how she can use it.

And then Luke gave it a try. Haha. We have a video of him that I will post later, but I have to go through everything on our video camera from Christmas and edit them down.

All the kids got a ton of gifts. I should have taken a picture of all the gifts when they were under the tree – actually, they were surrounding the tree because there were so many!

Another gift from Grandma and Grandpa was a little push broom. Luke tried using it right away. Haha.

One of the gifts from Mimi and Poppa was a Buzz Lightyear Vtech toy. It has a mini keyboard like on a computer and it has different learning games. He seems to really like it.

He also got a Leapfrog TAG reading system from Mimi and Poppa.

And a talking Woody toy from Grandma and Grandpa that is film accurate like the Buzz Lightyear toy.

 A couple pictures of Maddy.

When I was taking the pictures of Maddy, Austin and Kaitlin climbed up and posed with her.

Giving hugs at the end of the night.

 The day after Christmas, Mark opened up a train set we got for Luke. The tracks can be assorted in all different ways, and Luke actually seems to like it more than we thought he would. Now, we just have to figure out where to put it because it's quite big.

We had a wonderful Christmas with good food and lots of fun. I hope you all had a very Merry Christmas as well!

'Tis the season

Christmas has already come and gone, but I finally have time to catch up on some posts.

I made 75 graham cracker houses this year, about 10 of which I sold to realtors at Village Properties again. I was going to try to push for selling more this year, but I had been sick for a couple weeks after Thanksgiving and didn't feel like doing much during the time leading up to actually making the houses.

Luke's school had holiday crafts on the days leading up to Christmas. One of the days, he came home with some paper antlers.

Another day he came home with a paper bell. I'm not sure how much Luke actually helped with it though.

Then one day parents were invited to the school for hot chocolate and ornament decorating. There are three groups of kids each with their own teacher at Luke's school. All the groups have an animal name and I forget what the other ones are, but Luke's group is elephants, so his teacher got these foam elephant ornaments that we decorated with glue and glitter. Luke only helped a little bit with putting the glue on the sweater.

We decided to get a 7.5' artificial tree from Costco this year. It was nice having a real tree last year, but it was a pain having to vacuum up all the pine needles, and the Costco ones look nice, so that's why we went that route. Mark said it was really easy to assemble, so it was completely worth getting it.

We put our outdoor decorations up too. I went to Kmart the day after Christmas hoping to get more  decorations like more reindeer or candy canes, but only came home with a 3' or 4' light up snowman, which looked like the last outdoor decoration they even had.

Sleeping on the floor

I kept meaning to post this, but with Christmas and everything I forgot. Mark and I were both feeling under the weather a few weeks ago and we were laying on the couch and futon in the living room watching TV. Luke was just playing with his toys and Mark and I both ended up dozing off for a bit, and woke up to find him sleeping on the hardwood floor. He only sleeps in his bed and very rarely sleeps in the car, so he must have been extremely tired to fall asleep on the floor. The next day I even caught him almost falling asleep on the floor again in this same position. When he noticed that I saw him, he lifted his head and said, "Hi!". Silly boy. Haha.

25 ways to wear a scarf

I just love this video – the way it was done and because I only knew a handful of ways to wear a scarf before this.

My Gym - 12/13 and 12/15

I got short video of part of circle time at the beginning of class. Sorry it's a bit shaky – I kept trying to scoot back, but didn't want to get too far away from the group. The past few weeks, Luke does most of the warm-ups and exercises, but only if I don't do them with him. He complains when I try to do any of the things they're doing. At the end of the video, the kids are supposed to stand up without using their hands, but Luke always uses his hands. Haha.

Surprises

Luke has definitely been surprising me with the foods he has been eating lately. When we enrolled him in preschool, I was worried how he would handle snack time because he's always been so picky. I always pack some kind of snack in his lunch box that his teacher is free to give him if he doesn't like the snack the school provides, but so far he hasn't needed to eat them. Most of the time at school, the snacks have been apples, Cheerios, or goldfish crackers, which he likes. The past couple weeks though, there were some new things, like peanut butter roll-ups, pancakes, and raisins. His teacher told me he ate them without any problem. He didn't ask for seconds, but he didn't refuse to eat them. He gagged on pancakes the last time I had him try a bite!

Then tonight, Luke ate about a cup of mac & cheese. That was another thing he used to gag on too. I gave him one little scoopful of the mac & cheese at dinner, thinking he'd reluctantly eat it, but he quickly ate it and asked for more! I'm hoping this is a sign that he'll continue to eat more foods.

My Gym - 12/6

My Gym - 12/1 and 12/5

I think this was the first time Luke walked across the beam by himself.

He was really only supposed to do one big jump, but decided to hop across the whole mat. Haha.

My Gym - 11/22

Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree

Earl Warren Showgrounds

I've been doing website maintenance for Earl Warren Showgrounds for a few years, and their website has been the same since it was first created. This year, they decided it was time to finally redesign it, and I just got the new website up and running this week.

 Old website:

My Gym - Week of 11/13

Right now through part of January, there are unlimited classes at My Gym, so I've been taking Luke to 2 classes every week, and whenever it works out, I'll take him to 3 classes to try to take advantage of the deal.

In one of the classes during a free play time, they set up an area called "Roaring Rapids", and Luke wanted to try it out after seeing other kids doing it.

On one of the other days during the week when they did this skill, climbing up the ladder, the instructor placed a stuffed kitty towards the top and the kids were supposed to "rescue" the kitty by carrying it back to the floor. I didn't take a video of Luke doing it that day, but I sure wish I had because after he grabbed the kitty he just threw it to the ground and everyone was laughing.

My Gym - 11/10

Towards the end of most classes, they do a puppet show with a song, and I recorded a little bit of the one on this day.

Gobble, gobble

Luke made a handprint turkey at preschool the day before Thanksgiving.

I hope you all had a Happy Thanksgiving! We sure did! Mark and I hosted this year, and what made it easier was that mom and dad each cooked a turkey, so I just had to take care of the side dishes. Mom cooked one in the oven, while dad cooked one in his infrared turkey cooker, and they were both yummy. There was quite a bit leftover, but I didn't mind because I enjoyed having the leftovers through the weekend.

Wes' party

Last weekend Luke and I went to Wes' first birthday party. Katie took this picture of Abby, Aaron, Lucas (her son), and Luke. I just think it's so funny. When Mark saw this picture he said it looks like they're all drunk except for Luke. Haha.

My Gym - 11/3

Luke didn't quite understand all the things he was supposed to do during this trick. Haha.

Preschool

Luke started preschool a couple weeks ago – he goes two half days a week. They welcome parents to stay the first few days, and I ended up staying the whole first day because Luke was having a rough time. It was a bad start because he didn't eat enough breakfast that morning, and he's always extremely cranky when he gets hungry, so he was prone to be cranky that first day.

He was OK, taking it all in and watching all the other kids first thing that morning.

Then they went inside and went over the day of the week, read some stories, and then were free to play with a few different toys. Luke was fine playing with a Mr. Potato Head until another little boy (who had been playing with the train set that you see behind Luke in this photo) shoved Luke in the face. Luke got so upset that he cried in my arms for close to 10 minutes. A teacher aid had been in charge of the kids at that time, and she didn't see it, but his teacher said she would keep a close on eye that other boy with Luke. She said the other boy has a speech problem as well, and sometimes has inappropriate behavior. Hopefully there won't be anymore issues there.

After Luke calmed down and started playing again, his teacher was cutting up apples for their morning snack, and Luke realized how hungry he was. He wanted to eat right then and there, but he had to wait so everyone could eat together, so he got all upset and cried for a long time again. Poor little guy! Once they all sat down to eat though, he ate his apples without complaining, and even asked for a second helping.

They did some painting, and the teacher cut and glued them to paper bags to make puppets.

After their arts and crafts, it was lunch time. Here's the lunch box I got for Luke, along with a food thermos. He doesn't eat sandwiches, so I've been giving him his turkey meatballs in the thermos and that keeps them warm enough until lunch time.

After the kids finish their lunches, then they're free to play again until the half day kids get picked up, and the full day kids get ready for their nap.

I was so afraid Luke would be traumatized by that first day of school, but on his second day, I left after a few minutes without any problems. I forgot to tell his teacher something, so I called the school after I had driven to Trader Joe's, and they said Luke didn't cry at all, and he was just playing with a toy. The only tears that were shed were from me. Haha. He's only had one other day of school, and that day seemed to go just as smoothly as the second, so now hopefully this will continue. Our little boy is growing up so fast!

Mailman

Luke likes to help bring in the mail for me. When there's a lot of mail, he figures out different ways to carry it all without dropping any.

Happy Birthday, Mark & Mom

My Gym - 10/27

The week before Halloween, the big red circle at My Gym was decorated to look like a big pumpkin.

The instructors were all dressed in costumes, and the kids were allowed to wear costumes also, but I think only two kids actually dressed up. I thought Luke's costume would be too much of a hindrance with the boot covers that were attached, so he didn't dress up.

Halloween

Luke was Superman for Halloween this year. He doesn't know who Superman is, but we thought it would be good because he would kind of look like Superman with his dark hair, and it was a costume that didn't have a hat or mask.

We went down to Brandon's the day before Halloween because their community clubhouse had a Halloween festival. So, the kids got dressed in their costumes. Kaitlin was Rapunzel and Austin was Yoda. If you're wondering what Luke is holding, it's a little light saber.

And Maddy was a Tootsie Roll.

Luke kept tugging at his cape, so he ended up not wearing it for long. On Halloween night, I pinned his cape to his costume, so it wouldn't bother him.

Trying on Kaitlin's Chuck E. Cheese glasses. Not quite right for Clark Kent.

Walking around at the festival.

There were a bunch of booths, including a petting zoo.

And there was a carriage ride that Mimi and I went on with the kids.

It did not smell very good being downwind from the horses!

At the festival there was a booth where people were making balloon animals, and the kids are holding theirs in this picture. Austin and Luke got swords and Kaitlin got Ariel. Brandon and I made a similar Ariel one last year, and it took us more than a half hour to make, while it only took a few minutes for the guy to make the one for Kaitlin. Haha.

A lot of houses down a cul-de-sac decorated for Halloween and had tables set up for kids to go trick-or-treating.

Kaitlin and Luke were playing with the balloon hat.

On Halloween, we briefly met up with Andy, Alyssa, Corie, and Brian, and their kids for trick-or-treating.

Then back at Andy and Alyssa's, we tried to get a picture of the boys together. Luke wasn't being cooperative, and the only one I got of them them standing next to each other was blurry.

Luke kept running off, so I told him to give Aaron a hug to get him back next to him, but this was all I could get for a picture. Haha.

Then at the end of the night, we went to visit Mimi and Poppa, and then Grandma and Grandpa.