5 Year Anniversay

It feels like it has been much longer than 5 years, and I mean that it a good way. We've done a lot of living in a short amount of time. It has been a full life! We found our wedding video recently and spent some time reminiscing about the exciting day. As most of you know we eloped, sort of. 6 months prior to our wedding date we decided to throw out all of our big wedding plans and fly to Santa Barbara. We met a few friends and immediate family for "lunch" and surprised them with our wedding!

Anywho... we had planned a big weekend to celebrate but things didn't work out... my babysitter (nana) got sick. So we canceled our hotel and went out for dinner and a movie instead. Jordan is a great babysitter and Luke just adores him but I have yet to spend an entire night away from Luke and just didn't feel comfortable leaving him with a 18 year old. Luke still wakes up at night and I had this image of Jordan not waking up to get him. Oh well... another time.

Here's a few of my favorite pictures from our wedding:

Alan looking very distinguished

Me waiting before the the ceremony... I was super nervous and giggly.

Alan informing the guests that "Erika isn't here because she's waiting for us at the court house, because we're getting married.... right now."

Alan's mom, her face says it all...."WHAT?!"

The Kiss

Doesn't that look just say "love"?


The Mural room was beautiful
Isn't the court house beautiful (and free)! We walked from the court house to the restaurant for our reception (only a block away) and complete strangers were clapping and cheering for us. It was really moving to see these people just share in our joy.

Lots of Changes

We have gone through lots of changes this month so far. First, Jordan, my youngest brother has moved in with us. He's working on getting a job and babysitting Luke for us. Luke loves his Uncle Jordan. He runs around the house shouting "Joorrrdan" and then waits for a response. It's kinda of like Marco-Polo.

2nd- Luke is sleeping in his own bed all night (or at least until 5am)! We used to let him fall asleep while we were watching tv and then carry him to bed, but now we say "it's time to go to sleep" and put him in bed awake. He fusses a little but understands he's not going to win. He's pretty cute about it now (it took a few weeks to get him to stay in bed), we tuck him in with his teddy bear and "baby" (a stuffed precious moments praying angel).

3rd- we finally weaned. We all had a bought of stomach flu which caused Luke to not nurse for a few days. We were down to only a few feedings a day anyways, it was mostly a comfort thing. I never thought I would nurse this long, but it ended up being so easy. If it were up to Luke we probably would have nursed until he was 4! But I will miss it. This is just another thing telling me he's not a baby anymore :( He's growing up too fast!

Chillin' in his car

Cheese!

Reading the paper... the classified section, he was pointing out all the cars and tractors (because there are only two types of vehicles out there)

Taking Luke out for dinner

My little Angel

We have definitely entered the toddler years. There are a few things that I can expect when taking Luke out to eat: he will be loud, he will make a mess, and he will be unpredictable. I have friends that just don't go out to eat with their kids for these very reasons. That being said this is my criteria for the dining establishments we go to:

• Fast- the longer we wait the more likely Luke will have a total meltdown. If a meltdown occurs we normally get looks of sympathy (from other parents) or looks of concern (because we're probably abusing him).
• Noisy- or as I call it kid-friendly. At this age there is no reasoning with him to stay quiet.
• Cheap- I'm pretty frugal already but there is no point in taking Luke into an expensive restaurant when there is a chance you might have to leave mid meal.
• Prep Luke before we go: if he is tired or super hungary, he will be a nightmare in public. Naps, early dining, and snacks are a must!
  

With this in mind, we went out to eat last night. Old Spaghetti Factory was having a special for there 41st anniversary; salad, bread, pasta, ice cream, and beverage for about $5! Super Score! However there was a wait to be seated, 35-45 minutes! Normally this would be a deal breaker but my cheapness won out. Luke wasn't doing well with the wait and wanted to run into the bar, the dining area, and outside... were ever he shouldn't be. So my bright I idea was to take Luke to the McDonalds Playland across the street. Alan was nominated for the task and took him out to the car. This is how it went down:

Luke: "bye-bye?"
Alan: "Yes, bye-bye" Thinking he would be excited about this.
Luke: "NOOOOOOO!!!! NO BYE-BYE!!!"

Then he started squirming to get down, not caring that he is 6 feet off the ground. Alan said that the people walking near by looked at him like he was kidnapping Luke. When they got to the car Luke made up his mind that he was not getting in and started kicking and holding out his arms so Alan couldn't get him in. At this point Alan gave in and turned back. Luke was very happy about this.

Luckily the hostess seated us very quickly after they came back.

Happy New Year!

We are officially lame. We only stayed up until 10pm. We did celebrate a little.... had some Italian bubbly and chocolate lava cake, yum! I was however woken up at midnight by the sounds of large fireworks going off. Washington is pretty lax about fireworks laws. You can get the big mortar shells on the reservations near by. And as a bonus the fireworks also woke up Luke... Happy New Year!

New Years also marks the anniversary of mine and Alan's first date. We met while working at Radioshack, just friends at first, but as time went by I looked forward to seeing Alan more and more. We just had fun all the time together. I had a boyfriend at the time, so it remained a crush for a couple of months. When I broke up with my then boyfriend I kept hinting that I had "nothing to do for new years". Alan finally clued in and invited me out to a party with his friends. At midnight we kissed, instant chemistry!

It's been 8 years since that night. We no longer celebrate it as our anniversary, instead we make a big production out of our wedding date (at the end of this month). A lot has changed, the picture to the left is from when we were first dating. I'm getting to a point were I look at pictures of myself (and Alan ;) and say "look how young we were", that's a depressing thought. But some things aren't so different. Alan is still a little clueless and I'm still a little bossy, life is still full of wonderful adventures, and there is no one that I would rather spend time with than Alan.

Another oldie but goodie. This is from our first romantic getaway. We went San Francisco. I think I was 19 and Alan was 25... cradle robber!

Ooohhhhh Christmas!

Luke's Cozy Coupe Police Car

There's nothing like holiday traffic, sleeping on airobeds, and long car rides to make us a little tired but, it was worth it. Luke has a special bond with his Nana and was very excited to go see her (in Forks). Everytime he saw a beige minivan on the drive over he would say "Nana!". He would then rattle off a bunch of family members names that he normally sees at the same time "Tracy, Aliya, Jordan, and Hass" (Jordan's dog).

We opened our stockings x-mas eve and the rest of the presents on x-mas day. Luke didn't quite get the opening presents concept. He was very excited to see his new toys but didn't associate the new toys with being wrapped up, oh well, maybe next year. Luke got lots of cute clothes, cars, stuffed animals, and his big present from Santa was a cozy coupe, which he loves. He spent most on the day climbing in and out of it. He didn't want to share with his cousin Aliya either. This concept is even more foreign to him. She got into it once and he went for her neck with his nails! He is very possive of his toys and his mommy.

Pretty Aliya

Playing with a noisy toy

Sitting like a big boy with auntie Tracy

Santa Picture

As you can tell, Luke and Santa got along great this year ;) We talked to Luke about Santa and showed him pictures. When we got to the mall, we gave him a few minutes to check him out. The two even "high-fived". It wasn't until I put Luke onto Santa's lap and walked away to take the picture (aka abandoning him) that he lost it! Doesn't Santa look equally as thrilled?! I'm sure he's thinking something along the lines of...'I don't get paid enough for this'.

We actually got a couple of pictures that weren't this dramatic but I like this one the most. I'm not taking joy in his pain just finding humor in what is suppose to be iconic part of childhood. Hopefully next year won't be so dramatic.

Christmas Tree

My boys

We had a wonderful evening together a few days ago. We got our Christmas tree from our local grocery store. Luke can say "tree" but is still working on "Christmas". We had the tree up for a least a week before we pulled out the ornaments. I was kind of dreading having to deal with Luke and breakables. He, of coarse, wants to pull every ornament off of the tree for inspection. Afterward, Luke and I danced to Xmas music.

Luke putting ornaments on the tree. He didn't understand that they attach via the hook so he mostly shoved them into the tree.

Al's "awesome" xmas tie from last year.

Luke really liked this Angel figurine. He gave her a bunch of kisses.

He's starting to make "cheesy" faces for the camera. He makes me laugh.

The tree. Can you tell we have one sting of LED lights on the bottom?

The pictures for our xmas card this year.