El Parque de Juegos (The Playstructure)

Mil Gracias... Many Thanks to Abuelo y Abuela and Grandma and Grandpa for the wonderful playstructure! They decided to "surprise" Lucas and Jonah with an early birthday gift of a fabulous outside playstructure. Lucas was so excited all day saying... "the playstructure is coming, the playstructure is coming!" When it arrived, of course in pieces, Lucas and his friend Hayden sat outside for quite some time just watching the two gentleman put it together. They were having the best time! I know it will get a lot of use over the next several months and years!! Thanks again Abuelos y Grandma and Grandpa!!

(Lucas and his friend Emarie)

(Jonah loved the swing)

Sunny California

We had a wonderful visit to California to see Abuelo, Abuela y Tia Deborah. Lucas LOVED playing in the sand at a local beach with Ryan and Tia Deborah. At first he was a little intimidated by the sand and the water, but after a few minutes he warmed up to the idea and enjoyed building a castle running in and out of the water.

(Tia Deborah the scientist showing Lucas a crab!)

Jonah of course enjoyed being thoroughly spoiled by his Abuelos and Tia. I think the only time he was set down was to go to sleep at night. (I think he wondered this week where everyone went!?)




My extended family: aunt, uncle, and cousins enjoyed meeting Jonah and seeing how much Lucas had grown. They all enjoyed seeing Lucas hit some golf balls and watch Tiger Woods at the Bay Hill Golf Tournament on television. (Yes, Lucas continues to be obsessed with golf... especially this weekend for the classic Masters Tournament.)

(My cousin Katherine and Jonah)

Ryan and I enjoyed visiting with old friends and having a couple of days to "sleep-in." It was especially fun to get the two "Jonahs" together for a group picture. Jonah the elder was a little confused every time "Jonah" was mentioned, usually referring to the younger.

(Our friends Alison and Kevin's little boy, Jonah)

Thank you Abuelos y Tia for a fantastic visit!!

Creativity at Work

Lucas LOVES to paint and the other day I decided to let him paint some old wood outside. He must have painted for a good two hours. He painted very diligently all sides of the wood. He also preceded to get paint all over himself... I guess using a paint smock would have been helpful! He has asked every day since then if he can paint! I am thinking I need to purchase some canvas or heavy paper and perhaps we can paint inside... if mom is brave enough!!


We also enjoyed the other afternoon making some bread. My dear sister sent me some bread recipes so we decided to try one out. Lucas had seen something in his little "High Five" magazine about making a "bread bear." So we tried it out. As you can see Lucas enjoyed kneading the dough. It was a little difficult actually making the "bread bears." I think we will stick to regular bread making. We will also have to perfect our bread recipe. The dough was a little yeasty, but you have to start somewhere right! I hope to do more cooking and baking with my sweet little boy! What a great way to woe the ladies right... with cooking!

Rodeo Fun!

We had a wonderful time going to the Rodeo this year with some good friends (Isabella & Diego Oliver and Reese & Matson Dowiak.) Lucas loved looking at all the baby animals and especially playing on the tractors... of course. Jonah enjoyed sleeping in his infant carrier while we toured around... maybe next year!

I think Lucas favorite part!! Driving the tractors... can we take one home??

For those not familiar with the Houston Livestock and Rodeo Show it happens once a year at the end of February/early March and it runs all day long and into the evening. Ryan had the opportunity to take Lucas to the evening functions which include, the calf scramble, bull riding, steer roping, and barrel racing. Apparently, Lucas was wide-eyed during the events. If you haven't seen a livestock and rodeo show before you must consider visiting us in Houston during Rodeo season!

Little Jonah at Four Months

Here are little Jonah's stats at 4 months. (Finally Jonah has his own post!)

Height: 25.5 inches

Weight: 14.3 lbs.

Head Circumference: 17 inches

He is doing well and smiled and kicked for the doctor!

Winter Wonderland

"Walking in a Winter Wonderland..." We had a wonderful time in D.C. this past weekend visiting Grandma and Grandpa and Grams. We even got to experience a little snow. Lucas had a wonderful time helping Grandpa clear the snow from the driveway. We were not quite prepared for a snow day but we made due. I think Lucas probably felt a little like "Ralphie Parker" from a Christmas Story all bundled up. With some extra layering, borrowed hat and gloves from Grandma and great waterproof tennis shoes, Lucas dashed outside to his first experience in snow!

Of course Jonah loved the snow as well... in mom's arms!

We really enjoyed Grandma and Grandpa's new kitchen, backroom, and bathrooms. They completely remodeled their kitchen and created a wonderful sun room in the back. It is beautiful and full of windows and sky lights. Their bathrooms of course are gorgeous and quite luxurious with heated tile floors!

During our time in D.C. we also visited with Lucas' "Madrina and Padrino" (Godmother/Godfather) Rob and Kathy and some dear childhood friends of Ryan's, Dan and Meg Creger. All wanted to see Lucas play golf. Rob is a huge golfer so Lucas and Ryan went to a golf store to purchase Lucas a new club...a real driver. You're not messing around with this golf club. The "head" of the club is quite large, perfect to hit the ball really far! The next day Lucas, Ryan and Rob went to the driving rang... or course and had a wonderful time. Maybe we should look into some lessons for little Lucas.

"Lucas the Builder"

For Valentine's Day Lucas' "Madrina y Padrino" (Godmother & Godfather) gave him a "Bob the Builder" DVD. He LOVES it and has been watching "Bob de Construye" (the Spanish version)since February 14th. Last Monday morning when I was getting myself ready for the day Lucas decided he needed to do a little construction work. He went to his room and got out his plastic toolkit he received for Christmas from Abuelo y Abuela. Did I mention "plastic toolkit." I am in our bedroom getting ready and I hear... bang, bang, bang. "Lucas what are you doing," I ask. He says, "I am fixing some holes." O.k. I thought... great, he will stay busy for a few minutes while I finish up. As I brush my hair and get dressed I continue to hear, bang, bang, bang.

Finally I am ready for the day and emerge from my bedroom... to find a nice neat pile of something white on the dinning room floor. I turned around to look at Lucas and noticed that the wall he was "fixing" now had hole in it. This plastic hammer had taken off the stucco and paint from the wall and Lucas had neatly swept the pieces in a pile on the floor. I looked at Lucas and had to laugh. He felt bad (I guess my initial reaction of a gasp worried him) and looked at me as though to say... what, I was just playing with my plastic hammer doing a little construction work like Bob the Builder.

We now have very specific areas that we can do "construction work" in the house with the "plastic toolkit." Ah, my little builder!