CRAZY FUN CHRISTMAS

He likes to build houses, so he arranged the presents to suit his needs, then he is firing his super blaster from his new bunker.

Our Costumes, Mary, a Wise Man, and our Star-baby Jesus

Super-shepard-man

Lucas's first Letter to santa. He has been on a kick where he thinks it is hilarious to close his eyes when I try to take a picture of him.

I transcribed his wishes as follows: Can you give me presents for toys? I could like a Reindeer in the snow. I could likes some diggers in the snow Thank you for your help. I'll leave you something to eat.

Santa brounght me Diggers!

Lucas was gracious enough to tear open James's presents for him.

The destruction

Christmas was so much fun at our home. We enjoyed blending traditions from all our family. Christmas Eve we had shrimp and munchies. I made my first cheese ball, and it was pretty good. We re-enacted the nativity, and then watched the Nativity movie made by our church. Lucas had fun doing both. By the end of the evening he turned his Shepard and wise man costumes into Supershepardman. Lucas picked to open up a Nerf gun, and played with that all evening until we made him go to bed. Adam and I watched Annie in our attempt to stay up for Santa. Then we had a snack and went to bed. In Adam's family the kids had to stay in their room to wait for Mom and Dad to get to where they could watch the kid's reactions. We decided to follow that tradition. I set myself up on the couch and was feeding Lucas and Adam helped Lucas come out of his room. Our regular video camera footage of the event is longer, but the digital camera was cut short because James started to choke on his breakfast. Lucas was really happy when he discovered that Santa ate his cookies, drank his milk, and took the carrot for his reindeer. It was so much fun to spoil the boys. It is really fun to have Little kids around who get so excited about the event. We played with toys all day then had a ham dinner, which was also very tasty. Ahhh, I love the holidays, I wish we could set up the tree and stuff earlier, the anticipation is a lot of the fun. Anticipation of anticipating the holiday is fun too, so I'll start that for next year now.

Here is the video

We have had a really fun winter so far. It had been unseasonably warm until just recently and then it got really cold. (Is this familiar to you?) When I was little we lived near the mountains and forests. At Christmas time we would go out in the woods and pick out a tree on snowmobiles, or just on foot. I miss that tradition. In Kansas there are no mountains, and no forests, so we went to a Christmas tree farm to get as close to the experience as possible. Lucas got to pick between two trees that Mom and Dad liked.

Then Dad chopped it down.

Then we carried it home and put it up.
It snowed the other day and after it had a chance to thaw a little it was sticky enough to make a snowman, so Lucas and I headed out and made a little snowman with what snow was left. He really relished the experience, and hunted for more snow so we could make anther. At that point it we were cold enough we went inside to warm up, but Lucas cried because he wanted to find more snow and make yet another. Cute Kid.


Grandma Brailsford and Aunt Lizzie came for a visit, and Lucas was almost stimulated out of his socks. He had a hard time holding still, and we all loved having them for a visit. Lucas got pretty spoiled, but that is o.k. because Grandmas don't have to raise grandchildren, just enjoy them. Moms and Dads are the ones who have to make sure behavior is good. It was really fun to have them here, and we were all sad when they left.

Making a Gingerbread house

Eating gingerbread house, I can't figure out which one he enjoyed more.

We spent our Thanksgiving with just each other, the fab four. It was really fun to make all the food with Adam. We made a thanks wreath out of paper leaves to help Lucas understand what the holiday was about. We listed things we were thankful for and glued them together, and left it on the table. We played soccer in the back yard and then chowed down on our day's labors. Adam was so excited about carving the turkey, he decided he needed a new knife. He went to the store and picked one out, came home and sharpened it. It was really cute how excited he was about the process.

Dad took a picture of Lucas and me.

James had a good day, this is how he spent Thanksgiving dinner.

Using the cool new knife

Playin' with Dad. Mom and james went out too, but we are behind the camera.

Grandma Lyman- Lucas loves the shin guards, thank you very much.

More pictures for the curious.

My Guys



I always get chocolate on my face when I eat it. The problem runs in the family.

Almost asleep


LUcas dressing himself, and being funny too.

Finding things to play with, the boots are on the wrong feet.

Things he is proud of

Little noggin, big noggin

Things have been fun and crazy at out house. Adam got a whole week off for Thanksgiving. With the new baby we did hardly anything--and it was fabulous. Here are some photos of the boys being boys. Lucas is really enjoys finding random things around the house and playing with them.

Brothers

I have been a little worried that Lucas will become jealous of James, but so far everything is going great. Lucas is such a fan of his little brother and loves to hold him. He wants James to come help tuck him in, and even wants to take naps with James in his bed (I explained that he can't do that for a while). I took some photos of the two of them. I want to get some professionally done, but I don't want them to get sick more, so I will wait a little longer. I have fun pretending I can do photography, though I know next to nothing. I set it up like I would a still life for a painting and attempt to make the lighting interesting, then start clicking away. It is nice because it is also stress free. My boys feel comfortable at home and they don't scream because they are scared.

Halloween

I am a little backed up with life's tasks, but I am finally getting Halloween pictures on my blog. Lucas had a blast. The picture with ink on his lips is from a stamp a friend gave him for Halloween. Lucas loved trick or treating, and carving pumpkins and dressing up. We went out with some friends for awhile, then we came home to pass out candy. Nobody came so we went out again because we had so much fun. At first he was really shy and we could barely get him to say trick or treat, but by the end he was yelling trick or treat. I can't wait for next year. I asked Lucas what he wanted to be next year and he said Bob the builder. That is my Lucas, Mr. Consistent. He was so excited to be Bob the builder, but when it crunch time came, he didn't want to wear his tools or helmet, so I will have to have him put everything on again and take some photos. I don't think very many people knew what he was, but Lucas knows exactly who he was and that is what we really want as parents (metaphorically speaking) right? And we found a rarity on our route, a house that gives out full sized candy bars. I have heard such gold mines existed by all during my childhood I never found one. Well, this year we found one, and they gave out glow necklaces. I thought that was a great idea so that the kids were more visible. WE came home and let him have a few pieces and then he went to bed really easily. Now we have a lot of candy, and a three-year-old who wants to eat it all in one sitting.

There are a lot of kids in our neighborhood, and the parents wanted to go with them, or the people who live around the kids didn't want to be bothered by them. Either way, there were a lot of houses like this one who just put the candy on the porch with a sign.

Lucas wanted to make a scary pumpkin. I let him pick out the eyes, and nose and mouth.

Lucas painted his own pumpkin

He really enjoyed spending time with our creations. I left one alone so I could have a fall decoration, they'll all end up as pie though.

He's Here!--a little early

I know, I know it is such a beautiful and flattering outfit on me. Where do you get one? Ask a nurse, I have no idea. By day two I was so tired of worring about flashing people, I put on my own clothes.

James Knight Lyman came on Thursday November 6th, at 12:48 p.m. I woke up at 5:30 a.m. with contractions. They were a little stronger than I remembered with Lucas. Adam was concerned, but Lucas took a while to come after I felt contractions, so I let him go to work. We were planning on going to the hospital about noon. I called my friend Amanda who was going to watch Lucas for me and told here I thought labor had started. We planned for me to get ready and go chill at her house in case I needed a quick ride to the hospital. I showered and did dishes, but soon realized that Adam would need to come home before noon. I called him at about 8 and asked him to hurry the contractions were about 5 minutes apart and getting significantly more painful. So we packed up the car and dropped Lucas off and headed off. We were upstairs in the hospital about 9 and I was dilated to about 6 cm. I asked for an epidural and got one about 10. It was wonderful. We watched part of Batman and just chilled. My doctor was on vacation and his back up was busy so a third, complete stranger was called to deliver me. I was complete about 11:45ish They broke my water about noon, on his lunch break and I could tell it was going quickly. After three or four pushes, James entered the world. 6lbs. 13oz. and 19 inches long. It was really wonderful and pretty easy compared to going o'natural. Lucas was really excited when he came to the hospital to meet his brother. He was really curious about his new little sidekick. We stayed in the hospital for just over 24 hours. Home is much more comfortable with better food. Lucas is an adoring older brother who can't wait to wake up and come see James. The transition hasn't been very hard except Lucas was mad at us for about a day and a half and was being a real pill. I sat down and talked to him. It turns out he was mad because we left him. We chatted about it, and his behavior has improve a ton. I am so proud of him for how selfless he has been during the change.

Inside

Outside, still a little gooey

Getting cleaned up

Chillin' with my Daddy

Lucas is a huge fan of dancing, and I finally caught a good representation on our camera. I laugh and laugh when I see it. The dance style changes when the music style changes. Funny, funny funny.

PARTY

In anticipation of having the baby before Lucas Birthday, we had Lucas' third birthday party last Saturday. It was SO much fun. He requested a Digger theme, no big surprise there. I made street signs with diggers on them for the decorations because oddly, there aren't many birthday kits in the stores for kids in love with construction. I did find some online, but it was too late. We made little goodie bags for the kids and Lucas helped put them together. I made a digger cake, I notice while the end result isn't something I am going to post on Google images, it is something that I really, really enjoy. We planned games and I blew up over 100 small balloons. The kids raced to pick them up, and then we flung them all over the room. After that got old we played parachute with a sheet and gathered all of the balloons onto the sheet then shook them all over again. This was a huge hit with three-four year olds. We played hide and seek, hiding under the bed soon became a favorite. We also hung fruit roll-ups off of strings and had the kids try to eat them without using their hands. It was really funny to watch. We opened presents and Lucas got spoiled, thank you very much to all of you for being so kind to him. Then we had cake. He blew out his candles very well without spitting on the cake, and that was groovy. I was so happy to have a chance to do this for him before the baby comes. He is such a good little boy, and I think he really enjoyed himself, I know I did.

1. Where is your cell phone? Hiding, waiting for me to have to search for it.
2. Where is your significant other? Bringing home the bacon
3. Your hair color? Brown
4. Your mother? is awesome, and one of my best friends.
5. Your father? is really great at supporting me and listening to my yack to him on the phone.
6. Your favorite thing? Cuddling with my boyz
7. Your dream last night? I can't remember but they have been really weird lately. Lucas' dream interrupted mine because he had monsters that were trying to get him and needed help re-applying the monster force-field so he could go to sleep
8. Your dream/goal? To have two cars, but still ride my bike because I want to.
9. The room you're in? office
10. Your hobby? Exercising and trying to make new things.
11. Your fear? Losing a child or my husband
12. Where do you want to be in 6 years? With my family.
13. Where were you last night? Hanging out with friends at home.
14. What you're not? un-opinionated
15. One of your wish-list items? A super pimpin' road bike
16. Where you grew up? Wyoming and Colorado
17. The last thing you ate? A bite of Lucas' Ice cream
18. What are you wearing? Whatever fits my growing body, Layered T-shirts and some capris that will still fit around my belly
19. Your TV? Is off.
20. Your pet? we don't and won't have any. I will have two children and a house, that is enough for me.
21. Your computer? is starting to die.
22. Your mood? peaceful
23. Missing someone? Yes, I have been thinking a lot about my family today specifically my brothers.
24. Your car? Mazda Protege
25. Something you're not wearing? socks, it isn't that cold yet.
26. Favorite store? Target right now because it is all shiny and new in Derby. Plus, their toy section rocks.
27. Your summer? Fantastic, I had the best tan of my life and mostly ignored real responsibility to play with Adam, Lucas and friends. We had a couple of great vacations.
28. Love someone? YES!!!! I love lots of people, I am really blessed.
29. Your favorite color? It is called Quinacradone Rose for you painters out there, it is close to the inside of a watermelon
30. When is the last time you laughed? Today, Lucas is always doing silly things
31. Last time you cried? I can't remember, but being pregnant I know it wasn't too long ago. And I am not surprised that I don't remember when it was, I hardly remember anything these days.

I tag: anyone who wants to answer these questions because they want me to read them.

Well we are going to have another baby in four weeks, but this is our other project. We grew our yard from seed over the last month. I babysat it everyday and watered it three times every day (at least) to keep the seed wet. It was really overwhelming at first, but it got better as time went on-sort of like a new baby. We mowed it for the first time today. I am very pleased with the results, now we need some trees. We bought an oak, but we are waiting another week or so to let the grass be as developed as possible before we bother it by planting a tree. It is so nice to look outside and not see weeds or empty dirt.

Lucas is in love with diggers, many of you already know this. We spend a lot of time with Scoop and Bobcat, the names of his two favorite diggers, in the sandbox because all of his other dirt got turned into grass (I think he will be less sad about this once he gets to play on it). We got creative the other day and buried his feet in the sandbox, then we buried his legs, then we decided laundry was no big obstacle, so we buried all of Lucas under the sand. Before he could come back in stripped him naked and I carried him to the bath tub so I wouldn't have sand in my carpet. A very, very fun time. Next summer we may have to add another bag of sand for all of the sand lost and washed out of his hair and clothes.


Taking a nap in the sand

Re-buring for a more comfortable possition.