Lucas Growing Up

Here are some pictures of Lucas growing over the past few months. These stop just before his first birthday. These were all just random pictures I took, nothing important going on, just enjoy the progression!

Disney Princesses on Ice

Back in January, my friend Hillary found out about a deal where if you donated a pack of diapers, you could get a ticket to see Disney Princesses on Ice. We both thought our girls would LOVE the show, so we decided to do it. I found a nice deal on diapers, and got me and Clara tickets for the show for less than $10 total. Sweet! Before the show, we went to dinner at Buca di Beppo (no pictures of that) with the girls, our husbands, and of course, Lucas came too. Hillary had princess dresses, crowns and light up wands for both girls. They were both ready for the show! Clara had the same smile plastered on her face from the moment she put on the princess dress to the moment the show started.

Then she got a little more serious.

Mickey and Minnie were the first charachters to come out. As soon as Clara saw him she screamed "MICKEY!!!!!!" as loud as she could- she was mesmerized.

My cheap camera doesn't take the clearest pictures in situations like this, but there were all sorts of princess stories from Ariel to Sleeping Beauty, to Jasmine and Snow White and of course, Cinderella.

This pretty much sums up what Clara looked like the entire show. She had such a good time, but I think it was also a little overwhelming for all these characters that she knows and loves to come to life.

I think this show was all I heard about for 3 weeks straight after the show. Clara could not stop talking about it, singing the songs, and pretending to dance on ice like all the princesses. Every now and again she will bring it up again, and I am amazed that she remembers it. It was such a fun night. I would definitely go see another Disney on Ice production. Disney knows what they are doing!

Air Force Museum

One of the last days of Winter Break for Jordan, we decided to head over to Dayton and visit the Air Force Museum. We were excited to have a fun day out as a family, but I had a cold and was having some serious side effects from it. On our way out of town, we stopped at a Walgreens to pick up medicine. The only kind they had was a night time variety, so I spent the entire day in a foggy daze more interested in every bench that we passed and how nice it would be to lay down on one, than all the cool planes. Besides that little hiccup in our day, we had a lot of fun.

Since I am blogging this some 8 months later, I don't really remember a lot of details about the planes. The thing I am noticing the most, is how much my kids have grown up since then! While I may not remember a lot of details, I do remember thinking a lot of the planes were really cool.

The Disney exhibit was one of my favorites (surprise, surprise). It was really cool to see how Disney let the Air Force use its cartoon characters as a way to boost moral for the troops. It was fun to see all the different characters and how they made appearances. We had a few other pictures, but they were blurry.

We also really enjoyed the World War II section and the modern day warfare section. There were things from the war in Afghanistan and Iraq. Those exhibits were very touching, especially since there are troops still in those countries. I have such a profound respect and appreciation for all the people who serve in our armed forces.

We thought the name of this plane was kind of funny. We called Lucas "Jucas" a few times that day in honor of it!

I think this may have been Clara's favorite part of the museum. There was a family there with a big bag of coins and they were putting them into the coin twirly thing. Yeah, I'm not really sure what that thing is called. The dad was telling the kids how all the coins they put in there would go to help the museum. I thought it was cool to see this little family do that. I didn't have any coins on me, but I went and bought a few post cards and then me and Clara used the change I got back to have some fun with.

As I am writing this, I am sitting in the back yard of my parents house on a nice summer day while Clara plays in her little pool. With that said, looking at this picture of Lucas still reminds me oh how stinking cold in was that day! I remember running from the car to the museum and back again. Oh winter, how I do not miss you!

Winter Fun

Every time it snowed, Clara BEGGED to go out and build a Frosty of her very own. We had a very cold winter, but it seemed like there was never enough snow at one point to do a whole lot of snowman building. Or at least it never seemed to coincide with when Jordan had time. And lets face it, I wasn't going to go out in the snow and build a snowman! I don't like snow. I don't like cold. Nothing about that sounds fun. I will, however, go and take pictures, since they had a lot of fun doing it! First, we had to get Clara all bundled up. What a chore that is! I am surprised she can even move with all those layers on!

After all snow was gathered and formed into a snowman-like shape (Jordan pretty much did all the work for that), it was time to put on the face- a carrot nose, we used chocolate for the eyes,

and beans for the mouth- you use what you have! Clara loved it!

I am pretty sure her face says it all. She loved building a snowman and that was all she wanted to do for the rest of the winter, but this was the only Frosty that was actually built.
I am throwing this picture in because I like it! Jordan loved that he and Lucas had matching hats. They both wore them a lot during the winter. This was before church one Sunday. They both look so handsome! And Lucas looks so little, compared to now!

We Are Alive

Did you all think we dropped off the face of the earth? It kind of seems that way! But we are still here and doing well. I am going to attempt to catch up the blog on some of the things we have been doing for the last 8 months- yes that is right, 8 months. Wow, I feel like a slacker! Actually, for those who don't already know, I am 8 months pregnant right now. Yup, that's right. I pretty much dropped the blog the second I got pregnant. I just haven't had the energy, motivation, or will power to do it! But now I am thinking about a new baby making its way onto this blog, and there are so many things that we have done between now and then! The good and bad thing is, since I haven't been blogging, I haven't been taking as many pictures lately, so there probably aren't that many things to blog about! I guess we will see as I go through the pictures and reminisce about the last few months! So, you can ignore the next few posts, or you can enjoy a look at a few of the happenings from our life!