Biopark Adventures

Well we have had a fun little visit from Brian's mom over the past few days. She arrived Thursday afternoon and just left today. It was fun to have a visitor here because we did stuff that we normally probably wouldn't have done otherwise!

Here in Albuquerque the Biopark Society is comprised of three things; the zoo, the aquarium, and the botanical gardens. With our handy dandy pass we decided to start out at the zoo and then take the zoo/aquarium train over to the aquarium and to the gardens (which are side by side) and then ride the train back to finish at the zoo. It was lots of fun to show Julie all of our favorites and since we had never been to the gardens that was especially fun for us.

They had an awesome Childrens Fantasy Garden, with oversized everything. Lucas loved the tree slide in there so much he cried when we finally said it was enough sliding and time to move on. I will definitely have to take him back there! I really enjoyed the Butterfly area because I got to take some great pictures with my new camera (Brian got it for me for my birthday).

After we were tired from walking and the sun beating down we decided to drive the few blocks to downtown and eat at Tucanos. Brian especially loves the food there and we all tried to eat until we were exploding to make sure we got our money's worth.

Dirt Bike

Suddenly I feel bad that all of my posts are mainly about Lucas so I am making up for it. This one is for Brian :) Two weeks ago Brian finally got the bike he wanted! It's a 2003 Yamaha YZ450F. This is the 3rd bike he has had within about a months time. He just kept on trading up on bikes until he got the one he wanted. Sometime I will get some pics of him actually riding it, but for now you just get the ones he took in the garage...

Lucas got a bike!

Well thanks to my great friend Robin, Lucas got this bike when he was just a tiny thing and today we finally put the training wheels on, fixed the pedal, and patched the tires! Lucas has been super into bikes for a while now and this afternoon he noticed the pint sized bike in the garage and was instantly fixated on riding it. Now if we can just get him to figure out how to push the pedals on his own! He was so super happy on it...as you can see.

Mother's Day in SGU

We were lucky enough to have the opportunity to make a 10 hour drive to go home over Mother's Day weekend. It was super exhausting but so nice to see the family and a few friends. I had planned on taking more pictures but somehow it was such a rushed trip that I only took these.

Lucas although shy, enjoyed seeing Brian's family. It was especially fun to see how much Mya has changed over the past few months, since these kids grow like weeds it's hard to keep up. I also got to meet one of Richard's (Brian's dad) cousins who lives in Chicago who was nice enough to get the family together while we were there to go out to dinner. We are excited to have Julie here in 2 weeks!

On Monday Daniela pulled the kids out of school (only missing a swimming party) to have a little cousin party and the park. It was cute to see how Lucas is now able to play more with them. He enjoyed racing with Airuma, walking over the bridges holding Oceano's hand, and chasing after Raini yelling "Nee Nee". It was actually pretty funny how much he liked just walking around with Raini.

Thanks to my Mom for all the wonderful food!! I just wish that I hadn't forgotten my esfihas sitting by the door :( Oh and Lucas is still saying "Bye vovo's" to any jeep or white truck/suv that we pass. Poor kid got so used to seeing my parents every single day that the trip reminded him of how much he misses them.

My little cowboy

Lucas took Brian his boots and said "Dad help" he then thought he was hilarious walking around in them, especially when we gave him his hat! He is getting his training walking in boots, and if we make it to the Gunlock Rodeo I bet after his practice riding Gus he could probably ride one of sheep!

My cutie

My big boy! He looks so much older than he is to me! This was tonight at dinner when he was thoroughly enjoying his banana shake I made him. Normally I give it to him with a lid on it, but today I let him go wild and he was rockin the mustache.

Curtains

I just took these pics so you could see my final product. Oh and these are the finished paintings that Lucas did. I think I am going to try and convince Brian to make some frames for them when he gets the time...they seem too plain on the wall as is.

Sewing,...impossible

Well I made matching curtains for both of the boy bedrooms upstairs. This my friends was no easy task! Anytime I layed the fabric down to pin either my furry friend would take a nap on it or my little Lucas would put on Brian's flip flops and walk all over it!! They turned out pretty good in spite of what they endured. However pretty disappointing when I hung them up I noticed that one of them is not even along the bottom. No doubt things shifting when I was trying to pin! Anyway, I will take some more pics of Lucas's room so you guys can see what they turned out like!

Strawberries

Well after having such an impressive garden last year, I couldn't go a year without having anything at all. So, we went to home depot and bought a Topsy Turvy Strawberry Planter! Our plants were already a little more mature so we already have a few little strawberries! Lucas loves to water them everyday and look for the berries. The only thing is he doesn't like to eat them very much so he doesn't say strawberries, but because of his love for blueberries and I guess he figures one berry is just like the next, so he calls them "blue" for blueberries. I will let you know how they do so you can all get cool plant hangers! I think that we will buy more plants for the other holes, but I haven't quite decided yet.

My little artist

Well I have been thinking about this since Lucas was a baby but finally got around to doing it. We made some paintings to hang on Lucas's wall!! I painted the canvas a solid color since he obviously wasn't going to fill the entire thing and then let him go at it. He had a lot of fun varying between brushes, fingers, and shoes. Yes shoes. He stepped in the paint and then stepped on the canvas. As you can see he also sat in the paint, that is what it looked like after I got the majority off that would just wipe off with a paper towel. Anyway, he really likes them and when I went to put them up on the wall he told me to get them off because he wanted to hold them and look at them. So we will see when they actually make it up on the wall. Oh and silly me, I bought letters to spell his name out in blocks and as I was painting them I noticed I bought a G instead of a C! I really should pay more attention while shopping, especially since it is now blue, the store I am sure would not return it!

I love good weather

My little chocoholic climbed up on the table (which is the counter height size), found the rest of Brian's Easter bunny, and devoured it in seconds! To think that he hadn't really had candy until my sweet mother and Brian polluted him at Christmas. Now, he can't get enough of it.

This was a few days ago. There was a really nice sunny day and Brian got the hose out. Luckily, it turned against him!! Since Lucas was just a few months old he has been teaching Lucas how to spray Gus and think it was hilarious. Suddenly it wasn't so funny when he was the target. I however must say it was hilarious! Brian I love you, but sometimes you deserve what you get when you teach Lucas how to be so sneaky!

Oh and yes, you can't see it very well in the pics but my belly is enormous!! I mean in comparison to what it will be it is still small, but I think I was still A LOT smaller 21 weeks with Lucas. Anyone have any name suggestions? (that sound good in Portuguese)

This was yesterday at the zoo. I told Brian if he wanted to go out riding this weekend we had to do something fun with Lucas since he has been missing out the last few weekends since Brian has had to work.

Lucas had way more fun this time than last time we went. He was especially interested in the big cats this time. They wouldn't stop moving so I didn't get good pictures of most of them. The other exhibit he was really getting in to was the Rhinos. He kept on telling the one closest to the gate to "Sit" with a very stern face and waving pointer finger. I am excited to keep on going back often to the zoo because of all the zoo babies and the 2 female zebras are due to have their babies really soon!

My big boy!

I know it sounds so small in the grand scheme of things, but a mothers pride over what her child does has no limit to how large or small the task. Yesterday Lucas went down the slide all by himself!!

He has been going down the slide for a long time but he always needed help sitting down at the top of the slide before going down. If I wouldn't help him he would just start walking down the slide, and if I weren't there to catch him I am pretty sure he would have really gotten hurt a few times. But yesterday he walked straight up to the smaller slide and sat down and slide all alone! (seriously, no coaxing from me) Then today we just got back from the playground again where he even dared go down the really big swirly slide alone! I love being a mom, it is the most rewarding thing ever.