Sunday, November 30

My Very Own Little Santa's


Thanks 08

Thanksgiving 2008 has come and gone. We had the Fam from Houston in town (Grammy, Herb, Courtney, Tom, Bristol, and Danlyn), and boy did we have a feast. Didn't take as many pictures as I would have liked, but here are a couple of highlights.

The boys had a blast playing with Aunt Danlyn (Courtney's sister). She was such a good sport with them, and they miss her!!
Grammy and the kiddo's...
(Courtney did you get a better shot??)


Lincoln got to stuff the turkey all by himself...


Lawson and Bristol made the sweet potato casserole.
Only a few "special" ingredients were added!!

Bristol and the boys played Doctor for hours on end.
I think they are all destined to the medical field.
No cooking for us the day after Thanksgiving.... We dropped off the 2 yr olds at Adventure Kids PlayCenter, and we all went out for Hibachi and Sushi...








The FM4 do the Charleston

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

Saturday, November 29

Wednesday, November 26

Jumping Out the Plane

Something you probably don't know about me: On my 30th Birthday, my brother Tom and I went skydiving!!

No, that's not my brother I'm with, thats the tandem skydiver...

It was amazing!






Monday, November 24

The Church Performance


Lincoln had his Little Crowns choir performance on Sunday in front of the whole congregation. They have been practicing for this one performance all year! It's been fun because I am the Choir Directors "helper", so I've gotten to work a lot with these great kids. They did a great performance of there song, "Let the Children Come", then they got to stay on the stage and sing one song with the worship band, Forever by Chris Tomlin. That was fun!! They are all ages 4 and 5, and they are all so adorable. You can barely see Lincoln, he is top row in the center.... I'm ordering a video from the church so hopefully I can post that soon. (Taylor and Abby are in this picture too, can you find them?)

Just Five Thoughts

1. Celestial Seasoning Sleepy Time Hot Tea. Try It!!! I swear this stuff knocks me out at night. I drink it before I go to bed, and I totally crash. Maybe it's psychological, but I really think it works. Add some honey, mmmmmmm zzzzzzzzzz.

2. You know those Goldfish crackers? They know make them coated in chocolate. Very addicting, can't eat just one they are just that good. You can find them at Target with the Christmas candy. Not sure if it's just a Christmas thing, hope not, those things are great!!!

3. Last week, I planned a Moms night out for my MOPS table. We went and ate a yummy dinner at Blue Goose then walked over to the movie theatre and watched The Secret Life of Bee's. Wow, dinner AND a movie... haven't done that since I've been a mom. It was fun, but I was in shock that movie's cost $9.50 now!!!

4. Lincoln spent the whole day today at his friends Taylor's house today. I think he had a blast over there!!

5. We will be hosting Thanksgiving over at OUR HOUSE!!! We will have a dinner of TEN. Can't wait to see the Fam.... My mom and Herb, Courtney, Tom, Bristol, Danlyn, and then us four.

Scientists

The boys went to a really fun birthday party this weekend. It was a Science party!! The group was small, enabling them to be able to do about 10 different experiments. It was great, they got to watch different reactions with different chemicals in test tubes, etc..., and they even blew up a volcano outside. In these pictures, they are making an egg float by putting pickling salt in the water. The boys LOVED it, they have been wanting to "experiment" ever since... They were even sent home with goody bags full of experiment instructions and supplies!!








Ron's Current Project

Several months ago there was talk about Ron getting a promotion, and going to a "national" position... Well, the time is here and he will begin this position in the near future. Currently, he is training his replacement.....

His new position will include lots and lots and lots of traveling, mostly to the East Coast. The good news is when he is not traveling, he will be officing out of HOME!!!

So, what does officing out of home mean to us??? Well apparently it means adding an upstairs office addition. We are in a one story home with a HUGE attic. You know the type of attic that can be converted to an extra room??? So, currently Ron is in the middle of making the attic his new work office. He has put in a staircase (from the garage), has put in insulation, and is currently putting in the floor. It already looks great!! The other thing that this means to us at this time, is that all that stuff we have been storing in the attic, is currently OUT of the attic... whole other story.... But when it is all said and done, the attic will still have some storage space for us. I've been making lots and lots and lots of drop off's at the donation center....

Saturday, November 22

My Favorite Christmas Gifts of All...


Picture with Santa

If you have kids and live near a Bass Pro Shop, they have a Winter Wonderland display right now. They have FREE pictures with Santa. They give you one nice one and a link if you want to order more online. It sure beat standing in line at the mall and paying twenty bucks!!! It was great to get this off our list of holiday things to do. They also had tons of fun things for the kids to do... Here is Lincoln telling Santa what he wants for Christmas...

Chai Tea Latte

If you come over during the holidays, I will make you one of these.
Promise it's even better than a Starbucks treat!!

Chai Tea Latte

2 Chai Tea Bags
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp ginger
1/4 tsp all spice
1 cup water
1 cup milk
1/4 cup brown sugar
2 TBSP French Vanilla cream

Optional: whipped cream and nutmeg

Place the tea bags and spices in the coffee filter of your coffee pot. Add the water and brew.

Meanwhile, in a small saucepan, combine the milk, brown sugar, and cream. Cook and stir over medium heat until thoroughly heated and sugar is dissolved. Pour milk mixture into mugs, stir in tea. Top with whipped cream and nutmeg if desired.

Makes 2 servings.

Friday, November 21

Store Closings

CircuitCitystores went bankrupt, will be closing stores
Ann Taylor- 117 stores nationwide are to be shuttered
Lane Bryant
Fashion Bug and Catherine's to close 150 store nationwide
Eddie Bauer to close stores 27 stores and more after January
Cache will close all stores
Talbots closing down all stores
J. Jill closing all stores
GAP closing 85 stores
Footlocker closing 140 stores more to close after January
Wickes Furniture closing down
Levitz closing down remaining stores
Bombay closing remaining stores
Zales closing down 82 stores and 105 after January.
Whitehall closing all stores
Piercing Pagoda closing all stores
Disney closing 98 stores and will close more after January.
Home Depot closing 15 stores
Macys to close 9 stores after January
Linens and Things closing all stores
Movie Galley Closing all stores
Pacific Sunware closing stores
Pep Boys Closing 33 stores
Sprint/ Nextel closing 133 stores
JC Penney closing a number of stores after January
Ethan Allen closing down 12 stores.
Wilson Leather closing down all stores
Sharper Image closing down all stores
K B Toys closing 356 stores
Loews to close down some stores
Dillard's to close some stores

Thursday, November 20

The Feast

Today I got to spend a couple of hours up with Lincoln at his preschool. Today was his Thanksgiving Feast and Party. It was nice to see him in his school element and be able to observe how he is as a student and a friend. The teachers had sent feathers home for each student to decorate however they wish, and they made this turkey with all the feathers. I'll let you guess which feather Lincoln made..... (hint... he did NOT spend much time on his unfortunately!)...
Lincoln and his other Indian BFF Abby...The other half of the kids were pilgrims.










Wednesday, November 19

Tuesday, November 18

Lincoln's new "friend"

This school year Lincoln has a new school "friend". This is a picture of Lincoln and Abby at her birthday party at Excite this past weekend.
Lincoln tells me and Ron things like... "Abby is soooo adorable...", "Abby is my girlfriend" and that he is going to marry Abby one day.... So, we hear a lot about Abby now... She is in his preschool class, his Sunday church class, and his Little Crowns choir. She's a super sweet girl, but what's with having a "girlfriend" at age almost 5???

Monday, November 17

Park Morning

Today was one of those perfect park days. Sunny and low 70's. Put the boys in the bike trailer and rode over to the duck pond/park. We met up with another stay at home mom and 2 kids who just moved here 2 weeks ago. We met each other online, long story, but today we met in person!! Anyways, we ended up staying for a couple of hours after our new friends left... The boys had a blast. Me too.


Who needs snow to make a snow angel??? Here the boys are making Texas Snow Angels!!












I thought this picture was funny because his piggy toe's hit my camera!









Sunday, November 16

Grandpa Lucek

My Dad came in for a quick visit from the Chicago area. Even though he was here for just under 24 hours, I think he got a feel for the FM boys are all about!! He attended a bday party with Lincoln, played checkers, memory, game boy, computer games, monster, hide and seek, etc... with the boys. They wore him out I'm sure. Grandpa Lucek treated us to night out at Rainforest Cafe. The boys had a blast, here are a couple of pics from dinner:




Friday, November 14

Mr. Responsible

Lincoln, our 4 3/4 yr old is so incredibly responsible it's a little odd. Here are some examples:

1. Before we are leaving for somewhere, he says "go ahead Mom, you and Lawson go out to the car I will take of things". Then he proceeds to go through the entire house to turn off the lights, he shuts down the computer completely, puts Lucky in her kennel and gives her a snack and checks the locks. The little man of the house when Daddy is gone!!

2. On Tuesdays, he bring a paper bag with a letter on it home. He is supposed to find something that starts with that letter and bring it back on Thursday for show and tell.... Well usually Tuesday afternoon or evening, he just goes and gets his bag and goes and puts something in there and puts it back in his backpack. All w/o me even knowing.... So when I bring it up, he always tells me "I already did that mom"....

3. Lately his thing is... going into a room and saying "don't come in here, I'm going to surprise you"... of course at this point I know exactly what he is doing, but I play along.... He will totally clean up that room. He will close the door to his room and make his bed, pick up all the toys, etc... He also will close the door to my bedroom and make MY bed, or clean the living room or Lawson's room. All just to get my excited reaction!!!

4. He completely gives himself a bath. No help at all from me... Starting with filling the tub, shampooing his hair, washing his body, letting the water out, picking up anything in the bathtub, getting out and drying off, combing his own hair and putting on his PJ's. .... It's great. I give him a chore point for completely giving himself a bath... every chore point is worth 25 cents... Now we are working on getting Lawson to do most of his bath himself.

5. At Lawson's nap time, Lincoln will often put him to bed. He will read Lawson one book, sing him one song, one prayer, tuck him in, get him anything else he needs... and Lawson will go RIGHT to bed for him unlike for me.... It's great. I've tried to record this on video but have ruined the moment!!!

Thursday, November 13

New York Nephews

This is just a big shout out to our New York nephews, Stephen and Tristan!!!



The Last Soccer Game

Last Saturday was Lincoln's last soccer game, and afterwards they went to the park and got their trophies, and more importantly cupcakes. Overall it was a great season. Their team won all games except for one, Lincoln made 2 goals, made some new friends who will all go to Kinder together at the same school, Lawson had a blast at the games often yelling "Go Mushrooms" instead of "Go Mustangs": he got a lot of laughs.... We decided to sign him up for next season, and the team should be able to stay together.

We missed being in Houston with our family last weekend for the get together, but we didn't want to miss this last game...






Sunday, November 9

Last Nights Date...

Last night the boys had parents night out at Win Kids...from 6-10pm: That's FOUR hours of gymnastics folks.... They had a blast once again, and we went on a hot date to The Grotto.
These pictures were taken before we left by our budding photographer....
Lawson (2 3/4 years old)....

Thursday, November 6

Save the Date

If you think you will be on the boy's birthday party invite list, save the date for:
Saturday January 3rd
12:45-2:15
It will be a DOUBLE party again, the boys 3rd and 5th birthday (WOW)
We will be doing it at Win Kids (again...), but this time it will be in the bigger gym...
I can't believe I'm already planning this again, where did this year go????

Wednesday, November 5

Just some thoughts...

I'm reading about all these snow and ice storms around the country. Here in Dallas, it's going to be 85 degree's today!

Looks like we will be in for a wild ride the next four years. I'm shocked, stunned, and a bit worried. But we will be praying for our country.

On a different note, My DAD, Grandpa Lucek to the boys, will be coming in for a quick trip next weekend. Looking forward to seeing him, he lives near Chicago so we don't see him much.

The boys are going through growth spurts, literally growing out of clothes overnight!! I had a few requests for sizes for Christmas, so here their new sizes are:
Lincoln: boys 6 in shirts and pants
Lawson: 4T shirts, 3T pants

I found a new favorite perfume!!! Possibilities at Ann Taylor. Jen you would like it, it kind of reminds me of that Ann Klien we used to wear. I mentioned to Ron that I liked the sample I got last time I shopped there.... Literally w/in the hour... He had snuck out, bought me a bottle, and hid it under my pillow!!! Thanks Ron!! Did I mention he also brought me home flowers last week????

Just finished reading James Pattersons Sunday at Tiffany's... A cute romance.... Very unrealistic but I really enjoyed the easy read!! Now I just have to finish the other 4 books that I am half way into!! I've been doing a Blog Book Club through my church. We just read the assigned book and discuss it on the blog... works great for me!!

Lawson hasn't adjusted to the time change. So, he has been getting a little bit before 6:00 am every morning. Did I mention that I'm not a morning person?? Hope he adjusts soon, I'd like to sleep to at least 7am, but I guess we can't always get what we ask for.

Today is a "stay at home day" with nothing planned. These are the days that we have to get really creative..... I love the boys ages, because when we are at home they will just play and play and play together for hours. They "make up" these games..... they call them: Monsters Inc, Fire, Tickle Monster, Dinosaurs, to name a few.
They are just so precious.... We are so blessed.


Pretty much all is good here....

Monday, November 3

Spidey


This Halloween Lawson went from Power Rangers to Mickey Mouse to Spider Man by Halloween. He settled for the ole stand by Spider Man outfit from Reaah, because it was the most comfy. It's hard enough getting him to wear his clothes... it was tough to keep his costume on!! Halloween morning we met Lawson's friend Lexi at Boomerangs for some bouncing fun....

Sunday, November 2

Fun Time with Visitors

My sister, Sue and niece Lauren and nephew Matthew made a last minute surprise visit to Dallas from Houston to attend the Nascar races. They came in last night just in time for a ribeye dinner made by Ron, and cupcakes made by the boys... Then we got to visit for a bit today before they left for the races. It was a great last minute surprise for us. They will be back in just a couple of weeks for Thanksgiving.