A Santa sighting

I have a little story to tell about when we were at Cory's Grandpa Adrian's viewing a couple weeks ago. Adrian...he was such a smart, funny, and good man. He will be very missed.

The story has to do with Luke. I had forgotten about it up until tonight. I was with the kids in the hall outside the room where the viewing was taking place when an older man in a checkered red shirt with a big white beard came walking around the corner.

Can you guess what came out of Luke's mouth? "Mommy, it's Santa Claus!" His eyebrows were raised and had the most excited, starstruck expression on his face.

Halle heard what Luke had said and looked to direction he was pointing and said, "Oooooo!"

Luckily, Luke hadn't said it too loud and the man wasn't looking to our direction so I was pretty sure he hadn't heard. Trying to avoid causing a scene and holding Luke back from walking up and asking this man about Rudolph or something, I quickly agreed with Luke and tried to change the subject from further Santa talk. Luckily, it worked for the moment and the man walked away so we were safe. Fhew.

About a half hour or so went by and I had all but forgotten about the incident when from around the corner the Santa man came walking in our direction again. Luke turned to me with the same excited, raised eyebrow expression and said, "Mommmyyyyy...." looking back and forth from the man to me, kind of like he was deciding whether or not he should run up to Santa and give him a big hug or ask to sit on his lap.

The man was lingering at the entry of a hallway right across from where were were standing. He seemed to notice the looks he was getting from my kids and was smiling and seemed very friendly, but I wasn't sure how he would react to being called Santa Claus which was sure to happen if we kept standing there next to him. So there was nothing for me to do but grab Luke and Halle's hands and walk away from the situation as quickly as possible to avoid an unwanted awkward experience.

As we walked away Luke kept saying, "I cannot believe it! We saw Santa!" Yes, I agreed with him, one of the last places I would expect to see Santa too. So I guess the song was right...you better watch out...you never know where you might run into Old St. Nick!

"I'm working hard, Mama"

The other day I was loading some pictures on my computer when I heard what sounded like the bath water running. I thought Luke and Halle had been playing in Luke's room and momentarily panicked at the thought of the kids with water unsupervised. So I jumped up and ran back to the bathroom.

Bathroom door was shut - bad sign. I opened the door, stepped into the bathroom and immediately felt water seeping through my slippers. I looked down to see that the rug was soaking wet with water puddled up all over the bathroom.

Luke had a large cup in his hands full of water (one of those big hospital cups - probably the one I got when he was born) and was in the process of pouring water from it into the toilet with about half of it splattering off the edge of the toilet and onto the ground. Halle was standing right next to him completely enthralled in what he was doing.

I asked, "Luke, WHAT are you doing??"

He was very focused and barely acknowledged me before turning back to the tub and beginning to fill up his cup again. Over his shoulder he said, "I'm working hard, Mama!"

I could tell he wasn't being bad or mischievous, he really thought he was "working". Groaning to myself about the mess I would soon be cleaning up, but also not wanting to crush his idea that he was doing something important, I gritted my teeth and responded with, "I can see that."

I quickly intercepted the cup before he tried pouring water into the toilet again and told him he had put enough water in the toilet. He gave me a quick nod and said, "Okay, Mama, I'm done with my work!" Before I had a chance to say anything else he cruised off into the hall, with Halle (wet socks and all) toddling after him.

After I had a minute to cool down I did have a talk with him about how pouring bath water into the toilet is a no no. But I couldn't stay mad for long - the idea of him thinking he was "doing work" was too cute.

Crazy doctor's office visit

Waiting an hour at the doctor's office with a three and one year old who are hungry and tired does not go well! (at least for me) Wastebaskets turned over, dirt from pots all over the ground, smushed fishy crackers. I tried!!

Skeleton birthday party

Luke wanted to have a "skeleton birthday party." He LOVES skeletons. It all started with some singing skeleton Halloween decorations that were Cory's moms. They sing the song "I got you babe" and Luke and Halle loved them and played them over and over again. She ended up giving them to us because the kids love them so much, especially Luke. After Halloween he didn't want to put them away so we kept them out through the holidays.

When it came time for his birthday I thought it would be fun to let him pick a party theme for a family birthday party, and what did he want? He wanted a skeleton birthday party! So I decided to go with it, and he loved it! Both sides of our families were there, which was fun to have everyone there.

Here is the invitation

The singing skeletons that started it all

Luke had this balloon tied to his toe and didn't want to take it off to go to sleep, so we let him go to bed with it on. Silly birthday boy!

Luke's 3rd birthday

Luke turned 3 years old yesterday! We had a fun day. 

First, my mom and I took Luke and Halle to the Children's Museum downtown at the Gateway. The kids had lots of fun there!

Then when we got home Luke helped me make his birthday cake

Then we played with play dough (he loves play dough!)

And for dinner we had apples and pizza - Luke's favorite. 

We also got Luke a McDonald's fruit smoothie - he loves these! 

Halle got some in her bottle.

Then he opened presents

And we had cake!

We love our sweet, happy, smart, and fun Lukey guy! He is such a special boy and we are so grateful he is part of our family.

Grandma Lori says...

Yesterday we went over to Lindsay and Cory's to look at the ice on their roof. The fun part of the visit was that the kids were so excited to see us! They were jumping in front of the window when they saw our car. It's so nice to be so popular! Halle quickly sought out Gampa so I started playing with Luke. He wanted to play shopping cart which consisted of putting all their fake food in his little shopping cart and then going around the house, pretending to be shopping. We pretended to shop for bananas, potatoes, chicken, potatoe chips, fishies, chocolate milk and all sorts of other things. Of course all these items were "found" all thoughout the house. I think I spent about 45 minutes shopping with Luke before he was done with that. He is developing a great imagination and a great attention span.

Happy New Year!

We went down to St. George for New Year's and spent New Year's Eve at Cory's Uncle Matt & Aunt Karen's house. We had a fun time!