The Lucas Zoo

Happy New Year!

>> Monday, January 4, 2010

We all do the same thing every year, resolutions. Some people resolve to not do a resolution but not me, I like a little motivation even if it is only for a month or 2. Some times I actually stick with them and now my resolutions of past years are just part of my normal everyday life. I would love to stick with each and every one of these but I am human and know that I may not. So here are my 2010 resolutions, in no particular order lol :)

1. Be nicer. I know that it sounds general but I am going to try really hard to be nicer to people, especially my family. Especially my husband - there it is in writing :)

2. I want to knit. I can knit now but it is just ugly. Perhaps a class would help me. This has been a resolution for many years but maybe this year will be the year for me to do it!

3. I would love to run this (the half marathon not the full). 13.1 miles is pretty far. Summer will be the hardest time for me to stay on track b/c it is so stinkin hot down here which is why it is a resolution :)

There they are, short and sweet. I am sure I share these similar resolutions with many other people. I will come back to this post periodically to see how I am doing :) Happy New Year - kind of late but better late than never!

Did I really just run that?

>> Saturday, January 2, 2010

Back in October I posted about starting to take the girls for walks in the mornings. It was nice and we have a lot of fun seeing all the neat things that our area has to offer (vultures, hawks, horses, goats, hens, and donkeys top the list). I would walk on my own Sundays when Matt was home and started to sort of jog part of my route. With Matt being home for the time being I am able to get out on my own a little more often and jog a little farther each time. I decided to make myself a goal so I emailed a friend of mine that runs with her family and told her that I thought I might like to try a 5k around the 1st of the year. Ha, she quickly emailed me back about a race that was just a week away - ack! I agreed but unfortunately it was postponed b/c of the "blizzard" we had that weekend. Well, now it was going to be after the 1st of the year just like I had hoped. I had all these grand ideas I would "train" for this, before this morning the last time I actually did anything was before Christmas lol :) This morning as I was getting ready I was thinking of every excuse that might work to get me out of running. Besides a head cold and never sleeping b/c of the all night breastaurant that I manage I didn't have any good excuse. Off we went. I love that Matt brought the girls. They watched a movie b/c it was like 29 degrees out but there they were at the finish line when I came through. Thank you for that Matt. Anywho, 1st race and I finished 84th out of 117 runners with a time of 31 minutes 35 seconds AND I won a Lancaster's BBQ gift card as a door prize. Money went to a local fire department so woo hoo - everyone wins today!

Happy 3rd Birthday Violet!!

>> Thursday, December 31, 2009

What a lucky little girl to have her birthday on such a fun day, she just doesn't know it yet :) This morning we let her open 1 of her presents sent to us from family in Ohio. It was a finger painting set - woo hoo - Color Wonder even so no messes :) I tried to get her to wear her favorite little tutu given to her when she turned 2 so that I could get some cute 3 year old birthday pictures but she wasn't into it at all!

Funny though that she is probably the sickest out of the family but still insisted on coming with me to run some errands. Crazy girl! We picked up some steaks for supper and a little something for Piper so she wouldn't feel left out. Next came naps,

making cakes,

do NOT get stainless appliances if you have kids under 4. They are clean for about 3 minutes and then the hand prints magically appear :)

decorating,

OPENING PRESENTS,

I think she will LOVE this!

supper,

and CAKE!!

Happy Birthday Violet!!

Her Cross

Piper started preschool this year at a baptist church near our home. Since going there she has an infatuation with crosses. The other day while going through some boxes Matt came across this cross that was his when he was younger. She doesn't want to take it off :) I imagine seeing many pictures of Piper in the future with this particular piece of jewelry.

Wordless Wednesday - Thank You Santa

>> Wednesday, December 30, 2009

I received this beautiful poppy necklace mysteriously in the mail right before Christmas. The card said it was from Santa. I love it, thank you so much Santa!

More WW @ 5 Minutes for Mom

Looking at this shot of me I wish that I would not have greased myself down with baby oil in my teens and twenties. If this isn't an ad for sunscreen I don't know what would be :)

She's getting excited...

>> Tuesday, December 29, 2009

for her birthday! Violet is the last birthday of all her friends so she has had to go through probably 8 parties waiting (im)patiently for hers to come and FINALLY it is almost here! We were invited to a playdate today but I had to decline b/c the girls are all still sick. I sure hope that they are over it before Violet's party on Sunday. Today I decided to tackle a few things around the house. I am washing my kitchen floors and stuffing gift bags. You know you can't do too much before hand when you have 3 little mess makers around. I can clean their playroom but it will be trashed before bedtime again. We already took down all Christmas stuff inside the house but will leave the outdoor lights up until next week. I love those! I love having my tree up longer but there are going to be a bunch of people here and our little house can use all the room we have.

Anyway, I have to take advantage of baby Ruby sleeping and start stuffing. Maybe I will get these 2 sweeties to help me. Without bribes though it is unlikely :)

Here is a picture that the girls took of their dolls on Christmas night (ish). They were using the remote control to do them and thought they were pretty darned cool. Most of Violet's babes were resting on her bed. This is Taylor Swift and a loaner babe, Sally. Grandma lent it to her on our last visit to Ohio. Also shown are Kit (Piper's gift from Santa) and Lilo. The animals pictured are Coconut the dog and Licorice the cat given to them from Matt and I. We figured that their dolls needed pets too right?

The Zoo (2009)

>> Sunday, December 27, 2009

We debated if we should actually go this year b/c of illnesses with Ruby & Violet but in the end we decided to venture the 2 hours and see what happened. The girls weren't running a fever anymore and pretty much just had snot noses and coughs. They handled the zoo great and all in all it was a wonderful day!

We got to see so many cool things while we were there. The handlers were feeding both the gorillas and the elephants so we got a front row view of that. They have the elephants do "tricks" while feeding them their snacks to make sure they are ok. It was neat b/c we have never seen elephant tricks before :)

The gorillas are a stubborn bunch. They are too aloof to even look our way. In fact the big one of the bunch sits with his back towards us most of the times we've been there so we see a giant butt crack (excuse my french lol). No pictures of that even though I have probably made it seem so attractive :) Here is the only one that would give us the time of day lol :)

The girls rode the merry go round and we saw our favorite koala bears. Next to the koalas are the Lorikeets. Previously the girls have been quite afraid of the colorful birds but not this year. I am just so proud of the both of them! After a few minutes they sort of freaked Violet out so she quit holding the cup of nectar but not Piper.