Thankful

We went to my Grandma's for Thanksgiving this year. Have you seen Napoleon Dynamite? The egg farm on it is my grandparent's and so that is where we were. There was tons of family and tons of amazing food. We had 45 people there and 31 pies! It was a long drive but well worth it. Lucas did great in the car and was so happy when he was there. He loved my uncles for some reason, but wouldn't go near my Grandma or aunts. He recently started doing this fake laugh and sometimes would just stand in the middle of a group of people and laugh.

Here is Lucas' Thanksgiving dinner:
And the famous pies:
Lucas taking a bath in the blue tub with his cousin Skyler:
This was many years ago in the same blue tub: Me (about 18 months old), cousin Russell, and sisters Karen, Gina, and Jill. How did we all fit in there?!?

This is one of the times when he was so tired and just let my sister Karen cuddle with him. It was so cute. Climbing up onto the stool, what a clever boy!

"Don't look at me, I am trying to get into something that I shouldn't"

We are very thankful for all of our many blessings. We have been so blessed. We are thankful for family, a warm home, good food, and especially Lucas and his birthparents. We were looking at what we wrote 2 years ago for my grandma's thankful wall. I wrote "One step closer to adopting and hope for the future." We knew that something was going to happen in the next year and we couldn't have guessed how amazing Lucas would be and how grateful we are to be his parents.

Here is a funny story: The other day we were over at Ryan's parent's house. Lucas went into the kitchen and was opening up the cupboard under the sink. Ryan started to tell him No and Lucas then pointed at Ryan and gabbered like he didn't want him to say No. Then when Ryan walked into the kitchen Lucas would run the other way like he didn't want to get in trouble. He did it a few times and it was really funny. It was like he was cursing Ryan for telling him no.

Outtakes

We usually take quite a few pictures of Lucas in his carseat trying to get one for his monthly picture. Lately there have been some very funny ones so we decided to do outtakes of them (you can click on them to make them bigger):
11 months

12 months

13 months

This will probably be the last month of these pictures since he is getting bigger and will soon graduate to a bigger carseat. I need to think of another way to chart his growth.

Lights

Lucas loves turning off the light in his room when he wakes up and he just realized that there is a light switch exactly his height.

Ryan had just changed his diaper and sometimes doesn't like wrestling him to get his pants back on hence the pants-less boy.

Lucas walking like a big boy

Lucas has been walking much more everyday. He falls a lot still, but he gets right back up and tries again. The only problem with him walking now is that he has a few bumps and bruises from some of his falls.

Lucas' birthday video

Ryan put together this video for Lucas' birthday party. It is about 11 minutes long. It is a great video of Lucas growing this last year. We love Lucas so much and are so happy that he is a part of our family.

Lucas walking

He has been getting better and better everyday. It is so fun to watch him. He must be getting new teeth because he has been drooling like crazy.

Halloween

We celebrated Halloween over a few days including a church party, costume photo shoot, and trick or treating.

Lucas has been taking his first steps and it is so fun to watch him learn how to walk. He still prefers crawling, but he is slowing getting the whole walking thing. I will post of video of one of the first days of him walking.

World Series Jammies-we have loved watching some amazing baseball games

Costume photo shoot at my sister's and then my friend has an beautiful maple tree in her yard.

Halloween night:
With his cousins:


Trick or treating at his grandparent's
Cuddling and trying to eat more candy

Beautiful Fall

This fall has been so beautiful. I love fall. October is my favorite month. We have had great weather and the leaves are so amazing.

This was taken on October 20, which was our 5 year anniversary, and this is where we got married. It was a beautiful fall day just like the day that we got married.

I love how he has he hand on the pumpkin. This is at my sister's house.

A beautiful day in the park: