Happy Birthday...EVERYONE!

Before this month gets away from me I want to acknowledge all of the birthdays in my family, the month of January is filled with birthdays.

Glenda- aka GiGi
Laryn- see and read Laryn's blog Tales From Strickland
Jerry- aka Uncle Dedo ( a name that I used for him when I was a baby)
Jackson- Happy 3rd!
Butch- aka Papaw
Scott- aka The Best Dada in the world!
So, six in all. I hope that everyone had a great day. We are blessed to have all of you in our lives for another year.

Update- No one likes cold turkey

After almost two weeks I have to say that taking the pacifier away from Luke has not been too bad. We decided that we would take it away completely. Not for nap time, not in the car, and not for bedtime, a.k.a. COLD TURKEY! . Luke does really good at school. His teachers say that nap time is going good, and he is able to go to sleep without having his 'pace' most days. Other days they have to rub his back and sit with him for a few minutes before he falls asleep. Here at home he is doing okay. He is waking up early and has not figured out how to put himself back to sleep. Naps are a trying too. Luke found a 'pace' under a table Saturday morning and Scott had him put it in the trash. ( But not before he stuck it in his mouth a few times!) I hope that it continues to get easier in the next few weeks.

The Beginning of The End

For 22 months, 3 weeks and 2 days Luke has used a pacifier. He has loved it from the time he was born until now! But, before his second birthday it is our hope that Luke can stop his obsession with his beloved 'pace'. The only time that he will have it is at night to sleep. With the help of his great teachers, including, Ms. 'K', we are going to stop sending his pacifier to school. And with great patience and maybe ear plugs he will no longer get to have it while in the car. This is going to be a battle of great proportions. All your well wishes and prayers will be needed. Here are a few pictures to commemorate the passing of the 'pace'. Updates and details to come later.

Christmas Recount

This year we made the rounds for our family Christmases. We had a total of four! Our first stop was in Louisiana for Scott's family. We had a great time and Luke enjoyed being out at Aunt Kathy's and Uncle Robert's farm. He loved riding the golf cart around and he even got to ride a horse! Next was Lubbock. The weather started to look a lot like Christmas the night before Christmas Eve. On Christmas Eve morning we woke up to snow, ice and hazardous road conditions. Scott and I made the decision to leave Lubbock at noon and take highway 84 to Interstate 20. We usually drive highway 114 from Frisco up to Lubbock, but this is a two lane highway for the better part of the way. It took us almost 4 hours to reach the outside of Abilene, TX. There we met one of the largest traffic backups Texas has ever seen. For the next 3 hours we moved only about 4 miles, and then we were told that the Interstate had been closed due to ice and snow. During this time I began looking for a hotel that had room and that would take Maggie. We ended up getting a room at the Quality Inn just off the highway. The room was nice and clean. There was a jacuzzi tub in the middle of the room though. :-) As you can see from our pictures, we had just enough room for all of our things. The next morning was Christmas. I was pretty upset that we were spending Christmas morning in a motel. By noon the roads had still not opened and we learned that over 200 cars and trucks had been stranded on the road. The National Guard had been called out to help get people food, water, and gas. Many motorist had to go to shelters that had been set up along the way. We decided that we were very lucky to have had a warm bed that night, even though all of us slept in it together! That afternoon we very carefully made our way out of Abilene by way of some back roads and were home by 5:00pm. That night we opened gifts with Butch and Glenda. They stayed and helped put Luke's train table and trains together that Santa had left for him. That next morning we packed up again and headed east to Tyler to see my Dad, Melissa and Preston, Laryn and Jack. The boys love playing together and they both got wonderful gifts. I am so happy that Luke has two cousins so close to his age. (Jackson is just one year older and Jack is only 4 months older) In total we drove almost 2,000 miles this year for Christmas. I am happy to say that we enjoyed seeing all of our families and spending time with each of them. However, next year we plan to stick closer to home.

Happy New Year

As many of you know, I have started and tried to keep up several picture sites, this one, and this one. I have not been very good at keeping them up to date. So here is my new attempt. I am totally copying from my sister-in-law, Laryn. She has a great blog and you can check that out here. I read lots of other blogs too and you can take a look at those under 'Our Favorite Blogs'. I hope that you enjoy the pictures and stories. I am starting this post off with a few pictures from Christmas. If you would like to see earlier pictures of Luke you can visit the other picture sites that I have listed.

Santa

This is the picture that we used for our Christmas card. If you did not get one, it is probably because it was returned to me. I had a record number of 'return to sender' cards.

I stole this one from Laryn's site. It is just too cute! Luke does not normally pose for pictures, in fact, it is very hard to get him to look at the camera, so this one is great! Thanks Laryn!
Another one from Laryn. I love this picture. It just shows how great of a Dad Scott has become.

I hope that everyone had a great Christmas and a wonderful New Year. I can't wait to see what this year brings. Please be sure to check back with us soon.