11 Months Old....Pics from the past few weeks :)

As I'm typing, only 4 days until Christmas and I still have about 2/3 the gifts to wrap :( Very difficult to do with a baby around, just as I thought! Thank goodness I'm off the rest of the weekend too and can HOPEFULLY get it done! Not too much new around here regarding Luke. He's growing and getting more ornery by the second! The most exciting news is he is FINALLY GETTING A TOOTH!!! His bottom left tooth is coming in. So it looks like he won't turn a year old toothless afterall! We're all just working, getting ready for Christmas. Housework has gone by the wayside a little bit, but oh well, there's always time after the holidays right? I hope that everyone reading this has a wonderful Christmas this year, and a blessed upcoming 2008! I have to work Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, but I will still be able to go to the Christmas Eve service and then celebrate after work on Christmas Day with us and David's family. It actually works out that my sis and her hubby won't be in till the day after, so we'll be getting together the 26th or 27th, which takes some of the business out of the actual holiday :) Enjoy this round of pics....a couple of funny ones :)Grandma Estes caught this one at her house. When he gets excited about things, he makes a funny face and puts his hands out and "shivers".

I've already got an exhibitionist on my hands! Who eats like that?
"Grandma, why does this bear have no face?" :)

Not so happy...I think he looks like a Simpsons character with that mouth!
Praise God for spill proof cups!

Cute little booger!

Little wrinkled up nose....looks just like his mommy at that age

Discovering the lights on the Christmas tree.
"Look what I can do mom!, this baby food lid fits in my mouth!"

But that's funny, not up my nose :(

Just a cute picture :)

Luke's Great Grandma and Grandpa got him a beautiful new red wagon for Christmas (we celebrated Sun the 16th) It was filled with a bunch of stuff for our dogs! Plus David and I got some gifts. So everyone in the family was included (except the cats....but they don't know any different :)

He kept trying to sneak any food he could get his hands on.

He also got a "Little People" Noah's Ark from his great aunt and my cousins. He loved it right away and started playing with the animals.

He loves to take these "bowls" and put them up to his mouth and go "oooh, oooh, oooh, oooh"

Christmas....what? I'm just now getting Thanksgiving pics up!

Well, we're definitely on our way to Christmas and I sure have a lot of shopping to do! I finished my Christmas cards today with is a huge load of my back, but now housework is staring me in the face like it does all the time! The recent weeks have been kind of busy. David had been gone quite a bit hunting (he got 3 doe this season), and I was keeping watch over our ornery guy and working :) Thanksgiving was really nice as I was off the holiday and miraculously even granted off the day after!!! Perfect timing. We spent a lot of time with family in town and ate lots of good but oh so bad food! Luke still has the toothless grin. He points at everything and has endless conversations with himself or his stuffed animals. The only distiguishable word is still dada. He loves to mimick sounds and some animal noises and still thinks its cute to play in the dogs water bowl and now in the toilet! Not much interest in walking right now since he can get around like a speed demon crawling. He'll occasionally let go of things while he's standing and is able to keep balance for a few seconds, but that's about it. It's okay, I'm in no hurry for it...he gets in enough trouble as it is! Looking forward to the holidays even though I have to work Christmas, but even just spending time as a family is all I want!

Luke enjoying his Thanksgiving meal with all the fixins.....corn casserole, green bean casserole, mashed potatoes, homemade noodles, sweet potatoes, and applesauce! He won't have another meal like that for a LONG time!

Here with David's 3 cousins from all over the country....Jason (Seattle), Chad (Nashville), and Chip (Texas). The first time they met Luke.

Chad's wife Aubrey who is a 1st grade teacher and their dog Buckeye :) He was scared of Luke by the way!

Love this picture. He doesn't know what a camera is does he? One of his MANY bites of pumpkin pie that day!

With Aunt Dana on Thanksgiving!

Crawling around Grandma and Grandpa Kandel's house.


First piggy back ride on Grandpa's back :)


Family photo for my mom and dad's Christmas cards. We all brought our special change of clothes so we could all match. How sweet ;)


Aunt Heather with an exhausted Luke....he was SUCH a good boy over the few days we were all over creation.


Visiting the log home that daddy has been working on building since summer. Almost done.... "Great job dad....can you build me one too?"

"Dadada gardaa oooooh, dooodooo ahhhh" = "Hi puppy" Abby is so patient when Luke is petting (hitting, pulling, pinching) her.

More stories great grandpa, more stories!


Dazed and confused!

He looks like he's ready to throw the shot put!

"Kisses anyone??" Ya know you want me!


The Saturday after Thanksgiving we went out in the freezing cold to find ourselves a real tree. Didn't think we'd have any luck until.....


Tada....Luke's first tree! He picked it out himself. We were looking at it and he was bouncing up and down in the Snugli, pointing and oooohing at it. Maybe that's just because he was thinking "it's flippin freezing out here....just pick a flippin tree and leave!" Daddy did a good job cutting it down, even when his saw broke and he had to pull a MacGyver to fix it!

The whole experience (which I believe really only took 15-20 minutes start to finish) took a lot out of the kid!


A picture of the tree up with lights. Not the best, but you get the idea!


Enjoying the KFC macaronni and cheese container after we ate it all and the dogs licked it spotless. "Where's mine big meanies?"


See, even the best of us have cottage cheese! Couldn't resist this pic!

The ornery booger banging on the toilet.....


Then getting into the trash can and air freshener.


He had spaghetti for the first time the other night and rather enjoyed it....figured he needed a bath anyhow, have at it!


Kinda hard to hold a sippy cup with slickery fingers!

"For Pete's sake mom, let me eat in peace!"