Belly progression

Only 2 1/2 more weeks till we meet Baby Chumley #2!

Christmas weather

It hasn't felt much like Christmas around here, but it's going to tomorrow. After very mild temperatures lately, including highs near 80 the past several days, tomorrow's high of 35 is supposed to occur in the morning, and the temperature is supposed to drop during the day. There's also a 90% chance of precipitation, so we might get a little sleet or snow, and it's not even December yet. Crazy!

Lukeisms

A few more funny things my child has said recently:

- One day he walked up to Gary and said, "Hi. How's your business?" If you ask him this same question, he usually replies, "Business is fine."
- We were in the car with G-Mommy & G-Daddy while in SC, and Luke said (and this is an absolute direct quote), "I smell something. It must be G-Mommy."
- On our flight back from SC, Luke said, "We're going back to Texas, the land of heart."
- He's been learning Christmas songs at school and in Sunday school, and "glory hallelujah" comes out something like, "glorly halleyuyah."
- Movie quotes:
*from Cars - "Thunder always comes after lightning." (His inflection on this is what's so funny if you've seen the movie, he says it just like Lightning McQueen says it to Chick.)
*from Madagascar - "You're a little coo-coo in the head."
*from Toy Story - instead of "To infinity and beyond", he says "Ode infinity and beyond" (and he'll correct you if you say it the other way)
- One night I let him watch about 35 seconds of The Amazing Race, and now he asks all the time when "The 'Mazin' Race" is coming on.
- When people ask if he's having a baby brother or baby sister, he says, "We won't know until it comes out."
- He kisses my belly and says at least once a day, "I love you in there, little baby."

Bonfire

Thursday night Gary made a fire in our fire pit & we toasted marshmallows. Luke had been looking forward to it since we mentioned it the night before, and he wasn't disappointed. He didn't really like eating the marshmallows and gave all of his to Molly to eat, but he got a big kick out of catching them on fire and blowing them out. It was a pretty warm evening, so it was nice to be outside.

Giving thanks

Some things for which I'm grateful . . .

1) A husband who:
- is kind and loving
- makes it possible for me to stay at home
- loves Luke dearly and is a super Daddy
- is very excited about Baby Chumley #2
2) A son who:
- is bright and articulate
- is the funniest person I know
- is sweet and loving
3) A family who is supportive and loving and is very anxious for the baby's arrival
4) Good friends, both old and new
5) A warm, loving, supportive church home

Happy Thanksgiving!

Thanksgiving feast

Today was the Thanksgiving feast at Luke's school. His class plus two others ate the "feast" together which consisted of a piece of turkey, cheese, fruit, corn, a roll, and juice. One class made pilgrim hats, and two others, including Luke's made Indian headdresses. I thought to myself on the way there that if Luke actually walked in wearing his "Indian hat" as he called it, I'd fall out of my chair. Sure enough, he was the ONLY child out of almost 30 who had no hat of any kind on his head. My child doesn't disapoint! His teachers & I laughed about it, because they know him well enough to know that's not unusual. He told them this morning that he wasn't going to wear it, and once he's made up his mind about something like that, there's no changing it. He did love the lunch and ate all of it, including an extra roll. One of the moms made turkeys out of cookies and candy corn, and that was by far the class's favorite thing to eat.
What a good tukey!

Chowing down at the feast!

All the Turtles, including their beloved teachers Ms. Cindy & Ms. Kristen.

Hangin' around

Here's what I found yesterday after Luke's nap. Notice that the monkey's holding two puppies. How did he ever come up with this?

Reminiscing

While last week was crazy & hectic at times, we really enjoyed being in Columbia again. Here are a few of my favorite moments:

-Seeing my family all at once. I love watching Luke play with his cousins.
-Catching up with a few of my teaching buddies from Dreher. I wish my good friend Liz could have come, but it was great to see Ellen, Francie, Julie, Jessica, Erik, Carol, & Jenny.
-Catching up with old friends. I love all my friends out here, but it's nice to be with people who have known you for what seems like forever.
-Seeing the sheer pleasure on Luke's face when he saw Cocky.
-Fun outings with Luke & Gary to the Zoo & EdVenture.
-Going to two Carolina games, even though we lost. Tailgating is fun, even at 8 months pregnant!
-Having our friend Kyle come out to spend the first weekend with us. He's an OU fan, but a football fan in general, and he came to the Tennessee game. He didn't bring us any luck, but it was fun to have a little piece of Texas in South Carolina.
-South Carolina style BBQ!
-Spending time with all of Luke's cousins - Lauren, Grayson, Brittany, Katie, Hannah, Benjamin, & Ethan.

We were certainly glad to get back home and get in our routine, but the week was filled with many great memories. See you in June, Columbia!

One last picture - Luke's Uncle Greg is a sheriff's deputy and brought this hat to Luke.

Part V - Family

One of my favorite parts of the week was seeing almost all of my family at once. It was the first time my mom & her husband, my Nana, my sister & her family, and Luke, Gary, & I had all been together. The kids had a great time playing in the backyard, and it was nice to catch up with my mom, sister, and Nana. I only wish we could have spent more time together.

More fun in a tree!

Cousin Ben

More fun with a rope!

Sisters!

Part IV - Halloween

What a difference a year makes! Last Halloween we had to carry Luke to almost every door, ring the doorbell, and say "Trick or treat" for him. This year, we just stood on the street and watched him run to every door, ring the doorbell, and belt out, "Trick or treat!" He had his older cousin Grayson with him, so that helped, but he was not at all shy this year. After almost every house, he'd announce how many pieces of candy he got and then say, "Look how much I have!" He went full-steam for about 45 minutes and then completely pooped out and had to be carried for a bit. He was, by far, the cutest Superman I've ever seen!

Gary's brother Greg made the Peanuts design in the background.

Part III - Junior Gamecock Club Halloween Party

GO GAMECOCKS!!!

Because we happened to be in town for Halloween, Luke got to go to the Junior Gamecock Club Halloween party at the Colonial Center. The kids wore their Halloween costumes and got to play games and jump in several bounce houses. The absolute best part for Luke was seeing Cocky. He LOVES Cocky and was literally squealing, "Cocky!!" when we were walking down the steps to the coliseum floor. He ran right up to him and was just so very excited to see him in person. Sure, it was fun to get candy and treats and do a bounce house obstacle course, but seeing Cocky was the end-all, be-all of our entire trip!

The future starting quarterback!

Eating dinner (and watching a movie on the jumbotron) with our buddy London, a.k.a, Woody.

Part II - Fun in a tree / fun with a rope

G-Mommy & G-Daddy have the best backyard! It's full of trees and even has a little creek with a bridge over it (that G-Daddy built, of course!) Luke loved climbing on the trees and exploring the backyard and the construction area back behind their yard. One day G-Daddy got out some rope, and Luke had a blast tying it from tree to tree and hanging on it.

Part I - Riverbanks Zoo

While we were in Columbia, we took Luke to Riverbanks Zoo. It had been a while since we'd been to a zoo since the Ft. Worth Zoo is over an hour from our house. Luke really had a good time. He fed a giraffe and lots of lorakeets. He loved it when they landed on his arm or head and got mad when Gary had more birds than he did. He got a big kick out of the monkeys that live on an island and scream at each other. G-Mommy & G-Daddy had fun being with him and watching him explore & enjoy all the animal exhibits.

We're back!

We're back in Texas after our whirlwind trip to South Carolina. We saw many friends and pretty much all of our family and had a great time. I've got about 150 pictures to download and sort through, so it might be a while till I post any. But I'll eventually get it done, so stay tuned!

Carolina on my mind

We're all headed to Columbia tomorrow for about a week and a half, so I'll be on blogging hiatus until we get back. We're very excited to see all our family & friends back in SC! We're going to catch two football games (go Gamecocks!), and I'm even going to get to see some of my old buddies from Dreher. I'll be sure to give all the details after we return.

It's a bird, it's a plane . . .

. . . it's Superman! OK, he is playing with a doll, but I think the man of steel's allowed to do just about whatever he wants. Luke's school held its annual Fall Festival today. The children got to wear their costumes to school, and they all kept them on for the whole day! They got to do lots of fun activities during the morning, from a bean bag toss to bouncing in a bounce house, and got goodies at each stop along the way. After the festival, each class had an individual party. Luke's class ate pizza & cookies and decorated a little pumpkin. Needless to say, all the kids in their costumes were precious! Luke & his buddy Landon were both Superman. Spiderman, Dorothy, a couple of witches, Minnie Mouse, Buzz Lightyear, and a princess all made appearances, too. I feel so lucky that I'm able to go to his parties and see how much fun he has at school.

Pumpkin carving time!

Luke & I carved our pumpkin today. He's been asking to do it for about two weeks, but if you carve a pumpkin too early here, it's likely to start stinking if the weather gets hot again (which it usually does.) Since we're leaving for South Carolina on Friday, I figured we'd better go ahead and do it today or we'd miss doing it all together. Last year Luke didn't have any problem sticking his hand in the pumpkin and scooping out the pumpkin goop, but he wanted no part of it this year. He did use a scooper to get some of it out, but in true three-year-old fashion, he was done scooping after about two minutes. After choosing the pattern, he helped me paint it on and helped cut the pumpkin just a bit. He liked it once we were done and is looking forward to seeing it tonight with the candle in it.
Scooping out the goop!


Mr. Jack O' Lantern!

Texas weather

There's a saying around here . . . if you don't like the weather, wait a while because it's sure to change. We've definitely experienced that this week.

-Monday's weather: cloudy, rainy, high of 75
-Tuesday's weather: sunny & very warm, high of 85
-Wednesday's weather: sunny & hot (almost 90) till about 5:00 when a cold front blew in and the temperature dropped to about 55 by 6:30
-Thursday's weather: cloudy & cool; high temp, 60
-Friday's weather: sunny and COLD in the morning with a low in the upper 30's; forecasted high is 71
-Saturday's weather: sunny and warmer with an expected high of 80
-Sunday's weather: sunny and cooler with an expected high of 65

I just finished a load of laundry that contained shorts, t-shirts, jeans, and sweatpants. Crazy!

Pumpkin patch

Today was pumpkin patch day! We went to the Big Orange Pumpkin Farm up in Celina, about 15 minutes from here. We fed longhorns, sheep, and lots of goats, took a hayride, ate lunch, and picked out a couple of pumpkins. Luke's very much in his weird smile phase, so he looks pretty goofy in all our posed pictures. I love capturing his natural smile, but it doesn't happen very often. On the way home he said, "I had so much fun at the pumpkin patch." I'd have to agree.

Daddy's little helper

I recently bought a bulletin board to put in Luke's room. Because the frame had a finish on it, it needed to be sanded before I painted it blue. So one night, Gary & Luke got the sander out and got to work!