Bath time is the best time...

Both kiddos have exzema and this time of the year is the WORST for it... so we grease them up with Aquafor about 3-4 times a day!

Daddy's turn

It is late (at least for us) and I have a sub tomorrow, so I am here at school making sub plans. This is the way it usually works anytime I have a sub, I wait till everyone is in bed, then head up to the school to get some work done. It can take anywhere from an hr to 3 hrs. Tonight is going to be a long one, so I took a break. Like many of you, my camera phone takes pictures that never get shared. So I took a little time to use the bluetooth on my school computer to upload some gems I need to share.

Enjoy

daddy and sophie's favorite thing... naptime. I was very tempted to get this shirt for Mindy now that she is married to a MU Tiger.

Lucas is going to be in a wedding this May. Here's the little stud trying on a tux.

One of Lucas' favorite things is to stop at the "basketball store" After shooting hoops for 5 minutes, he then tries on any helmet that is not packaged up.

MLK Jr Day means no school for us. After a quick trip to the store, we spontaneously decided to go duckpin bowling. It is pretty sweet. Here are the scores Lucas, Daddy, Mommy. Notice the weak start by mommy that turned into a steamroll. And for the record, only Lucas had bumpers.

Here's video of the duckpin adventure.

Puppet Show

Here's Lucas performing his own puppet show. He came up with the idea on his own while I was piddling around in the kitchen. Pretty creative I'd say. : )

Whoops.

One particular morning last week we all got up and went through our usual morning routine...getting ready...getting the kids ready, etc. As we were getting our coats on and heading out the door I noticed a message on my phone. 2 hour delay. Had to capture the moment before we turned around and crawled back in bed.
PS... Anyone else impressed that we can get ourselves ready plus 2 kids...and be out the door by 6:30 am???? Impressive.

Family Bonding...

When the 4 of us are home together in the evenings... the fun doesn't ever stop. Here are some moments I've captured from the last few evenings. Oh yeah!!! Sophie is sitting up on her own now... check it out!

3-day weekend...

We had a WONDERFUL 3-day weekend together as a family. So thankful for long weekends like this so we can catch up on things at home. The kids have been an absolute blast lately. Lucas has been very busy, playing basketball...and playing more basketball. The latest- he puts on his "basketball" shorts over top of his "basketball" pants. And he often doesn't respond to his name, anymore. We have to call him "basketball player". (Is this normal??!!) Just tonight we were playing bb together and I shot the ball and made it. Lucas said, "Good job, basketball player mommy!" Eric and I cracked up!!

Sophie's been pretty much sitting up on her own now. She watches Lucas run circles around her all day long and loves every minute of it. Sophie's also using her hands so much now... she picks things up, shakes them, eats them, drops them...and the cycle starts all over. Easily entertained- that's for sure.

Not too many pictures lately, but here are some of my recent favorites...

PS... Carol and Lisa (our neighbors) repainted and fixed up this table and chairs that they had and brought it over for Lucas. He LOVES it... you'll often find him sitting here looking at his toy catalogs or going through his basketball card collection. : )

PPS... oh yeah, we took Lucas duckpin bowling today for the first time. He had a BLAST!!!!

The escapee...

Now that Sophie has learned to roll over, she's gained the confidence to try other things, too. Like try and escape from...well, anything. This past weekend I put her down on her bouncy seat and walked away-- I came back and she's looking at me like this... Also, meals used to look like this with Sophie as our centerpiece. Now that she's so squirmy she knocks down or grabs anything in reach. So she's graduated into her high chair. Silly silly girl.

Catching up...

Since returning from our Christmas travels, the cold and flu have made their way through pretty much all 4 of us. Not fun. Not fun at all. But I think it's safe to say that we're all on the mend, and things are slowly getting back to normal. So here I sit... ready to update our blog. So much to say... so little time. (By the way, Missouri Christmas pictures to come. My camera died while there. Waiting to steal some of Alicia's pics.)

What's new... let's see. Sophie rolled over on Christmas Day!! Sophie had her first day of school (on Jan. 4th). Lucas' new favorite hobby is painting, and Mommy and Daddy are in desperate need of a date night.

First things first... Sophie now attends the TOTS program where Lucas goes each day. The great thing is, her room is right across the hall from Lucas', so he can keep a close eye on her every day. Honestly, the first day she was there, Lucas' teachers said he asked at least 5 times to go check on her to make sure she was okay. :) Sophie is getting along great and adjusting well. Yeah!!! Here's a really cute story we heard from the teachers today. Lucas' class was out on a walk in the halls when they passed Sophie's class on a buggy ride. According to Miss Brenda, Sophie "had only eyes for Lucas". I guess she just stared at him the entire time they passed each other. Pause. Sigh. I love these kids.

Here are some cute pictures of the kids recently. I say this over and over again, but they are at such GREAT stages right now. Sophie smiles the biggest smiles when you talk to her. And Lucas and I can have the funniest conversations about the strangest things... and we laugh and laugh and laugh.

This will have to do for now. I've gone over my allotted 10 minute blog time. Off to bed. Yes. 9:15. This is the new norm.