Santa, is it you?

We've seen a lot of Santa in the last couple weeks.

We were taking a bus downtown when Lucca excitedly exlaimed "Mom, Christmas!" I turned to see what he was looking at and I saw a man in a red puffy coat with a long white beard. By the time I processed what he was thinking, he yelled "Mom, Santa!" I quietly turned to him and whispered, "does that look like Santa?" Once again, he yelled "NO! Its IS Santa!" It was so cute.
Then the next day we saw a homeless man with a white beard walking down the street and again, "Mom, Santa". As well as the guy who took my film to process at Moon photo, who was a good sport about it by saying he was Santa's cousin. I wonder how many other times we'll see Santa before Christmas.
We're off this morning to Salt Lake. Merry Christmas everyone! Lucca's been into pony tails lately. He likes them directly on top of his head...this is right after he pulled one out.

Decorating the tree

Decorating the tree this year was SO FUN! Lucca is all things Christmas. It's so cute to see his innocence about the whole thing. Christmas trees are the most awesome thing in the world, lights are magical, decorations are fabulous and every time we see a Christmas tree in the window of a neighbor he says "Look mom, it's SO beautiful". He's so precious and he's the best thing about Christmas right now. I wish I could see things in his eyes. This is his first year understanding Santa, his first year decorating a tree, his first year seeing the magic in Christmas lights and right now Christmas is about the feeling it provokes in him and not the presents. He's completely content with everything just being pretty, the idea of Santa is present enough and every time I look at him I get the real feeling of Christmas. How wonderful it must be to wake up one day, and see the world as you know it all dressed up for Christmas. I'm so grateful I can step back and watch the magic happen in his eyes. Thank you Lucca.

On a lighter note, when we told Lucca we couldn't put the decorations on the tree until we put the lights on it, he swiftly grabbed the lights, and "put" them on the tree. Luckily we were able to get a photo before the moment was gone. Behold, the lights on our tree!

Christmas tree

We cut down our Christmas tree last weekend. That has become such a fun family tradition the last few years. This year Lucca was especially into it. He loved helping Papa with his saw and loved finding his own "Christmas trees" to carry around. It was a great day and Lucca is completed enamoured with our tree.

Lucca was SO excited to take this train ride, but as you can see perhaps the anticipation was better than the actual ride. In his defense, he didn't get a nap because his mama and papa made him stay awake on the drive there so he'd nap on the way home. Of course, we then got terribly lost and ended it ended up taking 1 1/2 hours to get there and 1/2 hour to get home. He must get so frustrated with our scatteredness at times.

Catch Up...Halloween

I am way behind in the goings on around here. For Halloween, we had some friends over for trick-or-treating and the best stew ever! It was so fun to see the kids get into going from house to house. My favorite moment was when Lucca knocked on the door of a glass door and as the man walked to answer it Lucca jumped up and down screaming "Hi Guy Hi Guy Hi Guy". Then at another house, I asked him what he said to the man, he replied "Open this" as he handed the man his treat to open. I told him that's not what I was talking about and to try again, he replied "Thank you, Open this". Can't blame a guy for trying!
How cute is that Gnome?

One more...

Last night while eating dinner, I was talking to Lucca about what we were going to do today. Here's how the conversation went:
"What do you want to do tomorrow?"
"Go to zoo, go to park"
"ummm...How 'bout preschool?"
"ummmm....How 'bout no thank you."

Seriously...sarcasm already.

words

Lucca's vocabulary is through the roof. I wanted to jot down some of the funny things he's been saying lately before this too passes and I forget.
On Halloween I had on a dress with ruffles. He was fluffing the ruffles and said "Is momma a princess?" I don't even know where he learned the word princess as we don't really find an opportunity to use it in our house, but it totally melted my heart.
When he wants to know someones name he says "what's her called momma?"
He can also sing he's ABC's in entirety and Twinkle Twinkle Little Star. Need to video that one!
He loves to call people on the phone (especially Grandma) and lights up when they talk. He also gets really aggravated if they can't understand what he's telling them.
While trick-or-treating, after receiving his candy I said "Lucca what do you say to the nice man?" he held up the candy and said "Open this!". I said, "No, what do you say for the candy". He said, "Thanks, open this!"
He told me the other day I had a penis.
His favorite words are "Super yummy", "ohhhh, cuuuute", "I yike Papa" and of course "No".

That's all I can think of right now. I know there are so many which is why I need to start writing them down more. This is such a fun stage and I don't want to ever forget his innocence as he learns his words. It's really magical!

Trike

We took the trike to the lake a couple weeks ago and Lucca had such a great time! He is really zippy on that little thing! We didn't come close to making it around the lake, but it definitely wore him out!

Look how he hunches over. It's hilarious to watch him on this because he totally crouches over the handle bars like the wicked witch. He also learned from somewhere "Outta my way, comin' through". Eventually it was boring so we looked at the ducks instead.

Our family tradition

We've been going to pumpkin patch's far before Lucca was born. Remember this post, it makes me laugh looking back now because I so thought I was going to get my perfect pumpkin patch moment and Lucca was ONE month old. Even last year, he wasn't totally steady on his feet and wasn't thrilled about all the mud. But this year, he was totally into it. I finally got my pumpkin patch moment :). It was a tradition we started with some friends and then we would head to Judy and Kirk's for a Harvest Party. It was something I looked forward to every year. Unfortunately, for several reasons, the Harvest Party wasn't a part of the tradition this year, but we still went to the pumpkin patch and had a great time. We've tried a different one every year but this time we found a winner. It's perfect, small, old-school and everywhere you look there's something picture perfect. In addition to a U-pick pumpkin patch, they have a perfect kid friendly corn maze and U-pick apples. We had the best day we've had in a long time. The only thing that made it better was the cider (spiked for us, of course) which is also part of the tradition.

There are SO many photos, so hopefully you don't get bored, but seriously this place is gorgeous! The perfect family outting.
Oh, and for those local people, it's called Gordon's up in Mt. Vernon.

There was serious concentration with the wheel barrel

Putting on his own hat.

Love love love this photo.

Family pic. Shan is no longer allowed to wear all black, it's like our body guard went with us :)

Seriously, look how charming this place is...

I know these photos looks edited, but the lighting was amazing being there late afternoon and the pumpkins were on fire!

Their first successful apple pick! Clearly Shan liked it more than Lucca.

Ring around the rosie...

Love this one too -- thanks for getting such great photos babe.

Shan took these amazing last shots...it was just stunning at dusk.