Open Gym

I have been looking for activities during the week that Luke and I could do for little cost. The McKinney Community Center offers many programs and I noticed in their brochure that they have an Open Gym time for kids 5 and under twice per month. Well last week we went to check it out. What a great deal it was! For $1 you can play for 2 hours and get a bag of animal crackers at the end. This is our kind of event! Here is Luke crawling through the tube. He loved it! It was a mad house! Kids everywhere. Luke was one of the younger kids and boy do you have to be tough to hang with this crowd. They will mow you down without even thinking. Luke held his own. =)

He loved this obstacle course thing. You climb in the maze and then slide out. It was a little scary because parents couldn't get to their kids once they were inside. Luke got knocked down a few times, but is such a tough guy, he just kept on going. =)

There were scooters, balls, you name it, everywhere. He kept sitting on the scooter and loved being pushed around.

He was so tired at the end. It was a huge success and we will be going back! Thanks to Aunt Ali for being the photographer.

What A Good Boy!

Luke has been such a good helper around the house lately. He really likes to mimic anything Brian and I do which includes... sweeping.... taking food out of the oven...(no I did not let him, but he sure did grab the oven mitt all on his own and was trying to figure out exactly how does this food come out?)... washing the car... Wow if that't not the biggest belly you have ever seen... To be fair I think his little swim trunks fell a little too low. =) What a good little boy he is. Not only does he help with the household chores, he also eats his veggies. And likes to pray before every meal. Not only does he like to pray before every meal, but he also likes to pray SEVERAL times throughout the meal. We think that he determined if he prays he gets food quicker. So if I am slow getting food to him or he wants more he usually bows his head and folds his little hands. What a spiritual little guy we have. =) (yes, there is a bean on his nose) I just love him so much! Here he is doing "touchdown!". He learned this last weekend in preparation for football season.

And here is one last shot that I love. I think he looks so grown up. Hope he doesn't grow up too fast and that he always stays my good little boy. =)

Fun In the Sun & Big Family News!

Labor Day weekend was a lot of fun. Brian, Luke and I went to the lake with my parents and enjoyed the beautiful weather. The last time we were there, Luke had just learned to walk and was a little wobbly, but this time he was running all over the place! Here are a few pics from the weekend. Enjoying breakfast on the porch. He was looking at Pop, who was obviously pretty entertaining.

With Tula in Rocky. He loved sitting here and playing with the steering wheel. In this picture he was watching his Daddy ski.

Nothing better than a good-ole rock.

Running away from Daddy. Notice Brian is still trying to enjoy his coffee. There is no easing into the morning for this little guy.

We love our backyard, but there isn't a whole lot for Luke to do besides get into the plants.

Exhibit A. (yes there is dirt in his mouth)

So... we decided to get a little play set that he could climb on. It came on Sunday and we put it together immediately. It is a little bigger than we thought, which is great because he will be able to use it longer, but right now that means he needs close supervision. He is loving it!

Here he is waiting for it to be put together.

Here is what Luke and I were doing, while Daddy did all the work. =)

Once Luke saw the big pieces coming together he wouldn't stay away from the thing. This made Daddy's job a little harder. =)

After holding Luke back for about 30 minutes, we were ready to roll. He loved it!

For some reason the rope knots seem to be the biggest hit, go figure!

We were so excited to now have a new activity to do during the week, only for it to rain pretty much nonstop for 3 days. Luke would just stare at his little play set through the window begging to go out. I finally gave in and let him play in the light rain for about an hour. Needless to say, clothes ended up coming off and I had one little naked boy mowing the lawn. He sure does make me smile! What a pose, and look at that belly! =)

Also I want to thank those that left sweet comments on my last post. It really meant a lot.

Ok and now on to the big family news.....You will have to check out http://www.theschmidblog.blogspot.com/ to learn what it is. ;) We couldn't be more excited!!!

Change of Pace

This post is something I have never done before, but lately have felt that God has laid this upon my heart to share. For those of you that know me, I am a fairly private person who doesn't easily share intimate details of my life. I am pretty easy going and prefer to blend in as oppose to be the center of attention. I never want to "rock the boat" and always try to be the neutral party in most cases. Having said all of that, I have started to realize that my faith is not something I share openly. I will admit that it makes me nervous to bring up my faith with someone who I think may not share the same beliefs. I have been praying about this, asking God to show me ways to express myself and have recently felt like this was the best place to start. =) In the past few years my faith in Jesus Christ as my Savior has become stronger and more certain in my heart. I have seen God working in my life in ways that I would never have noticed a few years ago. I am not saying that He wasn't there, what I am saying is that I never took the time to notice HIM. He is everywhere, and I feel grateful for the many blessings He has given me. There are so many things I count as blessings including; Brian, Luke, family, friends, our church and the relationships we have established there, my job, Brian's job, health of myself and family. The list goes on and on. Many of these things are answers to prayers, and I have seen things happen to myself and others, where you just know HE was behind it. I believe in the power of prayer and that God will answer your prayers, regardless if it is the answer you are looking for or not. Lately I have been sent links to numerous blogs dedicated to loved ones who are ill or dying. Following these stories I have read amazing accounts of ways God has worked in their lives, and have been truly inspired. I feel humbled by His power and love for us and just wanted to share how I felt, and "get out of my little bubble". =)

Just Fun!

No real theme of this post, just fun pics of our little man over the past couple of weeks. Last week he had some pictures taken at the Picture People and they turned out great! Below is a picture I took of my favorite one! They were having a cutest baby contest at the time, so Luke was entered with the pictures taken from that session. How could he not win with those cheeks! =) Here he is pushing Daddy's mower. He thought he was a pretty cool guy. And there goes the mower down the driveway with Luke looking on confused. Just so sweet. We were hanging out at Isabelle's house and usually Luke pushes her around in her walker. Well Miss Isabelle is now starting to explore things on her own and doesn't need any help from this guy. Luke decided instead he would just hop on and enjoy the ride. They did this for about 10 minutes all over the house. Too funny! Luke is really starting to understand everything. He just learned the word shoe and has been trying to put mine on. Here he is trying on my flip flop. He actually did get it on his foot and was able to walk around the house. Again, he thought he was pretty cool. =) Luke goes nonstop from the moment he gets up to the moment he goes to bed. Here is a rare moment when I caught him "taking a break". Exhausting isn't it. We have let Luke's hair grow a little longer since we discovered that he has curls. No one in my family has curly hair, so this is definitely a trait from Brian's side.

One last picture from our trip to the pool yesterday. Luke finally left his sunglasses on. Love it!

Costa Rica

Brian and I have been so blessed to go ontwo amazing vacations this year. I already posted about Hawaii and now here are some pictures from Costa Rica. We had the best time and the trip was full of adventure and amazing sights. Brian and I have been together for over 12 years (yes, i know that is a long time!), and have never been on an official vacation with his family. So, needless to say, this was a special trip. We went to 2 places in Costa Rica. The first was the Arenal Volcano area. Here we are in front of the volcano at a pit stop during the drive there. Our hotel was actually at the base of the volcano and was absolutely beautiful. Here is what we looked at while having coffee in the morning. You could actually see steam coming from the top.

The first full day there, we took an all day tour. This tour started with hanging bridges that went all throughout the rain forest. We saw all kinds of amazing animals, butterflies and flowers.

Here is a picture of a poison dart frog that the guide pointed out for us. I swear those guides could find anything. It would have been very easy to walk around and not see a thing because everything was so hidden.

After the hanging bridges, we took a hike to this amazing waterfall. We then took a hike around the volcano and learned all about its history. Costa Rica is very humid, so we were all drenched in sweat most of the time. After the long day of hiking we were dropped off at the hot springs. This place was amazing and so relaxing! This picture is blurry because there was so much steam. Absolutely loved it! The next day we decided to go zip lining. I am pretty sure zip lining was made famous in Costa Rica, and boy did they know what they were doing! It was amazing. We basically went up the volcano and zip lined all the way down. The views were unbeatable. While hiking to the first zip, the guide pointed out this viper just hanging out. Pretty crazy! In the afternoon we went on a river float where we were suppose to see crocodiles and monkeys. We saw a ton of monkeys, but I was very disappointed not to see any crocs. My disappointment didn't last long because the next day on our drive to the second location, the driver stopped at a river known for crocs. They were everywhere!

Our next destination was the town of Jaco. It is on the Pacific coast and was recommended to us by a friend. Well... lets just say we were very disappointed in the hotel, beach, people offering us drugs on the side of the road, dirty sheets, etc...so we decided to change to a new hotel a few miles away. We did have to stay one night at this gross hotel (longest night of my life!), but now it is a funny story to laugh about. Unfortunately I don't have any pictures to share. At the time I wasn't thinking that I wanted to remember what it looked like. =)

After the "longest night of my life", we went to Manuel Antonio National Park. It is suppose to have the best beaches and amazing wildlife and we were not disappointed! Here is just a taste of what we saw.

Notice the baby on the mom's back. Sloth While taking a break on the beach, Brian's dad decided he would enjoy a little snack. Well it wasn't too long before these little guys snatched his granola bar right out of his hands. He didn't even know what hit him. Too funny!

Here is one of those little guys in action sifting through someones back pack. Yes they can open zippers!

Here is the beach with all the monkeys. Notice Brian and Jeff in the right hand corner. Here we are at the end of the park tour, next to the "turtle rock". After the park tour we headed back to our new hotel, (Thank goodness!), and it was wonderful. We spent the last day relaxing on the beach, playing cards and sitting by the pool. Overall it was an amazing vacation with wonderful memories. Thanks to Brian's parents for taking us along! Oh and this is a record...the first post without a Luke picture! I promise Luke will go back to being the star in the next post. =)