Tabletop

After Ethan's party we went to Angela's new house to help her set up her new bed. When we left there we stopped at Wendy's for a quick dinner. Lucas climbed out of his high chair and onto the table, then grabbed our drink and stood up. If he was trying to make a statement, it worked. Jeremy and I were both laughing hysterically because he was making all sorts of weird noises. That and it's just funny to see a miniature person standing on a table drinking out of a straw.

Ethan is One

On Saturday March 29th we went to Brian and Amy's for Ethan's birthday party. Amy did a great job decorating, it was so special for Ethan. I was finally able to meet Brian's sister Jennifer. Jeremy grew up with the Richey kids from the time they were all toddlers, so it was nice to finally meet another one of the kids. Jennifer had a baby boy about 5 weeks after I had Lucas, so Jennifer Amy and I all have babies pretty close in age. We've been talking for a while about getting the three boys together to play and it finally happened. They had fun, but we had more fun :) This first picture is of the girls, what was the trio has now become the four. Angela, Jennifer, Amy and myself.

This is the three boys playing with one of Ethan's new toys. It was some sort of gears or something, when you push the button they spin. Very cool!

And last, this is the birthday boy enjoying some birthday cake.

Mean Girls

These pictures were actually taken the day of the SuperBowl. But Angela was a little late getting the pictures to us. Actually Amy had to transfer them off her camera during Ethan's birthday party. (We still love you Angela!)

These are my two favorites. The first is our 'mean girls' faces. The second one is us being serious. Haha...you can see how serious I was!!

HELLO! My Name is Suzy

First, I have to thank my friend Natalie for finding these adorable backgrounds, I totally copied her!

So I'm not exactly sure what kind of bug I caught today, but I got soooo much accomplished. Thankfully Lucas was in a go with the flow kind of mood all day, and didn't mind just being my sidekick and hanging out. It started out with breakfast. While Lucas was eating his grapes I started cleaning the kitchen, I'm talking scrubing down appliances and cleaning the floor on my hands and knees. When he was finished we went downstairs where I proceeded to clean out and reorganize the deep freezer. Everything was just sorta thrown in there, and now I can actually find stuff and know what I have again. It inspired me to thaw some chicken for dinner. When we were done with that, I put away a pile of things that I had taken down to the basement to store (baby toys, pack n' play etc). Amazing what a little TLC to the basement will do!

Then it was naptime. After I laid Lucas down I plopped myself down in the chair and caught up on some of my junky reality TV. After nap it was lunch time. While Lucas ate, I cut out cute little figures out of cheese. Ducks, bunnies and tulips. Then finished cleaning the kitchen. Lucas and I played for a bit and then he was ready for another nap. During which I watched a movie. Right as the movie was ending Jeremy came home from school and then Lucas woke up. Once he was awake that was my cue to do the vacuuming.

Normally I just vacuum our room, Lucas' room, the hall and the living area. But for whatever reason I decided to pull the couch out from the wall, move all the other furniture and do a complete vacuuming. I had already done all the dusting and cleaned all the glass in the house.

Then I fed Lucas his inbetween meal, gave him a bath, taught him how to say two and quack quack, took a bath myself, started a load of laundry and put Lucas back down for another nap and it's only 5:00.

Soon I'll start dinner and relax with my family. Tomorrow is going to be another busy day.

Funny Mommy

Today Amy and Ethan came to hang out for a few hours. As usually we were trying to get a decent picture of them playing together, but with no success. Lucas did however start cracking up for no reason and came toward me. This is what happened.

Just My Size

Ben & Jerry's makes these adorable 1 serving cups of ice cream. Just the right size for a little guy. Naturally I ate about 99% of it, but Lucas enjoyed making a mess of it.

Looks can be Deceiving

I think this is one of my new favorite pictures. My little baby looks like such a big boy. It's kind of sad. Also he looks so innocent, as if he was being good just sitting there eating when in reality he was throwing food on the floor and at me, and just being a messy boy in general.

Weasel

To top off the night...Lucas decided to go play with the outlets under the Armoire. How he managed to get himself under there I'll never know. We all just sat back in shock and he weaseled himself under...laughing all the way. When he was done he tried to get out but that required a little assistance from daddy, mommy was too busy taking a million pictures.

Dinner, Indian Style

Dinner was served on the kitchen counter last night, and Lucas sat Indian style the entire time. I put him there to get something out of the mircrowave and then when I went to put him in his chair he pitched a fit. It was late and he had hardly slept all day because of my weird schedule, and so since I felt bad I gave in and just let him eat on the counter. I figured it doesn't really matter where he eats as long as he eats. And in all honesty... I've NEVER seen the boy eat so much before. He ate my entire plate of food. I ate his.

Peeps

If this isn't a guilty face I don't know what is. I suppose it's my fault for not putting the candy up higher out of reach, but honestly I didn't think he could reach them where they were. He must have caught a glimpse while I was holding them because I set him down and he zoomed right for them, stood up, reached up, and the next thing I know they were out of the wrapper and in his mouth.

It took about 30 seconds for his clothes to be covered in pink. What a mess! Here are a few more pictures of his few minutes of fun.

Deer

This afternoon I went into the living room to get something and noticed all three cats staring very intently out the front door (well, out the storm door). As I approached the door to see what the matter was, I notice a deer right in our front yard. Then I saw another, and another and then several more. A total of seven deer were grazing on our lawn, at least what little there is at this time. As soon as I started taking pictures they got the "deer in the headlights" expression on their faces. But for several moments they all just stood around staring back at me, then casually turned around and walked away.

Busted

As I was cleaning up for the night in preparation for bedtime, I couldn't find the yellow ring for the ring stacker. I casually mentioned it to Jeremy incase he might know where it was, because it drives me crazy to have parts to things missing. I came in here to upload a few videos and a few minutes later Jeremy came in with Lucas and the missing yellow ring. It was at the bottom of the basements stairs. Lucas had thrown it through that cat door. Nice.

Just then we heard Lucas scooting across the kitchen floor, ring clanking, the cat door open, and the ring bouncing down the stairs. I'll get the camera! No explanation is really needed for this next video. But I will say that it is exactly 3 minutes long. And there is very little talking. But for my family who hasn't seen Lucas yet, THIS video captures all his new little faces perfectly. I was so exicited to get most of them on film all in the same segment.

Fearless

I'm not sure if it's good or bad. I'm trying to think positively though that his fearlessness is good. Hopefully we won't end up with too many broken bones or ER visits. His latest adventures have included stunts such as jumping from the arm of the recliner over to the couch, climbing up on top of the coffee table, attempting to climb out of his crib, climbing out of the bathtub (while wet and soapy) and his newest thing is riding on the 4 wheeler while standing on the seat.

Sunglasses

While shopping at Walmart I came across these new Fisher Price sunglasses for babies. They're supposed to be "baby proof" meaning scratch resistant. I'll let you know if a few weeks after they've been thrown on the ground a few hundred times. Lucas thinks he's pretty snazzy in them though. Although I'm pretty sure he's just excited to have 'eyes' like mommy. This is the first chance I've had to capture his excitement wearing them.

Happy Easter

Pony

Jeremy and I gave Lucas a pony for Easter. Obviously not a real one, but a kind friendly one instead. It's just a little too big for him to climb on and off himself, but when he is on it he absolutly adores it. He lays his head on his mane and hugs him, it's so sweet. Once Lucas is in a big boy bed his room is going to be redone into a camping/outdoorsy/cowboyish room. So we figured that in the long run this horse will be part of our family for a while. It was so funny to see all three of the cats terrified of it. They were are puffing up and hissing.

4 Wheeler

Grandma bought Lucas a 4 wheeler for Easter. It was supposed to be his birthday present, but she couldn't wait that long to see him on it. The pictures don't do it justice, so I'll also be posting a few videos.

Down the Driveway

Here is Lucas driving down the driveway all by himself. (well sorta... he wasn't pushing the button)

Up & Running

Here is the first video of him actually riding the 4 wheeler.

Dead Battery

Here is the first video of Lucas checking out his new toy. Unfortunetly the battery wasn't connected and it didn't work. Opps. Luckily it was a quick fix.

Eggstravaganza

Today we took Lucas to the Nashville Zoo's Eggstravaganza. It was SO packed, but we had a lot of fun. First we hunted down the free Easter Bunny, because to have them down 'professionally' was $19 for a 5x7. That's more than the mall!!! Then we went to see the Lorakeets, but they were all hiding we assume from being over fed. By that time I was hungry so we parked ourselves down on a big rock and had a picnic. It seemed so bad from animal poopies, but we couldn't figure out why because we thought that we were pretty far from an exibits.



After we finished eating we started heading towards the tigers only to discover that we were dining right next to a petting zoo. We stopped off there to see the camels and goats that were out for petting. Lucas LOVED pettying both of them. One of the camels was tied up while the trainer walked the other one, and she spent about 10 minutes trying to free herself. Lucas thought it was hysterical.



After we left the petting zoo, we walked by most of the other exibits but because it was so crowed we didn't stay to look at anything for more than a few seconds. Then we headed over to where the egg hunts took place earlier to get Lucas a goodybag. Then we headed home. He fell asleep in Jeremy's arms on the way to the car.

On our way home from there we stopped off to look at the Belmont campus. It's soooo pretty, we're both really excited about reapplying next year!

When we got home Lucas got early Easter gifts. I'll write about them in separate posts.

Spoon...what for?

Who needs a spoon when you have fingers, they work just fine!

"Hi"

After our shopping trip, which Lucas spent standing in the basket part of the cart waving to everybody, we headed to the car. Once in the parking lot I didn't feel so weird about pulling out the camera to try to catch a quick clip. If you listen carefully you can hear him saying "hi"

New Dishes

Today Lucas also got some new dishes. He got new bowls that suction to his seat, because mommy is tired of cleaning up huge messes off the floor, and since Lucas just started feeding himself about a week ago, he's been having his own bowl too. He also got two new sippy cups. Big Boy ones! We're done with handles, and soon we'll be moving on to a real cup full time (well accept for the car of course). Here he is "discovering" or in other words, making a mess.

A Day at the Park

Today after I took Lucas to get his Easter pictures made to go into his birthday invitations, I called Laura because I needed to drop something off at her house. She was at the park with her kids and invited us to come out and play. The weather was absolutly perfect for the park so off we went. I wasn't sure how Lucas would do because he was extremly tired, but once there he warmed up rather quickly. First I took him on the swing, he held on for dear life. Then Laura offered us a sandwhich so we went over the the picnic table to eat and he climbed up on top and helped himself to everyone's food, and drinks.


After lunch we all made our way to the Merry-go-Round where Lucas had the most fun. That kid is fearless. He was crawling all over that thing, while it was spinning, laughing the whole time. It was so much fun watching him enjoying himself and enjoying being around his friends. I'm so thankful that it's finally warming up so that we'll be able to spend more time outside playing.

Chuck E. Cheese

Today we took Lucas to Chuck E. Cheese. Jeremy thought that he would enjoy the rides there. This isn't the first time he's been, when he was only a few months old I took him to Levi and Landon and Leila's birthday party. Although he couldn't enjoy it then, I didn't get a picture of him riding in the car with Chuck E. This time however he was able to enjoy himself. It took him a while to warm up, but once he did he was all about climbing up the stairs to the toddler slide. Sorry about the video being so loud, it was noisy in there.



The picture is of him riding on the Bob the Builder ride.

First Fort

Also Known as..an empty box. But what's the difference when you're only 10 months old. Heck, what's the difference when you 3 or 4? A box is just as good a toy as any with the right imagination.

Updating the Update

Lucas is STILL sick, how is this possible? I got a few good nights of sleep and now for the past few nights have not slept again. Soon he'll be well and I'll be rested. Until then, I'll probably be late with my postings. However, I finally got some majoring catching up done, and because this is his journal, I edit the dates on them, so you'll have to go backwards a bit to see all the new postings. I think they go back to March 2nd. Enjoy!

Glimps

Dear Lucas,

Last night as I slept with you on the couch yet again because you are sick, I started thinking...

I've learned that the most difficult part of being a mother, so far, is that when you are sick I feel so helpless. Because you cannot yet talk, our communication is lacking. You cry out to me in pain and you toss and turn to make yourself comfortable and all I can do is watch trying my best to ease your discomforts. Last night you finally got comfortable at about 6:30am. I was so exhausted that I had a hard time falling asleep. That is when my thoughts turned into prayer. As I asked my Father in Heaven to give you peace and comfort and to help me get some rest, I began to realize that the agony I was feeling over not being able to help you was just a glimpse of the agony that He must feel when He has to watch His children suffer. He has to stand by and watch our hearts break, or bodies hurt, and other awful miseries that are sometimes self inflicted, and He can't do anything about it unless we turn to him in prayer. The lines of communication aren't open unless we open them. Just like when you wake up in the middle of the night crying in pain for your mommy, I also have "woken up" and cried out in pain to Him, and he has provided me with comfort and peace.

Lucas, I want you to know that I'm grateful for all the experiences that you have brought to my life. There is nothing that could have brought me closer to my Father in Heaven than to be your mother. You have helped me to see things in a new perspective. I love you.

Love,
Mama

Tagged...Again

I knew the second I saw "Tagged" on Jocelyns blog that I'd be up later than planned. I should have just gone to bed without checking for updates. Oh well. Here goes.

What are 5 things I have to do today? (Since it's midnight I'll go with 5 things I DID instead)
1. Cleaned the house
2. Went grocery shopping
3. Finally uploaded almost 200 pictures from my camera to the computer
4. Made dinner for hubby
5. Updated my blog

Where was I 10 years ago? This makes me feel like a youngin' I was only 13 ten years ago..ha. I was probably in jr. high? Who knows, I can't remember that far back.

What are 5 snacks I like?
1. Chocolate
2. Goldfish
3. yogurt
4. Ben & Jerry's
5. String Cheese

What would I do if I was suddenly a billionaire? Pay off my car and buy a beautiful home, maybe I'd treat myself to a Range Rover too!!

What are 4 bad habits I have?
1. Time management
2. OCD...(with everything...especially the closets)
3. Speeding
4. Not getting enough exercise

What are 5 jobs that I've had?
1. Babysitting
2. Sunflour Bakery
3. ChoicePoint
4. Nanny
5. Mommy!

DO I know anyone famous? Yes, it's hard to think off the top of my head. I'll just steal Jocelyns. I used to be neighbors with Riley Giles. (he dated Lindsay Lohen)

Have you started any trends in that last year? No, back in high school I was made fun of a lot of wearing off the wall items that were suddenly trendy a few months later. That was pretty annoying.

If I were a pizza topping what would and be and why? Pineapple

What is your favorite clothing trend? Jeans, although are they really considered a trend?

What is your favorite commercial? I dunno, I'm not really a fan of commericals

Which Seasame Street character is your favorite? Elmo of course, he makes my son happy... I'll get back to you in a few years when I'm ready to throw away anything Elmo related.

Which Christmas Vacation character do you see yourself as? I don't recall this movie

I tag: Amy and Lacey

CiCi's Pizza

Here we are at CiCi's having lunch, and Lucas is dancing and having a great time with his Uncles.

Quick Update

We're still alive. Lucas ruined the usb cable so I'm not able to upload photos right now, I'll have to find somewhere that sells the right one for our camera. Also, Lucas is just getting over being sick with some awful virus, which means that for three nights I didn't get ANY sleep partly because he couldn't breath and partly because his diet consisted of ice cream for breakfast lunch and dinner, thus making him hyper. When I finally get the pictures onto the computer I promise some real updates.

I've Learned...

That you should never leave food in arms reach when you have a growing little boy in the house. The end.

I was eating a sandwich and set it down for a minute to do something in the other room, when I returned Lucas was helping himself. To top it off, he was completely naked. It's his new thing, refusing to sit still for a diaper.

Chips

Mmmmm...Salt & Vinegar chips.

This used to be my guilty pleasure that I would partake in all alone. Then one night I woke up about midnight and I found Jeremy on the couch watching TV and eating MY chips. Then last night when Lucas woke up in the middle of the night and we were still awake eating them together, Lucas joined us. We both thought that forsure he would puker up and make sour faces but he didn't. He loves them just as much as we do. This picture captures almost perfectly his new excited face. It's so hilarious that I'm devoting all my free time to trying to capture it on film so that you too may enjoy in the laughter it will provide.

Just Like Uncle Billy

This picture is for my brother Billy. He had a rocking horse just like this one when he was little. It's a blast to listen to the stories my parents will tell about how out of control he was on it. For instance, once he was rocking on it so hard that he lost grip and flip off of it backwards, landed on his bum, started cracking up, got up and got back on for more. You would never in a million years believe that the mellow Billy of today could have been that hyper.

I wish Lucas was smiling or something, but he was running a fever and it was a few hours past bedtime when this picture was taken.

Credit to the Richey's. It's their horse. Next time we're there, we'll try to get a better picture.

Ooooooooooh

This is one of the newest faces of Lucas. It's so cute and I love it. He says "ooooooooo" which sounds more like eeeeeeeeeeeew. I want to pinch his cheeks and give him a thousand kisses. So I do, and he starts to crack up.

Moments before this picture was taken, he put that key in his mouth and set off my car alarm. That is was prompted the face.

Snow. Real. Snow

On our way home from Chattanooga last night we drove right into the snow storm. Clarksville was estimated at getting 6-12 inches. As we exited the interstate there was already a few inches stuck to the roads, which made getting that last 10 miles very slow. We felt sorry for all the vehicles that we saw wrecked on the side of the road, several that were so close to going into ditches that it made our hearts hurt. But mostly we were excited to see what the morning would bring...lots of fun! Jeremy tried to wake me up to see the snow coming down at it's heaviest, but I was too exhausted to care. And anyway, that's like ruining a surprise. I woke up to 6 inches!!!! Our street looked like a winter wonderland. We took Lucas to the driveway to play, because we didn't want to wreck the beauty of the untouched snow in the front yard or the deck. Later once our neighbors dogs took care of that, we went out for a drive and then later went to Hendersonville to have our taxes done and met up with Amy and Ethan there.

Pine Cones

Here are some pictures of Lucas' FIRST Pine Cone. Since I wasn't able to save it, at least I have a ton of pictures. I know, I know...Typical first time mom. Oh well, I'll only have this excuse once. I'll have to come up with a new one for the next baby.

Chattanooga

Yesterday when I got home from work we loaded up the car and headed to Chattanooga for an over-night visit with my mom and two youngest brothers. They currently live in Georgia, but are getting ready to move home to California. This was our last opportunity for some good quality time for who knows how long. Hopefully not years, that would be sad. Lucas did well, he actually was asleep in the car for an hour before we even left, and then slept for two of the three hours that it takes to get there. When he woke up we pulled over so that I could feed him, then made our way to the beautiful rest stop where we got out to stretch our legs. Lucas enjoyed pointing out the boats and finding pinecones. He had one that he was trying to eat, and Jeremy threw it back into the woods... I of course was upset because I wanted to save it in his keepsake box. Jeremy thought I was being a little ridiculous, but I'm still a little sad about it. I mean, it was his first pinecone! Oh well too late now. Chattanooga was only about 30 or 40 minutes from the resting area, I drove the rest of the way because I had become car sick.


When we got there we checked into our hotel and relaxed while waiting for my family to arrive. Once everyone was settled we decided to meet downtown at the pedestrian bridge. We went out to dinner at Chili's. I'm part of a word of mouth research group online, and one of the campaigns I joined was for the new Chili's burgers, so all four adults were able to eat free. Lucas spilled my mom's Dr. Pepper ALL over himself and the floor. Ick..I hate sticky messes. Dinner was delicious and I ate every last bit of my meal and then had some of Colin's delicious chocolate lave cake. We all ended up back at our hotel to go for a swim. The boys went first and I was about to go change into my swim suit when they all came barralling back into the room. Apparently the pool isn't heated at night and was ICE COLD. One by one they all took long hot showers and when everyone was done, my family headed off to their hotel for the night.





In the morning after breakfast we met back up and walked around Target for a while. It was pouring rain and so our plans to walk around downtown Chattanooga where kind of thrown out the window. After Target we went to CiCi's Pizza and spent several hours there. It was nice to just sit and visit and eat tons and tons of pizza. I ate so much I made myself sick. We went back to Target to use the restrooms, because the ones at CiCi's were nasty. We then parted ways in the parking lot. We'll meet back up with my mom in Nashville when they drive through here on their way back to California.