Here is a bit about my little man at 3 months.

• At the doctors check-up he was 15lbs. 2 oz.
• He loves to smile and “talk” to you
• He is starting to grab toys – which you can tell he finds fabulous
• The majority of the time he really likes his tummy time for a good five-ten minutes then we are all done
• Lucas is still eating every three hours during the day and goes down between 9 and 10 at night.  He has a bit of trouble knowing a decent time to start his day… on great days he gets up at 6 on regular days 5 bad days (like this morning) he thinks 4:30 is okay.
• He loves to snuggle and would choose to nap on me over any other location during the day.  I as well love the snuggles!!  Thankfully if you time it right likes napping in his car seat too.  Which makes going out alot easier.
• His reflux got really bad after Christmas… our doctor just increased his medication and it seems to be helping a bit!  I am praying that his little body will grow out of this sooner than later!!
• As you can see in his picture… he has his daddy’s issue of arm length… we might need the extra long sleeved baby clothing store!

 Happy three months buddy!

Here is our dolphin picture and another one that I just love.

This is something that I have been quite excited about for a few days now!  My sister’s oldest son is five now, seeing that David and Lucas are the only boys on my side of the family we have been blessed by having many of David’s clothes to wear.  When I took the 3-6 month clothes out a few outifts reminded me of pictures that Jenny posted of David on their website.  So I looked them up and then took Lucas’ picture in those outfits when he was the exact same age as David was in the pictures Jenny took.  I tried to get the same pose but Lucas is a bit of a crazy mover and seems to never stop so I did my best. (and please dont mind the spit up in the first picture hahaha we tried)  So here they are…

David and then five years later… Lucas

And just to throw in here is one I love of Luke’s eyes and the same day he figured out how to touch his toys!

Here is Madelyn and Lucas before church on New Year’s Day!

Christmas this year was alot of fun.  It was quite busy but fun!  We started on Christmas Eve with breakfast at my mom and dad’s with the Rufo side of the family, followed by Aunt Ruth’s house for the traditional Christmas Eve seafood dinner (they had KFC for Dave and the other non-seafood lovers… so sad).  Then Christmas morning we went to church and then to Dave’s parents house for dinner and Christmas with Dave’s family.  And finally the day after we opened our gifts at home and my parents came over later that morning for gifts with them.  Wow!  Crazy few days.  Madelyn enjoyed every minute!!  Of course David and I had some crazy colds and I forgot my camera the majority of the celebrations!!  But I did manage to get a few pictures with my phone.

Here we are with our family tradition of getting our tree the day after Thanksgiving!  And yes the country boy Dave totally for the last two years has gone about two block down the street to get our tree   so much for braving the outdoors and cutting them down!  Now he does it Danielle style… pre-cut and I have him pull almost every one out for me to spin and look at.  Deep down he really does love the experience!

At Aunt Ruth’s house every year “Santa” comes. (Who is really one of my cousins).  Madelyn was just not sure what to think of him and as you can see Lucas was thrilled!  The next day Madelyn told me that Santa walked pretty far from the mall to Ruthies house

This year my dad had a great idea to turn his trailer into a hay ride for the family.  Madelyn keeps talking about how Granka helps drive Santa!  I took this picture from one of my cousins because I was inside with Lucas – but Dave and Madelyn are on the end of the trailer!

Here are the kiddos the day after Christmas as we celebrated as our family of four.  Madelyn loved her dress up clothes which she wears regularly.

And just for fun… here is one of Madelyn’s new favorite things to do with daddy.  She loved the bags I brought all the gifts in when we went places and she wanted to be a gift too!

This year Christmas was alot of fun.  Madelyn really enjoyed every minute and was quite sad when we put the decorations away… I think that she thought that Christmas was something that was just going to keep going and going.  The week before on December 18th was our church’s contada and it was Lucas’ first week at church.  Thankfully he did an excellent job and slept the majority of the time! 

Now please excuse my poor picture taking … David leaves for church early on Sunday mornings.  I love getting pictures before church, but I am thinking that my only chance of getting good ones might be dressing them on Saturday night when David is here to help   It is becoming a bit crazy on my own!

I am sure that every mom thinks this but seriously I have been blessed with the best munchkins ever!!  Lately I have been being reminded of what I trying time it was before we had Madelyn not knowing if we would ever be able to have biological children.  Here we are several years later with two of the best kids I could have ever asked for! 

Alot of people ask me how Madelyn is doing with the adjustment of having a little brother.  Well here is a picture of her a few days ago as he was screaming non stop for a few hours…

She just plays and enjoys herself or taking my phone and here she got herself nice and comfy and was playing her pre-school games while I was trying to console our little man!

Madelyn also watches everything we do and trys to always help.  I always feel bad when babies spend their tummy time just looking at the ground.  So I usually lay down so he can see me and that always seems to help him.

Well Madelyn picked this up and she will now ask to do tummy time and she is so cute.  She will lay there and say, “pick that head up little buddy.”  Always a nice reminder to me that she really does remember EVERYTHING I say!

Needless to say I think that she is enjoying her little brother!

And just for fun… some of my favorite moments with Lucas is in the morning.  I will bring him in bed with me and he always seems to be quite content and happy for those morning moments!

What a huge blessing to be a mom!  My prayer is that I never forget the struggle so that I am always reminded of the miracle it is that we are fearfully and wonderfully made!

Well, I am late again!  So sorry.  But here is what Lucas has been up to…

- On 12-08-2011 he celebrated his 2 month birthday.

- At his appointment he was 13lbs. 14oz. and 25 inches long… that’s right we passed two feet long! 

- He has good and bad days with his reflux… but when it is not bothering him, he is quite a fabulous little fella!  He smiles at you and will laugh back – which even sounds like a little man laugh  

-He has noticed his sister and for the most part thinks she is pretty funny – which Madelyn just eats up of course.

-He is a good sleeper at night (which makes are screaming days easier to handle).  He goes down between 9 and 10pm and gets up between 5 and 6 am!  I’ll take it!!

-And his eyes are still blue!!  I know they can still change… but they are pretty light so I am still holding out hope!

Here he is with Mr. Dolphin!

Today Lucas is one month old!  We had a debate if we should use the same dolphin for his monthly pictures or switch to another animal.  We decided to stick with our dolphin!  So this morning I took him out for the start of our monthly pictures!

Lucas has been doing a bit better with his reflux!  Thankfully since Madelyn had such a bad case of it our doctor put him on medicine right away to help him!  He has been growing like a champ and loves to eat.  He is already loving his 4 oz. bottles and I am thinking that we might have to up him to offering 6 soon since he is drinking them dry.  We left the hospital 8lbs. 8oz.  A week later he was 9lbs. 12oz. and 6 days after that on October 31st he weighed in at 10lbs. 11oz!!  I am interested to see what his weight is next week at our check-up! 

Here he is with the dolphin and another picture I snapped for Jenny later today.  She thought he looked like Madelyn in it and after looking again I agree!

This year Madelyn was Minnie Mouse and Lucas was a moose.  His moose snowsuit is from a friend of mine and it was just too cute to not put him in for the occasion.  Every year my aunt has a family party where everyone goes in their costumes.  Madelyn got to see some cousins that she does not see very often.  She was a bit shy and uncertain of how to ask them if she could play with them.  They were so kind and let her join in their fun.  Ella (who is the oldest of the bunch) held Madelyn’s hand while they danced and Maddy talked about it for days!

When we went to get Lucas’ room ready for him I do not know if my husband was quite ready for all the changes that would take place!  What happened was once we changed his office to the baby’s room then the office had to go somewhere… and if we were getting Madelyn a big girl bed then maybe we could finally upgrade our bed to a king as well… etc etc etc.  So in the end five rooms were changed around.  Thankfully David was fabulous about moving everything around for me!  And thankfully we have some wonderful guy students at church who helped moved some really heavy things!

So here are the kids rooms.  My parents gave us my old bedset to use in Madelyn’s room.  It is the perfect size for a little girl. 

And here is baby Luke’s room.  (Please note that I did not buy all of the shoes some were gifts and many are from my nephew David!  So thank you Aunt Jenny)