First Hair Cute.... er, I mean CUT!

And remember in my earlier post when I was talking about her being full of emotion. Check out this photo. Perfect example of why she needed a hair cut and how crazy she can be. Love it!

So full of emotion

WILD

Our child has no shortage of emotions. This photo shoot was taken over the course of an hour. Her face is so expressive.

HAPPY

CONCENTRATION

ANNOYED

CONTEMPLATIVE

She's really blossoming into a little girl, I am feeling like the baby in her is less and less with every new word she utters and every milestone that we pass.

Friends & blogging

Luka has a ton of friends. This last week we had so much fun with a lot of our friends. We hosted Wes & Jenny on Tuesday for coffee and Scones. It was great to catch up and to help encourage Wes in walking. He was on the very verge of walking and looks like he's done it! Good luck Jenny & Jeff. Walking is fun! Jenny's blog is pretty inspiring and when we talked about how jealous I was of her smart, sassy, informative, and well done blog she told me her secrets. She said that while she is crafty she's not a scrapbooker. She found a website where she could download her blog posts and turn them into a printed book! She's done one a year since she discovered it. So she makes her posts of good quality, well written, and edits her photos so they looks awesome. Plus she's a great photographer so that helps. I am totally going to do this! Her trick for editing is a quick and easy online photo editing call picnik.com. I've tested it out with several... ok ok so more like a ton, of photos. I love the 1969 tool. It rounds the corners like I love and the colors are too cool.

So back to our friends. Wednesday we watched Joey. It was a blast! I've been taking Lu to the play gym at the Community Centers on Tuesdays with Leah and Silas. We missed out because of our play date with Wes, but Wednesday came and Lu was BEGGING to go. She was so insistent. GYM! GYM, mama! We found another community center that was open and the kids had a blast. It was so hard to get the out of the gym to go home for naps.

Friday night we hosted Gracie for an overnight, so her Mom and Dad could move into a new house. The girls have a very strong love-hate passionate relationship. Mostly dictated by Lu's attitude, which is pretty sassy. We DO NOT watch wrestling, and Dan and I really only have tickle wars (which are not violent), so I am not sure where she learned how to do a suplex. But she loves to come behind Gracie, wrap her arms around her chest, lift her off her feet and then slam her into the ground. Gracie is a though girl, and getting tougher by the day. I have no doubt that she'll turn the tables on Lu one day. The girls had a very fun bath which left my bathroom a soaked mess. It was fun none the less.

Lu's word flow is utterly incredible. We had her 18 month well check up and the Dr could not stop talking about how smart she is. Said, "Her vocabulary is well beyond that of a 2 year old. Be prepared for her to be talking like a 16 year old when she's 3!" Yaoza. She's doing great with he ABC's, she can count to 5. She's says other numbers beyond 5 just not in order. She loves tea parties with Papa, loves to color, and Playdough is especially cool.

These are her new boots, she won't really wear them, but they are a 9 so I am hoping that her chubby feet slim down a little in the next year or so so she will wear them. How cute are they?!?! Every girl needs some red boots!

Well, that was a giant post. Thanks for following us and keeping up with our family.

Loves!

Well 2010 is here! 2009 brought many good things. Luka's 1st brithday, a new house, renters in our old place (with a 2 year lease!), good health in our 3-some, a preggo best friend, and a strong group of great friends getting older and happy together. But it brought a few things that tear my heart up. Loosing my Dad was the worst thing that 2009 brought to me. I welcome you into my life 2010, please be kind, loving, happy and safe. 2010 please envelope my friends and their loved ones with health and happiness, and may any misfortune be minimal.

Our Christmas holiday was a great time. Lukas interest in gifts and un wrapping this year was much more involved than last year. She's full of expression and it's fantastic to watch her face when she's excited. She's mastered the 'o' shaped mouth - face of excitement and surprise. The items that topped her list were a trike with a parent handle. It's so awesome. It's like an old school Radio Flyer tricycle but it has a handle on the back that we can push her with AND steer for her! She can't reach the pedals all the way yet, but by the summer I think this won't be an issue. Papa surprised her (and me... sneeky guy) with her own play kitchen! It's awesome. I love it when she wakes up and says COOK! Mama, I cook. Among other showerings of gifts, she received a table just her size. She loves to color (when she says it it sounds like Kullah - it kills me) so we leave it set up for that random desire to Kullah.

We are beyond thankful to our families for being so fun and welcoming. Christmas Eve dinner at my Brother & Mom's house was splendid. White Elephants at Dan's parents was surprisingly full of good gag gifts! And the Tamales at Dan's brothers were delectable as they are every year.

New Years Eve was spent here at our house with fun crowd of parents and kids. We had the kid party. I love being able to relax and have conversations and adore our kids together. It does not get better. We even had SEVEN overnight guests!!! 3 kids and 4 adults! Luka's giggles when she realized that Tatey, Colin and JoJo were still here were priceless. These kids love eachother so much it makes me cry. With Colin's tickling Luka's chin and saying "Cutie" and all his kisses, to Tate "nacks" shouts, to Luka's "Hiey Jojo, Hiey Tatey", and all the rounds of laps those kids can take around our house. Oh and Gracies booty and hip shaking... I can't even describe how a kid can be so cute.

Here's a few pics for your enjoyment. New Years pics will be up later after I up load them.

Holidys in our New House

We started out the holiday season in our new house right: 33 people, 6 tables, 1 ham, 1 turkey and countless sides, and sweets. Check out the line up of tables!

Abby Grace mixing drinks! Shes of the mindset that if you mix 7up in Coke it makes the Coke less "spicey".

Excited to see the Holiday Lights with her warm clothes and warm milkey!

Putting up our tree

We love our new house and are looking forward to the rest of our Christmases here.

Lu at the Husky Game!

She sees purple and she says GO! Huskies!! We only make Huskies in this house! She did fantastic at the game. We had an RV where she warmed up before the game at the Tailgate. She was a trooper through the whole game! She passed out in the 4th quarter and slept all the way through until we got off the bus at our car. The outfit change is due to Mama adding a few too many layers... She couldn't move her arms to clap!!

Marching to the game

GO HUSKIES!!

The big cheese!

Tuckered out baby. I can't remember the last time she fell asleep in my arms.

Catching up

It's been a busy few months. We bought and moved into a new place about half a mile from our old house. We needed a little more room to grow, more storage, and a little more quiet. We got all 3 things - and more. Heres a link to the photos on my Facebook of the new house. We all love it here and are already completely moved in. The house was built in 1969. It's a 1 owner home. The family used a local builder and we even got the original blueprints. We are enjoying the neighborhood. We have really nice neighbors and there are tons of kids in the neighborhood ranging in ages from 4 months to 14 years. A perfect babysitter down the street just completed her babysitters course!! We are looking forward to growing old and raising our family here.

We had a great summer. Luka is getting smarter and smarter by the minute. She amazes me daily with her depth of knowledge, her sass, and her silliness. She is a great person. Shes running circles around the new house, asking to go potty (though she has yet to go tinkle more than once), she has about 50-75 words... maybe more, she just had her first dentist visit, was a turtle for Halloween, has a new cousin, and likes to try on mama's bra! Our life is spinning happily- hence the lack of posts! Here's just a few pics of the end of summer and early fall.

Hanging with Si at C&P.... summer's almost gone!

Tryin on mama's boots!

Hitting up the beach on her first roadtrip vacation. We Traveled to the tri-cities for the hydros, and then drove to the Oregon Coast. She loved it!

No drinking the bathwater Lu!!

No.. I'm not.

So happy to be clean! And so dang cute!

Hiking outside of Leavenworth. We are above a river and she could not tear her eyes away from the raging water.

Camping for the 4th of July!

Swimming with Uncle Joshey and Jojo and Papa.

Party time with Gracie-Mae. Girlie overnights are super fun!
Family Portraits, and 1 year photos.

More camping... feeding mama.

Hanging out at Seafiar with her bud Jojo. In a blow up Miller Hydro no less.

Oregon Coast

Silly girl on the beach.

My little turtle, with Grandma on Halloween.

Si and Lu at Whale tale park.

Trying on Mrs. Potato Head's glasses.

Listening in on the hydroplane drivers with Papa.

Swinging on the porch at the KOA camping. (it was the last camp site available ANYWHERE!)


New Cousin - baby Kaden Michael. Born 10/14/09.

Tata, Papa, sisi & lu. Who BTW will NEVER be able to have candy again. Swear!


Check out that tail!

OK OK I Could post 8,000 photos, but the last one is super cute! Lu at the dentist for the first time. She did such a good job. Didn't freak out at all!