Seattle or bust

We are heading to Seattle tomorrow morning to spend Christmas with my parents, or so we hope. Seattle has been hit by a huge snow storm and they are slowly digging their way out of the mess... but only time will tell if we will get on our flight or not.

I gave Oliver a (much needed) haircut this morning... and I think you will agree that he looks like a new kid!

BEFORE: (his comb over wasn't even combed over)

AFTER: (I could eat him and his lil dimple)

I took advantage of him being in his high chair while Derek was trying to put in a new light bulb... which then smashed on the floor. Derek and Miles were busy vacuuming it up and Oliver was in a trance watching them. I starting clipping away and even had time to use the texturizing sheers! (Hmmm... maybe I've found a new career path?) LOL. He's all ready to see his grandparents in Seattle.

Wish us luck on our travels tomorrow!

Happy Holidays!

Man of steel

I just had to share this story...

This morning, I was in the bathroom when all of a sudden I hear Derek let out a VERY LOUD and PAIN FILLED "Argggghhhhhhhh!!!!" which went on for about 45 seconds.

All the while, from the bathroom I am yelling "What happened?? Are you ok?"" and I was rather concerned.

I can hear Miles laughing his head off and Oliver got very scared and was crying.

I come out and ask him what happened.

And he said ...

A sippy cup fell on my toe.

Wow - this is the brave, strong man that I married.

A sippy cup?!?! Are you kidding me???!!!

Here I was, rushing out of the bathroom, thinking I was going to find a severed toe or that he was at least going to say that pot had falled on his toe.

Nope.

A sippy cup.

Now I know where Miles gets his sensitive, dramatic side.

Happy Friday!

******* UPDATE *******

In an effort to gain sympathy from his non-sympathetic wife
I just caught Derek
in the kitchen
with a black permanent marker
marking up his toe nail

LOLOLOLOL

This is not a joke.

Happy Birthday Mom!

Saturday is my dear mom's 40th birthday and she will be celebrating it with my dad is the place they love - Honolulu! I have no doubt that they will have an amazing time.

Mom - I just wanted to say thank you for being an amazing mom, grandma, and most importantly, my friend. You are such a special part of my life. You have always been there for me and I love knowing that I can count on you for anything. I appreciate your daily phone calls, emails, and instant messages - others make fun of me for talking to you so much, but they are just jealous! ;)

I cherish our memories together in Europe, in San Francisco, in Seattle, Honolulu, and so many more. You have helped me learn how to be a mom and to trust my instincts (I am still learning) are you are so incredible to my boys. They love you so much.

You and dad have always been so supportive of my life, my decisions - thank you.

Here's a cute little slide show of some of our memories. Thank you for being an amazing mom and friend. I love you.

O Christmas Tree

After spending a very nice Thanksgiving day with our sweet boys, Derek's mom and brother, and the Schaefer family... we headed out bright and early on Friday morning to find our Christmas tree.

We headed up to a tree farm not too far from our house off of Hwy 17 in the Santa Cruz Mountains. Being the impatient Lu family that we are, we turned off at the very first "tree farm" that we found. We quickly learned it was not your typical tree farm and that turning off at the very first place we saw was looking to be a bad decision. The owner was sitting in a old wooden chair and really didn't look like he knew what the hell he was doing. In previous years, the other tree farms we had visited had a handful of staff, looking eager to help. Not this guy.

We pulled up to the "parking lot" (this is in quotes b/c it was no parking lot... just some random logs on the ground) and looked at the sign that said which types of trees were in which section, and a then saw an assortment of saws. Hmmm... something seemed off about this from the get go, but we decided to get the kids out of the car and go for it. We walked down the hill and the trees were spread out and it didn't seem like a tree farm. There was not a good looking tree in sight and it almost seemed like we were in someone's backyard... odd. Miles seemed to care less... he had fun hiking around and looking for sticks. We decided to get back in the car and drive up the road in search of a real tree farm. (Of course our gas tank was on "E" but we like to push the envelope, haha).

Alas! A few miles up the road we can to a real tree farm, which even has it's own website so it must be legit! LOL. We got the boys out and were among lots of other families in search of the perfect Christmas tree. There were rows and rows of great looking trees and we quickly found the perfect tree. We sawed it down and Derek "tied" it to the car. (I sure am using a lot of quotes today)

As we drove home down Hwy 17, we heard lots of noise coming from the roof of our car and then noticed the tree hanging in the back window... uh oh. Derek quickly pulled off at the next exit and at the same time, the tree flew off the car and onto the exit ramp. LOL. Derek pulled the car over and ran down the exit ramp as fast as he could and Miles and I were CRACKING UP watching him run to save the tree! Low and behold, not one car exited and Derek saved the tree!!! We decided to put the tree inside of the car for the rest of the drive home.


Miles had a blast helping me decorate the tree... he was super cute about asking which decorations were too fragile for Oliver and then he was sure to put them up high.

And he was his usual clown self when it was time for pictures.

Wheeeeeeeeee

Just wanted to share some pics of Oliver on his rocking chair "swing". As much as I worry about this darn thing getting a baby finger stuck in it, he sure loved playing on it (as the pictures show). :) Since we are all done with bedtime/nighttime bottles (yay!) and we are pretty sure there will be no # 3 (sniff), I'd really love to get rid of it and get a more child friendly chair in his room. It was a great chair for both Miles and Oliver, but it's time to move on. (The funny thing is, I am sure I wont get around to getting a new chair for months).

*Sidenote: I have to say that I love the bright orange walls in Oliver's room. It's a lot of orange, but I just love it.

The discovery of YouTube on the laptop

Miles has discovered that he can watch endless videos of trains on YouTube and it's his new favorite pastime (in addition to watching Curious George on Tivo). Of course we don't let him watch TOO much, but he just loves it. He doesn't care what kind of train it is - steam train, passenger train, or freight train. And, he even started calling the home laptop "his laptop". He has quickly mastered the touchpad mouse and is able to navigate pretty well. We just have to keep a somewhat close eye on what he's watching because he's stumbled upon a few crashes and things we really don't want a 3 year old watching.



This morning Oliver sat next to him and watched, too. Of course Oliver had a big stick in his hand. He really loves to have something like a stick in his hand at all times. And, he loves to beat things with that stick. Have I told you that he reminds me so much of my father? LOL. At any rate, please don't ever think of taking that stick out of Oliver's hand. He gets SOOOO mad. He's got a serious temper!

1 year stats

Oliver and I went to see Dr. Lan for his 1 year check-up this morning and all is well. :)

He weighs a healthy 25.2 lbs (75th percentile), he is 30.5 inches tall (75th percentile) and his head was ?? (75th percentile).

It was a quick appointment as I didn't have a whole lot of questions (funny how much more relaxed you are about almost everything the 2nd time around). Just the standard... try to stop the bottle, no peanut butter until he's 2 and no shellfish. Cool. He is a happy, healthy baby.

Dr. Lan asked me if he was saying any words... and I said yes "momma" (that's my boy!) and "cool" (that's daddy's boy!). haha.

Poor guy got 3 shots - he was not happy about that.