Swenson Family Blog

Lion Movie

2012-01-02T15:06:00.002-05:00

For the past several months we have been waiting for the Lion King to go on sale. Finally Craig came home the day after Christmas, (shopping on my behalf, thanks Craig!), and though he wasn't successful with any of things I sent him off to do, it still turned out to be a successful trip because he found the Lion King for a good deal! Do I even have to mention how much Lucas loves this movie? It has animals and good music, what more could you want? All he talks about is the "Lion" movie, he has already watched it twice, the second time being last night! Craig did tell me that he wanted to know what happened to the daddy lion at the end of the movie the first time he watched it, and last night when we watched it, he commented that the daddy lion had big owies, so sad. Though we still love this movie! One of our favorites!

New Year's Eve!

2012-01-02T14:56:00.002-05:00

We have never done a whole lot on New Year's Eve. The day was pretty much a regular day. We had munchies and hung with our friends. Downtown State College has their version of first night. We went down there to see the ice sculptures, at first we weren't impressed, though we did stand in line so Lucas and Craig could go down the Russian slide that was made out of ice! Lucas thought this was fun. I thought it would scare him, because it seemed to go pretty fast, but he loved it! We headed down a main street in State College and were able to find the more impressive ice sculptures, these were pretty neat, and huge! Headed to our church building where a youth activity we being held, because Craig is a youth leader. It was fun, Lucas loved running around! We arrived home way too late and put Lucas to bed and brought in the New Year with our good friends! We look forward to what this year has to bring! Hope we can do better and be better than we were last year!

Christmas!

2012-01-02T14:45:00.005-05:00

Lucas slept in, yeah! First we needed to explain to him what was going to happen and then Craig went ahead to take pictures and turn the lights on the tree. Lucas was really excited, we showed him the empty plate and note left by Santa. Lucas did such a good job at taking turns unwrapping the presents! It was a very, very pleasant and wonderful morning! I do have to mention that Grandma Nean and Grandpa Boyd....you rock! You are forever in my circle! We have been wanting to get Lucas a Geo-Track train and while he was unwrapping his presents I was regretting not getting him one! (I am beginning to think you might have secret spy cameras in our home.) Ironically enough he was playing with those bouncing ball things the night before, (so seriously, where did you hide the cameras!). I am also going to mention how wonderful my husband is, I love you hubby! I have been wanting a food processor this past year. I have a tiny one that I am constantly using, though it is falling apart. We decided that it just wouldn't be possible to get a food processor this year, we don't usually buy presents for each other anyway, but decided to stuff each others stockings. After the presents were opened and I was finishing up breakfast I noticed a present on the table and I thought Lucas had forgotten to open one, but Craig informed me that is was in fact for me. I opened it and quickly figured out that it was my food processor! All this time that Craig was telling me it wasn't possible to get one, it was sitting under his desk at work. Best present ever! Thanks honey! Church was very pleasant full of music, Craig sang in the choir and even had a duet that he sang in German, it was beautiful! Finished the day off with our close friends (they are practically family). All in all is was a wonderful Christmas! This was our first Christmas away from home and family and I have to admit it was a success! Though we missed our family and friends, it was nice to be at home as a family.

Christmas Eve!

2012-01-02T14:26:00.001-05:00

Reindeer pancakes for breakfast to get us in the mood! Had a low-key afternoon, took a nap! That night we headed over to a family's home that goes to our church and acted out the Nativity. It was fun! I am so glad we went. Because there is only three in our family we don't have enough to really act out the Nativity, so it was fun to be included. Lucas was not interested in dressing up and being a shepherd, though. Craig makes a great shepherd (though I'm not sure whether he looked more like a shepherd, a hobbit, or Rambo), Lucas not so much, he was obviously more interested in playing! Later that evening we caught up with Santa riding a fire truck in a nearby neighborhood, Lucas thought this was pretty neat! Then we went home and set out a plate of cookies and carrots for Santa and the reindeer!

Christmas Popcorn/Muppet Christmas Carol

2012-01-02T14:17:00.002-05:00

The Swenson clan usually watches Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol on Christmas Eve. Due to plans on Christmas Eve, we decided to watch a Christmas Carol on Friday night (also known as "Christmas Adam" in the Swenson home, because Adam came before Eve. Get it? Wink. Wink.). Because we have Lucas (and also because I prefer it) we watched The Muppet Christmas Carol. I cooked Christmas popcorn, which is basically lime jello popcorn and raspberry jello popcorn, which turned out really well! Lucas seemed to enjoy the movie and of course the popcorn! I think we are watching too many movies, however, as recently we have been letting Lucas watch the good old Christmas Classics, but now that is all Lucas wants to do is watch a movie and have popcorn and M&Ms.

Food for the birds!

2011-12-22T13:40:00.002-05:00

Yesterday, Lucas and I went to a friends house and strung cranberries and popcorn together and rolled a toliet roll in bird seed to put on a tree for the birds. So, Merry Christmas birds! Lucas liked doing this, though he liked eating everything better, including the bird seed!

Holiday Sweets Making

2011-12-22T13:36:00.003-05:00

I realized that since we were not going home for Christmas that if we wanted the traditional treats that our families make during this time of year, I was going to have to do it. This turned out to be a two day process. The start was kind of rockie, I screwed up the easiest recipe, and that is when I decided that there was no way I was attempting to make divinity, thus the two day process. When I finally did get around to making it though, it worked! My divinity rocks! Thanks to my little candy thermometer and the kitchen aid (oh, how I love you!) everything tastes great and now we're in the process of giving it all away, because let me tell you after two days of baking sweets I am all sweeted out. I went to bed the last two nights on a sugar high!

Gingerbread Houses

2011-12-22T13:22:00.004-05:00

Annual decorating of gingerbread houses, this year we did graham crackers, we decided this was easier and worked just as well, so for now on it will be graham crackers! Craig built the house (it's his favorite job *sarcasm*) and I assisted with the frosting while Lucas decorated! We did get distracted when Santa showed up on the front of a fire truck, handing out popcorn and candy canes!

Decorating Cookies

2011-12-22T13:15:00.000-05:00

I made a bunch of sugar cookies to frost and decorate for playgroup. When we got to playgroup all the kids are decorating their cookies and Lucas doesn't want to decorate a cookie. I am thinking "really? I just put in all of this work and my kid doesn't want to decorate a cookie?" (It could have been the fact that he just wasn't feeling good, though he had seemed fine earlier that day.) I decide that I will pack up and go home, because if he's not feeling good he shouldn't be hanging out with other kids. I am all packed ready to head home, Lucas looks at me and says, "I want to decorate a cookie." Go figure.

Ouch!

2011-12-22T13:12:00.002-05:00

Last Wednesday Lucas had a fever and I just couldn't get it to stay low, after the Tylenol and Motrin wore off his temp would go up, he was ornery and irritable, and would not sleep at nigh. , On Friday night he coughed all through the night, by morning he had completely lost his voice and when he coughed he would wince because it would hurt. And yet even with this I still struggled with whether I should take him to the polar express (which is really fun activity the library puts it on where you ride a trolley to Santa's workshop and you get to pick a toy and sit on Santa's lap. Spaces fill up fast so I had signed up weeks in advance.), to the point that we start to head to the library and then I came to my senses and realized how unwise that would be, in the end we ended up at the doctor's office, Lucas was diagnosed with not one, but two ear infections! Poor little bug, it just hasn't been his season, no colds JUST pneumonia and now ear infections. At least it gave us an excuse to lie low, we didn't do much the next several days. However, he is feeling better! Which is great because he can still enjoy Christmas!

Ego outs D-D-D-Dora!

2011-12-22T13:09:00.002-05:00

Ever since we rented a Diego video (because they didn't have Dora), Lucas has been picking to watch 'Ego' which is what he calls it, over Dora. I don't know why it is more appealing, it might have something to do with the fact that 'Ego' is a animal rescuer, and Lucas loves animals.

Which of these does not belong?

2011-12-14T19:48:00.006-05:00

While cruising through our local Wal-mart (in State College, PA of course) we came across a most unusual sight, tell me what you think:

I'm guessing someone at the shipping plant accidentally grabbed the wrong hoodie and stuck it in a box with very similar looking apparel, but part of me wants to think that BYU's new ESPN contract is causing such national exposure and publicity that they're starting to sell BYU apparel in State College (that would explain why there was only one of them, the rest were all sold out, right?).

Lazy!

2011-12-14T19:48:00.003-05:00

December is suppose to be a busy time when you're running to and from activities and shopping. Not us. I don't like shopping and though we're doing some fun things this season, I have not overbooked us. We're not going home this holiday season. So we have had some of the laziest days this month, waking up late, not getting ready for the day till late afternoon. Since the temperature has been dropping, and I am limiting when we go out in the cold, we have been staying at home in the warm house. It has been wonderful, though I am sure reality will be setting in any minute now, and I will have to start getting things done, but for now, I will enjoy staying home and reading a book. Seriously, how often does that happen?

Snowman!

2011-12-14T19:43:00.002-05:00

Poor little tyke! Every time we go outside, Lucas goes for the snow, saying, "snowman, snowman". However, by snow I mean the tiny piles of ice with a thin layer of snow covering them. Were still not sure if Lucas want's to build a snowman or if he is referring to the snow as 'snowman'. After numerous times of this occurring, I decided to take action. Today Lucas and his little friend made marshmallow snowman yummy and enjoyed every bit of it. Who doesn't enjoy eating sweets at 10:00 in the morning. Hopefully sometime this winter we can build Lucas a real snowman!

Lucas wasn't really mad, it was just a well timed picture.

Breakfast with Santa!

2011-12-14T19:38:00.002-05:00

This past Saturday we took Lucas to the festival of trees (I know what your thinking and it is nothing like that festival of trees, this one is very, very tiny!) We ate breakfast with our friends and Santa. We took Lucas to sit on Santa's lap, not sure what to expect, because last year he cried and cried and would not do it!!! We're making progress, though. Lucas sat on Santa's lap without even one tear drop, never mind that he was stiff as a board and had this terrified look on his face, is was still a success! (The picture doesn't do it justice, Lucas looks for too relaxed in the picture.) Breakfast was yummy and Lucas seemed to enjoy himself. We wandered around the trees for a few minutes, because that is literally all it takes is a few minutes and you have seen it all. Watched a puppet show and we were good to go (ran errands and get home so we could have lunch and Craig could go to work and write his paper!)

Inevitable!

2011-12-07T19:29:00.001-05:00

We have been spoiled that last couple of weeks with warm weather! It all ended today, or should I say it begins. It rained all day and then at about 4:30pm it started to snow and it is getting colder. Time to pull our the hot chocolate maker!!!

Smith

2011-12-07T19:24:00.001-05:00

One of my very good friends came to visit on Monday and was able to stay the night. It was a blast! We watched a chick flick and stayed up till 2:30 am talking, I felt like a teenager! We drove around in the rain, to show her the Amish, and ended our day with ice cream at Penn State. I think it was a successful trip, she says she will come back again. Thanks Smith, for coming to visit us, we really enjoyed it and please come visit us again!

A REAL Tree!!!

2011-12-07T19:16:00.001-05:00

Success!!! For Christmas this year we got a real Christmas tree, and it didn't even take much to convince Craig that I needed a real tree for Christmas. This beautiful tree was calling my name, the minute I started looking it was saying, "Katie, pick me, pick me, pick me!" I listened and it is the perfect tree! It fit inside our house, just about touching the ceiling, and not to bushy. On Sunday we decorated the tree, I found these plastic, non-shatter balls, so Lucas could help decorate the tree. While decorating the tree Craig made the comment about having to redo it after Lucas finishes, I looked at Craig and said, "no, I am not touching what he has done, it is how it is." So how it is, is most of the decorations are at the bottom of the tree, with clusters of balls and ornaments, this tree has a lot of character! Lucas had a lot of fun decorating the tree, now if only he could stop touching the tree.

"Peanut butter and Jelly"

2011-12-07T19:07:00.001-05:00

Every day for the past week at about 10:30 am Lucas will start asking for a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. This just goes to show what I allow my child to eat for lunch every day, (it is difficult to heat anything up quickly, because we are still without a microwave). Though the other day I did boil him a hot dog, to change things up, since a hot dog is definitely better than a pb and j, right? I have tried to remind him numerous times that he can only have one for lunch, but Lucas does not understand this concept. He'll ask for peanut butter and jelly sandwiches at all times of the day. I have even tried to offer him other snack option, no Lucas wants a pb and j. At lunch time when I ask him what he wants he has been telling me, "Peanut utter and am sandich, cheese, urkey, and ummus." He has been a pretty good eater! Maybe that is why he has been having a growth spurt!

Christmas

2011-11-30T15:19:00.001-05:00

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?

2011-11-30T15:16:00.001-05:00

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!

2011-11-30T15:12:00.001-05:00

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

2011-11-30T15:08:00.001-05:00

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

2011-11-30T14:25:00.001-05:00

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

2011-11-30T14:23:00.001-05:00

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!

2011-11-30T14:14:00.001-05:00

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!

2011-11-11T15:09:00.000-05:00

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

2011-11-11T15:07:00.000-05:00

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!

2011-11-11T15:01:00.000-05:00

"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!

2011-11-11T13:53:00.000-05:00

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!

2011-11-11T13:45:00.000-05:00

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!

2011-11-11T13:31:00.000-05:00

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!

2011-11-11T13:26:00.000-05:00

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!

2011-11-09T22:50:00.000-05:00

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!

2011-11-09T22:02:00.003-05:00

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!

2011-11-09T21:37:00.001-05:00

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!

2011-11-09T21:29:00.003-05:00

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!

Rain = Soup!

2011-10-13T21:22:00.000-04:00

I am not a big fan of the cold wet weather we have been getting and they fact that we are headed into that season! But I am not really sad that it is raining right now, because there are a bunch of soup recipes I have been looking at and can't wait to try. So the Swensons are having soup tonight!

Books!

2011-10-13T21:21:00.006-04:00

This past week Lucas has wanted to read a book 24/7. The other night I wanted to sit down and turn on the t.v for five minutes, but Lucas had other plans, he turned off the t.v looked at me and said, "read book". What do you say to that? Lucas and I read the book, and have been reading books nonstop since then. This is not a bad thing, I just feel guilty that I can't read to him 24/7. Right now we're obsessed with a book call, "The Doghouse." We went to the library today so hopefully we can branch out a little bit! Side note, we were able to find another Dora DVD, thank heavens, I have basically memorized the previous Dora Halloween episode.

Caramel Apples

2011-10-13T21:20:00.002-04:00

On Monday for FHE we had our friends over (the James Family) for Caramel Apples. I have never made caramel apples it just sounded and looked good, and it is the season! Honestly can you go wrong with apples dipped in caramel then smothered in a topping of your choice and drizzled with chocolate (white and milk)? By the end we were wondering where the apple was! This was very successful, almost too successful! Lucas seemed to like it, he basically licked his apple clean.

Pumpkin Picking!

2011-10-13T21:18:00.002-04:00

Saturday afternoon we went pumpkin picking! There was a fun festival going on at a fruit farm that we go to. We took a wagon ride out to the pumpkin patch and picked a pumpkin. That is what we planned on doing, honestly, but really Craig picked the pumpkin while Lucas and I were busy stepping in a huge pile of pumpkin goo! Yuck! It smelled awful, thus we smelled pretty bad until we got home to wash our shoes! (I think Craig was relieved that I was so willing to leave so quickly, he thinks I take to long picking the pumpkin, but it takes time to pick the perfect pumpkin for our dinner.) So not our funnest trip to the pumpkin patch, but the most memorable trip so far! And we did end up with a beautiful pumpkin for our traditional dinner in a pumpkin! Thanks to Craig! Lucas also rode on this train car ride. I thought he wouldn't like it, because he had to go all by himself and during part of it we wouldn't be in view. This was not a problem at all he liked it so much I think he would have gone again! Instead of riding it again we went and saw the bunnies, which Lucas seemed to enjoy! He spent most the time trying to pick one up, much to the dismay of the people running the bunny petting booth (Lucas has not learned the concept of being gentle yet.)

Football!

2011-10-13T21:10:00.003-04:00

Friday night we went to a Penns Valley High Football game. A young man in our ward is the quarter back, defensive end, and the long snapper. Basically he is the team! (He also is also a starting forward on the Basketball team and plays P/1B/SS on the baseball team.) It was way fun! The weather was wonderful! Unfortunately they lost, but our wardie did awesome! We went with our friends which made it way more fun! Lucas seemed to enjoy it! He left the game on a sugar high, at one point he was carrying around a bag of pretzel M&M's. Yeah that's responsible parenting for ya. Oh well, isn't that one of the reasons to go to sporting events; to eat junk food!

Penns Valley is the Blue and White

A newspaper shot of Sam

Dora

2011-10-13T21:00:00.001-04:00

Lately Sesame Street just hasn't been holding Lucas' attention and he gets bored easily with it, not that this is a bad thing. We started checking out the old Disney movies, "Robin Hood", "The Jungle Book," etc... We let him watch them in the evening while were making dinner. He has really been enjoying them. Last week when we went to the library, Lucas picked Dora the Explorer. We haven't ever really watched Dora before, but WOW! Lucas is a Dora addict. He loves it, he is so captivated by it. He has watched the same Dora DVD over a dozen times this past week. He is even to the point where he starts to interact and respond to her questions. We have also heard him saying, "oh man," at random times, or when he drops something (A phrase said by one of the characters on the show). I have also heard him said, "oh man", "Swiper, no swiping". As a matter of fact while I am typing this he is watching Dora.

The begining of potty training

2011-10-13T20:55:00.001-04:00

A couple of weeks ago I decided I wasn't going to push Lucas into potty training until he was ready. I have not been looking forward to this milestone and I didn't want it to be completely miserable for the both of us. However, we have been trying to teach him the concept by putting him on the toilet in the mornings and at night. This was less than successful, after a few seconds he would look at us, and say, "mommie broken, it's broken." To say I was surprised Monday morning when Lucas said, "mommie potty" is an understatement. I will admit I did not want to put him on the potty, it was early and I had not even put my glasses on yet. In the end I figured I better, because what if he actually went. Sure enough he went, and we praised him a lot. I have never been so excited, which is pretty sad, and goes to show that our world revolves around Lucas and his small successes. That night Craig put him on the potty and sure enough he went pee and poop. At this point I figured we should probably follow through and make an effort to potty train Lucas. So it began, and we are still working on it. Lucas will go in the morning and at night, when we put him on the potty, but during the day is hit or miss. If I put him on the potty he will usually go, however, he has yet to tell us he needs to go, which is evident by the pile of wet underwear and jeans on the dyer. To give Lucas some credit, we have been kind of busy, and though we have been doing the best we can at the moment, we just haven't been able to hunker down at home and get it done. Will see how it goes. We are proud though that doesn't seem to have a problem with going poop and pee in the potty, though I worry that he thinks every time he goes potty he has to go poop. (Editor's Note: Katie actually took pictures of this momentous occasion, which shows how sad our lives can be sometimes. Unfortunately the pictures are not rated for public distribution.)

Punxsutawney!

2011-10-13T20:50:00.000-04:00

My friend Alyssa and I decided that though we have thought about it and even attempted once to go experience the groundhog festivities, we finally realized that it is not worth it, to wake up at the crack of dawn, trek up a hill, and stand in the cold with our children for hours (it is really cold in February), just to find out that there will be six more weeks of winter! However, Punxstawney was still something we wanted to see. So on Monday we packed up the kids and headed to Punxstawney. Other than Groundhog Phil and Gobbler's Knob there is not much to see in Punxstawney, so this was a quick day trip! It was fun and the weather was pretty good! We went to Groundhog Phil's burrow and saw him sleeping, he did briefly wake up to eat and Lucas was able to see him. We drove up to Gobbler's knob took pictures and called it good! They did have several of these Groundhog statutes around town, they were pretty cute. Lucas seemed to enjoy it!

Fall

2011-10-13T20:44:00.001-04:00

The other day I was driving home and I looked around and realized that the leaves where changing and we are in the fall season. It has been raining so much, and I have been busy I haven't been able to appreciate the fall season. I haven't even baked one pumpkin thing yet! Wait, I did make creamy pumpkin soup the other day! But other than that nothing, I have to fix this, and since this week the weather is looking warmer and better, I think Lucas and I will start enjoying the fall! We're going to need to bake something with pumpkin in it and take a walk to look at the leaves changing colors! Were also going together as a family to a high school football game and picking our pumpkin this week, what is more fall-ish than that!

Conference Weekend!

2011-10-13T20:43:00.002-04:00

We didn't do too much the weekend before last, because it was conference weekend! We did have brunch with some friends, it was pretty fun, and we had plenty of yummy muffins! I bought M&M's for our conference bingo, which has been tradition, but we never got around to getting the cards out and didn't even open up the M&M's till the last session. Though I still felt like we had plenty of sweets this past weekend! We watched all four sessions of conference, though I am not sure I could tell you what they said, Lucas was not terrible, he just wanted to be right in your face and talk the entire time. The only couple of hours that we got to really listen was while he was taking nap. I am just going to have to read them instead!

Fall Festival!

2011-10-13T20:41:00.003-04:00

This past weekend we took Lucas to the fall festival they have down town! I was really looking forward to this and was bummed when the weather didn't hold out for us! It was really cold, but didn't really rain, so I guess that is a plus, and it could have been worse! Lucas picked out and decorated a pumpkin! Rode the carousel, loved it, and was quick to find where the places where people we handing out candy! Since the festival he has been obsessed with pumpkins anytime we see pumpkins he is quick to point them out! Every time we take Craig to work, we drive past bins of pumpkins Lucas is sure to let us know when we pass them! I am excited to take him to the pumpkin patch this week to pick out our pumpkin for dinner!

All dressed up and ready to go, but wait where is the snow!

2011-10-13T20:37:00.003-04:00

As were heading into fall I quickly realized that my child doesn't have shoes to wear, not one pair! It has been raining a lot lately so I have been able to get away with letting him wear his rain boots, but I knew this would last too much longer, but on second thought we are in Pennsylvania, where I feel like it is always raining! Lucas also doesn't have any snow gear, and I know when it snows (if it snows this year) Lucas is going to want to go play! So I went to a consignment sale last week, right when they opened, because things can get pretty crazy. I was on a mission! And I am happy to report I had great success! Lucas now has a nice winter coat, snow pants (three pairs to be exact, because I wasn't sure which would fit him best, because size means nothing, every brand varies), gloves, and boots! I also found him some shoes, two pair of shoes, in really good condition! Anyway I dressed Lucas all up in his winter gear to make sure it would fit! He looked like an Eskimo! I felt bad dressing him all up and then there wasn't any snow for him to play in! Oh well! He was a very good sport about it all! (I don't know why he looks so tired, I must have just taken the picture at the wrong time.)

mmmmmmmm.... Apple Season!

2011-10-13T20:33:00.003-04:00

The trip to the Apple Orchard was a prelude to a week of apples! At the beginning of the week I learned how to can apple pie filling. It was very yummy pie filling, though my friend uses it for apple crisp, clever idea. I don't think Craig would mind having apple pie filling in crisp form! My friend said her husband called it, "liquid gold". After having a taste I would have to agree, it was darn good!
Later, during the week after our field trip, we load up on apples, and canned applesauce! Lots of jars of applesauce! Alyssa and I are now in such a groove when were canning that by the afternoon we had canned my bushel of apples and her bushel of apples! We now have several jars of applesauce to eat and bake with this year! I still need to finish out apple season with the making of apple crisp, this might be done a few times before were out of the season. I think I am going to try caramel apples, which I haven't been a big fan of in the past, but I think Lucas would enjoy it and the apples we get are sooooo good that adding caramel, you just can't you go wrong!

Apple Orchard!

2011-10-13T20:31:00.002-04:00

A couple of weeks ago Lucas and I went with playgroup on our annual field trip to the Apple Orchard! Before we went to the apple orchard, I took Lucas to story time at the library and ironically enough the theme for story time was apples! It was really neat and made for a very themed day! Unfortunately, it had been pretty rainy (surprise, surprise!) so it was very muddy. The rain did hold off briefly, so we could take our wagon trip through the apple orchard. Lucas didn't want to sit by me, he wanted to sit by his friend, which is the reason why there are no pictures of Lucas on the wagon ride, hold on... now that I think of it there might be one picture. After the wagon ride they took us on a tour of how they clean the apples and store them, which includes a trip into the refrigerator! Of course the best part of the whole experience is that they give us a bag of apples and some apple cider! Which makes this trip pretty fun and yummy!

Annual BBQ!

2011-10-13T20:26:00.000-04:00

Our little group that lives in our apartment complex gets together every year in the fall for a BBQ, to eat, have fun, and get to know those that have recently moved in. This past summer we had quite a few families move in. So much so, that I had not met everyone previously and we had to recruit our friends to bring there BBQ since one was not going to cut it. We weren't sure we were going to have good weather, but luckily it ended up being a nice day! We had a good time! As of next year we will have been living here the longest, so the planning of this event is being passed to us. I don't know if that is a good or bad thing, I guess will find out this time next year!

Stalling

2011-10-06T14:09:00.001-04:00

Lucas has recently learned the concept of stalling! He applies this knowledge when were getting ready for bed or nap time. What typically happens is we get him already for bed/nap time, and right before or as were laying him down, he says, "book", you read him a quick book, the same book we having been reading him for the past week, next it is "drink" we quickly get him something to drink, then he wants me to sing the Winnie the Pooh song, lately singing it just once is not enough, so after two songs, we close the door while he is still trying to tell us what else he wants! Bed time/ nap time is getting longer and longer!

Not the diaper!

2011-09-24T16:46:00.002-04:00

The past week Lucas has started to take his diaper off (again)! I will go get Lucas after his nap, and he will be standing in his crib without pants and no diaper, but of course his shirt is still on! The other day I caught him standing in front of the T.V. with no diaper, just hanging out! Luckily we have not had any accidents, but I can't help but ask myself where he comes up with this stuff? And of course the question I am constantly asking myself "seriously?" If this continues I might have to pull out the duck tape!

One year older!

2011-09-24T16:44:00.000-04:00

We celebrated Craig's Birthday this past week, he is now one year older (next stop is the big 30!). Unfortunately, Craig's birthday always seems to land on the day when so much is going on! He did get two cakes, on two different days, and steak for dinner, however. We tried cakes in the Crockpot, this was somewhat successful. We are so grateful for Craig and all that he does!!! We love him! Hope he had a wonderful birthday!

An eventful Saturday!

2011-09-24T16:42:00.003-04:00

Besides fixing the car last Saturday, we also took Lucas to the Patton Township Safety Fair. Lucas was able to put out a fire with a hose, which he throughly enjoyed (probably because he loves water)! He took a little ride in the lift of a fire truck, bounced in a couple of bounce houses, and had a sucker. He was almost blown away when a helicopter was trying to land. All in all a successful event for Lucas.

After that we headed down to the insect fair on campus. Though we didn't try the chocolate covered crickets, Lucas did touch a tarantula, a walking stick, and a beetle! He thought this was a riot and didn't even hesitate. We also spent time in a tent with Monarch Butterflies!

Car Fixed?

2011-09-24T13:31:00.002-04:00

This past Saturday Craig found himself once again under the car, trying to fix the hole in the exhaust! After several hours of hard labor, success (we hope)! The car doesn't roar to a start every morning, thankfully, especially at 5:30 in the morning. Thanks Craig!

Who would have thought?

2011-09-20T20:29:00.000-04:00

Since we have been home from vacation, Lucas has been really whiny! I mean really, really whiny! And for almost two weeks Lucas has been coughing! At first I thought he might have allergies and was just trying to clear his throat, like his dad does. I talked to a nurse who told us that if it didn't clear up within the next couple of days they would like to see him. We put him on a cough suppressant, but unfortunately it just got worse and then his nose started to run. So yesterday I took him to the doctor, expecting them to say it looks like he has a cold, there is nothing we can do, put a humidifier in his room. Not exactly the answer we got. Instead we took a trip down stairs to get an x-ray, and then went back upstairs for the doctor to tell us that he most likely has pneumonia. For those of you that are thinking to yourself, 'wait a minute we saw and hung out with Lucas yesterday or the day before that or the day before that', don't be alarmed I looked it up and supposedly it is not contagious and he is now on some strong antibiotics. So if you see Lucas it is not necessary for you to grab your children and run in the opposite direction unless you feel it is necessary! By the way it was a great start to the week when the weekend had already been very busy! You know those weekends that you think did we even have a weekend? Oh well.

Wow, Awesome!

2011-09-13T21:38:00.004-04:00

I just thought that I needed to document this moment, not to say that Craig doesn't help out around the house because he does, but Craig has this uncanny ability to ask me if I need help at the moment I'm just finishing whatever it is I'm doing. Today though, he asked me much earlier and I could actually put him to work. Craig took out the trash and Lucas carried the recycling container, (he looked so cute and so proud carrying the recycle basket) it was awesome! Lucas was happy because he was helping, I was happy because Craig was helping, I don't know if Craig was happy but it was a very happy blissful moment.

Colors!?!

2011-09-13T21:35:00.004-04:00

Just this past week Lucas came up to us pointed to his shirt and said, "orange" which was in fact the color of the shirt he was wearing, and then he preceded to tell us that his pants were blue, denim is blue right? We were so excited! Quizzed him a couple of times through out the day about the color of his shirt and pants, praised him like crazy, he lives off of praise! However, the next day I start asking him what color his shirt was, or what color the bus was, or the block, etc. He got all of them wrong or he reverted back to associating them with the color of Sesame Street Characters. I suspect he is just giving me a hard time, but honestly who knows, maybe it was a one time thing. I guess time will tell! Maybe next time I will be sneaky in how I ask him.

It's raining, It's pouring, The old man is snoring!

2011-09-13T21:35:00.001-04:00

It has been raining constantly since last Saturday evening. That is one thing that I don't like about Pennsylvania, the fact that it rains and rains and rains for days. Not to mentioned that overcasts skies that we had several days before it actually started to rain. What a bummer! It was not until late Wednesday night that the rain finally stopped. Here is hoping for some sunshine!

The Garden

2011-09-13T21:33:00.002-04:00

Our poor little garden has struggled this season with the heat and then all of the rain. I have had to plant my herbs twice and some of it still didn't make it. Only half of my cilantro survived, but I believe this was partially due to Lucas and his shovel. But our tomatoes survived! When we arrived back home though, our garden needed some serious weeding and we caught the neighbor kids picking our unripe tomatoes, little stinkers! Some still survived and there were several ripe tomatoes that needed to be picked. So for the last week we have been eating very yummy tomatoes.

For the first time this year I planted basil. Wow, this stuff grows like a weed! I have made two batches of pesto, along with a few dishes that have called for fresh basil and it is still growing! I have really enjoyed having all of this basil and experimenting with it! I will definitely be growing this again next year!

Poor Little Car

2011-09-13T21:28:00.001-04:00

This has not been the year for our little Camry. The heater when out at the beginning of the year, so that needed to be fixed. Surprisingly enough you can't fix it until it is warm enough outside, so needless to say it didn't get fixed till late winter. Then summer came and we soon realized our A/C was out and you have to have a working A/C when you have a little person and humidity, plus it was really, really hot this year. A more minor repair was our gas door broke and you had to manually open it, that was tricky, but an easy fix. When I went home in July, Craig was driving along and one of the tires blew so we had to get new tires. Our newest incident is our poor tale pipe has a gaping hole. I apologize to our neighborhood who has been woken up to the noise of our car starting at 5:30 in the morning. Sorry! We attempted to fix it, but this morning I started up the car and could hear the muffler again, looking on the bright side of things at least it is not at loud as it was, before we tried to fix it. Even with all that we have had to fix this past year, it has all worked out because Craig has been able to fix a lot of it on his own, which has saved us a lot (good thing I have a mechanically inclined husband). So with this newest incident, I am sure it will work out, Craig already has a plan. All things considered it is a good car and the things that have been wrong is all wear and tear, nothing too serious. So in the end 'Go Us' and 'Go Little Car' you can make it!

Peaches!

2011-09-13T21:24:00.000-04:00

With the fall comes canning. I have been looking forward to canning this year, because I have been wanting to try to can peaches. I love fresh peaches so much better than store bought canned peaches. So image how excited I was when I found out that I had not missed peach season when I got back into town. I feel so productive when I am canning, I am building up my food storage. That is right I have thirteen jars of peaches sitting in the office just waiting till one of these days when it is really cold and dreary and I want a peach to brighten the wintry day. I will be tasting some pretty sweet success!

So it begins.....again

2011-09-13T21:23:00.003-04:00

Yes, it is here again that time of year when I have to coordinate our activities on Saturday depending on what time the "game" is. When I know what I will be wearing every Saturday for the next few months. When I stock up on Brats and chips, and apple beer (yes! the apple beer that we stocked up on when we were back west, boxed up, had examined at the airport, weren't sure it was going to make it, but it did! Success!). Bring on the football! When football officially started on Saturday we were ready. Lucas was dressed from head to toe in BYU paraphernalia, carrying his BYU bookstore bag across the parking lot to the football party. Poor child being indoctrinated into this ritual that is BYU Football at such a young age. He even knows how to say "Go Cougars" and "touch down". Of course you can't celebrate this monumental moment without friends. Till next Saturday and the Saturday after that and the Saturday after that and so forth.

Watching the game at the James' with the Van O's.

Grange Fair

2011-09-13T21:19:00.001-04:00

It is that time of year again. One of the biggest events in Centre County, the Grange Fair. This is a pretty important event, school is delayed due to this fair, people would kill their grandma to get a tenting spot at the Grange Fair. It is that serious!

I like taking Lucas to see all of the animals, it has been fun to see how he reacts to the animals over the past few years. This time around he was so excited, I think the rabbits were his favorite part, he would name the animals as he saw them and make the appropriate animal noises. It was pretty cute! We went with several of Lucas' friends, had some ice cream from an enormous ice cream sunday, and watched the Bald Eagle Band. Lucas seemed to enjoy himself. Lucas was able to walk part of the way with me and he was good to not wander off. It was a very enjoyable day. It is always an experience when going to the Grange Fair.

What Neighbors

2011-09-13T21:06:00.003-04:00

We have lived here for three years now and in that three years in the apartment next to us we have had three different families living there and it has been empty for several months between those families. Craig and I are beginning to think that there is something going on. The management claims that there is a waiting list despite there always being empty units. The apartment at the end of the building moved out after the apartment next to us, but it has been filled already. Kind of strange. Maybe we're horrible neighbors. Our washer and dryer are pretty loud, the floor moves when the washer is going. It is kind of like having a mini earthquake every time we run the washer (I'm not joking either. You can stand in the upstairs opposite corner of the apartment and feel the floor shaking slightly). Don't get me wrong, I am not complaining. It is nice have no neighbors, but now that I have mentioned this I am sure will have neighbors move in and it won't be pleasant. Here's hoping that won't be the case. All of our neighbors in the past have been really nice.

New skills and joys

2011-09-13T21:03:00.000-04:00

Lucas is still obsessed with cars, if you ask him what movie he would like to watch nine times out of ten it will be, Cars. He can say "Lighting McQueen" and "Mater". He loves playing with his Lego versions of the Cars characters. He also has little car figurines of the characters and plays with them non stop. The other day I even discovered some of his toys in one of my reusable shopping bags while we were at the farmers market. He is quick to point out the cars on the road, especially school buses!

Lucas knows his colors if you coordinate them with a Sesame Street character. For example if we see a school bus and I say, "Lucas what Sesame character is the school bus?" He is quick to respond, "Big Bird." We have also done this with objects of solid colors, green, yellow, red, and blue. If you say which color is cookie monster he will grab the blue object. I love Sesame Street so educational!

Lucas has also learned how to open doors, it was a sad day when we figured out he can do this. He now has access to the office, the food storage upstairs (where he quickly discovered the fruit snacks) and the bathroom downstairs (where I found him the other day with about half a roll of toilet paper on the floor). Right now as I am writing this I can hear him upstairs and I am pretty sure he is in the extra bedroom where the food storage is, probably looking for the fruit snacks. This problem will quickly be resolved as I picked up some child proof door knob things. The only problem with this solution is I have yet to master opening a door with those things on the handle.....

Oh, how I detest that phrase!

2011-09-13T20:58:00.004-04:00

This is the conversation we having been having with Lucas numerous times the past couple of weeks!

Lucas, "I can do it!"

Mom, "Okay, Lucas do it."

Lucas, "NO! I can do it!"

Mom, "Lucas, how about mommy helps you."

Lucas, "NO! I do it!"

These conversations usually end with me helping him, and all the while he is screaming at me, "I do it, I do it." Though, there have been a couple of times that he has let me help him do it together.

The second most common conversation with Lucas:

Mom, "Lucas you stinky do we need to change your diaper?"

Lucas, "no, daddy do it!"

- not that I am complaining on this, I do not mind in the least when he makes this request.

Daddy, "Lucas let go get ready for bed"

Lucas, "no, mommy do it!"

-This is the one where I draw the line, I am the one that has just spent the entire day meeting his needs, and this is the one thing that Daddy does (not to say this is the only thing).

Lucas is definitely coming into his own and developing his opinion. If you ask him what he would like for breakfast he will tell you, "cheerios, with milk, and a banana."

The other morning I was putting a show on for Lucas and he was quick to tell me he didn't want to watch that show he wanted "train", i.e. "Thomas the Tank Engine". This I cannot seem to figure out, he gets all excited when I put it on, but it doesn't seem to keep his attention for very long. We continue to pick movies out at the library and he insists on getting a Thomas movie though he never really watches it.

Lucas seems to want to go the opposite direction that we need to go and he lets us know by saying, "no, that way!" I don't think he cares where it leads, as long as it is not the way we are going.

Another common phrase for Lucas has been, "Mine" or "hey that's mine!" Which has lead to teaching Lucas the concept of sharing. This is a bit hit and miss, but we will continue to teach it!

The littlest tasks that used to seem to trivial now seem to take forever!

Bryce Wedding!

2011-09-13T20:53:00.001-04:00

At the end of our vacation came the much anticipated and primary purpose of coming out west, my brother's wedding. It was a very long day, but it thankfully didn't rain, though it looked like it might and it did in some of the surrounding areas. Mid-afternoon came and it was hot, really hot! But it was beautiful! We are so happy for him and wish him all of the happiness in the world! Lucas looked really handsome in his black slacks, white shirt, suspenders, and gray tie. His dad didn't look too bad either! It was a wonderful experience! Very much worth the trip out there!

Lucas in the great outdoors

2011-09-13T20:41:00.000-04:00

Craig's family happened to leave for Youth Conference the day he arrived in Utah (one day later than planned and including a no expense payed stay in the Denver airport overnight, thanks Southwest!), so we drove up to camp to see them. Lucas had a lot of fun seeing all the kids and running around free. Just look at him, doesn't he look like he belongs in the great outdoors?

Why can't we be friends

2011-09-13T20:39:00.000-04:00

Eevee is just a few months younger than Lucas. I was excited for Lucas to have time to spend with his cousin, as Eevee is at Grandma's house a lot. Within moments of there first interaction it quickly became clear, that this was not going to be the case. They did not get along at all! They were constantly on each other, at one point I caught Eevee holding Lucas by the collar slamming him up against the kitchen cabinets. This isn't to say that Lucas didn't antagonize Eevee as well. We were, after all, in Eevee's territory, and she saw Lucas as an invader. Not to say that there weren't a few small moments of peace. Toward the end of our visit, when we were getting ready to head to Craig's parent's house. Lucas looked at Craig and said, "daddy no more, no more." Craig's reply was, "no more what Lucas, no more grapes, no more drink?" Lucas, "no more Eevee, no more."

Happy Birthday Eevee!

2011-09-13T20:34:00.003-04:00

Lucas' cousin Eevee turned two while we were in Utah. We were able to celebrate with them, which was really fun! It was a backyard BBQ, which was thankfully covered because it rained. However, this did not stop Eevee, Gage (Lucas' other cousin), and Lucas from playing, it just made it more fun! Lucas needed his clothes changed by the ended he was dripping wet!

Colter Bay!

2011-09-13T20:33:00.004-04:00

Towards the end of July Lucas and I headed back west to visit the family. The day after we arrived we packed up and headed up to Colter Bay, which is a camping area next to Jackson Lake, in the Grand Tetons. We spent four days there hanging with the family. It was wonderful to be in the great outdoors (yes, I live in rural Pennsylvania, surrounded by mother nature, but it is not the same thing), to see the majestic mountains and evergreen trees. It was gorgeous!

Looking down at the lake while on a hike

My extended family has gotten into kayaking, so we went kayaking with them. Honestly, at first I wasn't interested in participating in this activity, but they needed someone to get the kayak down to the day spot, and I was available. It was a lot of fun, and surprisingly really works the upper body. Lucas was also able to get a little kayak ride in. He appeared to somewhat enjoy it. Thanks Aunt Kenzie!

Lucas is coming from behind!

2011-08-04T21:17:00.000-04:00

We forgot to mention this when it happened, but Lucas was recently weighed and measured. Guess what? Lucas is about 50% weight wise, but wait for it...wait for it.... he is 60% on height, he has grown about two inches in the last 5 months. Way to go Lucas! He might have gotten some height genes after all. I guess will just have to wait and see. (I know this doesn't seem impressive, but he has been averaging in the 20 to 40 percent for height, so this is a little bit of a jump.)

Arts Festivals

2011-08-04T21:08:00.000-04:00

This past week the Arts festivals were going on for State College and Boalsburg. For those of you who don't know, this is a huge event. I think I remember hearing on the news that over 127,000 people attended these festivals. On Wednesday we went to Kids Day at the art festival in downtown State College. It was packed, there were several booths of kids selling their art and crafts. We went over to a park nearby ate our lunch, and walked around. They had several different activities going on. Lucas was able to sit in a fire engine and a police car (hopefully that is the only time that occurs.) Every year there is this guy who creates something out of sand, it is pretty neat to watch him. Lucas seemed to enjoy it and we had a lot of fun!

The next morning we walked over to the Boalsburg Arts Festival. This one seem to have more kid friendly things to do, we even went back with Craig the next day. Lucas jumped in the bounce house, or more often than not found one of the walls close to the door and hung on for dear life, while every one around him bounced. They had a tent with several different interactive scientific activities to do. When we went back with Craig, he seemed to enjoy this more than Lucas did. Lucas' favorite part was the animals, you could pay a dollar for a ice-cream cone full of feed then you went into the pen they had set up and fed the animals. They had turtles, bunnies, calf, pigs, goats, and an alpaca. The first time we did it these animals were basically mauling Lucas to get to the food. I thought this would freak Lucas out, but surprisingly it didn't. He loved it and more than enjoyed feeding the animals. He also loved following them around and petting them. It was by the far the funnest thing we did at the festivals. We also so the Storm Trooper again! I told my friend, that the first time we saw him was at Memorial Day, and our first thought was, "What?" The Storm Trooper must have over heard me, because he said, "I get that a lot." At least he wasn't as out of place as last time.

Weeding

2011-08-04T20:58:00.001-04:00

A while back we decided to weed for our FHE activity. Lucas was so helpful, at one point he was wearing the gardening gloves and dragging this very long weed it was pretty cute. He helped us put the weeds in the bag, and better yet kept himself pretty entertained while Craig and I did the brunt of the work. Right before we headed outside to weed, Lucas rediscovered his galoshes, so Lucas weeded while wearing his galoshes. This is a picture of Lucas carrying two bags full of weeds to the dumpster. We are so lucky to have such a great helper and who thinks weeding is so much fun.

Anything Daddy does I can do...

2011-08-04T20:56:00.000-04:00

The other morning we were all hanging out in the bathroom while Craig was getting ready for the day. It was shaving day, for Craig, so Craig started to put the shaving cream on his face to shave. Lucas saw this and decided he wanted to start shaving. So this is a picture of Lucas with shaving cream on his cheeks. No he did not get to use a razor.

Movie

2011-08-04T20:54:00.000-04:00

Lucas went to his first movie in July (not counting the time when he was about three months old and we took him to the 9:30 showing of Star Trek, where he ate and then fell asleep. As a side note - I couldn't feel my arm half way through the movie from not wanting to move him and wake him up. Not one of our best ideas.)

We had two free tickets to see Cars 2, plus kids 3 and under are free, so we all got to go see the movie for free. Lucas has been a little obsessed with cars lately, so he was more than excited when the cars started to appear on the screen. I had been collecting the Cars snacks (graham crackers, shaped like the cars, marshmallows, and fruit snacks), so Lucas would have them to take to the theater with him. Lucas really enjoyed it, he wanted to sit on Craig's or my lap the whole time, but he did sit and watch the movie. He was quick to point out the cars, the water, and at one point during the show when the cars crashed into each other Lucas said, "Uh-oh, Mommy look, uh-oh." Luckily the movie theater was loud enough, I don't think anyone heard, Lucas' commentary. All in all it was a success!

Pancakes

2011-08-04T20:48:00.000-04:00

A while back, Lucas and I had conversation that went something like this:

Katie: "Lucas would you like some Cheerios for breakfast?" (This is pretty much what we have every morning for breakfast, because this is usually want Lucas wants).
Lucas: "Pancakes"

I couldn't quite understand what he was saying, but after a few minutes of trying to figure out I finally got it.

Katie: "Lucas, do you want pancakes for breakfast?"
Lucas: "Don't want cheerios, pancakes."

This is one of the few times Lucas has made a request like this, so how could I not make pancakes for breakfast.

Humidity

2011-07-25T13:54:00.000-04:00

I love the spring and summer. Lucas and I pretty much spend our days outside soaking up the sun and playing. However, this past couple of weeks it has been too hot to go outside. I am sticky all of the time from the humidity. Poor Lucas, his head is soaking wet by the time we get home from picking Craig up at work. We went swimming yesterday and that was a nice break, but today it is hot and driving home from the grocery store I could see the humidity hanging in the air. There is a plus side, I will be leaving this all behind in a week, I know it will be hot in Utah, but I am sure looking forward to that dry heat, my hair not looking like a frizzy wavy mess and my clothes not clinging to me.

EDIT: In addition to all of the heat and humidity, our A/C died over the hottest weekend of the year. We set new records for temperature that broke previous ones from the 1930s. It was 102F outside and the heat index with the humidity was over 112F. It got up over 90F in our apartment. Unfortunately we were hosting some youth for a regional youth conference at our house on one of those nights. We felt bad for them. Thankfully we have some wonderful new ward members who loaned us a portable window A/C unit that we put in Lucas' bedroom. So while we had 93F+ in our bedroom during the night, Lucas slept in a comfortable 78F room. The A/C did get fixed on Monday morning, but by then the temperature had dropped to the mid-70s (of course).

Family visit

2011-07-24T13:49:00.000-04:00

We are so glad that my family came to visit. We had a ton of fun. Lucas loved it. He really enjoyed playing with Aunt Kenzie and Grandma and Grandpa. Though he calls grandma and grandpa by the same name (it is a variation of 'grandpa'), they both enjoyed seeing him. We went swimming up at Green Wood Furnace, watched the fire works, Lucas helped Aunt Kenzie and Grandma husk corn. It was fun, and came and went way too fast. No worries, we will be seeing them in about two weeks, actually less than that (I'm writing this weeks late). I keep telling Lucas were going to fly on an airplane to see them and he seems to think that will be fun, maybe not the plane ride, but the visit will be fun! We look forward to see everyone.

New York City, Part 2

2011-07-23T12:05:00.000-04:00

The next day was spent in Midtown Manhattan. Once again we hit all the touristy spots (of which I didn't take many pictures for some reason. Probably because I already took pictures of them all when we went to New York before). We walked from Juilliard down Broadway to Times Square. Then walked to the New York city Library, down to the Empire State building, back up to the Rockefeller Center, across the street to St. Patrick's Cathedral, picked up a hot dog from a street vendor, made our way to Grand Central Station, across Manhattan to the United Nations building, up to Dylan's Candy Bar on our way to Central Park, cut through Central Park on our way to Levain Bakery (the real reason for Katie going to New York), back down to Times Square where we ate dinner at Ben's Delicatessen (awesome pastrami!) and finally picked up cheesecake to go at Juniors before sprinting back to the car so we didn't get charged extra. Whew, what an exhausting day. Previously when Katie and I had gone to New York, we did a similar walking route and I think the tally was somewhere around 15 miles of walking.

The one thing that we did that Katie and I had never done before was go to the top of the Rockefeller Tower, where I took these panoramas:

Looking North from "Top of the Rock". Click HERE for high resolution.

Looking South from "Top of the Rock". Click HERE for high resolution.

New York City

2011-07-23T11:18:00.002-04:00

After our adventures in Maine, we continued on to New York City. We spent two days in the city, one in the financial district and one in Midtown Manhattan, both times driving into the city, parking and then walking everywhere. It was a fun and exhausting two days in the city. Lucas, however, thought it was great.....especially the pigeons.

We saw all the standard tourist stuff in the financial district including Wall Street, Trinity Church, St. Paul's Chapel, and Ground Zero. Ground Zero is currently closed off entirely in preparation for the opening of the 9/11 memorial that will be opening on 9/11/11. We did see the progress being made on the new World Trade Center tower.

One cool thing that we saw, that I didn't even know existed, was the Federal Hall across the street from the New York Stock Exchange. New York City was the Capitol of the United States for ~1.5 years from mid-1788 to 1790, and is the site of George Washington's inauguration.

For lunch we walked across the Brooklyn Bridge and ate at Grimaldi's Pizzeria. The walk across the bridge was long and hot, but the pizza was completely worth it. It probably has something to do with how hungry I was, but Grimaldi's is among some of the best pizza I've ever eaten. Even Lucas had a good time.

After more wandering around, we made our way up to Little Italy for dinner. We ending up picking Ristorante Da Gennaro and had a good time, although I don't think anything could top the pizza we'd already had for lunch.

Leaving Maine....

2011-07-17T22:45:00.000-04:00

After our second night in Bar Harbor, we headed south along the coast toward New York City. We found a little park in Camden, ME where we could eat lunch. The park sat on the city harbor, which made for another scenic panorama (I'm really getting into taking these panoramic shots, so hopefully you like them).

Camden, ME harbor. Click HERE for high resolution.

After our lunch trip, we continued on to Kennebunkport, ME to visit an Air Force site that Katie's dad comes to often in conjunction with his work. As we passed Kennebunkport pulled over on the side of the road to gawk at the city's most famous resident (or at least there home): George H. W. Bush. Notice the Texan flag flying next to the American flag. The house sits out on a peninsula with a series of other houses/building along the rest of the peninsula, culminating with the Secret Service house.

As we continued on south, we had to make one more stop and try some local clam chowder at Shea's Riverside Restaurant. They claim to have the best clam chowder in the area, which was backed up by Steve's personal recommendation. I have to say, it was pretty good.

Bar Harbor, ME

2011-07-17T22:28:00.005-04:00

(Craig, again)

The furthest extent of our vacation took us to Bar Harbor, ME. The city name, using the local accent, is pronounced as "Bah Ha-bah". Every time I heard a local say the name of the city I was reminded of that scene from Jaws when Chief Brody jokingly practices his "islander" accent:

Ellen Brody: You see the kids?
Brody: They must be in the back yard.
Ellen Brody: In Amity, you say "yahd".
Brody: They're in the "yahd", not too "fah" from the "cah".

Bar Harbor is just outside the gates of Acadia National Park, which itself is entirely contained on an island, just off the coast of the mainland. It is a touristy city, but nice. During the evening we took a walk down into the town and down to the actual harbor. Lucas got to stand in the water while myself, McKenzie and Steve skipped stones.

Everywhere you look (including in the pictures, if you look carefully enough) the water is covered in multi-colored markers indicating crab and lobster traps. As such, the main menu item of every restaurant in town is crab or lobster. Not wanting to be left out, we made sure and stop at a local lobster pound a pick up a couple of the monsters. Lucas just liked the ketchup.

We spent most of the day driving around Acadia National Park. There is a single "sand" beach in the park that is popular for swimming for both tourists and locals. We didn't swim, but Lucas enjoyed chasing and being chased by the waves. The beach isn't actually made of sand, but rather various minerals and very finely crushed shells. The cove keeps away the Atlantic Ocean waves that would normally pull the sand back out to sea.

The best part of the park (in my opinion) was the drive to the top of Mount Cadillac. Sitting in the center of the park, it provides a great panorama view of the island. It also has the distinction of being the highest point in the U.S. along the eastern shore. This means that it is literally the first point in the US to see the light of the sun. Pretty neat.

Looking Down on the town of Bar Harbor, ME. Click HERE for high resolution.

Complete panorama from Mount Cadillac. Click HERE for high resolution.

On to Maine...Cape Neddick Lighthouse

2011-07-14T19:23:00.037-04:00

(Craig stepping in again to help get caught up on the blog)

Katie's Mom had two things that she has wanted to do ever since we moved back East: 1) visit the New England states, particularly Maine, and 2) go to New York City. Despite the fact that we're still going to be here a couple more years, we decided to do both of them in one trip (crazy!). We drove all the way from Central PA to Bar Harbor, ME (with a night at a sketchy Super 8 Hotel in Waterbury, CT) which is a little over 700 miles. As we crossed into Maine we stopped at a lighthouse near Cape Neddick Harbor for lunch. Looking out at the open ocean coupled with the rocky shore and the lighthouse was a sight to behold (see the below panorama). In fact, it may have been the most picturesque place we saw the entire trip.

Lucas was so happy to get out of the car, and the ocean just made it that much better. He loved every minute of it. Fortunately the tide was out, so Lucas could splash in the tide pools and chase crustaceans with Grandma Les.

Click HERE for higher resolution image.

Busy Bees

2011-07-14T15:26:00.000-04:00

We have been really busy this past month, which is why it has been awhile since our last blog. My parents came into town this past month for a couple of weeks. We spent the previous weeks preparing for there arrival. Attempting to finish some projects up and de-clutter the house. There was a lot to get down, but we were successful and ready for their arrival minutes before they pulled up! Now we have to get caught up with all the things we've done and the pictures we've taken the past few weeks.....

Stay tuned.

mmmmmm

2011-07-14T15:25:00.013-04:00

The last couple of weeks, whenever Lucas eats something he thinks is yummy (which is pretty much anything he eats), he will look at me and say, "mmmm... mommie that is good". It is pretty adorable and I have pretty much let him eat just about anything so I can hear him say it. Lucky for us, Lucas is not big into sweets, which is pretty surprising since that is what I am known for. Making and eating sweets is essentially my hobby! We have taken him to the dairy a couple of times for ice-cream, he will eat a couple of bites and then he is done. Guess we can't complain about that.

Whipple Dam

2011-06-14T13:49:00.007-04:00

We went to Whipple Dam for the first time this season. It was a little cool, with a slight breeze, but not bad! My highlight was for the most part being able to sit by friends and chat, rather than running after Lucas the whole time. He didn't wander as much, and seemed to enjoy playing with his friends. I strapped his swim float thing on him, though he never got far enough into the water to use it. I think he was a little discouraged after he tried to swim like one of his friends tummy first and ended up floundering with a mouth full of water. After that he stayed on the outskirts of the water. All in all, it was a good day! Long, but fun!!!

Strawberries!

2011-06-14T13:41:00.006-04:00

On Friday we went to a ward members house and picked strawberries. Craig more than hinted that he wanted Strawberry Rhubarb pie and they also had rhubarb that we could pick. Lucas picking strawberries consisted of him taking my bowl and dumping the strawberries into his bucket and then eating them. He was covered in strawberry juice by the time we left! Lucas wandered around there yard and at one point one of his little friends let us know that Lucas was in the pasture with the horses. That is my little wandered, so curious, and has no probably investigating his surroundings, even if it requires wiggling through a wire fence. The highlight was that she let Lucas ride a horse! Lucas loved it, he wanted another turn! He also helped lead the horse by holding onto the rope. It was a fun morning! I am so grateful that we are surrounded by so many wonderful people!

A crappy day (literally)

2011-06-14T13:22:00.005-04:00

I had not planned on writing about this particular event, but after several of my friends mentioned that I needed to blog the story, I succumbed to peer pressure and am now blogging about it. A couple of days last week I would go get Lucas from his nap and find him without his shorts or diaper. An important thing to note here is that Lucas usually has a bowel movement during his nap and needs to be change after he wakes up.......Do you see a potential problem with him having no pants or diaper? The first time (yes, the first time, he did it twice in a row), was not so bad. I was impressed at how well I kept my composure as I cleaned up poop and in a calm manner explained to Lucas that we do not take off our diaper and throw it overboard. The second time or the following day, did not go as well. I decided to take a nap towards the end of Lucas nap, I thought I would sleep about twenty minutes, until Lucas woke up. I woke to Lucas crying about an hour later, with about ten minutes till we needed to pick up Craig. I went upstairs to grab Lucas and get him in the car. Only to find my child covered in poop! Unfortunately it was a little more mushie than the previous day. It was everywhere; on the floor, the handrails of the crib, the crib mattress cover was caked in it, it was on Lucas feet, and his hands were covered in it. I wanted to scream, and it was very difficult to maintain my composure and I probably did let out a few sighs of frustration with the little stinker, who was laughing as I cleaned up the mess, which included scrubbing the floor, cleaning the handrail, putting the sheets in oxi-clean (I love you Oxi-clean, you were heaven sent!). I ended up putting Lucas in the tub and then into his PJ's, all the while Craig is calling wondering where I am. Amazingly enough I was able to get everything, including Lucas cleaned up and in the car in just over twenty minutes. (No worries this story has a happy ending!) On the way home from picking Craig up at work, I explained to him what had happened, Craig had had a bummer day also, so I decided it was an ice cream day, we went home had dinner and went to the Dairy for a sundae. Yummy! A day like this needed to end with ice-cream!

Our Little Monkey

2011-06-06T13:11:00.006-04:00

Saturday Lucas was entertaining himself as I was trying to tidy up the house. He eventually wandered up stairs, I could hear him wandering around, and then several minutes went by and I heard nothing. This is almost always a red flag that Lucas has gotten into something that he shouldn't be in. I quickly head up the stairs and to my surprise I find Lucas sitting on the changing table with a pile of wet wipes sitting beside him. Now at first you would think that I would be upset about the wipes, however, my first thoughts is how did he get up there? My child climbed the changing table, probably to get to the wipes. I am not mad about the wipes just relieved he is okay and the changing table didn't topple over when he climb it. Little stinker.

Craig also discovered yesterday that he can now open and shut doors, which is unfortunate, because now he has access to every part of the house, meaning the office and bathrooms. I don't want to even think about the havoc he could cause in those areas of the house. Why can't Lucas new skills involve using the restroom, cleaning up, and listening.

Goodbye Goldilocks

2011-06-05T17:50:00.006-04:00

Lucas had his very *first* haircut last night. I put a caveat on that because technically there was an instance in the past that involved Lucas, his hair, scissors and a broken-hearted mom, but that was more of a "Mullet-Prevention" trim. Last night was a full-blown haircut, involving hand-fulls of Lucas' golden locks falling to the ground (to be promptly picked up by Lucas and displayed proudly). When all was said and done, Lucas' hair was about 4-5 times shorter than it was only minutes before.

I think he looks pretty good. He suddenly looks more like a little boy and has lost another of the few remaining "baby-like" elements.

Flowers

2011-06-05T17:46:00.004-04:00

Now that summer-like weather is here, we actually have something growing in front of our house. Actually, it has been growing for quite a while, but the flowers are finally blooming. We never had irises this tall back in Utah, but then they probably didn't get watered nearly as often as these ones do.

Katie and her crazy ideas....

2011-06-05T17:41:00.003-04:00

Every once and while Katie gets these ridiculous ideas (usually from the internet) that Lucas and I just have to put up with. Tuesday brought around another one of these ideas.

I came home from work and Katie announced to me that I needed to start up the grill, and get it heating while she got the pizza dough. PIZZA!! ON THE GRILL!!! ARE YOU CRAZY???

It actually ended up being really good, and is something that we'll probably do again in the near future. Thank goodness for Katie and her ridiculous ideas.

Memorial Day

2011-05-31T20:44:00.012-04:00

In case you hadn't heard, Boalburg, Pennsylvania is regarded as the birthplace of Memorial Day (at least 2 dozen others towns also make this claim, but hey, we live in Boalsburg, so let's just go with it). With that in mind, the Boalsburg Memorial Day activities are certainly the biggest event occurring in Central Pennsylvania, if not the entire state. Literally thousands of people descend on our quaint little town for the weekend to enjoy the parade, street vendors, military re-enactments, period dress and other festivities.

We have been unable to attend these activities thus far, due to Katie and Lucas being gone last year and Lucas being born the year before, so we were looking forward to see what all the hustle and bustle was about.

Lucas had a great time, especially at the parade. In lots of bigger cities, the tradition of throwing candy has been banned due to unfortunate accidents, but that tradition lives strong in Centre County! Lucas made off like a bandit. Every fire truck (of which there must have been ~40), antique car, political hopefully, guy on a Harley wearing an American flag shirt, etc. was throwing candy. Tootsie Roll must have made a small fortune off of the sheer amount of candy purchases for the parade.

The actual Memorial Day activities were enjoyable, but very hot. We wandered among the street vendors, watched a civil war re-enactment complete with a live cannon ~50ft from our heads (we were not prepared for how loud that thing was going to be), bought an Amish made pretzel, and wandered around the corvettes at the car show. I think we all suffered a little heat stroke after wandering around downtown for a couple hours, because when we got home we all crashed on the couch unable to move. Lucas didn't even make it home before he was asleep, well in advance of his normal nap time.

Like everything about this town, the activities were quaint. Boalsburg is a very nice place to live.

(I've also included a little game with today's pictures. It's the "One of the pictures is not like the others, One of the pictures just doesn't belong" game. See if you can figure out which one.)

Lucas turns two!

2011-05-25T13:31:00.012-04:00

For two days last week we celebrated Lucas' birthday. On Monday we had a party for him and his friend, Cooper, who had a birthday the day before him. The theme was "balls" (don't act so surprised). Lucas is still obsessed with balls. Cooper's mother and grandma made the cutest cakes decorate to look like balls. I did the same with cupcakes. Needless to say we had plenty of cake.

Lucas had tons of fun. It was fun to watch him when he blew out his candles, though it was more of a "drool out the candles", but it worked (we made sure to not serve that part of the cake). He ate his cupcake and some of another, that was left unattended. He had no problem opening up presents.

We have been trying to teach him to say he is "two". We have had minor success with this. Sometimes he says it, sometimes he doesn't. I don't think he understands the birthday concept, yet. I would tell him it was his birthday and he would repeat me and say "birthday", but I don't think he associated it with him, maybe next year.

For his actual birthday we had blueberry pancakes, went swimming, and ate lunch at the Subway in Walmart. About four weeks ago, we were running errands around lunch time, so we had Subway in the Walmart. He hasn't said anything about it even though we have been to Walmart several times since, but the other day when Craig was with him and they went to Walmart he started to point and say, "Lunch, Lunch". Later when we went to Walmart again, he commented about it and wanted to have "Lunch." So for his birthday we decided to have lunch at the Subway. We walked into Walmart, thinking he would walk up to the Subway and say "lunch", but he didn't. He just kept walking, so Craig and I said, "Lucas, lunch". That caught his attention, he got excited and ran back into the Subway!

We also had dinner full of Lucas' favorite things: beans. Pinto and black beans (in a casserole), and green beans on the side. Lucas loved it, and ate all of the beans on his plate! We sang to him again and had more cake and ice-cream and opened more presents. Lucas had a great birthday!

Crazy Bird!

2011-05-25T13:22:00.006-04:00

Craig recently filled up our bird feeder so Lucas could see the birds. We do get several different types of birds (see picture in previous post). The trick is having them stick around long enough for Lucas to see them. When we tell Lucas that there are birds, he gets so excited that he starts shouting "Bird! Bird!", and by the time he gets there the bird has flown away. We're working on being quiet long enough so he can actually see the bird.

About a week ago, I was in the computer room, and I could hear this noise every so often, like something was hitting the window. Craig came home and and heard it too. He realized that there was this bird that kept flying into the sliding glass door. I went out to see, and sure enough this poor bird keeps flying into the window. We thought maybe he was hurt and was having a hard trouble flying, but no, he would fly away and then come back to do it again. The bird did this for a few days, until we got to the point where you just got use to the noise. Lucas liked it, he was sure to let us know when the bird was there. I have not heard or see the bird for a few days, but yesterday I heard it again, I went to investigate and sure enough there was the same bird at it again. Poor bird he probably has brain damage.

Ant Invasion

2011-05-25T13:11:00.006-04:00

I love spring/summer, it is my favorite time of the year! But with every season there are pros and cons. Though there are several pros associated with spring/summer, there is a definite con, ants. The ants here are huge, were talking about some serious AOUS's (Ants Of Unusual Size). Every year at about this time, we find ants wandering around in our house. They are usually in the downstairs bathroom, but this year they have decided invade uncharted areas of the house. Recently we have been finding them upstairs in our bathroom. Every time you go to the bathroom, you are sure to see at least one ant, if not more. You know that feeling you get sometimes when you feel like something is crawling on your feet, well now every time I feel that I get a little jumpy, thinking I am going to look down and see an ant crawling on my toes (this has happened more than once). It is a little bothersome. Fortunately we have our own little "ant spotter", who can spot an ant several feet away. It is pretty impressive.