um... december 23rd?!?!

hi! it's luke here this time. we've been having a great december, looking forward to Christmas and enjoying the texas weather - days of 86 mixed in with days of 56!! we haven't posted a lot but we'll try to make up for it sometime in the future. here's what we've been up to...


i still like to chew on anything and everything, including shopping carts (target's are my favorite) and leaves...

you'll notice that i'm in my awkward, chubby, blob phase. ben went through the same thing right at this age, so mom knew it was coming. of course she still thinks i'm the cutest baby ever, but she knows that's just because she's biased. i should grow out of it in a few months, and then i'll regain my status as actually the cutest baby ever... :)

here's ben dumping something into the neighbors' sprinkler drain/bucket thing, who knows what he's up to...

we never tire of pictures of the silly eyes, do we??

i'm finally hanging out on my tummy a bit more! i've been flopping from a sitting position onto my tummy to get something out of my reach - a precursor to crawling, but no official crawling yet...

here's me trying...

and then resting from all that hard work trying!!...

ben on the dinosaur at our favorite italian restaurant, demonstrating the warm winter weather in texas - in a t-shirt!!

but only a few days later in a fleece hat! he looks a little silly. he likes this hat because it has a "chin strap" like a football player helmet...

and here i am sporting a hat too! this one is momma's favorite... and here's ben getting me, like he always does... he always looks a little evil or mischievous when he's getting close to me, but he really loves me. he just has an unusual way of showing physical affection. so when he bonks me on the head, or gives me a sideways evil stare like this one, i know it's his way of showing he loves and cares. and that's okay because that's ben, and i love him so much too...

i may be in my awkward, chubby, blob stage, but how can you not want to eat this face?!?!?

ben, on the other hand, not so edible... (oh teasing, he's cute too - just not right in this moment!)...

and finally, for all of you out there who think momma is really the one who writes these blogs, i have a picture for you. clearly if she was in charge of these, this picture would never hit the 'net. all three boys in our various chairs watching football...

notice the remote in my mouth and my highchair tray being used for daddy's beer, and ben with no pants!! clearly this moment would not be made public if momma was really operating behind the scenes!

gotta go! bye!!!

biggest p.s. ever - merry christmas!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! we're headed to IN tomorrow for a week - yahoo!! we'll have good stuff to report when we get back and will also look forward to celebrating with our matthys family then too - bye!!!!!!!!!!!!!!