First Tooth!

Luke got his first tooth yesterday, at 5 months and 19 days old.  My little boy is growing up.

P.S. No more leaving his bottle propped up  when he wakes up to eat 4+ times a night (now I have to stay up with him while he eats every time).  Crap.

Christmas in Flagstaff

Per our usual, our little family had a little pre-Christmas Christmas morning the day we left for Texas to spend actual Christmas with the Fishers.  We flew into Texas last night.  We are so excited to spend 10 days with the whole Fisher clan!  And we started the trip out right yesterday morning ...

We got our stocking stuffers from Santa (my parents) in the mail.   My mom always does the best job finding the perfect funny little gifts to put in our stockings (e.g. a football-shaped bar of soap for Jeff and a little unicorn for me).  Here is Luke peeking into his very own 'stocking.'

 Luke got some great new toys, including the light-up musical one in this picture and an Elmo phone.  He also got an adorable '1st Christmas' ornament, some cute dinosaur bibs, and a Target gift card.

 Luke looks so excited.  I can't wait 'til he's really excited for Christmas.

 Opening my one gift on 'Christmas Eve' the night before.  It's an awesome cupcake book from Jeff.  I can't wait to try some of the recipes in it!

 Jeff's 'Christmas Eve' gift: a Wii game from my parents.  My Mom was happy to give Jeff and I cash so that we could choose and purchase our own gifts this year.  Jeff got a Wii; a cord, a gun, and 2 games for the Wii; and a nice new tool set.  He has already gotten a lot of use out of the Wii and he loves it!  So far, I have bought a big beautiful picture of Christ ('O Jeruselum') and a book of Family Home Evening ideas, but I'm waiting to spend the rest of the money from my parents until I know what Jeff's parents got me.

Jeff and Luke tried out Jeff's new game immediately after opening it, while I made brownies for Jeff's work Christmas party.

 Our stockings on 'Christmas morning'

 We got Luke a Pluto stuffed animal a few months ago and he loved it from the moment he saw it, but we only had it a few weeks before we lost it (no idea where!).  Santa brought him a new one for Christmas and Luke was very happy to have his old friend back.

 Luke had a good time teaming up with Mommy to open his gifts from Santa.  He got an adorable firetruck sweatshirt(picked out by his Daddy), a CD of primary songs arranged into soothing lullabys, a wooden truck puzzle, and he has a beautiful board book on the way.

 Jeff with all of his gifts.  A squat bar pad, 3 Wii games, a Wii zapper, a temple recommend holder and some sexy panties (which he is so alluringly modeling) from me; a Wii game from Katrina; a stud finder from Jared; and Target and iTunes gift cards from my parents.

Sleepy me with my gifts.  Jeff got me a vegetable chopper (no more chopping onions by hand!), beautiful jewelry, Josie and the Pussycats and A Muppet Christmas Carol on DVD, the full length mirror in the background, a food art recipe book (it's not in the picture, but I can't wait to make the fun snacks and lunches in it with Luke when he is old enough to appreciate them) and some really fun stocking stuffers (notice the Ring Pops and alphabet magnets).  The Target and iTunes gift cards are from my parents.

Baby Luke

 This was one of those times when I tried my best to savor the moment, holding my baby boy as he napped and looking into his sweet innocent little face.  I am loving watching him change every day and I'm so excited for what lies ahead, but I'm going to miss my baby Luke.

 Luke is such a happy energetic baby.  He would play hard all day long if we could keep up with him.

 He is so ticklish!

 Cute boy.  Not so cute Mommy.

 Luke's new thing is to bite my nose when I hold him close to my face.  What a little weirdo.

How could anyone be in a bad mood after looking at that sweet face?

Christmas Time

I LOVE Christmas time!  It is just a wonderful time of year (except for the snow, I kinda hate the snow).  With the exception of a 24 hour flu that about killed us (the flu is so much worse when you have a needy, teething baby and both parents are on their death bed), we have really been having a fabulous holiday season.  Luke just loves all of the lights and decorations.  And Jeff and I have had so much fun watching him try and take it all in.  

We bought a fake tree for the first time this year (for our first two years of marriage, we had a real one that we cut down ourselves).

After Jeff put the tree up, Luke helped me decorate it.  Well, mostly he just chewed on his stocking.

He loved watching me put the lights on the tree.  He didn't take his eyes off of the lit strand of lights as it got dragged around the floor.

The finished product.  I love the beautiful glow and warm feeling it brings to our apartment.

Stockings hanging over the fireplace

On the second weekend of December, I planned a little Christmas-y date night at home to get us into the Christmas spirit ...

I decorated with snowflakes and silver bells and had beautiful Christmas music playing.  For just $3, I was able to turn our living room into a winter wonderland.  [This picture really doesn't do it justice].  There were 12 snowflakes hanging all around the room, which I climbed on just about every piece of furniture in the house to hang.

This is my kind of 'white Christmas.'  I'm not such a big fan of the real kind.  I loved these snowflakes so much (Luke loves them even more) that we left them up.

For dinner, I made a yummy chicken bake, topped with stuffing.  I searched online for Christmas entrees and this is what I found.  It smelled like Thanksgiving.  As you can see, Jeff enjoyed it.

After dinner, we decorated a gingerbread house.

We used a kit.  Maybe one day I'll actually make the gingerbread.

Luke loved to play with the colorful, crackly bags of candy.  He shook them and flung them onto the floor over and over again.

When Jeff and I needed both hands for decorating, Luke was banished to his high chair.

And to his jumparoo.

The finished product.

I accidentally caved in one of the walls when I was trying to make that nasty fondant stick.  Whoops.

Next, we watched Elf, while snacking on delicious peppermint white chocolate popcorn (melted white chocolate chips; crushed peppermint candy canes; and red, green, and white sixlet candies).

My cute boys were out before the end of the movie.  It was a great night.

Luke is fascinated by the snowflakes, especially when the heating system blows them in circles.  He tries to grab them, but rarely gets a handle on them so he resorts to slapping them repeatedly.

I made fudge for the first time and gave it to the neighbors.

It pays to be kind to your neighbors because that very same day, they brought up some of their 'old' toys for Luke.  They said they wanted to make room for Santa to come and acted like we might not want their used junk, but every toy they gave us looked brand new and already had working batteries in it.

Luke loves this toy.  He's gotten really good at spinning it and usually doesn't let it stop spinning before he spins it again.  I love the concentrated look on his face in this picture.  This boy is always thinking.

Our awesome neighbors also gave us this classic toy.  Luke figured out how to spin those gears on the right side after I only showed him once.  I love watching my smart boy learn.

Luke loves this little piano from the neighbors (I kind of like it myself).  Not pictured: a firetruck that lights up and makes noise.  Luke loves all of his new toys.  Since the neighbors gave Luke such an awesome early Christmas, Jeff and I were off the hook from getting Luke many toys this year.  Thank you Steads!

Happy boy

Jeff thinks Luke's new sweatshirt makes him look like Al Borland.  I think it's cute.

Meat

These pictures are from the first time Luke tried meat, specifically, "turkey and turkey broth."  He clearly wasn't a fan, but he just kept taking bites and making these hilarious faces until Jeff stopped feeding him.  Silly boy.