Christmas Pictures

Here are a few pictures we took at Christmas. We didn't do a very good job with taking pictures this year. There aren't any of most members of the family. However, Luke was well documented. We hope to get better about taking pictures with our new camera.

We're Back

Well, we decided to return to the site of our first blog that we started way back in 2005. The Mac program we were using for our previous blog was just not user friendly enough (for me) and we got a new computer for Christmas that---gasp---isn't a Mac! So, it just made sense to return to Blogger. Hopefully people will visit us over here. The old site will be up a few more months with the link for this blog.

We had a wonderful Christmas with all of our family. We celebrated Christmas with my side (Suz) two weekends before Christmas because the Olsons were headed to Minnesota the Saturday before Christmas. It was a lot of fun. Mark got Guitar Hero and we entertained ourselves with that. Luke and Lily got several fun new toys.

We spent Christmas morning at home so Luke could see what Santa brought him. He got a basketball hoop and a few other things. Later that morning we drove to Temple to spend a few days with Mark's family. It was a lot of fun. Luke and Molly played a lot together.

Mark also got Rock Band for Christmas, which is a blast to play on Playstation 2. There can be 2 guitarists, a drummer, and a singer all playing at the same time. Here is a picture of Mark, David and Jake playing Rock Band yesterday at David's house.

I bought a new Digital SLR camera with some of the generous Christmas money we received. After much debate, we went with the Nikon D40. It is pretty intimidating because there are so many buttons but I hope to learn how to use it to its full potential. I was just so tired of the shutter lag with our other digital camera and missing all the cute shots of Luke. I plan to post a lot more pictures as soon as possible.

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas!!!

Thanksgiving

Little Big Man on Campus

Luke and I visited Mark on campus one day when the weather was nice and cool. Luke was a big hit. A group of students studying nearby came over and asked if they could play with him. He was more popular that day than his mom and dad ever were at college.

Once again, I haven't done that great of a job of updating the blog. Hopefully we still have some readers. :) We are really looking forward to the upcoming Thanksgiving holiday and spending time with both sides of our family. We may be on the road a lot, but it will be fun to see everyone. On Thursday, we will be in Granbury at my Aunt Dixie Lee's house with my Dad's side of the family. That evening we will go to Belton and see Mark's family and spend the night and Friday with them. On Saturday we are driving to Brownwood to see my Grandparents.

Luke is talking so much. I don't even know how many words he can say now. He says new words all the time. Yesterday he said "football" and "horsey." For some words, he says his own version of the word, but I still know what he means. He never really took to the whole signing thing, but when he is done eating and wants out of his highchair he says "ah du" (translation: all done). He also LOVES to be outside. He goes to the back door and says "out" over and over. Now that the weather is more pleasant, we have been going outside more. Grammy and Paw Paw brought him a little slide that he is enjoying. Regardless of how long we spend outside, he cries when we bring him inside.

We joined a church near our house called Celebration Church. We have been visiting it since Easter and decided to join. We really like it. However, last Sunday was the first Sunday that Luke didn't make it all the way through the service in the nursery. They flashed our number on the screen about 15 minutes into the sermon and when we left the sanctuary a lady was holding Luke in the lobby and said they just couldn't get him calmed down. So, we had to take him home. Every other time we have gone, Luke has loved the nursery. So, I'm not sure what was going on. Hopefully it was just a one time thing.

I have been subbing once a week. I think I may have said in a previous post that subbing was like a "walk in the park" compared to teaching in inner-city Austin. Well, I think I may have overstated that a bit. It's definitely not a walk in the park and a few days I have come home with a migraine--but I just remind myself that it is only one day out of the week.

Mark and I are pretty bummed about the writers' strike going on in Hollywood. This last week was the last new episode of "The Office" until the strike gets resolved. We will really miss our shows (especially "30 Rock") if they area all reruns soon. It looks like "LOST" is going to still come on, but we may just get half a season.

Happy Thanksgiving

Lukes' First Costume Party

Luke attended his first costume party this past weekend. He went dressed as Nemo from the Disney movie, “Finding Nemo.” He looked so cute waddling around in his costume. Our friends, the Ashcrafts, hosted a really fun party. All of the babies in attendance looked so cute!! It was really fun just to watch them play and interact in their costumes. Luke kept his costume on for a while before he finally started to get fussy and we took it off. Shauna and Jeff came dressed as farmers and Lily was a little piglet. She was too cute!

Here is a cute picture of Luke and Lily. Click here to go to the web gallery to see more pictures from the party.

Luke just got in four of his top teeth all at once. We thought he was only getting in two teeth at once. But one day I caught a glimpse inside his mouth and saw that all four were coming in at the same time. So, he was a little more fussy than normal for about a week and didn’t eat well. But now he is back to his old self. Also, in the last week, Luke has learned to bring us books if he wants us to read them. Usually we would just sit in his room and I would read the ones that were his favorites. Now, he brings us books one by one and wants us to read them. He even is pretty good at keeping track of what we have read lately and will throw a few new books into the mix. But he makes sure his favorites (Hello Hook ‘em, Silly Sally, Baby Noah World Animals, and The Very Hungry Caterpillar) are read very often.

I started substituting for Round Rock ISD last week. Grammy (aka Sharon) watched Luke so I could sub for 2nd grade at a school near our house. The plan is for me to sub once a week. My time teaching first grade in inner-city Austin made this day subbing seem like a walk in the park. I am subbing at the same school tomorrow. I am so excited that it is finally fall and we have some cooler weather. Now we can actually spend some time outside.

So Much for a Fall Festival

On what was quite possibly the hottest day of the year, we attended a “fall” festival with the Olsons and our friends, the Johns, in Marble Falls. It was so hot! All of the babies had red cheeks and we only lasted about an hour in the heat. We got a few cute pictures of Luke, Nathan and Lily. Our attempts to get all three of them in one picture were pretty unsuccessful, as you can see below. Luke got to see horses, goats and chickens.

In other news, Luke is walking about 95 percent of the time now. He took his first real steps about a week before his first birthday. Then over the next few weeks he has started walking more and more. His favorite things to say right now are “apple” and “hat.” He got a UT baseball cap from Jo for his birthday and ever since then he has said “hat” or “at” about 100 times a day. He calls everything either “apple” or “hat” or both. He also says “ight” (light), “anana” (banana), and a few other words. Last night, we were reading him his favorite book right now, Hello Hook ‘Em, and he said his own little version of “hook’em” it sounded like “oo ka.” It was pretty cute, and Mark was pretty excited.

We are glad Grammy and PawPaw are back from England safely. They brought Luke an official British soccer uniform (or “soccer kit” as they call them over there), a cute hoodie that says “England Rugby,” and some Wellingtons (rain boots). Everything is adorable and I can’t wait for Luke to play in the rain one day in his “wellies.”

We have been invited to a costume party for Halloween. It will be a lot of the babies and parents from the playgroup I attend. I can’t wait to show off Luke’s costume that he got from Nana and Papaw. I also can’t wait to see little Lily in her costume too. They will most likely be the cutest things anyone has ever seen. :)

Happy First Birthday!

Luke turned one year old on Sunday!!! We turned his birthday into a three-day celebration. I took the day off on Friday and went to Gymboree with Luke and Suz that morning. He had a lot of fun playing on the slides, chasing balls,

playing with the other 10-16 month olds and “singing” the Gymboree songs. I don’t know who was more exhausted afterward: us or Luke. I actually took a drink of juice out of Luke’s sippy cup afterward. It was quite a workout.

We celebrated Luke’s birthday at our house on Saturday. He received lots of fun new toys, books and clothes and enjoyed his Longhorn birthday cake.

On Sunday morning, Suzanne and I sneaked into Luke’s room and
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prised him by singing “Happy Birthday” to him. He started doing his little dance in the crib as we sang it. We got ready and headed to Red Lobster for a special birthday lunch, then to Sandy’s Shoes for a new pair of Stride Rite shoes (he’s already wearing size 5 shoes) and then over to Terra Toys to look at all the crazy toys, books and dolls.

You can view photos from the birthday party by clicking here.

Luke heads to his one-year check up on Tuesday, so it’ll be interesting to see how much he’s grown since June.

Cute Video of Luke

Here is Luke’s birthday invitation. I think it turned out so cute. Shauna and Jeff made it since they have Photoshop Elements. I can’t believe he is turning one! As you can tell, we went with a Texas Longhorn theme for his first birthday. We decided to keep the party small and just invite family since we don’t have an abundance of space at our house. I know Luke will have many fun birthdays in his future with all of his friends as well as family.

In other news, Luke took his first steps this past weekend! He took about 4 or 5 steps on Sunday on his own. He still prefers to crawl most of the time but I think he will really start walking soon. Also, we joined Gymboree last Friday. I think it will be really good for him. There is so much to do and he really seemed to enjoy all the fun songs and activities.

Click here to see a few recent photos of Luke. Below is my favorite recent picture of Luke with Mark. I think he looks so much like Mark in this picture.

Here is a cute video of Luke laughing at dinner. It is guaranteed to make you smile. You can also view it by clicking here.

iPhone

August 2, 2007 will go down in history as the third happiest day in Mark’s life. He bought an iPhone. I have mentioned before that he is slightly obsessed with all things Mac. When it was first announced in January that Apple would be releasing a phone this summer, Mark checked several DAILY websites for updates on the iPhone, listened to multiple podcasts about the iPhone and even went so far as to print out a paper model of the iPhone. After playing with his new iPhone for several hours on Thursday night, he finally came to bed and said, “I love it even more than I thought I would.” I am really happy for him. It is pretty cool.

Two weekends ago we attended my ten-year high school reunion for Kingwood High School. I figured it would be weird and awkward—and I was right!! Perhaps it was a self-fulfilling prophecy—but I did not enjoy my time there. All my old high school insecurities returned in full force. But I’m not sorry we went, because I think I would have always wondered about it if I hadn’t gone. The best part was that I got to spend quality time with my best friends from high school before the reunion and I rarely get to see them.

So it was worth it just to see them. Plus, I did see some people I hadn’t seen since high school, so that was fun. But you can only catch up so much at a reunion. I was so thankful I had Mark there to talk to and pretend like we were really engrossed in conversation so I didn’t feel like I should be mingling. It really reiterated my desire to find someplace (neighborhood, suburb) to live permanently, so Luke and our future child can really feel like they are from someplace. My friends have lived in Kingwood since early elementary school (at least) and they saw friends and people they have known since they were little. I moved there in ninth grade, so I really don’t have the history they have. I always say, when asked, that I am from Kingwood, but I really don’t feel like I am from anyplace. So, I want to put down roots somewhere so our kids can know they are from someplace and go to elementary school and high school with the same kids.

Luke is almost 11 months old. I can’t believe it! He is standing on his own quite a bit. He pretends like he needs something to hold on to, but really he can stand on his own just fine. He also stands on his tiptoes and can reach pretty high. I learned that the hard way when he managed to reach the cord for our iPod radio player that is on our kitchen counter. It fell on his forehead and made a bruise.

I still can’t believe he pulled it down. He went to swim lessons all last week and caught a cold somehow. So we didn’t get to go to the second week of lessons. He seemed to enjoy the lessons. He has learned to “jump” off the side of the pool when I count to three. He is so much fun. I just love his little personality.

Yard of the Month and Luke's New Tricks

All of Mark’s hard work finally paid off and we were awarded the Chandler Creek Yard of the Month award. In addition to the sign in our yard, we get a $25 giftcard to Home Depot. I am very proud of Mark. I feel very comfortable bragging about this because I had absolutely nothing to do with it. I have never done any yard work because a) I hate yard work and b) Mark is happier doing it himself. He truly has a talent for landscaping and just recently our good friends were telling him he should start a side business of landscaping. I am glad he is getting some recognition for his hard work in our yard. He really takes pride in the yard and it shows! (The picture above doesn’t do the yard justice, but I wanted to go ahead and post this before Mark could talk me out of it!)

Lily is just over one week old and is getting more adorable every day. She seems to be a really good baby and rarely cries (at least when I have been around). Shauna and Jeff seem to be adjusting to parenthood wonderfully. Don’t forget to check www.jeffandshauna.com and Shauna’s blog to see pictures and video of Lily.

Luke will be 10 months old on Monday! I can’t believe it. He is pulling up on anything and is into everything. He has been doing the traditional crawl a lot more lately, but scooting on his belly seems to be his preferred mode of transportation when he wants to get somewhere fast. He has another tooth now, which makes 2 teeth total. He has been trying all kinds of new foods. He really loved the refried beans and rice from Chuy’s the other day. We are having so much fun with him. He says, “uh-oh” and “up.” He also waves all the time. Click here to see some pictures from our summer so far, including Luke’s first Woodson family reunion and his first ever Belton Fourth of July celebration.

Born on the Fourth of July

Our precious niece, Lily Ruth Olson, was born yesterday, July 4, 2007. She is adorable. She weighed 8 pounds 2 ounces and was 21 inches long. Shauna allowed me to be in the room throughout the whole delivery, and it was absolutely amazing seeing my niece being born. Somehow Shauna lucked out and only had to push about 15 minutes (compared to my hour plus of pushing). We are so happy Lily is here and perfect and healthy.

Luke is doing all kinds of new things these days but I will post about those later. I wanted Lily to have a post all to herself. I know Jeff and Shauna will post pictures and video on their website once they are home and settled. Click here to visit their site.

Here are pictures of me and Mark with our new niece:

Here are the proud grandparents of two adorable grandchildren. They went from zero grandchildren to two in less than 10 months. It’s been quite a year!

Milestones

Well, unfortunately, it has been about a month since our last update. I guess I haven’t really followed through with my plan of updating more frequently. Luke is keeping us very busy. He is crawling all over the house! He doesn’t do the traditional crawl yet, but he does an “army crawl” scooting on his belly. It gets him where he wants to go, which is usually to the plants we keep in the house, floor fans and any cords he can get his hands on. We seriously need to baby-proof the house, but I’m not sure we can get rid of all the potential hazards. Luke also got his first tooth! He is so cute with his one little tooth.

We have gone to several playgroups. Now that most of the babies are mobile, they interact more and it is so much fun to watch them play together. We have been to the pool a few times. Luke seems to like the water, unless it is too cold. Luke will be nine months old on June 16. He is trying to pull up on things. He hasn’t quite gotten it down yet, but I know he will soon. Luke’s little personality is really developing. He is really social and he is very animated. He makes all kinds of faces. Here is a picture of Luke when he crawled into the bottom part of his exersaucer:

June is such a busy m

onth for us. On Saturday, my beautiful Mom turns 50 years old! I hope I look as good as she does when I am 50, that’s for sure. Mark and David also celebrate a birthday this month, on the 11th. Sadly, Mark will be out of town for his birthday. He has a work conference in Colorado that week. When he gets back, we get to leave for Luke’s first ever Woodson family reunion. We are so excited to introduce him to a lot of my family that hasn’t seen him yet. Then the weekend after that, I am going to Birmingham for my good friend Tara’s wedding. I am really excited to go and see my best friends from high school. It will be the first time I am away from Luke for more than a few hours. I know I’ll make it through, but I sure will miss him.

Shauna and Jeff are all moved in to their new house in Kingsland. It is really cute. The nursery for Lily is adorable. I hope Shauna will post some pictures soon. I cannot believe my baby sister will be a mom in just a few weeks. I can’t wait to see precious little Lily. Shauna and I figured out that Luke and Lily will be in the same grade at school. That’s pretty neat.

I’ll close with a picture of Luke wearing the little British soccer uniform David brought back from England last July. We’ve been waiting for the day he could finally wear it.

Shave and a Haircut...Two Bits

Okay, so the shave may be 15 years away, but Luke did get his first haircut on Wednesday courtesy of Grammy. She did a great job! Here are a few photos at Grammy and Paw Paw’s house.

Fun in the Sun!

Today we decided to take advantage of the hot weather and put Luke in his pool for the first time. The summer-like weather this weekend prompted me to buy Luke a pool, sunglasses, sunscreen, and Little Swimmers diapers. It was only 84 degrees after we blew up the pool, but I just could not wait to play with Luke in the water. The water was freezing! (Even after two bucketfuls of hot water from inside the house.) Luke had a great time but I think he got too cold and was really tired, so we didn’t get to play too long. But I know we will have lots of fun in the pool in the weeks to come!

April has been a busy month. May and June are going to be even busier. On April 17, Mark and I celebrated our 3rd wedding anniversary. The three of us went to Luby’s that night to celebrate. (Funny because we’ll probably celebrating the same way on our 53rd anniversary.) On Friday, Jim and Sharon (Paw Paw and Grammy) watched Luke so Mark and I could go eat at The County Line and run a few errands.

Luke is 7 months old now. He is not crawling yet, but I think he will be soon. He can scoot around on his tummy and turn 360 degrees.

He puts his arms and legs out like he is flying when he really wants to move to get something. Luke has also discovered “playing” the piano. He absolutely loves when we sit him down in front of the piano. He just bangs away. We can’t wait to get him in front of his Paw Paw’s new Steinway.

Click here to see all the recent photos of Luke. There are a lot of them. I have a hard time picking which ones to put on this website, so I usually just put all of them. We had Luke’s first professional photos done at Sears before Easter.

Random Spring Happenings

We don’t have much news to report. We took Luke to his six month checkup last week. He weighs 19 pounds 13 ounces and is 27 inches long. He is in the 80-85 percentile for weight and 75 percentile for length. So, he is a big boy. The picture above is Luke after a bath. The other picture is from the first playgroup that we participated in. There were 3 babies. Only one baby could crawl so Luke watched her mostly and played with his toys. We had another playgroup last week that was a lot of fun. I hope the playgroups continue on a regular basis. It is so nice to talk to other moms.

We will post a new photo album after Easter. I am sure we will have lots of wonderful photos to post. Luke has a special Easter outfit that Nana bought him, and I can’t wait for him to wear it. Shauna also gave him some bunny ears, so we’ll make sure to get pictures.

I finally finished the Picaboo book chronicling Luke’s first six months of life. It ended up being 63 pages long because there were so many photos I wanted to include. It is the closest thing he’ll ever have to a scrapbook.

If you haven’t read Shauna’s and David’s blogs lately, check them out because they have both recently updated. Shauna is so cute pregnant. In the last few weeks she has really popped out. It seems like every time I see her, her belly is bigger. I even got to feel Lily move one day.

Finally, thank you to all of the family and friends that commented on our last blog entry. We LOVE comments! In fact, it is pretty pathetic how often we check for new comments. So, all the comments really mean a lot to us.

Six Months Old

Luke turned six months old on March 16. It is amazing how fast he is growing. I can barely remember what he was like those first few weeks. Luke can sit on his own. He is talking all the time. He says, “babababababa” and “blahblahblah” and sometimes “mamama.” He is a great eater of solid food. We still have to take breaks with the bottle, but he does a great job eating his cereal, veggies, and fruit. This week, we introduced him to applesauce.

Luke and I were able to spend a lot of time this past week with Nana and Shauna because they were on spring break. It was a lot of fun. Luke and I spent Thursday night and Friday night at Nana and Papaw’s house. We went to Brownwood on Friday to visit my grandparents. Luke got to meet his second cousin, Xander, for the first time. It was fun to see them interact with each other.

Mark has been working in the yard a lot. He has had two Saturdays of uninterrupted time in the yard. He has things looking really good. He added stone edging to our flower beds in the front yard. Mark loves to work in the yard. I think most people view it as a real chore, however, Mark absolutely loves it. We will post some pictures of the yard when Mark has the grass up to his standards.

This week, Luke and I are looking forward to our first playgroup. I am having three other moms over to the house. Luke will get to play with an 8 month old boy, a 6 month old girl, and a 3 month old boy. I decided to bite the bullet, despite my paralyzing fear of rejection, and ask a few other ladies I know from church if they were interested in starting a playgroup. Fortunately they were. It should be a lot of fun watching all the babies “play” with each other.

Five Months Old

Click here for some photos of Luke from the last few weeks.

Obama-rama!

On Friday afternoon, Jeff and I attended the Barack Obama speech and rally at Auditorium Shores. Organized by Texans for Obama and the University Democrats, it was originally scheduled for Gregory Gym on the UT campus. Since Gregory Gym only holds 5,000 people, they quickly changed venues once the registration for the speech began. Good thing they did. 20,000 people showed up on Friday (in the rain) to hear him speak. That was more than the 17,000 who showed up in Springfield, Illinois to hear him announce his candidacy.

Here are some photos from Friday.