9 Months

Luke is a busy 9 month old. He crawls incredibly fast with perfect form. Everything still goes into his mouth. He LOVES to eat (not having any teeth doesn't slow him down at all!). Sticking out his tongue and scrunching his nose are favorite faces. He is pulling up on things (mainly me) and likes to stand. He loves to empty buckets of Jake's toys and laughs hysterically when the other kids play with him. He went on the swings at the park for the first time and especially loved it when Jake pushes him high.



Luke is tall (90%) and lean (30 %) for his age, and of course, his gignormous noggin is just about off the charts (95%).

A lady stopped me at school yesterday and said while looking at Luke,

"Oh dear, you didn't have to birth that big head did you?!"

What can I say, we grow big brains around here :)

The Big Freeze

Earlier this month we actually had almost a week of really, really cold weather. Cold enough to freeze ice on our windshield in the mornings. Since I don't own an ice scrapper for my car, Michael helped clear the windows before school with a cd case we had in the car. Whatever works!

Taking advantage of the rare below freezing temperatures, Michael and his friend Tyler decided to camp outside one night. CRAZY! I was cold inside my house, with socks on (a rarity at our house!), but they had a blast.

Once the days got a little warmer, we ventured out to the park afterschool to meet some friends and get some fresh air. It was a lot of fun.

Of course, through all of the cold spell, Jake still refused to wear anything but shorts. He is a Texan boy for sure. Good thing for him the cold spell only lasted a few days and we are back to 70+ degree weather again!

Boxed In

Who needs toys when you have a box?

So this is why they call it a playpen...hours of fun, no batteries needed!

Ringing in the New Year

The Christmas holidays brought us lots of fun with lots of family. It was awesome!

First we got to play with Aunt Rachel...she "Rocks"!

She was even able to watch Michael play in a basketball showcase game after Christmas. It was great having having Rachel around for a week. ..and of course always hanging out with Grammy & Grandaddy too!

We had a blast playing & eating with our Houston cousins, the Meiers.

Luke has a new best friend named Ashley. Hayley took Adam to town on the Wii, Trevor went to town on the delish food and Jake just took Kevin to town :)

After Michael's post Christmas basketball games, we headed up to Dallas to ring in the New Year with the Bowman clan. My 3 brothers and their families, as well as my parents all gathered together for some awesome games, slumber parties, and of course, lots of food:)

First we celebrated a late Christmas with Grandpa & Grandmommie.

Then the cousins and Aunts & Uncles came callin'....

We had a blast ringing in the New Year together.

Luke checking out his 1st Pineapple Man

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

Christmas Fun

Merry Christmas!

Hope your holidays were magical too!

Two of My Wise Guys

Little Santa meets a "Wise Guy"

Santa Claus is Coming to Town

Saturday night was our church's Christmas party and the famous man in red made a quick appearance. I think this was one of the first years ever that we nobody was scared of .

Don't even think about eating Santa's beard Luke!

(and I thought it would be one of the older kids I had to worry about yanking the beard!)

Cute!

Kid tasted, Santa approved!

Special Visitors

Last week the elementary school had its annual book fair and grandparents day (conveniently moved from September to now to correspond with the book fair).

Hayley and Trevor really enjoyed having lunch with Don's parents and love their new books.

Thank you!!

It's Official

Luke is on the prowl.

Trimming the Tree

Earlier this month we decorated the Christmas tree.

It is always fun to find favorite ornaments to hang up.

Michael had the job of hanging the star this year.



Luke loves the lights and the tree.



What a perfect time to start crawling!
It will be a fun month of playing catch the baby...
or catch the tree if Luke is too fast!

Didya hear the news?

It snowed in Houston today!

We had some excited folks at our house.

We took advantage of our really light dusting of snow and put a winter's worth of play into a short afternoon of fun.

Snow Babies (& a mini snowman!)

Snow Angels

(someone really oughta tell that kid you don't have to do a snow angel face first in the snow! Rookie mistake!)



Snow Clothes...or lack thereof!

Snow Pudding

and of course, Snow Ball fights!

What a perfect way to start off December!