to blog or not to blog?

Ok, so I used to love to put up a new post on my blog. spend a little time, be creative and share with friends and family what is going on with me. It's always fun to see what comments you get and nice to stay connected. But I've got to come clean - I had a terrible day today and all I have to show for it is a lame post. Lately I haven't really had anything interesting to say and I've been reading all of these fantastically creative, funny and witty blogs that make it hard for me to keep up my own sort of upfront, direct, here's-a-picture-and-this-is-what-it-is blogging style. But out of duty, I felt like I should post something. I had all these videos of Luke and I thought I should to put them together. No big deal right? Well, stuff just took longer than I thought and I was at the computer way longer than I wanted to be. Luke woke up from his nap and I thought I could just "hurry" and finish. But he kept wanting to bang on the computer and I was getting frustrated with him. I found myself being a very bad mom, not giving attention to my son - it was all very hypocritical that I was trying to document how much I love him and what a fun kid he is while I was swatting him away from me. YUCK! I just feel terrible. After it was posted I didn't feel a sense of accomplishment I just felt guilty. I don't know how people do it. Especially the cool creative ones. Mine was even lame and I took so freaking long. Then there is even the question of reading blogs. It can be such a wonderful thing. Joey and I have spent hours lately reading family blogs and it's been a bonding experience for us and brought us closer to our families. But it can eat a lot of time. How do you balance it? What is the appropriate amount of time to spend on the computer? I'm just thinking out loud. In some ways, I feel better when I forget the computer exists. But then I'll get a phone call from an old friend or family member and feel bad that I haven't been keeping up on their blog. Oh, the dilemma. Well, tomorrow is another day. Maybe I'll have it all figured out in the morning. Anyone else feel this way?

calling all luke fans

It's the end of the first quarter of Luke's life as a one year old. He's now 25 pounds and, like his parents, he's a really good eater and sleeper. He sleeps at least 12 hours a night with a 3 hour nap during the day...just like his parents :-) Here he is eating a pork burrito, grown-up style.



His favorite thing in the world is a "BALL!" which he exclaims at least 100 times a day. We finally bought him a basketball hoop and he vigorously shot hoops for an hour and a half until I put it away because I felt like he was going to pass out from excitement.



He has become quite the independent little man. And it's actually pretty darn scary. He runs away from me never looking back, climbs at playgrounds and slides down slides without my help. He's totally fearless. Needless to say - this causes many bumps and bruises, But he never seems to mind too much. One day he fell down and scraped his face on the sidewalk twice! Here is the very cute aftermath:



Here are some videos from the last 3 months to go down in the archives of the Lukester:


I love being his mom!

Oklahoma is more than OK

Wind sweepin' down the plain, surreys with fringe on top, corn as high as an elephant's eye - they've really got it all. After a long but worth it drive (8 hours) we arrived at destination : The Richins, Oklahoma City, OK.

Some of Okie's finest: Folks like these...


who take you to nice places like these:
(Oklahoma's Omniplex Science Museum)

Luke n' Lucy


We also visited the Oklahoma Bombing Memorial which was beautiful.

each of these seats is for someone who died. There were 168 total.

The tree in the background is called the survivor tree - it somehow survived the blast.


Bricktown canal evening walk. Oklahoma City is really quite charming.


Oh and this is Miss Mia. She's new. You'd like her.


Hey Luke how do you like those Richins?

Macdonalds bring Merriment to Memphis

Our dear friends, the Macdonalds, came for a visit and due to some weather and a wedding scheduling conflict their visit was cut short but they made up for it by extra superduper awesomeness. Dave & Joey got to go mountain biking (so Joey could try out his birthday present) and play raquetball and Liz and I got to do water aerobics and laugh our heads off with our funny old lady friends at the gym. Since it was so short we didn't get much sleep - but we did get to play a lot of late night BANG! and Rock Band.

ok - so in the 36 hours they were here I think the kids all took 4 or 5 baths so they were all super clean.

Luke loved M&B.


and our favorite bath was the one with the 7 inches of bubbles and the hot chocolate in the BIG bathtub - after THIS cold treasure hunt (geocaching):


side note: memphis has been in the 70's and just before the Macdonalds got here it snowed (it never snows) and was freezing cold weekend and now it's back in the 70's. what gives huh?

Warming our toes. As Brads sipped his cocoa, he said "This is just yummy baby!"


the bubbles


ROCK BAND MERRIMENT
Too bad we don't have more pics of this. We found out Dave & Liz are quite the rockers. Especially Liz. Not only did she rock on the drums - she was amazing at busting some moves WHILE playing the guitar. And she was the only one of us that got a "flawless" & a 100% on vocals. So it's no surprise that Bradley picked up some rockin' genes.


GABERS
This kid is one of the happiest, grabbiest, kissiest babies I've ever known. It was such a joy to finally meet Gabe. And turns out he and Luke had a lot in common. :-)


BBQ
We had to fit in a LOT of eating in short time and I'm sure they appreciated the calorie intake of their Memphis trip. But what can you do? They experienced fried green beans and REAL southern BBQ at our very own Fat Larry's.


JOEY'S BIRTHDAY!
Joey turned 31 on Friday and we went to Incredible Pizza with Dave. And then invited the Cresaps and the Terrys over for cake, ice cream & present opening.

Dave & Joey riding go-carts at Incredible Pizza - Dave is so nice to let Joey win on his birthday.

Dave teaching Lukey the wonder of video games.


We loved seeing these guys again! It was just like the old days. And now we are just missing them all over again. But at least I got to fill my Macdonald void for the time being.