Another Indoor Playground

Today my friend Amy and I took the kiddos to a new indoor playground.  The playground has a contemporary design and lots of things for the kids to climb and swing on.  It is free as it is a city park which is pretty cool - always nice to have another option for those rainy/cold days.

After playing we came back to our house to eat lunch and play.  At one time all 3 kiddos climbed in my lap to read a book - it was a rare moment for the three of them together - they normally would rather be wrestling or dancing so Amy had to snap a photo of us!  Of course I was loving it!

Little Man & Our Tree

Thought I would grab some photos of the little man before we headed out to a Christmas party last night.

And just to take a look back, here is the little guy a year ago.

Trip to a Light Store

I know it sounds random but we took Luke to a Christmas store that sells outdoor lights.  We saw a commercial for it on the TV this past week and both immediately thought 'Luke would love it'.  It wasn't huge but Luke did love seeing all the lights and being able to identify the items - tractor, truck, etc.  I doubt they have too many people taking field trips here but it was a nice little outing on a freezing day.

Puffy Cheeks

This photo is out of order but I forgot to post it.  Luke enjoyed 'blowing' bubbles while we were in TN.  His sweet cousin accidentally spilled all the solution, so there wasn't anything to really blow, but Luke sure was intent on trying.

Luke's Dog Has Breathing Problems

Apparently Luke's new dog has breathing problems.  For the past few days Luke will pretend to administer his inhaler to the dog before he takes it.  I am loving his imagination coming out.  He also pretends to have this dog read and even tried to have the dog throw a ball.

Christmas Crafting

I love to do crafts (just not come up with the ideas) so here are some of the Christmas crafts that I been doing.  The first one was with a craft club where we made stockings from old scarves and sweaters.  Thankfully these stocking were easy and quick to sew together - I am a novice at the sewing machine.  The one in the center below is from an old scarf and I am using it as Luke's stocking for our mantle.  I like the fringe on this one.

 

That night I also made a stocking out of car fleece material - the only thing I wish I had done differently was to pay more attention to the direction that most cars were going as most of them are upside down.  This stocking is hanging in Luke's room.

Another craft I did was inspired by Sarah's fabric scraps wreath (you should check out her website to see all the cute things she makes). I don't have fabric scraps but I had a TON of Christmas ribbon so I decided to use what I had and gave it a whirl.  There wasn't much to lose but my time of cutting and tying the ribbon onto the wire ring which actually only took about an hour.

At the mom's group at church I am involved with this week we talked about the significance of the advent wreath/candles and then also made these chain links that are numbered 1-25 and have the birth of Jesus divided up into 25 days.  We had to catch up on a few days last night but we are going to take one off each night until Christmas and read it with Luke.

Hello & Goodbye

This past week I got to see my friend Kristy who has been overseas for over a year.  It was great to hear about her trip and her upcoming plans as she is now moving again.

Wedding Bells Coming Soon

I forgot to post about this as the photos were on Mike's camera but the weekend before Thanksgiving we went to a shower for our friends Josh and Candace.  We were an hour late because Luke decided to take a 3 hour nap even after we put him down an hour early.  He is not a happy camper when we wake him up and since we were taking him with us we wanted him to be in a good mood.  Luke had fun with some other little buddies running around and eating a cupcake.  We are looking forward to their wedding in January.

Visiting My Grandparents

On Friday my whole family took a trip two hours west to visit my grandparents for a few hours.  It was so great to see them and for them to be able to see how Luke has grown and changed.

They have a little dog that Luke loved and pretty much wouldn't leave alone.

Trying out his great-granddaddies big lawn mower - this was his expression the whole time he was on it. 

Saying 'hey' to the outside dogs with Aunt Melanie.

Luke climbed some trees :)

They gave Luke this little dog that sings the alphabet - it is a perfect combo as Luke loves dogs (sleeps with one every night) and is interested in learning his ABC's.

Next is our famous four generations photo.

Thanksgiving Day

We spent Thanksgiving Day with both sides of the family which made for a great and busy day.  We started out and had lunch with Mike's family and our sister-in-laws parents. 

Fun photo of Mike and his bro and their boys.

We then headed over to my sister's house to let Luke nap and then had dinner with my family.

Luke managed to squeeze in a little time playing with his cars after dinner.  He is loving trucks, cars & trains these days.

Later that evening my sister had Mike's family, our aunt & uncle and our cousin and her family over to her house for dessert.  It was great to see everyone and the 4 kiddos had fun playing, running around and enjoying the goodies.

Aren't these the cutest turkeys?  My sister-in-law made them from Oreo cookies.  Definitely need to store this idea away for next year!

Hope everyone had a blessed Thanksgiving!