Sunday Best

(Guest writer, Craig, continues his tirade.)

Lucas tried out his new church outfit for Easter. As one of our neighbors said, "Lucas is always dressed to kill." He looked pretty good, ignoring the runny nose.




Lucas also got a visit from the Easter Bunny, to complement the modest collection of candy he had already collected.

Lucas was actually more interested in setting all the chocolate sports balls on the table.

Egg Hunts

(Guest writer, Craig, continues his attempt at humorous prose.)

Lucas had the opportunity to have his go at 3 different Easter Egg Hunts this year. One community hunt at a local park, one hosted by the YMCA, and one with the neighbor kids in our backyard area.

When we went to egg hunts last year, Lucas wasn't quite old enough to understand what was going on and why he should be interested in grabbing all the colored eggs, especially when it seemed like all the other kids wanted them much more than he did (he was so accommodating). This year, Lucas not only grasped the concept, he also realized that if he got a head start into the field, he could grab as many eggs as possible without those pesky, meddling kids getting in his way (ahh, our conniving child.) It took some effort to keep pulling him back behind the rope and trying to distract him. Once the bell sounded, though, he was off.





The egg hunt at the YMCA was a unique experience. Lucas has been taking Mommy/Tot swimming lessons at the Y, so when we found out they offer a swimming pool egg hunt, we signed him up. For the older kids they actually sink the eggs to the bottom of the pool and they have to retrieve them. For the kids under 3, they are allowed to have a parent help them go collect the eggs that are floating on top of the water. Fun stuff.

Finally, on Sunday morning before church, we had an egg hunt for all the LDS families that hadn't left town. As you can see, everyone had a good time (not pictured is Rhett Van'O who was not having a good time when the picture was taken, but had fun getting the eggs). As you can see from the pictures, Lucas takes his egg hunting very seriously....

From left to right: Cooper and Sadie James, Cole and Parker Butler, Lucas, Autumn McDaniel, Hank Van'O (seated)

Easter Eggs

(Guest writer, Craig, continues to fill in.)

It's that time of year once again, when we wait for the first Sunday after the first full moon after the Spring Equinox. One wonders how a furry bunny could possibly keep track of that complex system and always get the date correct (thanks council of Nicea).

Keeping with the pagan observance of one of the most important days in Christendom, we colored Easter Eggs with Lucas. This involves stripping him nearly naked and then still hoping he can somehow muster the ability to not drop the egg into the cup of dye being so gingerly held at arms length by an all too exposed father (who happens to be wearing a brand new pair of pants), while mom courageously stands at a safe distance and using the wonders of optical zoom to catch the action.

I'm glad to report that the eggs were dyed, the pants were not, and Lucas' blue skin has faded nicely.

First Haircut

(Guest writer, Craig, will take over for the next few posts.)

Despite the fact that Lucas is nearly 2 years old, we gave him his first haircut a week ago. It is something that has been a long time coming and was long overdue. (How overdue depends on which parent you ask. One of us preferred a child that was starting to look like Fabio, and the other preferred something a little more conservative.)

More or less what Lucas looked like moments before his haircut

Lucas did surprisingly well, considering he had no idea what was going on. He kept wanting to turn around and see what was going on. When all was said and done, Lucas ended up only getting a minor trim, so while he doesn't quite have the clean cut missionary look, he is looking distinctively less Italian.

A beautiful day!

Though it rained off and on, it was a beautiful day, it felt like Spring! Of course we took full advantage of the wonderful weather by taking a walk, playing at the park, and having a picnic, with another walk in the afternoon! I love spring!!! Lucas seemed to really enjoy running around and playing outside. He had so much fun he wore himself out and took a very long nap! We ended the day with a trip to the creamery for ice-cream! Great day!!!

An eventful Saturday!

On Saturday we took Lucas to the Space Exploration Day they had on campus. It was more for school aged children, but Lucas seemed to enjoy it. We wandered around, saw some bugs, made some slime, and got a yellow plastic hard hat......that he wears constantly. This morning we went downstairs and I was getting him his milk, and Lucas comes around the corner wearing the hard hat.



Of course the highlight of the day was later in the afternoon when, Craig bought and brought home a storage freezer. Yeah!!! The last several months we have been looking for one. Our freezer is bursting at the seams. It is a hazard to open the darn thing, you don't know what frozen food is going to come flying out at you. Though it was a challenge to figure out where we are going to put it, as of right now it is sitting in the front entrance, it is going to be well worth it. I already know what I am going to put in it. We couldn't have found it at a better time, with ham being on sale, fruit and vegetables coming into season, and we just ran out of freezer jam. With our new freezer the odds of that unfortunate event occurring again is going to be rare.

Obsessed!

Lately Lucas has been obsessed with water and balls, though the balls is not really a new thing. At the entrance to the housing subdivision across the street from us they have water fountain. Every morning, without fail, on our way to take Craig to work, Lucas will say, "mama, mama, water", "water mama." As we take strolls around the military museum their is a creek along it, and Lucas is quick to point to the water. Anywhere we go if there is water Lucas is quick to point it out. He even points it out in picture books and on the television. As long as he doesn't get too close to a large body of water without supervision it works, though it is a strange obsession.
Lucas also continues to love balls, we have quite a collection of balls. I am amazed at how quickly Lucas will notice a ball, no matter where we are, how far away it is, or how small. He starts pointing and exclaiming when he sees one. There are times when it takes me a minute to figure out where the ball is. Who would of thought, Lucas would be so fascinated with water and balls, it is amazing the things we tend to over look, and kids find so amazing!

Happy Day!

This past week we finally got a new garbage disposal. This may seem like a small insignificant thing, but when your garbage disposal sounds like a jet engine, you don't want to run it at night because your afraid your going to wake the neighbors or your sleeping child. Plus it the old one didn't have the rubber splash guard, so you could see the garbage disposal run, and you are constantly pulling out spoons and other utensils out so they don't get destroyed by the disposal. Unfortunately, we were not able to save them all. Now you understand why getting a new disposal made me happy. We are still getting use to how quiet it is and we have a splash guard now, too, it is so nice.