Christmas

Thanksgiving is over, we are back from our trip, so we can officially start the Christmas season.  Yes, I am one of those people, you will not hear Christmas music, see lights, or a tree until after Thanksgiving!!! I am not a Scrooge, I just like to celebrate my holidays in the designated time frame.  I will be the first to admit this is not my favorite season, perhaps it is the freezing, biting cold that comes with it, or the crazy businesses with the crazy people all rushing around.  However, I do like to listen to the Mormon Tabernacle Choir featuring Sissel, drink hot chocolate, and bake lots of goodies!  Our family tries to focus on the reason for the season!  So if this makes me a Scrooge, well then I guess I am.

Another phase?

Lately Lucas, my energetic little ball of curiosity, has been a little apprehensive, shy, and clinging.  This is not bad, just different, from what I am use too.  We shall see if this passes or lingers.

Lucas!

Took Lucas to the doctor's yesterday, he received a clean bill of health!  Lucas weighs 30lbs and is 37". Yes, you heard right, Lucas is growing like a tree!  He is now in the 76% percentile for height!  But is staying pretty steady at 30lbs!  Grow little man, grow!

Art Museum

Took a field trip with our playgroup to the art museum on campus today.  Lucas did pretty good, after I threatened to put him in our friend's stroller.  We did talk about the colors, shapes, and objects in the pictures.  I started to take pictures, but was quickly told that I needed to undo the flash, but I don't know how to do that, I just know how to point and click!  So here are the few pictures of the art museum!

Thanksgiving/Trip to Madison Wisconsin

For Thanksgiving we went to visit Craig's brother and his family in Madison, Wisconsin (they have recently moved there, and are the closest family, which is super exciting.  We actually have relatives within driving distance!).   We have been planning this trip for awhile, with the knowledge that it might not happen.  Since we were attempting to drive to Madison, Wisconsin in November, weather was definitely a factor.  As time grew closer, so did our anticipation that we might actually be spending Thanksgiving with family.  Success!  We made it to Madison and back in one piece.  Though there was a complication with the rental car.  It had some issues, (lights turning on during the night and draining the battery, so when we got into the car in the morning it didn't start) and trying to exchange it ended up being an unsuccessful hassle.  All in all fun, fun, fun!!!  The car ride was supposed to be about 12 hours, but ended up being about 15 hours when you add in the time when we were stuck in Chicago commute, oops!!!  (Note to self, don't try to drive through the 3rd largest city in the US during rush hour traffic).)  However, I did get Giordano's pizza out of the deal, and it was super yummy (not as good as the pizza in Brooklyn though, wow it is just amazing!).

Since this was our first time visiting Wisconsin, we were sure to stock up on cheese.  The grocery store we went to had four aisles of cheese, wow!  It was pretty incredible, so I had to take a picture, which was about the time that Craig decided mother nature was calling (whatever, i guess he was a little embarrassed of his wife taking pictures of cheese. I love cheese!!!)  We also stopped off at Sprechers Brewery, which I guess are pretty big in Wisconsin.  Had cream soda and root beer, best cream soda I have ever had!!!  It was a German themed brewery, so they had some pretty good brats.  Took a tour of Alan's work (Craig's brother) wow!!!  Pretty amazing!!!  There are several buildings, A through K, each named after some astronomical object, and each building has a theme; dungeons and dragons, New York City, country/garden, technology, jungle, etc.  It was pretty crazy, one of the tunnels looked like a subway train, another was Indiana Jones, had a golden idol and when you touched it you heard the sound of the boulder coming towards you.  Another building had one of the foyer areas look like a castle, inside the conference room was a huge dragon.  It was pretty exciting place!  The buildings are all connected by tunnels or indoor walkways.

One of the MANY themed conference rooms. 

Who needs stairs to go from the 2nd to 1st floor?

"Subway" going from the 'garden' themed building to the 'city' themed building.

Thanksgiving dinner was delicious.  We had tons of food that we ate for several days after!  Sarah made the best turkey I have ever tasted!!!  I am a dark meat person, all the way, not a big fan of the white meat, but wow!  The white meat was fantastic!!!  She went all out on this turkey, first time she has every cooked a turkey!  She brined it for 24 hours, injected it, stuffed it with fresh herbs, apples, celery, and rubbed it with sage and butter!  A lot of work, which totally paid off.  Simply amazing!!!  With that being said I have to toot my own horn and say that I made a pretty dang good pumpkin pie, chocolate pudding torte (with my own homemade Creme Fraiche), and some pretty awesome sweet potatoes, next to the turkey those sweet potatoes were my favorite! Oops!  Almost forgot to mention the cranberry sauce stuff that Sarah made that was supper yummy too!  Of course we had pie, four kinds of pie, which ended up being dessert the next several nights (after the kids went to bed!). Thanksgiving dinner was very successful!!!

The family the texts together stays together!  (Grandma just texted all of us, we aren't actually this obsessed with our phones)

 We had lots and lots of fun!!!  Lucas loved playing with Elsie and they got along so well together!  Once again THANKS for having us Alan and Sarah, we had so much fun!  We slept in, took naps, read books, it was the perfect vacation!  It was worth the drive to and from.

The trip home was very long, but not as rainy as the trip there.  We made some detours along the way.  A stop right outside Chicago on the border of Wisconsin, at the Jelly Belly Warehouse.  Took a ride on the train and learned all about Jelly Belly's.  Lucas thought this was so much fun!  He is really into trains right now, so he thought it was pretty cool to ride one!!!  Next stop was at the Temple in Chicago, beautiful!  Of course my trips always involve food!  We stopped at Sweet Baby Rays (they have a bbq sauce you can buy at the grocery stores).  It was way dang good!!!  So good that I didn't have time to take a picture of it or us eating it, as it was devoured within a matter of minutes!!!  Lucas thoroughly enjoyed his Mac n' Cheese!

Our last pit stop was in South Bend, Indiana at Notre Dame, to see "Touch Down Jesus" (Craig will tell you that we went because I wanted to go, but lets be honest here, the only reason I know about this is because of Craig, so honestly I am not the only that wanted to make this stop!)  It was pretty cool.  The campus was beautiful, even in the winter!  They have a gorgeous basilica, that is absolutely magnificent!  Vaulted ceilings with murals, beautiful stained glass windows and lots of ornate and beautiful decorations!  (Out of respect we didn't take any pictures, but you should go see it if you get a chance.)  Ironically enough we ran into the missionaries in the basilica, who would have thought!  Of course they knew we were Mormons  Craig walking around with his BYU sweatshirt kind of gave it away!  Awesome trip!  Now back to reality!

   

Packages

Thank you Grandmas for the packages you send!  Lucas loves them!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Just a note Grandma Les, the blanket you sent is now the blanket that Lucas has to sleep with!

Dinosaur!

For the past couple of weeks Lucas has been talking about dinosaurs.  When we're at the table it's, "The dinosaur's going to eat my food."  On Car ride home from dropping off Craig I heard Lucas say, "no dinosaur, we don't eat the window."  At nap time he talks about the dinosaur taking a nap.  Our conclusion: Lucas has an imaginary dinosaur that hangs out with him.  We have no yet been told his name, color, or even if it is a boy dinosaur.  More details to come.....

One step closer!

Last week Craig passed his comprehensive exam.  Success!  We are now one step closer to a Ph.D.  Now the only thing he needs to do is write a dissertation!  No big deal, right?

Spin Class

As evident with Saturday's weather, it is getting colder and I am going to have to move my workouts indoors, which means going to the gym on a regular basis, which I don't like!  So to mix things up a little bit and make it a little more fun to go to the gym, I signed up for a spin class.  Yes, I know, talk about getting outside the box.  Monday was my first class, and it wasn't bad, exhausting and definitely gives you a workout, but it seemed to be  doable, intense, but doable.  So Friday I will be heading back to do it again!  Wish me Luck!

Snow!

"I looked out the window and what did I see?......snow, and it's still snowing!"  This is not what I wanted to wake up to.  It is too early to be snowing, I am not done enjoying the fall, I haven't bake enough pumpkin sweets!  However, Lucas thought that it was pretty neat!  We dressed him up and let him play out on the deck, and he was quick to tell us that he likes the snow!  Luckily it was wet snow and there wasn't too much, so thankfully it didn't stick around long!

Ode to the Microwave!

Just this past week, as I was trying to get dinner ready and was heating some broccoli in the microwave, I discovered after 10 minutes that they were still frozen.  Thinking that I had not set the time right, because previously I had started the time without putting them in the microwave, I put them back in for another 10 minutes.  They were still frozen, after this we quickly realized that our microwave was not heating up.  So for the past few days we have not had a microwave and can I just tell you what a pain it is.  I never realized how much I use the microwave, it is one of those appliances that you don't really appreciate until you don't have it.  I just don't think I could have survived back in the days when they didn't have microwaves, or kitchen aids, I don't think I could bake or cook without my kitchen aid.  Unfortunately I think that is why they don't make these appliances to last, because they know you will buy another one when you microwave breaks.  We have only had this microwave for a year and a half and it is already dead.  Our previous microwave that we got from Craig's apartment before we got married, lasted for more than 3 years of us using it, plus however long it was in the apartment before that.

The funny things Lucas says!

The most common thing Lucas says is, "That's silly".  You will tell him something and he will look at you and say, "no, that's silly" and then give his funny little fake laugh, that Craig says reminds him of the Vicini the Sicilian off of "The Princess Bride."

Awhile ago I asked Lucas if he wanted to help me bake, he said yes, and so I said, "alright, Lucas, let's do it."  So now when I tell Lucas we're going to go do something, he will look at me and say, "Let's do it mommy."  There will even be times when he will look at me and say something completely random and end with, "let do it mom."  I have to admit it is pretty cute!

Lucas likes to take his backpack with him when we take Craig to work.  This is mainly due to Craig taking his backpack to work.  The other day we had just dropped Craig off at work and were on our way home when Lucas (holding his backpack) looks at me and says, "I want to go to work mom".  I tried to tell him that he is too little to go to work and he gets to play and do fun things instead, but he was adamant about wanting to go to work.  I told him he could wash the dishes with me, that is work, suddenly he was not convinced he wanted to go to work.

He is also obsessed with the school bus.  I think this is because his friend, Cooper, rides the school bus.  There has been a couple of times when Lucas is saying his prayers he will pray for Cooper to be safe on the school bus.

Last week I was in the kitchen washing the dishes, Lucas found his roller backpack that he takes on the plane with him.  He comes into the kitchen and tells me he is going to the airport to get on an airplane.  I asked him where on the plane he was going, he said to the airport to get on an airplane.  It was pretty cute!

A new thing Lucas can do!

Lucas can put on his own shoes.  I know what your thinking and yes he puts his shoes on the right feet, amazing!!!  The other day Lucas said he wanted to put his own shoes on so I said okay, knowing I would have to help or take them off and put them on the right feet.  To my surprise he put them on the right feet.  Thinking this was fluke, a day later I let him put them on again and sure enough he did it again.  We're pretty sure that he is doing this by knowing what way the Velcro goes on his shoes, not that it matters because it is really nice, I just tell Lucas to "go get your shoes and put them on," and sure enough he does it.

Grilling in November!

We had a couple beautiful fall days last week!  Since we wanted to take advantage of this wonderful weather and we know these beautiful fall days are numbered, we pulled out the grill for dinner.  I had everything we needed for one of our favorite meals Tikka Masala, so yummy!  We were grilling in November and it was well worth it!  Lucas also had an opportunity to run around in the leaves that had fallen in the front of our house.

Lying = rrroar!

The other day I asked Lucas, "Are you stinky?"  Lucas, "No, no stinky",  Me, "Lucas are lying? You smell stinky"  Lucas, "Rrrrrrroar" as he runs around in a circle.  This also lead to Lucas being a monkey and elephant.  And just for the record yes, he was stinky!

All Things Halloween!

We had a pretty crazy week full of Halloween events and activities!  Our child is still high on the sugar!  We had a Halloween lunch, with hot dog mummies, scary mouth apple slices, creepy string cheese fingers, and bread stick bones, with pumpkin soup!  We also decorate sugar cookies!  It was work, but way fun and Lucas seemed to enjoy himself (can't you tell by the pictures).

Our first trick or treating experience for this year was at the athlete museum on campus.  Lucas was a maniac!  We finished on the lower level, trick or treating and he wanted to turn around and do it again, until we told him that there was candy upstairs, and then he was willing to go upstairs, saying the whole time, "candy, candy, candy...", I gave Craig the look of, "what have we created".  Needless to say Lucas had fun and learned about Halloween (complete strangers giving me candy!) all too quickly.  They also had games and it was fun to be able to watch Lucas play them, because last year he didn't really know what was going on or how to play the games.  We had his picture taken with the Nittany Lion, as you can see dad is holding him, as Lucas kept his eye on the lion.

Trick or treating at the museum was only the beginning, we also had Trunk-or-Treat with our church, so more candy for Lucas.  At first he didn't want to go, but as soon as we told him we were going trick or treating he was more than willing, but disappointed when we got there and found out we were having dinner first, which was not what he wanted to do.

We didn't just trick or treat to celebrate Halloween, we also had our traditional Halloween meal (on the Sunday before Halloween).  I just have to say after four years of baking our pumpkin carmel cheesecake, I have finally nailed it.  The one we had on Sunday was hands down the best one I have ever made!  I found that the key is the homemade gingersnaps, the store bought ones just don't cut it!  The whole meal was yummy, our dinner in a pumpkin was really good, we added a few extra ingredients this year and cooked it for a longer period of time.  The only issue were the rolls, that I have baked half a dozen times, but for some reason beyond me I cooked them at a higher temperature and burnt the bottoms, if I only knew what that one mistake would lead to I would have checked the recipe.  Later that evening as I was cutting the black bottoms off the rolls I ended cutting my fingers.  Stupid!  Can I just tell you it has been a long time since I have really cut myself and boy did that hurt!
We also did some pumpkin carving, Lucas wanted a scary face!  Lucas also opened up the package from Grandma, thanks Grandma and Grandpa!  Lucas was thrilled, he loved the candy, of course, and we had a hard time getting him to pay attention to everything else that was in the bag.

Lucas was a shark this year, it was pretty cute.  I taught him the theme music to "Jaws", so when you asked him what a shark said Lucas would do the theme music to "Jaws".   While we were out trick or treating on Monday a lady looked at him and said, "are you a crocodile, no you're an alligator...."  Lucas looked at her and said, "no, shark."  Like duh lady.  The lady didn't hear or more likely didn't understand what Lucas was saying.  But for those of us that knew what Lucas was saying it was pretty funny!

Lucas once again out did all the older kids, he just kept going, till the end, he started and was off, we even had to slow him down a couple of times to stay with the group, Lucas was not interested in this at all he wanted candy and knew what he had to do to get!

A day off! Yeah!

I have this list.  You could call it a "bucket list" of sorts.  It is a list of all of things I want to do while we are living here, back east.  We have managed in the last three and half years to put a check mark next to several things.  One of things that has been on this list since the first year we moved here is the Hershey's Amusement Park, though I have been to Hershey numerous times, never to the park.  When we first moved here I got pregnant with Lucas, and then we had Lucas and he would make it difficult to ride the rides.  Then the biggest factor is money, it is really expensive (especially on a grad student income!!!).  The stars finally aligned and the heavens smiled down on us and Craig and I were able to go in October!  I am still amazed at how perfect it all worked out!  I just want to say, "Thank you!", "Thank you soooo much" to those who watched Lucas and made it so Craig and I could go!  We are so grateful!

On the way to Hershey there is this car hop place, the "Red Rabbit", that I have always wanted to try, but they have odd hours, and we are usually on our way home from the temple when we drive by it and it is late and we are very tired and don't want to stop.  And yes, it too it on my "list".  On the way to Hershey we stopped for lunch, and it was pretty good.  We had the "Bunny Burger".

Pay no attention to the lady in the car who was probably wondering what the heck Katie was doing.

As we were driving to Hershey we were a little worried about the weather, especially since the weather forecasts here are not always accurate.  Though it said it would be in the high 50's and sunny, it was not.  It was overcast, but still fairly warm.  I was determined to go, I felt that if we didn't do it now, it would never happen!  We made it to the park right when it opened, dressed warm, and (having just taken dramamine) we were set and ready to go.  Craig had a list of all of the ride we wanted to hit first, just in case they were shut down due to the weather.  I was a little nervous, roll coasters are not my favorite, but Craig was excited and it was something I wanted to experience so we did it.  Can I just say, Wow!  That was so much fun!  They had some pretty neat roller coaster rides, on one you went forwards and backwards, on another you went from zero to 72 mph in about 2 seconds, which was crazy!  Our favorite one, was the one where your hanging and the track is above you head.  The first couple of hours there were no lines we walked right up the rides. Unfortunately this didn't last the entire night, but we were able to go on most of the roller coasters without waiting too long.  The other ride I enjoyed was the tram that went through the park and outside the park around Hershey the Factory, it was interesting!  We ended the night having dinner at the "Outback".  We have never been here, but had a coupon so we went, it was way better than I was expecting, I loved there baked sweet potato, oh so yummy!  And their bread was amazing!   I would be willing to go again, if only for the bread!  Check and Check off the list.

Fire Station!

For playgroup we recently went on a field trip to the local fire station.  This was pretty fun.  Because we live in a small town, the fireman are all volunteers.  The fireman talked about fire safety, let the kids roam in and out of a fire truck (they even turned on the lights), let them put out a fire with the fire hose, and they dressed up in their fireman gear!  It was exciting!  What would have made it even better would have been a better behaved little boy, but we managed!  While we were taking a group picture Lucas was sitting next to his friend, and right when I was taking the picture they started to smack each other, so I have it on camera these two taking and giving each smacks!  These two are a perfect match, they are so alike it is scary!