Photo Shoot

Since the beginning of November we have mostly rotated through one sickness after another and watched the weather change from warm to cold and back again.  The weather changes probably have something to do with the constant sickies, but for whatever reason there haven't been a lot of picture moments. And thus there haven't been too many blog posts.  But I did drag the camera out one rather chilly morning and forced the boys to sit for a little photo shoot.  This is what I got:

A lot of Luke's pictures turned out well, I think.

I couldn't get Micah to smile to save my life.

Good thing my life doesn't depend on his smile, I guess.

Cute kids!

Luke can swing all by himself!

Christmas

On Christmas morning the boys were very excited to see what Santa brought them.  I need to back up and say that this year was a lot of fun prepping for Santa to come because the boys got it.  They had both written letters to Santa and had received some great letters back.  Luke asked for a 16 inch bike with training wheels and a Jack Hartman CD (educational kid songs), and Micah had asked for a candy cane and "a red bike that I get inside."  They asked LOTS of questions about how Santa fits down the chimney, where he lives, how he makes the toys, etc.  I'm glad that the boys have a minimal concept of magic because that was the answer to pretty much every question they asked.  Well, Santa delivered what they asked for, plus 1 extra present for each boy: bike for Micah, air hockey for Luke.  Santa had a little help from generous family members.

opening the Jack Hartman CD:

driving his truck:

Griffin got one or two treats as well.

Here he is with a new bone:

During the morning and afternoon we mostly played with new toys.  Lots of air hockey games and car driving.  Luke and Jared took a long bike ride in the afternoon while Micah napped and I did some cleaning (and maybe had a few winks.)  

That evening we had a nice dinner and then we tried to bring the focus back to the Savior and the reason for Christmas.  We did a felt story of the Nativity.  We talked about God's gift to us.  Then we reread this book:

It is about how we can remember and honor the Savior during the Christmas season.  On Christmas morning the little boy opens the box to see his family's gifts to the Savior.  There are slips of paper in the box with acts of service written on them:  gave food and blankets to the homeless, donated money for a well in Africa, etc.  Then we opened our own sparkle box.  We bought toys for 2 boys that live in a shelter, made cookies for our neighbors, paid our tithing, said family prayer each night, and read our scriptures.  These were our gifts to the Savior.  

Then we talked a little bit about repentance that it means to do better.  We talked a little bit about goals and deciding what we want to do better next year.  Then we wrote down our goals-- our gifts to the Savior-- and placed them in Jesus' white stocking.

These were really fun new traditions.  We just got the book from Debbi this year, and my cousin Emily told me about her white stocking tradition earlier in the month.  But these will be every year traditions for us.  They brought a lot of meaning to the day.

Then we had cupcakes and sang Happy Birthday to Jesus.  And that was our Christmas.  Hope yours was just as great!

Christmas Eve

We had a fun Christmas week.  The weekend before Jared took Saturday off.  I think it was the first Sat. since starting at Gardere that he didn't work at all!  We went to Bass Pro Shop to see Santa, but the line was INSANE.  So Jared lifted the boys up on his shoulders (one at a time, obviously) and they got to wave to Santa.  They were happy with that, and then we went off to drive 4 wheelers and boats.  Then we had lunch at Los Cucos-- best Tex Mex EVER.  Micah spilled his drink all over himself and ended up wearing the extra clothes:  one of Luke's shirts and a pair of 24 mo. pants.  Apparently I need to update my emergency stash.  Ha Ha.  Then we went fishing at our neighborhood's stocked pond.  While Jared was giving Luke a lesson on casting I made Micah sit for a little photo shoot.  He doesn't understand the command "smile" at all, but I still love the first 2 pics.

Luke got pretty good at casting:

And Micah liked reeling it in.  

The lure was shaped like a minnow, and Micah thought he caught a fish every single time he reeled it in.  It was really funny to see him get so excited every time even though he never actually caught a fish.

On Christmas Eve we spent the morning hanging out.  We went to the "train park" and then we tried our hand at fishing again.  It was too bad that I forgot my camera on Christmas Eve because Jared actually caught a fish that time.

That evening we went to the Herrera's for a delicious feast and a little party.  Grandma Debbi, Grandpa Terry, Jennifer, and Victor spoiled us all shamelessly.  The boys had so much fun opening all of their presents!  And then they opened everyone else's.  I think in this picture Micah is actually opening Debbi's mother's present.

The boys are so lucky to have a set of grandparents close!!!

And then Jared and I got to stay up til 1 am playing with hammers, screw drivers, and the like.  But we were ready for Christmas morning, unlike last year when Sick Santa left Luke a bike still in the box.  Ha Ha Ha.

Disney Collector

I've posted about the boys watching "egg videos" before.  Their very favorite egg collector calls herself "Disney Collector."  The boys have memorized many of her videos.  She also does toy reviews as well.  Their favorite of those is watching her play with a play-doh set called Scoops and Treats.  They have mimicked this video for weeks now when they play with play-doh.  They have also asked and asked for the real Scoops and Treats.  They tell me, "But, Mom!  You can get this right now at Waaaalll-mart."  (Because that's what Disney Collector says in her video.)  But that video is two years old, and I could not, in fact, find it at Wal-mart.  Well, Michael and Cara gave Luke a gift card to Amazon for his birthday.  Luke knew just what he wanted to look for-- and lo and behold!  Amazon carried Scoops and Treats.  They were so EXCITED the day it arrived on the "present truck," (aka UPS.)

Making his first waffle cone:

Ice cream cone:

and Popsicle

And if that wasn't enough to blow their world, the boys found REAL KINDER EGGS in their stockings on Christmas morning!!!  They rushed to the table to open them.  And for quite a while on Christmas morning, all other toys were forgotten.  The world became just the boys and their eggs.

Opening the eggs took about 5 minutes, but then the boys stayed at the table for a long time restuffing the eggs and reopening them and quoting lines from "Disney Collector."  Micah would open his egg with Donald Duck and say, "Oh, this is cute.  We got Daisy!"  And Luke would say, "Next up, the Kinder Surprise!!!"  Micah has been sleeping with his kinder eggs every night since Christmas.

We have had one adventure with our kinder eggs.  On Friday of last week the boys and I took Griffin for a walk on the lake trail in our neighborhood.  Micah brought a kinder egg along, of course, as well as a toy cell phone.  As they walked along, Luke picked up a rock and ran to throw it into the water.  Micah had to do the same, but he put the rock in the same hand as his kinder.  I yelled for him to stop, but I was too late.  He released his throw and the rock AND kinder flew into the water.  It took about 2 seconds for Micah to realize what happened, and then there was a major freak out.  Micah doesn't have great force, but he had gotten the kinder about 2 feet into the water, and I wasn't about to wade out there in my tennis shoes, nor would I let the boys do it either.  So we finished our walk and went home, where I changed into my rain boots, grabbed the finishing net and trudged all the way back to collect the kinder egg.  If we have any more of those adventures, Micah will find himself grounded from eggs again.

Party Time!!!

Luke's birthday is Nov. 27.  He was supposed to have a bowling party on Sat., Nov. 30.  But his doctor said that he should avoid people for 5-10 days.  On Saturday he still wasn't feeling great, and then Jared came down with the flu too.  So obviously we didn't have that party.  But we'd ordered an awesome Lightning McQueen cake that I was too late in canceling.   So Grandma Debbi and Grandpa Terry took their chances and came over on Sunday night to eat cake with us and wish Luke a happy birthday.  Jared hid in our room the whole time.  

So that was mini party #1.

On December 15 we finally got to have his party-- with a new theme.  Once we were into Dec. it was clear that with work parties and such a Sat. wasn't going to work, so we had to come up with something that would work on a Sunday.  We had a gingerbread house party.  Terry and Debbi donated the gingerbread houses, and that was a huge help to me.  It was family only:  Herreras, Andersons, Ortons, and us.  Oh, and the missionaries came for dinner.

Here are some pics from the night:

Micah spent MUCH more time eating candy than decorating.  He had a huge sugar crash the next day. That child can PACK AWAY THE SUGAR.  I wish he wanted to eat anything else.

I want to highlight some of the big events/ changes from Luke's sixth year.

1.  He graduated from private therapy.
2.  He started kindergarten.
3.  He spontaneously gives hugs to his family and friends.
4.  He learned how to pump on a swing all by himself.
5.  He learned to read (He's at a beginning 1st grade level) and to write all of his letters-- lowercase and uppercase.
6.  He started drawing pictures besides a stick person.
7.  He changed schools and changed towns.
8.  He started bathing himself.
9.  He decided that he wants to be a teacher when he grows up.
10.  He can brush his own teeth.
11.  He started an independent tumbling class (as opposed to Mommy-and-me)

I am so very proud of my Luke.  He has grown and developed in ways that I can't put down in a list.  This past Sunday we took cookies to a friend of his.  When we arrived at the home we invited in, and Luke immediately took off with his friend, laughing.  They stayed together the WHOLE time, playing bad guys, etc.  From what I could tell there was very little distraction from fans, etc.  It is moments and experiences like those that let me see how much he has changed this past year.  It is in the conversations that we have and the connections that he makes.

Luke is a sweet boy.  He is very curious, especially when it comes to how things work.  He loves his brother Micah and his puppy, Griffin.  Luke's favorite games right now are play-doh, Candy land, and pretending to be a teacher.  His favorite activities are tumbling class, jumping on the trampoline, riding his bike, and playing at the park.  He enjoys school.  His favorite parts of the school day are eating breakfast in the cafeteria, going to recess, and singing in music.

Luke has a beautiful, simple testimony of Jesus Christ, and he has a strong desire to choose the right.

We sure love our Luke!

Luke's Birthday

Luke was sick on his birthday.  He'd been on an antibiotic for a day by then and had some of his energy back.  This was both good and bad.  I woke up to Luke saying, "Let me paint your foot now!"  I shot out of bed and ran into my bathroom.  I found the boys painting their hands with my foundation, using my nice Mary Kay brushes.  They were hand printing the bath mats.  So... that was the bad part of Luke feeling a little better.  

The good part was that he wasn't so whiny, and we got to do a few fun things for his birthday.  He opened presents in the morning.  He was very excited to inherit Jared's old ipod and to get a cheap ipod dock of his own.  He played music most of the day.  He also got a new book from Micah:  "Hooray for Amanda and her Alligator."It's a Mo Willems book, and he is BY FAR my boys favorite author.  They love all his books.

After dinner we had cupcakes and ice cream.

And then we decorated the Christmas tree.

A pretty low key birthday given the circumstances.

But still pretty good.

Happy 6th Birthday, Luke!

Eggs

In my last post I mentioned that my boys like to watch "eggs."  I can't even remember how this fetish started.  The boys USED to watch Youtube songs, like "The Wheels on the Bus" over and over.  But one day they discovered these videos where people open kinder eggs (from Germany) or other such candy eggs with toys inside.  Here is a link so you can see what I'm talking about:

Angry Birds Toy Surprise Jake and the Never Land Pirates Disney Pixar Cars 2 Easter egg Spongebob     

The crazy thing is that despite how lame I think this video is, it has 66 MILLION VIEWS!!!  How is that even possible?!?!  Seriously, click on this link, watch it and then ponder on 66 MILLION VIEWS.  I mean, my boys have probably put 50 or so views on that one.  It's one of their favorites  Micah and Luke even have whole videos memorized, and they reenact them using Easter eggs.  But 50 views and 66 mil is quite the disparity.  I'm thinking there are a lot more kids in this world like mine.  I would like to swap stories with their parents.