Christmas 2011

We had a wonderful Christmas! The boys helped a bunch on baking day and then also helped with the preparations for Christmas Eve dinner. Lucas helped me set the table and was very excited for "his guests to arrive." We enjoyed spending time with our families to celebrate the holiday. The boys thoroughly enjoyed giving and receiving their gifts! On Saturday morning, we exchanged gifts just the 4 of us. On Saturday evening, we hosted Christmas Eve with the Rudolph Family. On Christmas morning, we awoke to find our cookies, milk, and carrot all gone and our stockings were filled and presents were left under the tree by Santa. On Sunday evening, we had Christmas dinner with the Embrey Family. We enjoyed our first Christmas with Abigail and were extra thankful for Granny's presence this year as well.

I posted a slide show with more pictures, enjoy and Merry Christmas one and all!

First Trip to Disney

The first thing we did was meet Mickey and Minnie!Family Photo at Christmas party with Santa

Family Photo with Handy Manny

Boys passed out after a day in Magic Kingdom. We actually loaded them up after this and took them to Epcot for dinner and they did great!

Last week we spent 7 days in Walt Disney World Resort on the boys first trip to the magical place. The trip was filled with firsts for the boys. It was their first flight, first limo ride, first visit to a theme park, first parade, Lucas's first real roller coaster ride, Adam's first live performance, both boys first 3D experience, first boat ride, first train ride, and first bus ride. It was also our first vacation without Paps and Grandma Kay, but we cheated and went with our friends Shawn and Krissy Byrley. We had a fantastic time! The boys loved it all and we wore them out each day.

Lucas was just all enough to ride some big boy rides with Mom and Dad and we confirmed that he enjoys thrill rides. He rode Splash Mountain, Big Thunder Mountain, Soarin, Star Tours, and Dinosaur. His favorites were Big Thunder Mountain and Star Tours. He also loved the live performances and anything 3D. He didn't like being told he had to go do something and to go now, which caused him some frustration, but such is life. Lucas was lucky enough to get to be apart of the Monsters, Inc. comedy show. He clearly stated his name and age in the microphone and told the monster he was from Indiana.

Adam enjoyed the slower paced rides including Astro Orbiter, Dumbo, Alladin's Magic Carpet Ride, and Buzz Lightyear. He also really enjoyed Disney Jr. Live on Stage in which he got to see his favorite characters on stage. Adam liked seeing the characters and got lots of autographs. He was a little afraid of a few of them but for the most part he gave them all hugs and kisses. Adam also enjoyed seeing the animals outside our room and in the Animal Kingdom. He felt that every species should have a Mommy, Daddy, and baby all together for him to see.

We had the special privilege of being able to attend Mickey's Very Merry Christmas Party one evening and it was a near perfect evening. We let the boys take it easy during the day so that they would be ready to party. We kept them in the park until midnight and we all had a blast together. We watched the parade, fireworks, and shows. We ate cookies and drank hot cocoa. We rode lots of rides and talked with Santa.

We are very thankful that the Byrley's were so generous in inviting us to join them in Disney World. They were wonderful hosts and their experience and advice was very helpful. Thank you, Shawn and Krissy!!!!

Our first trip to Disney was a huge success and lots of memories were made. The boys are already asking when they can go again and our bags are not even unpacked. I didn't post many pictures with this posting because I uploaded almost all of them to the slide show in the upper left hand corner. Enjoy!!

Abi's Baptism

We celebrated a very special occasion today, Abigail Darlene's baptism. Andy and I have the honor of being her godparents. Abi looked beautiful in her gown, although I think she was a little bothered by the bonnet. The gown and bonnet have special significance, because they are trimmed in the lace from Grandma Patty's wedding dress which is embellished with pearls, hand sewn on by Great Grandma Carolyn Will. This gown had the loving touch of several strong, faithful woman who were looking down from heaven with love and pride today. Abi did great and didn't even make a peep when they poured the water over her head. She also enjoyed a little party in her honor afterwards. What a blessing this little girl is to our lives!

Happy Thanksgiving!

I have so much to be thankful for! I have two wonderful, happy, healthy little boys who bring joy to my life. I have a great husband who I love very much. We as a family are blessed to have such wonderful family and friends to share our lives with.

I thought in the spirit of being thankful for my family I would update you all on what we are all doing these days.

Andy is loving the holiday season because that means it's time for cooking, hunting, butchering, and making a list of all the new cooking gadgets and cookbooks he would like to add to his collection this year. He has been planning the Thanksgiving menu for at least 2 weeks now and he loves cooking and even lets the boys help out where they can. Lucas is now getting to cut the ravoli, which is an upgrade from pasta catcher :)

I am loving being a new aunt and just can't get enough of little baby Abi. It's hard to remember when my boys were oh so little and so sweet. The boys have been getting along really well the last few weeks, so I'm just soaking it in. I've also been sewing and doing some crafts inspired by my new favorite website, Pinterst. There will definitely be some handmade gifts under our tree this year.



Lucas is growing. He has just about outgrown all of the pants I bought him to start the fall. He now weighs 30 pounds, which he is so proud of. Lucas is enjoying school and has a few special friends which we hear a lot about. Right now Lucas's favorite thing to do is play computer games or iPad. He is addicted and could do this for hours if we let him. He is starting to be a really good helper on special projects. He recently helped Andy put up Christmas lights outside and helped me do some decorating inside. Lucas is very inquisitive and continues to want to always learn more about how things work and why we do things. He gets very excited about special days, so I know the holidays will be a great time for him.


Adam is talking!! He went from 20 words that we could easily understand to a full blown vocabulary with complete sentences. Now that his language skills have caught up with his brain it is fantastic to final see how much he understands. He has a great sense of humor and an amazing imagination. He is constantly pretending to be a pirate, animal, fireman, prince, dragon, dinosaur, wizard, robot, etc. He changes his voice and involves everyone in his pretend. Lucas sometimes doesn't get what Adam is doing because he is such a factual, little realist, but Adam is an imaginative dreamer.

Lucas has a new fondness for Adam now that he is able to communicate with him so much more. It's almost as if Lucas no longer sees Adam as a baby but now as a peer and friend. They are playing great together and our family play time lately has also been very enjoyable. We play castles and dragon, board games, Wii, Xbox 360 and of course cooking. Lucas refuses to tell us about his day at school unless we are in the hot tub, so every Tuesday and Thursday we have some family hot tub time to talk about our days. We each get a turn and everyone sits and listens. It's one of my favorite things.

I'm just so thankful to have Andy by my side for the adventure of raising these two wonderful boys. There is never a dull moment in our house and these boys keep us laughing and smiling everyday.

Happy Halloween!!

We had a great Halloween weekend! On Sunday, we visited Great Granny, Aunt Carrie, Papaw, Grammy, Aunt Dena, Aunt Amber, Uncle Nathan and Baby Abi. Then on Monday we did our traditional Trick or Treating with friends in Oakfield subdivision. At last count there were 13 kids age 5 and under. We had a great time and the boys loved it! Just makes me feel so very blessed to be raising my boys with our life long friends right beside us for these fun moments!

The boys were both firemen this year. Adam had his choice of 3 different costumes and of course wanted to be just like big brother Lucas. Adam wore his costume and loved every minute of the festivities. He even made a siren sound and pretended he was driving a fire truck and saving kittens from tall trees. It made it perfect that Abi was a kitty this year :)

Lucas took a little warming up and was shy at first, but he enjoyed being with his friends and getting the candy. All in all we had a great Halloween! I will post a slide show of all my pictures of the weekend. Enjoy!

Fall Camping

We had a wonderful time this weekend camping with Zach, Sarah, Landon, and Chase Will at Harmonie State Park. The weather was beautiful, the leaves were colorful and falling, and the boys were great! We visited the playgrounds, nature center, and trails. We carved pumpkins, roasted marshmallows and read books by the fire. We even had a scavenger hunt for "unusual things" on our hike on one of the trails. It was probably our best family camping trip ever, even in spite of the fact that we had some trouble sleeping and had to go home early because Lucas had a fever. We enjoyed the crisp mornings and evenings, great food, and wonderful company. I love the fall and can't wait for camping time next year!! There is a slide show on the right of more camping pictures.

Adam playing in the leaves

Lucas hiding under the tire swing

Lucas with the fall decor

Lucas and Landon on our hike

The boys enjoying their prize after the scavenger hunt

Adam with his walking stick on the hike

Fireman Adam getting ready to slide down the fire pole

Pumpkin Patch

We headed to the pumpkin patch with our friends today and had a great time!

Birthday Dinner at Niche!

For my birthday, Andy and I headed to St. Louis to have a special dinner at Niche. This is our favorite restaurant and we go for our birthday's and anniversaries. Chef Gerard Craft is incredible talented and humble. We just love everything he makes. To make it extra special, Andy contacted the general manager and arranged for us to have special tasting menu. A tasting menu is where you don't order each course, you agree to the entire menu. We had a great table next to a couple that we have spoken to the last 2 times we have been there. They are delightful and love the Chef Craft's food as much as we do. After dinner, we headed to Craft's bar, Taste for some great creative cocktails by mixologist Ted Kilgore. They were yummy.

In 34 years, who would have guessed that the girl who hated all vegetables and was the pickiest person most of you knew, would be going to a fancy restaurant for a custom tasting menu, where I don't even get to pick what I eat and loving it. The menu had several of my favorite dishes from as well as some new ones that I loved. Here's a picture and short description of each course. It was all delicious. Thank you very much to some great friends and clients who gave the gift card that allowed us to splurge on the custom tasting menu and to the Lehmen's for the delightful beverages. It was a very special and memorable birthday dinner!

Our Menu was all typed up for us.

This was my favorite course of the evening and it's the second time I have had this particular dish. It's cooked in the eggshell. There is a warm maple, lemon custard in the bottom, then a layer of mushrooms, and it's topped with caviar.


This was our fall vegetable salad. This was my least favorite dish, because, I'm not a fan of raw vegetables, however there was a cucumber paste under it all that was delicious.


This is one of my favorite dishes from the restaurant. Although the menu always changes, I get the current variation of this every time. It's pasta dressed with something similar to BBQ pulled pork, cream cheese, and granny smith apples. It's the perfect combination of richness, tartness, and tangy!


This was the green apple and rosemary sorbet for cleansing our palates.


This fillet was excellent. It's served with caramelized onions, potato and leek puree (green mash potatoes), and a grape puree that was very sour. I loved the presentation of this course the best.

Dessert was squash bread pudding topped with maple ice cream and homemade marshmallows.

My cocktail was a milk and rum punch with cinnamon bitters on top.
Andy's cocktail was a version of a Manhattan.

Adam

I realized that I haven't posted lately about Adam's comings and goings so this post is all about him. Adam has a vivid imagination. He loves to put on different hats or make different sounds and pretend to be someone or something. His favorites right now are firefighter "Save the day", fire truck "Woo Woo", bird "tweet, tweet", dinosaur "roar while stomping", chicken "balk, balk", and airplane. He has also started "cooking", setting the table, and then comes and gets us for food time. His favorite dish to make for us is pancakes with ketchup.

Adam is all boy his favorite toys right now are anything that has to do with firefighters, airplanes, or helicopters. He does well playing alone, but loves it when someone will play with him. He has recently found new appreciation for books. It's taken him a while, but he finally loves to read.


Adam is consistently counting to 5 and sometimes 10. He knows his basic shapes and about half his colors regularly. He enjoys playing iPad, computer games. or anything Lucas is doing :) Adam is definitely talking more and we are understanding more of what he is saying.

Adam is a flirt and will seek out any girl of any age and try to make her smile. I have witnessed this with waitresses, cashiers, and nurses, etc. He says "Hi!" to everyone we pass in the grocery and he doesn't know a stranger. He is also a big fan of babies. He loves babies and wants to hold them and love them. So we can't wait for him to meet his cousin, Baby Abigail.

Adam is still napping once a day and is sleeping great in his big boy bed. He continues to be a picky eater and stubbornly won't try much of anything new. His favorites are yogurt, bananas, cheese balls, or anything sweet. He is getting taller, slimming down, and starting to look more like a big boy.


Adam likes to tease by wiping off kisses, waking you up when you are pretend sleeping, and hiding and yelling surprise!! He is a really sweet boy and he loves to cuddle. He will ask me to sit down and hold him so that we get cuddle time a couple of times a day. He has a big smile with an adorable dimple that will just melt your heart. He keeps us laughing a smiling every day.

Here's a video of Adam playing fireman and shouting "Save the Day"

Little Bruisers

One of my best friends, Jamie, has 2 beautiful little girls and her blog post this week was titled Lovely Ladies. It consisted of pictures of her girls in yellow dresses wearing hats and bows and looking adorable. (there was one where the older was strangling the younger, but let's ignore that one :))

I read it a loved the irony, so I have posted the pictures I took this week of the boys. We had a rough evening last Sunday, when both boys fell while running full speed down hill on asphalt. Lucas's forehead is bruised with the impression of the rocks in the asphalt and Adam had a bloody elbow. My post of the boys is nearly the exact opposite of Jamie's, but boys will be boys and oh how I love mine. On the bright side, I don't have to fix the boys' hair every morning and to be fair I've seen a few bruises on those little girls' legs a time or two as well :)

Sugar and Spice and Everything Nice

I helped host a baby shower for Nathan and Amber this weekend. Our theme was Sugar and Spice to celebrate little baby Abigail. We used marshmallow lollipops in mason jars of brown sugar, toys, and candies as our center pieces. We served sweets centered around sugar and spice, with chocolate (brown), strawberry(pink), and white milk. Everything was decorated in shades of pink and brown. It all looked just the way we wanted and Amber liked it too!






Amber is a beautiful soon-to-be Mom and was blessed with lots of generous gifts and wonderful inscribed books. It was a great time spent with family and friends celebrating a little girl we just all can't wait to meet.



The boys did not attend the shower, but they really enjoyed the leftover lollipops!!