Christmas Day 2014

It's January 28th and I am still recapping Christmas...but it's OK because I want to remember Luke's Christmas and if I don't blog about it, I am going to forget all about it.

We went over to Andy's parent's house to celebrate Christmas. When we arrived everyone was just getting settled and ready to open presents. As usual, Andy's parent's went above and beyond on presents and Luke raked it in. We had a pile of presents surrounding myself, Andy and Luke. It was crazy! We also enjoyed a nice Christmas dinner with his family.

Unfortunately I had to go to work the next morning, so we were unable to stay late. But we had a great time with family.

Luke and Daddy opening the play gym from his Great Grandpa

Luke was very content on "opening" presents

Stackable rings from Aunt Kelly

Andy's mom Lynn, his sister Kelly and her fiance Justin

Great Grandpa Al

Luke and Grandpa Tim

Having a good time playing on his new play mat

Keeley keeping watch over her baby, so sweet!

I'm watching you Mom!

I so sleepy, I'll just take a nap.

Soooo happy playing!

He had a blast!

Christmas Eve Eve and Christmas Eve Morning Adventures

Ya'll, I think I have lost my mind!  No seriously, where in the world did it go? Yesterday I had a doctor's appointment and while seeing my OBGYN isn't my favorite thing in the world, getting my appointment covered for free (thanks to hitting the deductible earlier in the year) is! My appointment was for 4:40 PM and I decided to stay at work until 4 PM. I thought that I'd rather get paid to sit around than get to the doctor's office really early and not get paid. I arrived at my exit on the highway 25 minutes later....I was still 15 minutes early and I knew he was really booked up and there was no way he would be able to see me on time. So I went into CVS to get a bottled water and walked around for 10 minutes. I then arrived to my doctors office at 4:38 PM and they ask for my name. I give it and the receptionist tells me, "He at the other office today".......UGH!!!! I'm pretty sure my face turned white because she told me not to worry and she would let the other office know that I am on my way. I arrive at that office at 4:50 PM. The receptionist asks me if I'm Jessica. I said yes, "I am the dummy who went to the wrong office...." She laughed and said it happens more than you would think. 

This morning was another realllllllly early morning for Luke. I'm not talking our usual wake-up time for work/daycare at 5am.....I'm talking 3:30 AM!!!! Buddy, you're killing Mommy with the 3:30 AM wake-up calls. I'm fine with giving a bottle, but PLEASSSSEEEEE go back to sleep. So this morning I was able to take a long shower, put makeup on at home (normally that happens at work), unload the clean dishes out of the dishwasher, load dirty dishes in dishwasher, clean cookie sheets, make coffee, feed the cat and take the dog out. Luke totally made up for the fact that he was up at 3:30 AM though, I was able to capture a photo of him and I and he is smiling in the photo!!!!! YAY!!!

Thanks little dude! You're so cute!!

Andy and I load us into the car along with Luke and we head to daycare at 6 AM like we always do. We arrive, get out of the car and we're stopped by the morning daycare teacher telling us that the daycare doesn't open until 7 AM today because it's Christmas Eve......uh for real?!??? So guess who came to work with Mommy today? I figured since I knew he would sleep at least half the time I am at work and several of my co-workers never got to meet Mr. Luke, that I would bring him in. Plus, I'm only working a half day AND I really wanted to make sure I was able to give my boss her Christmas/Birthday present. Currently little dude is sleeping and he can stay that way for as long as he would like! :) 

At 11 AM, I will be leaving work to go pick up Andy and we will be meeting up with our best friends Nick and Laura for lunch. They finally get to meet Luke and I know they are so excited to meet him! Then at 3 PM we will head over to my mom's house to celebrate Christmas with her and my family! So excited to see everyone and watch Jackson and Claire rip into their gifts. Next year Luke should be into Christmas too. :) 

I hope everyone has a Merry Christmas!!

Thanksgiving 2014

What a difference a year makes in one's life. Last year was one of the hardest year's of my life that I ever had to experience.  This year has been so exciting and I am so thankful for Luke coming into mine and Andy's life.  I can't even remember how life was without Luke and I don't want too because he is the joy in our lives!

We started out Thanksgiving morning with a wake-up call from Luke at 7:30 AM.  I can handle a wake-up call at 7:30 AM, it's the 5 AM wake-up call and ready to play that's tough! Luke had a bottle and Mommy had a granola bar.  Thrilling, I know!  We then played for a bit on our activity mat and then stared at the fun black and white blanket.  Nap time was around 9:30 AM and then we both got dressed for our day.  Of course Luke had a "Turkey" outfit to wear, DUH!  He had a Turkey butt and Turkey toes.  I'm glad he was able to wear his outfit because it was just barely too small for him.  He is just so tall!

Happy Turkey Day Luke!

Turkey Butt!

Mommy and Luke

Snoozin on Mommy

We had a breakfast brunch over at my in-laws consisting of french toast casserole, potatoes and sausage, orange rolls, cinnamon rolls, fruit, oatmeal and juice. It was all so tasty and good!  We then spent time with his family.  Andy's Aunt and Uncle came in from Michigan to spend Thanksgiving with us and they got to meet Luke for the first time too!

We then had our Thanksgiving dinner over at my brother's house.  I am SOOOO Thankful that we were able to spend Thanksgiving with him.  With him being a police officer and us living in the St. Louis, we were not sure if he was going to be called out or not.  Dinner consisted of turkey, green bean casserole, mashed potatoes, rolls, stuffing, fruit salad, and punch.  Claire was so excited to see "Baby Luke".  He was sleeping in his car seat and she "showed" him how to use an iPad. It was so cute!  We were even able to get a photo of Jackson, Claire and Luke together.  It was adorable!

3 Generations!

That smile just melts my heart!!

4th of July Weekend

What a non-catchy title for this post.....but it's whatever.

Thursday night - my brother had my family over for a BBQ and fireworks.  Claire wasn't too thrilled with the fireworks (loud sounds), but she LOVED the fountain fireworks.  Those are her favorite. I did manage to get a couple photos of the kids and I.  We got home that night around 10 pm (party people over here......) and while I was getting ready for bed I noticed my left foot was sooooo swollen.  It swelled up pretty good because of the way I was sitting on the driveway.  My brother's driveway has a slight hill to it and I was sitting in a camping chair on the hill.  I think the chair and the hill caused my foot to swell.  It also didn't help that I wore flip flops all day long.

Friday (4th of July) - was pretty dull until later that evening.  We ran several errands and got some house work done but I won't lie, a lot of time was spent on the couch.  Not only so that I could get the swelling down on my foot, but because I was just plain tired!  That evening we spent with our neighbors, Ryan and Melissa and shot off probably 3 hours worth of fireworks in front of their house.  It was a blast and I even stayed up past 12 AM!!  (insert gasping sound!)  I seriously cannot remember the last time that I stayed up that late.  So sad, but true!  

I had to document me staying up past 12 AM!  LOL!!

Saturday - I ended up sleeping until 11:30 am....I felt so bad and apologized to Andy about a bajillion times.  We had plans to get a bunch done around the house, but because I slept so long, we didn't get anything done around the house that morning.  We ran out to Lowe's to get a stand for the Japanese beetle bag (I'll explain about these in a separate post) and then went out to Michael's for some frames.  I purchase a long time ago some Disney prints that I want to frame and put in Baby Boy's room.  I found the frames (11x17) on clearance for $6 a piece!! AWESOME DEAL!  That afternoon we went over to Andy's parents house for dinner.  We BBQ'd hot dogs and hamburgers and it all came out tasting fantastic!  I could eat BBQ for every meal!  :)  We came back home that evening and I got a "second wind" of energy.  I ended up vacuuming the entire house and got the laundry washed, dried and put away all before bed!  I redeemed myself from sleeping so long that morning.

Sunday - I knew I was going to be busy most of the day.  Remember back in January when we surprised my sister with ticket's to see Fallout Boy in July?  Well that day had finally come (July 6th) and Fallout Boy was in town.  She was SO excited for this concert.  Of course the weather was absolutely gorgeous out until Sunday, the day of the concert that is to take place OUTSIDE!  We ate dinner at an Italian place called Caleco's and then made our way to Verizon Wireless Amphitheater.  We got there around 5:30 (the gates were suppose to open at 5) but they didn't open them until around 6.  My feet were killing me and the heat was really starting to get to me.  Jena picked out a tshirt and wrist bands at the souvenirs spot and then we made our way to the seats.  I knew we would be pretty close to the stage, but I didn't realize we would be THAT close to the stage!  I would say we were a good 20 feet away from the stage and the huge speakers.  I couldn't believe it and then I realized, I should have brought some ear plugs (that comment right there makes me sounds really old....)  The opening act was New Politics and they were pretty good.  I hadn't heard any of their songs before, but liked what I could hear.  Paramore was next and they were my favorite!  Seriously, Hayley Williams (the lead singer) is awesome live!  She has so much energy and sang every song flawless!! LOVED their set!  They played for a good hour and 30 minutes.  Last to come on was Fallout Boy and they were good also.  They had lots of pyrotechnics with their show and we could feel the heat coming from the fireworks on the stage.  Pete Wentz was playing a good 75% on our side of the stage which was fine by me because he is the only one of the group that I knew a little about.  My only complaint about the show (again, showing my oldness here....) that the bass was SO loud that it was really hard to hear the singers actually sing!  If the drums were turned down just a little bit, it would have been able to hear the singers sing the songs.  

At the concert, waiting for it to start

At dinner 

New Politics

Paramore!

Fallout Boy!

  

Easter 2014!

Why talk about Easter when I can just show you?

Warning: Picture OVERLOAD!!

Claire and Jackson getting ready for the egg hunt!  They had so much fun with it!

Notice my step-dad all relaxed in the background....HAHA!

Claire found an egg!  She was so excited but didn't understand to put the egg in the basket and find more!  :) 

Jackson found another one!  Too bad that tree that the egg was in is more than likely dead.  :(  So not trilled right now with that tree for obvious reasons.

Look at that smile!  LOVE!!!

My brother Jack and Father-in-law Tim trying to find the missing egg that we thought was missing but ended up not being missing.

Claire and her Easter basket.  She was so proud of her finding those eggs!

Don't you also just love her fruit punch mustache.  :)  Hehe!!

Mommy (O'Hara, my sister-in-law) helping count out the eggs!

Chocolate!!!

My Keeley being such a good girl!

Can you tell in this photo that she is so tired?!?!

My dad Randy and his wife (my step-mother) Deb

Relaxing!

My sister-in-law Kelly

My siblings, Joe, Jack, Jena and Jeff playing catch with my nephew Jackson.

Like father, like son playing catch. 

Throwing the ball

Jena making sure the ball doesn't go in the street

Cheese!

Claire wants to play catch too!

Jackson, O'Hara, Jeff and Claire

I love how Jackson always smiles for the camera for me!

Claire was having too much fun and didnt want to go home.

Jena, Dad, Joe, Jack and Mom

Andy and me, rocking that baby bump

(my face looks HUGE here....not a fan of this photo)

I hate how I think I like a photo and then a day later i look back at it and go, "Oh geez, that is not a good photo!"

Tim, Lynn and Kelly