Christmas Comes Early

Christmas came early to the German household today. After we visited Santa in the morning, he delivered the best present a Northwest Missouri State alumnus could ask for - a Division II Football National Championship! Go Bearcats!

As you can tell from the pictures below, the visit with Santa didn't go so well. We thought it might as he recognized Santa right away and started pointing at him, but when it came to crunch time the little guy became a little frazzled. He was actually a little frazzled all day today, so it might have just been bad timing on our part.

You Can Take Luke Out of Nebraska, but...

Christmas Tree!

After originally deciding NOT to get a tree, we were feeling extra Christmas spirity today and changed our minds. Luke sported his new hat and gloves - for a surprisingly long time. We ended up buying a small tree and putting it up on a table, which looks somewhat ridiculous, but it had to be done with our little "explorer" running around. We'll post when it's decorated.

Luke and Grandma G

Luke sure had a great time with Grandma G last week. We can't wait to see you again in a couple weeks!

Thanks, Hawkins!

Luke wanted to thank Uncle Tom and Aunt Julie for letting us stay with them over Thanksgiving weekend, so he thought he'd mow their yard for them.

Here is figuring out the controls:


Here he is asking us to lower the garage door:


And here he is backing up:

Weigh In

For those of you interested, Luke and Daddy weighed ourselves this morning and we're a combined 250.2 lbs. Thankfully, Luke weighs 31.2 lbs, so I don't feel so bad. 31.2 lbs! He's becoming quite the bruiser...

Here is a picture I took of the little guy a couple weeks ago at Lake Ellyn...

Lil' Sherron Collins

Lil' Sherron Collins is back and ready for another year of KU basketball! They're preseason #1 this year and just destroyed Hofstra 101-65 (surprise, surprise). Luke was all smiles until we told him he had to go to bed before the game started...

Raking Leaves

We introduced Luke to raking leaves last weekend, with hopes that next year he'll be able to do it for us...! He contributed by placing one leaf at a time into the bag. A slow start but we'll take what we can get!

Trick or Treat

Luke really enjoyed his first trick-or-treating experience tonight and he was the best little German boy we could have ever hoped for. He actually acted like he'd been trick-or-treating for years! We took him around the neighborhood in his wagon and when we would get to a house, he would get out of the wagon and instantly walk up to the door with his pumpkin basket (thanks Great Aunt Karen) and ask for some candy (in his own language of course).

It was a little cool, so we had to go with the long underwear and skull cap under the costume, but that didn't faze the littly guy.


Here he is having fun with Erin's Halloween decorations.


Here he is hunting down his first trick-or-treat piece of candy at our neighbor's house with Daddy:


And here he is admiring his take. Daddy let him have a few Whoppers before he went to bed. :)

Halloween Fun

Erin had some Halloween fun with Photoshop...

Halloween Party

We went to a Halloween party on Saturday and Luke got into the liquor stash...



...then started doing his stupid chair tricks...



...until Charlie had enough and decided to get the heck out of there...

Halloween at Great Grandma's

We had a little Halloween celebration at Great Grandma's last Thursday and Luke showed off his new Hansel costume. Thanks for lunch and all the presents, Great Grandma and Great Aunt Karen!

Sonny Acres

Today our playgroup met at Sonny Acres, a cute little farm with all kinds of fun fall-themed things to do. Luke especially got a kick out of the train ride and the hay bale maze. It was a beautiful day so it was wonderful to be outside.

Weekend with Grandma and Poppa

Mom and Dad decided to take a little weekend getaway, so Grandma and Poppa Russell came in to watch Luke. He wasn't spoiled one bit... In fact, he missed Mom and Dad so much that he hardly even noticed when they walked in the door.
I guess when you get to eat ice cream...

play on the computer...

help feed Missy...

and learn how to play football, you don't think about Mom and Dad too much!