Birthday 2010

What a great birthday season I had! On Dec. 10th Seth and I went out for dinner at the Firefly Grill. It is a place we love and the food is amazing. I also had a glass of wine and Seth had an apple cider martini which was amazing.

Then, on my birthday, we had Chico's for dinner. We all love this. Luke will eat 3 tacos and Claire will eat 1.

Tonight, th 23rd, Kerri gave me her present. She came over and watched the kids in the afternoon so Seth and I could finish Christmas shopping. We got the last of the presents, furniture shopped and I got a haircut. Then she had everyone come over for dinner. She cooked our favorite pancakes and mom made the breakfast casserole. Tara brought fruit. Mom also made a yellow cake, my FAVORITE!!!

What a great birthday season! (Also, my joke this year is that this is my special birthday because I turned 33 and Larry Bird's number was 33!!!!!)

Christmas Concert

We went to the Nathan Clark George Christmas concert last night. We took the kids and Susan and Ray met us there. The concert was great, amazing, wonderful and beautiful. Luke and Claire were champs and sat and enjoyed the music. John wasn't feeling the best so Seth and I had to stand with him but he didn't fuss too much and throw any fits.

It was a wonderful time and has become part of our family tradition for the Holiday season! (It was our 2nd time. last year we went without the kids.)

Teeth

John now has his 2 bottom teeth.

Rolling Over

Well, John finally rolled over tonight. He almost rolled over earlier in the day. So, this evening we were all in the living room and I put him on his stomach. I was sitting right next to him and Seth was on the couch and we were watching him. Then Claire was running through or something and we looked at her. I looked back and John was on his back! We all missed it!! I guess that is what happens when you are #3.

Claire Thx Note

Classic Yellow Thank You Card

Shutterfly custom photo thank you cards and notes.

View the entire collection of cards.

the telling of stories

Luke loves to tell stories. Stories about things he draws. Stories about things he builds. Stories about things he hooks up. But, right now, he loves to talk and tell stories about Jackson and Nathan. These are friends of his that are pretend. He knows they are pretend and he will tell you so. He doesn't play with them. He just tells us about things they do or will do or hope to do...stories. It is fascinating because most of the stories seem to coincide with what we, or Luke, is doing, wants to do or has done. I love this story telling and imagination. I don't have it at all so I'm glad he does!

Claire loves to participate in his stories! But what she really loves is to act things out. She is dramatic! She tries to tell us stories too, but right now we don't understand them much. She will act it out and do sound effects. I love how she tells stories too because I'm not into acting things out either! Right now her favorite thing to do is "fall dead". She is very good at it too!

I love my kids for their imaginations!

Loving even more

I'm learning that Luke is a carbon copy of his daddy. It has gotten to the point that when we think about gifts for Luke I always ask Seth if he would have liked playing with it when he was a boy. If so, we go for it. If not, then we don't buy it.

Luke loves to hook things up and kind of create webs out of bungy cords, rope, dog leashes and anything else he can. One evening Seth was telling his dad about this and he recalled times when Seth was a boy that it was hard to get a car in the garage because of the web!

Right now I'm watching Luke play with a Lego tractor that Seth built, from a picture in his head and not instructions. Luke is adding trailers and building other sorts of things.

Learning more about Luke means learning more about what Seth was like as a boy before I met him. This is causing me to love both Luke and Seth even more!

Trying Again

Well, I haven't blogged in more than a year. Since then we have had John Atticus, born May 16, 2010!

The church we came to help and for Seth to minister to folded in December 2010.

We are loving our house and friends and family.

We are doing our best to enjoy these hard years of little ones and loving all their little nuanceses!

Claire's phrases:
JP's - for PJ's (pajamas)
Jusees - for Jesus
canpake - for pancakes
nene - for blanket
and she loves her dotty (dolly)!

Luke is:
coloring in the lines
feeding the dogs by himself
took Chestnut out to potty by himself

John has discovered his feet. He is very pleasant and smiley and loves his siblings!