Christmas Festivities!

Christmas is our family's favorite time of the year!
All of the hustle and bustle, family time, gifts, gift-giving and CHRISTMAS MUSIC :)

Our stockings hung and our tree before the lights and ornaments were put on!

The tree Lucas is seen playing with on the left was a tree made out of felt. Aunt Katharyne and I found the idea on Pinterest and we thought Lucas would enjoy it. He did really enjoy taking all of them off of there, but I think the concept will come to life next year when he is a little older. The tree on the right was one I put together with masking tape (again thanks to Pinterest for the idea). 

I used it to display the Christmas cards we received from our family and friends.

This "Little People" Nativity Scene was a gift to Lucas from the Long's on Christmas 2011!
He really enjoyed playing with all 18 pieces and spreading them all throughout the house for Mommy to find! ;)

This year we got together with Aunt Kimmy & Jacoby and made Gingerbread houses.
Well, Aunt Kimmy & Mommy made the houses, the boys ate the candy and made a mess! 

This year the Holidays were busier than usual--Well, they just seemed like it!! We had to constantly watch Lucas because of his obsession with the Christmas lights. 

Our first Christmas get together took place after Lucas's birthday party. Matt's aunts and uncles, cousins, parents and sister all got together! We had tacos, guac, chips & salsa! We played games and exchanged gifts. It was a new tradition that we hope to continue throughout the years! 

Our second Christmas get together was at Nonna & Papa's house. 3 of Jeff's siblings and most of their children/grandchildren were there for the gift exchange this year! LOTS OF PEOPLE, BUT LOTS OF FUN. We did the gift exchange a little differently, everyone brought a gift that was up to $30 and we separated them into mens, women and unisex piles. We were each given a word and that would determine the order of picking gifts as Nonna read, "Twas the Night Before Christmas". 

Then once the story was over and everyone had a gift we opened them up and could switch if we wanted at the end. Matt got his own gift: Sour Apples to Apples. I originally opened a watch, but traded with Lindsay for a Starbucks gift card and peanut butter M&M's. (Who could resist that?)

Uncles and their nephews! :)

Lucas & Easton--I love you little boys! Cannot wait to see you grow up together and get into trouble!

Our next gathering was Christmas Eve at Grandma & Grandpa Warren's house! The whole gang was there and we had a great time spending time with them this year since we missed being able to last year. (Thanks Lucas haha!) We ate WAY too much and then opened gifts. The most memorable moments were when Hunter opened a gift meant for me--All grandma could see was the H-----R and gave it to Hunt-Man. Ooops! The other was watching Garrett open his toys! He was at the PERFECT age and kept saying things like "WOW, WOAH, COOL, MOM LOOK, MOM LOOK!"

Picture on left: Grandparents and their grand children! Picture on right: Lucas and Garrett playing together!! I think these two will definitely be little trouble makers together in the upcoming years!!

Christmas Eve at the Warren House!

Christmas Eve we stayed at  Grandma & Grandpa Dunn's house. We each got to open one gift, thanks to our tradition!! When we woke up Lucas was still sleepy! We got ready and he ate some breakfast, then we all went back to Nonna & Papa's for muffins and mimosas with the family! 

Lucas's personalized stocking for at Grandma & Grandpa Dunn's House!
Below is pictures of Lucas with Mommy & Daddy on Christmas morning!

We had all already opened our stockings & exchanged other gifts & Nonna & Papa's, but Matt missed it so he opened his. We got socks, toothbrushes and a few other odds and ends.
Stockings are our ULTIMATE favorite as a family.

Nonna tried really hard to get each of us stockings that represented us--Matt's literally fit his size 14 foot!

So fun!

After muffins and mimosas we went back to Jim & Audrey's! 

Christmas morning Auntie put him in the present pile to show the change over the last year!

Lucas was asleep when we got there, so we let him nap and started our gift exchange without him. Our gifts this year were PERFECT! We were especially impressed and touched by the memorial book made by Grandma Audrey for us about Lucas's first year! So stinkin' cute and it really made me cry seeing all of your kind words! Thank you all from the bottom of my heart! <3

Once Lucas woke up we let him open his gifts. This year he enjoyed playing with the paper rather than seeing what was wrapped inside. So mommy did a lot of his unwrapping for him! The coolest gift was his own personal recliner! No more watching TV or movies standing up! 

His hat from Auntie Kat & he was everyone's perfect present!

We are truly blessed beyond measure. To all of our family and friends who make us, shape us and guide us through life.. We wouldn't be anywhere close to where we are today with out you, yes you! We love each of you so much and cannot wait to see what is in store for us this upcoming year! 

With lots of love, 

Matthew, Heather & Lucas!

UNO PARTY

Isn't it WILD that it's already been 

a year since we had Lucas? 

We can't REVERSE how fast he has grown, 

but we can celebrate his big UNO!

 

We had an UNO themed birthday party with his family and friends! 

He had an UNO card cake! 

We had a great get together at Pizza Ranch in Altoona. He was one really spoiled boy! 

He really liked the light from the candle (go figure, Lucas likes lights??) 

and kept trying to touch it. Silly boy, that could hurt. 

Mommy & Daddy helped blow out his candle for him this year!

Then he got to enjoy his slice of cake!

He sure enjoyed it, but by the end he was ready to get down and be cleaned off!

Once we got as much of the blue and black frosting off as we could, we started opening gifts!  

This little boy was more than spoiled by all of his family and friends!!

Just some of the items he got below were: books, a toy car, a "Little People" helicopter, 

his own rocking chair, a teddy bear and a couple of toy guitars! 

    

    

After we packed everything up to take it home he decided to play with his balloons! 

Boys will be boys!

    

Lucas, we all love you! I hope that you can look back at these pictures one day and realize just how blessed you are to have the love you do from ALL of your family! 

I figured I would end this post with Jacoby (Lucas's best friend) singing him Happy Birthday! 

Much love & thanks to all, 

Matthew, Heather & Lucas

He is ONE!!

Playing catch up! 

 Lucas turned ONE on December 21st, 2012 at 3:05 pm!

Before

Beginning

During

After

Aunt Katharyne took the pictures of Lucas's cake smash and Grandpa Jim helped! 

He didn't know what to think at first so they both helped him get in the mood by each taking a hand and smashing it into the cake. Then he really got into it! 

We let the birthday boy sleep in on the day of his birthday! When he FINALLY woke up we loaded up the car and made the journey to the DSM area. Our normal 1.5 hour trip ended up being a 2.5 hour trip because of the snow and ice covered roads. We had a quiet evening at Grandma Audrey & Grandpa Jim's house. Nonna, Papa & Macie came over for dinner. 

After we put him to bed we all sat up and reflected on how quickly time goes. Just a year ago we were in the hospital being graced with his arrival. No one could imagine life without him. He is such a joy and we are so excited for the years to come! Matt and I really have tried hard to take all of his stages in. Yes, we have them all on camera or video but we really enjoy watching him grow, learn and develop into such a handsome, smart, carefree little boy!

Lucas, your mommy & daddy love you more than you know!

Happy Birthday Lukey! 

Graduation & Christmas Program

December was a big month for our family! 

Lindsay graduated from Simpson College in Indianola.  

See the video below to watch her receive her diploma

 Lucas was very good during the ceremony and enjoyed all of the clapping!

Turkey Day 2012

Thanksgiving this year was a busy one! We spent the afternoon with Heather's family at her second cousin's loft in downtown Des Moines. Zach came home from Marietta, Georgia for the weekend.  

Lucas tuckered out on daddy after eating his first Turkey Dinner. It sure was yummy!

When he woke up we took an updated 5 generations photo! 

Front row: Mommy, Lucas, Great-Great Granny

Back row: Uncle Zach, Great-Grandma Sharon & Grandpa Rodney

Lucas was so good throughout the afternoon mommy decided to "treat" him with a white-chocolate covered pretzel. Boy oh boy, did he make a mess!! He and Great-Grandpa Gary had it all over them!

After things wrapped up downtown the Dunn Family made the trip to Indianola for the Coates/Warren Family Thanksgiving Dinner. We watched football, ate food and looked through Black Friday ads! Matt had to come back to Fort Dodge to work Black Friday. :(

It took about 50 takes to get a good picture of the three Grandkids, but it finally happened. 

Lucas, Macie and Easton Thanksgiving 2012

When we got done we went back to Nonna and Papa's house. Lucas loved playing with Nonna's cornucopia. We deemed it a Corn-A-Lukey-A ;)

Black Friday Football Madness! This was the first year Lucas & Mommy got to go to the Martin household and watch the Iowa vs Nebraska Game! Lucas came dressed to impress with his Hawkeye Track Suit OVER his Husker onesie. Thankfully he had both because the Hawks didn't come ready to play! Matt and I decided we will let Lucas decide which of these two teams he wants to root for since we both were born in Iowa and he was born in Nebraska. 

He just has to ALWAYS root for Florida State over Florida ;)

As you can see we had a busy Thanksgiving weekend! 

We want to take a moment to tell everyone thank you for you love and support over the year. 

We love you all so much and look forward to next year's festivities!