the first thanksgiving

I was very excited for Luke to experience his first Thanksgiving this year, although it wasn't until the end of the day that I realized next year will be much more exciting for him as he will actually be able to eat the food we chow down. Oh well! I think the best part of Thanksgiving is that Keith got to spend the whole day with us. Typically his days off are only Sundays when we have to get to church and run errands throughout the day. On Thursday, we were able to lounge around the house and enjoy each other's company. Luke, Keith, and Rosco even got some quality play time in on the floor.

After his morning nap, we tried to take some pictures in front of the Christmas Tree. These were the best we could do, even after some strategic cropping due to weird posing.

Our first stop for the day was my Aunt Brenda and Uncle Pat's house. This is my dad's side of the family. Luke was due to take his afternoon nap while we were there, but he wanted to see and experience everything so it ended up being a 20 minute power nap on Keith.

After Pat and Brenda's, we ventured over to my grandparent's house. He ate his sweet potatoes and prunes like a champ and managed to stay awake and fairly happy for awhile. We brought his activity table which really helped the cause.

Luke also got snuggle time with Great Grandma Sandy and Auntie Scoobie.

I would say Luke had a great first Thanksgiving and we can't wait to share many more with him!

cinco

Five years ago today I married my best friend. I am so completely blessed to have such an amazing man in my life and so lucky to be able to share the rest of my time here with him. Keith, I'll love you forever and always and always and forever. Happy anniversary!

peek-a-boo

Peek-a-boo...I see you!

trashy

Although I'm pretty sure the picture doesn't require an explanation, I'm going to give one.
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Luke has been a poop machine the past few days. It used to be that he would poo 4 or 5 times a day, pretty much at every single diaper change. Now, he saves it or something ridiculous like that and unleashes an unholy amount of poo when he decides to go. He went through 5 pairs of pants in 2 days due to poo explosions.

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Last night, we went to visit the King family to see new baby Caleb and Luke let it go in the car on the way there. Seeing as how we were only going to their house for about 30 minutes to drop off dinner to them, I didn't think to bring a change of clothes. I won't be making that mistake again.

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And so I present my trashy son who doesn't wear pants and does wear stretched-out red socks. I think the belly shot just caps off the look. The only thing missing was Keith's mullet wig.

the most wonderful time

Keith and I share a real love of the holiday season and we typically decorate our house Thanksgiving morning each year. With Thanksgiving falling so late this year, we decided to start the indoor decorating a week early. Actually, truth be told, Keith wanted to start decorating November 1 and I convinced him to wait this long. I don't want to be one of those weirdos who has their tree up for half the year. No thanks.

We started the process before we put Luke down for his afternoon nap, but did the majority of the decorating while he was sleeping. He is such a curious kid and was just in awe of all of the things we were pulling out of bins.

After he went down for his nap, Keith began putting up the tree while watching football in the process.

My job is decorating.

I wish I would have thought to take a picture of Luke as he saw the tree for the first time. It's crazy to me to think that was the first time he has ever seen a Christmas tree. Luke had this look of amazement on his face that was priceless. But let's be real here-I'm sure he was trying to figure out how to get everything off the tree.

random

Here are a few pictures from the past week that don't really have a story or a reason they were taken, but I'm posting them for fun.

Goofball loves him some food...

but we're still working on the logistics of the cup.

We had dinner over at Eric and Jill's on Friday night. We decided to try to get a picture or two of Luke with Emma and these are some of her 'cheese' faces.

Luke is still trying to be around Rosco as much as possible and Rosco is still not having it as much as possible. I can't wait to see how Rosco likes Luke being mobile in a few months. He might never come out of the closet then.

new clothes and the real gift

Andrea was so excited when she called me the other day. She had something new she had to show me and it couldn't wait. When she arrived at our house, she had three new outfits for Luke that are absolutely adorable! This kid has some amazing clothes between Andi and Nonna...I have to admit that I get a little jealous sometimes!

The outfits fit perfectly with the exception of the pants because Luke is just too long and skinny, but he'll work his way into them. His favorite part of the whole day: the bag the clothes came in. He caught sight of the bag as he was in his activity table and was so excited when he came around, he began to shake. He ran around his activity table as if he was trying to run away from us so we wouldn't take the bag away. It was hilarious. So much for Christmas gifts. I'll just give him the bag!

The tags tasted good too!

Thank you so much to Andi. We appreciate your thoughtfulness!

adolph

I know that by no means should this be funny to me or that I should have even taken a picture probably, but he's just too cute. Luke strategically had green beans on his upper lip and with his creepy comb-over baby hair that I still don't have the heart to cut, he resembled a mini version of Hitler. Not what every mom hopes their kid will aspire to look like, but I am just that blessed (sarcasm!). The 'rebel' bib was some crazy coincidence too.

mr. and mrs. finley

Keith's sister Holly got married a week ago today to Corey. It was a beautiful wedding and reception. I was completely honored to be Holly's maid/matron of honor (I know that it should be matron because I'm married but that just sounds so old), so I spent this first half of the day making sure she had everything she needed and was taken care of and after the toasts, I was having a little too much fun celebrating. Needless to say, I didn't get very many pictures from the day. I actually only got one and it was of one of the other bridesmaid's hair sticking straight up as she was getting it done. Nice! Anyways, the pictures that follow are ones that Connie, another one of Holly's fabulous bridesmaids, took throughout the day.

Getting her in the dress

Beautiful bride

Me, Ashley, Luke, Holly, Erica, Connie, and Amber...he is one lucky little boy to be surrounded by so many girls!

First dance

Keith dancing

Erica and Keith before the cake....

and after.

We had a great time and I'll make sure to post the website of the professional pictures when its up (if it's okay with Holly!).

seven months

It's hard to believe that Luke turned 7 months old this weekend and it's amazing to me to look back and think about all of the new things he did this month.

He went on his first trip to visit my parents in New Mexico. He had a great time and did really well with one big exception; he just could not sleep well there. We figured it was just our fault for getting him so used to sleeping in his crib in a semi-quiet environment, but when we returned home, we saw these bad boys.

Chompers. We're hoping the next trip to NM goes better because the teeth are already in. He's still drooly as ever.

He's also starting to push up on his hands and can even get up on his knees in rare occasions. In the past few days he's even begun to scoot around with the army crawl. This cracks me up though because he gets one arm stuck underneath him. He hasn't figured out how to move that arm forward yet.

We've also figured out he *loves* to stand up next to the couch. I think he feels like a big boy...so important. He can't make it up there on his own, so we help him and make sure he stays safe. Sometimes Keith is a little delayed with catching him, but Luke loves the scariness of that even more.

Can you see Luke?

Luke is generally just a happy kid who enjoys playing with his toys and his parents. He's especially loves the game peek-a-boo.

I {heart} him!

it's been awhile...

This past weekend, Keith's sister Holly and her fiancee' Corey got married! With all of the fun with the wedding, I haven't had time to post. Hopefully in the next few days I'll get an update on here!

halloween

We had quite the busy day for Luke's first Halloween. We started the day by taking treats to people instead of trying to get them. Just a way to show our Halloween love for others. :)

First we stopped at Treeland and gave the majority of the cupcakes to the guys there. Afterwards, we stopped by Basha's to visit Andi and drop off some cupcakes to her as well. Andi was dressed as an angel and her tech was dressed as a devil. It was cute that they had coordinating costumes. Luke had to put his monkey costume on to feel like he fit in.


Later after Luke finally woke up from a marathon nap and Keith got home, Holly came over and we sat on our driveway to hand out candy to the kids in our neighborhood. I went to put Luke's costume on him, but it was about 90 degrees outside and his costume is made of fleece. It would have been like a sauna for him, so no costume.

Emma had found a t-shirt at Target awhile ago and she wanted to get it for Baby Luke. It was so sweet of her to think of him, especially when she's only two! It fit perfect and was the right shirt to be wearing outside for the weather. Thanks Emma (and Jill)!

We brought a teething ring out for Luke and he started to share it with Keith. This reminds me of Lady and the Tramp where they were sharing their spaghetti.

We spent the last part of the night playing with Luke as the kids came to get their candy from us. After everyone left, I went right back to sewing to get ready for the boutique on Saturday. Good times!