Busy, busy, busy...

Like most of you, we have also been so busy getting ready for Christmas and as Ashley would say "Don't forget about" Mama Cristi. My mom is getting into town tomorrow morning and we are all so excited. Ashley thinks that as soon as my mom gets here they are going to Paraguay. She can't understand that my mom will stay here for 4 weeks and then they will leave. She is so excited and I am so happy for her.

Here are some pictures of our week:

At the Ward Christmas' Party with Santa!! Lucas did not like him at all!!! Ashley asked for a pony and a dog.
Friday I had so much to do to get ready for our special visitor so after dinner the kids got to watch Shrek and they loved it!

Ashley loves to play and dress Lucas up. She yelled mom "Lucas looks like a bride" and this is what I found. Cute, hah?
Playing with Ashley's hair has been so much fun. You can't really tell by this picture but her hair looks really nice and makes her look a lot older.

Lucas decided to dump all the new body wash in the bath tub!!. I was gone for 3 minutes and when I came back my room and bathroom smelled so good. I was pretty upset at him but it's my fault for letting them alone!! By the way, the smelled really good that day.

Last weekend we had a birthday party for Randy at Gisella's house. He is a friend from spin class and here I am with my "biker friends." After the party we stayed over to watch the Big 12 Championship Game and it was great!! We are so proud to be Sooners:)

At the house before the Ward Christmas Party.

I am so glad it's Friday!!

This week was one of those weeks that my kids drove me insane!!
Ashley is a pretty good girl, for the most part, except that sometimes she does whatever Lucas is doing just to be funny...which it isn't.

First of all I wasn't feeling well and Lucas was kind of sick too so I was hoping that him being sick was going to stop him from making a mess but I was wrong.

I think I have forgotten to mention that a couple of weeks ago He decided to put our cell phones in a glass of water. I was right there next to him but I didn't notice what he did. Minutes later Tim saw the cell phones in the glass and it was too late. His works fine with some minor defects but mine won't work at all. In other words I lost all the phone numbers that I have been saving for the last 3 years!!! I am pretty sad about that but what do you do?? Tim asked Lucas what he was thinking to do that and I responded. Nothing, he is a 17 month old!!!

Now that the Christmas tree is up he won't stop taking the ornaments down!!! If I don't catch him on time I find all the bottom ornaments on the floor among other decorations that we have in our tree. He thinks that the ornaments are "balls" and wants to play with them. It doesn't seem that bad except when you put them up 3 to 4 times a day!!! I know I could just move them up so He can't reach them but I won't like my Christmas tree that way so I just better learn to deal with it for a few more weeks.

This morning as we were getting ready to go to pick up Tim from school to go to lunch Lucas came to my closet where I was putting my shoes on and showed me his hands. Oh my goodness!! I screamed like I haven't in a long time. He got so scared that he cried but I also wanted to cry. His diaper was dirty and he decided to put his hands inside his pants and you can imagine what happened. I didn't know where to start. We were all ready to leave when this happened! I put him in my bath tub and bathed him there. It was a big mess! I just looked at him and I could see how innocent he is. He truly didn't know what happened and I am sure he didn't mean to do that. At least I am so glad that he didn't touch anything around the house so we were able to make it on time for our lunch with daddy.
One of his favorite things to do. Get all the videos/DVDs out and get inside the trunk.

Ashley is so excited about Christmas. Every morning she asks if we can open the presents so Monday night we gave her one of them because she was a good girl and she finished her dinner (which she is supposed to anyways, right??) She is so happy with her Strawberry shortcake doll. She can't stop fixing her hair. I am so glad she likes it.
Lucas is so ready to go to Paraguay. Here he is wearing his "purple" backpack which isn't really his.

Thanksgiving week

Ashley and Lucas helping grandma make Cranberry bread( a tradition in the Dorius family)
Tim and his grandpa. We took him out for lunch to his favorite place and got to listen to him tell us many great stories!

This past week we were able to go and visit Tim's family in Memphis, TN. We left on Tuesday morning and came back Saturday night. It was a fun trip and as always the kids were happy to see grandma, grandpa, Bethany and Pepper (the dog). We did a lot of fun things including shopping, eating (way too much), visiting, watching movies, going to the park, and just relaxing. It was also nice to be able to go out without the kids and have some time just for us.
Ashley loves dogs so being in Memphis didn't help us much. She has been asking for a dog for a long time but there is no way we are going to get one now, maybe later in a few years. She also got to see Santa at the mall and she asked for a dog and a pony..WHAT??? Are you kidding me??? I went nuts wondering how in the world I was going to explain to her that Santa wasn't going to bring her a dog so I had to asked her if she meant the dogs that she has seeing at the stores (meaning stuffed animals) Ashley wasn't too sure about it but since I mentioned that she could get the dog that swims in the water she kind of got excited. She is not too happy about that idea, she truly wants a "real" puppy but I am hoping she will happy with what she is getting.
On the way back we had such a good time singing Christmas songs and just being silly since we had 7 hours to kill in the car. Ashley really got into singing Christmas songs and of course she had to hear "Jingle Bells" about 10 times; that is her favorite. Thanks grandma for the Christmas CD, it was great!
It was so nice to be back and see all the houses decorated with Christmas lights. I just love Christmas and I always get overwhelmed by the Spirit that I am able to feel at this time of the year and I am so glad that I was able to feel it again. I am looking forward to this Christmas season and I am so excited to have my mom here with us!
After unloading the car from the trip we went to watch the OU vs OSU football game at our friends the Lusk's. It was an awesome game and we are looking forward to more OU!!

I hope you had a great week as we did.

Skiatook

The week before Thanksgiving we had the opportunity to visit our friends the Johansens in Skiatook. It was nice to have a break from the daily routine and to hang out with great friends.
Lucas and Kaylee.
Ashley and Brent.
Thanksgiving Feast at Brent's school.
Dancing the "Turkey Dance". Ashley and Kaylee wondered what was going on! Alicia and Ben got into it. = )
Ashley was so sad when it was time to go home. I haven't seen her so sad in a long time! She likes her friends and misses them a lot.

Thanks for having us over and your hospitality. We love you guys and we are looking forward to seeing you again in a few weeks.

Turkey Cookies

I learned to make these cookies at an enrichment activity in Owasso. Aren't they cute? Ashley had so much fun helping while Lucas was entertained eating ravioli ( and of course making a mess too)

We are grateful for...

This week we are very grateful and happy to share with you our BIG news...Yes, I am expecting another baby!! We are very excited and are looking forward to baby #3.
I found out that I was pregnant right after the Redman (competition) and I couldn't be happier with the timing of it. They are all going to have a birthday in the month of June! Ashley will be 4 and Lucas will be 2 and I am very happy with that.
We have shown pictures of the ultrasound to Ashley and she is So excited about the baby. Of course, she wants a baby girl. She is so tired of her brother that every time he does something to her she immediately says " I want to have a baby sister" She thinks that when the baby is born Lucas will be gone:( Isn't that sad? They play well but he is always on her nerves.
I just wanted to share this with you and for you to know what have been in our minds and prayers.
Happy Thanksgiving for everyone!!

p.s If you think we are crazy trust me you won't be the first one. My friend Marlene couldn't believe it either but she is happy for us. Thanks Marlene!!

Mama Cristi is coming to town!!

Our lives have been so busy that I have forgotten to post anything about my mom coming to visit us for Christmas! She will be here in less than a month and will stay for 4 weeks!! I am so excited to see her and to have her with us for Christmas. My mom is just the best, I really mean it!! After being here for 4 weeks she is taking Ashley to Paraguay with her so I can get some rest! Though she might need to take Lucas instead of Ashley ( she has offered to take him too but that will be too much for her already busy life)
Ashley will be attending school with all of her cousins so she will definitely have a great time as she did a little over a year ago. Though she was two at the time she remembers it very well!! She loved it there and she was so spoiled by everyone. My parents and my siblings are great about spoiling kids and she felt like a queen and all the attetion was on her! She is so excited about going to Paraguay with my mom and I am so happy about that. Lucas and I will go there too but we will go a month after they leave the US to pick Ashley up and we'll stay there for another month!! It will be summer down there so we will be busy having fun and my family surely knows how to do that. Thanks Mama Cristi, we are so ready for this trip! You are AWESOME!!!

Lucas, Lucas and more Lucas

This week wasn't an exeption. Lucas is a very healthy and therefore active child. I am very grateful for that but at the same time I wish he would slow down a little bit so I am not always running after him like a crazy person! Church has been so hard with him because he just won't sit still. He is always looking for someone to play with and a reason to get out and walk (which we don't let him do but he tries) As most kids do, Lucas loves to play in our bathroom and get out all the lotions, perfumes, and anything else that we might have under the sink. He just has a blast doing that. Another thing that he loves to do in our bathroom is to brush his teeth! You can't brush your teeth and not give him a toothbrush. If you do that he will scream at you until you give up. At least I end up giving up.
On Wednesday night right before I left the house to go to the Temple with the youth I saw Lucas playing with my favorite perfume! I took it from him and left the house. On my way to the Temple I get a phone call from Tim telling me that Lucas has just broken his bottle of cologne!! It was pretty new and it was one of our favorites. Tim was pretty upset and I was too except that I just laughed because I didn't know what else to do.
Every day, every hour there is something that he will do that drives me CRAZY!! For instance sitting on the table and dancing on the table have been some of his latest tricks!! He also has started biting Ashley on her back and arms when he doesn't get his way. He is crazy and we love him tons!! he definitely adds some humor/work to our lives!

But he is clean!

Last night I needed some time by myself to fold some laundry so I decided to bathe the kids and leave them there playing until I was done. My kids love to play in the bathtub so I knew that it wasn't going to be a problem to let them play for a good 10 to 15 min. I was going to be in my room putting the clothes away so I decided to have them take a bath in my bathroom so I could keep an eye on them.
I bathed them and told Ashley that they could play(brought all their bathtub toys) until I came to get them. About 10 min later I started to smell Clorox coming from the bathroom. I ran into the bathroom and found Ashley spraying the Clorox bathtub cleaner on Lucas. I took it away from her and told her that we don't use that to clean ourselves and asked if she put it on herself too. She said she only put it on Lucas who couldn't even look at me because of the cleaner on his face!! So I went ahead and bathed him again and Ashley too just in case...But in the process of rebathing them Ashley kept saying "But he is clean mom" no matter how I tried to explain to her that he wasn't because of all the chemicals she put on him she kept saying with an angelic voice, "but he is clean" She really thought that she was helping me bathe her little brother and that I didn't need to worry about it anymore. Don't you love their innocence??

Halloween night!

Tim and Lucas at the church Halloween Party.
Ashley had so much fun playing games and winning some toys!
Lucas tried to play basketball!!
Tim had to play this one against another member and of course, Tim won!
Lucas trying to eat the doughnut without his hands.
Too hard to eat without your hands! Forget it, he used his little hands and finished his doughnut:)
Ashley had to play the same game that her dad and brother played and she also used her hands. Yes, we cheated.
Tim took the kids around the Lusk's neighborhood while I had some fun scaring kids at the their house.

Can you tell that they really get into it? Gissella was inside the coffin right next to it and would come out running after the kids with a sword.
This is my friend Gissella, isn't she scary looking? The Lusks LOVE Halloween. They set up their garage and front yard as a Haunted House and they have so much fun scaring kids. They really get into it and have lots of scary things. The whole family is involved and they have a blast! Last year we watched them do it and this year Tim and I joined the fun. I loved it!! It was so much fun to scare the little ones and also the girls. It was hilarious! Later we had stew with corn bread and of course, some candy! It was an awesome Halloween Night!

Halloween at Moore High School!

On Thursday night we took the kids to Moore High School to go trick-or-treating. There were a lot of people and the kids had so much fun dancing, playing games, and, of course, getting candy. This year has been so much fun for us because Ashley was able to understand the meaning of Halloween and she loved it!

Carving Pumpkins!

Last Monday we went to the Lusk's home to carve some pumpkins. My kids love Gissella and her family and they love my kids too. Lucas and Ashley got some toys/treats from Gissella; she surely knows how to spoil them!! We all had a great time carving pumpkins, eating caramel apples, and drinking apple cider.
The last two pictures are from home. Tim helped Ashley paint her pumpkin on a Sunday afternoon while Lucas and I took a nap:) Ashley and Tim are the Energizer bunnies in the family; they never need naps.

Ashley's haircut!

About two weeks ago Ashley got a haircut! They cut 8 inches of her hair and we are planning on donating it!! She had been wanting to get a haircut ever since she saw me getting one so I thought it was time to do it. Ashley was so happy to be at the salon and to get all the attention from the employees:) She felt like a princess and after getting the haircut we went to Quiznos for lunch to treat Lucas, who wondered what was going on!!