All Lucas all the time

Okay so this one is all about the little guy and what he's been up to! Which is a lot. He walks, he talks more and more every day... he runs into stuff and gets into things! He is one of those "all boy" boys. It's all about trucks, puppies, rocks, sticks, balls, and wrestling and getting dirty. There's always a little love for mom in there every day too. Here are a few shots of general craziness from the past few months.







Can you handle this ladies? Yeah. Didn't think so.



There is also a strange need to wrestle with Aunt Breann's panda.



And who could forget the "great bleed" of 2009?? We still don't really know HOW he ripped out a good chunk of his top lip... but it bled for days and eventually required more medical attention than we ever thought it would. We spent a few days in the bathtub and a fair amount of clothing was thrown away.





Will sit still for Mom's phone...



But not for long...



I don't really know how this happened. I turned around for a second, and then looked back and he found a way to get stuck upside down in his hamper. He was rather upset about it too.



These are our friends Lion and Rhino. I am being poked in the bum right now by rhino as I write this.



Monthly pictures are an increasing challenge can you tell??









I think this is the winning shot after about 12 attempts :-)



Here he is running from the scene of the crime. While I was uploading (just now) he found the wipes container and discovered the joys of pulling out each wipe individually. I bet that was a good time.





I will leave you with a video of Lucas doing what Lucas loves best- "driving" cars. This one happened to be a big jeep that he didn't expect to move!

October fun in KC and another trip to MN

We were able to enjoy some family time during a few days off here in Kansas City. We traveled to Faulkners family pumpkin patch and made attempts to get pictures of a very busy little boy.











We weren't able to get cute posted pictures with the pumpkins like last year.. so we compromised by slapping the pumpkins with sticks and that kept us within the frame of the camera!





Not long after this, Lucas and I left Ted to work the ICU for the month and we made the drive up to Minnesota to see friends and family. It was a full two weeks of visits and dealing the the Minnesota fall.

We visited one of our favorite Medical school families the Nelsen's who have a boy one year older than Lucas and also twin little guys that are younger than Lucas. It was a busy day at the McDonalds play place!





We also got to meet up with our buddy couple from FANA the Wagners. Lucas really enjoyed playing with Matthew (although I doubt either one of them remember that they lived at FANA together).





He also really enjoyed "driving" all of the cars at Chuck E Cheeses with Grandma and Grandpa in Maple Grove.



Even the busiest of little men need to rest up with all of this visiting!



Lucas had a great day with his Aunts and Uncles, Grandma, Grandpa, and cousins at the apple orchard. It was a busy day!

Getting 3 toddlers to sit on a couch at the same time was challenging but we got it done.













Being in Minnesota also gave me some time to get together with some other Colombian mama's like myself. We ladies don't get out much anymore!



We enjoyed our time, but it was still nice to return home this past weekend to see Daddy again after a few weeks away!

September in KC and Texas

September brought more family time here in Kansas City, and also a little trip to San Antonio to visit the Vogtlins and Sharrows. (Erin's siblings)

The picture below is from Evan's birthday celebration on September 13th when our Mom was in town and our sister Breann came along.



Someone turned 17 months old! He is now so busy that I have to bribe him with normally forbidden toys such as my cell phone to get a picture :-)



Thanks to a portable DVD player and having his own seat, our plane rides to San Antonio were FANTASTIC! He did a super job and we arrived relatively okay.



This was taken during a little family hiking trip out in the country somewhere in Texas...



Real men hold their mama's hand on a plane.




I would have had more pictures from this trip.. but I spent the majority of the trip laying in bed with a nasty stomach flu that took quite awhile to shake which gave us some lovely complications once I got home to Kansas City. All is well now and I've been able to gain back most of the weight that was lost from all of that.

That is it for the month of September so we're finally starting to get caught up!

Oh yeah.. and the Royals

Ted's parents came down for a long weekend in August which was great times! We didn't get as many pictures of this as they did, but I thought these were blog worthy.

Summer Fun in KC

So we did have a good time enjoying the summer in Kansas City. Here are a few photos from when my mom came down for a visit.



We are at a water park near our apartment with my Mom and my brother Evan.



The pictures below were taken at the Plaza in Kansas City where we went to dinner one night when she was in town.








Although not in Kansas City, we traveled to Iowa for the Iowa State Fair for some good family time when Ted finally had a day off!





Lucas really enjoys animals right now so he had a great time exploring in the animal buildings at the fair.



We were also able to meet up with some of our extended family from Erin's side and their kiddos.



Back in Kansas City, we have been THRILLED to be a part of Deerbrook Covenant Church in Lee's Summit. We have met some dear friends there, including a family that has a lot in common with us- adoption! Below are pictures of Lucas and his friend Evan and his mom Rachel at the farmstead in Overland Park Kansas. We really enjoy playing with the goats!





Lucas and Evan have enjoyed lots of play dates at the park, hanging out together, and of course share the love of goats.

Sibley Cabin and Minnesota trip #2

So we were in Minnesota for awhile so here is part two of that trip.

I was fortunate enough to get together with some of my best girlfriends and professors from Northwestern College Music Dept. Good times!



This was also a time for last girls night before Kristi moved away in our lab group.



Lucas spent some quality time with his Great Grandma Haines.



Why is my little boy getting so big? I don't like it one bit.



Towards the end of July we headed up to the Sibley cabin in northern Minnesota. It was during this time that we celebrated Lucas' "Gotcha Day". This is an important anniversary in the world of adoption when we remember the day our children were placed in our arms. Uncle Bobby (also adopted) was very sweet to get Lucas a cake!







We enjoyed more family time at the cabin with the extended family with lots of eating and playing!









After so much fun in Minnesota we headed back home to Missouri at the end of the month to see Daddy!

Wrapping up the past few months...

Okay so although we have sent out pictures and uploaded to Facebook.. we have failed to keep the blog up to date in the past few months. This will be a nice big post in an attempt to summarize everything from July to now (the end of October). I'll probably break this up a bit:


July 2009- 4th of July and return to Minnesota for FANA weekend.

So we traveled back to Erin's hometown for 4th of July for the sake of good ol' hometown fun. It was "brisk" that day!



These are from the parade in Perry, IA



He needs to stop judging my hat.



Erin's sister Jenny, her husband Jeff, and their kiddos Abby and Caleb came for a visit all the way from Texas. Erin's cousin Amy also drove over from Ohio to get all of the little cousins together.







The Vogtlin visit also prompted an entire family stay at a cabin in central Iowa. Good times!








Following this visit, Erin and Lucas traveled to Minnesota for the annual FANA fundraiser weekend. If you faithful followers recall, we received our referral for Lucas at one of these events last year- so obviously this was a big deal to us!

The picture below was taken about 5 minutes after our friends Kary and Peter learned they had twin boys waiting for them down in Colombia (they are still there working through the process by the way...)



Ted wasn't able to get away from the hospital for the weekend so Nancy was my date :-)



There was a family picnic also.. where Lucas sported his Colombia soccer jersey. Too bad it was so cold!



On that Sunday we went to the FANA Mass that gave us such precious memories from the previous year! Lucas even got to pay a visit to the founder of his orphanage, Mercedes de Martinez who changed his life forever.







That completed the first leg of the Minnesota trip. More pictures in next post!