the snow globe called new mexico

Just wanted to post a few quick pictures of the snow we took this morning. Hope everyone had a very Merry Christmas and I'll tell you more when we get home!

wagon

Andrew brought Luke his Christmas gift last night and was so sweet to get him his first wagon! Although Luke wasn't quite sure of Andrew when he first woke up from his nap (stranger danger is starting to set in), he quickly recovered and I took some pictures of them together.

Who gave this to me?

I did little buddy!

I'm still not sure of you yet!

I love that as Andrew was bringing into the house, he was telling me about all the safety features, so that I would feel better. So Luke, as Andrew said, you can't use this wagon to steer you down a hill. Rules are rules.

Thank you so much Andrew! Luke loves his Christmas gift!

cookie decorating

On Saturday, we attend the First Annual Blum Christmas Cookie Decorating Party (wow...that's a mouthful!) and had a great time. We were able to decorate cookies and participate in a Wii tennis doubles tournament. I learned very quickly that if Keith is your teammate, steer clear. He is like a madman and doesn't care if you are on his side or not, he will fully take you out as he swings the controller. Being that we are completely inexperienced, we were knocked out in the first round. I was kind of relieved because I was afraid to be near Keith again while playing.

I love to decorate cookies so that was my favorite part of the evening. I was too intense in my own personal cookie decorating to remember to take any pictures of my own cookie (even though it turned out awesome), so I'll just have to post pictures of Emma decorating instead.

Luke did really well throughout the party. I have to admit that Andi took him and held most of the time so that I was able to obsessively decorate. Thank you! He loves to spend time with his Aunt Andi!

And while Keith was playing puzzles with Luke, Andi and I were able to see each other. Luke wasn't allowed to steal her away for the whole night. Sharing is caring, right?

I'm so happy that Jon and Jo invited us to their home for the party. We had a great time and look forward to next year!

eight months

Eight months. It's hard for me to grasp the concept that it's already been eight months since I gave birth to Luke. He has become such a joy in our lives and I honestly can't remember what life was like without him, nor would I even dream about going back to that time. As he gets older and more of his little quirks come out, I fall more in love with him and can't wait to see what else he'll come up with or do next.

Yesterday was a momentous day. Luke said his first word, "dog-uh." He catches sight of Rosco, screeches like a madman, and starts chanting dog-uh, dog-uh. He only says it when he sees Rosco, so I'm pretty sure hes made the connection. Although he can make many more sounds, I'm fairly certain and Keith is too, that this is the first time he's accurately identified something.

Luke is moving around so much. He scoots (or army crawls, as Keith requires it to be called) all over the place so we've had to really start watching where we leave things and what is left out. He tries to sneak up on Rosco, but ends up getting way too excited and squeals as he's about to get there and ruins the surprise. You better believe that Rosco high tails it out of there when he hears Luke coming.

He eats his solid foods like champ and gets so excited when we put him in the high chair. It's almost like we can't get the food to him fast enough. When we initially started solid foods, Dr. Chang told us to feed him the food first and then the bottle or he would refuse to eat the food. Not our kid. We have to give him the bottle first otherwise he won't have anything to do with it after he's done with the other food.

Luke is growing by leaps and bounds. He's heavy as all get out and actually starts to hurt your arm when you've held him too long. He's a solid kid and he's starting to get a belly. His hair keeps getting longer and curlier and I keep refusing to cut it. And as much as I *love* feetie jammies, he's already growing way too long for him. We had to break down and buy him 12 month two-piece jammies this week.

He's growing way too fast and I can't seem to keep up. Every time he does something new, I celebrate for minute and then it hits me. Each and every time something new or exciting thing happens, that's one last first he'll do. It's one more thing in him growing up. It's more minutes ticking away until he's the kid who doesn't want to hug his mom at school or until he'll be the kid going on his first date.

I love this kid more than words can say and I'm incredibly thankful for every moment I have with him.

tongue

It seems as if Luke has discovered his tongue in the past few days. He's constantly rolling it in and out of his mouth trying to see how it feels and what noises he can make while he 's doing this. It's really hilarious to watch. He went in to to full affect with it during Holly's 2nd birthday dinner on Sunday.

Now that he's big enough, we can also put him in high chairs when we go to restaurants. He thinks this is great and constantly squeals and shout through the entire meal. We're pretty much limited to noisier places now, but that's totally cool with me as long as he stays happy.

By the end of the night, he was wiped out from all the fun.

promised

As I promised in an earlier post, here are some of the pictures of Holly and Corey's wedding. The website with all of the pictures is password protected, so I'm going to post a video slideshow of some of the best instead. Enjoy!

http://shareitvideo.com/watch.php?k=822301932575475

time with dad and aunt h's birthday

Besides attending the Wilson Family Christmas Party on Sunday, Keith and Luke were also able to spend some downtime together and we all helped celebrate Holly's birthday at Texas Roadhouse.

Because Keith works six days a week, I know that he treasures the time he gets to spend with Luke. Sunday morning they spent some quality time together playing and snuggling on our bed after church. It's amazing to watch how much these important guys in my life value and love each other so much already. Upside down...

and right side up.

Although Wednesday was actually Holly's real birthday, Jeannie had to work that day so we got to celebrate Sunday night. I loved that they brought out the saddle for her to ride. It's a good look for you H!

The new Mr. and Mrs. Finley

wilson family christmas party

Every year my dear friend Kristi's family has an awesome family Christmas party and we are very lucky to be included each year. Last year, Kristi and I were both pregnant and due on the same day so we were able to eat like it was nobody's business and had a blast. This year, we were able to celebrate with the babies and it was even more fun.

Ashlyn and Luke had a great time together. Even though they've seen each other a handful of times, it had been a few months since their last get together, so it was like they were seeing each other for the first time. We had to get pictures of them next each other, just like we did when they were first born. The only difference now is that we had to get them sitting up. If we left them on their back like we used to, they would either roll or crawl away before we could get the picture taken. Here are some of my favorites:

Luke tried to put the moves on her.

He just hasn't figured out the right moves just yet...

Ashlyn also gave Luke his first Christmas gift. He absolutely loved tearing open the paper. I thoguht he wouldn't understand until next year what to do, but he screeched away as he was ripping the paper open.

He got this super cute fire truck that he loves. It makes noises and he loves when I push him around on it.

Ashlyn even got to help feed Luke his dinner.

We had a wonderful time with the Wilson family and look forward to this event every year. We are so blessed that they include us as part of their family!

christmas photo shoot

I am by no means a photographer of any sort, but for some crazy reason, I thought that I'd be able to get a good shot of Luke by our Christmas tree for our cards this year. Yeah right. As soon as I put him near the tree, he wanted to touch it. Actually grab it and yank it over. I attempted to distract him by giving him the bow off one of the gifts. That really didn't help the situation at all seeing as how he kept putting the bow in his mouth. Apparently bows don't taste too good and they tend to be slightly pointy which doesn't feel good on the mouth either. Tears also don't give that joyful Christmas spirit I was looking for. So here is the proof why none of these pictures made it to our cards:

Eric, you are well worth the money.

a visit from pop and important sounds that mean nothing

The day after Thanksgiving my dad and brother came for a surprise visit for the weekend. I actually knew they were coming (they've learned not to spring things like this on me, especially when they are hoping to stay at our house) but the rest of the family was clueless. They arrived in time to make it to the yearly poker tournament my uncle's family holds at his house the day after Thanksgiving each year. We had a great time and Keith even won some money!

The big event happened the next morning. After finishing his morning feeding, Luke was hanging out on the couch with my dad and Keith when he said "dada" for the first time. This is really the first time he'd put any sounds together that somehow resemble actual words, so it was a fairly big deal. My dad was so excited that he got to be here for that. He has been in New Mexico much longer than anyone else, so he's missed out on a lot of things which I know is hard for him. I'm glad Pop was here for such a big day!

The first picture is right after Luke's big moment and the second one shows how proud he was of himself...or how much he loved the attention he was getting from us.

Of course we tried to get him to say it again for the camera and this was the best we could do: