Haircut (#3)

Luke got his 3rd haircut (yes, 3 in 9&1/2 months) back in December.....he is growing into such a little boy!! He did such a good job sitting still for Amy while she cut his hair.  Can you believe how blonde his hair is getting??

Happy Birthday Jesus!

On our Christmas morning we celebrated Jesus' birthday by eating pancakes.  We put a candle in the stack and sang happy birthday.  This was Luke's first time eating pancakes and I am pretty sure he liked them.  I am guessing he is REALLY going to like them once he gets a taste of syrup! 

First Christmas

We celebrated our first family Christmas on December 23rd this year because I had to work on Christmas day (and the days surrounding).  Luke didn't really know what was going on, but he is king of going with the flow!!  The majority of his presents were unwrapped, but he did have a few wrapped presents under the tree.  As I suspected, he enjoyed playing with/eating the wrapping paper much more than the act of unwrapping the present!

On his first Christmas Luke got a work bench, a remote control, a bat/ball, some PJs, and several books.  He spent a good portion of the morning playing with his presents in the living room floor.  He was quite content with his new toys!

Although Luke is too young to understand why we were celebrating, it did not prevent us from talking to him about the birth of Christ.  We started several family traditions this year and we look forward to many more Christmases to come.

John Deer Tractor

Aunt Sarah and Uncle Josh got Luke a John Deer tractor for Christmas.  It is so cute.  The farmer pulls the animals behind him while it sings "Old McDonald had a farm..."  The animals also make their sound when they are put into the tractor trailor.  What a great gift -- Luke loves it!  I love this first picture - he already knows to smile when he sees the camera!

Cloud, Johansen & Ussery Christmas

The weekend before Christmas we had our annual Cloud, Johansen & Ussery Christmas.  We all met at a restaurant in Mansfield for dinner, good company, and a gift exchange.  With the addition of the boys this year our group (and presents) has grown!  Next year we may need to consider exchanging gifts at someone's house because our packages almost took the place over!!  We are so thankful to have such great friends.   

Crazy Hat

We inherited this crazy hat from the Van Duzee boys and I can safely say that Luke has embraced it's character......

From Baylee & Rylee

Baylee and Rylee sent Luke a Little People Nativity set for Christmas.  We look forward to many years of pulling out this special toy and playing with it during the weeks before Christmas.  Thank you to Baylee and Rylee for thinking of Luke and sending him his first Christmas present all the way from Oklahoma!!

Makayla's Visit

Last week Makayla came over for the evening so that Christina could finish up her Christmas shopping.  I learned something really fast.....I am NOT ready to have 2 kids!!  I  was exhausted (did I mention that Andy was out of town hunting with my brother?)  Luke and Makayla played together really well and I enjoyed having her around.  She is getting so big and was a big help with Luke.  While she was here we ate McDonalds, went to the movie store and rented Wow, Wow Wubbzy, and played in the bathtub.  All in all, it was a fun evening.  I love my niece!

From Ryder

We came home one day last week to a gift from Ryder in our mail box.  The cookies tasted delicious.  Thank you Ryder!

9 Months!

 Ok, its really like 9 & 1/2 months as of today, but you get the point........

It is amazing how much Luke has changed over the last 6 weeks!!  For starters he has 6 teeth!  He cut his 2 front teeth over the past week and a half or so.  It is crazy to think that he is going to have a mouth full of SHARP little chompers in the next couple of months!  My baby has turned into a little boy :(

Luke is still growing like a weed.  He weighs 23 lbs, which puts him a little less than 90th percentile.  He has his 9 month check up on the 27th and we will get his official height and weight then.  He is mostly wearing 12-18 month clothes and we FINALLY found a pair of shoes to fit his foot (size 4 - the widest you can find)! 

Luke still is not crawling or really showing an iterest in doing so.  We showed him how to get up on all fours, but most of the time he cries while doing it.  On the other hand, Luke loves to stand up!  He can actually stand up all by himselft for several seconds before he falls!!  I have a feeling that we may just bypass the whole crawling thing......it really is overrated these days :) 

Over the past couple of weeks we have been introducing table food to his diet.  He still primarily eats baby food and formula, but he sure is enjoying tasting new things.  His favorite thing still has to be bananas, but now he can share with me!

Luke is such a loving little boy and we are so proud to be his parents!!