First Christmas

It was a real treat to see Christmas through a baby's eyes! Even though he can't yet comprehend the true meaning of the season - God's precious gift of His Son to be the sacrifice for our sins - Luke still seemed to enjoy all the new sights and sounds of Christmas! We got him a little board book library of Bible stories, so we read him the "Baby Jesus" book after he opened that gift. :)

He is currently at the stage where everything is exciting and new and needs to be touched and explored, so he found all the wrapping paper and gifts quite a thrill - no matter what they were. :) When we were in Oregon, he also got the chance to feel lots of kitty fur and afghans - he even compared two different afghans at one point, feeling one with one hand and one with his other hand - moving his head back and forth to see each one. You can just see the wheels turning in that big, smart head of his! He also seemed to be fascinated with my parents' music - my mom plays the cello and my dad plays the viola - he looked back and forth between the two as they played together, assessing each one and giving them his attention one at a time. Very cute!

Here are a bunch of pictures to show you a snapshot of our recent family gatherings and Christmas celebrations. As always, all the pictures can be found at our Hughes Picture gallery. I may also put up a video or two in a following post for your amusement!

Our friends, Bethany & Karis, at church on the 16th

December 19th - hanging out at home

December 20th - first day in Oregon & Maloney extended family gathering

December 21st - hanging out & traveling to see some snow!

December 22nd - Janzen family gathering

December 23rd - Kirby family gathering

December 24th - Maloney immediate family Christmas & coming home

December 25th - Christmas at home as a family & Hughes family gathering

December 26th - hanging out - Luke's getting better at sitting on flat surfaces!

Busy, Busy, Busy

I'm very busy right now trying to finish up several hand-made Christmas presents, so I don't have very much time to spend on the computer. I haven't even checked facebook for several days! I'm purposefully saying "no" to the computer most of the time because it can be such a time-waster if I let it. However, I knew there are folks out there who need to see updates (namely pictures of Luke) regularly, so I will do a quick post - not as much commentary as usual - most of these pictures are self-explanatory and very cute! :) Enjoy!

This was our Christmas card picture!

We visited Joanna and Vijay on Wednesday for our last time together till after the new year.

We'll be leaving for our Oregon Christmas this coming Thursday, so you probably won't get another post until after Christmas. May you all have a wonderful and blessed holiday celebrating our Savior's birth!

Five Months Old

Whew! Life is busy! I didn't think I had that many additional things to do during the holiday season, but I guess I do. :) Here's a quick update on our lives (okay, mainly Luke!). Enjoy!

You can kind of see his dimple when he smiles in this picture (its on his left cheek when you're looking at the picture). I'm not sure if he'll keep the dimples forever, or if it's just a baby thing, but it's sure cute!

I thought this outfit was pretty cute - very "little boy". A real shirt and some masculine jeans. :)

Luke LOVES his feet! He'll grab them (or his socks, or the feet of his pajamas...) any time of the day and play with them. We'll often go in to get him in the morning and find him playing with his feet. I thought this was especially cute - how he even grabbed onto them when he was sitting, not just when lying down. :)

The last post, I shared with you all the Denver Broncos jersey that I bought for Luke. Well, here is a little L.A. Lakers outfit that he got at his shower from Lori. Thanks, Lori! He can now cheer during basketball games with daddy in style!

Saturday, we all went to Camarillo to hang out at Matt & Tara's house (Nathan's brother). Friends Brian and Sandra came also. Matt and family got their Christmas tree that day, so the boys figured out the tree stand together. :) We watched the USC vs. UCLA game and enjoyed some WONDERFUL food that Tara made for us! Homemade chili, pumpkin bread pudding, and apple crisp. Mmmmm...

Sunday, Luke turned 5 months old!!! You can see his nice blue eyes in these pictures - as well as the cute (but still a little big) outfit Grandma Hughes got him for church. He's getting so big! He loves to laugh and talk and smile. He is paying more attention to things - like faces, so watch out if he starts patting your face! He can scoot in a complete 36o degree rotation on his tummy - no rolling over yet, though. He can hold onto his toys better now - shaking them and putting them in his mouth!

And, he just started oatmeal last night and seems to like it better than rice cereal. :) My boy likes to eat! He's a complete joy to be around and lights up my life for sure!

It took me two photo sessions to finally get an acceptable Christmas card picture of him, though - he decided to be stingy with the smiles, which are usually so abundant! So, once I get the cards and mail them out, I'll post the successful shot - we like suprises around here. :)

Thanksgiving Weekend

I went shopping the other day and discovered a pro sports shop in the mall! I'd been wanting to get Luke something for the Denver Broncos so that he could cheer with Daddy for his favorite team. I looked online a little bit, but hadn't found anything very cute. So, I check out this store just to see what they have, and came out with this cute toddler jersey! They had "onesie" versions of jerseys in smaller sizes, but I figured for the amount I was paying, a regular jersey would get more use out of it - Luke might wear it for a good 2-3 seasons! He can wear it now (although it's VERY big on him!), and he'll be able to wear it next year for sure, and maybe even the year after that. It's a 2T. Needless to say, Nathan wasn't AT ALL upset that I splurged! Now my boys can watch the game together in style! (note Nathan's Broncos shirt he got from his mom and the Broncos fleece blanket that my sister, Heidi, made for Nathan a few years ago!)

Then wouldn't you know it, Thanksgiving week arrives and I get the flu! :( I had a little tickle in my throat off and on all day Monday, but honestly didn't think it was because of sickness. Then I woke up on Tuesday with a fever... that didn't go away until Saturday morning! My back still felt raw and achy (like with a sunburn) a little bit on Saturday, but I think it was more residuals that day since I was feeling tons better. Here's Luke playing on Wednesday (when I felt like I was getting better, even though the fever got worse again on Thursday).

So, my boys went off to Thanksgiving dinner without me. We put Luke in this cute Thanksgiving bib to celebrate. They went and enjoyed the family that was able to come (several other people got sick also and weren't able to come either), then brought me back leftovers. Nathan waited and ate his pie with me at home, so we had a miniature Thanksgiving celebration at home together. :)

Nathan's grandma was visiting from Utah for Thanksgiving, so she got to meet Luke for the first time. I managed to have the energy to hang out with people on Friday and Saturday, so that kind of made up for missing Thursday. We had quite the full house (21 people for dinner Saturday night!)

We're trying to keep Luke from being too exposed to TV right now, but he seems to have other ideas. :) He'll crane his neck from any position in order to see the TV if he can hear that it's on! He's quite accomplished!

And we celebrated my niece, Sophia's, first birthday on Saturday - her actual birthday is tomorrow. Happy Birthday! She truly enjoyed her cake!

Also, on Saturday night, Tara and I went to see "August Rush" in the theater! EXCELLENT MOVIE!!! It was a wonderful movie about an "orphaned" boy who is trying to find his birth parents, but who is also an amazing musical prodigy. I loved how music was incorporated into the movie. Tara said that it was almost as if the music was an actual character in the movie. If you appreciate music and happily-ever-after movies, you will LOVE this movie!

Despite being under the weather this week, I was still able to enjoy spending time with family, which I'm very thankful for. I'm thankful for a nice, God-honoring family of in-laws - especially since my own family is so far away. Even still, I miss my family and look forward VERY MUCH to seeing them at Christmas. :)