Messy Messy

I just came across a quote that reads, "Boy are 90% mischief, 10% dirt". I must say I'm starting to agree with that. Although "10% mess" would probably be a bit more accurate, at least from our experience. Luke is definitely more mischievous these days - getting into everything and anything and leaving a wake of destruction behind...toys, books, Tupperware, clothes, etc.. For such a small person Luke can create quite the mess! On top of it all, Luke is now eating table foods which, while freeing and somewhat entertaining at dinner time, is good and messy.

"No pictures please!"

"Mmmmm. Lasagna"

We have been venturing outside more and more now that the rain has stopped and the days are just, oh so lovely. Luke really loves being outside. He'll be whiny and acting crabby but once we step out onto the back patio.. Presto Change-O! A whole new Luke!

I bring out some of his more 'outdoorsy' toys for him to play with. But, alas, he would much rather sample the buffet of rocks and dirt that are in abundance in our back yard. (hence the 10% dirt reference)

Don't worry, he didn't spoil his appetite too much.

On the move from one dirt pile to another

A few weeks ago we got absolutely DUMPED on with rain! I'm not exaggerating when I say it started raining Monday morning and didn't stop until Friday night. And it didn't just drizzle either. We're talking full on sheets of water falling from the sky. Coming from the Midwest, I love the rain. There are times, living in CA, when I miss rainy days and thunder storms. That said, this weather got really old, really fast. (especially when it came to driving in it - ugh). On Friday morning Matt was going to bring our trash barrels to the curb when we realized we had a mini mud slide in our yard. lovely.

This picture doesn't really do it justice, but it's the best I could do. You can see the little canyon in the hill where the dirt used to be.

Another angle of all the lovely mud.

That's going to be a weekend project for another weekend. Until then we have our work cut out for us keeping Luke from the mother of all mud puddles and that's challenging enough. :)

Walk this way

Ready or not, here he comes! Yes, Luke is walking! We can hardly believe it ourselves. He took his first steps at about 8 1/2 months - he would cruise along furniture and then walk from table to chair to couch. Not much more than 2 or 3 steps. Now he's a ripe old age of 9 months and clearly prefers to walk vs. crawl. He can't stand up on his own so he'll crawl over to a piece of furniture, pull himself up and start terrorizing!

Christmas Part III

Christmas part III. sheesh. It's a good holiday to stretch out and all but enough is enough - time to move on to 2010. :) The last of my pictures from our Christmas vacation:

It snowed... a LOT while we were in Chicago. It really only snowed one day but it snowed ALL day. It was nice to be able to sit inside, drink hot chocolate and watch the snow fall since we didn't really need (or want) to be out and about.

I must say, I like the snow. There is a peaceful quality I connect to snow. That said, I'm glad I don't live in a place where snow is a frequent thing in the winter. That's right- I'm a 'wimpy weather' CA girl now.

Since Jung was along on the trip to Chicago we felt that we really needed to pluck him from my parent's basement and force him to experience pieces of Chicago. We lured him out with Korean food. Worked like a charm.

Nothing makes this kid happier than Korean food. Nothing.

We figured since Jung enjoys video games we would take a trip to Gameworks - the ultimate arcade. Jim, Julie, Matt, Jung and I spent the afternoon racing, shooting, ski balling (?), etc. It was glorious.

My dad offered to take Jung (and Matt and Jim) on a driving tour of Chicago. For some reason Jung had thought that we were going to Texas - originally he didn't connect that Chicago was a city, not a state. He was much more excited when he realized that is was Chicago, IL - the world famous city- not Texas after all. :)

There, finally done with my Christmas posting. Onto bigger and better things (aka: Luke's latest tricks and pics). coming soon.

Christmas Part II

So, I feel obligated to post about the rest of our Christmas trip seeing as how I titled the last post Christmas 'Part I'. It's not that I don't want to write about our Christmas trip - it was fabulous...once we finally got there and got over our sicknesses. I am just having a hard time figuring out what to write, what pictures to include, etc. I am severely lacking in the motivation department -not just with blogging but in many areas of life right now. Post vacation depression? perhaps. Sheer laziness? Most likely.

So, rather than try to write out a play by play of our time with the Thomson side I am going to simply post more pictures and perhaps write a little blurb about them, like the last post. Maybe one of these days I'll be a 'better blogger'... but don't hold your breath. :)

Without further adieu and in no particular order ----

Luke snuggling with Grannie Jannie. Normally he is too active to want to cuddle much. This would be one of the few (if only) 'perks' of being sick.

My dad has a 'thing' for trains. He built a track that runs around the sun room in their house and has an electric train that runs along the track. Luke was very entertained by the train running around the perimeter of the room.

Mom and Dad T - Making Swedish sausage. By the looks on their faces they are in the process of dicing up the onions.

opening presents - the first time in, well maybe ever that we opened gifts on Christmas Eve vs. Christmas morning. New generations = new traditions.

Again with the train. Only now their each wearing their conductor hats!

I'm not sure who had more fun, Pops or Luke.

Our futile attempt at a family photo. sigh

Loving the Tupperware drawer! The fact that we could peek through the other side made it that much more fun.

Playing - no, banging on the piano with Auntie Erika

Meeting 'Santa' on Christmas day.

(I have very special memories of Santa coming to my grandma's house every year on Christmas eve -my grandma had a santa suit -don't ask- and a wonderful neighbor with a real white beard and everything. He would dress up and come visit us every year at Grandma's house. The tradition continues!)

Luke was thrilled to meet Santa, as you can tell.

...almost as thrilled as Jung was to meet Santa. :)

How big is Lukey? SO Big!

Chilling on the floor with Uncle Aaron

Another attempt at a family photo. My brother has a rare disability -he absolutely can NOT take a nice picture. He MUST be making a face or doing something retarded in every single picture we take. (seriously, I have at least 14 pictures similar to this one with Jim making a different face in each one. I just didn't post them all). He still looks like a goober but this is as good as it gets.

Meeting Great Aunt Chris and Great Uncle Paul

Meeting Katy (T-T) for the first time in person

Kisses for Katy

Kisses for "Boo" as Auntie Erika was going to the hospital for the induction!

See what I mean about my brother and getting his picture taken?

(funny, you can't see it but Luke's shirt says 'are these people REALLY my relatives?' - classic)

First experience in the snow! I'm not sure what he hated more - the cold of the snow or not being able to move at all in that snow suit! And yes, Jim is trying to shovel up my son.

We didn't have a sled to pull him on so we improvised with the shovel!

Matt's face could be interpreted as saying "this is why we live in CA"

Ok, so there are still MORE pictures that I want to include (mostly for memories sake) but that's all the motivation I can muster for now. Thus, I am committed to a Part III. :)

Christmas part I

I have so many pictures from Christmas this year. You'd think it was a milestone year or something. Oh wait, it was - baby's first Christmas! It figures that I'd have way too many pictures. I'm just thankful that thanks to digital cameras I can see the pictures instantly and delete those that I don't want. Imagine how much I'd spend on rolls of film and getting it developed! yikes.

Anyway, I thought that I'd just post the pictures and possibly give a little narrative for some of them. If I wrote about all the little details it would take forever and probably bore most of you so I'm calling that good. :)

This first post is the batch of California Christmas pictures - events leading up to Christmas and our little family celebration. The batch of Christmas photos from our trip to my parent's house in Chicago is going to need to be a separate post!

It is a tradition in my family to make Swedish Coffee Cake at Christmas time. It used to be a major deal to bake this special bread but now with the gift of bread makers it takes very little effort in comparison. Luke helped me this year. Ah, Grandma Phillips (my mom's mom- 100% Swedish) would have been proud!

"Helping" by unloading all the bowls and tupperware out of the cabinet

Watching as the bread maker worked its magic mixing all the ingredients to create dough

Just before putting the coffee cake into the oven.

Luke was a little impatient, clearly wanting to get a bite!

"Is it done yet?"

The finished product

Luke's first taste of Swedish Coffee Cake.

I know, I know. He's not supposed to have sugar before his first birthday.

But it's Christmas and it's a tradition. Get over it.

I called my parents on Skype so they could share in the moment of Luke's first coffee cake

(I'm telling you, this bread is a big deal in my family).

I went back and forth about decorating our house for Christmas this year. Since we were going to be spending the holidays in Chicago Matt and I both had our 'Bah Humbug' moments, thinking that decorating for Christmas would be more hassle than it was worth, especially since we'd only be 'enjoying' the decorations for a week or so. Well, I figured that since it is Luke's first Christmas and Charles' first Christmas in the States we HAD to have decorations up... and they just might stay up until Valentines Day, we'll see.

Luke was more interested in the tree's box than in the tree itself. Surprise surprise.

Playing with the tree skirt.

Surprisingly he was not all that interested in the ornaments on the tree, or pulling them off the tree for that matter.

Luke quickly lost interest in the tree box when he found out how much fun it is to crawl underneath the end tables.

and coffee table.

(no, that is not Luke's tooth you see in this picture. He does have those two upper teeth now but what you see in this pic is a piece of styrofoam he put in his mouth. Don't worry, I got it out before he ingested it.)

Since Charles was heading back to Taiwan for Christmas vacation we wanted to celebrate the holiday together as a family before he left. So the first DeBoer family Christmas occurred on December 16th rather than the 25th. We had a nice meal and opened presents together. It was a little rushed since Matt needed to get back to Redlands for the school's Christmas concert but it was still nice.

Matt helping Luke open a present

Our little tree -nothing special. Maybe next year we'll get a real one.

Charles displaying one of his gifts

Jung, or Pebbles as Matt affectionately calls him when he wears his hair like this, displaying one of his gifts.

Luke waiting patiently as Matt opens up one of his presents. (he lost interest in all of 12 seconds and went off in search of wrapping paper/ribbons he could destroy)