Life with Lucas {week 27}

I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving! This big guy turned 27 weeks on Thanksgiving, so here's a little catch-up on our lives during the pre-Thanksgiving craziness! 

Lulu got to come to the dentist with me last Thursday! 

Of course he was a perfect angel (no, seriously!) and all of the people at our dentist's office loved him!

When we came home, I attempted to do a little Christmas photo shoot!

We actually had this set up going on in our living room for almost a week! It took me 3 different "sessions," but I finally got enough pictures that I like! I'll share them with you soon, but here is one of my favorites in the meantime:

On Saturday (Lucas's official half birthday) we celebrated in Chapel Hill! He got to meet the real Rameses!! He was so excited (Ella too)!!

The leaves were so pretty this time of year in Chapel Hill! We did a LOT of walking that day, but I didn't mind since it was so gorgeous out!

Then it was game time! UNC was playing The Citadel, and it ended up being a pretty big blowout. 

We noticed mascot Rameses walking around near our section, so I took Ella down so she could say hi and get her picture taken with him. Unfortunately, Rameses wasn't taking pictures with anyone! What the heck?! Ella and I were both so sad...this is her "picture with Rameses" for this year...😢

By the time Ella and I walked back to our seats, the temperature had dropped like 20 degrees! It was insanely windy!

Thankfully UNC had a big enough lead that Trav was okay with leaving at halftime!

The next day, we celebrated Lucas's half birthday with the obligatory photo shoot in the yard...

...and I also tried to make a half birthday cake for him. I have no clue where I went wrong, but it was SUCH a disaster! The cake turned out super crumbly and wouldn't hold any frosting on it whatsoever. Sorry, Lulu...maybe Mommy will try again when you're 18 months and can actually eat the cake!

Later that evening, I was changing the sheets on Ella's bed, when I noticed this little situation:

Ella just started reading her Clifford book to Lucas! It was the sweetest thing. 

Last Tuesday, we were in full-blown Thanksgiving prep mode!

Lucas sat up top in the shopping cart for the first time! 

(We had to go to Lowe's to get supplies for smoking the turkey Thursday!)

And Ella came home from preschool that day with the most hilarious art! I especially love her big pilgrim head on that placemat!

That evening, I was nursing Lucas before he went to sleep, when I noticed on Instagram, a baby who looked way too similar to Lucas had died. I was so heartbroken! I had been following along with his story, because he was the same age as Lucas (less than a week younger) and he was just the cutest thing! If you'd like to read about his/his family's story, here is his mom's blog.

I just had to snuggle extra with this guy and enjoy those sweet moments when he should be sleeping, but instead is looking at me from his crib with his big eyes!

This is his new thing: look as cute as possible so I won't make him go to sleep! Precious boy!

Wednesday: coffee was so necessary! 

Ella is loving our new shopping cart arrangement, where she gets to be in the big part with all of the stuff we are buying!

We also had to stock up on wine at Trader Joe's!

Wednesday night, we went to the Panthers' tree lighting with Auntie Caitlin!

Lucas looks like he is not a fan...but I promise, he was really into the lights!!! 

I'll be back soon to share our Thanksgiving! 

Life with Lucas {week 19}

How crazy is it that Lucas is halfway to being out of the womb as long as he was in?! 

Last Thursday we celebrated the first day of Fall with our pumpkin attire. Pretend they are matching...I do have matching pumpkin outfits for them, but Lucas's hasn't come in the mail yet!

After we dropped Ella off at preschool, it was time for Lucas's 4 month check up! This was the first visit at our pediatrician's office where there wasn't something wrong with him (low hemoglobin, flat head...)! So very thankful for my sweet, healthy baby! 

Friday, we got our car seats checked. I had to take them out to clean after our road trips to Ohio and Florida, plus I switched sides that each car seat is on to make it easier at preschool drop off. So I wanted to make sure I had re-installed them correctly after all of that! Ella had fun "driving" my parked, turned-off car. 

Also on Friday, we got a new air-conditioner!! I mentioned last week that we came home from Florida to find our upstairs a/c totally done-zo. We had to buy a whole new unit, which is always fun...and this is the second time Ella has witnessed a new a/c being installed in her 2 years of life! 

Lucas was less than excited about taking a selfie with the new a/c ;)

We went up to Chapel Hill on Saturday. Ella was greeted by a new toy from Trav's parents...Marshall!

He walks and talks and everything, and of course Ella is nothing short of 100% obsessed with him. 

The UNC football game was at 3:30, which was right in the middle of nap time...Ella actually opted to stay at Grandma and Papa's herself so she could sleep (and let's be honest, play with Marshall too). So Lucas got to be an only child at his first Carolina football game!

He was so into it! He watched the game with this much intensity the entire time. Did not fall asleep once!

We were so excited they won!!! I have no clue how they pulled that off, but I'm kinda positive that Lucas was good luck!!!

Sunday, someone finally graduated up to size 2 diapers, which was long overdue!

And someone else spent basically her entire day playing with Marshall. 

Monday was a whole mess of errands, which is becoming our new Monday norm. 

Tuesday, Lucas went to Cantina 1511 for the first time!

He was a little fussy and pooped on my jeans (that I had just washed!), but I think he really just wanted some yummy Mexican food. 

Yesterday we went to visit Ella's little buddy, Mackenzie, and her new baby brother, Cooper! Getting 4 kids on the couch for a picture was....interesting? Hmm, challenging would be a better word I think. 

Lucas can't wait till Cooper is bigger and they can play together!

Also yesterday, this little ballerina had her dance class again...

...while Lucas and I played with Snapchat filters.

This boy. He just makes me smile :)

Hope you have a great weekend! 

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Scenes from our weekend {Santa, Christmas tree, ACC Championship}

We started our weekend off on Friday with a trip to Blacklion to see Santa!! 

April was sweet enough to organize a little get together, and I was ridiculously optimistic that Ella would love Santa this year. 

Unfortunately, this was Ella's face when Santa walked in the room:

Not. a. fan. 

The stank face continued while we waited for Ella to go see Santa...

This is how she felt about the reindeer...

...and the gingerbread man (although, I have to admit, I found him a little scary myself).

Eventually, she started to get it together, although she was not into my taking pictures whatsoever.

Hmmm...let's see, do I feel like cooperating or not?!

These presents are for me, right?!

Finally, the moment you've all been waiting for...

Yep. She 110% freaked out. Even after Santa sang "Twinkle Twinkle Little Start" to try and get her to chill. The people at Blacklion were super sweet and let me step in the picture with her to see if that calmed her down at all. 

Mmmmm nope. But look at Santa reassuring me that its ok, and to not be sorry! I swear to you, this guy is the REAL Santa!! 

Oh, and this might be my personal favorite.

Whose child is that throwing a temper tantrum on the floor?!? #notmine

I eventually put Ella out of her misery by giving her a cookie (ok, more like 6) and letting her watch the bears! I thought they might freak her out, but she loved them!

Blacklion really has the cutest set up for their Santa (who is real, did I mention?!). If you are in Charlotte, I highly recommend taking your kids to see him...he is there every Saturday till Christmas from 1-4 PM. Oh and it is FREE!!

We continued on our "let's ignore all of the boxes in our house by doing fun things" weekend by going Saturday morning to get our Christmas tree! 

We usually go to the mountains, but with the move and everything else we have going on, we just didn't have time this year. Sad day. So instead, we went to a tree lot just a few minutes away from our house. If you don't look too closely, it looks {almost} like we are just in the mountains! Ha!

We actually love the tree we got and it was a lot easier than taking a 2 hour road trip to go get it! We'll see how next year goes with 2 kids...we may revisit that tree lot if necessary!

Saturday night, we went to the ACC Championship! 

Correct me if I am wrong, but UNC has never played in this game before, so it was a really big deal to all of the Carolina fans. I knew we were going to lose to #1 ranked Clemson, but it was still a good time! 

Even the Duke Energy building was lit up with each team's colors!

The line to get in was absolutely insane. A lot of people missed kickoff. I'm all for safety first though!

By the end of the game, it was so freaking cold!!! And late!! I didn't go to bed till 1:30 AM!! I haven't seen that hour since Ella was a teeny tiny baby...and I hope not to see it again until June! I am old, people.

Sunday, we finally had to address the unpacking situation. We made several trips back and forth between the old and new houses (yes, we still have crap at the old house...will it ever end?!) and got through some boxes. My child, meanwhile, finally discovered how to take selfies. 

And now I have 20 pictures on my cameral roll of this. 

Hope you had a great weekend!