December 21, 2009

My Silly boy...

John got Lucas ready for bed last Wednesday while I was at mutual. When I came home this is what I saw....

Yes...that is Lucas' swimming suit he is wearing OVER his PJ's. Apparently he got his PJ's on and then was playing in his room and found his McQueen "shirt" (as he said) and brought it to daddy exclaiming that he wanted to put them on....so he did. He even slept this way. Silly Boy!

America's Tallest Christmas Tree

The M Resort is home to America's tallest Christmas tree this year. Luckily for us the M Resort is about a mile from our house. The other day John decided to come home from work a little early so we could go look at it. Lucas loves Christmas trees and we thought he would really love this one too. He did....he kept saying," oooo big christmas tree" or "oooo pretty christmas tree". It was a hit!


This picture is from our house....to show you how close this great big tree really is and how huge it really is.

New "big boy" room

We finally got Lucas moved over into his new room in preparation for our baby girl to get here. Lucas LOVES his new big boy room and loves sleeping in the "new bed". It is not really a new bed as it was a hand-me-down from a co-worker of John's. It works great and saves so much space because of the drawers under the bed. It also saved money because we didn't have to buy a new dresser either. It has been really nice having Lucas in his new room because I was able to start getting the nursery ready again for a baby.


We had to buy a little stool for him to climb up into his new bed though...it's a little too tall. He has figured out how to get on without the stool but the stool is there just in case. When we first got the bed all set up and he tried to get on and couldn't he said, " Oh no...it too high". He now loves his bed and always at bed time when we tell him it is time to go to bed he gets super excited and says, "my new bed".

To get him more excited about moving to a new bed we found this super cute CARS bedspread to go with it. He likes that he gets to go nigh-night with McQueen.
The only downside....this is usually what his room looks like after naptime. Sometimes he thinks he is too big for naps and says, "i not sleepy mama" and then plays in his room for 2 hours instead of napping and then is totally grouchy the rest of the day....oh how rough it would be to HAVE to take a nap every day :)

Needless to say though the transition to the new room went as seemless as possible...which I am EXTREMELY grateful for!!



November 26, 2009

Thanksgiving 2009

THE Turkey. It was deep fried and delicious! I must say it was one of the best Turkey's we have ever had. It was perfectly cooked and so moist and tender. A big thanks to the Taylor's for helping us and letting us use their fryer.
Lucas and John were SO hungry. Here they are with our fantatic feast in front of them. It was just us this year but we had a great time.

Another angle of the food....see that side of the yams that is white...John says that the sweet potatoes are like dessert at dinner and piled LOADS of brown sugar and marshmellows on top of "his" half. I like mine just plain with a little butter and salt and pepper!

One more picture just for fun.
The whole family. Lucas is making the funniest face. Crazy kid!
This year we have so much to be thankful for:
*our jobs
*our family
*our home
*Tibo
*the Gospel
*the Savior
*our wonderful friends
*Freedom
*each other
*the fact that we can put food on the table and clothes on our backs
*softball
*our health
*health insurance
*hospitals and doctors
This list could go on and on! We are so grateful for all of the wonderful things that we have been blessed with. We are so grateful for the Gospel and the joy it brings into our lives every day. This year we have an added something to be grateful for in that we will soon be adding to our little family. It has been a long 8 months but we are so grateful to the doctors and nurses who have been monitoring our little girl to make sure she is growing how she is supposed to.
To all our friends and family--- we love you all and are so grateful to have you in our lives!


November 1, 2009

Halloween 2009

Halloween this year was so much fun for us. We had several activities to attend during this whole week. All the activites were different but fun in their own way. It started out with us carving pumkins on Wednesday night after John got home from work. Lucas would not touch the goopy stuff inside the pumkin. He kept saying, "no...it gross". He also wanted to be held the entire time..."carry you momma carry you"....so that he wouldn't have to be by the guts.

This picture took some serious talking into. He really didn't like the idea of putting your hand inside something that was slimy and gross. Once they were all carved he thought it was fun but not until we were done.


Here are our finished pumkins. A big thanks to Dad who grew these wonderful pumkins in his garden and was kind enough to let us share. Everyone kept asking if they were real because they looked so fresh. I think they turned out kinda fun...classic pumkins.

The next activity took place on Thursday when we went to the ward Trunk or Treat at the church. It was a little different this year because they didn't do the traditional Chili Cook off like they have for the past several years. This year they chose to just do Hot Coco and cookies and cupcakes. It still was really fun but not the same as it usually is. There were several people we didn't know there and it was really fun. Lucas got to dress up in his Halloween costume and go trick or treating. This year was really fun because he really got into it. He had his little bag and would say "trick or treat" at every trunk and then when they'd put candy in his bag he'd say with a HUGE grin..."tank you" He kept calling his treats, "trick or treats". He was telling John all about how he got lots of "trick or treats" from the cars. He looked so cute in his little Red Sox outfit. We got a ton of comments from the Yankee's fans we know but we know a real team when we see one!

The only thing Lucas didn't really like was the black under his eyes. He couldn't figure out why Mommy was drawing on his face. He smudged a lot of it away. Thank goodness for eye liner...that is what John chose to use when he went to the store to find something.
The next activity for the week was an Adult Halloween party that one of John's co-worker's invited us to. It turned out to be so much fun. It was a dress up in costumes party and then there was a Murder Mystery game that took most of the night. We each had a part to play in the mystery. There were 3 rounds and during each round the host would give you a little piece of paper with clues that you were to reveal in coversation with people. John's part was a super nerdy computer programmer who when he talked always went into too much detail. His costume fit that perfectly as he went as Napoleon Dynamite. My character was in internal auditor with a company called Widgets, Inc and no one liked me becasue I was rude and would send my friends at the IRS auditing deptartment after anyone who crossed me. At the end when everyone was trying to figure out who killed the victim...people all thought it was me because I really didn't like the guy who ended up getting "killed".

All in all it was a really fun night. We had a really good time with a lot of our friends and a lot of friends of John's co-workers. I am so glad we went becasue it turned out to be a really fun night.

The last of the week's actvities was a birthday party of one of our softball friends little daughter Devin who was turning 5. It was so much fun. They had rented a bouncy house for their back yard and had so much fun. Lucas and the other kids had so much fun jumping in the bouncy house and all the parents were able to just kind of watch and visit. Then we came home, ordered pizza and waited for trick or treaters to come by. We didn't get nearly as many as we usually get but it was fun to see all of the neighborhood kids dressed up. All in all we had a really great week and I can honestly say that this year was one of my favorites!

September 30, 2009

Funny Story

This morning before I started working and getting breakfast ready. I turned to Lucas who was sitting at the counter on a bar stool. He was drinking a cuppy of milk. I say to Lucas,

"Lukey, what do you want for breakfast."

He looks at me very deep in thought, takes a drink of milk, then answers like this,

"ice creeeeeeeam."

Crazy boy...who eats ice cream for breakfast! Man I love this kid!

September 23, 2009

My sweet boy and the ABC's

This is my sweet baby boy practicing his ABC's while in the bath tub! LOVE IT!

September 16, 2009

So I can quit gettng in trouble....

We would like to formally announce that we are having a BABY!!! And it's a baby GIRL!!! We are due Jan 2nd but due to having to have a C-Section this baby girl will come sometime between Christmas and New Year's.

Now everyone knows for sure!

September 3, 2009

We are the Champions!

A couple of weeks ago when the softball season ended John's mens team won their very first championship. The last week of games they split with the team they played which made them tied for first place. The next week they had to have a playoff game....and they won!! It is their first championship since they started playing in this league. Every season they are so close and this year they won!! It was very exciting..Yay Varian.

Here is everyone on the team from the Left to Right:

Back Row: John, Brian, Steve and Ruby, Jared, Eric, Ryan, Dan, Rich L
Front Row: Tom, Roman, Larry, Joe, Rich V.

Missing was Terry who was visiting his grandbaby in London.

August 27, 2009

Out with old---in with the New

After almost 7 years of ownership, we traded in John's truck and took advantage of the cash for clunkers program. The truck qualified so we thought we would take a look and see what we could get. We found a great car and went and made the deal. John is having a little bit of a hard time as the truck was the first car he ever purchased. Even Lucas is having a hard time...he looks out the window and says..."where daddy truck?" He hasn't gotten used to the idea.

Part of the reason is that Lucas loves to drive Daddy's truck when he gets home from work.
Here is the final picture with John and his truck. We took this picture in the morning before we left to go pick up the new car....

A brand spankin' new Hyundai Sonata. It is such a fun car and we feel a little spoiled because it is so nice. We really enjoy it and best of all it gets super good gas mileage. We will save so much money just in gas!

Black was not our first choice color but it was the only one in the lot in our price range with the features that we wanted. We are really excited...but I think we will miss the nostalgia of the truck...we had a lot of good memories with that truck.



A shout out to the birthday boy!

I know I am a little late but I work Mon-Wed so this is my first opportunity to update. Lucas turned 2 on Sunday. I can't believe it has been two years since we held him for the first time. These last few years have been amazing. Watching your child grow and learn has got to be one of the most rewarding things a person can do. That's not to say there aren't days that I want to pull my hair out! But, I love this kid with all of my heart and I am so glad that we are blessed to have him in our family forever.

We had a little party for him with some of our friends from church and softball. Lucas had so much fun and recieved a lot of really fun presents. Here are a couple of pictures.


This is the birthday boy in his cute new outfit that Grandma Lyons got him for his birthday....it was soon covered in red frosting but it looked cute while it was clean.
Here is Lucas blowing out his candles. The wind was blowing a little so it was a bit of a challenge to keep them lit.

We ordered him a "McQueen and Mator" cupcake cake for his party. Notice in the bottom left of the cake it is a bit squished. Ya...that is where his hand when in when he was trying so hard to get to the cake when it was still in the box!
HAPPY BIRTHDAY LUCAS!!


August 15, 2009

San Diego Trip!

John and I decided since he was required to take some Vacation time before September that we would go on an actual vacation. Generally speaking we use all of our vacation time to go up to Idaho to visit and hang out with Family. And since we won't be going home for Christmas this year that we would go hang out in Paradise...aka San Diego California. I hadn't been to San Diego since my cousin Maren was married there 16 years ago and it had been about that long for John too. So we packed up and brought Katelyn and Garrett along with us too. We had so much fun.

WARNING!!! LOTS OF PICTURES!!! Here is the breakdown of what we did!

When we first drove there we went straight to the Wild Animal Park. It was really nice and had so many different kinds of plants and trees. We spent about 3 hours there which was enough for us. It was a lot of walking. While were were there we went to the petting zoo part for Lucas. He loved touching the baby deer. Although we had to tell him that he couldn't climb on the deer like he does the dog.
Lucas really enjoyed seeing all of the different kinds of birds. We saw pelicans, flamingos, parrots, and so many more. Everytime Lucas would see them he'd say..."birdee" with a huge grin on his face.

Lucas especially loved the Gorillas. He was so facinated by them. Later he kept saying "koallas" and we were thinking it was because he wanted to go see the Koala Bears....until we saw the Gorillas again later and and he got all excited and pointed at the gorillas and yelling "Koallas".


John always has a toothpick in his mouth. Well, Lucas decided to steal it so he could look like his daddy.
This is on the little train thing we went on to see the giraffes, rhino's, zebras, and elephants at the park. Lucas had fun but it was just a little long for a 2 year old's attention span.

Lucas did enjoy getting his picture taken while sitting atop a bronze Rhino though.

Here's our whole family on the Rhino.....CUTE!

After the Park we went and stayed with my cute cousin and her adorable little girls in San Jacinto California. They were so nice to let us crash there for the first two night. The next day after a good nights sleep we went to the San Diego Zoo. Can I just say that this was my FAVORITE part. I could have spent two days there. LOVED IT!!!

They had this bench at the zoo and Lucas thought it was so cool. I think this picture is adorable. Lucas loved spending time with his uncle "geeret" and aunt Kate and we loved that we had someone else to help us chase him down :).

Lucas did find time while we were there to take a little cat nap. What is funny is about 2 minutes before this picture was taken he leaned his head back to laugh at John and then just fell asleep. Silly boy.
We really enjoyed the elephant habitat too. They had 2 different kinds of elephants to look at and they were all out so we could see them.
We did stay at a hotel for two nights thanks to Katelyn and her employment. She works at the Hampton Inn in Provo and hooked us up with the employee rate for a hotel close to San Diego. The hotel had a really nice pool so we thought it would be fun to go swimming. Lucas LOVES to swim. He is like a little fish.
Aren't they cute!

This was Lucas' favorite part about the pool. He kept saying he was "flyingng". He was not so happy when we told him he had to get out so we could eat some dinner.
Here's my little fish again. He really loves swimming.

The next day we went to Sea World. While we were there John had this super brilliant idea that we should sit on the very front row of the Dolphin show. SPLASH ZONE!!! Ya, let's just say that we got wet in the first 30 seconds and John took Lucas up to the top cause he didn't like getting splashed when he wasn't ready. So Katelyn, Garrett, and I stayed on the front row and got completely drenched by the dolphin. John said he thought it was funny.

We also got to see the sea lions getting fed by people. Lucas really enjoyed this part. He had so much fun watching those sea lions barking at people who had purchased food to feed them.

We of course had to go to the Shamu show. We didn't sit in the splash zone for this show and we all enjoyed it a little better. Lucas thinks the whales are so cool.

We also saw same big sea turtles and some baby turtles. Lucas really like those too.

Here is the group at the Shamu show after it was over. It was really cool to see...kind of cheesy but still pretty cool.

The next day we went to the Padres vs Mets game at PETCO stadium. That was so much fun. The stadium is so family friendly. Lucas even got a button pin that said "First Time to Petco Park" along with a baseball. It was really fun.

Here's the whole gang. Garrett had such a good time. He even almost caught a fly ball. It ended up landing about a row or so in front of us but he was ready and prepared with his mit.

After the game we stopped by the beach for a little while. Lucas loved playing in the "dirt" as he called it. He was so dirty when we were done.

Here's daddy and Lucas at the beach. He wasn't so sure of the waves at first but warmed up to it as long as he could hold his daddy's hand really tight.
Again with the sand. He thought it was funny when he got out of the water to lay down on his tummy in the sand. Ya....good thing we brought dry clothes otherwise it would have been a long ride back to the hotel.
All in all we had a great time. The weather was perfect and we were able to see all of the things we wanted to see. Hopefully we will be able to do it again in the future.